7/22-28Monday was quite the PDAY... Since 김 자매님 has joined our companionship, I have had a hard time adjusting to the new dynamic. Today we took forever trying to decide on a place to email. Here in Korea they have a bunch of 'PC lounges' which is where they have tons of computers and you only pay a dollar or two an hour to use them. In the Daejeon mission we were advised not to goto places like that because they are dimly lit and typically in scary places. However, some elders go in the mornings when hardly anyone is there so 김 자매님 wanted to give it a try. We ended up wasting over an hour just walking around some of the scariest street I've ever walked in Korea. It became very apparent that we should just stick with our usual spot at the city center.
By the time we finished emailing, we were starving! 윤 자매님 and I normally don't eat lunch before we email because then we are less tempted to stay longer than we are supposed to haha. But this week because of all the wasted time, it was 3PM and we still hadn't eaten anything- wah. 김 자매님 received a gift of $100 from her aunt before she met her first set of companions. Her aunt told her to treat us to a nice meal- so we went to Pizza Hut. I find it pretty hilarious that Pizza Hut here is more like a sit down restaurant and borderline fancy... It's Pizza Hut! haha anyway, we ate salad and pizza and had a good time together. When we finished eating, we had just enough PDAY time left to go shopping for the new missionary. She has yet to unpack so I am scared to see the amount of stuff she is going to have including all the extra stuff she picked up today.
We dropped off the groceries at home and quickly got back on a bus to head to our only appointment for the day. Unfortunately, it was cancelled literally 3 minutes after we got on the bus. Lame! Luckily we got a call from a struggling single adult in the ward immediately after the cancelation. She wanted to meet with us at the church- she seems lonely so I figured she just wanted someone to talk to. We were available, so it worked out. We talked for an hour. She was very sad and cried a lot. I didn't know what was wrong so I just gave her a big hug after and told her I loved her.
To end PDAY, we had our normal daily planning. It took a while to explain everything to 김 자매님 because we kept being interrupted with calls from investigators and leaders. Before we knew it, it was 10:30PM- time for bed. I was finishing up writing in my planner when 김 자매님 suddenly turned off all the lights... Rude. She wants so bad to be exactly obedient, which I respect (and I want to be that too) so I dropped what I was doing and went straight to my bed. Once there, the new missionary stressed the importance of exact obedience. I told her I was on the same page but she took it upon herself to scold me for retiring to bed late (...I wonder if I was even a whole minute late -___-). Not only that but she told me I was breaking rules by listening to music and other stuff. I kindly informed her of the different rules that are in the MTC and in the field. Bless her heart, she didn't believe me. To say the least I was getting annoyed. The last straw was her comment, "I'm sure you're trying to be a good missionary but I think you should really try harder to be exactly obedient." Was she implying that I was not being obedient? I was super shocked! I told her that is was not her place to interpret rules for me. I am a very obedient missionary but her idea of obedience is far stricter than what we are asked to be. I hope this doesn't become a bigger issue in the future... Not a super great end to my day.Tuesday morning I prayed super hard to have patience with 김 자매님, I really didn't want last nights disagreement to be a hinderance on the work we have to do. My prayer was answered! We completed our studies and even worked well as we planned the lessons we were teaching for the day. Our first lesson was with a potential investigator that was a 소개 (referral) from 이정숙S- my Korean mother. This ladies name is 박미현S, she is married and has an adorable 5 month old baby girl. The whole meeting consisted of socializing and introducing our church through the 'How to Begin Teaching' lesson. 이 자매님 is her nanny so she was there for the appointment- It went really well! She is now our newest investigator!!
Right after, we left to meet 김동은B and his mother 최윤정S. As soon as we arrived the 최 자매님 had kimchee Korean pancakes for us to eat- yum! As we ate she began apologizing profusely. Last night her husband got pretty drunk and called my first district leader, 저 장로님 (Elder Cho). The call lasted about an hour and mostly consisted of him cursing and accusing him of having bad intentions of letting us sister missionaries teach his son. After the phone call last night the mother asked her son what he thought, if he thought we had ill intentions. He strongly disagreed with his father and said that he really loves meeting with us. That really meant a lot because 김동은B is very soft spoken and is very loyal to his parents, so the fact he had an opinion AND voiced it was surprising to me. When she told us that, I melted a little. ^^ 김동은B is the best 15 year old kid I have ever met. He is brilliant and an angel! For example, last time we met I was explaining the meaning of a word and I used Justin Beiber in the sentence. He understood but changed the subject by talking about the respect he has for Justin's talent but not his life style now. I cannot help but smile when I teach him because he is just so pure!!Anyway, after the apology, our lesson began. The English was fun as usual. Consequently the vocabulary and conversation questions in the book revolved around health and the dangers of tobacco and alcohol. While I taught, my companions got caught up in a conversation with the mother. Even though we were all sitting around the same table, 김동은B and I were about to speak a little more freely about what we think of this topic, considering the situation that just occurred with his dad. Here in Korea, every man smokes and drinks. It is so rare for any man not to. Even in the mandated military time, a lot of guys that are against it, are forced to. Referring back to a little bit of the culture that I explained in Elder Erekson's training a few weeks ago, if someone older than you tells you to do something, you don't have a choice but to do it. 김동은B looked really sad when a question talked about peer pressure. I have full confidence in him that he will never do anything he strongly disagrees with even if his peers or seniors pressure or order him to. However, I think he knows how much stress and bullying that will cause in the future. I love this kid SO much. I keep him in my prayers on a daily basis. As our time was running out, we quickly taught the 10 commandments. We made it a fun visual lesson that both of them enjoyed. This family is so solid... maybe not the dad at the moment, but I have faith.
Wednesday seemed to be another waste. After a good district meeting, the missionaries in our ward stayed to make a new English flyer. We are redesigning the program so we need a better flyer. Me and 윤 자매님 were the only ones that seriously worked on it. The other missionaries were goofing off and having ping pong tournaments. It was annoying but we finished! When we did, it was time for dinner. Us sisters went home, mostly because I was tired of dealing with the elders. The elders are fun but today felt like another waste. I want to work while I'm here! Anyway, English class started at 7:30. Since students are on vacation for the next month or so, only one girl showed up to my class. Normally she is pretty shy but today was more comfortable and participated more! It was fun to teach her. I wanted to stay and talk to her more since she was opening up, but there was no time. Since tomorrow morning my companions and I were going to the Seoul temple, we needed to leave for the 부 (pronounced boo, shortened from 반부 which means the mission home) because that is where we were spending the night.
On our way, we had an interesting experience. We have to take two different subway lines to arrive, once in the second line there were seats open! I was so happy to be able to sit down, but don't worry it was ruined by a creep. As we sat, a man boarded the subway. I accidentally made eye contact with him... He came over and asked, "USA?" When I nodded yes we put his knuckles out for me to pound it. I though it was funny. Soon we got to talking and he took a seat next to me and my companions. In no time we was acting like a weirdo. 김 자매님 held up the Book of Mormon and asked him if he had ever heard about it. Before she finished her sentence he said that he reads it everyday. It was an odd response from a man that had never heard of our church 5 seconds before. Next he began talking all about how he went to a catholic school and how nuns taught him a lot. 김 자매님 said, "wow that's great!" ...or something like it in Korean ha. He then went on the tell us that he raped 4 of them. Uhhhhh..... WHAT?! In case you couldn't guess, that was our cue to leave. Immediately we all stood up and said, it was nice meeting you but we have to go now. The subway was approaching a stop so we stood as close to the doors as possible and the second they opened, we took a run for it. We had to run fast because we still needed to be on that same subway so we ran about ten cars down and reboarded before the doors closed again. CREEPY!! I'm just grateful that Seoul is such a crowded place and we weren't alone on the subway with him. Anyway, we got away and made it safely to the 부 just before 10:30PM.
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| All hail to air conditioning. |
Thursday when we woke up, I was sad to have to get out of the bed knowing I would probably never sleep in it again haha. Dramatic? Nah... but I almost overreacted haha. We left the house with President and his wife at 7AM to head to the Seoul temple! It was only about an hour drive before we arrived! The temple was a lot smaller in person than what I expected from seeing pictures. Despite the size, it was still beautiful! It reminds me a lot of the Dallas, TX temple- which made me remember when I went there with Andrea, Jay, and Stacie Marks, miss them! They were the first people to introduce me to Korean markets and food. I love that family!
The temple was beautiful and so peaceful. I am very grateful for the opportunity to go now that I am in the Seoul South mission. When our session was over, we hopped on a subway to head home. It was so long but luckily no weirdos like last night haha. Once we arrived at our stop, we met the 신풍 자매님들 (Shinpoong Sisters) for a split. Sister Hendricks came with me and 김 자매님 as 윤 자매님 left with 한 자매님. Unfortunately all of our appointments cancelled so since I was senior for the day, it was up to me to make a plan. It was a fun day. We tried visiting less actives and 전도ed. Not a ton of success but we had some good conversations. We are just planting seed, so it was a good day. It ended with my favorite Korean dessert, 팥빙수! I love 팥빙수!!
Friday was a slow day. We had one appointment with a part-member couple. It is a 할머니 and 할아버지 (grandma and grandpa). The wife is 74 and still a solid member of the church. When we spoke to her at church last Sunday, she began to cry and asked us to please teach her husband. Her husband is the only member of the family that is not baptized. It was heartbreaking to she 유인순S cry, so we prepared a message and made our way to her house. Turns out, she told him we were coming and he split. So sad! She felt bad so she fed us lunch which gave us a good opportunity to get to know her a little better. We heard the story of when she met her husband for the first time, as well as her conversion story. She is a neat lady! Since we had prepared a cute message card to give her husband, we left it with her and shared a quick spiritual thought. It was a short but sweet lesson. 유 자매님 is uhh-dorable. Wait until you see pictures!
It was time to unsplit so 유 자매님 walked us to the bus stop to see us off. By the time we arrived back home, 윤 and 한 자매님 had been waiting about 30 minutes.. Whoops. It wasn't a big deal though because the rest of our day was scheduled to be our weekly planning time. This weeks planning went a lot better than last week. 윤 자매님 asked me to lead it because she is convinced I'll go senior next transfer. I don't want to be a senior companion but if I have to, I really hope my companion speaks the language because I'm still struggling. Anyway, for planning we are allotted a 3 hour block. I got us finished in 2. ^^ I was happy that we had extra time to go out and work today! After we ate a quick dinner, we were able to 전도. Every Friday is recycling day too, so on our way out we took out all of our trash (it was a lot since were received new furniture for the greenie). I will take a picture of this process one of these days but the Korean recycling system is pretty weird to me. They are pretty serious about organizing their trash... Not just a recycling bin like you see in America, but like 7 different bins for plastics, styrofoam, glass, paper, food ect. I think it's disgusting but they probably really benefit from it just because their country is so small- no room for landfills of wasted space. Bleh! After we organized the trash, we got to work. Not a lot of success but it felt good to work. It was a good way to end the day.
Saturday was alright. We had an appointment with a lady we met on a bus a few PDAY's ago. She lives pretty far but she insisted on meeting us instead of the elders in her area. It took over an hour by subway to arrive. She is in her 70's and the friend she brought along, was about the same. They both seem to be part of some Christian church but they didn't say which. I was skeptical about their intentions but we proceeded to teach the 1st lesson about the restoration of this gospel. I thought I did an okay job teaching about Joseph Smith because they looked pretty interested. Turns out, when I finished they said they couldn't understand a word... My companions retaught what I tried to teach as well as finished the lesson without anymore help from me. It's pretty discouraging being in a companionship with two fluent missionaries. Ever since 김 자매님 came, it's like I don't exist most of the time. I'm used to not understanding conversations around me but I at least had my companion to talk to. After the lesson I didn't say a word on the way home... My companions were too busy laughing and enjoying themselves to notice. I really dislike the dynamic of three missionaries in one companionship. I initially thought I would have double the practice with Korean- unfortunately I have less the ever.
I'll stop whining now. Our day ended playing badminton with 서은영S and her son. They played against my two companions while I sat out- whose shocked? I sat on the bench and just read, trying not to act sad. Apparently it was pretty obvious because a complete stranger (a man about 45) came over to talk to me. He spoke pretty good English and asked me what I was reading. I showed him the cover of the Book of Mormon both in English and in Korean. He nodded and asked if I came to play badminton, I said yes and pointed to the court with my companions. He then very politely asked if I would play with him. It was an odd request but we played a short game on the court next to my companions. He laughed at me mostly and naturally I lost. After, he thanked me and told me that I looked "very gorgeous" haha. That may sound super awkward but here, Korean people are just genuinely nice as well as very blunt about their opinions. I'm staying humble but you wouldn't believe how many 할머니s (grandmas) stop me to tell me how pretty I am- they literally cut me off and grab my face or my arm if they can't reach my face haha. Speaking of which, on the bus ride home, the lady sitting behind me would not stop touching and taking about my hair- she loved how thin and smooth it was. Saying thank you to all these compliments is getting boring so instead, I just told her that I use conditioner. She laughed and said she should buy some haha. If was a funny ending to a semi downer day.
Sunday pretty standard. Church was great. Sacrament meeting was pretty cool because we got to hear from the Seoul temple president and his wife. The topic was the plan of salvation. They both focused on the purpose of this life. Specifically, they both used the following two scriptures from the Book of
Mormon:Alma 33:32 which says, "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."Alma 42:4 "And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God."
They did a great job. In Sunday school, the topic was similar but focused more on the creation of this world. The whole universe and everything inside it was created with much thought and love. After the lessons today, I was reminded of how precious our life's are and how grateful I am to have a Father in Heaven that cares so much! I feel so blessed!! After church, the ward had ate lunch together. Again, the Relief Society made a huge meal and fed the whole ward (I think it was in honor of having the Temple President and his wife in attendance). We ate delicious curry and took a bunch home with us- yum!Earlier this week while 전도ing we ran into a couple Pacific Islander's from New Zealand, Manu (Tongan) and Samantha (Neuayen). They are both college graduates teaching English at academies here. Today we set up a time to get together. I was so excited to socialize and potentially teach in English. They met us at the chapel and we semi showed them around. We had planned to introduce our basic beliefs but they have already seen and known Mormons in New Zealand- some of their families are even members! They didn't seem interested in our message so we just talked and religion came up naturally. It was a good conversation but not much came from it. We will invite them to church on Sunday though. The evening ended with a little 전도 and our studies. I love productive yet relaxing Sundays!
Every week seems to be filled with ups and downs. Missionary work is tough but also very rewarding. I am very grateful to be here serving The Lord. I know this church is true. And I know that the Book of Mormon is the fullness of the Gospel that we need in order to return to our Father in Heaven one day. I love you all. 사랑해요!
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