Making progress

9/23-29
Monday felt a little weird having another PDAY only a few days after the last one... I feel lazy but no worries! It is the last week of the transfer and I'm ready to kick it up a notch. Today was not only my father's birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!) but it was also Sister Yoon's 24th bday! In order to celebrate I bought the cutest cake! When I went to pay for the adorable bunny-strawberry cake, the lady working asked, "How many candles for the birthday girl?" I smiled and said, "24 please!" Haha the friendly smile quickly turned into a look of shock and confusion. Apparently she was a little confused about my choice in cake for an adult's bday but naturally I didn't care. Instead of 24 candles I settled for five.

My companion and I made our way over to the 곡반정 church were we met most of the zone to play games and socialize. I have really come to love relaxing PDAY's. Maybe I'll be more motivated to go sightseeing when I transfer out of Suwon because I think I've seen all there is to see here. It was really fun.

While emailing home I was able to update my iPod to the new iOS7 software- it's awesome! I spend a good amount of PDAY exploring the new features with a couple trunky missionaries (meaning they are nearing the end of their missions and are ready to go home ha). I miss technology. When it came time to leave, my companion and I head home for dinner then the YSA FHE. I'm not totally sure if it can technically be called YSA (young single adult) because the members that come are nearing 40... They are really fun but are not the normal "YSA" crowd (18-29 years old). Regardless, we played games and had fun.

Once home, I started noticing all the mosquito bites that seemed to be appearing all over my body. Summer is over and the cool autumn weather is coming fast- so why aren't these bugs dying?? I have a nice bite on my right eyelid, six fresh bites on my ankles, two on my right hand, and half a dozen on my legs. Gross right? Sister Han is convinced that the mosquitos here love foreign blood because she has zero bites.... Not fair. So as I type this I am covered from head to toe in hopes of avoiding these pesky bugs. Night!

Tuesday was relatively slow. Most of our day was open so it was the perfect time for more tracting. Today we chose to go door to door in a 동 called 평동. It happened to be raining again and we had little success. By the time 4:30PM came around, it was time to leave to meet our first appointment for the day. The two ladies names are 조은선S (Sister Cho) and 최민서S (Sister Choi). They we pure gospel interest investigators, which is awesome however the bad news for me was that they speak zero English. It was a hard lesson to sit though. I tried to participate but as usual I failed. I tried to keep up but to me it sounds like they were bible-bashing with my companion. I starts finding the scriptures they were reading and it seemed that they actually have similar beliefs. Anyways, I'll spare the details of the back and forth and just say that they are seriously searching for the truth. The current church that they attend asks for money not faith (their words not mine). So they are in the process of meeting with several members of different churches to really get to the bottom of things. Next week when we meet them, I plan on having a little more control of the conversation so Sister Han and I can start answering some of their questions.

Our last appointment was with Estee. We invited a member, 임전숙S (Sister Lim- a YSA) to join us for 팥빙수 and a brief lesson. Of course the dessert was delicious and the lesson went well too. We taught the first lesson really simply and invited Estee to start praying. She accepted and we all walked to the bus stop together. It was a good day- despite the rain and cold weather started to sneak up on us.

Wednesday was zone conference. We received training from President and Sister Morrise, the AP's, and our zone leaders. It was an awesome day! My favorite quote from my notes: The goal of mountain climbing, is mountain climbing. Don't over complicate or over analyze your goals and/or results. Step back and realize your efforts.

Maybe that isn't profound but I really enjoyed the training. Oh!! I almost forgot the best part. In President Morrise's training we watched an episode from The District. In this video one of the sister missionaries was frustrated and complaining about learning Spanish. In the middle of the rant, President Morrise paused it to say, "When you hear someone whining about learning Spanish, does anyone else think, 'What a baby!!'?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Sorry to anyone that might think Spanish is hard- but President Morrise has a point, Korean is WAY harder hehe. I love my mission president!

After the meeting ended, it was time for another split! This time I went with Sister Goodnough to 곡반정! Sister Yoon is so good to me- she lets me visit my favorite ward alll the time. I love her and I love coming home. Tonight we had our normal English class. Since they began reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the class has gotten pretty far; to celebrate, a member provide the new Johnny Depp movie to watch! Booyah!!

Before heading to class, Sister Goodnough and I were running home to grab some dinner. As we walked, we met three middle school girls. I approached them and asked them where they were going and if they liked English. They all flipped out trying to prove who was better at English haha. One of the girls kept saying, "I.. Uhhh. English.. Uhhh. Good!! I, English, good!" Haha it was hilarious. We eventually made plans to meet them near the church later, in order to direct them to our class. About an hour later, guess what?! All three of them were sitting and waiting for us to show up! Miracle! During class the kids were rowdy, the movie was great, and just like last time- the members made me feel loved and missed. It was a crazy yet awesome night!

Thursday was great. First on our agenda was an appointment with 서은영S (Sister Soh- the atheist) again. This time we decided to keep it a secret that I was visiting again hehe. We arrived a few minutes late so Sister Soh called just as we were walking towards her. She didn't see us yet so Sister Goodnough said, "Yeah, Sister Sloan and I are walking up right now." What happened next played out like a movie; she turned (it felt like dramatic-slow motion), I had a huge cheesy grin on my face as I waved with both hands, her jaw dropped, I started running towards her, she starts running toward me, we hug, she's shocked, we both can't stop smiling- scene! It was the best. We found a cute coffee shop to settle down in and catch up. From previous experience I knew our appointment might run late so I made a conscience effort to stay on schedule with the 30/30 program.

After talking all about her family and how she spent her holiday, a little over thirty minutes had gone by. There was a perfect moment that I took advantage of to transition into gospel time. We had planned to teach about the Ten Commandments and the law of chastity. But, after introducing the topic of the Ten Commandments, our conversation took a shift. We began talking all about faith and how we can receive guidance from God. She had so many questions and I did my best to answer them all. Honestly I don't remember half of the things I said, which actually brings me a lot of comfort because that means it wasn't me talking- it was the spirit. I do remember sharing the verse Ether 4:12 which says,
"And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me—that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world."
She is in the middle of making some pretty big decisions for her family. She is contemplating moving abroad to continue her studies and to immerse her son in another culture. She knows how huge the decision is so she is super stressed about it because she want to do the right thing. Amidst all of her thoughts, she hasn't been able to differentiate what is a good things or selfish desire- so I though this verse might help bring clarify. Also, over and over I shared experience reiterating how I was able feet answers through prayer. Eventually she said, "Well, it looks like I should pray before I go visit some potential places." After she said that I felt promoted to invite her to church. I told her that it was a perfect place to receive an answer to a question she has prayed about because it is such a peaceful place. Immediately she said, "Okay, maybe I should talk to my husband and we'll find a church to go to." Miracle! This woman has come so far and I feel so blessed to have been able to have witness such a huge change in her just these passed few months. Anyway, my time management went out the window because two hours of gospel discussion went by before we finally left.

There wasn't time for much else before the unsplit, so we head home to meet Sister Yoon and Han.We made dinner together then went back to our assigned areas. Once back, we met up with the elder to prepare the new English flyers. It was boring but I was still in such a good mood having had such an amazing lesson with 서은영S.

Friday was a slow day. A couple days ago I started feeling under the weather but this morning was the worst. After exercising I started noticing how weak and achy my body was feeling. I took an extra long-hot shower but that didn't help much. I later took my temperature... 100 degrees! Not a fun way to start my day. I called Sister Yoon, who had been sick too, to ask what her symptoms were- they were the same as mine. She told me to get back in bed immediately. Maybe I'm a bad missionary but I was obedient and didn't wake up again until about 4PM. That was another 7 hours of sleep after a full 8 hours the night before! If that's not a clear indicator that I was sick, don't know what is. Anyway, I woke up to the phone buzzing. Estee misunderstood our new appointment time and she was apparently waiting at the church for us. I quickly got dressed and prepared some material for lesson. It ending up going really well! We had invited her to pray, and she had! She even prayed a few extra times when she was feeling scared and alone; when she shared that I was blown away! Miracle!

When our appointment ended, Estee wanted to treat my pathetic-looking self to dinner. It was yummy but all I wanted to do was change back into my sweats and go back to sleep. When Sister Han and I went home, I refrained from sleep and decided to finish the day with our much needed weekly planning. The timing was perfect and I was in bed  by 9:30PM.

Saturday I was feeling much better! All that rest really payed off and I'm grateful because today was busy and we couldn't afford to stay home again. After studies we left to visit the less-active, 박순애S whom we visit every Saturday. Like last week, her daughter and nephew stopped by while we were there. When they arrived the boy, Hong Sungbong quickly sat down and informed us that he had a question. He said the following, "So, last time when we were talking about your missions and church, I felt really good. I also really enjoyed practicing my English. So, I see this as a good opportunity. You see, I know a lot about Korea and you know a lot about church and English. I think it might benefit both of us if we became friends." Haha he's adorable. I introduced the 30/30 program and English class. He was very interested.He went on to say, "Oh! I forgot to mention that I have about five other friends (all boys) that are interested in being your friend for the same reason." MIRACLE!! I received his cellphone number in order to refer him to the elders- it was so exciting! As the conversation evolved, it turns out that his mother was baptized when she was little. She told us that when she moved she just never found the ward building and slowly became inactive. She went on to say, "But when my work starts to let up, I would love to attend church again! And I would also love you two over sometime to talk about church with my husband." On the outside I was calm and responded, "We would love to come by some time, can we give you a call later this week?" But on the inside all I could imagine was the Andrea Marks happydance haha. HAPPY DAY! Before we left, I shared the spiritual thought about a favorite scripture then we were on our way.

We met up with the elders to make name tags for all the members of the ward. Our bishop really wants to missionaries to know all the members names, so this was his idea. I think it's a little silly but its sole purpose is to help me so I can't complain. To end the evening, Sister Han and I had a meal appointment with 김영애S and her family. I had a lot of fun! Her daughter, son-in-law, and their three children (all girls- one was 4 and the other two were 7 month-old twins) were there. They are fluent in English she I was really able to get to know them well. They have SUCH an adorable family. To end our visit, Sister Han shared a thought about prayer. We them made our way home in the rain. What a great day!!

Tonight was supposed to be transfer calls too... But because of all the temporary grandpa phones that were distributed, the AP's didn't get a hold of us until super late! When I finally called them, they inform Sister Han and I that we were staying. Six more weeks in 신풍!

Sunday was a great day too! It is a blessing that our church starts later now because we have the best investigator whom we meet each Sunday morning now. Her name is 심성경S (or Bible for short... 성경 literally translates to bible hehe) and she is the best! She did have of her "homework" and prayed. She said she had a good experience, so that's awesome! The other half of her homework was to read then Book or Mormon introduction and Alma 34. Instead of moving on, we just sat and read it together. We might have been able to teach something if I still didn't take so long to read... :/ but that's okay it went really well and she understands things so well! Oh! Did I mention a young woman from the ward came too? She bore a pretty strong testimony of the atonement after reading Alma 34- it was perfect!

Soon after the appointment, all the missionaries greeted the members and suck name tags on everyone. Everyone's response was, "왜요?" (Meaning- why) haha. They were all pretty on board with the idea after we explained ourselves. Some members even ran up to us, demanding a name tag, telling us that we forgot them haha. It was fun. The meeting went well and after, dinner was served. Sister Han and I were not planning to eat at the church because we had a dinner appointment a couple hours later with a less-active member. But I was dying, so I ate haha.

When we arrived at our dinner appointment, I was grateful for the modest amount of food. This members name is 김자영S (Sister Kim) she is single, a nurse, and such a sweet lady. She shared photo album after photo album with us. I think she is lonely, so we just let her talk and go on and on about every thought that came to her mind. I understood a little bit of what she was talking about- but that wasn't the point. I think we were just there to listen and be with her. Before we left, she shared a Liahona article about faith. I bore a simple testimony that Sister Han and Sister Kim said was powerful but like I said, it was just simple. On our walk home, I was reminiscing on the week we had just had and I felt so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. I'm already considered an "experienced missionary" according to the greenies but I just feel blessed to have been able to learn and grow so much, and to be able to apply all that I am learning. Being a missionary is the best!!

This week was so great and filled with miracles. It was an awesome way to end my first transfer here in Shinpoong. I hope you all had a great week too. I love you all and miss you so much. Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement. ^^ 사랑합니다!

슬론 자매
Sister Sloan

Happy Birthday Sister Yoon!

100 degree temperature

My favorite student from English Class.