Day in the Life [생활에 있는 일]: The "Letter"!

9/2-8

월요일 (Monday) was so busy! Even though it was PDAY, it was filled with missionary work. 한 자매님 (Sister Han) and I were asked to participate in a stake relief society service project at the local community center. Our task was to help serve lunch to the elderly people of the community. I enjoyed myself a lot, a lot more than I thought I would. I was able to stand in the serving assembly line with a few of the women from 곡반정 ward (the last ward I served in). After serving food for a couple of hours, almost everybody that came through the line recognized that I was a foreigner and say, "Ooo a pretty foreigner finally came to Korea!" Haha old people are so cute and funny. Some of them even practiced saying some simple English phrases like, "Hello, thank you, bye, have a nice day!" all slurred together as one sentence haha. It was hilarious.

As the line of people began to die down, there was a familiar face smiling back at me- it was Rachel (not sure of her Korean name) from English class! She said that it was a pleasant surprise to see my companion and I volunteering there. She made me promise to find her before we left so she could give us her address to visit later today. After cleaning up and getting on a few wrong buses, we finally arrived at Rachel's house. She is not a member of the church, nor an investigator, however she is a regular student at our weekly English class. We got to talking and apparently she has been attending English class for years and years (around 15+). She first started attending after her second child was born. She saw it as a good excuse to leave her kids with her mother while she had some "me time." She went on to tell us that she honestly believes English class kept her sane and saved her life. All I could think was, 'umm, maybe the church saved your life....?" I don't know just a thought haha. All in all we had an awesome conversation and build a solid foundation for a pretty awesome friendship. ^^

When we finally left it was 4PM! Goodbye PDAY! We headed to the church where the elders from our district had been waiting to play cards and board games. When we arrived they were in the middle of some lame war board game. I mostly just sat back and watched to try and soak in the free time we had left. It didn't last long because then I had a few phone calls to make to finalize plans for the week. Speaking of which, I wonder what the office thinks of our phone bill... Haha I literally call all of my leaders at least once a day. And today I spoke with my zone leaders, every companionship in the zone, the senior couple, the office, the AP's, and even President Morrise a few times each to coordinate different things. Teehee AP here I come!

The last thing scheduled for the day was a ward family home evening (FHE). Only a couple families showed up but we had fun anyway. We played a combination of jeopardy and charades. It was a blast! When the activity ended, everyone stayed to play ping pong, catch, and badminton- also a lot of fun. I am trying really hard to be better at using the Korean ping long paddle and so far, so good!

Tuesday (화요일) was pretty standard. Like usual, 한 자매님 (Sister Han) and I are still working to visit less-active members of the ward. We called over a dozen and went to a couple houses- still no success. But that was not the end of our disappointment. All of our appointment's cancelled one just after the other for various reasons. How am I supposed to stay busy under these conditions? Haha, hijole. We were able to join the elders and a few single adults for an English flyer activity. It was fun, all we did was walk around for an about and a half handing out flyers to advertise our awesome English class. Again, little success but at least we were working and talking to people.

As a reward afterwards, 이상훈 (Brother Lee) bought everyone 팥빙수 (my favorite shaved ice dessert). After we ate, it was time to call it a night. We said our goodbyes and walked home. Not even 10 minutes after being home, I received a call from 이상훈B. He was calling to coordinate English class but it didn't take long for him to get sidetracked... Somehow he got on the topic of bettering my relationship with my companion. He recommended that I tell 한 자매님 (Sister Han) that I love her everyday. I said "no" but he went on to tell me why. He said, "Okay I'm going to say something and you're going to tell me how it makes you feel." Imagine my face looking a little something like if maybe you saw a llama with six heads.

"I love you Sister Sloan" were his next words that were followed with, "sooo, how does that make you feel?!" I didn't miss a beat before saying, "That is so inappropriate, you better not ever say that to me again haha." He then said, "Noo! Come on, I'm just trying to prove that it makes people feel happy." Again I said "no" and said I had to go. Talk about a weird situation! When I reiterated the conversation to my companion she just laughed at how awkward Brother Lee is.

Wednesday (수요일) was busy. It started with zone conference. Again, Elder Keetch put me in charge of organizing and ordering lunch. None of you will be surprised to find out that I ordered pizza- 20 boxes for 24 people. By the time it arrived, so did the zone leaders and they had mail! I received a package and two letters. I was happy to open the package and the first letter but then there was the second letter. Dun dun dun.... It was from 김천 (Sister Kim), my last companion. To bring everyone up to speed, we didn't get a long too well. We worked hard together but our personalities really clashed. While being companions she would always correct me and give me "suggestions" of how to work harder and how to be more obedient... In short I'll say that many deep breathes were taken to try and practice my least favorite attribute of patience ha.

Initially when I saw the letter I thought, 'oh, maybe she wrote something for me to include in my memory book that she didn't have a chance to sign.' Errrr! Wrong! It was a small piece of notebook paper where she took the time to write yet another thing she feels I need to improve on. My face looked a little something like... -___- by the time I finished reading. The zone leaders saw my reaction and begged me to read it out loud (since they had witnessed previous "corrections" by Sister Kim). As I read, all they could do was laugh hysterically... I won't quote the note but I will say that the things she accused me of and pointed out were very much wrong and out of line. What gives?

The second 윤현미 자매님 (Sister Yoon) walked in the door, I grabbed her to help me prepare fruit for dessert as well as to talk. She was able to calm me down and reassure me of Sister Kim's misunderstanding. I'm glad I have Sister Yoon here because without her I pretty well could have been in an annoyed mood the rest of the day. Once my attitude changed, we went on to talk about more important things and all was well.

The day that followed consisted of a lot of running around, a few appointments, and English class. Probably the only thing worth mentioning is the cute little girls that now attend the kids class Sister Han and I teach (~8-13 year olds). Three girls consistently come now and they are adorable. For some reason today they were not really into the book we were reading so instead I attempted to teach them 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes' in English. It worked pretty well because they think its really funny to mimic everything I say haha- jokes on them right? Anyway it was great. To end the evening we quickly hurried to the Subway station with the elders in order to make it to the mission home before 10:30PM.

Thursday (목요일) was temple day!! If staying in an air conditioned house with beds wasn't enough- today we were able to attend a session at the temple with a couple zones. It was amazing!! I had decided to fast in preparation for the temple and it made for a really awesome experience. I was able to feel a lot of clarity and much needed peace of mind. When the time came to leave I definitely did all I could to delay- the Seoul temple is beautiful and even though it is literally surrounded by buildings and the crazy pace of Seoul, the temple grounds are always to peaceful and I never want to leave. Eventually, we had to head home to have time to study and prep for a few meetings we had later. The rest of the day was pretty monotonous.

Friday (금요일) was a bummer day. We had weekly planning which really opened my eyes to see that Sister Han and I really had nothing to show for all the work we had put in for the week. Of course most things were out of our control but I was still disappointed. To make the day worse both appointments cancelled super last minute. We were prepped and ready to teach awesome lessons but were never given the chance. After eating dinner we just spent our evening proselyting. Even though we didn't see a whole lot of successes we were able to invite one grandmother to sit down and listen to the first lesson about the restoration and Joseph Smith. She didn't care too much but that was a pretty random tender mercy! Also, before we called it a night we were talking to this young middle school girl and invited her to take a tour of our church. She came and even played the organ for a little bit. Before she left and we said goodbye, she said, "my fathers church has eight floors but maybe I'll come back." Haha

Saturday (토요일) started earlier than normal but I felt okay skipping some study time to put some real missionary hours in. We met at the chapel just after 10AM when the young women of the ward were meeting to have their weekly activity. This week they were making lip balm! We invited our cute 14 year old investigator and she came! She had a blast too- the young women in this ward (though their numbers are few) they are amazing and so nice to everyone! I tried talking with the young women but it turned out to be ineffective so I retreated and played with the young women president's two year old son. We had a blast.

After the activity, my companion and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before leaving to visit a less-active grandmother. I don't know why she is considered less-active because she is literally too old and fragile to even try walking or even try getting on a bus to come to church. Poor lady. We taught her the 5th lesson about laws and ordinances. She really enjoyed it. She told us that she is sick and tired of her visitors only trying to engage in small talk haha. I'll be honest in saying, I was happy to hear that because I was considering asking her if she might be able to help me out by letting me practice teaching the lessons to her. Phew, she was so happy to receive such a request. After we said goodbye we head back to the church for an appointment with a potential investigator. I was excited to meet her because she was referred by the Atheist investigator I taught in my last area. When she called she asked for me personally to begin teaching her! I was flattered but when the time came for the appointment, she canceled and said, "I'll call you back in a few days." AKA that means never, but lucky me because I have her number haha she will be receiving a call from me in the near future. ^^

The day ended taking a trip with the elders to visiting a youth single adult in the hospital. He had just received surgery on his foot and when we called earlier in the day to ask if we could visit, he politely declined. Even though he didn't want visitors, I felt that all the missionaries from the ward should make a trip anyway. When we arrived he was pretty surprised. It was a sketchy hospital and it was pretty vacant so I'm sure he was happy to have some people to talk to. We stayed and talked for an hour. It felt more like a training from a district leader since be was still in the mode having come home from his mission only a few months earlier. He had a lot of really good ideas and insight for us.

Sunday (일요일) was a good day. One of our investigators showed up to church! She is 14 and super cute! We taught her a short lesson and set goals for what she wants to learn from us (both English and gospel related). After church ended the ward prepared for lunch together- every week they make a huge meal to eat after church... Every Week! I love it. Anyway, I quickly ate so that I could beat everyone to the kitchen to begin cleaning. This ward is a little more adamant that sister missionaries shouldn't help so I am trying to find a loop hole so I can still help. I worked for about 10 minutes before the men of the ward strapped on their aprons and demanded I hand over the sponge haha. Even though I semi understood them, I still plaedy the, "oh I'm sorry I have no Idea what you're saying" face haha. I found other ways to help before I was almost kicked out of the church by the relief society women haha. LET ME HELP PEOPLE! It was funny.

Here in Suwon, they are having a month long festival called "EcoMobility" where they block off a lot of streets to encourage people to use other forms of transportation like bikes. The city has A TON of bikes available all over town. The Korean culture is super trusting so I think this is the only place in the world where they could pull something off like this ha. Anyway, the heart of the festival is held in a plaza literally across a very small street from the church. Our bishop wanted to use this to our advantage so this afternoon the missionaries and a handful of members set up a table, street boards, and some free water. It was UNREAL how many people it attracted. I had just over 100 conversations alone! It's really really awesome. After doing that for a couple of hours, the missionaries head to a dinner appointment. Of course it was delicious. I cannot wait until I am back home and I can attempt to make all of this delicious food for everyone!

Welp, that was my week. I don't have much to show for the long hours my companion and I spent working this week but I am happy and exhausted. I am grateful it is PDAY and I can finally relax for a couple hours before we are back on the streets later tonight. Keep us in your prayers and hope we find some of the elect to teach. Refer a friend or two to the missionaries in your area that might be interested in the gospel- they need your help. I love you all. You are ALL in my prayer constantly! Have a great week!

XO,
Sister Sloan