11/18-24
Monday was a fun PDAY. While the soccer game was in full swing, guess what happened..... It starts snowing!!! Most people told me that it wouldn't start snowing until January! Noooo! Most people were jumping with excitement but I was a little less than pleased haha. The snow didn't last long or stick to the ground but it definitely made our walk to dinner a tad colder. Our district plus some stray companionships crammed into a restaurant called Pizza School and enjoyed some warm pizza. When we finished eating we needed to head to the church for YSA FHE. I made a game to help kids learn the commandments... I was out of ideas for the YSA so we played this game haha. We made it interesting though with a penalty for the loser... They had to buy hot chocolate for everyone. Elder Jung lost and he was so bitter that it would cost him a little over $20 so I took pity on him and paid for myself and Sister Hammerl haha. It was a fun night, although it felts the opposite of productive.
Tuesday was my last full day serving with Sister Hammerl. It was pretty standard with less-active visits and having conversations with people on the streets. Standard except an experience we had as Sister Hammerl and I were waiting at our bus stop. There was a group of old men who were on their way to lunch. Of course we said hello and they freaked out about how well we spoke Korean.. all we said was hello haha. Anyway, they were pelting my companion with questions while I was trying to find which bus to take. I felt bad leaving her to fend for herself but she did really well and enjoyed the conversation haha. After they left, a crazy man, who I think was drunk, came over and asked us where we were from. He seemed to be in a hurry and kept walking while he spoke to us. It was strange to begin with but then he stopped in his tracks and asked why we weren't walking with him. He said hurry up and pointed to a yogurt stand as if he wanted us to go with him. I was only about 10 meters away, so we looked at each other and began walking ha. He kept asking the same question that I literally could not understand so I just kept agreeing with him until we gave up and bought us yogurts. Once we received the yogurts, he told us to go back to the bus stop and have a nice day- so we did haha. Strange but funny.
Soon it was time for English class! I love my class so much, the kids are adorable and brilliant. I'm sure I say that a lot but it's true every time. Today we reviewed the story that we read about the Three Billy Goats and then played games. It was a small crowd today but still it was great. On the way home someone had just taken out their trash and they threw away a perfectly good table. There were several people around so I had too much shame to pick it up but Sister Hammerl said that we couldn't leave that blessing behind haha. We picked it up and carried it home- score!
Wednesday was district meeting. Previously, Sister Hammerl had wanted to make me Phad Thai but we never found the time so literally her last opportunity was lunch before the meeting. She kindly, or should I say naïvely volunteered to make and serve lunch to everyone. Bless her heart for having good intentions, but it took her forever and everyone was getting restless for food. When everything was finished and served, it wasn't even close to being enough but everyone had to keep their complaints to themselves because my companion was so proud of herself- she is so cute.
The meeting was okay. I have to admit that I was a little antsy, because right after the meeting I was scheduled to meet my new trainee!! I was excited but also dreading having to lug the biggest suitcases I have ever carried almost two hours away by subway- not fun. It was hard but when we arrived I met my new companion, Sister Tovar right away. She seemed less than pleased with me as I walked in and greeted most of the missionaries in maybe a loud and sarcastic way... Her half-hearted hug said it all haha. Soon we grabbed her things and were on our way home. It was fun feeling like I finally knew something about what I was doing. Lately I have been having trouble recognizing how far I have come since arriving but just guiding Sister Tovar home and answering all of her question made me realize I know a lot more than I thought. It was a fun night introducing her to the area and letting her get settled.
A little bio on my greenie- she is from Nevada but is currently living in Utah. Her parents are from Mexico, she is 5-foot nothing, 23, Utah State graduate in psychology, and more talkative than anyone else I have ever met. She also is not afraid or embarrassed to do anything... So far we get along but I also foresee pros and cons to our vastly different personalities. 재미겠다! It will be fun!
Thursday was my greenies first day and we wasted no time getting straight to work. When the alarm went off in the morning my poor training struggled to get out of bed and ready for our morning CrossFit routine. I'm determined to help her become spiritually strong as well as physically... hehe. Our morning studies and training went well. It was weird having to explain every aspect of missionary work/ missionary life because I realized how much advising I went through and how much my greenie will have to embrace. When it was time to hit the streets, we set out to visit some less actives and a former investigator. No luck, but we were able to start talking to people. Sister Tovar we has no fear talking to people. I mean I'm proud of her but it's also stressful because I have to keep track of her and try to translate her broken Korean into proper Korean for the person she is talking to. I have a lot of teaching to do in the next few months...
Luckily time came for English class and I was so excited to greet my students. Sister Tovar and I prepared some comprehension activities to help liven up the class. Originally we had been expecting out normal 5-7 student range BUT instead 15 showed up!! What the?! It was awesome!! There were three new mothers who were referred by our current students and they brought their kids. It was a little difficult getting all of the new students up to speed on the book, but by the end they were all involved and having fun. Seriously my greenie was spoiled for this being her first class, I hope next week doesn't disappoint!
Friday was a really hard day. When we left the house we were still waiting for our appointment to confirm that we were meeting at his grandmothers house for a lesson. I figured that it would all workout if 홍성봉B didn't show up because instead we could just leave his grandmother, 박순애S with a spiritual thought. When we showed up the grandmother was pretty frustrated about us coming and her nephew not being there. She went straight to her phone to call and ask where he was. When she got off she tried to reiterate what she just learned but I wasn't understanding. I quickly called him and found out that he didn't want to come today. We rescheduled and hung up. I told the grandmother and she was annoyed. She went on to ask some questions but I wasn't able to understand her. She then became furious and started yelling at me. I have never seen or so much anger in my life. Even though this woman is old and can't move very fast, I was literally scared that she was going to hit me. Ironically I wasn't able to understand her calm questions but as soon as she began yelling, I started to understand. She said the following, "Why can't you speak Korean yet?! How are you supposed to teach my nephew if you can't say anything?! How are you supposed to teach anyone?! Why are you here?! I forbid you from ever coming into my house ever again!!" Things like that. As she continued to yell, her eyes began to water and spit began to spew from her mouth as her yelling increased in volume and intensity. I stood and told her I was sorry and that we had to leave. She yelled at me until the door closed behind us. I was close to crying the whole way home. I really thought I was improving and I really have come to love that grandmother but now I am too embarrassed to ever show my face there.. Not that she would let me in again. As we rode the bus home, I had a feeling to get off the bus and try visiting a former investigator. When we got off, Sister Tovar didn't follow me but instead insisted that I walk into a nearby bakery. She sweetly asked me to grab a treat because she knew it had been a hard day (mind you it was only 11AM...) so far. No success came from our visit so we began walking home for lunch.
On the walk to our house, we were maybe two blocks away when we saw a group of people starring at us. Of course that is super common with a Mexican and American foreigner walking around together. We both bowed and said hello as we were walking past but as we did they stopped us and began asking a bunch of questions. They were super impressed with our Korean so they asked us to join a little marketing meeting that was taking place just inside from where they were standing. I said no thank but then I found myself being pushed and dragged into the marketing scam haha. It was really strange because they had me and my companion sit front row and as we did a bunch of people started taking pictures of us. I didn't know what to do so I reflected back on something that President Morrise encourages us to do, which was to help as many people as we could walk away from an exchange with us with positive thoughts and feelings. I figured walking out of the meeting would be rude so I thought we would wait it out. It only took about 20 minutes and then a fairly big lunch was served. It was delicious and I was even given an opportunity to talk about out church to over 14 people. Still I was slow in speaking but they understood. It was a huge confidence boost after having been torn apart by an 80+ year old woman.
When we finally arrived home we made time to do our weekly planning. When we finished, we ate dinner then hit the streets for the night. Nothing noteworthy happened except for receiving a huge hug from a random drunk lady on the street. Maybe it was an awkward hug but after it happened I was pretty grateful for that tender mercy from Heavenly Father. It may sound like a stretch but today was rough. I was really wanting to throw in the towel so I could go home and be comforted by people who actually love and care for me. My companion was too new to feel comfortable hugging me and I wasn't about to ask for a hug from anyone. Instead, Heavenly Father sends me this crazy drunk lady who hugged me as tight as she could and told me I was the best haha. It really was an awesome end to a crappy day.
Saturday was an annoying day. Have you ever had to read, understand, and speak Korean? If your answer is no, then my follow up question is if you had to would you been successful? ME NEITHER! Today I learned the word for misunderstanding because I had to apologize at least... 5,000 times for messing things up. I swear we haven't has a formal appointment in forever because I have become really good at misunderstanding and having to cancel and/or reschedule appointments. I'll spare you the details of what was supposed to happen and just say what actually took place. Our investigator, 신숙희S and her six year-old daughter showed up to the YSA American thanksgiving party that I understood was a ward party. Eventually relief society began showing up to greet her but for the first hour it was pretty awkward with all the singles.
Next, an appointment fell through. Sister Tovar and I went home to make up some of the study time we missed in the morning. When we were about done, Elder Gamble and Jung called. They invited us to a dinner appointment with a member from Elder Gamble's greenie area. We didn't have plans so we accepted. This man traveled over an hour by subway to arrive and see Elder Gamble! To make the visit more convenient, we had dinner together at Suwon Station. Brother Hoon is very old, funny, and a little crazy. His wife divorced him years ago and at dinner he began complaining that he just wanted to go to a singing room (karaoke is pretty popular here) with a pretty girl. That is when he would look at me and wink... I know this man doesn't have bad intentions but it was weird ha. What made it weirder was when he was going on and on about my "pretty hair" and would tuck some of my hair behind my ears. The elders about passed out because they didn't know what to do haha. As soon as Brother Hoon realized that probably wants the best thing to do to a sister missionary, he shrunk in his chair and said as if talking to the ground, "I'm just an old Asian man who is lonely." No one knew what to say until he looked back up and started laughing hysterically and said, "Got cha!" It was a strange dinner but definitely entertaining with Brother Hoon as well as Sister Tovar trying to get the handle on chopsticks and spicy food ha. All in all it was an interesting day.
Sunday came and it was raining like crazy!! First was an appointment with Bible... 심성경S (Sister Shim). She had read what she promised so the appointment consisted of small talk and reading the Book of Mormon. It was boring and took forever as we all took turns reading a verse. She quickly realized that her reading assignments would be much easier in the future if she just read quickly on her own instead of waiting for us ha. When we left we went home for a quick lunch before church began. Church was awesome! After the sacrament was passed I was surprised to see all of the primary walk up to the stage, it was a primary program! Since the primary is a little small, each child would read a part then have a solo. Maybe it was painful for these kids to sing by themselves but it was uhh-dorable! Some songs were sung all together and those were the most beautiful. These kids are so precious. I really love them.
When sacrament was over, Sister Tovar and I attended Sunday school for a little until it was time to set up the cultural hall for dinner together. We worked with a member to set up the chairs, tables and all the food. It was a decent meal. After we helped clean and had our missionary coordinating meeting. Our new ward missions leader, 이재현B (Brother Lee) is AWESOME!!! He cares so much about us and our investigators! This is going to be a good couple of transfers. When it ended, we walked with the elders home and Me and my companion went home to hand out a little gift we had baked for our neighbors. It was perfect, because the rain was coming down harder than ever and we still wanted to reach our goal of talking to some more people. Only a few of our neighbors came to the door to greet us and the other yelled through the door that they were busy ha. Hopefully they enjoy their bag of treats as well as the message card that I attached- it had Mark 12:30-31 on one side and on the other is said, "...so, we love you! If you need anything we are in APT 303! Love, the Sister missionaries!" I thought it was funny- hopefully they will too ha.
As the rain continued, we had about 20 minutes left of the day. I thought I could get a few more conversations over the phone but after five minutes of calling everyone I could think of, no one was picking up. I shrugged and told Sister Tovar that we needed to finish our week strong- so we needed to hit the streets hard for the last 15 minutes of the day. She whinnied and said no one was outside, as if that wasn't common knowledge considering the rain. She eventually agreed when I told her that we are blessed when we sacrifice. We were only able to talk to about three people, but it was worth it!! I felt good about working hard until the end which will hopefully be a trend with Sister Tovar throughout her training.
Today is Monday and it is still rainy. We have left the house early in order to receive Sister Tovar's foreigner card. I am hoping to have a relaxing PDAY inside and maybe enjoy a nap... Exciting life of a missionary ha. I hope all is well back home. I love you all!! Have a great week!
슬론자매
No comments:
Post a Comment