Day in the Life [생활에 있는 일]: P-day Mix Up

12/2-8
Monday was a crazy day! In the morning all the missionaries in Suwon were under the impression that today was not PDAY. We were scheduled to attend the temple on Thursday thus making today a normal missionary day. After Sister Tovar and I finished all of our studies (including the extras which we don't complete on PDAY) and ate lunch, we received a phone call. The elders had just arrived at the email place and were informed that due to a misunderstanding, today was actually PDAY.... I took it upon myself to clarify this information with the assistants to President Morrise. When they confirmed the misunderstanding, they were less than apologetic. Don't get me wrong, I love doing missionary work, but today we had a number of appointments that were hard to set up in the first place- so the last thing I wanted to do was reschedule! My annoyed voice and concerns were heard and permission was granted to "do what I needed to do" in order to attend the appointments and take care of all the errands that a typical PDAY required.

Sister Tovar and I first ran some necessary errands around 팔달문 (similar to a daily flee market) and then dropped things off at the post office and home. Soon it was time to greet a less-active member for an appointment. Her English name is Summer and she has been helping Sister Tovar with her Korean with practice-teaching opportunities. As they met I was in the kitchen making us some food to eat. I'm a professional at making rice nowadays! ...of course the rice cooker does the magic but still it was delicious and I was proud. We considered that dinner so we ate, socialized, and waited for other YSA to show up for an early FHE. When Summer left, guess who showed up?! Out of nowhere a former investigator, Estee walked through the church doors! I greeted her with a huge hug and a million questions of where she had disappeared to (her phone was turned off and every time I visited her house she was never home). It was so good to see her!!

When FHE began, I shared a spiritual thought then we spent an hour playing "scum" together. It was a fun night. By the time it ended, the night was essentially over and we had no time to email. We were both bummed and bribed the YSA to look up our email account on their phones so we could at least she who emailed us. That was a stupid decision because it was too much of a teaser! When they left, the missionaries all lingered and I asked Estee a huge favor... The bishopric asked all the missionaries to sing a musical number next Sunday. No one was excited so I had to take charge in order to maybe save us from embarrassment. I asked Estee to choose a Christmas song and to play for us next Sunday. She is amazing at piano and was excited to help! Talk about the perfect situation to get a potential investigator to church ;) We practiced over and over. It is amazing to me how tone deaf all these missionaries are... I'll be the first to say that I'm not that special when it comes to singing but it was a little bit of a confidence boost when I heard the comparison with everyone else haha. Is that mean? :P Anyway, the rest of the night we sang then walked home together with the Elders. It was a strange day but it turned out well.

Tuesday was another interesting day. After studies we had a chance to email home. It took forever having to reply to everyone and then explain why we were emailing a day late haha. I really didn't think people would notice because of the time differences, but I felt loved knowing so many people were concerned.

When that ended we spent some time talking with people on the street then met Summer at the church again. Instead of her helping us today, she asked for our help. She teaches English to 5th graders and had a final exam for them. She thought it would be good to have foreigners read the test to them- so that's exactly what Sister Tovar and I did. It was funny because we kept timing things wrong and speaking too quickly. Maybe an hour later, it was done! I made rice dinner again for us to all share. After eating it was time for English class.

Today I had a decent amount of students and we mostly went over the book we had been reading from. It was super repetitive with pronunciation practice but all in all it went well. After class was over, then the fun happened. I played a few games of ping pong with my students, they are really terrible but so am I ha. When I sat out to give someone else a turn to play, the next thing I knew that crazy woman that attends class grabbed my arm and pulled me out into the hallway. The first person in reach was Elder 정영헌- so I'm sorry white handbook but I grabbed his arm and we were pulled like a chain into the hallway. I really don't know what is wrong with the lady but I do know that she ALWAYS asks me questions like, "Are we in South Korea?" and things of that sort. Something is off and when she grabbed my arm I was a tad scared for my life because she didn't look happy. When she saw that I dragged Elder Jeong along, she told him to go away. He whispered that he would be right around the corner listening. He was a less than sneaky because he kept peeking his head around the corner haha. When the whole ordeal ended, she shoved a poem in my hands and told me to take it home. It was really, really strange but made for an eventful night.

Wednesday was a zone training meeting. I ordered 21 pizza everyone to eat for lunch, it was delicious. The training was awesome. It was all about teaching from the Book of Mormon and spreading this message of joy. It was Elder Keetch's last training and is going home in a couple weeks... Wah :( When it ended, my companion and I spent a good few hours on the street talking with people. It is amazing to me how much I am understanding especially when my poor companion starts teaching false doctrine on accident haha. It's fun teaching her.

By 6PM we met Elder Gamble and Jeong at the church. A less-active member, 최연숙 (Sister Choi) is an author and was having a book concert with a few other authors to introduce their books of poetry. It felt like a poetry jam but Korean style. While the authors took turns reading their favorite poems there was a small group of people playing tradition Korean instruments and music in the background. It was pretty cool. When the reading was over and the book signing began, everyone was so envious that Sister Choi had foreigner friends that came to listen. Haha we took a few pictures then left.

We had to hurry to make it for a late dinner appointment with a member, 이자영 (Sister Lee). She works full-time as an accountant and her husband is finishing his undergraduate degree is something science related. He wasn't home yet but she was so happy when we arrived. She had a bad day at work, filled with people that were angry with her, so we tried to turn her night around by making breakfast for dinner. I made pancakes, Sister Tovar made eggs, and Sister Lee cut up fruit, made a salad, and set the table. It was a delicious meal! We had a great time hearing all about her family, how she joined the church, how she met her husband, and on and on. Before we knew it is was 9:15PM... Whoops! We helped clear the plates, shared a spiritual message, and literally ran home. Awesome day!

Thursday was a normal day. We tried to visit some less-active members but mostly failed. The only success that came out of the day was talking to a man on the street as I was asking people for directions. I had a decent conversation with him in Korean. All of a sudden he asked me if I could teach him English. I introduced some options and he then began speaking awesome English that he had thought up himself! I was very impressed. In English he told me that he wanted to start going to church. I replied and extended an invitation to ours. He pointed at my name tag and asked, "Should I go to this church?" Without hesitation I said, "Yes. It's the best I know!" He smiled and said okay. He took my number down and promised to call later. He was a really genuine person, I think he'll call.

Next, we met Summer at the church again for Sister Tovar's lesson practice and dinner. I cooked while they practiced. Guess what I made? Rice! Haha I never thought I could love rice this much haha. Anyway, while we set up our meal, another YSA, 정태호 (Brother Jeong) showed us early for English class. Both he and 이상훈 (Brother Lee) grabbed some 김밥 from a nearby restaurant and decided to join our dinner with Summer. It was a lot of fun!! They ate most of our kimchee and kim... Not cool. When class started it was lame. Because of the pollution coming over from China, everyone was too scared to leave their houses. I only had two students coming. It was fun regardless. When class ended, the mother of my students thanked me over and over for all my help and handed me a huge bag of different kinds of bread- so generous! I felt loved.

Friday morning was a lot of fun. Today is December 6th. Exactly nine months ago on March 6th was the day that I entered the MTC and began my full-time missionary service. Today marks HALFWAY!!! Happy Hump day to me!! In light of the event, Sister Tovar wanted to treat me to lunch- so sweet. He grabbed some Japanese-styled food at the local subway station and if was delicious. It took a while to get home but I was beyond happy with the progress I have made in the passed nine months. When we finally arrived home we did our weekly planning, I made a bunch of phone calls, IN KOREAN and while I did so, I received a call. It was the man from yesterday!! He wanted to be taught and introduced to boy missionaries. That night we had a meal appointment with Elders Gamble and Jeong with a member. I invited him to join and he accepted! These elders will be lucky to teach him, he is retired and is so eager to learn about our church.

We met at the church, introduced the 이영혁 (Brother Lee) to the Elders, and traveled together. The meal and members were fantastic! The spiritual message just to happened to be the first lesson, about the restoration. Sneaky Elders haha. It was really awesome. Especially when the elders were scrambling to find a scripture in their Korean Bible, I asked which one they needed- 야고보서 일장:오절 (James 1:5). I asked if I could just recite it and I did. I was so cool. The spirit was definitely present. The Elders challenged everyone to read and pray about the introduction of the Book of Mormon- everyone accepted. Traveling home was great. Brother Lee had so many questions and he just so happened to be surrounded by missionaries ready to share. It was great!!

Saturday was a fun morning. We had planned to meet up with the relief society for a luncheon. The bishop apparently reserved and paid for us to eat at a pretty fancy Chinese restaurant. It was really delicious and it was a lot of fun getting to know some more of the women in the ward. Everyone sitting around me and Sister Tovar kept having me translate a bunch of advice to my companion. They were teaching her etiquette, culture, and bunch of other stuff. It was really funny. Eventually Sister Tovar was sick of it so she decided to just walk around and take pictures of the activity. Everyone was yelling at her to stop- you know how much women like pictures haha. Anyway, she didn't understand and it just became really funny to everyone. I love these women. When we left it was a pretty uneventful day.

Sunday was great! We arrived to the church early to greet Estee and the Elders to practice for our special musical number. The practice was embarrassing but Estee was pretty excited to be involved. Once church began, we preformed and it wasn't half bad. The first verse was done by Elders Breckwoldt and Giles in German, the second verse in English with everyone, and last in Korean with everyone again. Most of the congregation looked confused and chuckled when the German started... We should have sang louder but I'm glad it's over. After our normal meetings we had dinner as a ward. It was kimchee soup- so delicious! It was also funny because most of the Koreans were dying because of the spice... maybe I had a mild batch but I just thought it was yummy hehe.

Soon after church ended and everything was cleaned up, Sister Tovar and I left to meet an appointment. It was the nephew of the grandmother that yelled at me (Brother Hong) and his friend (Brother Min). I was excited to have finally found a time to meet!! When we meet I was expected to go to Brother Hongs house but they changed their mind and wanted to sit at a cafe. Maybe it looked like a double date since we are mostly the same again, so I requested a seat not by a window haha. I got straight to business introducing our purpose as service missionaries. They are both fluent at English and are interested in our 30/30 program. As I explained my style of teaching, I proceeded to set goals with both of them to best figure out how I could help. When I talked about the gospel portion, Brother Hong said, "Yeah I think I might want to be baptized in a month, is that okay?" I looked at him and said.... uhh, "Yeah that would be alright..." PSYCH! I was more than excited and said, "OF COURSE, How does January 5th sound? It was a miracle!! The appointment ran long but it was worth it! We arranged to meet at the church next Saturday and I reiterated our rule about needed a woman present haha. It was a fantastic evening.

This week was great and I was finally able to feel better about the work the Sister Tovar and I are doing! I am realizing that I need to slow the pace a little to let Sister Tovar catch up and adjust... I feel bad that I have been pushing her so hard but I know that we are now finding the perfect pace for us to work efficently. This week is just as busy as the others and our PDAY is on Thursday this week because we are going to the TEMPLE! BOOYAH! So grateful for the the chance to go. I hope everyone had a great week and stays warm! The weather is really starting to feel like winter.. yay... and stuff.. :P

LOVE YOU ALL!! 사랑해요!!
Sister Sloan