Monday was a good PDAY. We planned to go kite flying with the elders and a member that does it for a living... or something like that but before we head out to meet them we were informed that it was too windy haha. Our backup plan was to write letters and hangout at home. I enjoyed myself. After a letter or two I just read. By 5PM Sister Bagley and I were on a subway to meet the sister missionaries of the Incheon zone. As STL, I organized a little get-together for all of us to watch the General Women's Conference that was aired before General Conference. It was fantastic! I enjoyed all of the talks, but in particular I loved Elder Henry B. Eyring's talk about being Daughters in the Covenant. At one point he said, "In missions across the earth, sisters are being called to serve as leaders." ...That's me. After he said that all 7 girls looked at me with huge smiles on their faces. I smiled back with squinted eyes but behind my sarcastic grin I felt the weight of my responsibility over this beautiful group of sister missionaries. I feel so blessed to have this calling and I really have come to love each of these sisters. When the broadcast ended we took a few pictures then went our separate ways. I left with Sister Watkins for an exchange in 계산 (GaySahn).
Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day but it started off really well. After I did my training during companionship study I decided to address a few issues that had been elephants in the room of our relationship for a while. A previous companion of Sister Watkins' had told me a bunch of unkind things that that four-sister-house had said about me. I wasn't sure of its truthfulness so I just decided to apologize to Sister Watkins for maybe keeping that stuff in the way of us being able to build a friendship. She felt sorry too but we are friends now. :) our whole day was spent trying to find less-active members and talking to people on the street. It was a fun day together. By 6PM we unsplit and I went back home with Sister Bagley for dinner. Our poor cupboards have been bare for a good while now but it makes each meal more creative but also strange. I need to learn how to cook more Korean dishes...
Wednesday was interesting. After a fun district meeting I went on another exchange. Today I brought Sister Hammerl to 만수 (Mansu). Directly after we split we went to an appointment with our grandmother investigator, 이경호S (Sister Lee). She is so enthusiastic and talkative. Today she went off on a rant about all of the horrible things that she has seen on the news lately. She is so confused how there can be so many good and bad people everywhere. It fit perfectly with what we had assigned her to read before the lesson! She read the first three chapters of 1 Nephi. When Sister Bagley and I initially gave her the assignment neither of us knew why but suddenly it dawned on me. In that moment I'm pretty sure the spirit hit me upside the head and said, "Start talking!" So I did. Just like the Book of Mormon story goes, Lehi has become very aware of all the evil in the world just like Sister Lee. In order for The Lord to protect Lehi, his family, and the righteous people of Jerusalem God provided a very clear way to safety. Likewise The Lord provided us with the Plan of Salvation. Sister Lee loved it and I left her with a pamphlet to read. I hope I got the full point across... I'm thinking about writing my thoughts down again and giving her a small message card later this week to reiterate the point I tried to make. Anyway, it went really well. Even though I am still waiting for the so called 'gift of tongues' to kick in, my mind and mouth were filled with ideas and words to say. Maybe I said things backward or wrong but hey, I'm sure the Spirit did His part but I sure tried hard to do mine haha. It was a great lesson! After that appointment our day was fairly uneventful but we had a blast serving together again. She is so full of energy and love for life. We ended our dinner day with pizza!! I love Korean pizza.
Thursday was insane! For starters it was my 400th day as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ if Latter Day Saints! During personal study I received a phone call.. Last night I put an order in for the mission home to fix our refrigerator and this morning a company called to get the details and schedule someone to fix it. Did I mention that this whole phone call was in Korean?! I still cannot believe that I know the word for the refrigerator and have the ability to explain all that was wrong... Anyway less than an hour later a fixer man showed up. When he came both sister Hammerl and I thought it would be best if we grabbed one of our female neighbors so that we could be obedient to the rule of not being alone with a man. It went well but the only person home was a grandmother who was just curious to see what our place looked like and to know what the problem was with the refrigerator. After she got what she wanted she said her goodbye as Sister Hammerl and I were both like, "Uhh, wait, where are you going?" Haha as the door was propped open I guess it was a free invitation for anyone to come in for a visit. Two more old grandmas were wandering around and they somehow made their way into our house. We had a really nice discussion about why we were here and whatnot. Before they left they helped us kill a bee or two that were building a nest outside of our balcony haha. What sweethearts, but it was quite strange. Next, two 전도사's (paid proselyters) were at our door. It was an interesting conversation but they ended up trying to Bible bash about whose form of Passover was more correct. Sister Hammerl and I just bore our testimonies and said we had to get ready for an appointment. One started crying... I felt bad but the water works were over immediately after they turned around to leave. Strange human beings.
After we got ready, we met Sister Bagley and Sister Stastney to unsplit over our first 팥빙수 for the year! It was delicious as always- oh how I have missed it. Sister Bagley and I then made our way home to prepare for our appointment that night with 현지S (HyonChee) and her family. Tonight we brought 김현주S (Sister Kim) and I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. She was so perfect. We taught the third lesson about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. To entertain the two kids we printed five pictures from lds.org that symbolized the five steps of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. After printing them we cut them to be puzzles and to begin the lesson we solved them together. It was perfect. By the end I felt again prompted to ask the family to follow Jesus Christ's example by being baptized. The father said they would eventually but that maybe HyonChee was the most ready. She got ticked and totally turned her body away from her father. As the member told her conversion story I started passing notes with HyonChee telling her not to feel pressure and that we didn't want her to do anything she didn't want to do. Immediately after reading she smiled and turned back around to join the conversation again. I love that we have become such good friends and that this family is so open to our message and teachings despite the very apparent language barrier. It was a fantastic way to end the day. Missionary work is seriously so much fun!
Friday was good. For lunch 유경숙S and 백용실B has all the missionaries over for lunch. It was a blast! After lunch Sister Bagley and I caught up on another session of conference, spend a good part of the day on the streets talking to people, and then had weekly planning. By 9PM we met the same couple from earlier at the church. A man in our ward had had his father pass away so we caught a ride with them to the funeral. Korean funerals are interesting. When it was creeping up on 10PM the bishop gathered all of the members that came and we had a small meeting. Korean funerals are mostly social gathering that lasts for three days. Tonight was just a dinner. Even though we began a meeting all of the other visitors paid us no mind and carried on with their drunken conversations. Then almost out of nowhere our small congregation began to sing an opening hymn. I loved how quickly the spirit forced it's way in despite the many distractions of the world immediately around us. It was a powerful meeting that also ended with a beautiful hymn. Our ward members are seriously so amazing. They support one another and have no shame whatsoever when it comes to worshiping. I love their example.
Sunday, Happy Easter! Today was a fantastic day at church! 현지S (HyonChee) came as usual and the meetings were very entertaining... First, for Young Women's, I went with HyonChee and the class was all about agency. It was good and I was trying really hard to pay attention until HyonChee looks at me in a panic and pointed at the blackboard- the teachers had assigned her to say the closing prayer. With a worried face I asked her if that would be okay but the fear in her eyes remained. I smiled and said I would pray instead. Slowly the fear in her eyes was replaced with courage as she sat back in her chair and said, '아니, 할 까요' (no, I'll do it). She did and it was an awesome prayer. In fact it was better than most of the youth that are punks and race through the prayers they are asked to offer in public. I am so proud of her.
Next was sacrament meeting. The first two speakers spoke about the Savior's Atonement to remember Easter but the other two were apparently assigned to talk about the law of chastity. Makes sense right? Haha it ended up being awesome though because HyonChee turned to me and Sister Bagley and started asking about baptism. It has been coming up a lot lately just because the passed two lessons together we invited her and her family to be baptized but also at church all the members, in their bluntness, were asking what baptismal lessons she had been taught. You gotta love Koreans- they have no shame in getting straight to the point. Anyway long story short, she asked when she could, we showed her a calendar, and she chose May 24th! When it finally began to sink in she was SO concerned about how the program would go and how she would dry her hair being immersed in water haha. She is so cute, I really love her. We showed her the font and the baptismal dresses. Before leaving the chapel a sweet member invited the missionaries and our investigators to stay and eat lunch together. It was simply rice and a fried egg with ketchup splattered on top haha. Anyway I was grateful and I was good to see HyonChee fitting in so perfectly with the ward. 만수 (ManSu) ward is THE best.
After church we caught a bus to drop a note off (a message card) that I had made at an investigator's house, 이경호S (Sister Lee). She is a grandmother and SO adorable. Every time she sees us all she says is "아이고, 예쁘다, 반가워, 죄송해" (the first being just a noise that sounds like- Aheego, and the others mean you're pretty, delighted to see you, I'm sorry) all of which are in low form that she repeats over and over! Haha it is hilarious. Next time we visit her I'll record it so I can laugh for years to come. After dropping the note off, Sister Bagley and I got in a bit of an argument. This whole week she has been pretty stressed but today I think I pushed her over the edge. We were trying to text a few people and I was helping with spelling because that's one thing I'm pretty good at but in the end she felt defeated because she couldn't do it all on her own. I understand because I have been there a lot. We cut our proselyting time short and went home to study and eat dinner. Over dinner we talked it all out and went to our Missionary Coordinating meeting with 오광철B (Brother Oh), our WML. When we told him the news about HyonChee's baptismal date he was just about as excited as we were. ^^ All in all it was a great day!
Have a great week everyone!!
Love you!!
슬론 자매
Sister Sloan
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| I've got the kimchee squat on lock Also, we have no counter space like most Korean homes so most of the food prep is done on the floor. |
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| Beautiful spring |
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| Just finished up an interesting appointment...what is wrong with the picture? |
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| Happy Easter! Our little Easter Eve activity. |
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| Incheon Sister! By the end of the transfer, I will have gone on exchanges with each sister!! Me, Blickenstaff, Hammerl, Stastney, DeBuse, Watkins, Lee, Telford, Rose, Bagley. |
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