Day in the Life [생활에 있는 일]: Is a Body Slam allowed in Soccer?

6/23-29
Last week I was made aware if how unnecessary long my weekly letters are. Frankly, I didn't care too much but then as I reviewed my last email, I recognized that I am not a fan of long-winded individuals... This week I am going to try to be concise- I'm not making any promises but anyway here I go.

Monday, aka PDAY. The 만수 (Mansu) missionaries got together to watch the movie '17 Miracles.' It is a movie about a group of Mormon pioneers traveling from England all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah by boat, train, and foot. The illustrations of their hardship was heartbreaking... to say the least. It was the opposite of a happy movie, but it was well made. Most of us wrote letters as we tried to hold back our tears. It really is amazing how merciful The Lord is to His children. Most of the time we teach our investigators to be aware of the little things that The Lord gives and does for us but I think all to often we forget to mention the miracles that He is more than capable of providing save we have the faith to ask. The movie today was a good reminder of that.

To end our day we painted our nails before heading to 이순애S (Sister Lee)'s house for dinner and a practice lesson. We sat, ate a full meal, and taught. As we wrapped things up, the door bell rang. Chicken had just arrived. What the?! We were soooo full!

Tuesday started off well with a lunch appointment with our relief society President and her family at Mr. Pizza. She ordered us lobster, shrimp, and meat pizzas. It was... interesting. I mean it wasn't gross but it wasn't delicious. Next we met the 연수 (Younsu) sister missionaries for an exchange. I brought Sister Stastny to 만수 (Mansu) with me while Sisters Mineer, Sister Gapinski, and Sister Hammerl went to Younsu for the day. The day wasn't too eventful so we talked to people on the street, ate dinner, and went back out to talk some more. Because I hate walking without a final destination in mind, I decided it would be a good idea to walk allllll the way to 정예림S (Sister Jeong)'s house. You know how sometimes when you imagine the distance to a place in your head and it seems extremely short because your brain takes you down the streets in hyper-speed? Well, that happens to me a lot where I underestimate how long we would be walking. My 30 minute estimation turned out to be more like 2.5 hours... My bad. We talked to a good amount of people, delivered a small note to our ward member, and then caught a bus home. Long story short, missionaries need GPS systems.

Wednesday began with district meeting. Sister Gapinski and I had purposely set up this exchange to overlap district meeting so that Sister Mineer could finally experience a good, spiritual district meeting. From what I heard it was awesome for her and Sister Gapinski. On the other hand, Sister Stastny and I had to suffer through another unproductive meeting. Elder Berry really is capable of SO MUCH but he just chooses not to care. Each week I get my hopes up just to have them shattered all over again. If only we realized how badly everyone wanted him to succeed.. It wasn't a spiritual meeting but we all had a good laugh or two.

When it was all said and done, we hopped on a bus to unsplit. I am honestly so grateful that we only have to schedule one exchange per week as opposed to two... Sister Mineer was a trooper last transfer. Once we were back in Mansu we dropped by to see a semi-progressing investigator. She is a grandma that never stops talking but she is super sweet. She is close to being dropped but for now we will try to see what we can teach her. Her attention span was that of a rats tail, as they say, so we didn't stay too long. Before heading to our last legitimate appointment for the day, we joined a member from our ward as well as all the elders for a meal together. This member is a strange individual whom refers people like crazy! I appreciate his enthusiasm but I think it's time to put a filter on him because EVERY referral turns out to have zero gospel interest and most even don't have English interest... What do they want from us? Anyway, we exchanged a few pleasantries over a nice, boiled pheasant. It tastes like chicken of anyone was wondering.

심하정S (Sister Shim) and her husband, 이지웅B (Brother Lee) were anxiously awaiting our arrival. I honestly feel like we have become the best of friends. Today Sister Shim told us about a new neighbor who she happens to be afraid of. Long story short, this lady is a paid-proselyter from another church and has being pretty sneaky in her attempt to befriend Sister Shim but Sister Shim sees straight through the scheme haha. She went on to tell us that she appreciated that we are honest and straightforward with our purpose; we wear name tags and get right to the point to find, teach, and baptize. We were happy not to be compared to the 전도사 with ulterior motives. Once our lesson was in full swing, we totally altered our game plan because these two had a TON of questions. I appreciate people like them. Similar to our purpose, they are clear and upfront about their concerns. We enjoy teaching them.

Thursday we met up with Sister Shim. Yesterday we got to talking about the word of wisdom and the importance of not drinking coffee, tea, alcohol, or using drugs or other harmful substances. We were not allotted the proper amount of time to teach it well, so today we head to a cafe to teach and drink delicious drinks. Sister Shim is most concerned that her friends will hate her; she had an experience in the past where her friends rejected her when she decided to be a 'believer [of God and Jesus Christ].' We talked about the story of Joseph Smith loosing the 116 pages while he was translating the Book of Mormon. In that story there is a verse that essentially states that Joseph feared man more than God. She understood well, sighed, and promised to take the word of wisdom for a test run. We love her.

Soon we were all heading back toward our homes and or appointments. We saw Sister Shim off at the bus stop and we walked to the church. We arrived a little early to prepare for 김하나S (HahNah)'s appointment. We focused in the first part if the plan of salvation. It went well. On our way out of the room she again told us of her fun plans to go drink with her friends that evening. I sighed, sat back down, and invited her to sit as well. We have danced around the fact that drinking isn't good but today it was time to get serious, because now she is at the point were she is preparing to receive baptism. She knew it was coming and wasn't too welcoming to the idea but we taught it anyway. After tonight she promised to try it out and to pray about it. We'll see what happens.

Our next appointment was with 이두례S (Momma Lee) so we slowly made our way as we found people to talk to on the way. She initially invited us over for dinner to eat and then leave together to teach 정현지S (HyonChee) together but she sent out an invite to all of the elders as well. She is so generous with all that she has and we are grateful. However! The elders literally arrived, ate, and prepared to leave. On their announced way out the door, Momma Lee stopped them and asked, "Wait who is sharing a spiritual message?" They all looked at each other with confusion as if they had never been invited to do such a thing and to Momma Lee's disappointment she let them off the hook and walked them to the door. How lame is that?! Sister Gapinski, Sister Mineer, and I stayed to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen before piling into her car to head to HyonChee's house. The recent convert lesson went well. We discussed missionary work and challenged her to pray about which of her many friends she can begin sharing the gospel with. HyonChee is super shy so this might be hard for her but she never let's us down. It was a good day.

Friday did not go as planned but after our weekly planning meeting we made a few attempts to visit former and current investigators. The only person home was Seblewongel, our former Ethiopian investigator. We wanted to stop in and see how her and her husband's interviews to obtain working visas went. Nothing is going well for them anymore. We all feel so sad for them but the only way we were able to help was to encourage her and her family to continue relying on The Lord, His merits, timing, and wisdom. We left her home with a prayer and spent the remainder of our day on the streets talking to people.

Saturday was by far my favorite all week. For morning exercise we met members of the ward for a couple games of soccer. It was SO MUCH FUN! I am probably the worst soccer player in the world but today my strategy was to merely charge, full speed at anyone with the ball. It didn't work every time but I was able to steal, block, or totally alter the course of the ball because some of the youth would get scared and mess up. Also, I accidentally body-slammed a few adults because neither one of us wimped out in our game of chicken toward the ball. Man, it was so fun! Immediately following our last game, everyone apparently was heading to the ward farm to harvest potatoes. It was tough work but we ended up with maybe 30 sacks full of potatoes! It was crazy. Once everything was loaded and then dropped off at the church, bishop was volunteered to take the missionaries out for lunch. We politely declined as we were instead driven home in our relief society president's Audi. Booyah~

By about 2PM we were all showered and ready for the day. We ate lunch before heading to English class. Today's class was good. A few people we met on the street showed up, that was cool! Besides that our class was pretty monotonous. Before leaving the building, we decided to set up the chairs for sacrament meeting because we have noticed that our poor bishop is left to do it every week. To end the evening we walked to 인천대공원 (Incheon big park) for some quality proselyting time. I was able to teach an awesome street lesson to a man who claims not to be a believer in God or Jesus. He had many preconceptions about our church so I was first able to set a few things straight by teach him about the restoration. I offered him the Book of Mormon that I had been teaching out of and he was very grateful. We received his number and promised to refer him to missionaries near his home (maybe three hours by bus). It was so awesome! For some reason this week there have been so many opportunities for me to teach and testify on the street. I am very aware of my inability to speak but today especially I feel like The Lord was able to open my ear to be able to understand all that this man was asking me. The gift of tongues comes in a variety of ways and I am grateful.

Sunday was slow. 정현지S (HyonChee) came to church and I spent the first hour with her in young woman's. She is possibly the cutest human being I have ever met. Her shyness and the utter horror that creeps into her eyes when someone asks her a question is more of less adorable. I love that she still looks to me before giving any response. I just smile and pretend like I know what's going on haha. As church went on HyonChee and I sat together in sacrament meeting. In a quiet moment while we waited for the sacrament to be passed, she turned to me, flipped open my hymn book to her favorite hymn, and said "Sing." Her very first Sunday, 15 weeks ago, we sang "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and she has loved it ever since. Per her request, we sang it at her baptism as well and on a number of other occasions. Throughout the course of my time spent as a missionary, I have learned more fully the importance of prayer. The importance lies in every aspect of the word. For me and for anyone else seeking guidance from God, our Heavenly Father, our communication needs to remain constant. Whether we express our thanks or "In seasons of distress and grief, [our will always] find relief." Through Him we are able to grow and learn. Just like the conversion process for me, prayer is an absolutely essential tool to help in aligning our will with God's. HyonChee is only 15 and has already come to understand this principle. I love her and the example she set for me as well as for many others, is unreal.

When our meeting concluded, 유경숙S (Sister You) invited all of the missionaries to stay and make 만두 (essentially dumplings). After making a bunch, she whipped up some 떡국 (rice cake soup) and served us lunch. It was delicious. We cleaned up and then left for a 같이 전도 (district proselyting activity). Once we all split up it proved to be successful. I was able to teach another street lesson! The Lord is really blessing us but unfortunately each lesson taught on the street with referred-return appointments were all with men... Our elders better get to work to return the favor haha.

By the time dinner rolled around Sister Mineer wasn't feeling very good. We were all dehydrated but Sister Mineer has had bloody noses at least five times this week. We aren't totally sure what's up but she laid down for a nap while Sister Gapinski and I ate dinner and called almost every potential investigator that we have on record. It proved to be a productive evening. We planned and called all of the sister missionaries in our zone while Sister Mineer slept on. The sisters were all pretty talkative so by the time we got off the phone and in bed it was passed 10:30PM. We were all happy to finally be able to sleep and end another good week here in Mansu.

I love you all! Have a good week!
We still are desperately searching for new investigators, pray for us!
LOVE YOU!
Sister Sloan