Monday- today's PDAY was fully dedicated to relaxing. After email, a quick hair cut (just a trim), and printing off some pictures we went straight home. Every PDAY I regret not catching up on sleep so today was our attempt. It still didn't happen... It's funny that we are tired when we should be working and wide awake when we have the chance to sleep. Life just isn't fair. When it was time to leave the house, our time was spent traveling to meet the young single adults and our ward bishop for dinner. Bishop wanted to take us all to a meat buffet, he is so kind. It was pretty expensive so we made sure to enjoy every bite! Of course the meat was yummy, but it was the salad bar that I was excited about. Normally the salad bars in Korea are not what I'm used to but this line up of lettuce and toppings had me coming back over and over. The two YSA girls that showed up sat with me and my companions, we had a good time together.
Tuesday was a slow morning. Our attempt to visit a few potential investigators was a fail. People just aren't interested in meeting with us... We stopped in the hospital to say hi to a member, she was barely hit by a car, but she is seriously milking the situation. They moved her to an oriental Chinese medicine wing of the hospital because, in my opinion, there is nothing else they can do to help a healed body ha. The whole building wreaks of incense... It was not a long visit.
Before heading back home we dropped in on our investigator, 이경호S (Sister Lee)'s house. Upon arrival guess who was sitting it her kitchen? Paid proselyters from the Heavenly Mother church. They were EXTREMELY RUDE to everyone, including Sister Lee who had welcomed us both in. Sister Lee is just an old grandma that loves talking to people; as soon as she saw everyone in her house she smiled and said, "look how many friends!" It was cute. We didn't want to stay long so we asked her to grab her Book of Mormon just to give her a homework assignment. The three women from the other church lost it and stormed out. If they had just waited maybe 5 minutes we would have been gone. It was so rude.
We spent some quality time on the street talking to people before it was dinner time. We met at our members house for a quick practice lesson and then we went out for dinner. 이세리S (Sister Lee) and 인큰설B (Brother Lim) are the cutest newlywed couple! It's clear that they don't have money but they still insisted on taking us to a nice place. Those two are so generous. Also maybe I forgot to mention that they gave all the missionary a huge bag of American treats last Sunday. It was so delicious. Tonight was fun. I am so grateful for this ward and all of the kind-hearted members.
Wednesday was district meeting. It was not productive at all. Directly after we went to 김보희S (Sister Kim)'s house for a practice lesson. She is always so kind to us. It was just nice to sit in an air conditioned house. Oh! Maybe I've never mentioned that, she lives with her husband and two daughters in her parents house. It is literally a house, not an apartment. It looks American style from the outside but it is very much Korean on the inside. It is a huge symbol of how loaded her father is. We love going... Except for the 20 minute walk up and down the mountain to get there because no buses have a purpose to go up there.
Next was more traveling. We met the 계산 (GaySahn) sister missionaries for an exchange. We ate a tiny 김밥 (Rice and seaweed roll) place before exchanging. Sister Mineer and I brought 김예영S (Sister Kim) with us to 만수 (Mansu) while Sister Gapinski and Sister Telford went to GaySahn. We immediately went to our ward mission leader's house for we thought was a 20 minute practice lesson. We did eventually get to that but first was dinner. Noooo! It's a good thing that it is summer and we are automatically loosing weight because we sweat from every pore as we walk out in the humid summer heat but these double meals really need to stop haha. It was, of course, delicious and luckily 6 of their 8 children were home to devour most of the food. I love that family!
Thursday was a fun morning with Sister Kim. I forgot what it was like serving with a Korean companion... It has been 7 months, wow! We first went to a member's house for lunch and practice lesson. The member (김정은S) is so giving. Her family is pretty poor but she still went out of her way to order delicious food for us. After eating and our spiritual thought, we left and met up with a recent convert. 조수인S (Sister Cho) studied in France and was baptized there. She is here for the summer to take care of her mother who is battling cancer. Sister Cho is probably the most delicate humans I have ever met; while she is so cute, her insecurities cause her to make almost every moment awkward ha. We walked to the church and taught her about temples. She is looking forward to obtaining her temporary recommend in order to do proxy baptisms for the dead. Whoever taught her in France did an awesome job, I feel like she knows EVERYTHING as well as a lifelong member. It's really cool to see converts that just soak everything up and love it.
By 4PM we unsplit. I was happy to be getting back to our normal companionship. However, as soon as we greeted Sisters Gapinski and Telford, the first thing out of my companion's mouth was a correction and observation that she thought my shirt was too sheer. I was mostly confused because I have been wearing this shirt for over a year now and had never had that thought before but you can say that I was extremely embarrassed to be corrected in front of sisters that I was supposed to be setting an example for. The happiness of being back together, faded a little. The whole subway and bus ride home was mostly quiet. Once off the bus we had a 5ish minute walk home and immediately Sister Gapinski synced pace with me and apologized. I accepted it but also let her know of my added embarrassment of her correction in public, directly in front of other missionaries. She recognized that she was wrong and I really appreciated that. Since the beginning of my mission I have really looked up to missionaries who are teachable and humble. Sister Gapinski is a great example of that too. Once we were home she even grabbed the phone to call the GaySahn sisters to apologize for setting a bad example. That take a lot of courage, I am really blessed to have such a great example as a companion.
Everything was back to normal as we left to eat dinner with Momma Lee. She was running behind schedule so upon arrival we helped cook and clean before dinner was served. It's pretty productive having three missionaries in a companionship with this situations because one of us played with the dog to keep it out of the way, the other was cooking along side our ward member, and the other was cleaning the disses and setting the table. So productive! We ate quickly before going on a member split. Sister Mineer and I left Sister Gapinski with 이두례S (Momma Lee) to teach our recent convert, HyonChee, and her little sister while we went to another appointment. 심하정S and 이지웅B were happy to see us and we taught an awesome lesson! We taught the third lesson, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ", using 3 Nephi 11 and 27. We even got to talking about the law of chastity, prophets, and the priesthood. This family had SO many awesome questions. I wish we could teach them for more than an hour at a time. If only they would come to church. They are the kind of people that would just eat it all up! We continue to invite, hopefully they'll take us up on the promises we are making them.
Since HyonChee and this family's house are in the same complex, we said goodbye and picked up Sister Gapinski so Momma Lee could go back home. It was such a great night! HyonChee's little sister even set a baptismal date! We are pretty excited.
Friday morning and afternoon was weekly planning. Once we left the house we stopped by a former investigators bike shop. We left on bad terms last time, so we wanted to try to alleviate the situation with a nice bag of plums. 조재순S (Sister Cho) was strangely happy to see us. Maybe it was the spirit telling us to visit her today because it is a rare occasion that this woman is happy. It was a blessing. Our last stop was made at the bishop's house. We brought him and his family a bag of tomatoes. They welcomed us in and I asked him a few questions about how we should teach the concept of the priesthood to our very curious investigators. He gave some great advice and after a great conversation over some 호떡 (a delicious treat that I have no idea how to describe) we head back home.
Saturday was another morning of soccer and it was a blast. The sky was covered with a nice thick layer of smog, keeping the sun from blazing however it wasn't able to stop the humidity. No matter your position; defends, forward, goalie, or incompetent bystander you were sweating. I was assigned to defense again, I think I'm getting better at blocking and stealing the ball! ...maybe not but anyway it was fun.
Soon after we were home and showered, a member called us inviting us to her babies first birthday party. In Korean culture the 1st birthday and 70th are huge! For this party, they rented out an expensive restaurant called VIPS and invited a bunch of people. There was an MC and loads of food. Each person was served a steak and given free reign to the buffet. You could say we were in HEAVEN! The steak literally melted in my mouth and the salad bar was more impressive than the meat buffet on Monday. It was unbelievable how delicious everything was. We took a few pictures with the family before leaving for English class. I just have to saw one last time, IT WAS AWESOME!
When we arrived at English class guess who was there? Amanda! A month ago she left on a trip to England now she was back. I was so happy to see her. She even brought me and Sister Mineer a handmade coaster souvenir from her trip. So nice! As English class proceeded we got to hear all about her trip. She showed us pictures and she visited our church there!! I was shocked until I found out she went for English class haha. This woman has been milking the free English system for YEARS! And by that I mean since 2005. She even found a way to milk it in Europe haha. I laughed so hard when we found that out. Man, I love her though.
When class ended we came home because Sister Mineer's back was hurting. She thinks that this morning during soccer she pitched something. I don't doubt that something hurt but it was hard sitting inside for an unknown amount of time waiting for medicine to kick in. Once we left the house there wasn't enough time to do much so we just took a nice long walk on a busy street so we could talk to people.
Sunday was a strange day. To begin, we got on a bus early to drop Sister Gapinski off with a member who was willing to go on an extended member split all they way to Seoul. Sister Gapinski's investigator from the last area where she served was getting baptized today so she attended the service. While they went to a different congregation, Sister Mineer and I made it to our church building just in time for it to start. It was weird getting to church on time, it felt like we were late because normally we spiritually prepare about 30 minutes before. Anyway, the meetings were really awesome! I went to young women's with HyonChee, our recent convert. I actually learned a lot! One of the laurels was asked to teach and I was quite impressed. She taught us about how help from The Lord comes from 1. The atonement of Jesus Christ, 2. The guidance from the Holy Spirit, and 3. The helping hands of others. It was awesome.
Sacrament meeting was the best. Elder Godfrey was asked to speak and be did surprisingly well! His Korean is still developing slowly but his testimony was sincere. For the meat of the talk he brought up his native Korean companion to translate. Maybe that sounds like cheating but I am glad he did it; his conversion story would have totally gotten lost in translation. Elder Godfrey is a spaz but I have come to really appreciate him. He is a missionary for all the right reasons and maintains a positive attitude better than any other missionary I've met. One thing he taught was the obvious simplicity that the gospel brings to the word. He taught us that God gave us His words through the Bible and Book of Mormon, asks us to experiment by reading and praying about them, and then after our question of faith, an undeniable answer will follow. Elder Godfrey said, "He made a promised to answer, He kept it, and the obvious fact stands- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true." There's not much else to it. It's true.
After church a member boiled A BUNCH of potatoes for everyone to eat as they left church. She also made sandwiches for the missionaries and some primary kids. Sister Mineer and I went home for personal study before leaving again to pick Sister Gapinski up. Normally Sundays are the busiest missionary day but today was a little strange, like I said. We just talked to people and ended the day with our coordinating meeting. I miss the days where we taught from morning to night... We really need new investigators.
Hope y'all are having a good week!
Love you!!
 |
| Check the Asian Shirt! Wha cha think? |
 |
| My first stake in 16 months. |
No comments:
Post a Comment