Holy Hyundai!

Nice to meet you!

This is what many Koreans will just yell as you walk by on the street. Ha. It is fun and definitely breaks up the routine a little bit. It was great to hear from many of you this week. Laura and Robert, loved the pictures!! So cute. Sounds like it was a really good deal to do the pictures that way. Megan, the adoption profile looks great and I hope  you get some promising hits this next little while.

This week was a little rough, but it was interesting. The first week in a new area is often pretty interesting and surprising. Bangeojin is really unique. I've never spent that  much time in a factory town, but from about 6 AM to 7 AM the two main streets are swarming with men on scooters in blue Hyundai coats going to work. The same thing happens about 6 PM to 7 PM, but everyone heads home the opposite way. It seems like a lot of people have had a hard life here and are a little more closed off, but a couple of Americans slaughtering Korean is sometimes just enough to get a smile out of them.

Currently we have two investigators. One is a lady who originally came to English class and mainly has English interest, but is also curious about God. She and all of her family is Buddhist and she is a little nervous about her family's response to any Christian interest, so her progress has been slow. We are not quite sure what her exact motivations are, whether it is mainly an opportunity to speak English she wants or the gospel, but we taught her on Saturday. The lesson was a little rough, but I tried to explain how our church is not just another church, but the pattern of prophets and dispensations, how The Book of Mormon came to be and how she can receive an answer for herself. I think she was nervous her husband was going to come home at any time, so she was really fidgety and distracted...we will keep trying with her though.

The other investigator is a lady who owns a restaurant in the market and is the friend of a member. This member has a really strong testimony and works hard, but we are working to help her have a less overbearing approach. It's a challenge. Regardless, the lady at the restaurant has learned to pray and has started reading The Book of Mormon this week. She has never had any religion before. I feel badly that I can't understand everything she says, but I am grateful for her open heart.

Yesterday we went to church.  The Ulsan area is still a district, so we attend a branch of about 70 people. Charlotte and Matt, a man from your old Shin Jeong ward was the high councilor speaker. He speaks English pretty well because on his mission he had zero Korean companions. He also has 3 kids now? I can't remember his name, but he was really nice and said he was buddies with Matt. We also went to Shin Jeong ward for district meeting--so odd to have my world, literally, come full circle in the span of a year and a half.

The other day this lady got really mad at me after she asked if we believed that our church was the only true church. I told her that yes, that is what we believe, and had tried to explain why, but after I confirmed that that was our belief she went bezerk. She asked how old I was and how dare I try and teach someone her age etc. etc. It was actually probably the most I've been yelled at so far, and it was interesting to see that if I felt any sort of anger my tongue was literally bound. I just told her if she didn't want to learn more about our message it was okay, but we were just inviting her to learn more and would love to talk to her later if she wanted. It is interesting that still, at the end of the day, I am literally unfazed by such a thing. The next day I'm back at it because I know this is true. It even surprises me sometimes how resilient our spirits can be if we let them.

We also met with a recent convert named Katrina who was baptized about 4 months ago in the Hogae ward. She is in her late twenties and teaches English here. She has actually met you, Charlotte! She said you attended one of the lessons the missionaries taught her. Crazy. Anyway, I don't know how she was doing when you knew her, but she is doing really really well and knows this church is true and her testimony is growing. Apparently she hated teaching in Korean when she first got here. She couldn't understand anything and was really just frustrated. One day she was walking down this street trying to find a bowling alley. She was going to go bowling by herself to try to have some fun--ha, but she got lost and probably looked very frustrated. Some sister missionaries were walking down the same street and stopped her and tried to help her. That was the beginning of her introduction to the church. You never know. Ever.

Well, it will be a week of finding, but we are hopeful. Sister Foy is good natured and has such good desires to do God's work. I am excited to keep working with her. We are both slaughtering Korean, but she is so happy about it that she is really easy to draw inspiration from. I am grateful for her and the opportunity God has given me to serve here with her.

I love all of you and hope you are doing well!

Love,

Julia