Happy
Summer!
Sounds like it's summer for everyone at this point. It is definitely
summer here in Korea. All the grandmas on the street are worried about
us and spend most of their time fanning us and inviting us to share
the shade of their parasoles (sp?). They are so sweet. It has been a
hot but good week. It wasn't what we expected or planned, but that's a
big part of what made it a fun week.
I have been thinking that it would be fun to, like I do with my
companions, share the miracle of the week and the funny moment of the
week. I'm going to try to do so, but I'll also give you a play by play
of the other events as well.
This last week we were able to meet with Sister Yeon--a lady in her
late 20s or early 30s who we found in our area book. One of the
elders who used to serve in our area and is now our zone leader
suggested that we try working with her. She attended ELC(The English
Learning Center) in Provo for almost 2 years about 4 years ago.
Consequently, she is really good at English and ended up associating
with a lot of Mormons. She had only met with the missionaries in Korea
once or twice because it is such a challenge for elders to meet with
sisters etc., but now that we are here we are hoping to change that.
In Provo her roommates and most of her friends were LDS. She said she
really liked the lifestyle--especially regarding partying. It was
surprising that people could still have fun without partying. Her
roommates gave her a Book of Mormon and she went to church 3 or 4
times, but it was difficult to understand everything because it was in
English. Anyway, she left Provo, but some of her friends from that
time have visited her here in Korea and taken her to church once. She
had told the elders that served here last August that she wanted to
marry a Mormon, but since that time, about 3 months ago, she was
married to someone else. Anyway, this week we visited with her and
tried to understand where she is coming from. She is really sweet and
open. Her entire family all attend another Christian church here in
Daegu, so I'm not sure how it will play out, but we meet with her
again on this Friday. I'm hoping it will go well. She seems really
promising.
Miracle of the week:
While we were walking on the street on the way to a less active
member's house this week, we stopped another lady who looked like she
was maybe in her 30s. She was really warm and open and invited us to
come to her house two days later!! This is quite literally a miracle.
Appointments are sometimes few and far in between, but we were able to
go to Sister Nam's house and teach her the first lesson. She hasn't
attended church since she was really young. The first half of the
lesson went well, but the second half was a little too
presentation-esque (for instance, she clapped after I recited the
first vision...)..somewhere along the way we lost her, but she prayed
at the end of the lesson and said to Heavenly Father that it had been
a long time and she was sorry she had forgotten him. She said she
would read the Book of Mormon introduction, but refused, absolutely
blatantly refused our 3 offers to accept a physical copy of the book.
She plans to read it online, which is another concern. Anyway, we wer
surprised at this because she has literally 10 book shelves FULL of
books in her house. Sister Cutler, being the optimist that she is,
suggested that maybe Sister Nam had had a fight with her husband about
her book hoarding hobby and she just couldn't get herself to accept
the book. Regardless, we're a little worried. We'll meet with her
again this coming Friday.
Brother Jeong came to church again this week in his Sunday best. It is
so good to have a member's help. We don't have to pester him to do
anything. He just does it. Unfortunately because it's test time he
didn't have time for us to teach him, but summer vacation is coming
up. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him more then.
We also have been searching for this less active sister, Sister Kim
for about 10 weeks. We haven't had any luck in our search. One member
told us that they think she works at E-Mart. We went there and said a
prayer behind the building that we would be able to find her. We went
inside, wandered around, and even though there were a lot of people we
could have asked, we just felt like we needed to keep going for some
reason. We went to the second floor and after we passed through the
security gates it didn't look promising that we were going to find her
there. We went back to the security gates and decided to ask the
greeter/security person if they knew if Sister Kim works there. Even
though there were tons of other people working there, we chose to ask
this specific person and...it was Sister Kim herself. She couldn't
really talk because she was working, but we finally got to meet her
and plan to meet again.
We've been talking to everyone. Sister Cutler is just the person I
needed to get me on track at this point in my mission. It's more fun
when you talk to everyone anyway. We stand up on the busses and the
subways and we talk to people about the gospel. In the past my
companions and I have talked to people individually, but when we as
missionaries talk to people together as a team, it seems like
something different happens. We were called to serve two by two, and
people take note as we work together. It's usually not the first
person that we talk to that's interested, but because we're talking
and doing the work, Heavenly Father puts people in our path who will
talk to us. Often when bystanders watch us as we're talking to someone
else, that bystander will then start a conversation with us.
It happened even just yesterday. We went to a park to talk with
people. We were talking to this family who were playing in a fountain.
The family wasn't really too responsive, but an older couple in
electric wheel chairs sitting in the shade of a tiny tree beckoned us
over. We went to talk to them and it turned out the man had attended
English class a long time ago in Gyeongsan, a nearby town. He asked if
he could attend church and if people would help him get up the stairs
etc. We assured him we would love to help him with that desire. These
two people then yelled across the park to a college aged girl in an
electric wheel chair and asked her how she was hurt. She was kind of
taken back, but she came over with her friend and all six of us were
talking. The girls were pretty good at English so they continued
talking to Sister Cutler while I talked to the older couple. The girls
wanted to come to our English class and I was able to give the lady
and man a copy of the Book of Mormon. A drunk guy also came up to us
and was asking us for all of the information he could get about our
church (we gave him one of every pamphlet, a Book of Mormon), but he
only had about 3 teeth and was still requesting something. He wanted
to shake our hands, which is particularly weird here. Reluctantly we
shook his hand and our crowd of 5 just kept growing. A man behind us
yelled to us in English, "excuse me, can you come take a picture with
my kids?" It was at that point that I wanted someone to take a picture
of this entire scene so I could remember how hilarious it was. The
fact is we spend all day begging people to talk to us, so 6 or 7 of
them hanging on our every word was unexpected, but welcome. Ha.
Too many funny stories this week, but I love collecting them. I'm glad
Sister Cutler's here to help me do so. We're laughing a lot along the
way.
I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us individually and is
infinitely aware of our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional
location. It is obvious to me every day. The Book of Mormon secures us
either great scorn, curiousity, or intrigue every day. We are trying
to focus on it more in our proselyting. It brings such extreme strong
emotion, but I know it's true.
Thank you for your love and support!
Dad and Mom-- hope your back is feeling better, Mom. I also hope you
guys get your missionaries you need on time, especially the elder
serving in New Mexico. I hope you are enjoying the work and getting
some rest as well.
Nick and Meg-- hope you are well! I'm assuming the July traditions are
still holding up well. What did you do for the 4th? Anything fun with
the Clayburn clan? Miss you guys! Love.
Char and Matt-- I can't believe a piglet bit your toe. That is big
news. Glad you have been having such fun on vacation. Hopefully
Lincoln didn't think the national park was on par with the petting
zoo. Tell that boy to keep his hands away from the bears. Love you.
Row Row Row your boat.
Ladi and Bob-- sounds like such a fun weekend! I do remember Hershey
Park being quite fun. Glad to see it held up to expectations and you
had a quaint small town experience with Lysie. Tell her hello! Love
you. I can only imagine Minnie on those rides. Ha.
Sounds like it's summer for everyone at this point. It is definitely
summer here in Korea. All the grandmas on the street are worried about
us and spend most of their time fanning us and inviting us to share
the shade of their parasoles (sp?). They are so sweet. It has been a
hot but good week. It wasn't what we expected or planned, but that's a
big part of what made it a fun week.
I have been thinking that it would be fun to, like I do with my
companions, share the miracle of the week and the funny moment of the
week. I'm going to try to do so, but I'll also give you a play by play
of the other events as well.
This last week we were able to meet with Sister Yeon--a lady in her
late 20s or early 30s who we found in our area book. One of the
elders who used to serve in our area and is now our zone leader
suggested that we try working with her. She attended ELC(The English
Learning Center) in Provo for almost 2 years about 4 years ago.
Consequently, she is really good at English and ended up associating
with a lot of Mormons. She had only met with the missionaries in Korea
once or twice because it is such a challenge for elders to meet with
sisters etc., but now that we are here we are hoping to change that.
In Provo her roommates and most of her friends were LDS. She said she
really liked the lifestyle--especially regarding partying. It was
surprising that people could still have fun without partying. Her
roommates gave her a Book of Mormon and she went to church 3 or 4
times, but it was difficult to understand everything because it was in
English. Anyway, she left Provo, but some of her friends from that
time have visited her here in Korea and taken her to church once. She
had told the elders that served here last August that she wanted to
marry a Mormon, but since that time, about 3 months ago, she was
married to someone else. Anyway, this week we visited with her and
tried to understand where she is coming from. She is really sweet and
open. Her entire family all attend another Christian church here in
Daegu, so I'm not sure how it will play out, but we meet with her
again on this Friday. I'm hoping it will go well. She seems really
promising.
Miracle of the week:
While we were walking on the street on the way to a less active
member's house this week, we stopped another lady who looked like she
was maybe in her 30s. She was really warm and open and invited us to
come to her house two days later!! This is quite literally a miracle.
Appointments are sometimes few and far in between, but we were able to
go to Sister Nam's house and teach her the first lesson. She hasn't
attended church since she was really young. The first half of the
lesson went well, but the second half was a little too
presentation-esque (for instance, she clapped after I recited the
first vision...)..somewhere along the way we lost her, but she prayed
at the end of the lesson and said to Heavenly Father that it had been
a long time and she was sorry she had forgotten him. She said she
would read the Book of Mormon introduction, but refused, absolutely
blatantly refused our 3 offers to accept a physical copy of the book.
She plans to read it online, which is another concern. Anyway, we wer
surprised at this because she has literally 10 book shelves FULL of
books in her house. Sister Cutler, being the optimist that she is,
suggested that maybe Sister Nam had had a fight with her husband about
her book hoarding hobby and she just couldn't get herself to accept
the book. Regardless, we're a little worried. We'll meet with her
again this coming Friday.
Brother Jeong came to church again this week in his Sunday best. It is
so good to have a member's help. We don't have to pester him to do
anything. He just does it. Unfortunately because it's test time he
didn't have time for us to teach him, but summer vacation is coming
up. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him more then.
We also have been searching for this less active sister, Sister Kim
for about 10 weeks. We haven't had any luck in our search. One member
told us that they think she works at E-Mart. We went there and said a
prayer behind the building that we would be able to find her. We went
inside, wandered around, and even though there were a lot of people we
could have asked, we just felt like we needed to keep going for some
reason. We went to the second floor and after we passed through the
security gates it didn't look promising that we were going to find her
there. We went back to the security gates and decided to ask the
greeter/security person if they knew if Sister Kim works there. Even
though there were tons of other people working there, we chose to ask
this specific person and...it was Sister Kim herself. She couldn't
really talk because she was working, but we finally got to meet her
and plan to meet again.
We've been talking to everyone. Sister Cutler is just the person I
needed to get me on track at this point in my mission. It's more fun
when you talk to everyone anyway. We stand up on the busses and the
subways and we talk to people about the gospel. In the past my
companions and I have talked to people individually, but when we as
missionaries talk to people together as a team, it seems like
something different happens. We were called to serve two by two, and
people take note as we work together. It's usually not the first
person that we talk to that's interested, but because we're talking
and doing the work, Heavenly Father puts people in our path who will
talk to us. Often when bystanders watch us as we're talking to someone
else, that bystander will then start a conversation with us.
It happened even just yesterday. We went to a park to talk with
people. We were talking to this family who were playing in a fountain.
The family wasn't really too responsive, but an older couple in
electric wheel chairs sitting in the shade of a tiny tree beckoned us
over. We went to talk to them and it turned out the man had attended
English class a long time ago in Gyeongsan, a nearby town. He asked if
he could attend church and if people would help him get up the stairs
etc. We assured him we would love to help him with that desire. These
two people then yelled across the park to a college aged girl in an
electric wheel chair and asked her how she was hurt. She was kind of
taken back, but she came over with her friend and all six of us were
talking. The girls were pretty good at English so they continued
talking to Sister Cutler while I talked to the older couple. The girls
wanted to come to our English class and I was able to give the lady
and man a copy of the Book of Mormon. A drunk guy also came up to us
and was asking us for all of the information he could get about our
church (we gave him one of every pamphlet, a Book of Mormon), but he
only had about 3 teeth and was still requesting something. He wanted
to shake our hands, which is particularly weird here. Reluctantly we
shook his hand and our crowd of 5 just kept growing. A man behind us
yelled to us in English, "excuse me, can you come take a picture with
my kids?" It was at that point that I wanted someone to take a picture
of this entire scene so I could remember how hilarious it was. The
fact is we spend all day begging people to talk to us, so 6 or 7 of
them hanging on our every word was unexpected, but welcome. Ha.
Too many funny stories this week, but I love collecting them. I'm glad
Sister Cutler's here to help me do so. We're laughing a lot along the
way.
I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us individually and is
infinitely aware of our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional
location. It is obvious to me every day. The Book of Mormon secures us
either great scorn, curiousity, or intrigue every day. We are trying
to focus on it more in our proselyting. It brings such extreme strong
emotion, but I know it's true.
Thank you for your love and support!
Dad and Mom-- hope your back is feeling better, Mom. I also hope you
guys get your missionaries you need on time, especially the elder
serving in New Mexico. I hope you are enjoying the work and getting
some rest as well.
Nick and Meg-- hope you are well! I'm assuming the July traditions are
still holding up well. What did you do for the 4th? Anything fun with
the Clayburn clan? Miss you guys! Love.
Char and Matt-- I can't believe a piglet bit your toe. That is big
news. Glad you have been having such fun on vacation. Hopefully
Lincoln didn't think the national park was on par with the petting
zoo. Tell that boy to keep his hands away from the bears. Love you.
Row Row Row your boat.
Ladi and Bob-- sounds like such a fun weekend! I do remember Hershey
Park being quite fun. Glad to see it held up to expectations and you
had a quaint small town experience with Lysie. Tell her hello! Love
you. I can only imagine Minnie on those rides. Ha.
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