Hello Everybody!!!
This week has been good. I really am starting to have to make sure I enjoy every moment of my mission, not because it's hard to, but because the time is just so short. I hate it how every day seems to just get shorter and shorter. I understand that everybody simply has to go home at some point, but it's a lot harder to accept than I thought.
REGARDLESS!!!! good week.
Last week we met this investigator that we had met before and the guy is super golden, but he seems to have the same problem that most of the golden investigators have. They live elsewhere. They always live elsewhere. He lives in a neighboring area and we taught him there in an attempt to try and refer him to the missionaries there, but he didn't seem to interested in being taught by anyone else and said that he wants to go to church in our area anyways. Normally would be fine, no big deal but he wanted to meet this morning too which also isn't a problem usually but he wanted to meet at 10 in that other area, so we agreed to meet, but we also were going to refer him to the elders in that area at the meeting too. We did try to and we had to go so the other elders taught the lesson anyways, but we didn't really tell the investigator beforehand very well. As a result he was a little bummed. He still wants to meet with us. Not too sure what to do with that now...
So wednesday we wanted to pull a bunch of weeds at the church. It didn't seem like a big deal but it most certainly was. The first big thing was that when we were intending to start, it was raining sooooooooo hard. I haven't seen rain like that in a long time. BUT as most big rain does here, it calmed down pretty quickly. We started and we got up a bunch of it and realized just how big of a task it was. I'll take pictures and send them of the parts that we finished, but it's not as much as I would like to have finished certainly. We don't really have time to finish it if we want to proselyte as well...
Thursday we went on exchanges with some elders and I was with a guy, Elder Meeks. He's pretty cool. He graduated early from high school to come on his mission as soon as he could. He's a pretty solid guy too. We only had one appointment but it went alright. It's the super buddhist guy that wants to learn english mostly, but respects our gospel time. We read 2 Nephi 2 and it was good. He really was actually curious about some of the things we think about the Plan of Salvation. He also spoke Korean to me for the first time! That made me feel kind of good. It's frustrating sometimes when people won't speak korean to me when their english isn't very good. Also Elder Kim's knee was killing him. He could barely walk, but we still went on exchanges regardless. I love Elder Kim. He's the best.
Friday we finished up the exchange and did some more weeding which was as fun as that could be. Actually it was interesting because it wasn't like it was bad in itself. I was just kind of bummed because I wanted to be out talking to people about the gospel, but since we started the job we needed to try and finish up before we had other people coming to church in the coming days.
Saturday we had more weeding to finish up and we pretty much finished, but I came to the realization that pretty much the whole area where we were working is an ant farm... ridiculous, but that's okay. That night we also had english class which was fun for me and my companion but the sisters were supposed to teach the "advanced" class, but now there's this big confusion and advanced class became intermediate and intermediate became advanced. I feel bad for some of the people because it's just us not being organized. Also part of the problem is that everybody knows that I'm going home and for some reason want to talk with me even thought I don't teach the free talking... I just feel bad for some of the people involved. We're gonna fix that up this week though.
That night we had a ping pong activity which was good. Being that I am american and haven't played ping pong since I was a child, I am far from the best, but that's okay! I was definitely the best american there... also I was the only American there, but that's not the point!~ I felt like it wasn't the best use of time, but it was good for some people I think.
Sunday was interesting. We didn't have any investigators at church, BUT! I cam to this awesome realization as a result of it. For the past 10 weeks or so, last week excluded, we have had at least 1 investigator at church and up to 3. Everyone of those weeks, I have called the Bishop and other ward leaders telling them that there will be investigators at church and who it is, what they need, that sort of thing, like it says to in PMG, and they always showed up. This past Saturday night, I forgot to, or maybe was just too lazy, I'm not sure, but I didn't. As a result nobody came. There was people who could have made it but they decided not to in light of wanting to sleep more or things like that. If there is ever a mission everywhere that thinks there is a key indicator that they cannot control as a missionary, they are wrong. Simply put. Yes, you can't make someone be baptized, you can't drag somebody to church, but if you are doing what you're supposed to, the Lord will help out. That's with everything.
Why can't I figure these things out earlier!?!? Maybe I was too prideful before or too dumb to realize it before. Regardless, I know now, and I can apply it for at least a little longer, and can share what I know with other missionaries.
Well, this is my second to last time emailing from Korea, potentially my last depending on how I feel next week. I'll probably email next week, but you never know.
I hope you all have a great week!
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