Hey everybody!
First off I want to apologize for not putting a subject into the last email. I know you were all heartbroken at that fact. I will do my best not to forget again.
Anyways, transfer calls came and I will be moving back to Incheon where I started! Not the same area, but back to Incheon nonetheless! I will be a zone leader there and am pretty excited for that. I have kind of wanted to be a zone leader more lately just because it's a wider scope of missionaries that I can help to serve. There's a ton of super solid missionaries there and a lot of my friends. I'm super stoked for everything. Also, there's a chinatown there so I plan on converting all the CHINESE PEOPLE!!! I kind of wanted to learn a little Chinese for it, I'll probably just do it in my down time. Also it's probably going to be my last area, so I'm pretty set on missionary-working that area to the bone! Gonna be legit!!!!
So this week was pretty good. Monday night we were walking around and just trying to get some conversations in, and I saw this guy behind me wearing some timberlands. Not a particularly common occurence in korea, so I commented on it to him, and he takes off his headphones and we talked and he's really interested in the church. He was a pretty cool miracle. After that we sprinted off to go do exchanges with the zone leaders because they wanted to.
On our way, we were riding on the train there, and there was a kid with a v-shaped guitar. That is not common in Korea at all. There's only like 3 kinds of electric guitar here, and that isn't one, so I went up and talked to him, and he was kinda thrown at first that there was a white guy speaking to him in Korean, and then again he was thrown by the fact that I knew it was strange to have a V in Korea, and then again by the fact that we liked the same music. Haha, fun experience. Gotta love all the miracles. That was a fun miracle for me.
So the zone leader i was on exchanges with is this Korean and his name is Elder 석찬영 and he is like the funnest, best missionary ever. He had been sick, but still is just such a boss of a missionary. This guy is such a boss. He's the zone leader and in the stake presidency meeting on sunday, he just floored the entire stake presidency. They were talking about how the missionaries need to be the young men's presidents and how all the members need to be ward missionaries, and all this sort of thing. He said he was really sick, and it was just like making him dizzy and one of the guys in the stake presidency looks at him as if to like rip into him or something, and Elder 석 shared something that I regrettably can't remember what it is right now, but it just shut everyone up, and the mission presidency were just nodding their heads in approval.
Sorry I love to brag about Elder Suk. He's my favorite. Super sad that he's not my leader anymore, but he's still a boss and my buddy!!!
Tuesday we went and had a bunch of appointments and all of them cancelled. Sad face, so we got to go just talk to people all day. It was pretty fun. There was this old guy who tried to show us this game where you put your index finger and thumb together and straighten out the rest of your fingers and the other person pulls them apart with their two index fingers. He beat Elder Suk, and then when Elder Suk tried to open his hand, he just goes ahead and uses all of his fingers. The guy was such a cheater, and it wasn't even sneaky. Hilariousness.
Later we ate this really spicy octopus for dinner which is now among my favorite foods. After dinner we went to church to use the bathroom and there was institute and some other stuff going on, so I ended up seeing a bunch of people from my first ward! Exciting!
On wednesday we finished up the exchange and had district meeting. District meeting was awesome. Nobody could focus or calm down at first, but it ended up being okay. I tamed the district down a bit, and we had the meeting, and it was awesome. I think it was among the best trainings i've delivered. It was about becoming friendly with members, so that we can have good relationships of trust. I hope it worked. Ironically the korean missionaries are the ones that have problems with this. At least in this district but whatevers. Just gotta be friends with all the members! That's one of my favorite things!
Thursday wasn't too crazy. We went and helped this less active/recent convert clean his house. It had been a year since he last cleaned it. He had some nice stuff, but just had trash, everywhere! It was crazy. Good guy though. He made it out to church this week too.
Also thursday night, we helped this lady carry some boxes around she was trying to go recycle so she could give the money to her church. She said she would come to church on sunday and she did! Her name is Monica heo but, the way she says it, it's like harmonica... heehee.
Friday we had lunch at this buffet which was good, the members that took us said we did a good job of eating there. If you don't eat a ton, it's kinda rude. I am pretty sure I was a couple bites from throwing up, but it's okay cause I made it!
Weekly planning was the same as ever really. Nothing too crazy. BUT! Before we got started this guy TJ called us and wanted to meet. Guy is such a boss. Looking for work around Gangnam and wants to come closer to God. He thinks that we have the right path, and is looking for instruction. Excited for him.
That night, this guy called us and asked us to come to this big hospital on saturday morning to help give a blessing to his mom who is in a very fragile position and also in a coma. When we went saturday morning, he basically just asked us to bless her that she will have a safe journey from this world. That was a really interesting experience for me, especially since he asked me to give the blessing. I don't think I've ever been around someone whose life was in such a fragile state. The way the guy explained it, it seemed like he thought if it was a day later, she would have passed away. It was a really humbling experience.
After that we had English class which was interesting because we usually teach the basic grammar class, and the sisters teach the free talking and usually our class is bigger. Not that day. We had two in our class, and they had like nine! It was crazy. One of our english class members keeps on telling his friends to come. Go O'neil! Guy is a boss.
Saturday night we got our transfer calls which was interesting. We were the first people in the mission to get our transfer calls! That was kind of neat. I didn't think that would ever happen, but I'm excited for what it brings!
Sunday, Harmonica did end up coming to church, and she's so loved by all the members already. Gotta love Gangnam ward. Just doing work. I got a ton of pictures with them, and accordingly will try and send some!
저는 인천으로 즐겁게 가겠습니다!!!!
(cho-nun Incheon-eu-ro jeur-geob-ggae ka-ges-sum-ni-dah)
In korean it makes more sense but it directly translates to "I'm going joyfully to Incheon"
But hey, Korean doesn't always work in English. What can I do?!?!
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