"There's 'Effective,' and Then There's..."

Our stake held a big family history event this past weekend, and they invited all our zone's missionaries (where I'm at right now our stake and zone are the same area; not always the case) to come and bring their investigators. And as long as we were there, we might as well perform a musical number, right? So on Wednesday we all met up in 봉천 to rehearse for an hour. The zone leaders asked me to whip up a special arrangement before Saturday, so I had to spend some time the next two days working on that. Then on Saturday we get to this three-hour long event an extra hour early so we can all rehearse again. Then we spent a little bit of time listening to people talk about their ancestors and a long time being taught how to use FamilySearch.com. Then just before we perform our song, the stake's teenagers all sing "Families Can Be Together Forever," the same song we were going to sing. So that was a little awkward. But at least we all got to bring our investigators, right? Except that noun should be singular, because only one from the whole zone showed up. (But he's from our district! Represent!) And he thought the meeting was boring.

We calculate the whole affair as taking up about 180 man-hours from the missionaries. Less effective.

In other news, we picked up a new investigator this week who might be really interested in the gospel or just might be a really good Herbalife salesman. Either way, he's a really good Herbalife salesman, because he got Ellsworth and another elder in our district. I ran into a missionary newer to Korea than I am for the first time. Made me very aware of how far my Korean's come already. Also had a little encounter with a super shady guy who kept following Ellsworth and I around one night, trying to get us to "meet his friend" and (we think) smuggle something to America. Good fun.

It felt like I spent an eternity in the MTC, and right now I feel like I still just barely landed in Korea. But as of Wednesday this week, I've been in Korea longer than I was in the MTC. And 갑자기 Thanksgiving is this week? The time is flying by.

Stay effective, my friends.

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