사랑하는 가족,
It's been a pretty crazy week. Monday and Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Dray in a neighboring area. He's only a greenie, so I fiiiiinally got to be the missionary doing most of the communicating, which was a blast. (The Korean's basically all back now. It's hard to remember exactly how well I was doing before I left, but I might be back to that level. It's actually harder with a Korean companion as they tend to take over all the communicating.) We had two lessons scheduled, but both cancelled, so we were basically proselyting all day, and it was a ton of fun. About dinner time on Tuesday we were walking down the street when somebody starting calling out to us from way behind us. He ran up and seemed really, really eager to talk with us and pulled us into a nearby cafe, so I assumed he was some 전도사 (basically somebody working for another church who just wants to Bible-bash). But then he dropped his life story on us, saying he used to be all about drinking and hitting up nightclubs (and was even on a pro soccer team but got kicked off for drinking too much), but then last year he "met God" and gave that life up. (Not that he actually claims to have seen God, but he came to believe. "Found Jesus.") Then he spent a few months just out on the streets preaching at people (and spent so much time doing so that his wife divorced him), but he doesn't do that anymore. But since that time he's been attending different churches looking for one to join, but he doesn't like that they're all established by the pastors themselves and really just want to get big and make money. He also said he feels like most people don't really have a direct relationship with God but instead just believe their pastor's words. So we pretty much taught the first lesson right there. He liked it a lot and said he'd come to church. I'll have to ask the other Elders whether he did.
We spent a large chunk of Wednesday (while 추지웅 장로님 (Elder Chu) was absent) painting the walls at a member's new house. Last night we were there again (partly having dinner but first moving a piano in the 24th hour of our fast) and saw that he decided to repaint the walls a different color. But it was fun.
We met the Turners
on Thursday. I was kind of surprised to see that he seems to have an approach of "Okay, how are things done around here?" rather than just coming in and changing things. Perhaps he wants to see how things are done currently before making whatever changes he feels are necessary. They want all of our parents to know that you can follow their blog at
koreaseoulsouthmission.blogspot.com. They say they'll post all big group pictures and such. This is the first impression I recorded in my journal: "They're not from Texas [they're from Indiana], but one could easily see that being the case; he gives off a pickup-trucks-and-football, donate-monthly-to-the-NRA, shed-a-tear-and-yell-"Freedom!
"-upon-seeing-a-bald-eagle kind of vibe." Very different from the Morrise's, for sure.
After that meeting I got to meet 김견수 (I did romanize everybody's name two weeks ago, and it was terribly painful, so I think I'll go with nicknames instead. Call this guy "Most Mormon ex-Mormon Ever."). He's quite a character. About twenty years ago he served a mission, but then soon after a bunch of his family's money mysteriously disappeared under such circumstances that made some stake leader appear guilty (I'm a little fuzzy on the details), but nobody did anything about it. He's been inactive ever since, but he still reads and knows the scriptures and loves the gospel (the wallpaper on his phone is the cover of PMG). He works at our apartment complex, so we see him around now and then. This past week we had dinner with him and a lesson (which he somehow managed to turn into throwing shade at said stake leader from way back when while still testifying of the Church's truthfulness). He's got a whole lot of energy.
Friday night we had a zone proselyting activity (basically everybody switched companions and then went contacting) which was not to be stopped by torrential rain. I'm glad it wasn't, though. It was real good.
As far as transfers, Elder 추지웅 will be headed to 이천 (Icheon), which is clear on the other side of the mission and the one area more rural than Gimpo. Elder Eddy and I will stay here until he goes home next transfer.
Elder Eddy's birthday was yesterday, so we had bought a cake on Thursday, but hadn't found any time to eat it so it was hanging out in the church's fridge until yesterday, when somebody went ahead and ate it for us at some point during church. That was sort of a bummer.
김돈 (Nickname: Gold Money. Explanation: The Chinese character behind the name 김 aka Kim aka this investigator and basically every Korean's last name means gold, and his first name, while actually of course being derived from a Chinese character, is the same as the pure Korean word for money. Also, he's super golden, so Gold Money. There's actually no nickname necessary because he's lived overseas a lot and has an English name (Tony Kim), but I like the nickname. Anyway:) still hasn't been able to meet with us, but we text him a fair amount and he's emailed us two weeks straight now. He says he's still reading the Book of Mormon everyday and also
lds.org a lot. In his email this week he even talks about how he was reading in the book of Abraham. But he also says he thinks he'll want to wait for his wife to come around so they can join the Church together.
Thanks for the list of areas, Dad. I actually recognize all of those areas, and while the first one on the list, Man Su, doesn't exist anymore because about a year ago the ward boundaries were reorganized here in 인천 (Incheon), the area I'm in right now encompasses that area. Ask him if there's anyone I should say hey to! Also my MTC companion is in the area he said he went to twice.
For the record, everyone who warned me of the Korean summers has clearly never lived in Texas. Yes it's hot and humid, but it's gotta be way worse in College Station. Even now in July there are days we don't even break a sweat, whereas even back in May one would be drenched every day back home. I feel sorry for you guys.
Big congrats to Jacob on the Eagle project! And yes, basically all Koreans have to do the training (the ones who have already served in the military, that is), but they don't all do it at the same time. And while 추지웅 was doing it he was actually still in our same zone but slept at some other Elders' house.
사랑으로,
리스 장로
P.S. Attached picture was at aforementioned member's house last night. The sister on the floor, far right is going home this week, so that's what the flag is all about. She's had people sign it throughout her mission. It's pretty nifty.
P.P.S. I believe that just might be record length for an email.
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