Cultural Perspectives on Litigation

안녕! My prayers that all are well. Although many are still struck heavily by the tragedy last week {the sinking of the Sewol ferry} and continuing anxieties, it has been a happy week. People are healed, people can see happiness through tears- that's everything that we're out here to teach. It's rainy today, but we look forward to sunshine and summer tomorrow.

Seoul Food Surprise

Many fun things found their way to Seoul this week. We've been blessed with many opportunities to have felt the Spirit this past week, and really have been blessed.  I heard President Obama was just a few minutes west in Yongsan. I received some ranch dressing {from mom. He didn't even mention the Easter candy!}. Thank you. I tried some, and it was so rich I could hardly eat it. It's great with a lot of kimchi, though. On clashes of cultures, we brought some Costco truffles to church yesterday, which were in short order devoured. Koreans like chocolate. Much different than when I brought See's chocolate for my host father in Beijing, who looked at them just like, "what in the wide world am I supposed to do with this?"

Elder Whiting of the 70 {general church leadership}, and part of our area presidency, came this week for a mission tour. He spoke very well on desire, a personal relationship with God, looking outward, and the power by which we teach. I was impressed deeply by his words, speaking really to a couple questions that I have been having, and demonstrating a love and a knowledge of the Gospel that I can only strive to emulate. I was also blessed to have the opportunity to interview with him individually afterwards and discuss any questions, and that was a cool experience as well.

On Saturday, we went to go clean the baptismal font, and so got to the church about an hour before English class started. The lock for the front gate was struggling, with one of the tumblers not catching, and so we just hopped it and went to clean. About twenty minutes before class, though, we figured we had better go try to open it for people to come in. After pressuring and trying and everything we could think of, our neighbor came and asked us if we wanted him to grind it. It was a cheap lock, and we didn't see another option, so we said go ahead. This left me in the awkward position of calling our ward mission leader and letting him know that we were going to grind the lock at the church, which frankly, I can't say in Korean. He didn't pick up the phone, though, so crisis averted? As our neighbor went to get his supplies, one of our students showed up, and said, "if you do this in America, someone will sue you. In Korea, nobody cares." And proceeded to take the hammer and demolish the lock satisfyingly. We called the assistants {missionary leaders} to ask if we could buy a new one before church the next day, and they said, "we all agree, you had better buy a new one." We bought a new one.

  

Also on Saturday, Sisters Burton and Oscarson {from general church leadership} and their husbands addressed us, and their love was so evident. The Burtons served as mission president of the Seoul West mission a few years back, and it was fun to hear their experiences.  Brother Seongjin, with whom we went, really enjoyed the experience, and it was fun to see friends from the Seoul South mission. One brother, who spoke in the meeting after Sister Oscarson had finished, addressed her obvious love for the Korean people, and said "This is the best it gets until you go back to Sweden." Amen, brother. {Sister Oscarson has spent a lot of time in Sweden and has family roots there. Sam still claims he was born in Sweden and just adopted into America. So a perfect combination for him!}

Sam, Zack, and the Universal Korean Photopeace

We got transfer calls on the way back from the fireside, in a crowded subway station, so I THINK we're all staying put, including the sisters. It's going to be a good time for the next six weeks then. We're going to go hard. I haven't sent a picture of our district yet; I'll try to do that soon. {We don't think Sam has told us, but we got a letter from the mission saying he's been asked to be the district leader, meaning he's on-the-ground supervising 6-8 missionaries in his area}

Sunday, of course, was the best day of the week. Zack was baptized! {Zack is from Taiwan} It too was a sweet experience. At times the small size of our branch does show, with a few mixups and scrambles to bear testimonies and such, but it was just wonderful.

The sister missionaries talked to a 94 year old woman sitting in front of the church on Saturday, and she showed up to church for all three hours and the service. She had some very timely and outspoken comments throughout church, and we really didn't understand any of what she said. Neither did the law student in our branch, though, so we didn't feel too bad. As I was in the middle of saying the baptismal prayer, though, I did catch one thing. She said, essentially, "what kind of whack language is that?" ^^

A Post-Baptism Gift of Holy Scriptures for Zack

Our branch president played several videos as we came back from getting changed after the baptism that brought in the Spirit very, very powerfully. After having shown up to church for the past month in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, Zack came yesterday in dress pants and a white shirt, and was radiant and powerful in bearing his testimony (which his girlfriend helped him to write in Korean, we'll work on her next^^). We were planning originally on confirming him yesterday as well {the second half of the baptism ordinance}, but our branch presidency thought that in two weeks might be better. He will go back to Taiwan for a week this week to work some things out with his credit card, and is excited to find a service there. (s/o Shen Zhanglao)

The sisters are planning on a Chinese sister being baptized next week, and a Korean sister the week afterwards, so we are very excited! We are incredibly excited for this next transfer time,  
, and will work very hard! We love, love Imun. We love Korea and everyone that we meet.

All my love and prayers always,

Elder South

Sunday Will Come

Good day! I pray that all goes well and that all are healthy and enjoying this beautiful season as much as we are. It's been a good week for missionary work, but many are shaken and grieving at the tragedy earlier this week {the sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed so many young Korean students}. It is sad for such things to happen, but this week, as we have contemplated the miraculous resurrection of our Lord, we do know that after every Friday {the day of crucifixion}, Sunday {the day of resurrection} really does come, and because of Him, everything really will be okay.

This week we have been working a lot with Zack, who is preparing for baptism next week. He is excited and has an unquenchable desire to learn of the things of the Spirit and apply them in his life. Junhyeok, a former investigator whose mom opposes the church, agreed to meet with us as well, but due to tests was not able to this week. We are very excited to meet with him soon, and he seems to be very desirous as well. Brother Jinsol, a recent convert, we have been able to see a couple times this past week. He is preparing to leave everything he knows behind and make his way to BYU in the fall. We had a nice talk with him about many things under a beautiful green canopy at Kyunghee Dae.

We had a branch cleaning day this past Saturday, and our building is looking clean and inviting in preparation for a proselyting activity this coming Saturday. Concurrent was English class, and it was good for members to meet and talk with some investigators. Brother Ungsam brought his wife, who seemed to have a great time and got along really well with Sister Gu (who doesn't?), so I hope that she will be back! It has been more difficult to meet investigators this week with midterms being this week, and that unfortunately may continue into this week. It is at times like this when we realize how many of our investigators are college students. Elder Pons and I went on exchanges this past Thursday, and had a wonderful time. We had lot of proselyting time, and found some people very ready to hear what we need to say.

 

I am very impressed by the missionaries in the district {their local group of 6-8 missionaries. Sam is now the District Leader, it seems, at least according to a letter we received from the mission office}.  Applying the mission focus for this month, and how as they think about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses their lives, they are more able to share how it can bless the lives of others. They are inviting, testifying, and seeing people come closer to Christ, and it has been wonderful to work with them this transfer.

Particularly powerful to me this week has been personal study and prayer. This Gospel, and what is required of us, is so much deeper than what I have ever realized as we seek to come out of the world and build up Zion, but there is likewise so much more help available to us than I ever thought. This week I have thought a lot about what it is and what it means to have a personal relationship with God. When everything is gone, who are you? I want always to "treasure these things up in [my] heart, and let the solemnity of eternity rest upon [my] mind." It is absolutely amazing that we really can have that relationship. That we can pray and know that He answers. It changes everything.

We saw an absolute miracle at church yesterday. As were were out sweeping the front of the church, a jovial family was walking down the street. I thought that they didn't look very Korean, and the daughter asked if this was the church. We said that it sure was. It turns out that they were visiting from Hong Kong just for a few days, and looked up the nearest church online. They were more than pleased to join and help us out with Chinese classes and investigators (they all spoke fairly good Mandarin, and the daughter, a return missionary from a Mandarin mission, was entirely fluent and a massive aid), and were a huge source of strength and support. The father in particular bonded with Zack, and they stayed for all three hours of church. We were pretty stunned at the occurrence, considering its "random" nature, and are very grateful to God for willing hearts and promptings of the Spirit. Sister Deng just lit up, and is certainly now in contact with a new friend in the daughter. We were able to watch a movie the first hour, and as we finished not a dry eye was in the room. We were able to bear our testimonies of the reality of our Savior, of his literal appearance on the American continent, and of His glorious resurrection. The father bore his testimony during sacrament meeting, and a visiting brother shared from Moses that we are all children of God as we together testify of Christ. It was a beautiful time in Christ.

 

In the little time I have left, him bearing his testimony was quite an experience. ^^ Our first counselor asked me to help translate, from English, and I said that was fine, but when he started speaking it was not English, but a very heavily accented Cantonese Mandarin. He may have switched into Cantonese at some points, I'm not sure~^^ Soo, I ended up making up quite a bit. Fortunately the only person who could understand both languages was the very amused Sister Deng, as she sat by her new friend. Oh well. I did my best.

 

Good luck to my college friends! I was kind of hating my life at this time last year, so... 화이팅!

 

Sunday will come!

 

All my love,

Elder South

More Flowers, More Faith

He Says Its a $50 Suit

Hello on another beautiful day! I pray that all is well with you and the world after another week. Blooming flowers and blossoming testimonies have made this quite a beautiful week indeed.

 

It has been a rewarding week, with several investigators progressing to accepting commitments amid much joy. The district is doing well, and all are working hard. With an emphasis on the focus and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our lives, I feel that we have been able to share more effectively the blessings that come from living the Gospel and accordingly offer commitments that lead to this joy.

 

We were blessed to be able to see some incredible miracles this week. The first involves Zack, with whom we met thrice this week, including his coming to General Conference (which we got to watch in Chinese for that session, to Elder Jones' {his Korean and English speaking companion} great chagrin). Last Monday, however, we taught him the Restoration, which he accepted very, very well, and really believed it to be true. We then taught the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, in preparation for him to be baptized, and were slightly worried considering a lingering smell of smoke and a girlfriend, but it went perfectly. He accepted it matter-of-factly and gratefully, and although he smoked a little, I guess just starting when he came to Korea, he said that he wasn't addicted, and immediately gave up his cigarettes and lighter to Sister Deng on her request. Everything really was just a miracle in every sense of the word. We also asked him if he had had a chance to read from The Book of Mormon, which we had given him about five days earlier, and he opened to Second Nephi 19, about a hundred pages in, and had some very insightful comments and favorite parts thus far.

Spring Panorama

Last night I was thinking about how we are seeming to teach a good number of Chinese people, and I was curious concerning numbers. For last week's scheduled lessons, about 53 percent were Chinese, and in the past three weeks, we had the same amount of Chinese lessons scheduled as Korean and all others combined. President has given us permission to take extra time every day to study Chinese, but frankly, there just is not time, meaning language study is often Chinese, which means Korean... anyway, it's interesting to see how things have worked out, and I just want to serve however I can wherever I am. Yesterday we were waiting for a Chinese appointment to show up with the sisters, and after about ten minutes, some other people walked by speaking Chinese, so we went to talk with them. I talked with one guy for a bit, and he's really cool, but then I spoke to his friend. I asked him if he was from China too, and he said that he was from France. I thought he was just messing with me at first, so I incredulously dropped my jaw. When I recovered ("Ff...france?") ((Ff...Fa Guo?)), he confirmed with his perfect Chinese, and switched to perfect French. It blew my mind. My mind, no less my tongue, was tangled with the sudden change. We're meeting them this week.

Jackie was another special experience this week. He is very, very busy, and often works fourteen hour days, but we were able to meet with him this past week. He just has desire. He wants to be baptized and become a faithful, committed member of the church, but he gets off of work at 6 on Sundays, and has signed a contract for that to be the case. His day off now is Wednesday, and he in his humility and faithfulness said that he will discuss with his boss to try to get this changed to Sunday. He also passed his test on the step to becoming a firefighter, though, and he hopes to procure that job soon, which would allow for church attendance.

Beautiful Kyung Hee University

General Conference was amazing. Many incredible talks. I loved the ideas of rock-solid integrity and personal courage in the face of opposition, which courage is no less if "no drums beat for you." As we give our whole heart to this work, He will magnify us. Really great talks. I want to let it change me. Study has been a blessing as well. I just felt this week more strongly the assurance of God's love, and although we always lack faith, He in His mercy wants to make Himself known unto us. I was reading this week in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 33: "Open your mouths and they shall be filled... Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you. Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled." I am so grateful for this opportunity to share, and we will continue to do so, to as many of God's children as we can. It's a good life.

All of my love,

南慕明 长老

Faith Like Cherry Blossoms

안녕! It has been a beautiful week, and I am grateful to be able to share even just a few of our experiences and the miracles we have seen over the past few days. The cherry blossoms are out and absolutely beautiful, and the weather, although it has cooled down significantly over the past few days, is still wonderful, and we are just happy to be here.

 

Sunghwan we met this past Tuesday, and although he had not last week, he had prayed this week, and had great experiences to share and questions to ask. Mina wasn't able to make it this week, as her grandmother was in the hospital, but she should be back this week. As we were looking for a place at Kyeonghee Dae later on that day, articulated to us in Korean by a native Chinese speaker and rendering us very confused, we ran into him and he helped us figure out where we were headed. Mohammed, such a funny guy, suddenly called us and said that he wanted to meet with us right away for tea at his house, so we ran to grab a quick lunch, went to find him, and he said that we should go out to eat. We ended up walking for half an hour first as we talked, but were still (I at least, Elder Jones did quite well), very very full as we tried to eat our bibimbap. We met afterwards with Sangjo and discussed familes and their eternal significance and nature, and he enjoyed in particular grandma's picture with President Obama ^^ Lian dixiong we met in a very noisy college cafe, but we had a great discussion and really were able to feel the Spirit. He had great questions, and although he is now back in China, he said that he felt that part of his purpose in coming to Korea was for he and his friends to learn about this. Definitely felt God's help with the language as we spoke smoothly and remembered needed vocabulary. Ungsam also suddenly called us as we were finishing, but when we called back afterwards, he didn't answer, which meant that only half of our appointments that day were from people suddenly calling us (^^?)

 

On Wednesday, zone conference was great, and we left with some good goals and things to think about. We headed up to Jangui, close to us, to teach Xuebo, who will be baptized later this month, but he didn't show up soon enough before English class, so we weren't able to meet with him. We saw Paengwen on the street, though, so we brought him back to the church and talked about prayer for a while. As we were waiting in front of the Jangui church for Xuebo, a guy suddenly ran up to us and asked for our name card. We talked with him for a bit, and he came to English class an hour later, saying he'd bring his daughter later. Pretty cool.

 

On Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Osborne, and we tried to not schedule a lot of appointments so we could have some street contacting time. We had a fun time, and met some incredible people. Before our appointment in the afternoon, we had a quick snack- I got a pomegranate waffle that is definitely worth mentioning. We went walking with Sangjo, and talked with him about bringing friends to our meetings. Dad, you mentioned that he may have some kind of social anxiety, and I think that was a really good insight. I'm not a psychologist, but when e'er we invite him to anything, the first question he always asks is how many people will be there. He served as a general in the Vietnam war, which could definitely have led to anxieties and such developing later on.

 

We had a quick dinner, "burgers" (not quite), and pomegranate juice that ended up being kiwi juice. I won't complain. We taught Zack, who came to church last Sunday, in the evening with the sisters,  and it was a very sweet lesson. The Spirit was very strong, he accepted everything well as we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted a baptismal commitment for the 27th of this month. As we said a prayer of thanksgiving afterward with the sisters, it was a touching experience.

 

On Saturday we met in the morning with Mugi, a Chinese guy that takes the subway for an hour and a half to meet with us, quite a sacrifice. We went up to Kyeonghee University and ate Bap Beogeo next to beautiful flowers on a gorgeous day. We discussed the Book of Mormon for a while, and he had great, great questions. We are looking forward to continuing to meet with him. We met immediately afterwards at the church and went with some youth to the temple for a stake youth temple day, and were able to help out, which was a really cool experience and a bit nerve wracking in Korean. When we were leaving the temple, which we usually only go to once a transfer, so this was quite the exception, we did see the Augustine-Adams family, and again down in the subway. The odds are, frankly, impossible that we were both at the temple then. They came to church at Imun on Sunday and were a great help with our Chinese friends who came to church!

 

Saturday evening we met with Yimong, from Beijing, and he accepted a baptismal commitment for the fourth of May. We met with Seongjin that evening as well, whose mom opposes his participation, and asked to speak with his mother. We hope to be able to do so, despite his claims that she is a "scary woman."

 

On the Chinese scene, 3 Chinese nationals committed to baptism in the past week, and so many were at church yesterday (including the Augustine-Adams) that we needed to switch rooms with the Relief Society so that we could fit. Only three of them were able to make it to sacrament meeting, but it was good that they were there. I'm glad that things are advancing, but it does present somewhat of a dilemma for us. It is difficult to take care of Korean investigators at church while simultaneously making sure that everything runs smoothly for Chinese speakers who come. We have relied heavily on members, and our whole branch has been very supportive. There has not proved to be time for both Korean and Chinese language study in a day, so I have been studying as needed, and some days Chinese is needed in lieu of Korean. I do not want to neglect Korean, and have been thinking a lot about this, as most of our most progressing investigators have been Chinese in the past weeks. We're here to serve, I suppose, in whatever manner is asked of us.

 

On Sunday evening we ate at our branch mission leader's home with Sa Gae, which was a great experience. He is doing very well as he makes more friends and participates fully in activities. It has been incredible to see him change during this time in Imun. As we discussed Korean and English idioms, Elder Osborne threw a curveball with his accidental use of "cheater, cheater, pants on fire," which was fun for us and a bit confusing for those listening intently to idiomatic usages.

 

I've been loving reading more in the New Testament lately, and have particularly enjoyed much of Romans. We know that as we put our trust in God, He will help us through anything. Really!

 

All my love and prayers,

 

Elder South

Divine Providence Trumps Technology

Jacek and Sam look great

Here is a surprise mid-week post about Sam, though not by him. Our dear friends the Augustine-Adams (Kif, Stirling, Jacek and Isabel; Sophie is away at college), who are currently teaching law in Beijing, among other things, took a trip to visit Korea and the LDS temple in Seoul. They found some other missionaries near the temple who gave clues to Sam's potential whereabouts. Then they split up to find him, where Jacek and Stirling just ran into him in a convenience store! Only, Kif's cell phone was dead, Isabel was at a different subway entrance, and Kif and Isabel were sad they didn't see him. Until they were trying to figure out how to by subway cards, and the erstwhile Elder South came walking up again...A wonderful conspiring of events, to be sure :-}

With Isabel and Kif