On the Move. June 8, 2014

Dad mentioned this week that I might be moving around pretty soon. Transfer calls were, indeed, this week.

 

I'M LEAVING IMUN. Pretty tragic. Away from home and family and friends and colleges and Chinese friends and recent converts... to a new home, which I am sure will be great, though I will definitely miss this place! It will be a very different feel, and I will need to learn and grow in new ways. I do know that there is where I need to be. "There" is Sanggye (상계), the extreme Northeastern part of soul, to which both Elder Mumford and Sister Kang also transferred from Imun, funnily enough. There has been a lot of good missionary work done there recently, and I'm pretty excited.

 

I thought that my training days {training new missionaries} were over for a while, at least, with such a decrease in missionaries coming to our mission over the past few transfers. In the group of missionaries that arrives this week, there are 4 sisters and... 1 elder. I'll be with him, and we're going to have a fabulous time! It's a good chance for me to go through and make sure that we are doing all the fundamentals right, and have all of our priorities in the right place. We'll be living alone in an apartment, so we'll have a great time, I'm sure! ^^ More, of course, next week- I'm pretty tempted just to call someone and ask who's coming, but things will play out soon enough. We will be pretty close to some of the most famous mountains in Seoul to hike, so that should prove to be some fun times.

 

We were reading earlier this week in {the book} Jesus the Christ, concerning parables, and particularly enjoyed {author James} Elder Talmage's explication of the seeds falling on different patches of ground.  We have a duty to spread as much as we can possibly do, and then a little bit more, which we are quite looking forward to in the coming weeks. We also read in the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 8 how Alma and Amulek had power given to them because of their faithfulness. That same power is available to us, if we're willing to work for it.

We will continue to do as a district everything that we can do to hit those mission standards of excellence, and as we do, I really believe that we will see miracles. We talked a lot concerning goals this week, both setting and reaching. Our "perfect" day of missionary service was this past week, and was beneficial in that it helped us to see the discrepancy between where we absolutely want to be every day and some specific situations wherein we can improve to reach that. We saw several miracles, especially as we did jeondo {street contacting}, and will continue to strive for perfection every day.

 

We've been living essentially vegetarian for the last few months, but we'll be going to a meat buffet as a district today to... celebrate? my departure, I suppose, which should be fun. It's been a very valuable time to me, in Imun, and we've had a great district and really seen the hand of the Lord here.

 

Much of the latter part of this week was spent preparing for a baptism yesterday, which went beautifully, or at least as well as someone 93 years old being baptized can. Sister Ahn, who everyone just calls "Grandma" (Halmeoni!) is the same that I mentioned previously coming to church a few weeks ago. She really has been a miracle. Her memory is spotty at best, and is very hard of hearing, but she always remembered the date for which she was scheduled for baptism, and was very, very excited for that. Her testimony is simple and powerful. At the service the Spirit was incredibly powerful, and I knew that all of this was true. That feeling is what it's all about. She was confirmed at the service as well.

 

Everyone else in the district is staying, although Sister Gu and Sister Deng are splitting up, which means we get two new sisters. Sister Gu, in her last transfer before ending her mission, will be training a new missionary, and Sister Deng will have a new companion. Pretty crazy, and so exciting. When I came to Imun we had 4 missionaries, and it has been so much fun to see the growth and the excitement build over the last few months.

 

It's been quite a crazy week, although I do certainly live a relatively simple life for sure. My hopes are that all is well elsewhere. Congratulations to Lisa and family on a quick and successful move, and I wish you all the best for the future. Congratulations to Juliana and Mizo, and all!  

 

Enjoy the summer, and trek {pioneer reenactment}, for those who are so doing.

 

I love this life and this work. It's a 믿을 수 없는 short amount of time, and as we serve in Sanggye we'll serve with our all and then some more. Thank you as always for your support and your love. All of my love to you~

 

Elder South