Today is a Wednesday, the day following MLC {mission leadership conference}. Yesterday was also my brother Daniel’s birthday. It would have been nice to ask Sister Kelly to send a birthday email or something, but due to the craziness, I wasn’t able to. We did party as best as we could. We were up at 6, and scrambling around and getting things set up and worked all day. There were a bunch of zones {groups of missionaries} that stayed afterwards to plan for their zone trainings, and we had to get everyone out with packages {that come in the mail} and such, clean up, talk with Elder Choi’s recent convert who goes to the high school next to us, and eat a quick, quick dinner--ham and egg sandwiches and a bowl of cereal--before meeting with some elders for LPP {language preparation? no idea what that is}. I was with Elder Skinner, who is serving in 교문, and we talked for a while and then decided to focus on How To Begin Teaching. The more I meet with new missionaries, the more I realize how much use a handout would be that addresses learning Korean at an early stage. It turns out that Elder Skinner held a video game world record for 6 months, for some game that I hadn’t heard of, but was an older Atari game, it seems like.
We went a little bit long on our training, but we didn’t get to start until later, so maybe that was it. It went more smoothly than normal. We watched a few videos, “None Were With Him,” and a Bible video- “I am the Good Shepherd.” It really hit me that Christ knows His sheep, and are known of Him. I want to know my sheep, too. Am I a shepherd or a hireling, who does not stand up when things are tough? President and Sister Christensen gave excellent trainings. It turns out that {YouTube sensations} the Piano Guys will probably come for a fireside soon, because they know the family of a sister in our mission, and Jon Schmidt {the piano partner of the Piano Guys} served his mission here in Korea. We're not sure yet, though, if that will work out.
We went to Dongdaemun for zone training and exchanges afterwards. We ate before zone training at the 김밥 천국 {Google translate says "Rolled in Heaven"} by Jegi Dong, the classic place where I ate frequently during my first months in Korea. I got kimchi jjigae, gobbaegi- just incredible {the web says "Kimchi Jjigae is a Korean kimchi stew made with very fermented cabbage kimchi with pork."
The focus this month continues to be the Book of Mormon, but is combined with working with less-active members who aren't attending church often. Sister Jeon told a great story of how she sent a letter to a less-active friend with the three questions that we can ask less actives to help them remember how they felt at the time of their conversion, and didn’t receive a reply for 6 months. 6 months later, a letter came, with the answers to the questions and the fact that she was now going to church again. Less activity and activity doesn't come at a cut off point, but more of a gradient, where we’re all trying to get to Jesus Christ.
I went to Imun with Elder Zimmer and Elder Moore after we opened our exchange briefly in Dongdaemun church, which is the oldest chapel in Asia, and one that President Hinckley {former leader of the church, now deceased} has spoken at multiple times. Imun is even more fun than I remember. We got out of the station, saw the fruit guy that I came to know so well as we would wait for appointments, and talked with him for a while. He said that the yoghurt lady who would also wait didn’t come there anymore. The first person we talked to was a Chinese guy who we set up an appointment with. He lives in our area, Sindang, so it worked out great. There are several new stores around the area, but it was so fun to see that things are so similar, but I see things differently now. Imun really changed who I am as a missionary, as did the investigators that we met there.
Time continues to pass, and far more happens than I could ever write. Continuing with exchanges in Imun, we went to English class and then one of the members bought us dinner at Tomato. We also saw Brother Kim, it’s been quite a while! It was really fun to be back, kind of nostalgic. I taught a lady who really just didn’t know a thing the alphabet with along with Sister Lee.There was a letter from a different Sister Lee on the bulletin board at the church, and that brought back great memories of teaching together and buckwheat 냉면 {cold noodles}. It seems like she’s doing well in California.
On Thursday during our companionship study time I called some old investigators, and Brother Lee and Brother Mun said that they could meet. We ordered Dos Mas burritos, and went to the appointment, after just meeting a kind man from Uijeongbu right outside our old apartment. He was easy to talk to, and accepted a Book of Mormon. Things went all right with Brother Lee, he’s still maybe not completely ready, but we talked about the Spirit, read John 14, and watched President Monson’s Sunday morning talk in conference with him. We left to go proselyte for a bit, and made our way up kind of by Kyeonghee Dae. I had just finished talking with someone when someone called “Elder, elder!” I turned around and met Carly, who was adopted from Korea and grew up in Connecticut, of all places. Her mother and sister had been members of the church, so she had grown up with missionaries eating over and doing laundry at their house and stuff (missionaries do that?). She lives in Nokbeon area, but is going to school at Kyeonghee for a couple of months to try to pick up some Korean. She had a good impression of the church, and was interested in learning more. I called the sisters, and we met them outside the church, talked for a while, and then we left and the sisters taught a lesson. I hope things go well, I haven’t heard more since then.
Proselyting is just super fun. Just the most fun thing to do, especially in Imun. You think and hear of people rejecting you or being mean to you, at least elsewhere, but that really doesn’t happen that much at all here. Some people are not interested, but most will talk, or at least will after you keep talking with them and they realize that you can say more than hello. Sometimes we start out in English for younger students, because they like to practice sometimes, but sometimes it terrifies people. Usually you can see the fear start to well up and ask your question again in Korean, but the other day by our house a student we talked to at first just stood there, then took off running with his backpack around the corner as fast as he could possibly go.
We met up again in Dongdaemun and finished our exchange on Thursday, then went to meet our picketing investigator in front of the Blue House {the official residence of the Korean President}. He doesn’t give a lot of room to talk, but has a lot of questions. The Blue house area is just beautiful, with waving flags and flourishing 목련, 벚꽃, and 개나리 {magnolia, cherry, and forsythia. Sam is keeping me busy with Google translate!}.
On Friday we met with John and 최광훈 {Choegwanghun}. He took us out after our lesson for kimchi jjigae, which came with eggs, bean sprouts, and seaweed. Very good. We proselyted back home, and met the other elders. It turns out that about half of the cell phones in the mission are down, because the third-party service provider we use essentially failed, so we had to call everybody with the office land lines and try to figure things out. We’ll be getting a new provider, but we’re down for now. All of the missions in Korea are down right now, actually. Daejeon’s Mission President’s phone isn’t working, and about 90% of Busan mission is out. We just got a call that our phones in the office should be fixed relatively soon, and then they’ll start working on others.
On Saturday we went to the church for viewing recordings of the most recent General Conference, bringing our computer and projector and speakers and everything. 황현우 {Hwanghyeonwoo} came to the afternoon session, and John came to Priesthood session. This was a really good conference. I don’t know why, it seems that something was different. Anyway, all the questions I came with were answered and then some. President Michael Ringwood, our area president, who will be here in a couple of weeks for a mission tour, gave a great talk on motives and what really matters. President Uchtdorf’s talk on the Potemkin village is also very applicable. Appearances are way too important. It’s not that they’re not important, as missionaries and in life before and beyond, but you can’t be empty.
Between sessions we proselyted, and at the last minute I got some 낑깡- kumquats. Super good. I’ve never had them in America. Fruit is good over here, but so expensive. Kumquats are great, though! In the words of Elder Huckvale, “the skin tasted like oranges but the inside tasted kind of like peaches.” I ate so many that my mouth went kind of numb- I think you’re supposed to eat the peel but maybe not. We had curry between the afternoon session and the Priesthood session, but John didn’t have a lot, he said he wasn’t hungry. After Priesthood, though, he was suddenly ravenous, and we went out to get ddeokbokki {soft rice cake, fish cake and sweet red chili sauce} with a member. We discussed the history of Thanksgiving in America and how there’s different groups of people with the same last name in Korea on the way back, and came out of the subway to wait for the bus. And we waited. Due to a demonstration the buses were unable to come, and we walked home amidst many police, and made it all right in spite of the craziness.
Sunday was by comparison very calm. On the bus to Gwanghwamun we saw large piles of police barriers not yet cleaned up from the night before. There were very few people in the station, and we should have been able just to wait for the train, but I went looking, and looking, and looking, walking for quite a while. Finally there was one guy sitting down on a bench with headphones in. I said hello a few times, and I thought that he was ignoring me, but I decided to sit by him and try again. He took his headphones out and was very kind. He lives in Ilsan, and goes to the huge church there, but had come to Seoul to try going to another church, one where he had heard that you could play a bigger part, that you could have activities, serve, and live your faith. He was interested in who we are, and we referred him up to Elder Rosenberg. We watched more of the General Conference which was again very, very good. Some interesting themes about families and preaching the Gospel to all the world. The ward gave us a big bag of corn flakes, and we had doinjang jjigae for dinner with sweet potato, of course.
{From the web: "Doenjang jjigae is a variety of jjigae or stew-like Korean traditional dish, made with doenjang (Korean soybean paste) and available ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, or dubu (tofu). It is regarded as one of the representative dishes of food in Korea along with Kimchi jjigae.
The dish is the source of the name Doenjang Girl, a South Korean stereotype of a woman who eats cheap food at home so she can drink expensive coffees in public.}
Today we will get haircuts and buy some groceries, and try to get Elder Perry well with some rest. Love to all and gratitude for a wonderful week. Until next time,
Elder South
