{Note: Sam is still working on the mission office and now is a time of big transition: his only mission president to date, President Christensen, will be leaving June 30 and the new president, President Sonksen, will be starting July 1. Sam is the consistent factor during the transition, and that is some of what he is talking about.}
Good afternoon to family and friends- I hope that all goes well. Congratulations on finishing up the school year, and best wishes for an enjoyable and productive summer. We've been having a great time and are just so grateful to be serving here. It's a crazy crazy transfer, as you can imagine, trying to set up conferences and interviews and transfers and everything so that President and Sister Sonksen will have a smooth transition and so that President Christensen can do all that he needs to before he goes home. A favorite joke in the office right now if we can't figure something out is "Just let Elder South deal with it when we leave." Funny for everyone else.
Today is a huge holiday in Korea, the day when Buddha came, so everyone has work off. We're going to try to visit a temple downtown, and on account of our meeting this morning and a lesson this evening we are short on time so I will be more brief today.
We went on exchanges to Dongdaemun this week where we split up with different missionaries. It's always a little bit weird to go work where I was when I first came to Korea, to see that everything is the same but how different I am. It was a great exchange- exchanges are always just jam packed with miracles, and we had some really cool experiences. A guy on the street invited us to eat with him and we taught a lesson, and we taught a lesson with a local member who taught the first lesson probably better than I've ever heard it- I learned a lot! Some older people we met didn't want to talk at first but I learned a new trick- talking about how it doesn't make sense that we don't eat lotus root and garlic stalks in America really makes people over 75 years old open up to you. We exchanged back to our normal companionships and had a great dinner and lesson with Brother Yun and his son from Sanggye. We visited a former investigator and had a good lesson as we ate tomatoes with honey. I proselyted to a student on the bus, and as I started talking his face was strangely similar to a startled rabbit who looks up and sees a diving peregrine falcon 10 feet away. We were yelled at and hugged. A guy gave me a rose. I have once again discovered the wonder of corn silk tea- ohk soosoosoo yum tea. Apparently if someone deflects a comment that they are good at something, you can tell them to "get off the mountain." Wonder and discoveries every day, both in and out.
A sister called me last week, and she and her son came to church yesterday. He is very interested, and we are meeting him again tonight. We had 12 week follow up training for new missionaries and for this group talked a lot about adjusting to a loving life here, making it our home. We ran into some big Chinese groups, and had the opportunity to just sit there and preach like in the days of old to the groups for a few minutes out on the street, which may have been an odd sight for passing Koreans on the way home. Both groups had great questions, but both ended up out of hand in massive selfie photo shoots. Elder Perry still hasn't recovered from the girls grabbing him, it seems. We met a Russian guy that had an excellent command of the English word "no."
We had the opportunity this week to go to Kangneung on exchanges. I love Seoul, but it was refreshing and a treat to visit another part of Korea's beauty. We saw rice paddies with white cranes stalking, old farmers working all day, lots of fun and lots of miracles. It was a quintessential far Eastern experience as we walked through a path surrounded by rice paddies with white egrets and 4 different kinds of cranes stalking, with old farmers bent over working all day. We stopped an older man with more miles on him than the scooter he was riding, if that's possible, and it was a treat to see him puttering away through the paddies with a Book of Mormon strapped to his bike. We got a chance to go to the seashore to proselyte, and ate dinner there as well. The water was so clear and it was just beautiful and natural. We saw lots of drying squid, and there were fishermen catching fish using a casting net called a tumang. It was really cool to talk with them, and to see them catch fish in that way- it of course drew our minds immediately to those missionaries so long ago called on the shores of another sea. We didn't have a camera, but we asked a few people to take a picture of us and send it to us, which one kind soul did- see below with Elder Ney, with whom I came to Korea.
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| Elders South and Ney by the Sea |
Every day is an adventure. We meet so many types of people, and see so much good in people. The light of Christ shines in so many of the people of Korea whatever their religious beliefs or situations are. I finished Alma this past week again, and was thinking about just how incredible of a leader and a disciple Moroni is. My goal this week has just been to be like him in his adamant faithfulness and firm resolve to put God first.
Below is a poem I jotted down on the way back from Taebaek a few weeks ago but never shared. I don't know, but it may not be quite the same in Google Translate.
{editor's note: it's definitely not the same in Google Translate it seems. But here's the best I can do.
Besides bustle of the city far miracle
Some villages hidden deep in the heart of the mountains chyeojyeo spread.
The flag of rags flapping away yo, rural miso aging yiyo,
The birds were declared a sublime calm.
Hayo clean air, clear water Look at these,
God is the fortress of pure creation.
Egret governs the rolling distance brooklet.
Like stars in the dark night only
The hillsides covered conifers and forsythia and cherry trees
which bloom beautifully and only alone.
The heart open and the sky as changchanghan
Arirang is a sign that seemed to hang over the valley humming.
The vines in the mist beside us in jinaganeunde under mysterious cauldron
SpongeBob SquarePants just as a passing thought to the next mangswae spirit.
The purity in the creation of life hadeora flexible dissipation.
Tongue in order that you can maintain back while entangled our lives
You are missing the nature of the US?
We are who we are in search for what has itna?
They knew the deceased 身 土 不二
人, 山, 心, 日光
It was not the two of two
Do all things, all things in His'll
Gangwon
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