Good day to family and beloved friends. We've had a great week- the weeks seem so short, but as we look back each week we see so many instances of the Lord's hand in the work. We are trying to do everything we can to give the Lord our all, and to continue to rely on ourselves less and Him more even though we have been serving now for a while. We do a lot of recitations, but they don't do any good unless we can take them and put them in our heart, and let them change who we are. We're trying to focus on letting everything get into us, on letting a mission change who we are. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve here and with Elder Perry. Investigators are progressing well and the work is moving forward. Where did May go? It's June, and it happened quick. It's a pretty busy time, that's for sure, with lots of meetings and trainings, but a very rewarding time to be here as a missionary and to be working with President and Sister Christensen especially.
I don't remember if I explained last week already, but someone called my number and said that she wanted to learn English, so without another thought I just referred her number to the sisters and didn't think about it again until last Sunday, when she and her son came to church. We have been meeting the son regularly, and he is progressing very well. We had dinner at a member's house with him this past Monday, shabu shabu {Wikipedia says: a Japanese dish featuring thinly sliced beef boiled in water. The term is anonomatopœia, derived from the sound emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot"} and met him several times this week. We drove up to Dobong with him, his little brother, and his mom on Saturday to attend a baptismal service, and it was a great experience for everyone. He had a fun time, is interested in baptism, and his mom made very good friends in a very short time with the sister missionaries up there, so we're excited to continue meeting with them. As we finished meeting with him one night, the moon was out and the clouds were swirling over Seoul, and he looked over the city and said, "You can see God."
Last week was Buddha's birthday, which is a huge holiday here, and we happen to live a couple kilometers away from the biggest Buddhist temple in Korea, so we went and had a fine time seeing the sights and admiring the lanterns and the sights. We met a very nice woman who lived previously in Salt Lake and she explained much of the tradition behind the day and the associated customs.
We met a Brother Nam on the street about three months back at city hall in our area, and set an appointment, but couldn't go because something came up. His phone number was wrong, or something, and so we have been out of contact, but as I was on exchanges this week we ran into him again and had a sit down lesson with him over mango smoothies. He only comes to our area about once a month, and lives an hour and a half away in Incheon, so it was really nothing short of a miracle to establish contact again and get him meeting missionaries. That same night we met another large Chinese tourist group, and we just started talking with two of the members on the outskirts of the group, but everyone as they were waiting to catch their bus started to trickle over until we were preaching to the crowd again. If only it was this much fun for Koreans that we spoke their language (kind of).
Brother Sin we met again this week, and he is just so prepared for the Gospel. He says that he understands the doctrine and his head feels much clearer everytime he reads the Book of Mormon. He's ready to be baptized, but we're referring him up to Sanggye since he lives up there, and the wonderful ward will welcome him with open arms.
As the weather warms there are a whole lot of foreigners in our area, since our areas includes all the biggest tourist sites. in any given week we talk with people from France, Vietnam, Germany, Russia, Punjabi, UAE, America, the Netherlands, Cambodia, and usually many more, so we just need to throw any fear we would ever have about talking with someone out the window and go for it.
One of our former investigators we met this week, and he referred two more people who we have started meeting in a traditional Korean house turned gallery. One of these new friends is a tea connoisseur, and because he has some experience with our church, he knew our restrictions concerning tea. He prepared for us a special 20-year old flower root tea blend in traditional clay pots over zelkova wood in a very fun quaint little gallery. As you might imagine for such a blend, the tea tasted somewhere between dirt and tree bark, but we were grateful for the experience.
I have been studying expressions to stress emphasis and degree this week, and I had a dream this week that I was studying the grammar book I usually use, and one of the grammar forms was a form that attached to the verb stem and expressed the meaning that you would be willing to give blood in order to accomplish this verb. It sounds kind of weird, but the huge variety of Korean expressions and idiomatic forms made it very believable, and it was weird to wake up to. 이상하기가 이를 데가 없었네 ㅋㅋ
This week I bought an avocado in a convenience store for $2.50, and it was worth every penny.
We stopped in this week at a huge press center to try to talk with them about getting an editorial in the paper about my time in Seoul, and it was quite a different experience as we entered the world of the white collar. We made some allies at the reception desk, but were dismissed without a second thought by the editor on the 11th floor who told his secretary to show us out without a word. If that's not how it went, I would think that something was wrong in the world of press, so we kept trying, and made a break in on the third floor. We're in email contact, and hopefully we can get something in. It will take a miracle, but God is a God of miracles.
We had a combined mission conference with Seoul South this week just south of the river, and President Maynes addressed us. There was some mixup between the missions as to what time it started, so there was some confusion, and we ended up having to make some quick last minute set ups in a building that we had never worked in before without the other assistants, but all's well that end's well, I guess. President Maynes talked about goals. He shared how when he was younger it was his goal to make 50 free throws in a row before his mother called him in for the night. He made it to the 40s a couple of times, and the 30s more, and the 20s a lot, but never 50. In spite of that, he was a much better player than he would have been otherwise. We're also here to do big things, and that starts with desires, goals, and plans built against those goals.
My favorite song from this past week is "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus."
I'm trying to be like Jesus;
I'm following in his ways.
I'm trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.
At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,
But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,
"Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught."
I'm trying to love my neighbor;
I'm learning to serve my friends.
I watch for the day of gladness when Jesus will come again.
I try to remember the lessons he taught.
Then the Holy Spirit enters into my thoughts, saying:
"Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught."
"And it came to pass that in this year there was one Samuel, a Lamanite, came into the land... and began to preach unto the people. And it came to pass that he did preach, many days, repentance unto the people... and he said unto them: Behold, I, Samuel... do speak the words of the Lord which he doth put into my heart."
All my love until later. Congratulations, dearest grandmother, on retirement. Maybe condolences are more appropriate, I don't know, I sure know that you have touched the lives of a lot of people for the better.
Best,
Elder South
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