Plus ça change...

Is it wrong to miss the smell of newly-sharpened pencils and the sounds of high school football in the air?

Zone defense

I don't know what it is, but I every time we teach Bro. Kim, I get the feeling we should let him go. But like Sis. Green says, he does everything we ask him to and he seems very eager to learn — almost like he'll be in trouble if he doesn't get it — so we've kept teaching him. He does seem to keep referring back to the "Meet the Mormons" movie, though. It's weird.

It occurred to me, thought, that if these feelings are persistent, then maybe we could pass him on to another set of missionaries. What else are zone leaders for, right?

Suspicions

Our lessons with our new investigator, Bro. Kim, are progressing. But there's something about him that bothers me. I can't quite put my finger on it. 

Best night ever in Daegu!

So the time we spent with our new investigator, Sis. Choi, was MARVELOUS! The spirit was so strong there, and she was so ready to hear everything! Being part of something like that, to be an instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, is beyond words! 

Epic teaching!

We just had the Best. Ever. Teaching. Appointment. with Sis. Yi, the hanbok lady! She and her family are plowing through the lessons, reading the scriptures, praying every day. AND they committed to baptism!

The Spirit is always so strong when we teach them! We have to take extra Kleenex when we go. It's like their whole family was really, really hungry for the Gospel and they can't get it fast enough! I know there are people waiting to receive the Gospel, but, WOW! I mean, I knew it knew it, but I didn't know it, you know! At least, not until now!

We've taught a lot of amazing people -- don't get me wrong. There's just something special about this family; it's like they were ready and waiting exactly for Sis. Clabby and me!

More awesomeness!

Who knew that shopping for a hanbok would lead to teaching three generations of a family!? Wow! Really, wow!

Ohhhhh, yeahhhh!

We're having GREAT success with Sis. Yi, the hanbok lady (can they put that on her Church records?). The spirit is always so strong when we teach her, and now she wants to share it with her family! It's so awesome that Sis. Choi and her family let us teach in their home. It really helps in so, so many ways.

I heard from Sis. Kimmie in Ukraine (she lives in one of the links on the side of the blog here). Here's what her mission president said about what's going on there:

“I have contacted our mission leaders within the last hour, and they in turn have contacted each of the missionaries. All of our missionaries are well. Again, there is no cause for alarm, but conditions merit an extra measure of caution. I will continue to keep you advised. We are grateful for the expertise of the Church Security Department, which has a wealth of experience in preserving the health and safety of missionaries worldwide in a variety of circumstances over many years.”

Glad that things are OK! Keep her in your prayers! 

It amazes me!

One of the things that's really awesome is to see how members of the ward come together to help teach and support our investigators. I'm thrilled to see how much love and caring goes out, and how many prayers go up to support them and to support us as missionaries! I'm so thankful for everybody!

More on the hanbok lady!

So I have to start this out by saying we have been WAY busy! It's been like a week since I started to tell you about the hanbok lady coming to church. She was super excited to start learning!

I thought she was pretty sweet to say that. She's soooo funny! Anyway, the ward has really embraced her -- I'll tell you more about that later, too!

I heard that the North (Ibuk) agreed to let some of the families that were divided by the war have a reunion with their family members in the South. That's kind of cool. I hope it's a good sign! It would be so awesome to take the Gospel up to the North! Probably not yet, but it could happen.

There's also a lot of talk about one of the Olympic ice skaters from Korea. She's like a superstar here! Her picture is everywhere and people are always asking us if we saw her skate and we say no, we don't even watch TV. I probably couldn't understand anything anyway!

Anyway, we've got appointments set up to teach the hanbok lady -- Sis. Yi, by the way. It's spelled  이, but it can be romanized as Rhee, Lee, Yi and I'm sure some other ways as well. She's awesome, and on track! Woo-hoo!

Bearing testimony

It's actually an easy thing to do. "I said" can sound an awful lot like "I'm a peanut," especially with an American accent. The thing that's humiliating is that I've done it more than once. Oops!

Food for thought

My Grandpa, who served in the Korean War, loved this TV show called M*A*S*H. He said it reminded him a lot of his time in Korea. There was one episode that Grandpa liked where one of the guys, Major Frank Burns (who was kind of a weenie), taught an English class for the locals. For some reason, the other guys (who didn't like Maj. Burns) taught the class for him one day, and taught them the phrase, "Frank Burns eats worms!" My Grandpa would laugh whenever anyone said that. Teaching the English class reminded me of that, so I taught it to our class, too! I hope I don't get into too much trouble over that!

Post-Independence

We don’t normally hear fireworks in the halls of the MTC. But when you’re just a few blocks from the Stadium of Fire at BYU, we could certainly hear them! We could see just a few of them over the buildings. It was kind of exciting…but then it made me think that I won’t be seeing Fourth of July fireworks again for nearly two years!

It’s been a pretty amazing week. I got to give a talk in church. They tell us to always be ready because you never know when they’re going to call on you. Well, I was ready, and I did. It was just a short talk on Joseph Smith and the restoration. And did I mention that it was all in Korean? At least it was supposed to be! They told me I did a good job.

We had an awesome time teaching our pretend investigators. It’s kind of fun to feel more and more confident in the language. But I’m sure that will change soon!

Oh! Remember what I said about Korean being so easy that you could learn to read it in just a few minutes? Well, guess what? They also use Chinese characters sometimes! Just when I thought a mission would be easy! : )

BTW, I had an interesting experience doing laundry today...