My Mission to Korea

MISSION BLESSINGS

Funny Korean words...only to English Speakers or maybe just me.

"Rain" in Korean is 비 {pee}

"Yes" in Korean is 네 {neh}

"Lame" in Korean is 홀 {hor}

It's been raining so much in Korean. The biggest rain to hit Korea in 100 years! Wow. I set outside, walk five steps and the back of my skirt is drench and my shoes soaking wet. Around 60 people have died because of flash flooding and landslides. Really sad. And several subway lines had to be shut down because of the amount of rain. But my area has been safe, the river rose 4 - 6 feet, but it was easy to avoid, so no problems. It just makes street contacting a little challenging. Our numbers always go down when there is rain.

Exciting news... 안다희 {an-da-hee} is getting baptized on August 14th! She is 11 years old. We found out last Sunday from our Mission Leader that her mom consented to her being baptized. We are so excited. The day we were gong to her house to officially comitt her to baptism was the day we had record breaking rain. So the mom called us and told us we did not have to come. She was worried about our safety. But we just lied and said we have another appointment in the area and have to go there anyways. A lot of people call us to cancel if the weather is bad because they feel bad to have us come to thier home in such bad weather. But it doesn't matter if its 100 degrees or 40 below, raining or snowing, we have to be out working no matter what. And we were determined to make this appointment happen.

안다희 is such a beautiful little girl. So sweet and fun. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We asked what she thought about those things and one of the things she mentioned was she think Joseph Smith is "handsome." So cute. Her mom was sitting next to her when we asked if she'd get baptized. She looks at her mom and she tells her, "It's you choice." Then she smiles and says "YES". She has such a good family. Both her sisters are very active and her parents are supportitive. She already attends church reguarly. She will continue to grow in the gospel and be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord. Future missionary perhaps :)

In District Meeting we recieved awesome training on improving our methods on finding people. First, go to areas you've never been before, don't always choose the most populated area, explore. Second, vary your church material. Use all the different kids of pamphlets, not just the Baptism card and Book of Mormon Pamphlet. Give them what they need according to their individual needs. And thrid, ask inspired questions. I really need this lesson on how to improve my contacting. It got me really excited and motivated to implement what we learned.

Me and my companion have been working hard to implement what we learned. Like walking to appointments instead of riding the bus, even if it is so hot. A couple days ago we did that and talked to three people over the course of 2 miles. Sad. But later that night it was super nice out, so we decided to do contacting along the river. We 전도  for two hours! It didn't seem that long though. We talked to 25 people and got two phone numbers. Out of all the people in Korea, we talked to one who had already read the Book of Mormon. Sister 정 asked her an inspired questions, "did you pray about this book?" She replied "no". So she challenged her to read it again and to pray about this Book if it is true. She said "okay" and we got her phone number and gave her a Book of Mormon. The other lady we talked to, was very short, but she said she'd like to hear more and gave us her phone number and address. So many blessings. It was amazing.

Yesterday, we decided to do door contacting in a new area, we've only driven by on Bus 17. It's definatly the countryside, not many apartments. But we stopped at one place that had some and had great success. Door knocking in Korea, from what I ve been told, is not effective. But many people opened the door for us and we even got a return appoitment! Miracles! She is a girl around the age of 14. She said she wants to go to church but doesn't know which one to choose. There are tons in Korea. There are more churches in Korea than covnient shops. She wants to learn more and we will meet her later this week. The Lord really has blessed us with wonderful opprotunities. I am so grateful. You just realize how God will lead you to his prepared people or them to you. So true.