BAPTISM, GIFTS & SERVICE

One of our investigators, 윤상아 (Yoon Sang Aah) accepted a baptismal invitation. She is 23 years old and we've been meeting her for three transfers now, off and on. Her brother was a refferal from another ward member. Then he reffered his sister to us before he got baptized.

He wanted to get baptized with her but she wasn't ready yet. She has taken some time. At her brothers baptism she said it was really cool but she's not ready. Since we've been teaching she has had baptism in her mind, but we've never brought it up with her. I think her brother is the one who put that thought into her mind.

Over the course of three months we had only taught her lesson one, the Restoratoin. She was so hard to meet, busy with school and a little scared. But I think because of her brother's example she's changed over the past two months we haven't met her. We've met her now constiatnly for three weeks and she said she felt really good coming to church, even though it was hard to wake up for.

We finished teaching lesson three and at the end of the lesson I asked her "Do you want to follow Jesus Chirst?" And she told us how she thinks about it all the time. Then we asked her to get baptized and she said "Yes"! I am so excited about her baptism! She is great and really fun to teach because she is our age. She is still scared of making mistakes after baptism, but we told her we all do and not to worry. I am happy though that she is thinking seriously about her baptismal commit, that's so wonderful.

On the way to church the other day I was sitting on the subway train.

In walk three old men carry recyling stuff. One of them kept saying "I am sorry" to me in broken english. Don't know why he kept on saying that to me, the only explanation was he looked drunk. He kept on trying to talked to me but his english was slurred. Finally his says "gift" in korean and hands me two church pamphlets and a package of tissue. I tell him thank you and we get off the train. Thank you drunk man for the tissues, because I actually really did need some at that moment to blow my nose.

Another cool experience on the subway, is I got up so a Grandma could sit down. She kind of fought me, but I finally got her to sit. Then she asked where I was from and I explained to her how I am a missionary. I then asked about her religion and family and talked about my family and our gospel. Then my companion joined in and introduced the Book of Mormon. It was really great converation and teh lady asked us questions. We didn't get her number but gave her a pamphlet. When you do service to others on the street it really does provide an opprotunity to introduce the gospel in a more normal way.

People are way more likely to listen.

I AM GETTING BETTER AT KOREAN

So yesterday me and Sister Ha were calling potential investigators. This week we got 18 phone numbers, which is crazy! That's more then I have gotten in the past five months. I feel like greenies and especially future Temple Square missionaries come with special abilities. My companion is so adorable and nice and she asks everyone for their number and they just give it her. Anyways, we called up this one lady. I started talking to her first. She remebered me and she started saying stuff I couldn't understand when I asked if she could meet again, so I quickly gave the phone to my Korean greenie. Half-way into the converstaion, she says "Your Korean is so, so good!" Then Sister Ha decides to pretend she is me and answers her questions about where I am from and tells her I only studied Korea for 3 months before I came to Korea and the lady is super impressed. I am just laughing and Sister Ha is trying not to laugh out loud on the phone. Then the converstaion ended. The lady couldn't meet because she was going back to Canada, which is good, because if she wanted to meet she might think, "umm...Sister Hill really isn't good at Korean."

So me and my companion cover two ward that meet in seperate buildings. I haven't gone to BoonDang ward for a month because we had an awesome investigator in Suji, who got baptized two weeks ago now. So during our missionary meeting our Ward Mission Leader was like your Korean is so much better. That was so good to hear, because he has known since I was a greenie. Yeah!!!

Well, yesterday was my Birthday. I am 24 years old. But by the new year, in Korea I will be 26 years old! The Elders in my district call me Hwang Newna, which means the king of the sisters. Yes I am the oldest sister in the mission according to age, but there are Elders older then me, so that makes me feel better. But one day Elder Jung was guessing when I was born and he asked "1988?, no 1989?" It hurt to say "1987". His reply, "Your five years older then me!" From then on he has called me "Hwang Newna". Having a Birthday on the mission is just werid. It doesn't feel like a special day, just another day doing missionary work. But that's okay. I will have plenty of more opprotunites to celebrate my birthday. Now is the time to focus and work. I am so grateful to be on a mission, for seeing blessing happen everyday, and for an all-star greenie.

A CRAZY TRANSFER CALL

Monday night me and my companion, Sister Park,  are sitting in a Dunkin Donuts with our investigator when we got a call. If Mission President calls you know someone is leaving. If APs call, it means both of you are staying. Well, the phone caller I.D. said Mission President. Sister Park answers and has complete shock on her face then she hands the phone to me. Sister Park got assignded to open up a new sister mission area with an American from her MTC group. President told me that I would be training in BooDang. Honestly, I thought I would be leaving this transfer, but no I am here for five transfers. I will never leave my greenie area! 어떻께?

Then next day President called us again and told Sister Park that she instead would be whitewashing a different area. A sister is sick so President wants her closer to him in the newly opened area. Then he informed my greeine wouldn't be here till Saturday and until then I would stay with Hong Jay sisters, with Sister Ellis and her new greenie Sister Rovelsky. Wednesday was transfer day, I love transfers days, you get to everyone who you haven't seen in a long time. So much fun. We all meet at one place in the subway. At least 80 - 100 missionaries. Everyone stays for at least an hour. After switching companions off we were to President's house to meet the newbies.

We received traning from President then the greenies came in. We all then got matched up with our new companions, except me because she had not come yet. I felt left out when we did Proseltying practice. LOL. I had no one to do it with. We ate lunch cooked by our beloved Mission President's wife. She is awesome and cooks American style for us. So delicous. I miss American food. Then we recieved more training and off we went to our areas.

I stayed in a threesome wiht Sister Ellis and Sister Rovelsky, so much fun. I love threesomes, never a dull moment. Sister Ellis is an amazing mission and I was so grateful to be able to learn from her for a couple days. Her area is really small so we walked everywhere, which I am not use to. My are is HUGE so we always have to take a bus to do anything. Needless to say I was always like 10ft. behind them when we walked and going up this one hill about killed me. I am so out of shape. Sister Ellis and Rovelsky felt bad for me, because I just could not keep up, so SAD. The next day after climbing in this hill we climbed up a hill as steep as a mountain. When we turn to go up it I stop and say to Sister Ellis "You got to be kidding me". I feel bad for the people who live up this hill, its so steep there is a railing for you to hang on to. I don't know what those people do when there is snow and ice on the ground. So we got up to the top of the hill and Sister Ellis ask me if I have the paper with the scripture references written down. "No" I reply. We all just start laughing. Then headed back down the hill. I had left the scriptures references in my bag that I had left at the house thinking all I need is my Book of Mormon. Lame. The house I stayed at is so tiny. I slept diagonally in the dressing room. Sister Ellis says she wants to ask President for a bigger apartment because whenever a sister needs a place to stay its always at her house because she is so close to the Mission Office.

On Saturday morning we went the Mission Office so I could meet my greenie. 20 mintues after we arrived she drove up with her mom and older brother. I was so nervous. My missionary is a temporary missionary. She has never been to the MTC and is waiting for visa to come. In Febuary she wil leave to go serve in Temple Square. Knowing this made me so nervous. The MTC teaches you the rules, how to teach the lessons and how to be a successful missionary. But with her I would have to do all that and help her adjust to the mission field. I feel so much responsibility right now, because our APs said that our greenies are images of us. So I want to be a great example to her, so she too will become a great example to others and be an obedient missionary. Aah!

So far so good. She had an awesome first day. After her parents dropped her off the Office Elders drove us to our area. Such a blessing, it would have killed us moving all that luggae on the subway. When they found out we had to transfer three times President told them to take us. Yes! It was a fun ride. One of the office Elders, Elder Fowers, loves to talk and even though he was driving, cutting-off people and making random U-turns, he talked the whole way and kept us alive. After dropping us off, we went straight to English class and then had to leave early to head to a dinner appointment 45minutes away in Suji area. We went and ate Karbi with a family and Suji Elders. So much fun and the food was absolutely delicious! Karbi is expensive steak stuff that you grill. First time I had it. I have been wanting to try it for a long time now, but could not afford it. Then after eating the mom gave us leather gloves lined with sheep fur for the winter. They spent so much money on us and told us it was an early Christmas present. So nice of them. This area is has a lot of wealthy people. So my greenie had an awesome first day of being a missionary. We got home planned and did some more things before going to bed. My greenie is so cute and stayed up studying some things. Her head was drooping and I told her, you don't have to stay up till 10:30, you can go to bed. Immediatly she stops what she is doing, changes and is dead asleep by the time I get out of the shower. It will be a good transfer, I can already tell my new greenie is a hard worker.

STRESS!!!!!

Yesterday was probably one of the most stressful days I have ever experience on a mission. Yesterday was Stake conference and right afterwards we had a baptism. Needless to say after church was absolutely insane because of the amount of people in the building. And my companion I swear knows at least half of the Korean church member population. Which is great, but yesterday was not a good time to see old friends.

First let me explain 안태현. This little boy got baptized over two weeks ago and hasn't been to church since to recieve the Holy Ghost. The first week he had to pack up thier house and the next week they made Kimchi. So this week again he was not goint to come, but this Thursday he moves, so I called his Dad to tell him he has to come. I am sure he would have recieved the Holy Ghost in the new ward, but I don't want to have to worry about for longer and try and coordinate with the missionaries in the new ward, I wanted it DONE with.

So thankfully he showed up to church with his two older sisters, so when I told Bishop he said they can't confirm at Stake Conference. I expalined to his the Thursday he is moving and I think he could tell by the stress in my eyes, this little boy needed to recieve the Holy Ghost. So he talked to the Stake President and read the Bishop manuel. At the end of stake conference he told me "yes" they could do it, they just need to get permission from our Mission President. Thankfully, our Mission President answered and gave the okay!

While this is all happening with 안태현 I am trying to also help get 김실숙 ready for baptism all while my company is taking pictures with old friends and talking to another on the phone. After a little while I snapped and told her "You need to get off the phone now", very sterntly, I didn't yell. Then Elder Duke saw and made a scared expression on his face and said "whoa". Then my zone leader who was also there said "You look stressed."

Thankfully because of miracles from above and the work of our members 안태현 got the Holy Ghost and 김실숙 was ready for the baptism. I swear, under all that stress I could not communicate anything in Korean, all the little Korean I knew was gone.

That baptism was so peacefully and you could feel the Spirit there. Every baptism I have had, I just feel the Spirit so stronly testify to me. My companionship and Suji prepared a musically number. A meldoy of two Primary songs. Boondong Elder joined us even though we had no time to practice with them before the baptism. We needed more men's voice, because Elder Bae was playing the piano. It turned out so well. 김실숙's eyes swelled up with tears and she continous wiped them aways as we sang. She was so ready for baptism. She was golden. We've been meeting her for almost two months now. She just had a great desire to learn, she kept all her comittments and had faith. It was such a blessing to see her progress so quickly as she strived to know whether or not this message was true or not. She acted with real intent. She is so awesome.

PATIENCE

Yesterday was a trying day. I held back tears the whole day, finally breaking down in the shower. So me and my companion cover two wards, which is really hard. I don't like it. Anyways, we went to Suji, this is only the second time we have been there this transfer. In Gospel Principles class there were no investigators or recent converts, so the teacher, the old Busan Mission President, decided to role play. He wanted me and Elder Duke, the other foreinger to pratice teaching the Restoration in five minutes. Elder Duke was suppose to go first, but after a akward silence of waiting for him to start, I got to go. I started out, got to prophets, the third principle and was interrupted and given advice on how to better answer a question the fake investigator had. It was good advice, but for the rest of the time this old mission president chastized us on how missionaries must always be prepared and how our Korean needs to get better...blah, blah, blah. Needless to say, leaving that class I was mad. I felt so stupid  because I am horrible at understanding korean and had to look to my companion to translate the whole time. All I can talk about and understand well is gospel. But if someone talks about thier own religion or random subjects, I have no idea what is being said.

Then our day got better when we had dinner at the Ward Mission Leader's house. He and his friend explained how when they were missionaries they never spoke english, only Korean. That's wonderful, but it's hard to do that when your companion speaks fluent english. I know we both need to do better at speaking Korean, but is was just annoying to be told these things. And once again, I felt stupid for not understand most of what they said to me. It's werid, when I listen to my companion speak Korean I understand well, but any other person and I can't follow the conversation. Then after we left my companion told me how he got after us for not spending more time in Suji. Asking us why don't we go to Suji english class too? Or why don't you know all the members names? I mean you've been coming here for 4 weeks, you should know every by know! Right?

Needless to say, I was not in a happy mood. First of all it is so hard to be responsible over two wards, second we are busy and don't have time to go to a second english class full of old people who have been coming to english for 5 years and still haven't joined the church. Third, our mission president told us to focus on BoonDang. I asked him this question, because its been a concern for me covering two wards. Grr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so frustrated. So last night I just cried. Advice, anyone? Please e-mail me.

I know I just told you about my troubles, but in all honesty our members are great and they weren't mean to me or my companion. Just the advice and critism they gave stressed me out and made me feel frustrated and more aware of how much I suck at speaking and understanding Korean.