TRIAL OF FAITH

Well transfer calls are tonight. I think I will be staying with my companion. Things are going great between us. She is awesome and so much fun. Our area however has been struggling. Only three investigators and possible down to two by the end of this week. Plus people have been so rude and mean to us on the streets. It hurts.

I was talking to this lady while she waited to cross the street, it started off casual, then as we crossed the street I transitioned it into gospel. half-way across the road, the suddenly stops. I walk a couple steps past her, then she turns so that she is on the other side of the cross walk. It was so mean! So that was so discouraging. And the days following we had many other experiences with people just talking with mean tones in their voices and just being rude. I understand how people aren't interested in our message. But its not hard to turn us down nicely.

Then on top of mean people we had an investigator drop us. She is from Vietnam, a mail-order bride and was introduced to us to start learning English. We've only met her twice. We called to see if she could meet us Friday and my companion was talking and she said "Why are you calling?" Then my companion ask, "This isn't Ming is it?" The lady replied "no" this is here family and she can't meet with you. She was so dumb. She tried to pretend to be Ming who has the worst accent when speaking Korean. And really, I am positive Ming would have liked to meet again. But she's sadly she is controlled by her family, like most other Korean woman. So sad. Just is frustrating, because her family probably thinks our church is bad. Like so many people are told by their preacher. So dumb. Really is frustrating when that happens because we are good people and we BELIEVE in GOD. Anyways, so that was sad that we lost our investigator Ming. :( So basically...its been ruff here, but we just keep on working hard. I know God will bless us. Just got to endure and continue to be diligent.

ONE WEEK LEFT

So it is one week left till transfers! Goes by so fast. Me and Sister Cho hope to stay together another transfer. We have lots of fun and work really hard together.

This past week we met one of our eternal investigators, Gee InSheer. She's been meeting on and off with the missionaries for six years. Tuesday we met her and talked about acting on faith and then committed her to get baptized May 5th. She answered exactly the way we thought she would, "no". When then followed up with "why". She explained how she loves coffee. She's worried that if she gets baptized she will just start drinking coffee again. She understands the importance of a baptismal commitment and doesn't want to break it.

In response to her concern I talked to her about a friend I had who gave up smoking when he got baptized. But even after baptism once or twice he had a smoke. I told her we are not perfect. Even after baptism we will continue to make mistakes, but as long as we strive to keep the commandments God will help us and forgive us.

After addressing her concern a little more we followed up with the question "Will you get baptized?" Then tearful she explained how she loves meeting with us, or otherwise she would not be. But she told us that she prayed about the church and based off a dream she had she felt the church was not for her.

Me and my companion have different ideas on how we should handle the situation. My thought was she wasn't living any of the commandments, reading, nor coming to church when she prayed about it, so how can she know. She didn't do all that she could. Plus, the church is for everyone! So my thought was next lesson to tell her she didn't even try. My companion, who has a friendship with this woman was thinking of slowly dropping her and easing up, because our investigator talked about feeling pressure. So, we decided to fast about it, which we did Sunday.

My companion shared with me this morning the impression she got for Gee InSheer and all our investigators: "Push them". I like it. We got some amazing investigators that need a little bit of good pressure to get them acting more and making commitments! So I am excited for this next week and the next transfer.

So this past Tuesday we had a lunch appointment with a member. We had ShabuShabu. Its a light lunch that leaves you feeling satisfied. Then ten mintues after the lunch we were at an appointment with an investigator. We looked in her office and both saw this HUGE McDonalds bag. My companion turns to me and says "Please tell that bag is full of something else and not food." Sadly it was food. She gave us Double Mac Burgers accompanied with french fries and a soda. It was was painful eating that meal. Any other time I would have enjoyed a burger, but it was just too much. The food didn't want to go down my throat. However painful that it was, it was so sweet of our investigator to do that for us. We've seemed to have alot of similar moments this week. I know I've gained weight :(

REACHING GOALS

Me and Sister Cho have been working really hard together. Our area has little investigators and only one out of six is progressing. So this week we have been working hard to reach our goals, espeacially of getting lessons on the street.

This week we got a lesson on the street, three days in a row! So exciting. Sadly, all punk'd when Sunday came around...But that doesn't matter. We are showing our faith and diligence and trying to meet with everyone.  At the end of this week we got 6 lessons and 14 member visits. So we reached our goal of 20 lessons for the week.

Also, we set a higher contacting goal for the week, which we reached and went beyond. We contacted 156 people on the streets of Seoul this past week. Seems like a small number, but we talked to everyone, where ever we went, and met some crazies along the way.

One grandma we talked to sang to us the way people do in old Korean songs (which isn't pretty). The same lady told me I was fat. And she spends $80 dollars on her dog to get it's hair colored bright red on the ears and tail and permed. She explained to us how dogs are sooo expensive? Well, if you buy your dog cloths and style its hair like that...then of course it is lady. Anyways, she was fun to talk with.

Then we met our creepy man from last week again. He gave my companion a hug.LOL! He is really nice, but just a little off. He wanted to buy us dinner, but we had to get home. But I am sure we will see him again, because is was the third time in two weeks. Next time we will get his number and refer him to the Elders.

Last Friday we had a member call us about her upstairs neighbor. While in the elevator she complemented on our neighbor's heart-attacked door. She then explained to her about how the missionaries to that. So she gave us a call, then we came over and heart-attacked the neighbors door. We then knocked and introduced ourselves. She was so nice and invited us in, but we had another appointment and didn't. So we will go visit her again and hopefully have more time to share more about who we are and our church! So cool. We also got a really great refferal. So the Lord has been blessing us in so many ways as weve worked hard to find those prepared people.