Another nice week!!! A hot one (easily the hottest of my mission) but an awesome one for sure! This week did have its bad though: the worst part came as Elder Wilcox and I found a Korean superstition to be completely true. Supposedly, pork is like super super bad for you in the summertime in that it just makes you really sick. We didn't know this until after a lunch appointment with our member, which took place at a restaurant that advertises it sells the "biggest Pork Cutlet in Suwon"--which at the time seemed awesome! And it definitely is the biggest one I have ever eaten. Maybe the biggest mistake I have eaten in Korea as well because not long after that appointment Elder Wilcox and I were just hammered in the church. We couldn't even move (haha), so we just laid in a room where there was at least some AC and tried calling some Less Active members. It was awful! I haven't been that sick in a long time! But hey, fortunately we learned the pork lesson quick in to the summer! We won't be making that mistake again!:) AND we learned a lot about some of our Less Active members. Yeah! There is a silver lining in everything, that is for sure.
So because of this week's heat wave, the
appointments were a little bit down, but we still met with some really
cool people and we actually were fed by a lot by members. Because appointments were slow, though, we were left
with a lot of time to find this week which was great. Finding in Korea is
nothing like I thought it would be. Usually
the only way we can find people is through stopping them on the street
when they are on their way to work or something, and then the other
opportunities are usually just on the subway or bus. We hardly ever go
"knocking doors"--it is absolutely so rare to knock doors here, which is due mostly to the apartment structures setup. But every now and then,
there is a building without a password and locked doors. On Thursday night we found a huge group of those kind of apartments, so we went knockin! It was my first time in like 4 months, and only my 3rd time in 11 months, and it was classic Korean door knocking! It is the weirdest thing,
but Koreans are so afraid of being robbed and stuff like that (even
though this might be the safest country in the whole world) that when
someone knocks on their door, they refuse to open. They just speak to
you through the door. Getting
them to open is nearly impossible. We succeeded only in getting a couple of people to
scream at us and tell us to leave and to get some dogs barking.
As we were leaving, we obviously did not feel very productive. It was depressing, so we both plopped down on the bus stop bench and were just kind of sitting there when some younger aged lady came and sat right next to me and just stared at us! It was probably at my companion's handsome face, I don't know, but I took advantage and started up the conversation and she was sick! After a little small talk she asked, "So what brings you to Korea?" I told her we were missionaries and she got a really confused look and was like "what church??" Right as she asked, some dude at the stop just yelled "MORMONS!" hahaha what the? Then he just went off about how much he loves Mormons because they really helped him out one time back in the day, and then he offered to buy us dinner and all kinds of stuff. What a weird experience. Anyway, he left and then she asked, "so you are Mormons?" We responded in the affirmative, of course. As it turned out, we actually got on the same bus and she had serious interest! So I had the privilege of explaining our church for a few stops and I even got to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. What a blessing after a looong day of what was looking to be a day with no visible results. Man it was so cool!
As we were leaving, we obviously did not feel very productive. It was depressing, so we both plopped down on the bus stop bench and were just kind of sitting there when some younger aged lady came and sat right next to me and just stared at us! It was probably at my companion's handsome face, I don't know, but I took advantage and started up the conversation and she was sick! After a little small talk she asked, "So what brings you to Korea?" I told her we were missionaries and she got a really confused look and was like "what church??" Right as she asked, some dude at the stop just yelled "MORMONS!" hahaha what the? Then he just went off about how much he loves Mormons because they really helped him out one time back in the day, and then he offered to buy us dinner and all kinds of stuff. What a weird experience. Anyway, he left and then she asked, "so you are Mormons?" We responded in the affirmative, of course. As it turned out, we actually got on the same bus and she had serious interest! So I had the privilege of explaining our church for a few stops and I even got to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. What a blessing after a looong day of what was looking to be a day with no visible results. Man it was so cool!
This experience helped me to
realize that sometimes our blessings are just around the corner if we
can be patient and endure well! God really does love us and wants to
bless us as much as he can! It reminds me of a cool scripture in the Book
of Mormon:
"...bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."
I
know this to be true! It just happened to me this week, and it can
happen to all of us--everyday. I love you all. Have a good week!!
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