I've been trying to write down fun quotes again. I want to keep sharing them.
I'm sorry about last week! We had a big meeting on Thursday--the whole mission got together to hear a professor from BYU talk about Korean history and religion. Travel time, and then some technical difficulties with computer resulted in...last week's short email.
It was a great lecture, though, and wonderful to see the other missionaries. It's the first time we've met all together. Now that I live in a house of just two instead of four sisters, it feels like I know the elders--the male missionaries--better. And they're a lot of fun!
We had a neat experience on our way to come email last week. A woman in the elevator started talking to us as we were coming down from our apartment to come email. She's lived there a few years, and has seen the missionaries come and go. We set an appointment to meet her, and we've already met her three times since last week. She lives on the 19th floor. We live on the 6th.
We've had some other neat appointments recently. Last week, we finished the six-week English program with Kim Jeong-ah--had our last lesson.Kim Jeong-ah lives never married, lives alone. She teaches yoga as a hobby, and is the kind of person who seems comfortable in any situation with any person.
After English time, we started gospel time, and asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon. After she said it was hard, we started to talk about some ways of doing it--looking at topics, we suggested. We pulled out the Book of Mormon Introduction card we use, with some questions on it and where to find the answers in the Book of Mormon for another example of how to study. And all of a sudden she said--I've wondered about that question.
It was a question about why God allows suffering to occur. We read the passage the card suggested--about Alma and Amulek, how they taught people the gospel, but then the people who believed were burned. We read what they wrote, and talked about the principles of free agency--how the persecuters had that choice--and of justice--how they couldn't choose the consequences. We talked about how God is just, and how the atonement makes things just.
And to end the lesson, we sang to her. We sang a church song, a children's song about prayer. She loved it, and she sang a song for us--a song about God. There was just a sweet feeling in the lesson. She bought us ice cream on our way to the bus stop, and we said goodbye.
We had dinner again last night with Kim Jeong-jah, the retired international gymnastics judge. Recently for English time she has me correct the autobiography she's writing in English--she decided it would be good language practice, and, she said, every day is the same for her, so instead of writing a journal, she would write about her past. She is endlessly interesting to me. She was born in North Korea, and her and her family were refugees twice during the Korean war. Her husband--her "kid's father," as she says it--was a fencer on the Korean national team and competed in the Olympics. He would come in every night at curfew (there was a curfew--at midnight), and later moved to California and owned a dollar store. She finished a book a couple of years ago about rhythmic gymnastics, and gave me a signed copy.
We invited her to be baptized this week. She didn't really answer. She did say, though, that she had been thinking. Thinking about if her husband had been a member of this church, which teaches no drinking. She's come to church a couple of times, said a few times that maybe she could see herself joining it.
I hope so.
I love you all dearly, and I hope you have a wonderful week!
--Carrie
I'm sorry about last week! We had a big meeting on Thursday--the whole mission got together to hear a professor from BYU talk about Korean history and religion. Travel time, and then some technical difficulties with computer resulted in...last week's short email.
It was a great lecture, though, and wonderful to see the other missionaries. It's the first time we've met all together. Now that I live in a house of just two instead of four sisters, it feels like I know the elders--the male missionaries--better. And they're a lot of fun!
We had a neat experience on our way to come email last week. A woman in the elevator started talking to us as we were coming down from our apartment to come email. She's lived there a few years, and has seen the missionaries come and go. We set an appointment to meet her, and we've already met her three times since last week. She lives on the 19th floor. We live on the 6th.
We've had some other neat appointments recently. Last week, we finished the six-week English program with Kim Jeong-ah--had our last lesson.Kim Jeong-ah lives never married, lives alone. She teaches yoga as a hobby, and is the kind of person who seems comfortable in any situation with any person.
After English time, we started gospel time, and asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon. After she said it was hard, we started to talk about some ways of doing it--looking at topics, we suggested. We pulled out the Book of Mormon Introduction card we use, with some questions on it and where to find the answers in the Book of Mormon for another example of how to study. And all of a sudden she said--I've wondered about that question.
It was a question about why God allows suffering to occur. We read the passage the card suggested--about Alma and Amulek, how they taught people the gospel, but then the people who believed were burned. We read what they wrote, and talked about the principles of free agency--how the persecuters had that choice--and of justice--how they couldn't choose the consequences. We talked about how God is just, and how the atonement makes things just.
And to end the lesson, we sang to her. We sang a church song, a children's song about prayer. She loved it, and she sang a song for us--a song about God. There was just a sweet feeling in the lesson. She bought us ice cream on our way to the bus stop, and we said goodbye.
We had dinner again last night with Kim Jeong-jah, the retired international gymnastics judge. Recently for English time she has me correct the autobiography she's writing in English--she decided it would be good language practice, and, she said, every day is the same for her, so instead of writing a journal, she would write about her past. She is endlessly interesting to me. She was born in North Korea, and her and her family were refugees twice during the Korean war. Her husband--her "kid's father," as she says it--was a fencer on the Korean national team and competed in the Olympics. He would come in every night at curfew (there was a curfew--at midnight), and later moved to California and owned a dollar store. She finished a book a couple of years ago about rhythmic gymnastics, and gave me a signed copy.
We invited her to be baptized this week. She didn't really answer. She did say, though, that she had been thinking. Thinking about if her husband had been a member of this church, which teaches no drinking. She's come to church a couple of times, said a few times that maybe she could see herself joining it.
I hope so.
I love you all dearly, and I hope you have a wonderful week!
--Carrie
No comments:
Post a Comment