Hello!!
It's been a good week (do I say that every week?). Thursday night we had dinner with a member who is a little less active. Towards the end of the visit we were sharing a message from the scriptures, encouraging her to read on her own. And then she said that, a few months ago, she wasn't reading or praying because things were hard. But then the missionaries started visiting--me and Sister Lee--and after that, she started thinking that because things were hard, she should probably be reading and praying. And so she's been doing it more often lately. I was just so grateful to hear that. That something we did mattered. And then she said I was a good missionary. I had been feeling a little down that day, and what she said turned it around. Goodness, we need each other to help each other. We helped her, and she certainly helped me.
On Saturday, there was an area (stake-wide) fun meeting with Robert Holley. He's an American who when he was younger served as a missionary in Korea, eventually moved back, married a Korean...he's a lawyer originally but works in broadcasting, did some English-learning stuff, I think, some acting...anyway, I guess he's kind of famous here.
Well, it turns out that the uncle of my new companion, Sister Park, lives in the area we cover. She got special permission to call him and invite him to the meeting. And he came! Missionaries have so many rules that it made it just a little awkward--first of all me (her companion) having to always be with her, and then, when he wanted to take us to dinner, because of a rule that sister missionaries can't meet alone with a man, a church sister came with us...a little strange, but we think he had a good experience.
At dinner we were talking. He showed us his hand--he's missing about half of three fingers. He was ten years old at the time of the Korean war, he said. He lost the fingers because of a hand grenade. He said there's still shrapnel (sp?) in his hand that has worked its way out over the years. One day a few years ago he was washing his face and all of a sudden something cut his face. It was a piece of that hand grenade that had been in one of his fingers for years.
On Tuesday we went and visited another member. She's newer in the church--she was baptized about three years ago, I think. We went and talked to her about the temple. She has never gone, not even seen it, I think. I'm so glad there's a temple close to here--it makes it so much easier (I imagine) to help people look towards the temple. We told her about how all people need to be baptized, though there are people who lived and died without that opportunity. So, because God is merciful and just, he has provided a way for all people to be able to follow Christ though baptism--that those who died without that knowledge will still be able to learn, and that we, in our bodies, can be baptized in behalf of them on earth, in the temple. We were explaining about it, showing pictures, and she said, it seems to be a very sacred place.
And timing worked out well--the bishop and his councilors meet at the church on Wednesdays (this was a Tuesday), and a group are going to the temple to do baptisms on Saturday. So she had an interview with the bishop last night, and is going.
And then, last night we met some new people. The elders had met the mom on the bus, they were interested in the English program, and we had some time last night, so we went to their house to meet them. A grandma, mom, and daughter. Sister Park was trying to place their accent and asked right away where they were from. Turns out...from North Korea. Right on the boarder with China (that's how they got here--went through China, and then Thailand, I think). They came about a year ago, though the girls older sister had come first. Three years before. She was fourteen and left on her own--her mom had no idea what happened to her, she explained. Ran away? Dead?
After some time, the grandma's sister sent them some money, and that's how they're here. The ten-year-old stood up and sang some songs for us, songs about Jesus she had learned. I had seen a documentary years ago about North Korea with a child standing and singing just like that. She sat down, and the mom talked about Kim Jeong Il--about how he didn't allow churches in North Korea. About how people didn't learn about Jesus Christ.
Well, I'm out of time! More next week!
With love,
Carrie
