04 Dec 2008
Wow, it was quite the week. At least I don't have to do the first ever week in Korea again! Few! Maybe my first or second full day, we were transfering between buses--walking between stops--and I was thinking about how I needed to be talking to people--but I can't talk to people--and why didn't they just send me to Argentina where I could actually communicate?--Argentina, wait, why not to Idaho, for heavens sakes? I came on a mission thinking I had down the lesson of trusting God. I think I'm getting a little more practice, though. Which is good.
The mission president's wife and president (Sister and President Burton) hosted a zone for Thanksgiving, so we got to go there for turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce.... It was lovely. We were just missing the kim chi. A meal without kim chi. Or rice. (Hardly complete!)
That night, Sister Burton was going to take me to the doctor when she heard me still coughing. But after a teaching appointment, she and President Burton had talked it over and gave me some cough drops, pm cold tabs, a humidifier, got me a blessing, and drove us home. And I'm doing great--all fixed up:) I'm being taken good care of.
It has been a big adjustment to see how investigators actually learn and progress (after practicing teaching in the MTC), but it has been wonderful to start meeting with real people! And we actually are meeting with and teaching people--I really didn't know what to expect in that regard, either.
The missions in Korea do an English program, where we tutor English for 30 minutes, then teach the gospel lessons for 30 minutes. English is in high demand here--thinking about it, I think that is just part of how fast their country changes, which in turn seems part of how hard, hard, hard they work (another manifestation of that--rush hour is a couple hours later than in the US). I was kind of doubtful about the 30/30 program, but we're upfront about how it works, and there really are people who are receptive to the gospel lessons who first learn about the Church because of the English program.
We only talk to women in contacting, and we only meet with women. And we are meeting with some really neat people. One wants to be a flight attendant for Korean Air ("flight attendants are like rock stars here," one of the other sisters said once), so she needs to know English (and Japanese or Chinese). She seems receptive to what we teach about the gospel, too, and prayed the first time we asked her to, even though she hadn't ever before. That was a really neat experience--to hear somebody's first prayer. We meet at the church, and last time she brought us dak bogoi--big, thinck rice noodles in spicy sauce that we ate by stabbing them with wooden skewers.
Then there's a high school home ec teacher who files her nails into points. Her husband is an author, she's Catholic, and she has traveled all over the world. She has a month long break starting on December 25, and we set a time when she could teach us to make kim chi stew. I really love talking to her. I love being around her. I love learning from her. And she is learning from the Spirit, little by little.
We were out tracting the other day (in Korean, tracting is 가가호호--ka ka ho ho. I love that word.) and a woman saw us and invited us in. We sat on the floor around the table, and Sister Romney talked about the Book of Mormon. And she was just happy, agreed with what we said. She took the book and liked what we read from it, but wasn't really interested in meeting again. That seems to happen often, which has really surprised me. People like the Book of Mormon, even accept it; like how it teaches of Christ and supports the Bible. But they don't quite see the implications of accepting it. That's how it seems to be for the high school teacher.
There's a high school student who is friends with the stake president's daughter. She's agnostic, but last night, she said she is starting to believe there is a God. She said she feels strengthened when she meets with us. She reads and prays, and when we meet and I try to talk, I just hope and pray she will know this can make her happy. There's a lot of that, right here at the beginning when I really can't speak to people. Hoping and praying that they will understand. I guess there always should be, though.
I send lots of love!
--Carrie
Wow, it was quite the week. At least I don't have to do the first ever week in Korea again! Few! Maybe my first or second full day, we were transfering between buses--walking between stops--and I was thinking about how I needed to be talking to people--but I can't talk to people--and why didn't they just send me to Argentina where I could actually communicate?--Argentina, wait, why not to Idaho, for heavens sakes? I came on a mission thinking I had down the lesson of trusting God. I think I'm getting a little more practice, though. Which is good.
The mission president's wife and president (Sister and President Burton) hosted a zone for Thanksgiving, so we got to go there for turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce.... It was lovely. We were just missing the kim chi. A meal without kim chi. Or rice. (Hardly complete!)
That night, Sister Burton was going to take me to the doctor when she heard me still coughing. But after a teaching appointment, she and President Burton had talked it over and gave me some cough drops, pm cold tabs, a humidifier, got me a blessing, and drove us home. And I'm doing great--all fixed up:) I'm being taken good care of.
It has been a big adjustment to see how investigators actually learn and progress (after practicing teaching in the MTC), but it has been wonderful to start meeting with real people! And we actually are meeting with and teaching people--I really didn't know what to expect in that regard, either.
The missions in Korea do an English program, where we tutor English for 30 minutes, then teach the gospel lessons for 30 minutes. English is in high demand here--thinking about it, I think that is just part of how fast their country changes, which in turn seems part of how hard, hard, hard they work (another manifestation of that--rush hour is a couple hours later than in the US). I was kind of doubtful about the 30/30 program, but we're upfront about how it works, and there really are people who are receptive to the gospel lessons who first learn about the Church because of the English program.
We only talk to women in contacting, and we only meet with women. And we are meeting with some really neat people. One wants to be a flight attendant for Korean Air ("flight attendants are like rock stars here," one of the other sisters said once), so she needs to know English (and Japanese or Chinese). She seems receptive to what we teach about the gospel, too, and prayed the first time we asked her to, even though she hadn't ever before. That was a really neat experience--to hear somebody's first prayer. We meet at the church, and last time she brought us dak bogoi--big, thinck rice noodles in spicy sauce that we ate by stabbing them with wooden skewers.
Then there's a high school home ec teacher who files her nails into points. Her husband is an author, she's Catholic, and she has traveled all over the world. She has a month long break starting on December 25, and we set a time when she could teach us to make kim chi stew. I really love talking to her. I love being around her. I love learning from her. And she is learning from the Spirit, little by little.
We were out tracting the other day (in Korean, tracting is 가가호호--ka ka ho ho. I love that word.) and a woman saw us and invited us in. We sat on the floor around the table, and Sister Romney talked about the Book of Mormon. And she was just happy, agreed with what we said. She took the book and liked what we read from it, but wasn't really interested in meeting again. That seems to happen often, which has really surprised me. People like the Book of Mormon, even accept it; like how it teaches of Christ and supports the Bible. But they don't quite see the implications of accepting it. That's how it seems to be for the high school teacher.
There's a high school student who is friends with the stake president's daughter. She's agnostic, but last night, she said she is starting to believe there is a God. She said she feels strengthened when she meets with us. She reads and prays, and when we meet and I try to talk, I just hope and pray she will know this can make her happy. There's a lot of that, right here at the beginning when I really can't speak to people. Hoping and praying that they will understand. I guess there always should be, though.
I send lots of love!
--Carrie
No comments:
Post a Comment