Bibimbap: Transfer 6, week 6 - Transfers...? (March 31, 2014)

Hello~!

So transfer week's come around again. I kind of thought that I might transfer (since, to be honest, 서귀포's not doing too hot right now (though to be honest, I think because of the lack of people, it's hard to be really busy here)), but Elder 강상욱 (Sangook Kang), our district leader, said that I'll probably stay. He used to be AP, so he probably knows really well about how President Gilbert thinks. So, who knows! I guess only time will tell. Elder 강상욱 is going home, so someone will come to fill in his spot, but other than that, if I don't transfer, all of Jejudo is probably going to be the same. Everyone on the island is pretty young in terms of how many transfers served on Jejudo.

This week, in a strange turn of events, we (kinda) picked up Brother 양군수 as an investigator again, and (kinda) dropped 전충식. We called Brother 양군수, and he picked up, so that was a relief. He said he was attending a funeral somewhere on the mainland, and left his phone at home. So we met with him this week, but he says he'll be busy the next, so we can meet with him, but not until like 2 weeks from now.

As for 전충식, he moved to another town (maybe an hour away by bus?) for work temporarily. It seems like he kind of migrates with where there's work; he came to Jejudo to work as well. He'll be there until the work is done, which is sometime in April. So we can't really meet with him until then, which is a bit annoying. We gave him a picture of Christ, and he said he took that to his new house, so that's a promising sign!

We spent this Friday with a sister in our branch, Sister 홍은신 (Uunshin Hong), and the sister missionaries from Jeju City. She drove us around a bunch, and we tried to find and meet with some less actives (most of them are women, and we're not allowed to meet with women only, so that's why we called the sister missionaries over). We unfortunately couldn't meet with any of them, but we know their addresses, and a bit more about each person, so hopefully our next visits will be a little more successful.

English class was really good this week; we have more people come than I've ever seen! It was strange - the class felt very alive, which kind of means that all the other English classes I've taught have felt dead (영도's English class usually has 1 person... 2 at most. I think maybe 8ish came this week?). And I think the new people that came intend to keep coming. I'm excited. Hopefully, we can find some investigators (though, again, most of the people that came were women, and women are hard for us to meet.)

As far as differences in church meetings, I feel like they're fairly similar. With fewer members, people have to do more, but that's about it (members give talks really, really often). 서귀포 church is only 2 hours long, so that's pretty different. I know in other areas, missionaries tend to teach a class, and they bless/pass the sacrament depending on the branch.

Sunday school's pretty much the same as well. I think we all study the same material; we're on the Old Testament, right?

Sometimes, we all each lunch after church, which is something I've never done in Idaho. We clear all the chairs in the chapel (which is also the cultural hall (?)), set up tables, and the sisters bring food and cook it for all the members. That too depends on the branch; some branches don't ever do it, some branches do it every week, and 서귀포 maybe once every 1-2 months.

Working on Sunday...? I think a lot of our members work on Sunday as well... there's a couple of people we know that moved in from somewhere, are active members and want to come to church, but can't because they've got work. Talking with Sister 홍은신, maybe 80-90% of less active members go less active because they get busy with work, and just kind of forget about church. Most of them have good feelings about our church as well, but they just can't or don't make to our Sunday meetings.

Elder 허 is 22 in Korean age, which means he was born in 1993. Not sure how old he actually is. :D

We climbed Mt. Halla with the Jeju City Elders today; Mt. Halla is the highest mountain in Korea. We woke up at 5:00, rode a 6:00 bus to get up there. I think we took 3.5 hours climbing up, and 2.5 getting down. I'll be sore tomorrow! Here's a few pictures. As always, sorry I didn't take more.

Here's a few of us hiking, and me and Elder 허 at the start of the trail.

That's about it I think! Love you all!

- Elder Luke

Notes:

서귀포: Seogwipo, the city he's in.

AP: Assistant to the president, a missionary that works closely with the mission president.

양군수: Yang Kunsu, the man Andrew mentioned last week that they hadn't been able to contact for a while.

전충식: Jeon Chungsik, the man they've been working with for several months now.

영도: Yeongdo, his previous area.

서귀포: Seogwipo again.

Elder 허: Elder Heo, Andrew's companion.

Mt. Halla: Tallest mountain in Korea, 6400 feet high, the volcano that is the center of Jeju-do. Andrew climbed it (not to the summit, I think) back on January 6. It looks a lot warmer now than it did then.

Note: The banner says "Seongpanak Trail." I'm guessing the first word is a proper noun; Google Translate doesn't seem to find an equivalent for it.