Dear family!!!
This week's been really weird. It feels like I've been with Elder Boome for like a couple of months now, but it's only been a week! Ah, strange how the time goes.
This transfer is only 5 weeks because President Gilbert is leaving, but the next will be 7 weeks, so I don't think it'll really affect me. Elder Boome and I will probably be together for that time anyways.
Our first week went well - I'm excited to be with Elder Boome! Also, I didn't get us lost yet, so that's a relief. I think I know enough to get by (except I don't know like anyone in the branch...). Anyways, this week we kind of seemed to have a lot of time. Brother 전성호 (Jeon Seongho) is still up in Seoul, and so we we're able to meet with him (we've been kind of wondering whether he needs to be dropped anyways...), and Brother 공인후 (Kong Inhu) was busy so we only met him once this week.
We were able to meet with Brother 이창준 (I Changjun) twice though, which was good. He seemed to take the fact that Elder 이영호 (I Yeongho) kind of left without a word pretty well (actually Elder 이영호 (I Yeongho) told pretty much nobody that he was going home - he said that he wanted to leave quietly). Brother 이창준 (I Changjun) seems like he's enjoying learning English more - he seems more comfortable, and he laughs more. We're not sure if it's because there's two people teaching him English, or if he's just finally gotten used to missionaries. Unfortunately, the Family English Program (Our not-English-class English learning program which really should be used to meet families but is usually used to meet individual people) goes for six weeks, and his sixth week is this week. So we have to talk to him and ask if we can continue meeting, but only talk about the gospel. Elder Boome and I have some (perhaps unfounded) high hopes for him though. If nothing else, we both really like him, haha. He's a good guy.
That's one thing Elder Boome and I have talked a lot about; we've really been seeing a weakness in the Family English Program, which is the fact that you meet a lot of people not really interested in the gospel. I think Preach my Gospel definately works on the assumption that your investigator is interested in learning about at least some part of the gospel.
As we plan, we almost always talk about investigator's needs, but it seems like a lot of investigators have the need "feel the Spirit and start finding faith," which is really, really, really hard (we're supposed to find out their needs and then teach to said needs to help them feel the Spirit, but "becoming interested" is not really a good need). We're not really sure how to go on - if you teach a lot of English, you can teach a lot of people who aren't that interested, which isn't that great. But if we try to focus on talking to people only about the gospel, well, it's hard to find people who are interested.
So we kind of need to pray and think a lot to try and figure out what God wants for Pohang.
Haha, so our investigator situation isn't too great (basically 3 men with strong English interest and a willingness to hear about the gospel), so we're trying to focus on finding new people (we were looking at old records, and it was a little sad to see so many investigators picked up and dropped and picked up and dropped. It seems like finding new investigators - who have never met with the missionaries before - is really hard). Luckily, I think we're the companionship to find a bunch of people!
I really love working with Elder Boome - it's only been a week, but it feels like we both want really badly to be able to improve as missionaries, find people and baptize someone. We talk a lot about how to do things efficiently so that we can make the most of our time, about how we teach and how we can improve, and trying to always work harder.
We've been trying really hard to talk to a lot of people - we've been able to hand out a lot of pamphlets, but it's hard to find someone on the street, and then talk to them until the point where they're willing to meet and learn about the Gospel.
Well, that's how things are looking right now, but I think if Elder Boome and I keep trying to do our best, and we keep working hard, we'll see a lot of miracles in Pohang. We'll prooobably be together for at least 3 months, so we're trying to make the most of the time we have together. We've made a lot of good plans, and we just hope to be able to set them into action and grow a lot these next transfers!
I still have some time, so let me write a quick story.
I don't know if I've mentioned William before - but he's someone who came to our English class like 2-3 times. He's just this super nice guy, and (like everyone else) we wanted him to teach him. He seemed really solid as an English class member, but he stopped coming, and we didn't know why. We got a text the other day, and he said he found a job and is working somewhere and couldn't come, so we pretty much had to give up on him since we didn't really know how to proceed with him.
Well, today we were walking around the downtown area of Pohand after having eaten lunch, and guess who we find! It turns out the the place he works is super close to our church (like within 5 minutes walking), and he was really happy to see us again, and even invited us to come by anytime and chat. We're really grateful to have been able to find him again!
We've been seeing a lot of little miracles like that - there was one guy we met who asked us for directions (I'm not sure why any Korean would ask two foreigners for directions, but I suppose that's where the miracle lies), but we didn't really the directions really well. Anyways, we continued to talk to him, and it turns out he's interested in English and we had traded numbers by the time we finished talking.
Ah, I think that's about it for time.
I'm really thankful that I can serve as a missionary in the Korea Busan mission! I've learned a lot, and (I hope) I've helped other to learn a lot as well, whether it be members, other missionaries, or our investigators. God loves each and every one of us, and he is looking out for us.
I'll write to you all next week~!
Love,
Elder Luke
Oh, and I think I promised to send a picture of Elder 이영호 (I Yeongho) and I, but I'm pretty sure I didn't. Here it is!
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