Hello!
Thanks for the package! I've already shared out some of the goodies in it with other missionaries. I hope you're all enjoying your time in Japan. I'm jealous!
I'll send a couple of pictures - the first is a picture of our Branch President's family with some of the foreigners in the branch (plus another member, plus Josh - more on him in a bit). Being able to spend some time with them and eat delicious food was really, really good - especially our time with Brother Ted and Josh.
We also had a zone p-day, and while the picture doesn't have everyone in our zone, that's probably a little more than half of them. I need to take more pictures, huh?
We had a short transfer this time around (because President Gilbert's leaving), so this week is transfer week. I'm guessing I'm not going anywhere, but I guess you can never tell huh? We'll see, but Elder Boome and I are pretty young here in Pohang.
We had a really good week. I know I wrote last week that things were hard, and that I was really tired, but things turned out well. I'm really grateful for the miracles we were able to see out here.
First - we had to cancel Brother 이창준's (I Changjun) baptismal date (not one of the aforementioned miracles). He said that he doesn't think he can make that date, and to be honest, I don't really think he can either. The important thing is that he knows that baptism is kind of the big goal, and we shoot for a date once he learns a little bit more. However, the lessons have been going really well with him (which is a miracle!). I wrote that he's a shy person, but he's opened up a lot - he's been asking questions about things he doesn't understand, and we're starting to get a feel for his thoughts a little bit better now. Last time we met, he prayed to understand the gospel better, which is exciting! He's still got a ways to go, but he's headed in the right direction.
We've pretty much dropped Brother 전성호 (Jeon Seongho) (older man who really likes reading the Book of Mormon). He hasn't been contacting us like he usually does, and we haven't really tried to call him or anything either. I only met with him with Elder Boome once, so maybe to pressured him too much or something; or maybe he doesn't want to meet with us without a Korean; I'm not sure.
We've called Brother 공인후 (Kong Inhu) up like once this week, but he rejected our call. We'll try again tonight, and see if he has time to meet.
So our current investigator situation isn't great (well, it hasn't changed...), but we've been able to pick up a few potential investigators.
About a month ago, we had a meal appointment with a member, and the member told me to call one 나정희 (Na Jeonghwi). He said that this guy had gone to BSU to study, and kind of gave me the general instruction to call him and "talk about Idaho." So I gave it a shot, and he's super nice and speaks really good English. I kind of neglected to follow up and keep in touch, but I did that this week, and he said he'd like to meet with us! We haven't been able to get an appointment yet, but he says he thinks good things about our church, but just "insn't into it yet." He says that he went to BYU for a summer sememester, his aunt is a member of the church, he met with the missionaries in Seoul, and has been to the Pohang church several times to boot. Hopefully, we can start meeting with him - he seems like he has a lot of potential!
I guess he's not just a potential investigator anymore, but we met with and taught 이채호 (I Chaeho) from our English class. He's like 28, majored in psychology, and studies the Bible often. He's a little bit daunting, since he seems really smart, and it kind of feels like he has a lot of doubt about our beliefs, but we'll have to see where he goes. He also has a mysterious past where he's met with the missionaries for about a month fairly recently (we found 이채호 (I Chaeho) in some records), but he seems really, really relucant to talk about it (he hasn't mentioned it yet, and he's said some things that seems like he doesn't want us to know he's been taught by missionaries before...). But he's a really nice guy, and we'll probably get to meet with him at least a few more times.
I didn't write about him last week, but Brother Ted (who I DID mention) brought one of his military friends, Josh, to church. Josh was supposed to leave for America last week, but he got an extension and came to church for a second time. We were able to talk a lot, and ended up teaching about the Plan of Salvation, which was really good. He's a really nice guy.
Um, we got a few contacts this week, and decent contacts took, not just the typical "I want to learn English contact." Once gentleman in particular kind of stands out, so I'll write about him for a bit.
We weren't able to get his full name - he just told us to call him Mr. 장 (Jeong). Mr. 장 is a little bit older, maybe like 60, and has NO interest in religion. We were talking for a while, and this is how the conversation went -
"(Mr. 장) So you're missionaries, right?"
"Yes."
"I'm not interested in religion."
"Is that so?"
"I said I'm not interested in religion."
"Yes."
"(Mr. 장 again) How do you say 'I'm not interested' in English?"
"(Us, in English) You say 'I'm not interested'."
"(Him, in English) I'm not interested."
Somehow, as we talked a little bit more, he told us that there was one things that he had a litttle bit of interest in - that was whether Noah and the flood actually happened. We talked more, and we ended up talking about life after death, and the purpose of life, and then getting his phone number. I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm grateful that we were able to see that miracle of not only teaching, but getting a phone number from someone who said to have no interest in religion whatsoever.
So anyways, this week turned out to be really good - we saw a lot of little miracles like that, just things happening that allow us to progess the missionary work in Pohang. I've learned that good things are in store for all of us, but that we sometimes have to endure some hardships. Like it says in Ether, we don't recieve a witness until after the trial of our faith. I know that God loves us, and He's got great and wonderful plans in store for us!
Love,
Elder Luke
Looks like a big, nice house -- I wonder how typical this is? And holy cow, Elder Boome is tall!
I think the sign on the window says "Self Bar 무한셀므두이 & 샐러드." Google Translate gives the Korean as "Duy & endless salad selmeu." Yeah, not very helpful... But enough to guess that this is an all-you-can-eat self-serve place. From the grills on the table you can tell they specialize in barbecue (焼肉).
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