Hello!
I just read your letter from Sept 18, and I was suprised to think that Lisa and Daniel have to go to school already. Where did summer go? I guess you've already started school already? What classes are you taking? What's your favorite class? Tell me!
For Mom:
Oh, and in that letter, Mom, you asked me what things I need. A cookbook would be cool, although I haven't done any real cooking so far. Just not a ton of time to do anything fancy. It would be nice to have a cookbook anyway though, if for no other reason, so that I can look at the pictures and imagine what real food is like.
Anyways, dairy products are a little hard to come by and/or are expensive, and I'm not really sure about spices. I assume I can buy the basic stuff here.
As far as other things go, toothpaste would be nice. I bring this up because of a companion exchange I did. I went to another area, but I forgot my toothpaste, so I had to borrow some of my temporary companion's. He said something about this being his last American toothpaste, so I asked him what was wrong with Korean toothpaste. He just said "have you seen their teeth!?" Please send me some toothpaste.
(Other people have said that Korean toothpaste isn't that good too, so that's not the only reason, but, uh... too many old people here with 1/4 of their teeth left).
Oh, and for Dad:
I wouldn't mind getting some of the McMurray's letters every once in awhile. That would be fun!
And I believe "you did well" would be "잘 했어요," in the off-chance you're still interested (you wrote down "에" instead of "어").
For Lisa:
Yes, I know what a hashtag is. You use it for the tweets and stuff. Haven't seen a hashtag in Korea though. I might have heard one; I wouldn't know though. #Koreanishard
For Daniel:
I learned that "누나" ("noona") means "older sister" in Korean. You're welcome!
Anyways, about this week...
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," when it was originally translated into Korean, wasn't translated very well. We met a less-active old woman (baptized maybe 20~30 years ago?), who remembered the old name, which is kind of interesting. The old name was the rather cultish "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Last Days," which is probably why it was changed...
We met with one 김태양 this past Sunday. Not sure who he really is, since Elder Jo hasn't really told me when I've asked (we taught him, but I didn't understand him, and Elder Jo didn't really answer when I've asked him...), but we met him on the bus.
Elder Jo was just standing on the bus, and this 김태양 walked up to him, and asked "You're Mormon, right?" (I was sitting down elsewhere at the time, since I was holding stuff, so I missed out on this...). Anyways, he explained that he was really interested in religion - he had been investigating different churches for awhile, and wanted to hear about ours. Elder Jo gave him a "I'm a Mormon" card, a pamphlet, and a Book of Mormon, and he came early to chuch this past Sunday to attend Sacrament meeting, so hopefully, he'll stay interested and keep investigating. And hopefully, I'll be able to understand what he's saying...
이상남 (9 year old investigator) failed the baptismal interview, so no baptism this week. We kind of assumed he know a lot more than he did, which is too bad.We had planned to review the interview questions with him beforehand, but Elder Jo kind of switched what we were doing at the last second. In hindsight, perhaps I should have been a little more insistant on looking over the questions with him, but hey, we know what we need to focus on as far as teaching goes...
But the interviewer, my district leader, said that he really believes in God and Christ, and that he wants to be baptized, so we just need to cover what he doesn't really know, maybe meet him 3-4 more times, and he should be good. Which, now that I think about it, is twice the number of times we met him. I think we both learned something about not assuming what others have learned...
Taught our first lesson out on the street this week. This man was walking, said hi, said that we're missionaryies, and started talking religion. As always, didn't understand, but his main concern was apparently "God is here while I'm on the earth, but when I die, he's gone." It kind of makes sense, but at the same time it doesn't make any sense.
In any case, we gave him a pamphlet, and a Book of Mormon. What makes a lesson a lesson (statistically) is teaching an a prayer. Teaching is doable, but praying with people is a bit hard. Elder Jo asked if we could say a prayer together, and he said no. We talked a bit more, and when Elder Jo asked again about prayer, the man said it would be okay. Couldn't get his number (or name for that number... I asked but he said no thanks), so we have to find him if we want to meet him again. Oh well.
I don't know why I'm saying this, but just because - Elder Jo seems to have a lot of faith in acupuncture. I wasn't feeling that well one day, and he offered to bleed my thumb out, promising that my stomach would feel better. I didn't let him. He wasn't feeling well yesterday, and so he performed some self-acupuncture in our apartment, which is as shady as medical procedures get. He stabbed his thumb, claimed to have let the "bad blood" out, and feels fine today. I'm still not convinced...
I had a lot of time to write today, so just one more quick story - we were running a little late, and we didn't have a lot of time to eat, and so Elder Jo asked me what we could eat. I told him, in all seriousness, "spamwiches," and that's what we ate (fried spam and fried eggs with ketchup on toast. Mm.). That's a sentance that, before, I couldn't have imagined me saying. Missionary work changes people in ways we don't understand.
Aaaanyways, here's a scripture reference that I used to give a spiritual message about patience - Hebrews 11:24-26. Keep an eternal perspective, and things aren't as bad as they seem. Focus on the things you can do, don't worry about things you can't control. Pray a lot, and things just tend to work out.
Oof, long email today.
Thank you for everything you do! <3
사랑햬요!
-Elder Luke
Notes:
He says he was reading our letter from September 18; clearly he means August 18. It looks like the mail is still taking about a month to get to him.
김태양: The man's name. It's pronounced "gimtaeyang" or "Kim Taeyang" written in more name-ish fashion.
이상남: I Sangnam, the name of the boy they have been teaching.
사랑햬요: "Love". (He actually misspelled it; it's really 사랑해요. サルも木から落ちる。)
No comments:
Post a Comment