On last P-Day we went to 불국사 ("Bulguksa" - Some big 'ol Buddhist temple in Gyeongju). It was a stressful rush to get everyone there actually. The Buddhist temple was kinda cool, and hanging out with all the missionaries in the zone was fun, but that's not the cool part. The cool part was, I totally met a guy from Iowa! It was amazing to find a man on the same side of Earth with me who could vibe with me on the finer things of the great Midwest state (we literally just talked about how flat the place is and how miserable the weather is, and how these peeps in Korea might never believe us). His name was Brandon from Fairfield, Iowa. If you see him, say hi for me~
Sad times this week when nobody showed up to both of our English classes. We were going to have a "last" English class to announce that we were going to stop English class and start anew in a few weeks but no one will show up for us to announce the cancellation. Ahh, the irony...
We had our last district meeting of the transfer this last week and it was definitely the best one of the transfer by far. Instead of trying to shove in as much as possible (talks, teaching practices, evaluation, goal setting/follow-up), the meat of of was just a open discussion/lesson on how to be "perfected in Christ" (Moroni 10:32-33). It was nice to study it on our own before the meeting and then have an actually edifying experience sharing with each other and making the whole idea of "the perfect missionary" a lot simpler. I mean of course it's not possible to be completely perfect but when you make Christ the center of your effort and attention, it becomes less of a rocket science problem and more of a simple algebra formula. You put in A with B and you get C. You deny yourself of ungodliness and just love God and His grace is sufficient, and through His grace be made perfect. Some great final testimonies heard from my district leader Elder Snyder and from Sister Coon, who are going home at the end of this transfer. Baller missionaries.
The whole week during our big blocks of time we were either working on this video business for advertising our English class, out hunting for less actives, or trying to fulfill various favors from members or the other missionaries in our area. A lot of walking happened. Sadly no less actives actually found though. But it was kinda neat this week when it snowed. It snowed like three times. It didn't stick or stay for longer than an two hours or so but I still wasn't expecting snow in our area. Also a fun fact: the coldest it has ever been in Ulsan is -10 degrees Celsius (not counting windchill) which was our weather for this last Thursday (if not Wednesday or Friday).
Okay final stretch. We had a miracle this week. His name is 현주관 (Hyun Jugwan) Elder Minson and I have been trying to work our hardest to find people in various different ways ever since we whitewashed in 5 weeks ago. Looking at old records, trying to work through the members, trying to find less actives or part member families, classic street proselyting, and more. But we still haven't been able to find a new investigator... until this weekend. One day a few weeks ago we were out near the more sparsely populated corner of our area coming back from a less-active house visit. We crossed the street from the apartment and saw a kid with a nice bike so we greeted him. Long story short, he thought we were nice people, and when we asked him if he'd like to play basketball or something with us sometime he was down and we traded contact information. So we organized with the young men, the other team of Elders, and two other potential investigators a day that we could play some ball and it happened. Everyone came out, including Jugwan, and Jugwan was able to hit it off with the young men. They got super friendly, we went out to eat, and after we were all done eating, the young men went out together to a 노래방 (karaoke room; which is the thing you only do with homies, so this kid was thoroughly fellowshipped within a matter of two and a half hours). He came to church the next day, we were able to teach him the first lesson with one of the youth, he accepted a Book of Mormon and he's our new investigator! Woo!!!
And even more good news: PJ and 박상민 (my two investigators from back in Gyeongsan) got baptized yesterday! I tried hard to get permission to go but my zone leaders had some different ideas so I was able to head back up to Daegu... But I was able through the phone on video call! The quality was terrible but it was still amazing to be able to see the ordinance and see their faces shortly after. I love the heck out of them and I'm excited to see their progress in the church.
I got nothing else! Thanks for reading/writing! Bye~~~
-Elder Metcalf
1-4) Pictures from Bulguksa
1-2) SNOW!!! 3-4) Me poppin' my best kimchi squat at the edge of my area. It's a good a contender for the cover of my missionary rap album that will come out never
I ate some 돈까스 ("donkatsu" - pork cutlet) that was bigger than my head. I was challenged. I finished it. I wasn't proud of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment