It's been another week and if there's anything I want to get across this time as a key point, just know that IT. IS. HOT. I've said it before but Daegu is the hottest area in Korea. And it's so hot that the locals call it Dafrica. Like Africa. Because it's hotter than Africa. Thank goodness we have a bajillion people to meet because if it was anything like last year in the summer when I was in Daegu when I had no investigators: I would be walking the streets 9 hours a day trying to find people. BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE THIS TIME AROUND! Thank goodness... So just know that as you read what's going during the week know that it was 100 degrees the entire week and because of the bowl of mountains around us, it trapped our 70% humidity and blocked our wind...
Welp, that's enough complaining about the weather. WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK???
-Monday was Elder Staker's birthday and to celebrate we had a blow-dart war with PVC pipes and nerf darts. It's exactly what he wanted to do, so we rounded up our Daegu Elders and had a fun time at our church for the P-day. Happy Birthday Elder~
-We got three new investigators! One was an older gentleman that Elder Sayer and I found through some old records, 신세호 Shin Saeho. Another was a random miracle man who called us and met on the same day. His name is Wei Han, and he's from Taiwan. He's actually been an eternigator over in Taiwan for a while now and his friend urged him to meet with missionaries while he was in Korea. He's a super nice guy and we hope to help him get the answers to his questions/concerns. And our third new investigator is 전종환 Jeon Jonghwan, and I actually don't know anything about him because he was met while I was on exchanges. But those are our new people to meet~
-We went to 구미 Gumi to visit our other district's district meeting and also to do an exchange with the district leader over there. So we had a good district meeting and I took Elder 이한슬 Lee Hanseul back with me to Daegu. Elder Lee is our current district leader in the 구미/김천/안동 Gumi/Gimcheon/Andong district (all cities right outside of Daegu but apart of our zone) and he's a super great guy. It's his first time being a district leader and also his first time being a senior companion as a trainer! He's doing an awesome job and he was able to share some of that greenie fire with me while we on exchange. We got to teach a lesson to a recent convert and also were able to have his nonmember mother attend the lesson as well. The last time we were able to go on exchange with each other was back when he was a trainee and I was a follow-up trainee. Time flies~
-We unexchanged and had just enough time to do our weekly planning before we started another exchange. With all the people we have to meet and stuff we have to do, it's become more like "weekly scheduling". Grabbing appointments for the week is like putting together a puzzle made of melting cheese or something. You just kinda do your best and hope it all sticks together in the end.
-We did another exchange with our other district leader over in 중리 Jungni, my training area. I got to go over to 중리 with Elder Soffe for a day. FUN FACTS: Elder Soffe is my "little brother" (meaning he has the same trainer as I do, Elder Fox). And Elder Soffe was also trained in 중리 so it was fun to relive our childhood together. And the cherry on top was that exactly a year ago I was serving in that same area so I got a ton of deja vu. But long story short: it was super fun. We ate dinner with a less active and her nonmember husband, found a miracle man who demanded to come to church on Sunday and receive a Book of Mormon (we gladly complied), did a service activity, and met an old investigator that was both one of Elder Soffe's and I's first investigators (he's doing good and he's going to start coming to church again soon; love you 최영광 Paul~). Elder Soffe is awesome and I realized how blessed I am to have such awesome district leaders.
-I met one of the A-team's investigators for the first time time on Friday. The investigator is actually three investigators at once though. It sounds like the start of a bad joke but one is studying to become a pastor, one is a devout Jehovah's Witness, and one is a less-active Catholic, and we meet them all together once a week and aid them in their search to find Jesus Christ's true church and found out if the Book of Mormon is true. It's an interesting time. They have a lot of long drawn out questions about stuff that isn't crazy important but they all have sincere interest and they really like meeting us. Only my first time meeting them this week so I'll have to tell you more about them later.
-We got to got to see Sister 한상은 Han!!! Sister Han is the first sister missionary I served with in Korea. And FUN FACT: she's also the first sister missionary Elder Staker served with too. She's here visiting Korea and dropped by to feed us dinner and share a spiritual message with her. He dad was also accompanying her and told us all about our mission back in the days when he served in the Korea Busan Mission. He served here in Daegu 35 years ago back when in was a District and not a Stake. They also shared some awesome stories about how you won't know the fruits of your labors until much later. Some of the people he baptized ended up being great leaders in the church over here in Korea. And Sister Han told us about how a text that she sent everyday to a member back when she was serving in Ulsan was one of the very few things that was spiritually nourishing a less-active sister in the area. Soon after she left, that sister came back to church and started being active again. It's easy to look at our efforts, and then look at the results at the end of the day, but turns out that we need to wait longer than just a day or even a week or a month to find out what effect we had. Don't doubt the small things, they help great things come to pass~
That's all I got for the week! thanks for reading and writing. Stay cool this summer~~~
-Elder Metcalf
PICS:
1-3) Exchanges with Elder 이한슬 (He's all tuckered out on the subway because he works so hard as a DL and a trainer, way to go bud~)
1) The train back to Daegu 2) A military branch family trying to celebrate Elder Staker's b-day 3-4) we used to do yoga in the morning, but we don't now that we have no energy, "the light within me respects the light within you, namaste~"
1) Dinner in 중리 with a super nice part member family (they bought us some expensive ice cream) 2) Elder Soffe and I eating our favorite food (돼지밥 Pig Stew) at our favorite restaurant right next to the church after service 3) The part member family let me play with their Kim Jongun mask 4) Sister Han giving us a visit in Dafrica last weekend
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