ANYWAY, it was another busy week!
- We had our mission Christmas meetings (doubling as this transfer's zone conference). One in Busan for the Busan and Ulsan zones and one up in Daegu for the Daegu, Changwon, and Jeju zones. We had a spiritual meeting followed by each of the companionships in the mission giving a prepared Christmas performance. It was pretty fun to watch, these missionaries had some creativity. We also got fed some super tasty meals provided by the Busan and Daegu Relief Society presidencies. Those sisters are the BOMB and they're even awesomer because they gave us some of the left-overs while we were cleaning up.
- Since it's the end of the year, there's a lot of special finance stuff you need to finish up before the next year's "budget" starts. So we had a bunch of random office work to do with that. The mission still hasn't burned down yet so we must be doing something right. I'm excited to meet the actual financial secretary that will be coming in sometime in January. Mostly excited to see his reaction when he realizes that we were doing all this stuff with a few weeks training and no background experience. I'm going to be relieved to hand this torch over to him as soon as he comes haha
- President Jeong, Sister Kim, my companion, both the office elders, and a select few other missionaries went to Jeju early morning on Sunday for one last choir performance, leaving me alone at the HQ with one of the elder's trainees for all of Sunday and Monday. I guess turning the lights on and off isn't a big enough role to justify getting a ticket to Jeju. But it was still fun back here on the mainland. Last transfer we didn't do a single exchange (because we were so darn busy) so my exchange with Elder Hunzeker felt like the first one in a long time. He's a really nice guy from Arizona that came out on his mission soon after graduating high school. We attended church on Sunday over in his area in Southern Busan yesterday. The members there were super kind and it felt nice to be in a different area for a day. I translated the whole 3 hours (shout out to the last 3 hour church of my life) for a Philipino lady and I realized just how bad I am at translating. It's one thing to understand but it's another thing to relay that information to someone else as you hear it simultaneously. I remember being physically tired... We also did some proselyting in between and at the end of the night and we found a guy that was down to come to our church next Sunday; he was PUMPED to meet missionaries. And another man, who we didn't get his contact from, was super touched that we shared a Book of Mormon with him and promised he would read it as soon as we get home I don't know if he'll actually read it or not but it's nice to meet a happy old man who loves Jesus on the street every now and then.
And that's about all! And a quick spiritual nugget for the week is from Mosiah 23... Alma repents and teaches a ton of other people about the gospel, a ton of people get baptized, but they're driven away by King Noah and his people. And while they're in the wilderness they wrecked by one of King Noah's priests and their put into bondage. There are more details in the scriptures of how hard it was for them but to say the least, they were having a tough time. But instead of wallowing in their trials, Alma taught his people to keep going and trust God. "Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless-- whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people." Whenever we're being chastened or driven into the wilderness, even if we're not doing anything wrong, it is God just testing our faith and patience. And to those who hold out and continue to trust in Him, they'll be delivered from those hard times and "lifted up at the last day", just like Alma's people. It's a sign of love and trust to know that our Heavenly Father is willing to give us opportunities to learn and grow.
Thanks for reading and writing and HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
-Elder Metcalf
PICS:
1) The office elders crashing in the van on the way back from one of the Christmas meetings (they usually drive more than us so this is an uncommon rest for them) 2-3) American style home-made burgers to celebrate Christmas; not the best quality but it's the best four elders in our apartment kitchen in Korea
PICS:
1-5) IT'S DARN COLD OUTSIDE. Our mission does morning proselyting first thing in the morning and it's freezing. We couldn't feel our faces and we were so cold that we were dizzy when we walked back into our house so we took a hot minute to lay on the ground and regain our senses. And we were healed by hot chocolate (thanks mom)
TWO DAY EXCHANGES WITH ELDER HUNZEKER:
1) The man in action, proselyting on the subway (we can't proselyte to women so this wasn't the most ideal situation for him) 2) We had some random finance stuff to take care of so he took the time to study the Korean language (he is an inspiration ladies and gentleman, look at the diligence) 3-4) I showed Elder Hunzeker the gem of the Oncheon area this morning on P-day (we also happened to bump into our neighboring area's missionaries while we were inside because this place is just that popular) 5-6) We went to one of the bigger shopping centers in Busan for P-day today to hang out with some of the other elders (nothing special, but bought some street waffles)
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