I'm slowly running out of creativity to name and write these emails so I'm going for the massive clickbait strategy. But it's all stuff that actually happened so at least I'm an honest clickbaiter. Sorry world, you'll only have to deal with this for three more weeks.. Anyway! We're having a fantastic time here in the Busan Mission, in the Busan Zone, in the Busan Ward (this is as Busan as you get). As usual, everyone we're trying to teach is inconveniently very busy but we met the people that we were supposed to meet this week. Our schedule is hectic but it's guided by heaven. And also, my trainee Elder Sperry is an angel. I don't know if I've mentioned that already but he's the celestial companion that everyone wants. Obedient, diligent, happy, humble, makes dad jokes all the time. He's the best. I'm sad I won't be here to complete his training but he's already a legend so there isn't much to train him on. It's a wonderful last transfer for a lot of reasons and he's one of them~
AND NOW, STUFF THAT HAPPENED:
- Last P-Day we went out to 영도 (AGAIN) but this time just for fun. A member was going to be fishing on the South end of the island and wanted us to come watch with his wife (who is someone we're currently teaching). We were down so we took a bus, followed by a train of some sort, followed by a rocky walk on the beach to arrive at the pretty seaside boulder in Busan. They fed us ramen on the rocks and we left shortly after. Beautiful view. The place is called 태종대 Taejongdae.
- We earned the youth's trust by having a super fun scavenger hunt for Family home evening and related it to following the prophet's words and watching General Conference. We hope to have better attendance next time since we're at least 10% cooler now. It was Elder Sperry's idea by the way, because he's just that brilliant ladies and gentlemen.
- HIKING ZONE CONFERENCE. The weather was beautiful and so was the cherry blossom scenery, which called for the perfect time to go up a mountain and be enlightened by our mission's leaders. We talked all about faith this time around and before that we had time to study about it on our own. I like teaching about faith a lot actually because it's the first thing that anyone needs to start living the gospel and finding out if it's true for themselves. And more specifically, I enjoy learning and teaching about ACTION, because faith is nothing is we don't even act on the things we're learning or just passively believe in. I like what it says it Matthew 17:20, "If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you". I don't think gaining faith or exercising it is just a one moment thing but a culmination of our our little acts of faith, which results are apparently seen after a long period of consistent application. It's kinda hard to believe that faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain but I know that all the small and simple things we do to try and believe and act are what miracles are made of. We keep trying our best and one day we'll look back and see that our mountain has moved a little. just some of my thoughts on faith~
- I had to go back in to the office twice this week to help with mission financial secretary stuff (because the current financial secretary was unavailable) but the internet was down at the HQ so I actually couldn't do anything. oops. But I got to see a bunch of missionaries on the way; it was nice to say some good bye's before I leave soon.
- We got a referral from President Jeong! But he originally got the referral from Brother Heo (from the MTC Korean Branch Presidency). He's a professor at a nearby university and he's looking to go to America to work as a professor somewhere in Utah! He needs to take an interview to get a visa and he has to know English pretty well to pass the interview and Brother Heo suggested he get some help from the missionaries (that's us). So President Jeong drive us to the university campus himself to introduce us to the man directly. He's super nice and he looks like he has an awesome family too (hopefully we'll get to meet them). And afterwards he brought us out to dinner and fed us SO MUCH MEAT. We were so full that the next day we didn't even eat lunch. He was very kind to us but the meat was not very kind to our bodies.
- A less-active member's husband took us out to eat after we helped him translate something his daughter sent him from America. He's not a member and the missionaries have been meeting with him for five-ever and so we've been trying to meet him recently and see if we can "practice" the lessons with him since Elder Sperry is such a young missionary and it's a good opportunity for him to speak Korean. We didn't get to talk to much (because so much) but he seems to like Elder Sperry and I so we might be able to see him again.
- We gave a less-active sister a set of scriptures the other day and she was super happy to get them. She's always on the move (she works as a one-on-one English tutor) and so when she has time between appointments she likes to read. The copy of the Book of Mormon she has is too big so I gave her a smaller size to carry around. And the best part is, she said that she would come to church next week! She's been thinking about it for a while and she finally is going to try coming out again.
- We referred someone a member introduced to us a couple of weeks ago to the missionaries that live in that area (he's the guy who works at a cafe and gives us free smoothies when we visit him). He was super glad to meet the new missionaries and I'm sure they'll be able to meet him outside of work one of these days.
- We had mission fast this Saturday and Sunday and Elder Sperry and I goofed and started our fast too early. We ate breakfast Saturday morning and didn't eat until 5PM the next day. DON'T DO THIS. It even tells us not to do it in our missionary handbooks so we were dumb but it was full of miracles. We got to visit a family that got referred to us a while back but they've been CRAZY busy. But we contacted them out of nowhere when our schedule was empty and they invited us over. They're super sweet and I might be the last time I see them but its good that they met Elder Sperry so they can continue to meet the elders here after I leave. We also got to meet a man that is usually out of town but came to Busan for the weekend. And we had minimal time to proselyte but during 15 minutes while we were waiting for that man to show up, we walked around a met a super nice guy who gave us his contact. AND we ran home to get to our house on time and all of the subways and transfers lined up to get us home right on time. It was awesome. And I felt so focused and clear the entire time. But I wouldn't do it again, I think we almost died.
AND THAT"S ALL FOR THE WEEK! Thanks for reading and writing! have a great week!
-Elder Metcalf
PICS:
1-5) Watching fishing last P-day at 태종대
MORE PICS:
1-5) More pictures from last P-Day (Sister 강명숙 is cooking us ramen while Elder Sperry makes sense of the situation)
EVEN MORE:
1-6) Hiking zone conference at 금정산 in Busan. We got to ride the cable car down too.
LAST ONE:
1) Some 빙수 bingsu (Korean shaved-milk-ice thing; its awesome) 2) Adventures in late night 영도 3) Getting ready in the morning 4-5) We got rained on at the very end of our fast, but it still didn't get us down 6) Some one took a picture of us on the bus (we got his contact) 7) A picture of us proselyting on the street, taken by one of our members who was heading to work that morning
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