Week 10 in Korea

First off,

Next week is a three day equivalent of Thanksgiving out here, and they said that doing missionary work is NOT the most productive thing to do. So we get basically 3 P-Days in a row! So... I won't be e-mailing until Wednesday, the 22nd.

 

Ok, so this week I had some of the best and worst moments of my mission so far...

THE GOOD:

 

I had a two-day exchange with an Elder who was in the MTC with me, but came the transfer after. He's a greenie (has only been in country 3 weeks) and I'm on my second transfer, having only been here a little over 2 months. We would be spending 2 days together... by ourselves in my area. It's what MTC nightmares are made of!!!!

 

The first day of the exchange was fine, mainly because we had our service project and English class taking up a big chunk of the day. We wanted to go street boarding, but it was raining, so we just street contacted at a big bus stop. The Elder I was with is pretty timid, so it was fun getting to get over breaking the ice with people. We ended up getting 3 phone numbers; 2 of which we set up return appointments with. It felt great for me because I usually just let my companions handle that part, so I got to learn a lot more different way to go about sparking their interest.

 

Then we had English class; and since Elder Spangler is a great artist, it made the language barrier a lot easier to break when we'd say some vocab they didn't understand. One of our students has friends in LA, and wants to visit there, so I got to talk a lot about my hometown. They both freaked out when I told them that my mom works at Paramount Studios, and that I've gotten to interview a lot of famous actors. What was really funny though, is when I said I interviewed Drew Barrymore, a man was like "Yeah, she's very famous here in Korea... E.T." I said, "She's done other things too... but YEAH! E.T.! She was in that."

 

The next day went smoothly, just a whole lotta contacting in a subway station since it was pouring rain like none other. That night, after the exchange back Elder Lee and I taught one of the best lessons if not the best Lesson I've taught so far here, in Korea. It's the first time that we were really able to teach in unity, and we were able to utilize our member who taught with us very well. It couldn't have gone smoother, and the Spirit couldn't have been stronger!!!

 

THE BAD:

 

The next day, we had all of our appointments cancel on us (the rain is like Korean Kryptonite,) and every single one of the 5 less-actives we tried to visit wasn't at home, or had moved... perhaps "moved," if you catch my drift. It's hard when you spend an entire day working your butt off, and then have nothing really to show for it. To top it all off...we noticed our fan, (our brand new fan,) wobbling. One of the propellers was cracked, and the entire propeller eventually just cracked off. I taped it back on, and my companion said that it wouldn't work. It worked smoothly! I said to him jokingly, "Oh ye of little faith." 10 minutes later the propeller broke off... "Oh me, of little common sense."

 

We wanted to go out and contact, but again, rain. So we buckled down at the church and started calling records as far back as 2005! It was hard, but found 2 people who wanted to meet.

 

Sweaty, hard day. But it ended okay.

THE GREAT:

 

Even though things fall through some times, ya just have to push forward, and things fall into place. But if you don't push forward, and just wait around for help, most likely, it won't come. You have to be active, always trying to make the best of the situation.

 

"... Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." D&C 6:20

 

Love you all,

Elder Reyes