July 6 - Week Number 2

Ah, craziness that I've made it almost 2 weeks now! It has felt like forever and also like no time at all :P

Soo, in the past week not tooooo much has happened. We had some lunch and dinner appointments with Korean members, which was fun, though I really had no idea what was going on :P It was super yummy, but they just try to feed you so much. You kind of have to go in with a game plan, like, make sure you don't sit next to the member if you can, or else they will keep putting food on your plate, or be sure to eat your rice reeeeallly slowly, or else they will give you more, or just mess around with your food with your chopsticks so it looks like you are eating. Hahaha. Because seriously, they have this thing with eating tons of food and especially love making guests eat it. And it is rude if you don't. :P The food here is different, but it's not like OH MY GOODNESS THAT'S SO WEIRD different, just.... Asian? Haha. Though I've heard tale of some weird stuff you can find. Sis Sung was telling me about a fish you can eat, basically while it is still alive. Gross.  

Interesting...

Another amusing thing I saw

I met a few of the current investigators, though we only really taught one lesson :P That was with Dudi, which isn't her real name, we just call her that because she is from Mongolia and has a CRAZY LONG and impossible to say name. Since she is from Mongolia, we teach her in English, though she can speak Korean pretty well, because that's what she is studying at the university here. She is from a non-Christian background, which is really interesting to gear lessons towards. She says she believes in all religions, though she seems to lean towards Mongolian shamanism beliefs. Super interesting. The lesson that we taught with her was about Christ, and why we need Him. It was really interesting to see her reaction, she was so interested in it, she thought it was really interesting, and she seemed to be really touched by what we had to say. At the end, we taught her to pray and asked her to end the meeting with one, and so she did in Mongolian. I had no idea what she said, but it was really cool to see someone make that step. That night she sent us a text saying something along the lines of "thanks for this evening, I feel really different,"  which was SO COOL! Haha. That just gave me a greater idea of what missionary work is like, especially when it is to someone with a non-Christian background. 

One of the other people we met was this super old lady, who was mostly just interesting in learning English, because we do that for individuals sometimes (service, ya know). She really didn't care for our small spiritual thought saying "I'm too old and too lazy". It was just pretty amusing to meet with her. I walked in and she was basically saying in Korean stuff like "Foreigner. Pretty. She's really thin. She is from America? Why is she thin? Americans are usually fat. Has she eaten? Do you need food?" Hahhahaa, it was really just amusing. 

Hmm. Other things from this week... There was a 4th of July activity with the American ward, which was pretty fun. It was a chili cook-off, which reminded me of Olathe :P Last night there was a dinner at the Korean bishop's house with a bunch of the members, it was super fun and yummy, though again, I didn't really know what people were saying :P

I think my biggest frustration this week has been my inability to talk and understand. I WANT to so bad, but I usually sit there with a confused look. So I usually feel kind of useless when we are doing stuff, because my companion does all the talking and sometimes translates for me. Sometimes I kind of don't feel like a missionary because I just sit there. I'm just so slow of speech and it's not cool :P So I feel like that one part in Exodus 4 really applies to me at the moment. Because Moses is all: 

 "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." 

Sounds like me. :P Haha. And the Lord basically just responds with

 "who made your mouth?! I did... Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." 

So yeah. I know all that, I know that I just need to go and do and trust that the Lord will help me know what to say and learn/speak Korean, it's just not easy. I want to be able to teach so badly. Something I have been thinking though is I have definitely been sent to Korea for a reason. English or any other Latin based speaking mission would have been too easy, honestly. I don't want to seem like I'm flattering myself or anything, but I think I could be a fairly good teacher if it were like that. But that's not the point. I'm definitely feeling humble and being humbled, and I think I will learn so much more because it is so hard, in the long run. Just at the moment, it's easy to be envious of people in English speaking missions, because that would be so much easier :P Haha... But I am super glad to be here. I haven't experienced all that much yet, but I kind of have a sense for how much further I have to go, I know I have a LOT to learn, and also a lot to DO. I feel like there's a definite reason that I am here. It's kind of weird, but I hope to understand that more someday. Aaaaanyways. That's pretty much all I have for this week. I'm going to send some pictures now :)

Another picture of Daegu

 

More pictures of Daegu

And more of Daegu

The picture below from the city was specifically for the cat part, because there are CAT CAFES here. Like. it's a cafe, with cats in it. I really want to go to one.