March 30, 2015

This week was pretty good... but weird :P We were not able to meet investigators basically all week, but we met a lot of members :P So we got fed a lot, but most of it wasn't too much, which was nice. Yummy foooooood.

 

On Wednesday we had a district meeting in Bangoejin, which was Sis Hurley's training area, so afterwards we met a recent convert that she had taught. So that was fun. Her son looks like an adorable mixture of Harry Potter and "Where's Waldo". Haha. Anyways. That evening we had a really good lesson with some members. We talked about member missionary work and stuff.

 

Thursday was really weird. It was one of those "bad days" in which things just.. don't work out and you just want the day to end. But a lot of weird stuff happened. :P I think the only good, normal thing was the service project we did in the morning. As we were leaving, the weirdness started. We ran into the LEGIT Korean Santa Claus. We heard a bike coming up behind us, so we moved out of the way, and a rather large, old man (large in Korea is strange, everyone is small and thin) rode by in a BRIGHT red suit jacket and pants. He had completely white hair and a bigger beard than I have ever seen on a Korean man (they also typically don't grow facial hair). He jollily rolled past us with a chuckle and "hellooo! Pretty!!" ('cuz Koreans like foreigners). We kind of paused and just watched him continue riding. hahaha. After that, we intended to proselyte a bit, but there was A) no one around B) no one wanted to talk to us. Well, except for a man that Sis Hurley knew from Bangoejin. He lived on the same street as them and had 4 dogs, and would constantly offer to buy them shoes. He apparently has an office in our area, and ran into us. He was way excited to see Sis Hurley, and so we got his number. :P 

 

Then we headed to meet with ParkHyangMi, the one who likes to ask interesting questions about spirits. We got there a bit early, so while we were waiting she called us and said she was sorry, but she had fallen and gotten hurt, and couldn't meet us that day, and had completely forgotten to tell us, so we had to travel another 30 minutes home... :P sad. That night, as we returned home for the day, well. The weirdest thing happened. We live on the 3rd floor, and there is no one else that lives in that stairwell, because the 2nd floor is the apartment office, and so we have a separate stairwell from the rest of the residents. So, we heard someone coming up the stairs behind us, which was weird, 'cuz no one else lives there. But we got to our door and opened it, when this guy in his 20's or so hurries up the stairs to us. He said in some garbled English "uh, Sorry, but uh... (looking at Sis Hurley) are you.. solo??" Meaning "single". Hahah. "Can.. could I.. have your number?" Sis Hurley was kind of in shock/paralyzed, so I awkwardly told him "Uh, well. We are missionaries." Awkward pause. "So.. we don't date." awkward pause. Haha. Then he basically said, "ah well, you are pretty (to Sis Hurley), so..." So I said "Well. Have a good night!" hahahaha.Oh man. So funny. We died laughing afterwards.

 

 

One other weird thing that happened this week was we visited a sort of less active member, who lives really far out in the countryside outside of Ulsan. So buses don't come that often, so when we were waiting for the bus to come home, we noticed a fruit stand next to the stop, so we went to see if there was something we wanted. The guy there was super kind, but as we were talking with them a bit, this suuuuper old, Korean equivalent of a redneck came up to us. He was super interested in us as foreigners, where we are from, how old we are, blah blah blah. I could barely understand a word he said because "rednecks" have such STRONG accents (and I can barely understand clear Korean). But essentially, he was trying to get us to come to his house. (He wasn't creepy, by the way, just... from the country :P) He was positively insisting on it, but we kept saying, no, sorry, we have to take a bus soon. He even grabbed at our hands and arms, trying to get us to go. At this point, the nice fruit stand man told him to go away, which he did for a bit. But as we were later sitting on the bench, he came back and started bothering us some more. He wanted us to take a picture on his phone of us, and he had this old flip phone. He didn't even know how to function it, so he gave it to me, insisting I take a picture, I was assuming of ourselves. But.. I took a picture of him instead. Hehehe. I just didn't feel like selfie-styling on this old man's flip phone. He kept saying stuff (I don't know what, but he kept putting his hands on our shoulders, very friendly. He even put his hands on our heads and pushed them together and remarked about how we look like twins. (Sis Hurley is blond haired and blue eyed, by the way.) (... and I'm not). Then before leaving us, he asked if we knew any Korean songs. Nope. So he proceeded to belt one out for us. Hahaha. It was so funny. So out of tune. I don't even know if it had a tune. But it was so funny. He left us, quite happy. I think we made his whole life. :P We just kind of awkwardly laughed through the whole thing. Man. Korea. It's a funny place :P 

 

Anyways. The only other stuff worth mentioning is we took a bus on Sunday to Sis Hurley's last area, Jinju, where an investigator she taught there got baptized. So that was cool, but it was a long bus ride. 2 1/2 hours one way sooo... Lots of bus riding :P 

 

Sooooo yup. That was this week. It was weird. I've been thinking a lot about... lots of things? :P haha. It is crazy that next month I'll hit my "year" mark. So crazy!!! aaaah. I'm trying to use my time as best I can, and do things as best I can, but I know I have my faults and weaknesses, which is not cool, but I know that Heavenly Father helps me to do the things that we need to do everyday. I'm learning to trust Him more, and I am trying to become someone that He can trust too. Anyways.. I hope you all have a good week!! I love you all!! <3

 

Tessa