So on P-day last week, right when we finished P-day and went out to
work, our investigator called us! She's been meeting with the
missionaries for years. We teach her daughter English, but she's never
really progressed in the gospel. Until recently. She just started
keeping her commitments and seems to be finally understanding
everything! She still doesn't like to pray, but her 9 year old daughter
walked in right as we were finishing, and we asked her if she's ever
prayed. She said no, so we taught her quickly, and asked her to pray
before her mom did. She started her prayer..
"Dear Heavenly Father.."
(To mother) How old is he? (In Korean, we use the highest
form in prayer, and she was wondering how she should talk to Him.)
(Mom) He's old! (In Korean, they say 'He's eaten many years')
Then she continuted her prayer. It was great! Then her mom prayed.
FINALLY! She still is a little uncomfortable, but if her 9 year old can
do it comfortably, she found a little comfort in that.
The next day, Tuesday, we met at a member's new house with our
branch president to dedicate the new house. It was great, we talked for
about an hour, ate some fruit, and built some really good relationships.
They taught me some funny Korean phrases, like 'The mouse came out'
(what you say when your foot falls asleep), and things like that. I feel
like we're really getting close with our ward now.
On Wednesday, we had a District meeting, and we did splits. I was in
SokCho with our new Zone leader, Elder Lee (He's an American from California). He's really nice, and really good at Korean. We were on
exchanges for 2 days and met up on Friday. On Wednesday, as we were
walking down the street, this Asian guy walks up to us and from about 10
feet away says, 'Hey! I found you!'
What? English? He knows Mormons?
Evidently, he studied at Idaho State and loved going over to the
Mormon Church on Wednesday nights to get a cup of soup for $1. He
doesn't know much about us, just that we're really nice. He speaks
really good English, and owns a walnut cookie shop here in SokCho. He
wants to meet again so I hope we can meet soon and teach him our
message! We stopped by the other day, and he gave us some of his
cookies. Delicious!
Thursday: A few weeks ago, Elder Witt woke up at 3 in the
morning...talking on the phone...in Korean. Weird. Someone called him,
and he answered it in his sleep, and woke up in the middle of the call.
This guy got baptized 20 years ago, went inactive, but wants to start
going to church again. He's been really busy, but we finally met him
last Thursday. He speaks a little English and he loves Clint Eastwood. He
always says, "Dirty Harry! Bang bang bang!! He loves that movie. So we
talked about his baptism, and he seems to be perfect! If we can't find
his records, he'll need to be taught all of the lessons over again and
re-baptized, but we'll need to look hard for his records first. We
haven't found them yet, but we'll continue to look.
On Sunday as I was passing the sacrament to everybody, I realized
how much I really love everyone in our ward. They're all amazing people.
I love each and every person in our ward. I really hope I don't leave
soon. I really want to stay for a little longer. The people here are so
nice.
After Sacrament, we practiced two folk songs that we are evidently performing next Saturday. It was so much fun! We were
singing and laughing the whole time.
Then, yesterday, we visited the DMZ!!! It was so cool! You always
hear about the tunnels and barbed wire with the guards and such, but
that's not in our area. We went to the edge of it on the beach side, and
it was still awesome. We could see the No-Mans-Land, and some small
North Korean buildings (only one or two) off in the distance. It was so
cool! I'm glad I was able to go.
Anyway, missionary work is awesome, like usual! I love it, I love
Korea, the people, and the food. I'm so happy and I couldn't be serving
in a better place!
Love you all!
-Elder Franchina
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