Six Month Mark!

I hope that through service, people will see our desire to serve, and develop an interest in why we're doing what we're doing. We aren't trying to offer free service, then come up behind them and smack them with religion. We're serving, and offering information about our religion if they're interested.

I feel like too often missionaries try to force people to believe, or to get into their house for a lesson, and that just puts a bad name on missionaries. Yes, if we have an extra 20 seconds to bear testimony or to say something else, that might change their minds, but we're also out here to find people who are looking for this message. We've seen a lot more success these past few weeks because we're focusing on the people who want to learn, not spending all of our time with people who don't want to learn and trying to force them to want to learn. If that makes sense....

English is hard now.. Speaking of Korean, I got a really nice compliment from one of our investigators. She asked how many years I've been here. She thought I have been here for about 3 years, not 3 months. But it might be because the foreigners around here that teach English or travel through here are terrible at Korean. So seeing a foreigner that can actually say a few sentences probably surprised her.

We walk through the fish markets often, but usually don't buy the meat. We usually don't have meat...at all. But when I got taco seasoning I had to get some ground beef. They don't trust American meat, something about mad cow disease....so they get their meat from Australia. It's not bad..tastes a little...kangaroo-y. 

 

 

Mom, of COURSE I made the tortillas. Who do you think I am? I'm the son of a famous bread baker. Come on, mom. All the missionaries out here be jealous of my mom and my baking skills.

When's mother's day? I don't think I'll be able to Skype, just call. But we'll probably find more info about that later as mother's day gets closer.

 

One of the missionaries from California made tacos for his Korean comp the other week. He turned around to get a drink from the fridge and looks back to see him put mustard and jelly on it...or something like that. Yeah....It sounds strange. Ruined the taco, I think. But he liked it!

 

 

 

I got the package you sent, and I LOVE it! Thank you so much! I love the candy, but, against my own will, I'll have to ask you to stop sending sweets. Unless I specifically ask. I need to lose weight! I'm in the healthiest country and I haven't changed yet! But I appreciate the stuff you've sent me!

 

Sokcho is EXPLODING with missionary work! Not really, but it's really picking up. In the past 2 weeks here, we've taught more lessons than I have my whole mission so far. It's awesome! Some random guy called, because we knocked on his door, but he was in the bathroom, so we stuck an English flyer on his door. Turns out he has English interest AND gospel interest! His daughter has some mormon friends back when she lived in America, so remember, everybody you meet, you give an example of our church! So he wants to learn all about us and our message, and practice English! He's a nice guy.

 

We have started meeting with an old investigator from about 2 years ago. They want to practice English, but like to listen to our gospel message as well. But it's hard to tell if they do that just so they can get free English or not. But we continue to serve, hoping for the best! They're really nice people.

The cookie guy is doing good, he still has problems with things he can't see, as everyone can. These things are hard, but we are trying to show him that sometimes a leap of faith can show our faith and trust, and will bring blessings and answers. 

 

We found a family that likes Japanese culture, as well as others, to keep their minds open and such, and we're still meeting with them, twice a week. They're super nice, and seem to like our message. 

 

We haven't met with the investigator that has met with missionaries for 2 years again yet, because she opened up a store, and is really busy. But we have plans to meet her this week.

 

It seems like all of our investigators are really progressing and are ready to make the next step! I feel like we may have some baptisms in Sokcho in the next three months or so. I hope I'm still here!

 

Speaking of which, we get our calls next Saturday, so I'm excited and a bit nervous! I hope I stay. But I know I'll be happy wherever I go.

 

I hit my six month mark in 2 days! That's crazy how fast time flies. It's sad to see missionaries go home, and even more sad to hear them say how they wished they worked harder and things like that. These two years go by so fast, and you'll never get them back, so I'm trying to stay afloat and work the hardest I can!

 

Love you all!

Until next week,

Elder Franchina

Hello Folks Back in the States!

Converting Korea, one puppy at a time

Hello folks, back in the States. The weather here has been nice, someti
mes rainy, but mostly perfect weather for riding BIKES!!!! That's right. We're one of the only areas that have bikes. It's perfect. Just warm enough to be happy, but when you ride, the breeze feels incredible. Yay for Sokcho! : )

This week has been a week of miracles. 

So first, on Monday after emails, we climbed Soraksan, one of the largest mountains in Korea. It was fantastic. 

Our hiking group

On Wednesday, we met with the Cookie Guy, and he introduced us to three ladies in his English class. They were all so nice, and want to take us out for 삼겹살 later, a three layered meat buffet where you cook the meat on your table and put it with condiments in a leaf of lettuce. Needless to say, delish. Right after we met with them, we met with our district leader for district meeting, and went to a buffet after. Yum. 

Right after that we went to an appointment. Some lady called us and said she wants us to practice English with her 15 year old daughter. We went over there, and it was her and her dad there. Her dad is a manager at eMart, and he had a delicious array of Japanese sushi and soup for us. We were already stuffed, but we ate ALL of the sushi. It was so good. They both speak really good English, and the daughter wants to bring all of her friends over to learn more English too, so she might refer up to 6 people to us. Exciting! The father doesn't have a religion, and the daughter isn't sure either, and I think the first lesson went pretty well. So there's 3 referrals and 2 new investigators in one day. Wow.

Thursday rolls around and we figured we'd make calls out of the old investigator book for about an hour towards the end of the night. We were able to set up 3 new appointments! The people are so nice. : )

Jordan & Elder Greghori

Friday comes too fast, and we do weekly planning. We planned to meet with the Cookie Guy that night and teach him the second lesson. His family lives in another city for now, and he has 3 children and one due in October. He's crazy about his family. Perfect for the Plan of Salvation lesson. We spent over an hour planning the lesson, and it went absolutely perfectly. He is looking to find out what's out there, and he has a hard time believing what he can't see, but he's willing to try what we ask him, and he absolutely loves the concept of eternal families. He's an amazing guy, and handsome too! : ) We really love him. Plus, he gave us some cookies when we taught him. How can you not love him?

We hit Saturday running and we prepared really well for our English Class that we hold every week. Only to find out......no one showed up. That's okay though! It's testing season in school and it was raining a little so people didn't want to travel. So we biked over to a lady's house who we called the other day to introduce ourselves and do some English. She speaks English pretty well, and her daughter visited Oregon so she's really good. So we met with her, her 15 year old daughter, and their 22 year old cousin. It was really nice getting to know them. 

This looks like a yummy homemade tortilla!

Right as we were getting ready to leave, she asks if we want to stay for dinner. Well sure! So she takes us out for 삼겹살, the delicious three layered meat. Oh goodness, it was so good. Needless to say, it was a great night. And on our way to meet her, we were riding our bikes, and the weather was awesome, so we were so cheery and saying "hi" to everyone, and someone replies back, 'Hey man, wassup?' so obviously we stop and ask HOW in the WORLD he learned English so well. He grew up in Canada, but his family is Korean, and he's here for about 3 months. He thinks we're so cool and wants to come to church the next day! So awesome. This has been a week of miracles.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great meeting. The topic was the resurrection, and we heard some good talks. But none of our investigators came to church, so that was a little sad, but nothing can dampen our spirits! So after church we did some clerk work, went out and found some really nice people. 

This next week we hope to meet with all of our investigators, even though they're piling up and it's getting overwhelming, but we want to help them progress and hopefully they will accept the gospel and come unto Christ!! 

The blossom trees are getting more green, but Sokcho is still beautiful! I love it here. And having bikes makes it 10 times better. Even people vacationing here from Seoul tell us that this is one of the best places to be in Korea.  : )

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

-Elder Franchina

The Usual

Korean Walnut Cookies

Things are going great. We haven't been able to meet with our usual investigator for a while, and the three girls and their mom that wanted to meet often haven't been able to meet outside of our free English class because of schedules, but I feel like they all want to. 

Last week we met Cookie Guy and finished the first lesson. He doesn't really believe in God though, so with the flame newly fueled from Conference, we'll meet with him soon and help him out with that. I feel like every talk in Conference directly applied to at least one of our investigators. It's incredible. Also, this man teaches English class at his shop, and he wants to refer his whole class to us for English practice AND gospel. We're really excited for that. We also helped him out in his shop (he makes cookies), so he was grateful for our help. It was so much fun, we made about 1500 walnut cookies. They're so delicious. Plus, we could eat the broken or burned pieces.  : )

Also, we have a referral from 계산, and he finished some tests, so he finally had some time to meet. We called during weekly planning, and it was one of those things where it was like, 'oh, it's been ringing for 2 minutes, he won't answer, just hang up', but right then he answered and said, "let's meet now!"  Sweet.

 We did some English, and he took us out to dinner, and we taught him the rest of the first lesson. He says he believes it, and next time we'll talk with him about how, and why he believes it, and really build on that good faith he already has. He's a great guy, and seems perfectly prepared for the gospel. He wants us to call him every night to talk and do some English, but we told him our bill would be too high, but we'll still text him every day and call him as often as we can. He really likes us. He cut his hand in a factory 2 years ago and took that as a sign to go back to church. Later, an elder knocked on his door. Perfect! I'm so excited for him. I really hope he progresses fast. He has some more tests this week, but we'll call him often and try to meet this weekend or next week. 

With an amazing weekend of Conference, I want to go over specific talks and apply those to my investigators. I wrote down questions, personal, and about my investigators, and wrote down our investigator's concerns, and I found myself taking a page of notes per talk, and half of the notes were how to help our investigators here. It was wonderful. I am already excited for next conference!

During Conference I talked with some members in the branch, and I feel like we're really growing close now. They said I've learned so much Korean since arriving, and it's easier to talk to me now. I love this branch so much. 

Besides that, nothing else to report! I hope you all have a nice, warm spring week!

-피진아 장로

Conference Time in Korea

"Here is a view of the Kangnung (city) elder's apartment.  It's pretty sweet. "

This is the only picture we got from Jordan today.  We have been so spoiled in the past for getting a LOT of pictures, but he promised us that he would get a picture of him and his new companion, Elder Ghergori later this week.

North Korea has been in the news quite a bit lately, and the mission home has assured us that everything is okay in South Korea.  The young, new leader of North Korea is flexing his "muscles" so to speak and has been launching test missiles.  He now says that he has the ability to launch a nuclear strike and plans to hit the US and other countries, including South Korea.

The mission home has an evacation plan in place and we are not worried about Jordan's safety.  He is under the protection of our Heavenly Father, and doing His work.  This is what Jordan has to say about all the hullabaloo...

"I haven't heard much else on North Korea, but I'm not worried in the least. We have everyone on our side, including the Lord. Can't get much better than that, right? If the north opens up, sorry mom, but I'll be the first to offer my services to bring a better life through the gospel to the North Koreans. This is something I'd give anything to do, no matter how many years it takes or how much stress it gives."

Conference was yesterday and today, with wonderful messages!  Jordan mentioned in one of his letters that the Elders take their care packages (with Easter candy) and gather to watch conference.  We thought he would go to Seoul, but he says that because they are "out in the middle of nowhere" (Sokcho, four hours from Seoul), they will watch it with their branch next week when they receive a dvd with conference translated.  After, they will watch it in English.

"Fun fun fun! Conference marks the day when we can start to wear short sleeves without jackets, so I'm super excited. The blossoms are budding, and in a week or two, this will be a paradise that you can't even imagine. SokCho is....incredible. I love it!"

About his experiences as branch first counselor, he says ~

"I conducted yesterday, but there was only about 12 people in the branch that day so no pressure.  :)

 

It's nice to be on the stand though, and just to look out and think, 'Who can I help and how can I help them? What do they need?' and thoughts just flow in from a divine source on how to better help the branch. I love this ward more than anything. They're fantastic people."

 

 We wonder about investigators and how Jordan is doing.  An investigator is someone who is learning about the Gospel and meets regularly with the missionaries.  Jordan spent a few days in Kangnung during exchanges (where they switch elders in one area with elders in another area) and met an investigator named Bruce Lee.  Really.  He and his wife have a 6 month old baby.  

In Sokcho, they have one main investigator, but they are also working with some Koreans who want to learn English.  They do a free 30/30 program, where the Elders teach 30 minutes of English and 30 minutes of the Gospel.  There are a few people who seem to be open to hearing the Gospel message and others say that it is interesting.  

Jordan is also doing service projects in the area and will be making cookies with a guy that makes the Elders walnut cookies.  They are hoping that he will be receptive to the message as well.

Our missionary (Jordan) seems to be settling in very nicely in a short (2.5 months) time:

"I still can't get over how much I love SokCho. It's fantastic!"