Soul Doctors

Oh boy, what a week.

First off, the news is I'M STAYING!!! I'll be here for at least another six weeks. The members here were happy to hear that. 

So on Tuesday we went with a less active to this old guy's house up in the mountains. He lives far away from everyone, and is a sculptor, so he has a huge, personal gallery. He actually has GRASS on his lawn! Woah. Super nice guy. He's really talented, and his property was REALLY peaceful. 

We have an investigator that randomly told us he's giving up drinking, and next, smoking. He thinks it's bad for you (duh), and we haven't even gotten to that part of the lessons yet! So that's great he's already making those choices. We're really happy for him. He likes meeting with us. He asked me what I want to be, and when I said doctor, he said, 'Good, you're a good doctor already. You two are soul doctors. You heal my soul.' He's really nice and funny. 

Wednesday through Friday I was in Wonju on exchanges! It was awesome. We met with an American lady, taught her some Korean, and on the way home from that, we met a guy who had a little too much to drink, but he was super nice. Gave us his number, and called us the next day and took us out for food. He also seems to have some gospel interest! He's a funny guy. Then we met a Jehova's witness on the street. He seemed like a normal Korean guy, walks up, says hi, them pulls out a well-used bible...uh oh...... Not that we try to avoid using the bible when we talk, we definitely use the bible to support what our church teaches, but they don't listen. He just kept telling us how there's no prophet that teaches about the BOM, and that we're wrong. It's all a lie. He asked me to show him something in the Bible that talks about the BOM, and when I did, he wouldn't listen, just no, no, no.. So we tried to leave, but then he turns to my temporary companion, and starts speaking Japanese so I couldn't understand (he was speaking English at first). My comp is a little shy, but talked with him a little, but the JW started talking to him so I couldn't participate. So we just said we had to go, and left. JWs are really brutal. The bible shouldn't be a battleground. It should be common ground. Something we can share and rejoice over. 

Anyway. Next we went through a little market, and I saw a tie pin I liked, so I bought it, and the lady selling it took interest in our church! Surprise lesson! And while we were talking to her, the guy across from her booth tapped us on the shoulders and told us to talk to him next! Woah. Miracle. But this next guy was strange. He spoke English, and recorded the conversation to "listen to later to practice English". But then he asked us really weird questions, proceeded to take pictures of my comp's family photos he had, and then video taped us, saying, 'if you met Jesus, what would you say? Say hi to Jesus!", things like that.. really weird. So we left. When he left, he asked us to bless him. Can't refuse to bless one of God's children, so we just sat down and said a prayer together. really strange sequence of events, but whatever. 

I love how Koreans are so honest!  Yep, pink for girls, blue for boys...

Saturday we got our transfer calls, and turns out my companion, e Ghergori is district leader now, and in the other city in our district, is my MTC companion, so we'll get to go on exchanges sometime! 

That will be awesome. 

Yesterday, the American family in our ward blessed their newborn, and we got to participate. That was a special experience. I love babies. We were the only ones that understood his English prayer, but the whole ward felt that precious spirit that surrounds a newborn baby. That was a neat experience.

A Close-up of the painting, above.

Anyway, that's it for this week, hope all is well back in good 'ol 'Merica!

Love you all,

Elder Franchina