Sunday, August 1, 2010

A Marvelous Work

I'm excited about the way things are going right about now. I feel
so much more successful at missionary work since the Simplified
Curriculum came out. Just to prove my point, President Jennings
announced that since we rolled out the new program 3 weeks ago the
average number of baptismal dates in the mission has more than
TRIPLED!!! That's a miracle!!

The catch comes in that I was just barely starting to find some new
investigators last week when something got thrown in the spokes. In my
interview with Pres. Jennings we spoke about the unique situation of
the Chinhae and Pungho wards and how they really shouldn't be split
anyway and dividing the missionary work in them is really not all that
effective....so according to my wishes, President told me that we're now
back in both wards and the Elders are also---as a special exception to
the one team/one ward program he rolled out. This is perfect because
the area really needs to be covered by someone in both wards, but,
seeing as all of the investigators I found in the last week have been
men...it means that the Elders just picked up all of my investigators
and I'm practically down to zilch again. No complaints...the Elders
will be better for each of these people anyway...it just means I have a
lot of work to do and it's gotten to the point where I don't have enough
time left to be able to see my efferts go into full effect. It's
okay...this isn't about self-gratification anyway. The good news is
that one of my investigators that I had to give to the Elders because
she's in the Pungho ward is gaining lots of faith--and I get to go back
to teach her (she's been threatening Elder Heaton that she might move
into Chinhae ward in order to have me teach her--hehe). Right now her
fear is that if she goes to Church everyone will judge her for not
having her whole family there. It's hard because I can't actually
promise her that they won't---all I can promise is that it doesn't
matter if they do...it doesn't make the Church any less true. Her name
is Kim Hyon Ju---prayers for her to gain the courage to go to Church
would be fabulous.

Prayers for me to find new investigators and keep my head on
straight would be fabulous, too. My planner is such a mess...I keep
accidentally writing things on the wrong days and losing important
information. It's a good thing my companion is in charge of the keys
and the phone or I don't think we'd ever manage to find them. My brain
is getting quite fried from this whole missionary work thing. I hope
this goes away when I get home...the left-brained part of me is going
crazy.

Let it be known that I was effectively squashing any and all
trunkiness until Pres. Jennings had the nerve to bring up marriage in my
intervew. Isn't there a rule against talking about that stuff or
something?

I've kinda had a blast with this whole Sister's Representative
stuff. It's a lot of responsiblity that I don't really have time or
energy for, but It's really quite fulfilling. Serving the sisters in
this mission is such a wonderful priveledge. I split with Sis.
Patterson this past week. It was so delightful to bring her to the
beautiful land of Chinhae and let her artistic mind for free on it.
It's been a long time since I've spent much time with someone who was
really so delved into the arts that it was a part of their thought and
behavior. Even the way she speaks is very beautiful and poetic. It's
funny how much of a difference it makes to go from normal people who
just speak because something needs to be to go to people who say things
that need to be said, but in a beautiful and thought out way. Kinda
weird that I noticed, I guess. There just wasn't any stumbling
awkwardness about her words. Two Splits down....one to go. I love
this.

It's getting hotter and stickier now. I'm not quite sure that I've
dried out yet after my shower from last night---even with a fan right
on me all night. My eyes usually sting from the salt of my sweat...not
that you needed to know that...showering twice a day never sounded so
appealing since the dawn of time. Ick.

Things are going really well. Life is great and missionary work is
fun. I just know that God hears us and He guides us....simply because
He loves us. That's all you really need to know.

Be Happy!

~R~

July 26, 2010 post

I feel like I emailed you all yesterday. I also am having a really hard tiem keeping my short term memory intact because time is going so fast. I know I did stuff this week, but I just can't grasp it in my head.

I decided that this transfer is just gonna fly by way too fast. Weeks where you split just disappear wicked fast anyway. Now that I'm Sister's Representative I split every week. There's so much left to do to get my area ready to hand off to someone else (organizing records, writing a bus guide, coordinatigna ward mission plan, finding more (or any)investigators, recreating an effective English class---ahh!) that I just don't have time to do it. I was really panicky and, really, the opposite of trunky, thinking about it the other day--just freaked out that I didn't have enough time. I'm really grateful for prayer. In the adrenaline push at the end here I was able to receive I really powerful confirmation that I WILL be able to accomplish everything that the Lord has called me to do here---that I'll neither have too much time nor not enough. It will work out perfect. I knew with such certainty that the Lord was pleased with all of my efforts and would magnify them in His own way. I'm grateful that God answers our prayers through such wonderful, personal revelation.

I had the opportunity to go to Jinju with Sis. Crowther from Sanford, Colorado (She says it's not on all maps...it's not far from the New Mexico border). It was really fun to have the Colorado connection with someone again. She's a champ. I'm really impressed with how well these young missionaries are just steping up to the plate. When I was 5th transfer like her I didn't have nearly the amount of confidence in hte work as she does...but then again she was put senior a lot earlier, too...the rest of the Sisters are SO young that anyone younger than me is having to "grow up" really fast. I'm proud of her.

Jinju is a beautiful city. I went there on one of those musical firesides a while ago but I only saw it through the taxi window. It was really fun to really be out in the "dirty south" and see the mountainous countryside. They have these really neat floats that they put out in the river in August...like a parade, but not moving and it stays there for a week. They weren't in the river yet, but we could see a lot of them. It was really cool. the work really does sweep every climb and country.

In my area thins are going well. My members are getting good and fired up for the work. They're being so good at offering help for anyting we need. Sometimes it pays to be a Sister....I doubt they gave the Elders this much help when they were here alone. I love this ward so much. It's my homeward in Korea. Chinhae is just full of miracles. I'll be sad to leave.

Korea is beautiful and adventurous. Missions are wonderful. I highly recommend them to everyone.

Be safe and cool. Keep the commandments and love your neighbor!

~R~