Well, I've been here two weeks and life just flies by so fast. I'm already neck-deep in homework.
Coming home was a strange experience. I never realized that I grew up in the country-side...Colorado Springs feels so small-townish after being in Korea. It was nice to see my family again.
Karina wins the surprise award for having been in the LA airport when I was on my way home. Chalene on the other hand wins points for a good effort gone bad...she accidentally included me in a mass-email that announced to her friends and family that she was coming home to surprise me.
I was really glad to have everyone come out. I kinda had an inkling that maybe Mom and Malea were the only ones who would bother coming to the airport. I had settled the idea in my mind--but this was much better.
Well, that's it...a year and a half passed by fast than I could blink. Life is shorter than you think.
For your information, my blog stopped working for a couple weeks because I tried to log in from Korea to find some people's names about whom I knew I'd written home about. I guess blogspot didn't like that much. I think all of the emails are loaded up now. Much thanks to Chalene who 관리ed it all this time (some words still don't come very naturally in English).
I think I'll continue blogging, but I might change my address...I'll be sure to post here first if I change.
Say your prayers. Read your scriptures. Go to Church.
~R~
Saturday, September 4, 2010
To all good things there comes an end...
I can't believe this is my last day. I can't believe the rest of the week is just random little business and then....I'll be there. That's it!
Lee Jung Min came to the bus station this morning to send me off. I almost started crying when I saw her. She has just transformed overnight. Then she gave me a letter which I will have to translate into English ASAP before I forget how to read Korean talking about her own feelings in her conversion process over the last year. I DID cry when I read that. There's my reason for coming to Korea right there.
I didn't end up spending the night at that member's house. THe Spirit just told me I could spend my time doing better things. Turned out to be right beacuse my split with Sis Chon was very edifying for both of us and led to us inviting her investigator to commit to a baptismal date. Good stuff.
I had the opportunity to go to the "After Meeting" (actually what they called it....apparently English is cooler than Korean even if you can't pronounce your f's--apto meeting) of the big EFY-like youth conference last night. The conference was called SMYC but after asking several people what it meant I decided to treat it as just another meaningless acronym in the Church. I suppose I'll never find out. Anyway, the meeting was incredible. All of the youth got up to bear their testimonies and Park Sung Hee (my old companion who went home about 3 months ago) came because she was a counselor for it and to top it off most of my recent converts came to it. It was an excellent way to end my last (normal) day of missionary work. The best part was when everyone sang that little EFY medley with As Sisters in Zion and Helaman's Army rolled into one all together in Korean. I cried---but that doesn't seem to be very uncommon lately (or ever?). It was so overpowering to hear the words to that song in Korean and to UNDERSTAND IT. To REALLY understand it--especially coming from all of those young men (potential missionaries!) in the room. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it with a knife. And then it hit me. THIS IS WHY I CAME HERE. I can't take any credit for all of those people being there---but I can take some credit for some of them being there--but all of it was God anyway---I never did a thing on my own...it was all at His direction. I came here to build the Kingdom of God in this part of the world and sitting there I could see that Kingdom flourish and see other young souls growing strong and confident in that Kingdom. It was such a miracle. I LOVE THIS WORK!!!
Beyond that, there's not much I can think of to say that can't be said in person in a few days. I look forward to seeing you all. Pray for me to have the courage to leave this land well. I'm quite torn to have to leave. I'm excited for more Reese's cups and of course to see you all, though.
Prayers for science and math to just flow more or less painlessly back into my head as I needed would be greatly appreciated. I'm really nervous about jumping right back into this. One step at a time.
Say your prayers. Read your scriptures. Go to Church.
Much Love,
~R~
Lee Jung Min came to the bus station this morning to send me off. I almost started crying when I saw her. She has just transformed overnight. Then she gave me a letter which I will have to translate into English ASAP before I forget how to read Korean talking about her own feelings in her conversion process over the last year. I DID cry when I read that. There's my reason for coming to Korea right there.
I didn't end up spending the night at that member's house. THe Spirit just told me I could spend my time doing better things. Turned out to be right beacuse my split with Sis Chon was very edifying for both of us and led to us inviting her investigator to commit to a baptismal date. Good stuff.
I had the opportunity to go to the "After Meeting" (actually what they called it....apparently English is cooler than Korean even if you can't pronounce your f's--apto meeting) of the big EFY-like youth conference last night. The conference was called SMYC but after asking several people what it meant I decided to treat it as just another meaningless acronym in the Church. I suppose I'll never find out. Anyway, the meeting was incredible. All of the youth got up to bear their testimonies and Park Sung Hee (my old companion who went home about 3 months ago) came because she was a counselor for it and to top it off most of my recent converts came to it. It was an excellent way to end my last (normal) day of missionary work. The best part was when everyone sang that little EFY medley with As Sisters in Zion and Helaman's Army rolled into one all together in Korean. I cried---but that doesn't seem to be very uncommon lately (or ever?). It was so overpowering to hear the words to that song in Korean and to UNDERSTAND IT. To REALLY understand it--especially coming from all of those young men (potential missionaries!) in the room. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it with a knife. And then it hit me. THIS IS WHY I CAME HERE. I can't take any credit for all of those people being there---but I can take some credit for some of them being there--but all of it was God anyway---I never did a thing on my own...it was all at His direction. I came here to build the Kingdom of God in this part of the world and sitting there I could see that Kingdom flourish and see other young souls growing strong and confident in that Kingdom. It was such a miracle. I LOVE THIS WORK!!!
Beyond that, there's not much I can think of to say that can't be said in person in a few days. I look forward to seeing you all. Pray for me to have the courage to leave this land well. I'm quite torn to have to leave. I'm excited for more Reese's cups and of course to see you all, though.
Prayers for science and math to just flow more or less painlessly back into my head as I needed would be greatly appreciated. I'm really nervous about jumping right back into this. One step at a time.
Say your prayers. Read your scriptures. Go to Church.
Much Love,
~R~
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