February 8, 2015
Dear Family,
Yeah, this week went by
really fast for me too.
We actually contacted
those referrals last week after P day was over. One of them didn't have
any interest at all, but the other one is pretty amazing. We met and talked to him the next day, and I guess
he originally met the missionaries about ten years ago, but he went to
Australia for a little while, and when he got back, there just wasn't ever any
contact from the missionaries. So he has wanted to meet the missionaries for
the past 8 or 9 years, but didn't know how to. And then just recently, he
developed kidney cancer, and that has changed his whole perspective on things.
He used to think that money was really important, but now he just cares about
health and family. So he's super prepared. We've only been able to meet
him once so far, since he's been out of town, but hopefully we can meet with him
a lot in the future
WJ is still our
investigator, but she went to Japan last week, so we didn't get to meet. But
this week we should be able to.
Also, last Thursday, we
were walking to meet a less active, and this Korean stopped us and asked in
English if we were American, and he had no accent at all. So we talked to
him as we walked, and he told us about how he was born in Korea, but lived in
the US in Kansas City for fifteen years, and he just came back to Korea a
couple weeks ago. He's 23 now, and he had to come back to enroll in the
military, since it's mandatory for Korean citizens. He basically forgot how to
speak Korean, and he doesn't know anyone here, so he is really stressed out for
those reasons. We told him we could teach him Korean, as well as
introduce him to some Koreans that could be his friends ;) He seemed
pretty excited about that, but for the time being, he is in Seoul visiting his
grandma who is sick.
Yeah, so all our
investigators/potentials were busy this week, but next week should be pretty
good. Things are finally picking up in Gimcheon; this is the busiest we've
been since we got here.
This morning we did
something pretty fun. So there is a mission rule that we can't go to these
places called Mokyoktangs, which are public bath houses. But our boiler is
a piece of garbage, and lately hasn't been heating the water that comes out of
the faucets at all, so it's literally like fresh snow melt. We've just
been boiling water and putting it in a bucket to shower, but because our boiler
is broken, we got permission to go to the local bath house. It was pretty
awesome, it's like a bunch of hot tubs, showers, saunas, and a cold water
pool. Apparently Koreans go to these places like once a week, and now I
can see why. I'm sure it sounds weird, but it was super relaxing, and just a
really cool experience.
I'm not exactly sure why
everything is closed on Mondays, but yeah, it's kind of like Sundays [used to
be] in the US. It's just their day off, for some reason it happens to be
Monday.
I love you, have a great
week!
Love,
Elder Hines
{Heavenly Father answers
our prayers! We have been praying and fasting (Carleigh fasted two weeks in a
row) for Chris and Elder Payne to find people who are prepared to hear their
message. Chris (and Carleigh!) was happy and grateful to hear this and that it
worked! :)}