Monday, February 23, 2015

Fun Week

February 22, 2015

Today the subject said, "most-loved son." I knew it, thanks for finally admitting it :) [We use Google Translate to write something in Korean on the subject line when we write Chris, sometimes it actually works]

Our week was actually surprisingly busy compared to what I expected. We went to our mission leader's house and ate lunch. And then on Friday, the mission leader for Gumi Ward invited us over to play games, and we played UNO, ping pong, and Bang (have you heard of that? It’s a card game that's really popular in Korea, and really fun). On Friday, LH invited us to play sports with him and one of the YM in our ward that he really likes. So we played soccer, basketball, and baseball.  It was super fun, LH even had a full out baseball uniform with soccer cleats :) On Saturday, he came to our youth activity and showed me these books he has with a bunch of 70s/80s songs with the lyrics written out. He brought a keyboard too, and had me play the chord progressions for the songs while he sang them. He's just a really fun guy. 

I'm glad your talk went well, which of my experiences did you share?

Oh, I figured out that hymn that I really like that I never heard until I came to Korea. It's called, The Time is Far Spent, hymn #266. I also really like Come, Ye Children of the Lord. The Korean hymn book doesn't have Let Zion in her Beauty Rise, so I have to get by without it :)

I just finished a letter for you, hopefully I will get a chance to send it soon.

I love you too!

Elder Hines

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Chinese New Year

February 16, 2015

Dear Family,

Actually, last week wasn't much better for meeting with our investigators. They were all still pretty busy, and this week will probably be the same. This week on February 18-20 is 설날 (Seolar), which is the Chinese New Year. It's one of the two major holidays that Koreans celebrate, and everyone is busy with their families during that time. For missionaries, it's just a good time for deep cleaning in our house, but we also got invited over to our mission leader's house on Thursday for lunch and games.

So last Saturday, we met this guy named LH. He has been an investigator for the past five years, and he is really good friends with everyone in the branch. He's basically a member, he came to church and participated more in Sunday School than any of the actual members did. He's super awesome, he was telling us about how he likes our church a lot, and when he is a member he wants to do all he can to help build it up. He wants Gimcheon to grow to over 60 people and need a new building. That would be amazing, because right now we are sitting at about 14-16 people who come each week.

I know hymn 9, but not 8. Yeah, Come Rejoice is a really good song. There's another hymn that I really like that I had never heard before I came to Korea, but I don't remember what it's called, if I remember I'll tell you. Koreans sing a lot of really obscure hymns, which is really nice, it changes things up. It's much better than singing the same three sacrament hymns like they do in the US. ;)

Oh, I got your letter, thank you so much!  Elder Payne says thank you for the bookmark, they are really cool.

Have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

Monday, February 9, 2015

Things are Picking Up!

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! :)}

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Referrals!

February 1, 2015

Hey,

Our branch meets on the second floor of a building above a dance studio. It's pretty fun because we get to listen to K Pop during church sometimes. We actually have way more youth than we did in Tongyeong, even though it is smaller.  We have three YM and four YW who come regularly. The YM are teacher age, and so they pass the sacrament, and our ward mission leader and one of the missionaries blesses it each week. There aren't any primary age children. They just rotate through the members on who speaks in Sacrament Meeting. Elder Payne and I haven't spoken other than our introduction talk. There are only like seven adults at most that come, so yeah, they have to speak quite often. I'm sure they realize that through member missionary work they can boost their numbers, but it's just like anywhere else, including Utah, where member missionary work is just hard to do for most people. They are trying really hard, but I think they are just scared about talking to people they know about the gospel. We actually just got two referrals from our ward mission leader yesterday. I didn't even know that many referrals were possible in Korea. We asked him to set the example for the branch, and so he did. It was pretty awesome . . . 

As far as the computer I use, the last couple weeks we have been using other computers. Last week we emailed at the library, since we emailed on a Tuesday. Normally the library is closed on Mondays, just like everything else in Korea. And the week before, we just went to the church and used that computer just to send pictures.

Oh yeah, the new elder in Gumi who replaced Elder Jung is Elder Glover, and he is actually in the group right younger than me from the MTC. Him coming basically saved my life, since he had Lord of the Rings music on his mp3 player. So Elder Payne and I jumped on the opportunity to put it on ours. We're a lot happier now :)

Have a great week, I love you!


Elder Hines