Dear
Family,
President
Barrow wants this mission to be a baptizing mission, and he really thinks it
can be. But as of now, I think the average is maybe around 2 per year per
area or something like that. I know that 20 or 30 years ago in Korea,
there were tons of baptisms. Our ward mission leader said that here in
Gimhae when he was Branch President, there were 53 baptisms in one year. And
at that time, they didn't even have a baptismal font, so they had to go to a
different ward every Sunday for baptisms. In fact, Gimhae Ward only has 3 or 4
families who were originally members of the church--all of the 80 other active
members of Gimhae are converts. Pretty cool, huh? I don't know if
this is the reason or not, but Elder Yoon was saying that it's probably because
Korea used to be a really poor country, even just 20 years ago, and so the
people were humble, but now that Korea has progressed and is getting really
wealthy, they don't have very open minds to other religions. But yeah, what you
said is completely true. A lot of the time when we teach people, we have to
have a whole lesson just teaching who Heavenly Father is, because they
literally have no knowledge of God.
But
anyway, speaking of baptisms, we just had a baptism here in Gimhae. He has a
really pure heart and is one of the nicest people ever. He (LG) always calls me
just to say hi, and is always trying to eat lunch with us or do things with
us. He's the other teams investigator, but I think Elder Yoon and I spent
just as much time with him as they did, so we're pretty good friends :) He
really likes the church, and always talks about how he wants to be a
missionary. Before he was even baptized, he gave Elder Yoon and me a
referral, and just yesterday he said he has another one for us. Last week we
went to meet this referral, and it turns out that he is really interested in
our church, and really likes the missionaries. Originally he just had interest
in learning English, but LG invited him to church, and he came yesterday. He
really liked it, and wants to keep meeting with us, so that was pretty sweet.
It's interesting though, because this situation goes right along with what
Elder Yoon was saying. This guy (OC) is really poor, he doesn't even have
a phone (which is saying something for Korea, EVERYONE has a phone) and lives
in a really small, run-down house. I've met him twice so far, and both
times he was wearing the exact same thing. But I think it's his
circumstances that softened his heart to the point that he happily accepted a
Book of Mormon, came to church and seemed to love it, and wants us to keep
meeting with him so he can learn more. It's amazing to me to see how God works
to prepare His children to receive the gospel.
So
we actually weren't able to really meet anyone else besides him this past week.
If you ask why, today is the Lunar New Year, one of the biggest holidays of the
year for Korea. So all of last week, people were busy getting ready/traveling
so they didn't have time. And it goes for three days, so we won't be able to
meet anyone until after Wednesday this week. But the bishop was really nice and
invited all the missionaries over for dinner tonight, so we actually have
something to do instead of roam the empty streets looking for people who aren't
there. So that's nice :)
As
far as transfers, Elder Yoon left to go to a place called Geumjeong, which is
in Busan and is the same zone as Gimhae. My new companion is Elder
Johnstun from Arizona. He's a newer missionary, actually started his
mission almost exactly a year after I did.
Well,
that's about it, at least what I can remember! I hope you have a great
week!
Love,
Elder
Hines
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