Monday, April 25, 2016

She Fed Us Dinner


April 24, 2016

Dear Family,

It's been a really good week, with a lot that happened.  It's so weird how most weeks, not too much goes on, but then all in one week we have a whole bunch of exciting things.

On Tuesday we met with Jung Hee-baek like normal, but unlike normal, he invited three other people who wanted to learn English from him.  It was really cool because he had everyone introduce themselves in English, and when it got Elder Johnstun and I, they had a ton of questions about who we are and what we're doing in Korea, as well as what our church believes.  For once we were able to tell people about the church without feeling like we were shoving the information down their throats. They were really interested, and plan on coming back next week.  So while Jung Hee-Baek is kind of at a stalemate right now as far as progressing toward baptism, he's helping us out a ton.

Last week we got wind from the sisters that are a couple members who actually want to be visited by the missionaries (normally, for some reason the members in this ward tend to avoid visits from the missionaries--I think they've been asked for referrals too many times), one of them being a good potential for a free meal.  So we wasted no time in visiting them. They both live in relatively the same area, so it was convenient. We visited one lady at the barber shop she runs, and since it wasn't a very busy time for her, she talked to us for an hour and a half straight, telling us all kinds of stories and asking us questions. It was the first time a member actually took us up on the offer to help them with anything (btw if the missionaries ever ask if you need help with anything, they probably really mean it and you should take advantage of it :)), and so we'll soon probably go help their family paint a new house they're moving into. She also gave us a ton of candy and told us to give it to kids we see on the street. I'm not sure if it's just her or if Koreans are just really chill about taking candy from strangers. I would assume it's not as big of a deal in Korea because drugs don't really exist here. The other lady we visited runs an octopus restaurant, and she fed us dinner.  It was also probably the best octopus I've had in Korea.  It's called "Nak-ji Bokk-eum" (낙지볶음) in case you were wondering.


Korean dining--kimchi, raddish juice, peppers, cabbage salad, rice, fried octopus, more kimchi, and "gyeranjim" (basically scrambled eggs).


So there's a little town on the edge of our area that I've never been to called Jinyoung, and on Saturday we didn't have anything to do, so we decided to check it out. There's a less active family who lives there who we wanted to visit, and then just explore and see what's there. 


It's probably the closest to wilderness I've ever come across in Korea.


It's a really cool town, basically just imagine Morgan or Ephraim or any one of those back-valleys in Utah, then put some tall apartment buildings in the middle and Asian-ize it, and you have Jinyoung.  


We didn't find the less active family, the address we had for them just took us to a steel factory, and I'm assuming they don't live there.

During our exploring, we found a really cool guy. We were walking through downtown Jinyoung, and there was this older guy organizing some stuff outside of his shop.  He saw us and said hi in English, and then told us about how he went to the US once and really likes Americans. We told him about what we do as missionaries, and asked if we could come by later to share a message. He gave his number, and told us to visit him often. That night we called him back to invite him to church, and although he couldn't come because Sundays are busy for him, he told us again to come visit him, the sooner the better. So that was pretty sick, the first person I've found on the street with a lot of potential all transfer.

Yeah this week is the last before transfers, and yes, it has felt really fast.  We had interviews with President this past week, and he implied pretty strongly that there are going to be a lot of changes in the mission starting next transfer. So, seeing that I've been in Gimhae for six months now, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll leave.

We weren't able to meet with Brother Park, he's been hard to contact lately. 
And we couldn't meet with Brother Jo either, he's just hard to meet for reasons explained last week. 


Here's a final picture for you--a meal I made the other night that was basically a work of art.  It's "Don-kka-seu" (Japanese pork cutlet, which sounds way fancier than it really is) topped with steak sauce, with a side of rice and mandu (dumplings).

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Hines


Monday, April 18, 2016

Spring in Gimhae


April 17, 2016

Dear Family,

Things are going well here. I think that maybe the investigators are going to start picking back up again soon. PSH (have I told you about him before?) should be less busy with school starting this week, and we finally met JSB (do you remember him? He randomly called a couple months ago and said he wants to get baptized, but we haven't been able to meet him) for the first time in like five months. He's been calling us every day saying that he'll come to church when he has time, but he never shows up. But yesterday he showed up half-way through church and stayed for 15 minutes before leaving. Although not ideal, it's definitely improvement. He's actually been meeting the missionaries for multiple years now and has been taught all the lessons, but can't stop smoking, which is why he hasn't been baptized yet. The first time I ever met him was when I first got to Gimhae, he came to English class and was telling us about how he hadn't smoked in a week so he could come to church. So I feel like he has a sincere desire, but it's just really hard for him to stop smoking. And since he knows that we don't smoke, I think he feels too self-conscious around other members when he smells like smoke, which is why he keeps saying he will come to church but not actually coming. So now we just have to figure out how to help him stop smoking, if we can just convince him to meet us regardless of whether he's smoked recently or not.  I feel like he's under the impression that members of the church don't want to be around him if he smells like smoke. 

Then there's JHB, who we're at a loss as to how to help him. This last week when we met him, he told us that he wants to get baptized, he's just not sure when. Every time we try to set a baptismal date, he says that he doesn't know if he wants to get baptized that soon, and that he needs an answer first. Right now he's praying to know how to help his wife understand and let him get baptized.  We were thinking of trying to meet with his wife, but apparently she's too shy to meet us because we're American...yeah, kinda stumped on that one.

This past weekend we finally had our long-planned for and greatly-anticipated ward party that was planned by the missionary department of the ward. Everyone came and ate dinner, and as they finished eating they could go downstairs and see a "Gospel Art Exhibition" (which sounds way fancier than it really was, but that's what it was called).  The "exhibition" ended up being two rooms, one for the Bible and one for the Book of Mormon, with pictures and explanations hung up in chronological order depicting events related to the first Easter. We even had Steven Sharp Nelson's Sacred Cello album playing over the speaker system while they walked around and looked at the pictures.  Time for dinner and looking at the pictures lasted and hour or so, and after that we put all the kids in a room to decorate eggs and watch cartoons, while the adults went back upstairs to watch Ephraim's Rescue. I think they liked it a lot, especially because church movies like that usually aren't available in Korean, but we had subtitles for it since we watch it as a mission for Christmas a year and a half ago. Overall, it turned out really well--at least as good as we were hoping, if not better :)

Today for p day the two senior couples we have in our mission put together a big brunch for all the missionaries serving in the Busan and South Busan zones, so that was pretty sick. We had pancakes and eggs, with real American toppings like salsa, whipped cream, and strawberry syrup. It was probably the most amazing breakfast I've had in almost two years, I almost forgot what that kind of food is like. Plus I got to see people like Elder Yoon and Elder Mitchell, so it was really fun :)

Here are some pictures of Gimhae in the Spring. Now that the Cherry Blossoms are gone, these red and purple flowers are everywhere. We found a really cool salamander, too. I've never seen one before so I had to harass it with my camera.

Anyway, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Hines











Monday, April 11, 2016

Conference was Amazing!


April 10, 2016

Dear Family,

Things are going well here. Now that we've been reduced to one investigator (just JHB--everyone else is just too busy or has some other excuse), we've had a lot of time to spend looking for new investigators. Most people don't really want to talk to us, like usual.  Koreans usually tend to be shy of talking to white people.  But that's not always the case. For example, last night we met a drunk guy who was really friendly and walked down the street holding our hands for a good 5-10 minutes, telling us all sorts of stuff about his life, almost none of which we could understand because he was slurring his words so bad. We wanted to slip a Word of Wisdom pamphlet into his coat pocket for when he wakes up tomorrow morning, but unfortunately, we didn't have one on hand.

JHB is doing really well. When we met him, we talked about General Conference, and how he can get personal answers to his questions. For some reason it was really hard for him to understand, he kept thinking that it was going to be like a call-in question and answer session or something. He ended up coming for the Sunday morning session though, and he loved it. He said that it helped him with his questions about baptism, but before we could inquire further, he went off about how amazing the choir was, and then had to leave. So hopefully this week we will get a chance to talk more in depth about how it was for him and what he's thinking. Please keep him in your prayers! :)

I sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Chinese? I have no recollection of it.  Darn, that could have come in handy with those Chinese people who came to church a couple months ago. I'm pretty sure I could sing it in Korean, I've never tried though ;)

Conference was amazing! Some of my favorite talks were Elder Hallstrom, Elder Bednar, Elder Owen (Priesthood Session), Elder Hales, Elder Holland (I almost died it was so amazing), and Elder Eyring (Women's Session). I know that's a lot, but there were just so many good ones, and those are some of my very favorite. Before conference, President Barrow asked us to prepare for it by thinking of questions we want answered at least a week beforehand, write them down, and pray about them. I came up with four questions, and it was so cool because all of my questions were answered, some of them through multiple talks. There were even some questions I didn't specifically write down or think of, but were things I had been thinking about recently, that were also answered. It was a wonderful reminder that Heavenly Father will bless us with not only with what we ask for, but also with what we need, even when we don't realize we need it. For the first time in my life, I felt like some of the speakers from Conference we speaking directly to me--not just in a way that just generally involves me as a human and as a member of the church, but specifically to my personal thoughts, concerns, and desires. I know that Heavenly Father loves us more than we can comprehend, and cares about every little detail of our lives, and I'm so grateful for the privilege we have of living prophets and apostles who are inspired and directed by God.

Thanks for everything, for all your love and support! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Hines