May 1, 2016
Dear
Family,
It
was a really good last week in Gimhae (yes, I got transferred, but I'll get to
that). On Tuesday we went to Jinyoung to visit the investigator there and
we taught a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon. He is probably
the most prepared/readily accepting of what we say/most understanding person
I've ever found on the street. He had a ton of questions about what we do
as missionaries, and even, without us saying anything about it, said,
"You're probably going to invite me to church, right? I'm really busy on
Sundays, but I'll try to make time to come." We gave him a copy of
the Book of Mormon and he said it was a "really good gift," and that
he'll "read it through a few times." I about fell over dead
from amazement, up until this point I was pretty convinced that real golden
investigators didn't exist in Korea, because every time I've found someone who
seemed that prepared, it has always been too good to be true, and something
else happens. We went back to visit again on Friday, and were able to
teach a really good lesson of the Restoration that lasted a good two hours because
he had so many questions. In those three days since he got the Book of
Mormon, he had read over 30 pages of it, and each time when he read it, went
back and read it twice to make sure he understood it. He said he will try
to read all of it as soon as possible, and we didn't even have to ask
him. Too bad I had to leave, there's no way he's not getting baptized
soon.
When
we met JHB this past week, for some reason he decided to sign Elder Johnstun
and me up for some speech conference thing. It was supposed to be at a
nakji restaurant, so we went there and waited for 45 minutes for people to show
up, but only two people did, and we just sat around and talked the whole
time. It was kind of weird. But we were able to share the message
we had prepared for Brother Jung in front of all of them. We shared about
James 1:5 and getting answers from God, and they all seemed really interested
in what we were saying, even if it was catered to Brother Jung. I'm still
not sure what the conference was supposed to be though, he made it sound like
we would have to give a speech in front of a bunch of people, but nothing
really happened.
Saturday
night is when transfer calls came, and they informed me that I would transfer
to a place called Jinhae, which is technically part of Changwon city, so it's
right next to Dogye, and actually not too far from Gimhae either. I
received the call to be district leader again, so that's exciting. But
the really interesting part is my companion. Two transfers ago, Elder
Aurich (remember him, right? you saw him at Christmas) left Gimhae, also going
to Jinhae. I was thinking that I would end up replacing him, but he is
actually my companion now! Isn't that crazy? We've basically been
following each other for the past year. When I was in Daeshin, he was a
trainee in my district, then we both transferred to the same house in Gimhae,
and now we're companions. If it's not that exciting to you, that's okay
:)
On
Sunday, it was really sad saying goodbye to all the members I've been serving
around for the past six months. Gimhae has been one of my favorite areas,
so I'm so glad I got to serve there for as long as I did. Saturday night
I tried calling all of our investigators to tell them I'm leaving so they
better come to church to say goodbye to me. [One of them] didn't answer,
but after church the next day, he send me a really funny text in English.
Here's word for word what it said: "DEAR ELDER Hines, Johnstun! I am so
sorry. because I can not go to there. What am I supposed to do with the liking
I have for you? Am I supposed to let it leave? Will we ever meet again? This heartache
can never end. You mean the English world. Goodbye. See you again. From …." [Gotta love Google translate. :)]
In
the evening on Sunday we went to the mission leader's house to visit their
family one last time before I left. They're probably my favorite family
I've met in Korea, they're super awesome. If you remember, the wife is
the one who hemmed my pants for me :)
The
other pictures attached are a cool-looking part of
Gimhae, and district picture for the last transfer.
I
hope you have a great week! Talk to you soon!
Love,
Elder
Hines
 |
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment