Liahona and Fiji

July 17, 2016

Dear family,

Well, I was being sarcastic about the intestines being really good, but they weren't as bad as you would expect. It's basically just like eating fatty meat, nothing special.

Just N went back to Chile, the rest of the family is still here. We haven't been able to meet at teach them for a while, mostly because M is really busy with work, and the one day he doesn't have work (Sunday), they always go out of town to do other things.

 

Yesterday, we had a bunch of guys from Fiji come to our ward. They are here to pick up a ship that their company bought and take it back to Fiji, and have been here for maybe a month now, just getting the ship ready to take back. But the other day, a few of them were hanging out, resting in the shade or something, and one of the members of our ward passed by them. Upon seeing part of the garments of one of them, the member stopped and asked if they were members. It turns out that of the fourteen members of the crew, two of them are members of the church, and one of them (the captain, actually) is a returned missionary. For the month they've been here they haven't been able to find a church, but because one of the Korean members saw their garments, they were able to come yesterday.  Pretty cool, huh? The two members, as well as five others they invited, all attended the three hours of church, and afterward, we went with them and the bishopric to their ship (which they named "Liahona II"), and the bishopric blessed the ship and M (the captain). M is the one in the light purple button up shirt. The guy on the far right is pretty swag, huh? :)

We didn't meet with LHO again, I think he's stuck in rehab for now...it's kind of a good thing that he didn't come to church though, because I had more than enough to worry about with seven Fijians walking around the church who I had to translate for.  Translating is really hard, let me tell you.

Today for p day we went on a hike to the top of one of the mountains around here. I'll show you some videos I took next week, but here's some pictures:

We left at seven this morning, and it took maybe three hours or so. Yes, I know I look really sweaty...it was really humid, okay? I felt like I was in the middle of the Amazon.  But it was really fun!

Well, I have tons more to tell you, but I'll see you in a week and a couple days, so I'll tell you then :)  Have a great week, and talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Hines

Second-to-last

July 10, 2016

Dear Family,

I talked to Elder Kim on the phone last night, and he says he's feeling better and will probably come back on the next transfer day, so two weeks from today. So yep, things are going pretty well with him it seems.

Elder Snyder is really cool. Here's a picture of him and a member (Brother JJH) who took us out for lunch last p day.

The member took us out to eat small intestines, which was a first for me (I've only had large intestines and rectum before), so it was pretty exciting. This is only a picture, so you'll just have to imagine the deliciousness that I experienced. Koreans eat this stuff like it's brownies and ice cream:

Afterwards, Brother J took us to a naval museum here in Jinhae. I actually went to it once last year, so maybe you've seen pictures of it before. 

On Wednesday, N (the mom of the Chilean family) invited us over for lunch again, and this time she made Chilean food. It was amazing, almost as good as the intestines. M had to leave for work, but we were able to teach their daughter the Restoration and give her another copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. N was busy doing some other stuff and unfortunately wasn't able to listen to the lesson. But she is going back to Chile tomorrow, and invited us and the sisters for lunch today to say goodbye before she leaves, so we'll be able to teach her then. Here's a picture of the family last English class (with a couple other Koreans who attended).

And to answer your questions...

It takes an hour by car from Busan to Jinhae, or and hour and a half by bus.

The Chilean family accepts our message really well, the hard part is getting a chance to teach them because they are so busy with work and school.

We teach English class twice a week:  Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.

The translation of 역시남미 is basically "classic South American." When you say that in English it sounds kind of negative, but it's positive in Korean, so it's hard to translate.

Okay, well this is my second-to-last email, so I hope it was entertaining :)

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hines

Monsoon Season

July 3, 2016

Dear Family,

So last Monday evening, President Barrow called us, and said that he's been talking with Elder Kim's stake president as well as the doctors in the US, and they reached the decision that Elder Kim needs to go home to recover. So he told us to have Elder Kim pack and be at the mission home Tuesday morning by 9:15. A mission sure teaches you how to pack quickly. Tuesday morning we went to Busan, where Elder Kim's parents were waiting to pick him up. Elder Kim called me later after he got home, and after going to the doctor at home, they decided that he will probably be able to come back out in a month.

Anyway, he left, and then I was temporary companions with the two office elders at the mission home, and messed around with them for the rest of the day. Wednesday morning, Elder George (one of the senior missionaries serving in this mission, he's the one serving at the mission home in charge of finances) drove me to Jinhae because we had district meeting, and after the meeting drove me back to Busan to pick up my new companion. What happened was that there is a member in Daegu who is getting ready to leave on his mission to the Korea Daejeon Mission next month, and doesn't have anything to do until then, so that asked him on Tuesday if he would be willing to serve as a full-time missionary starting Wednesday (crazy, right?), and he agreed. So they put him with an elder serving in one of the Daegu areas, and that elder's old companion came to Jinhae to serve with me. His name is Elder Snyder, and actually happens to have come to Korea at the same time as Elder Kim, so he's in his third transfer right now. So we met, talked with President Barrow for a little bit, and then rode a bus back to Jinhae, just in time to teach the Chilean family, followed by English class. It was quite the day.

Teaching our South American friends didn't work out quite as well as we were hoping (for some reason that's always how things go as a missionary, I don't know why). They came a little late, and I think the dad expected us to only teach him the gospel for some reason, so it was kind of awkward. He came to us with a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon and the church and stuff like that, and when Elder Snyder offered his personal English Book of Mormon for him to read, Manuel took it in the other room and read it for the rest of the evening while we taught English class. 

The next day (Friday), at the beginning of the day I had a feeling that we might run into the Chilean family, so I put a Spanish Book of Mormon (we had just barely gotten them, ordered from Seoul) in my backpack to give to them since they didn't have a copy yet.  We didn't run into them, but on the way home that night, it was already 8:30, but I thought that maybe we could stop by their house and drop it off. So we called Manuel and he was just getting off work, saying he would be home at the same time we would get to their house, so it was perfect timing. He invited us in, and we shared Moroni 10:3-5. When I started to explain about who Moroni was, he went off about all kinds of stuff about the origin of the Book of Mormon...turns out he studied the Restoration pamphlet I gave him last week.  And when we testified about it and said it was the word of God, he was like "oh yeah, there were lots of prophets throughout history who recorded God's word, and I believe this is one of them," and just accepted everything we said, agreed to pray about it, and we set up an appointment to meet him again after next English class.  Nothing like this ever happens when you teach Koreans, but then I meet someone from South America for the first time in my mission, and this is what happens.

It's officially monsoon season here. Starting about the middle of last week, it's rained every day. But when you're imagining this, you can't think of rain that you know. More like step outside your door and it's like walking through a waterfall would be more accurate. It's impossible to stay dry, there's so much rain that it's just rivers of water 4-6 inches deep flowing down the streets, it's crazy.

Okay answers to questions:

Elder Kim said that the oriental treatment made it hurt worse, so no, it didn't help.

The Jinhae elders' house originally has two teams in it, so no one had to move.

Probably the weirdest thing will be having a couch to sit on, or maybe eating at a big table (not on the floor) :)

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hines