A Week on the Inside

June 5, 2016

Dear Family,

There isn't much to talk about this week.  We literally spent all week just hanging out at the house because Elder Kim is dying.  We took him to the hospital last week, and they did a CT.  Thinking that he had internal bleeding in his brain, they recommending we take an MRI, so we did that as well.  Upon taking the MRI, it turned out that his brain wasn't really destroyed, and it just maybe got bruised.  So he is supposed to rest for two weeks and hopefully everything should be okay.  This week has just been basically an on and off nap for Elder Kim, and I'm about to die from muscle deterioration being inside all day every day.  I'm not sure what's going on, because according to Elder Kim, his condition is the exact same as it was when he first got it.  So it's either not getting better, or he's pulling a Carleigh on us and dragging it out as long as possible.  Hopefully after another week of doing nothing it should get better.

Sister Rix gave me microwave popcorn (I think she read my mind) and granola bars.

We haven't been able to meet GYL because we've been trapped inside.  I was able to get a hold of HHW though, and apparently he's just been really busy with work and school.  He said he would come to church, and then he didn't show up yesterday, so I guess we're back to square one.

Hey has McDonalds in the US started the new signature burgers? and if so, have you tried them? They came out May 27, and it's probably one of the best hamburgers I've had in Korea.  I didn't feel like I was at McDonalds, it felt like a real, high-quality hamburger.  I was so impressed that I took a picture:

We also had a ward picnic this week up the canyon.  Everyone brought food, and we ate together and went on a bit of a hike up to a reservoir. 

This is what we do when we have nothing to do at our house.  It's called "Bing-su," made from frozen milk; we used a knife to grind it up into flakes, and then put chocolate syrup and rice cake (the think on the right) on top.  It's super good, I'll show you how to make it in a couple months :)

Love,

Elder Hines

Birthday Fun

May 29, 2016

Dear Family,

My birthday was great!  And yes, I got calls from lots of friends around the mission, so it was really fun! :) Elder Suttner made a chocolate cake that turned out pretty decent, and Sister Rix gave me a ‘DIY birthday banner’ and some American food her parents sent her from the military base they live on.

It's been interesting having two companions, but we were able to get a lot done. We went on multiple splits with members, so it was like we could do twice as much with one companionship.  

Last Monday evening, we were proselyting on the street, and we met an old guy in his 70s.  He's a retired soldier from the military, and he was really kind.  He liked us a lot, and took us to a cafe to get drinks.  We were able to teach him the Word of Wisdom, turns out he already doesn't smoke, drink alcohol or coffee, or anything like that. He seems so prepared, and he is so nice, hopefully we'll be able to meet with him a lot. 

I don't know what's going on with HHW, but we weren't able meet him at all, and he never answered any phone calls or texts. For some reason this kind of thing seems to happen a lot in this mission. I think it's because Koreans sometimes pretend like they have interest to avoid being rude, but eventually they get sick of us and so they just drop off the face of the Earth.

On Saturday, we played soccer in the morning with the YM and young adults. Elder Kim got a little too excited I guess and ran into the horizontal top bar of the goal, giving himself a concussion. Yep. So we spent all of yesterday after church inside while he rested in bed. Elder Suttner and I just studied and talked for like 6 hours . . . it was really boring.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Have a wonderful day and week!

Love,

Elder Hines

Elder Suttner, Elder Hines & Elder Kim

Back to Back Baptisms

May 15, 2016

Dear Family,

Well, I feel like it was a really good week, but I honestly don't remember much of what happened. Just all kind of a blur I guess :)  Yesterday was really good though, so I'll tell you about that:

We actually had two baptisms in our ward yesterday. One of them was the sisters' investigator who they've been teaching for only a month or two. Since I'm the district leader, I had the opportunity give her the baptismal interview (which is actually the first time I've done it since being district leader). It was a really cool experience, and I could definitely feel the Spirit guiding me during the interview to know what to say/ask and how to say it. She is very prepared and has a very strong testimony of this church. The person who baptized her is actually a recent covert--the sisters decided it would be better to have a member baptize her than one of the missionaries. Which is a really good idea, because the missionaries are only here for a little bit and then leave, but the members stay.

The other baptism was Sister Rix's little sister. Her mom is Korean, and her dad is in the military (he also served a mission in Seoul), right now they're living in Korea. They wanted Sister Rix to be there for the baptism, so they got permission to do it here in Jinhae. So we got to meet all of her family, and have two baptisms back to back (I didn't know such a think even existed in Korea).

We've done a little more tracting, but not much success. The most acceptance from last week was people saying that they already have a religion so they aren't interested.

We have two investigators who we are teaching currently. The most consistent is HHW, he's a 16-year-old kid who is super awesome.  We taught him the Restoration, and although he got a little bored from us talking so much, he liked the Book of Mormon we gave him (we wrote our testimonies inside the front cover) and seems pretty interested in the church. I think he's attended Sacrament meeting twice so far. He's just really hard to meet because he's busy during the week with school, but other than that, it's going really well. Our other investigator is ODH who is 40 I think, and has problems with depression and suicidal thoughts and stuff. I've only met him once, but we gave him a tour of the church, and he liked it a lot. He was really hesitant to go inside. I think he thought of it more of how we treat our temples. When we brought him in, he really didn't want to go into the chapel, saying that Jesus was there and he wasn't worthy. He was busy last week so we couldn't meet him, but he wants to meet this week.

Jinhae is a ward, and there are about 90 to 100 people who attend church normally.

Well that's about it for this week.  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Love,

Elder Hines

LDS Church building