Today's just going to be a "type-up my journal entries from the week" kind of day. Nicky, you can copy me on this one too.
October 13th
Went to Sangdong (a place), gave a message card to M.... (a person), and got food in return. I love her little sister M....... so much though. She reminds me of Maddie. We visited G.... too. She's not dead, she just changed her phone number and "forgot" to tell us. Good good.
October 14th
I didn't write in my journal this day, but here's a picture of Elder H....
Enough said.
Oh, also Daddy I ate 비빔밥 (bibimbap) for you! I love 비빔밥. And I love you too!
October 15th
Wake up, studies, lunch. We had no food because we didn't get a chance to go grocery shopping, but somehow we made ourselves a meal out of what we found leftover in our cupboards. [Insert Series of Unfortunate Events reference here.] Miracle.
Went to the 문구 (stationery store) to buy construction paper so we could start making decorations and invitations for the Halloween party. We went to F.....'s too and set up a different time to meet since Sundays clearly aren't working. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so happy because since she moved here she doesn't even have a Bible. We promised to get her one of those too. I just hope she reads the Book of Mormon we gave her. I feel like she's really prepared, but I've felt that about other investigators too and things never really ended as well as I wished. But maybe this time...
October 16th
We went to see F..... again today and finally taught her the first lesson. She read some of 3 Nephi 11 and she liked it! Before we could really start the lesson, her friend J.... came in. He's also from the Philippines (obviously) and went to Catholic school his whole life, so we were a liiiitttle apprehensive that our lesson might turn into a Bible-bash, but he was totally cool and backed us up on everything we said. In Tagalog! He even said he'd be happy to accept a Book of Mormon too and that he was thankful to us for teaching the word of God. We were pretty thankful too.
At night we met with HeaHyun (she's preparing to serve a mission too) and showed her what it's like to have companion study--aka, completely hectic and off-topic and by the end you still have no idea how you're going to teach your investigator. We ended up talking about her boyfriend who lives in America. Good times. She came with us to teach our investigator, M.... though and she was such a big help. She has such a testimony! And she's not afraid to share it. She'll make an incredible missionary.
October 17th
Not a bad day. We tried to visit B...., the Unknown Inactive and give him a picture of Jesus, but he wouldn't come and talk to us, so we just sat in his cafe, ate our over-priced sandwiches, and listened to Jack Johnson. Then we went and did what we've been doing all week--visited F.....! It's so easy because she just sits in her shop and waits for customers to come in, so we sometimes sit with her and talk about spiritual things. We've already met so many fun people from all over the world. Thrift shops for the win.
October 18th
Studies, cancelled appointment, English class. I forgot to count this week, but I'm pretty sure M... used at least twenty different idioms today. I can't understand how he memorizes them so fast. I know at least five of the ones he used. I love M... though. He's by far my favorite part of English class. After class we went to visit, you guessed it, F.....! She's asked us to stop by every day, so we do. Hopefully she's not sick of us yet. We ordered chicken for dinner, helped her with Korean, and showed her lots of Mormon Messages since she likes watching movies so much. We read some of 3 Nephi 11 together and asked her to keep reading. We also committed her to watch the Joseph Smith movie. I know I've complained about that movie before, but now I take it all back! It's so good! By the time we left and were on the bus going to G....'s, she had already started watching it. She texted that it was "a really nice movie, all about the ups and downs of being a prophet." I love her!
Which brings us to G..... Oh, how my heart is broken over G..... Her life is so hard and she is just so sad. She doesn't really want to come to church in Korea anymore because she can't understand and, honestly, I don't blame her. She's planning on going home soon and I really hope she can. I'm just so sick of unhappy endings.
October 19th
I hate this day.
[But lots of good things happened yesterday too, so I'll tell you about them. I'm going to edit out all the rest though. Yesterday wasn't the best of days...]
Good Things
1. Showing up to church early and finding three new investigators just waiting for us. This lady from Salt Lake brought her nieces and nephew to come learn English (but really the gospel) from the missionaries. They had to leave before the meeting started, but we did get to teach them the first lesson and set up an appointment for next week. When they left, the member from Salt Lake patted me on the shoulder and said, "Thank you. I knew the missionaries could help."
2. No one we invited came to church, but JunHo sat next to me during all of sacrament meeting. We sang hymns together and I whispered to him about remembering Jesus when we take the bread and water. I imagined all the people, who spoke during General Conference about the sanctity of the sacrament,would have been proud of me. Since the rest of the meeting was incredibly boring, especially for a seven year-old, I had him draw me pictures with my scripture markers. He's probably my favorite member ever.
3. Crying in the bathroom and a hug from PakYooJin.
4. Reading "Missionary Work and the Atonement" during companion study.
5. Fasting
And there you have, the (much) edited version of my journal this week. All the ups and downs of being a missionary. I still love it though.
Love, Sister Arvanitas
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