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| After church. Some of the members had gone home, but it's still the majority of those in attendance. |
Discover Farm
Trench and Tarp
Many hands but light work
Stop the Problem
How?
Steal the Kimchi
The proof is sudden
Farm
Well a lot went down this week, but it all just goes down to Sunday, doesn't it? Every
Sunday is an adventure out here. It gets to be a lot though, so playing on
one of Elder Wirthlin's talks, I've taken up the saying, "
Sunday will end." No matter how much we have to stretch and bend to put church together, it'll end.
This
week was going pretty smoothly though. We had gone to Gangneung for
President Interviews and I had like a 30-minute conversation with
President Sonksen. I only got to see Sister Sonksen for 15 minutes
though, because we needed to run to get a taxi to get a bus for English
class.
That was also fun because only the branch president came. It was a great class though. For the message we
practiced inviting him to be baptized and he really liked it. It even
led to a discussion about helping his friends start to meet with the
missionaries. That was a good night.
But I got
sidetracked. Going on with the week, we also went to
λν΄ again. There
were sick treats made by Sister Sonksen for district meeting. We ate
well and had some good training.
And then we skip right on over to
Saturday.
We farmed the morning away at the branch president's house. He wasn't
there, though, he was out in
μΌμ° for a mission reunion. His wife's dad
was there though. Father-in-law. Wow, a word in English. Amazing.
So
yeah, none of the people we worked with were members of the church, and
they had a lot of questions about what we did. They also invited us
back to help later, so Operation: Farm Conversion seems to be running
smoothly.
After that we changed, cleaned the
church, met someone who might be in a gang, ran into some construction
workers doing stuff by the church, and did those regular
Saturday things. (
The day we get ready for Sunday) We even made some time to tract that night, but that was also when
Sunday fell apart.
We
had just started when we got a text from the branch president saying
that due to the aforementioned mission reunion going long he had missed
the last bus to Taebaek, so his family would attend church with their
oldest daughter in her ward. (By the way, she's amazing. She's in high school, but has lived alone in another part of Korea for like a few
years.) Thus half the branch, the main talk and the Gospel Doctrine
teacher were gone for Sunday.
I
then spent the rest of the night worrying about how to do all the
things. Transfer calls came and went; meanwhile I wrote a talk, freaked
out and called all the members about getting our Young Man a ride to
church and how none of the missionaries left. But we get one more elder.
There's always a lot of branch business.
I
did eventually get to bed and soon enough it was the next morning. I got
up, hopped in the shower and realized I was the presiding authority at
church that day. It was weird. In the end we had seven people total at
church. Our Young Man, our Old Man, and three sisters. They're the best,
dangit. So faithful. The church meeting itself went smoothly enough. I
don't know how I was able to talk for 20 minutes about the priesthood
without rambling really. The other two talks were really good though.
Brother Go (he wasn't with his family in Seoul, thank goodness) just
touched my heart. He is the best Teacher in the whole church. His birthday is Saturday though, so soon he'll be the best Priest.
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| Elder Newton with the three Taebaek sisters |
After sacrament meeting we just set up the TV and watched
"Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." The members really liked it, and they shared
some really nice testimonies at the end of it. Afterward we had lunch
together (except for Brother Go; he had to leave fast to study. The sisters made sure he had some food though. They're so nice). It felt
like a family meal. It was about the same size and everything.
But
I've gone on long enough. Nothing much really happened after that
anyway. We just talked for a long time and the sisters asked what kind
of a wife I wanted. I went with "faithful." Then we took some photos, did
the clerk stuff, rearranged the talk schedule for the third time I swear,
and had a quick dinner before knocking some doors. So yeah, Sunday did end. Good stuff. Or Dark Stuff, huh. Oh well. Have a good week!
Best Wishes,
Elder Newton
