Week 93: Sunday Will End

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 동해 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 일산 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. 

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