Mission Zone "Blitz"

Ever since the elders told about the “blitz” they were going to do on the area, we have been excited to go out and work with the missionaries. They gave us a poster to hang up at the school that we work at. We weren’t sure if it would be all right to hang it up, and we weren’t sure how to approach Jennifer our boss about hanging the poster up. We decided to tell her that our church was having an activity and we wanted to hang a poster up that told about the activity. She said it would be OK, and after talking for a while about our church (it was pretty hard because she is not used to talking about religion in English) we found out that a member of the Church used to work at our school. Jennifer really liked the girl and we are excited that she knows a Korean who is a member, we are sure that it will open doors to share the gospel later on. Back to the activity, we had heard that the sister missionaries were going to come and that Christina was going to be able to proselyte with them, but I guess one of them got sick so they couldn’t come. The elders had planned for me to go out and proselyte with one of the missionaries, but when we found out that Christina did not have anyone to go with we had to change our plans. A missionary suggested that both Christina and I accompany a missionary, which sounded good to me. Before we could finalize our plans, the ward mission leader began insisting very loudly and forcefully that we go with him. I had better explain about this particular member. We cannot understand a single word he says because he speaks Korean. At times he attempts to speak English but we can never understand him. Whenever he says anything, everyone bursts out laughing; I guess he is just a funny guy. When he started saying that we should go with him, we didn’t know what was going on. He kept pointing to us and saying something really loudly. Sometimes I think he is yelling, but the missionaries told me that he just gets excited and talks louder than he needs to. Anyways we ended up going with him to visit a less active member; she is a fifteen year old girl who speaks English better than most of the students at our academy. We invited her to church but she didn’t come, but we are excited to know someone that we can fellowship. We are making plans about how we can help her feel welcome at church. When she does come back, she will be the only young woman. After visiting the less active member we went back to the church and watched part of “The Testaments” in Korean. Part way through the movie I got to go on splits with a missionary, we knocked doors and actually got into an apartment which I guess is pretty rare. The elder translated for me so I could share my testimony. Later in the evening, there was a fireside, Christina and I both spoke about Joseph Smith’s first vision. Sister Oh, our good friend translated for us. Some members of the church played two traditional Korean instruments, I would tell you the names of them, but I have no idea how to pronounce them, we will post a video on the blog. It was a good experience. We also got to meet the mission president and his wife. A set of the missionaries out found a family that lives nearby the church. The father is a police officer and they have 3 daughters. They came to the church around 3 pm and stayed through all of the events until 8 pm. They seemed to be a really good family and everyone is really excited about this family. They seemed to feel the spirit. We really hope that they will start coming to church. The missionaries had prayed that they would find a whole family to teach and they did so the events of the day were a success. Missionary work is really hard here. The number of baptisms a year is very low. The whole experience has only made me much more aware of how little progress I have made in my attempts to learn Korean, I cannot understand anything. After we got back from visiting the less active girl, the ward mission leader told the elders that “Korean is a big weakness” for me. I have to agree, I only know how to say hello, and I can’t even understand what they say back to me. I have renewed my desire to learn Korean, I want to be able to communicate with these people in their own language, they are so accommodating to us, many of them speak a little English. That is another reason that we have had a hard time learning Korean, we don’t feel like we “have” to. Anyways, enough about that, pray for us, mostly what we need is more dedication on our part.

Christina and Sister Che

Video of the people mingling after the fireside.

Video of the Elders singing a musical number.

These are the traditional instruments.