It always seems like this time is going by far too quickly.
Specifically e-mail writing time. It never seems like I can start
writing to you guys early enough, because I read all the things you
send and think about all of you and the things you're doing. But then
it makes me happy that you guys are all, for the most part, happy and
doing things that help you to be that way. This week has been pretty
great. Elder Flint, my companion, are doing well. It turns out he went
to Snow College last year, and possibly met Nelsen (Campbell) once,
which is pretty interesting. He's really nice, funny, positive but not
in a stupid way---in general it's really great to be able to be here
with him. I think I should maybe describe our house, for my own memory
and for some of those who requested it. We live in a pretty big
apartment complex not too far from the city hall here. There's a
little playground, big parking lot, lots of big buildings---like most
apartment complexes here. Our apartment is on the sixth floor of one
of the buildings, so it's not too high up or anything like that.
Except for the bathroom there are two other rooms---one the other Elders
here use for their clothes, and one we use as our study/clothes room.
We all sleep in the main room, which has the kitchen-related-area, the
other Elders' desks, and then there's the balcony where the clothes
dry and everything. It's a little older---there's lots of other
people's older stuff. There are four fans, which we use usually when
we do anything. When we leave our building, there are usually lots of
people just sitting on the benches and chairs outside, who are all
really nice and friendly. Some people just have blankets on the ground
kind of like a picnic, which is cool. Across the street from our
apartment is a big intersection where lots of people go to
work/school, actually with lots of trees, and usually in those trees
cicadas. The streets here are really wide, also---lots of buses going
around, taxis driving crazily, things like that. Our branch's building
is pretty close---about a 15 minute walk, but it's a nice walk,
including what just looks like a playground but at certain times of
the day when lots of little kids come actually has water coming out of
it, like a little water park for free in your own neighborhood. The
building itself is pretty close to the city hall, so there are lots of
people walking around the street in front of it, and on the opposite
side of the street about 5 different stores that only sell towels. So
it's a nice neighborhood, really. This week we went there a lot---for
English class, to make a flyer for a church tour we were planning to
try. We also met a less active member for the first time, who hasn't
been able to come to church for a long time. His name's 이두선 (Brother
Lee (Eee) Doo-sun), and he's a really cool, interesting guy. He works
with distributing children's books, but also wants to become an
author. In his spare time he also designs lego-like tools/toys that he
wants to sell to a company in Germany, and he studied computers
science at the University of Ulsan, and also was an apprentice to an
artist in Seoul for a few years. We ate lunch together, and then went
and talked on the University campus, since he still lives pretty close
to there. He's incredibly busy with work, but says he'll try to come
to church, and wants to meet with us sometime again.
We also met with one pretty amazing investigator that the other
missionaries already found before I came here. His name is 한요성
(Brother Hahn yoh-sung), and he also studies at a university nearby.
His dad is a preacher at a church around here, and he's gone to church
and read the scriptures since he was young. But he's also worried for
a long time about pre-destination/foreknowledge-
if God knows all things, he knows how we will act and what the outcome
of our lives will be, and so there's no purpose in living. But through
meeting with him a few times and sharing about that, especially things
from good old Mormon's book, he's been able to come to understand ore
about our agency and the nature of God's love for us and what he wants
us to experience and accomplish. It seems like he's really been able
to find peace and answers to his questions, which is really
great---and he also says he wants to be baptized, because our church's
beliefs are right and are the real things that God wants people to
believe. He's a really nice, sincere person, and I'm really glad I got
the chance to meet with him and help him a little bit, but I know the
other missionaries did so much more than me. We also went to a branch
activity this week to a valley an hour or so away from the city. It
was a national holiday, so a lot of people actually had vacation time,
and went there together. Unfortunately we weren't able to swim or
anything---it actually reminded me a lot of going to the canyon in
Provo. We kind of just stayed with some of the young men, a few of who
were pretty recently baptized, and got to know them better. After
that, we met with someone who came to the church just to play
basketball, but actually has a lot of interest in learning English and
questions about Jesus's teachings in the Bible. So that was pretty
great. One thing I'm trying to do better is to help the other
missionaries, and always think about them---it's hard, but going well.
I love you all so much---you're doing amazing things, and it's because
of your examples that I can do anything. I know this gospel is true,
and am so grateful to our Father who provided it for us, and all of
you for helping me to learn and understand it. I love you---keep it
up.
-Elder Campbell
No comments:
Post a Comment