기적 있습니다! I have been praying for a sofa since last transfer, and by the grace of an all powerful God, there was a 4 piecer in the trash on our way home this last week. (This is why the standards have us work out in the morning). You best believe we hauled that "junk" all the way to our apartment and up the elevator. This part is gonna sound made-up because of the sheer statistical improbability, but while we were crammed in the elevator with two massive couches someone squeeezed in and pressed floor "17" . I asked her what side and sure enough she lives in the apartment I drilled into. We actually had a good laugh because I was flustered by the fact that everytime we meet, I'm in the middle of some grand shenanigan. Why can't they see us teaching children English or helping an old lady with something heavy, for crying out loud!
A few weeks ago with the 돌라가신 Elder Baird, I met with a guy named Khan. He was wildddd and was bashing hecka, but I had just finished the Saints and was studied the up. I nearly had all my dates memorized. Needless to say, his foundation was much sandier and shifter than mine, which was rocky and solid, if you will. Anyways, I told Baird when we left that I probably wouldn't meet with him again because I didn't see it going anywhere. This guy called me a week or two ago and apologized and said he wanted to meet again at the church, where we could make some pasta. You know my gluttonous self, so I took him up on it. The food was gas and we finished up by playing some poker. I've only played poker once and it was on a hunting trip with Jake and Xander where we used different calibers of bullets as our chips, so obviously I'm not exactly in my poker prime. We bet him that if we win he would have to come to church, which he took. Elder Knight was blinded by greed and lost it all in less than 5 rounds, leaving me alone. I lost almost everything too but clutched up and won it with the ol' all in. He was in fact mad, but he actually came to church. Despite my fears of him yelling "cult" and swearing during the meeting, he was actually rather reverent and thoughtful. Hecka miracle for real! He said he'll probably come back next week. Is gambling a legitimate missionary strategy? I think so. People ask me what would've happened if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know.
Our friend 신형수 (Justin) met with us too. We have taught all the lessons now and he's been keeping up on all of his commitments. As a reminder, he wouldn't take the BoM because he can't be seen with it. Right before we met with him this week, I felt prompted to invite him to be baptised, so that's what we did. I invited him and he said no, so I assured him that if he does the work he would be ready on the day that we had set. He still said no, so I asked him what's holding him back. He told us he's an Elder at another church and has gone there for 30 years, That explains a lot. I invited him to church, but his church is at the same time. So then I invited him to get the BoM app and read it. He said yes. And he has been reading it. I can tell he already knows the church is true because he keeps his commitments and continues to meet with us. I feel bad for him because I can only imagine how hard it would be to be the leader of a church and leave all of your friends and position. It's very much the Rich Young Ruler from the Bible. I told him he doesn't need to trust my word 100%, but when he gets a confirmation from the spirit, not to ignore it. He went quiet for a long minute after that. (He already knows). Prayers up for Justin.
Our President visited us here in Iksan, gave us a banger lesson on FAITH and then fed us my favorite food, 뼈 해장국. I also found out his biggest hobbie is Flight Simulation. I would follow this man into any battle fr.
I contacted a lady on the street this week who was BAT crazy. I gave her my card anyway though. She called us yesterday and told us to meet her at the train station in 10 minutes. We hustled over there just for her to be 30 minutes late. She showed up and started yapppingggg at us outside the train station. Koreans will brag that they don't have homeless or any problems similar.... go try to teach a lesson outside of a train station for an hour and you'll see some strangeeee things. I saw a fight and even a grandpa playing flirt-tag with some grandmas...
I'm not fluent in Korean by any means, but I'm good enough to know that most of what she was saying was completely incomprehensible haha. She would say, "I train with God 32, no 31 years. Yeah. Wait no 21 stairs. Yes. Train. Train. Finish, and he's with me. And americans are his golden children and i cry for them. Yes 23 years he's in me. Now. He's here." And I was just like, "Dang! That's crazy! Anyways Joseph Smi..." And then she'd lock in for like 20 seconds and listen to me before going on the same tangent. As time went on I started to notice a group of people was starting to circle me, and judging by the look in their eyes, they weren't all that there. But I guess the sight of this white boy preaching at this lady was absolutely fascinating because they started circling me. It was getting a little uncomfortable. She was standing up in front of me saying some crazy story and I made eye contact with a Black guy who was walking past. Me and this guy started laughing, wholesome moment for real. This lady thinks I'm going hiking with her next week but I don't know if that's gonna happen.
Spiritual Thought:
It's so important to follow the spirit. We for sure felt prompted to invite Justin to be baptised, but he still said no. I didn't want to invite him then, but did anyway because I felt that prompting. In hindsight, if we had extended the commitment we originally wanted to do, we wouldn't know how to best help him now. There's reasons for these promptings and they come a lot more frequent than you think. Listen to them!
Have a good week!
Current Weight: 182.71
No comments:
Post a Comment