Monday, April 23, 2012

Letter from Korea~April 23, 2012

Hi everyone! Last week was a really good week but it wasn't quite as good as the week before that. It was pretty rainy here all last week and when it rains in Korea the streets pretty much die and people don't like to meet because of the rain. There's a rumor that because there's so much pollution in the air the rain will make your hair fall out. It could be true. But, then again, there is a rumor that if you sleep with a fan on in your room at night then you will die. I have done it hundreds of times without dying. :)

Last Tuesday was spent emailing and cleaning and shopping. We had to do all of our P-day stuff on Tuesday because the zone activity took the whole day on Monday. So Tuesday wasn't the most effective day for missionary work. We did have a little time out on the streets talking to people but there really weren't many people to talk to for some reason.

On Wednesday we were supposed to have District meeting here in Wonju at 11:30 AM but the other Elders in our district missed their bus to Wonju and came at 1 o'clock, which is when district meeting is suppose to end. So we went out to eat together and went streetboarding in the busy part of Wonju for a little while. It's hard to proselyte there because everyone is busy. After that we went home and ate dinner and then went back out and knocked doors for a while. I still haven't gotten in someone's door yet but I feel like I'm getting close!

On Thursday we went out to eat with a less active member named 이종수. He's divorced and is in his forties. He's way cool and loves to have the missionaries over but he still isn't coming out to church yet. We meet with him once a week so hopefully we can get him back out to church. After that we went to the church and met with
a former investigator named Jake. He's a police officer here and he and I have talked on the phone a few times each week since I got here. He has no gospel background and not a whole lot of interest but he's willing to read from the Book of Mormon and we're going to watch the Restoration dvd with him next week. He challenged me to a game of ping pong when we met so I played him and he was pretty dang good. I came back in the first game and beat him 21 to 19 then he beat me the second game and then in the last game I won 21 to 19. It was way intense! But I feel like we had a good first meeting and we got to know him a lot better so hopefully we can help him to feel the spirit and to recognize why he needs the gospel in his life. 


After we met with him we ran home and ate dinner quickly then went out to visit some less active members. We walked all the way to the other side of our area. My companion was always telling me that riding the bus in Wonju wasn't good because they don't come frequently and they don't go where we need to go. So we walked for an hour and forty minutes. One of the less-active members we met with was 안순을. She is a single mom who is in her thirties and has two sons. She has two jobs to make enough money to pay for their little apartment. We couldn't go inside her house so we just sat outside her door and talked to her for a while. It would be so hard to be a single mom! I feel so bad for her. She wants us to visit her again and we offered to help her with anything she needs. So now we need to find someone in the branch who can go with us to visit her. That is the hard part because the branch is small and everyone says they are busy. On the way home we found a bus! So from now on
we are going to take the bus to places that take more than an hour to walk to.

Friday we had weekly planning meeting and then went out and proselyted on the street for about an hour and a half. Then we went home and ate dinner and went out and knocked doors for a while. We met a way cool kid who listened to us for a while and said that he would meet us again on Sunday but then he wouldn't answer our calls or texts to him so we couldn't meet again.

Saturday was our "Free English Day" as I like to call it. We did our English service at Golden Voice. I'll try to get a picture of us with them next week. They always take us to get sushi after class; I'm not such a big fan of sushi. Then we taught our English class at the church. Then our investigator, Brother Jung, came to the church and
we helped him with English then read out of the Book of Mormon with him. We were going to watch the Restoration dvd but it wasn't working so we are going to watch it next week. After that we ate dinner and visited a member.

Sunday was good! Super rainy. And our new investigator, Brother Chun, didn't come. He's the one who came last week. I called him and he told me that he was going to come but then he didn't actually show up, so we were kinda bummed. After church we had lunch with the branch and talked with everyone for a while. Then we went home and then went and knocked doors for a while since it was raining. We met some really nice people but nobody that would meet with us again. We also met some not so nice people haha. Then we ate dinner and visited members until it was time to go home again.

Overall, it was a good week! We didn't see as many miracles as we saw the week before but hopefully we see enough this next week for both weeks. Anyway, I gotta go!

I love you all!

-Elder Rife

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