-- A Brother from my ward (Gimpo), named Shin Gi Chor (신기철) has been put in charge of a significant chunk of time during the Stake Christmas Party -- about two hours.
-- To help fill this time, he's enlisted the help of the missionaries.
-- Initially, he approached Elder Harline and I with one idea -- to sing Michael Jackson's "Heal the World," a song that's entered my heart since then. It really is a wonderful song. He planned on having a small group of missionaries lead the verses, then having everybody sing together for the chorus. At this meeting, he gave us the sheet music for the song, so we were able to start practicing with a piano. As of then, we'd never heard the actual song.
-- When we met again, he got us an MP3 of the song, and a karaoke version -- the version we'll ultimately be singing too. We found out that he's renting a synthesizer for Elder Harline to play along to the song. He refined this original idea, and wanted 3 Elders and 3 Sisters to sing the verses, one of those Elders being me. He specifically said that he wanted me to be Michael Jackson! He also gave us another song, out of the blue -- Miley Cyrus and John Travolta's "I Thought I Lost You," from the Disney movie "Bolt." He told us he wanted 2 Elders and 2 Sisters to sing that, with one of them being me. It seems like he wants me to sing, eh? I was just worried about learning all those songs. He also decided he would ask a Sister missionary who's an excellent violinist to play the first movement of Vivaldi's "Winter," with Elder Harline accompanying on piano.
-- When we met together as a zone to practice, it went really well. I picked out the singers for both songs, and we were able to have a focused practice, and made a lot of progress. That's good, since we might not have another practice. Meanwhile, Elder Harline worked with the rest of the zone on the chorus. They're not perfect, but they're pretty good already. The songs are lots of fun. At the practice, we got the score for "Winter," so Elder Harline could practice...
-- And now, I've been sucked into "Winter." Elder Moon, who lives in our house, has a cello, so, somehow, I'm now practicing to play the cello part for the first movement of "Winter." Thus, without trying, I've been involved in all three songs. I just don't want to let Shin Gi Chor down!
That's consuming a lot of thinking right now; it feels like I've always got one of those songs stuck in my head. They're coming along nicely; they should be good by the time the party comes.
We had our first snow this last week! It was just a tiny bit, and it all melted, but there was definitely snow when we woke up. It's also getting colder by the day.
Last Monday, we had a Turkey Bowl here in Gimpo! It's surprising, but I've managed to consistently attend a Turkey Bowl for years now! Korea can't stop me! I play the position of Center, snapping the ball to the QB. I had a few duds, but, as Elder Chow kept reminding me, it was my first game. In the light of experience, it went pretty well, actually. A lot of Elders came, including the Yeonsu gang. It was a blast playing in the giant soccer field by our house. Hopefully I'll be able to send you a file with tons of pictures from it. As missionaries we didn't keep score, so I can't say we won, except in this sense: it was lots of fun!
We were only able to meet with our investigator (정민수) once this week, but it went pretty well. We began teaching the Plan of Salvation, and... we were able to get to the Fall of Adam and Eve. During that part of the lesson, he expressed some common Christian beliefs, such as the belief that the Fall was a loss of chastity on Eve's part, and that their transgression consisted of a sexual relationship. Clearly, this is false doctrine. It's an example of men using their own wisdom to try and interpret the scriptures -- or, as Peter would say, as he does in his second Epistle, "Wrest the scriptures" -- to fit their own theories and philosophies. We believe in the biblical account. They ate the forbidden fruit, and were driven out because of it. We believe it was a part of God's plan for us, and not only led to all of us being born, but enabled Adam and Eve to grow by experiencing sorrow and pain, success and happiness.
He also theorized that Adam and Eve were not the first people's names, but rather a generic name for "Man" and "Woman." That was.. interesting. The Spirit led us to simply state and reteach the basic principles, essentially disagreeing, but in the politest way possible. He accepted it well, though I'm not sure he believes it.
That same night, we were able to bring him to a "Priesthood Party" held at one of the ward's patriarch's house. Another one of our investigators ( (함대식)) also came, which was good, since he's been unable to meet lately. We were able to get both of them involved in a gospel discussion with a patriarch, our bishop, our ward mission leader, and the other patriarch! It was pretty awesome; and it came from me asking Bay Pan Bong, the ward mission leader, about the Word of Wisdom, since we talked about it a bit while waiting for our bus with Jung Min Su. Bay Pan Bong had smoked three packs a day before becoming a member, so he was able to testify of that to Jung, and we were also able to discover that Ham Dae Shik is living the Word of Wisdom, which we haven't been able to teach yet, but he's heard about at church. So it was a great night.
Last, but not least, we got involved in the Gimpo Ward's Primary musical number for that same Stake Christmas party we're performing in... and it was a total accident. Or, at least, not planned in any way. They asked Elder Harline to play in Primary, since their regular pianist had to leave. As they did, I sat in the back and tried to learn me some primary music (in Korean!). For their Christmas song, they sing it all, then split off and have little two-somes sing verses together, going through all 10 or so children. Randomly, the Sister directing pointed at me, and called my name! I was a bit surprised, but I sang, and the kids really liked it. Then, the Sister told them all that the missionaries will perform with them, just like they'd practiced just now! We definitely weren't expecting that. I really love the little children though, so I think it'll be a blast. And I think that'll wrap up this week's email.
Practice, practice, practice!
Love,
Elder Austin Lynn
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