6/28/2015

This week I sent Elder Schilling on his way, and joined forces with his MTC companion, and Elder Campbell's greenie: Elder R. C. Stapp!
But before that, we celebrated our time together as a district by eating Shabu Shabu together on P-Day. Shabu Shabu is a Korean dish that... is essentially a pot of boiling liquid (water, but with other things in it. Not sure what), with all of the various things you'd like to eat next to eat. The place we went to was rather nice; there was a salad bar and buffet on the different toppings you add to shabu shabu. Shabu Shabu is one of my favorite dishes here in Korea; and not just because of it's fun name!

That same night, our Bishop had us over to his home for dinner. We were pretty stuffed, but worked hard to eat well! We aren't able to go to Bishop's very often, since he lives in the area right next to ours. We can get permission to visit, but it's still not easy.

For Elder Shilling and my last day together, we ended the way we started: proselyting on the streets of Sanbon. It was a little emotional, but we finished out strong. The next morning everything was packed, and we traveled to meet all of the other missionaries, including Elder Schilling's new companion. I returned home with Elder Stapp, and we surveyed our new (old) apartment, and got to work.

Our first night together, we experienced a wonderful miracle! While we were out in the countryside, walking back towards the city, a less-active who I've only ever seen once called us, and asked if we could meet him Monday through Friday to practice English! We talked for a while, and eventually settled on meeting Monday through Thursday night, to practice English then discuss Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and other church things. We'll start meeting him tonight. That was an incredible event that I have not seen paralleled thus far.

We also met a man who recently became jobless, and is really struggling. Unfortunately, he was staggering drunk when we came over. We can't really share much to help him when he's like that, and it was a little disappointing since the Elders had committed him to stop drinking before, but we did our best to help him, and will see him again.

We met a few other investigators, and it was nice to meet people whom I'd heard about but never seen before. Hopefully I'll have a lot more to say about them in the future. One great guy is Peter -- a Korean born and raised in China. He's been meeting with missionaries for a while, and so last Saturday we met and began talking about the Plan of Salvation. We have to take things very slowly with him -- he has no Christian background, and only vague notions of God. It was really cool to hear him pray, knowing that this is very new for him.

Peter also came to a meal we had here in Sanbon with President Morrise on Saturday. That was nice; we didn't expect him to come, but our Ward Mission Leader called him and got him to come! Members can be a huge help; indeed, I'd agree with President Hinckley in saying that the work of salvation is most effective when members and missionaries work together, hand in hand.

Elder Stapp is a man from California, who's secretly a nerd, but on the outside is very manly. He likes welding, working out, rock crawling, reading, Avatar: The Last Airbender... You know, your typical truck-building, BYU:Idaho attending fellow. We're getting along famously; I enjoy spending time with him, and in our quite little abode, we've been getting a lot of things done to make the house cleaner and a happier place to be. I look forward to spending another transfer or two with him! Maybe, just maybe, Bishop's requst will be granted and I'll stay here till March of next year. wink emoticon

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin M. Lynn