Annyeonghaseyo, everybody!
So, this may end up being my last real day here in Bong Cheon. It's been a pretty awesome 4 transfers/24 weeks. Hard to believe I've been here for half a year...
Transfer calls are tonight. That's when the Mission President or his assistants call everyone in the mission and tell them if they are going to stay or go to another area for the next six weeks. If you end up moving, you pack up all your stuff on Tuesday morning and send it through the postal service, and then you meet at a central subway station called Dongdaemun Yeoksa Munhwa Kongwon Yeok (Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station), and you find your new companion in the crowd of missionaries, and then you go to your new area and unpack. The mail system here is awesome, it gets things across Seoul in one day usually. I'm hoping that all four of us missionaries here in Bong Cheon stay for another transfer period, though, because we all have a blast. It's me, Elder Greer, Sister Seipel, and Sister Choi Jin Ju. Me and Sister Seipel were in the same class in the MTC, and she came to Bong Cheon 3 transfers ago (I've been here 4). She is an amazing missionary, and it's been great to learn from her example. The sisters live in a house up by the church, which is nice for them, but me and Elder Greer live closer to the subway station. I will really, really miss Bong Cheon and the missionaries here if I have to transfer. It's never a 100% thing, but chances are leaning toward me having to leave. We get the call tonight, so I'll let you know.
One sad thing happened. I called Lee Jun Jae to confirm something about the baptism last Tuesday, and he had left his phone at home, so his wife answered. She started talking to me, and it turns out that Lee Jun Jae's family has opposed him meeting with us from the start.
She didn't even know he was going to be baptized because he hadn't told her, which is not surprising because he is a stubborn old man of
60 years or so, so he had the attitude of "I'm going to get baptized no matter what anyone says." She said that there had been arguments in the family over him even studying the Church with us, and she basically told me to go away, stop contacting Lee Jun Jae, and to keep our noses out of their family.
Needless to say, me and Elder Greer were pretty devastated. Obviously we won't baptize anyone without their spouse's consent, so it's looking like it'll be a while before Lee Jun Jae can get baptized. He was so close. He knew the Book of Mormon was true, and he was changing his life in order to come to church, but it looks like things just won't be that easy. And now I probably have to leave. We're going to try to meet him with our bishop and talk about how he can pray for his wife to have a change of heart, and he can talk about his feelings and why he wants to come here with her. But it's looking like this will be a long-term thing, over multiple sets of missionaries.
Obviously it doesn't matter if I am here when he is baptized. I've been with him since October, seeing him change and progress. He was ready to be baptized, and even if his wife keeps him from doing it in this life, he'll probably accept everything whole-heartedly in the next life. I've done all I can for him, and all I can do now is pray that things will turn out for him sometime in the future. Success is not measured by number of baptisms as a missionary; they're nice, of course, but not vital to my happiness. That's one lesson I've learned recently. All I can do is my best, and the rest is up to the will of the Lord.
On a lighter note, Yun Hi Guk said that he was walking home from our appointment two Saturdays ago, and he felt the Holy Ghost. I might have already told you that, but I'm just still really excited about it. :D He said he still needs more time to find that surety of the heart that baptism is right for him, but I think he'll probably choose it eventually.
We were eating dinner at a member's house and me and Elder Greer downed like 40 raw clams or so. Korea has definitely helped remove any pickiness about food that I had. :D
Also, this week I learned a valuable new skill: I can now roll my tongue and whistle through it. For the unbelievers who think it's not possible, it took me five weeks of off-and-on effort, but I finally learned how to do it. Elder Greer has been doing it for 12 weeks now, and I decided to put my effort in and figure it out. Sister Seipel figured it out in like 2 days, I'm not sure how that worked out. :D Just another of the many valuable things you learn as a missionary. :D
Today for P-day we are playing soccer with half the mission. It'll be really fun. I play defense because my feet are not fancy enough, but I can do positioning decently. Last time we played, we had like 3 injuries, and one of the Koreans ended up deciding to get $400 worth of cosmetic surgery because his glasses got jammed into his face, leaving a very Harry Potter-ish scar. At the time I said that I would have kept the scar. :D I'll play safe today though, don't worry.
Well, that's about all for now. The food of the week is called 해장국 (haejangguk), which is a soup. Basically they take about 2 or 3 vertebrae from the back of a cow and boil it in a spicy soup. some of the meat comes off, but half the fun of haejangguk is having to pull the remainder of the meat off the bone. They serve it with wasabi, and it is both delicious and affordable. Good combination. :D One unique thing about korean cuisine is the 뚝배기 (ddukbaegi), which is a black stone bowl about 6 inches across that soup usually comes in in a restaurant. They heat it up super hot as they cook the soup and put in on a tray, so when it comes out it's boiling and about as hot as the surface of the sun for the next half hour. Koreans like their food intense. :D Also the only individual serving you usually get is a bowl of rice; everyone eats straight out of the serving dishes for everything else. To give you an idea of a Korean meal, you have your little bowl of rice in front of you, and then the table is covered with maybe 15 small 4-inch bowls or dishes with 반찬 (banchan, or "side dishes"), along with maybe a pot of soup or whatever the main course is. Actually I guess you also get soup individually too, usually. I like Korean style better than American, it takes less dishes. :D We were at another member's house last night and they served American style, and I felt really weird. Maybe I'll just live in Korea after my mission..... :D
Thank you all for all you have done and continue to do for me. Life is good right now, and I'll let you know if I transfer or not. Have a good week!
Elder Matt Dean
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