Week 53

This week was full of disappointments, funny experiences, and an awesome zone conference!

I'll start out with the funny experiences :) The first was when we went to visit a less-active sister in our ward. Our relief society president asked us to visit her last Sunday so we decided to drop by on Tuesday. We walked there so we could talk to people on the way and when we knocked she was home. She was really confused at first, but once she realized we were missionaries she let us in. By this time the sun had already started to set so it was very dimly lit inside her apartment. Although it was pretty dark she didn't turn on any lights. We talked for a few minutes and then heard some grunting/yelling in the next room. That freaked us out because we thought that she was alone. She went into the next room and talked a bit then we heard shuffling. The door opened and man stood at the door for a few seconds before he collapsed on the floor. At this point Sister Hansen and I both thought that we were going to have to call 119 (Korea's version of 911) because this man was like 95 and just collapsed. 

The second funny experience is me accidentally trying to kill my companion. I always forget that she is allergic to watermelon so the other day I got a watermelon and pineapple smoothie and offered it to her so she could try it. She thought it was a joke and almost took a sip, but hesitated when she realized I was completely serious. The next time I tried to kill her I made smoothies at home for dinner one night and almost put watermelon in it. She would have never known *muahahaha* but I decided against it (thank you Holy Ghost for saving my companion).

The disappointments for the week came because all of our investigators stood us up. All of them were super excited to start our English program, but have just fizzled out. They don't meet with us anymore so we had to drop them all :( Our one investigator that does meet with us got sick this week so she couldn't meet also. The work is pretty slow right now, but we are moving along trying to get things going.

We had some good  proselyting activities with our district and zone. We went sticker boarding a few times with them and found some good results. We were able to give out a good amount of Books of Mormon and get phone numbers. Hopefully there will be someone that is ready to learn about the gospel.

This week we were able to meet with Sister 고유정 (Goe YooJeong). She is a recent convert from another area that I have met a bunch of times on my mission. My trainer Sister Blom and past companion Sister Carnahan were the missionaries that were there for her baptism so we've met and had dinner a few times. She is the happiest person on the planet so it was fun to spend some more time with her.

There are so many mixed experiences lately. A lot of negative, but also a lot of good. I have been able to see more of the little miracles lately. I've really realized what a unique experience I have being a missionary here in Korea. It is absolutely amazing!

Now for the best part of the week, ZONE CONFERENCE. It was absolutely amazing! The views were great and the people are even better. It is always such a treat to learn from our mission leaders especially President and Sister Turner. One of my favorite trainings was from Sister Turner. We had to select a rock beforehand that was the size of two fists that we would carry up the mountain. We started out hike with her training where she told us to pick a weakness that we wanted to think about during our hike and then get rid of. Our rocks represented those weaknesses. Throughout the hike she observed how we would adjust our "weaknesses" so that they were more comfortable in our backpacks. Often times we shift around our weaknesses to make them "more comfortable", but we never get rid of them.

At the top of the hike we placed them in a pile and Sister Turner told us to think about the weakness that we selected and leave it on the mountain with our rock. She told us to forget about it and never come looking for it. It was a super powerful training. I really felt like my back was not only physically lighter as I put my rock down, but spiritually I felt lighter.  Sister Turner talked about how all of our weaknesses are different. Some are bigger than others, some are smooth, some are rough, but they are all still weaknesses that we need to get rid of. Even the little ones!

I am so grateful that we had such an amazing zone conference. I can't even express all the things that I learned. I am having a blast here in Suji. Korea is amazing and the people are too. Love you guys! Have a great week!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

김수진s 

Our view the entire hike

Reunited with my baby Earnshaw