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

Week 52

The time just keeps flying by. Another week has come and gone. This week was very similar to last week with our investigators all cancelling their appointments or just not showing up. We have been turning our focus to finding new investigators, but haven't had much success yet. We will keep working though!

A highlight of this week was visiting with a member a few days ago. We had received some watermelon in a Tupperware a few Sundays ago so we decided to drop by and return them. We knocked, but no one answered at first. Then the door opened and there was the sweetest looking grandma ever. She invited us in and we talked with her for a few minutes. Then she made us eat more watermelon.... SO MUCH WATERMELON! 

I was okay with it at first, but then I remember that my companion Sister Hansen is actually allergic to watermelon so I had to eat all of hers too. Luckily the cute grandma we were meeting with couldn't really see so she didn't notice me eating out of Sister Hansen's bowl once I finished my own. Unfortunately she refilled both of our bowls one we ate everything so we started another round of me eating all the watermelon. Good thing for me we hadn't eaten lunch yet so I was able to down it all. 

The member that we were meeting with was the sweetest thing. At one point she bit the watermelon on her fork and it fell off onto the table a few inches in front of her. We had to contain our laughter as we watched her search the table with her had looking for the piece of watermelon as she mumbled "where did it go?" over and over. We about peed our pants trying not to laugh. She was so cute!

This week was also filled with language struggle. Korean and English ㅠㅠ I have noticed my ability to speak any language has severely declined. I now speak in broken Korean and English. A lot of the time I will say something and Sister Hansen just looks at me like I am crazy. Everything is always out of order.... Also I can no longer spell. English class Saturday was particularly embarrassing. I tried to spell the word 'yield' but ended up spelling it 'y-e-i-l-d' without noticing. One of the Korean Elders had to point out my mistake. I now just give up and say I don't speak English or Korean :(

But things are going great here in Suji. We only have one solid investigator right now named Subin. She is so great! We asked her the other day if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes!!! She wasn't ready for a set date yet so we'll try and give her one this week. She is so open to the gospel and so innocent. I love teaching her! 

We were also able to set up the recent convert lessons for SoYoon. She is the 13 year-old that got baptized last month. She hasn't been able to come to church since she has been baptized due to camping trips with her family, but we saw her on Friday and got everything set up. I love her so much. Since we weren't teaching the Kid's English class that day she decided to call us and complain that we weren't there. We dropped by at the end to say hi and she was so excited. 

This coming week we will have zone conference on the top of a mountain. We will be hiking with Present and Sister Turner up 남한산성. So to prepare we went hiking last p-day. It was great to get outside and work up a sweat. 

Also I cut my hair last night. Sister Hansen was brave enough and cut off about 4 inches. The weather is getting pretty got lately so I decided it had to go. It is really nice and cool now, but still so insanely hot! Just walking to the church makes you sweat and it only takes 5 minutes. I will just melt away in the next few months.

Face masks

Us trying to make them dry before it turned 10:30 #missionarystuggles

Korea is amazing and I am loving every minute of being here. I have learned a lot about the importance of the depth of our conversion and trusting in the Lord. I know that He is watching over us and knows exactly what we need. Most of the time things don't turn out the way that I want them to, but they are always the way they need to be. I love this gospel so much! I am so grateful for the comfort and peace that it give me. This week try and share that with someone. Love ya! Have a good week :)

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Week 51

IMPORTANT: Please pray for Sister Vanessa McKinnon. She is a sister from my home ward that is going through some life threatening health challenges. 

Sister Hansen is great! We are having a blast here in Suji^^ We've spent the past couple days really getting to know each other and she is awesome. I feel like I have known her forever, but we only became companions less than a week ago. 

The past week all of our investigators except one cancelled their appointments with us only 2 hours before we were actually suppose to meet with them. It has been hard not seeing any of them progress or even have the desire to really meet with us. We have a lot of potential in this area, but nothing is really working out so far. We're just trying to get through this post-baptism slump that we have found ourselves in. Sister Hansen is great though and is a champ for sticking things out with me.

The one investigator that we did meet this week is the 16 year-old referral from one of our members. She is super cute and so open to learning. We had a blast teaching with her. She is still pretty shy, but we had some good laughs. I'm excited to see how the gospel will help her with the things that she is going through in her life right now. I know that this gospel will bless her so much!

Our recent convert Lee NamHaeng is doing great. We met with her again this week and had Sulbing :) My favorite dessert here in Korea. She loves reading the Book of Mormon on the LDS app while she travels on the train or when she has extra time. She is so amazing! Her testimony has gained so much strength since her baptism. I love her so much!

This week we met a lot of crazy people as we did street contacting. Like tons of crazy people from all around the world. We had to proselyte for a new English class that is set up by a member in the other ward as a separate service project. We met people from Russian, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and some other random countries that I can't remember. There were so many foreigners at the place we were sticker boarding at. It was funny because we would ask them to stick a sticker in Korean, realize they didn't speak Korean and switch to English just to see the puzzled look on their face get even more confused just to give up and have them walk away looking at us like we were crazy. It was a blast!

Another highlight of the past week was eating a pop-tart for the first time in about a year. Wow that was a weird taste. Sister Hansen was so kind to share with me :) It was great.

I hope you are all doing well. Being a missionary is amazing even when things are hard. I love this gospel and can't wait to share it with everyone this week. Have a wonderful week! Love ya^^

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Our Ward picnic last week

My baby is all grown up and serving in a different area

Sister Rindlisbacher's new companion Sister Hansen

This is what our young women do with pictures of the missionaries >.<

Some more pictures from the ward picnic.

Week 50

What a week! The biggest news is probably transfers! I am blessed to stay here in Suji for another transfer :D I am so excited to be able to stay here! I absolutely love this area and the ward. I have seen so many miracles and felt so much love. Sister Earnshaw will be leaving though. She is being transferred to 분당 (Bundang) which is just the area right next to ours so we will still be in the same zone and will see each other a lot :) My new companion will be Sister Hansen from Idaho. I met her a few transfers ago when she was being trained. I am excited to work and learn with her.

The next most exciting thing this week was interviews with President and Sister Turner. I am so grateful that we get to spend so much time with them each week. It was a treat to sit down and get to talk with them one-on-one. Sister Turner also makes the most delicious mint cookies that we got to eat :) We went over a lot of the safety procedures that our mission is taking due to recent events and concerns in the world. There has been a little bit of worry among some missionaries, but I'm doing good. I know that the Lord is protecting His children and that everything will be okay. Sister Turner was also such a comfort. I absolutely love her to death!

Another cool adventure was putting together a new desk chair. The one that I had been using for the past 2 transfers doesn't really have a back that stays up. It's a struggle sometimes in the morning because I lean back and am almost parallel with the floor, which doesn't help when I am tired in the morning and trying to study my scriptures. But the office elders finally ordered me a new chair and it was delivered to our house :) It took a bit of work to get it all together. I had to put it together and take it apart a few times because I got lazy and didn't want to read the Korean instructions. My new chair is great though :)

My latest building adventure

This week we were also able to find two new investigators. One was a referral from another set of missionaries that live close to us. We will be starting the English 30/30 program with her. She doesn't have much gospel interest as of yet, but I'm excited to see where she will progress. The other is a 16 year-old girl that is a referral from one of our members. Lately she has had some health challenges that have prevented her from learning in school so she is being home schooled for now. Her mom really wants her to learn English so we will also start the 30/30 program with her. She has some gospel interest that we are excited to work with her. She is awesome!

We have a few new people that we also have appointments with this week. Hopefully they will be ready to learn about the gospel. We also have a ward picnic that we are super stoked to go to tomorrow :D Korea people really know how to party and by that I mean eat yummy food. I have probably gained so much weight this past week as we ate with members hehe but that's okay. I love them! 

The past week was filled mostly with member appointments or having to randomly teach people that walked into the church. Our members are so amazing! I love them so much! Most of the random people that walked into the church haven't replied to any of our attempts to contact them again, but it had been a lot of good teaching practice. I have learned a lot this week about being able to rely on the spirit. When people randomly show up and we have to teach them it takes a lot of faith and listening to the spirit to be able to 1. understand them and 2. understand their needs. I have been so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost lately. It had helped me so much this past week!

May 31st = Baskin Robins night

The sisters of our zone after a combined proselyting activity