Korea Seoul South Mission: Week 69

How is it possible that October is half way over?! Korea is amazing :D

This week was filled with many answered prayers. We spent some time walking the streets as we delivered cards that we made for members. Most apartment buildings here in Korea have pass codes so you can't get in the building. BUT the day that we went out to deliver those cards we were able to get into every single apartment building after a prayer. It's nothing big, but it really showed us that Heavenly Father answers even the smallest of prayers.

Our new district is interestingly fun. It is going to take some adjusting, but we are all happy to be serving together. We had 3 new elders join us in our ward (that confused the members!!) since one team opened. Elder Swasey opened the new team with his companion Elder Schwartz (a greenie and my 'son' in terms of mission family relations) Elder DeLabreu (no idea if that spelling is correct but oh well) joined Elder Cleto. They are a little weird, but all really hard working!

Although two investigators cancelled their appointments the one that we did actually meet with was great. She is the Mongolian that we found a few weeks ago. She is so awesome! No religious background really so explaining some things gets a bit tricky. She really likes meeting with us so this coming week we will meet twice and the second time she is bringing two of her friends that are Vietnamese! So exciting!!! Pray that we can communicate well with them and that they want to continue to meet with us :)

We also had a house inspection from the senior couple that came a few months ago. They are going through each missionary house and checking to make sure everything is okay. They are so cute! We had lunch with them before they came to our house because they got a little lost on the way to the elder's house, but the elders didn't pick up their phone. We ran out to save them and they bought us lunch. I love Korean people!

The weather has gotten really chilly lately. During the sunshine hours it is fine, but once there is no light it is freezing. We had busted out our winter clothes and bundled up when we go out. Sister Hill also discovered the blessing of heated floors (in Korea they don't have central heating, but heat everything through pipes that run throughout the floor) Needless to say she has spent a good amount of time on the floor this past week. I'll include a picture ㅋㅋㅋ

The blessings of heated floors

Nothing new really. Just the wonderful missionary life. I do have one funny story though.

Saturday we went to meet an investigator (she punked us and didn't even show up) and were making some copies when I heard some shuffling in another room down the hall. The night before we had chat with our elders about why it isn't safe to just leave the doors unlock in the church at night (especially for sisters) because weird people just seem to wander in the church. I figured I was just being paranoid so I shrugged it off. We continued making copies when I heard the noise again. Just to be safe I called Sister Hill into the hall so that I could walk over to the room to check things out. As I looked into the nursery there was a MAN STANDING IN THE DOORWAY! I about had a heart attack as I said hello and asked who he was. He just looked at me and shut the door. He called someone on his phone and this point I was so scared I just ran back to the copy room so I could be with my comp. The guy was talking to someone on the phone saying that he was waiting for the elders so they could do his lesson. I was so confused so I immediately called the elders. They didn't have any appointments and when they heard there was some strange man in the church they just booked it to the church. They were about 30 minutes away. During that conversation the man left the building. We went all throughout the church trying to figure out how he got in, but we found no doors or windows that were open. Right as we finished checking everything in the church we got a call from one of our members. Apparently the man was actually her younger brother who was just talking a break in the church between working and going to an academy (literally everyone in Korea attends at least on of these. They teach anything from English and math to art and computer programming). She had let him into the church, but he got scared when we showed up so he lied and said he was an investigator. She felt super bad that he scared us and wanted to make sure that we didn't call the police ㅎㅎ

Weird things always happen, but they make some really funny stories. We are excited for this next coming week. We will be super busy with MLC, interviews, meeting our investigators, and also preparing for our ward's Halloween party.

Have a lovely week! Love ya!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Scenery shots of Korea