Monday, March 14, 2016
Fame, miracles, and kimchi-squats

Hey everyone!

This week went by really quickly. I'm not sure where the time goes sometimes. It's already transfer week again, and with my history, I'll probably be in a new area next Monday! Actually, I have a feeling that I'll stay here for a little while more. I don't think I'm done learning everything the Lord wants me to learn from this area. Elder Stoker will probably be transferring though, which is too bad, because it's been a lot of fun serving with him.

This week we spent some time in the furthest northern part of our area, called Goseong. It's really, realllly far out in the country, and takes between 30-60 minutes by cross-country bus to get anywhere. While there, we saw lots of miracles and were able to teach a few lessons.

It occurred to me this week how many lessons we teach while squatting on the side of the road. Yes, squatting. Missionaries call it the "kimchi-squat," and if you're not sure what that is, ask Dave Pierce to show you. Rather than sit on the ground, many Korean people will just squat, and they'll sit like that for hours. Many times a week, we'll start up a conversation with someone who is squatting on the road or out in a rice field, and we'll squat down right next to them and teach the Restoration. It makes Korean people smile to see a foreigner kimchi-squatting and speaking Korean.

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Swarzi up in the wonderful land of Jinju. After district meeting (which was held here in Tongyeoung), Elder Swarzi and I took a taxi to the intercity bus terminal to catch a bus to Jinju. However, I had one of those "jeongshin opneun (no brain)" moments, and left my small suitcase in the back of the taxi. We immediately called the taxi company and they said they would send out an alert to all the taxis in Tongyeoung. At first I wasn't too worried about it because my suitcase didn't have anything valuable in it, just a change of clothes and my towel. Then I realized that my journal was in there too. Since coming on my mission, I have missed only one day of writing in my journal. At the time, that meant 217 detailed entries of every day of my mission so far were in the back of a taxi somewhere. Those journal entries are very sacred to me, so obviously I was pretty worried.

To make a long story short, it took three days to locate my suitcase. It was a miracle we were able to locate it (after many phone calls and eventually tracking down the taxi driver himself). The taxi driver told me he would leave it at the taxi HQ for me to pick up. We caught a taxi and told him to take us to the taxi HQ, and without hesitation, the taxi driver said, "Are you the foreigner that left his suitcase in a taxi? For the last few days I keep getting alerts that if you recently gave a ride to a foreigner to please check your trunk." He thought it was pretty funny... and now I'm famous in Tongyeoung.  :) I have now missed 4 days of journal writing on my mission.

We have a new investigator named Ha Jeongman. I love the kid to death. He's 22, and he's Korean, but he grew up in Japan speaking Japanese. I don't know if you know much about the Japanese-Korean relationship, but let's just say that the two countries really don't like each other. So, Brother Ha said he had been bullied a lot in Japan because he's Korean, but when he moved to Korea five years ago and started learning Korean, he was bullied again because he was a Korean who couldn't speak Korean (he's fluent now). Pretty sad. He feels like he doesn't really have a home. We started teaching him, and he's just soaking it up. 

I hope everything is going well for everyone back home! I pray for you all always, and I appreciate your prayers as well.

Mormon 8:22

For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled.

The work of the Lord is definitely "rolling on." Even in the short time I've been here, the Korea Busan mission has changed dramatically. New policy changes, new rules, even new specific revelation and direction revealed from the Presidency of the church concerning missionary work. It's an exciting time to be a missionary. We are experiencing miracles, and the Lord's hand is obvious. I know the purposes of God are unfolding, and that "all His promises shall be fulfilled." In a world that is growing increasingly farther from God, holding onto the truth we have is growing increasingly hard as well. I am so grateful to have the truth, and for the peace of mind it brings me. I know this is Christ's church, and He is actively leading it.

Let the work continue!

Elder Sorensen