Tuesday, June 13, 2016

From Island to Desert ...

Annyeong family,

This is the beginning of transfer 7. Sometimes time feels like it's going in fast-motion. I met a young missionary at HQ yesterday who called me an old-man-missionary. I'm not really, but I guess in his eyes, I've been around the block a handful of times. There still is much to learn, though...

Daegu. We arrived late yesterday evening. Elder Harkness and I got up early and caught the bus to Busan, where I met my new companion, Elder Roper. He's from a small town about 40 minutes away from Price. He's been out 6 weeks longer than me, so I knew him in the MTC. Sad to leave Elder Harkness behind (he heads home to Utah in a few weeks), but Elder Roper is a great guy. Lots of humility. It will be fun working together.

From Busan we jumped on a train for the long journey up to Daegu (the actual town we live in is called Jungni). Daegu is in the very dead center of Korea, and is the 3rd largest city in the country. It's famous for being HOT. It's commonly referred to as Daegufrica (Daegu+Africa). But, the city is beautiful, and our area is enormous, which will make it really fun.

The Elder team that was in this area previously was emergency transferred out about 3 weeks ago for confidential reasons. So we are white-washing! I'm super excited. This will be a little different from the last time I white-washed, however, because last time I was in a 4 man house, so the other Elder team showed us around. Elder Roper and I stepped off the train, looked left, looked right, and determined that our house was somewhere within the next 20 miles. The Sister team eventually found us and showed us where our house is.

We jumped right in. We had a meeting last night with our ward mission leader. This ward has member missionary work down to a science. Literally. They have charts and schedules showing who does what and how and when, all relating to member missionary work. And apparently there are three people on the waiting list to get baptized over the next few weeks. Holy cow. I've never seen anything like it. Especially over the last few months, I have learned that missionary work really can't get done without the members. Oh how I wish every ward in the world could see this one. They are a shining example of how members are to work with missionaries.

Anyway, it was sad leaving Tongyoung. We saw some miracles over the last few days. Remember Ha Jeongman? Well, he showed up at the church on Saturday night as we were preparing for family night. We hadn't heard from him for 4 weeks. Apparently he went on a trip to Russia with some friends and got a new phone number. He's back, and wants to be baptized. And he came to church on Sunday. Love that guy. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to attend his baptism.

There was also a less-active man that we focused on all of last transfer. He used to be one of the strongest members of the ward (he was the bishop for a while), and we spent all transfer praying to know how to get him back. The whole transfer, we never were able to contact him. He just wasn't interested.

Sunday night, my last day in Tongyoung, our prayers were answered and he invited us over for dinner. Wonderful man. After a great discussion, he told us he wants to come back to church.

And then, a few hours later, I watched out the window of a bus as we passed from island to island in the rainy, misty morning headed for a new area and a new companion. But, that's how missionary work works :) The Lord calls us to go where He pleases. I know that my time in Tongyoung is up, and it's time to serve the people here in Daegu.

It will be a great week.

Love you all,

Elder Sorensen

Hi Kellie! I'm glad you like the fan. I saw that and thought "Kellie could use a good fan."

Send me some pictures of your teeth!

Mom says you are really bored lately. If you want to say "I'm bored" in Korean, it's pretty simple. "Sheem-sheem-hada!"

Don't get too bored. Enjoy your summer!

Love you!

Elder Sorensen

Hi April! It was so great to read your letter!

Those key chains are pretty epic, huh? Korea is full of old stuff like that. Grandma Gibson would probably go into cardiac arrest if she saw all the old antiques laying around.

The circle key chain is a Buddhist prayer. To be honest, I don't remember what it means now...

The other one, the really old one, is pretty neat. I found that in a little old Buddhist woman's house/shop. She told me it's a few decades old, and is a small model of the drums they hit when chanting prayers. But other than that, I don't really know the story behind it...

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying summer! Have a great week!

Love you,

Elder Sorensen