Well it actually happened! I have now been in Korea for over a hundred days. The big day was August 14th, and I had planned to celebrate. You know how in elementary school, all the kids bring fun posters with the number "100" built out of 100 marshmallows or pretzels or pennies or whatever they choose in order to celebrate the 100th day of school that year? Yeah, well I did! And so in true Korean (and elementary school) fashion, I built a number 100 out of grains of rice, put it on a poster, took a picture, and celebrated. My companion wasn't as thrilled as I was, but it's a big deal right? How many other times am I going to be able to say "Today is my 100th day in Korea"? None. So it was a big deal.
Anyway, this week was the end of 방학, or summer vacation, for all of the Koreans. So, because it was the end of their time off, ALL of our investigators were out of town. Literally. All of them. So how many did we get to meet with? None. Yup. So instead we spent all day, every day, trying to find new people. We hung up english flyers over the whole city, tracted in countless apartments, and talking to people on the street every night from 6-9 in the 시내, or downtown/shopping area. We met wonderful people, had quality conversations, found new english class hopefuls, but we still didn't find any solid investigators that were interested in the gospel. But that's okay.
Sunday, after a long week of trying every day, was a wonderful day to break up the norm. First, you know how in "A Christmas Story", the asians try to sing Deck the Halls and they say "Deck the harrs with bourrs of horry. Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra."? Yeah, that's no joke. Koreans literally, for the most part, can't say their "l's" so it comes our sounding like an "r". So if you want a good laugh, just look at the Hymn "All Creatures of our God and King" (I think that's the English name) and imagine the chorus being sung in a Korean ward. Because it was, and bless their hearts it was hilarious. I love my members, they are fantastic singers, but that song may or may not have brought a big smile to my face on Sunday during church while it was being sung.
Then, we ended church at our Korean ward in Gunsan and left immediately to go to our Air Force Base Branch. This week, we had a grand total of two in attendance. Elder McDonald and I passed the sacrament, Elder and Sister Riding (a senior couple over military relations in our mission) gave the talks, and Elder McDonald and I taught Sunday School. All together, the six of us participated in one of the best church services I have ever attended in my life. Going to a ward of 400-500 people in Utah, it sometimes hard to focus on the true purpose of everything. But when there's practically no one there, and everyone that is there truly cares for the gospel, the spirit is incredible. Towards the end of our sunday school lesson, Sister Riding was crying because of how touching the whole atmosphere really was. I seriously love attending that branch so much, I'm going to be very sad when I'm transfered away from it.
So that concludes my update this week. Another week full of work, work, work, and rewards. I truly love being a missionary, it really is going to be my best two years, as corny as that sounds.
Until next week,
Elder Crap
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