August 4, 2013
Dear everyone!
Oh my goodness. Alright. Where do I start. Well, first of all, my English is going down the drain. So if I sound like a 2 year old in this email at some point, that's why. And wow do we work here. Haven't even been here a week and I've already spoken in church, sang at a baptism, played the piano at the same baptism, and taught an English class. By myself. And a Korean guy screamed at me. And I handled it. Yup. That happened.
Alright. In Korea, we 전도/street contact. And we contact everywhere. My first time with my companion, we were in the subway, and we started talking to this older woman. (We're only allowed to talk to women.) Then this man started talking to us in English. He asked me how long I'd studying Korean and about where I was from. Then he said, "You are so beautiful and so smart but you need lose weight..." Yup. I tell myself the same thing every morning.^^ Koreans tell it like it is.
My first companion's name is 이자경/Sister Lee. Koreans actually go by their whole names because about half the population is a Lee or a Kim. Not even kidding. It's a problem. She is so sweet! And my Korean is really improving since we don't exactly speak the same language. She is honestly one of the kindest people I've ever met, and I love her so much already. She's been in the field for about 6 months, and she is so encouraging. She is always telling me, "Sister! You so perfect! You so special!" in broken English. I don't think I could have asked for a more Christlike trainer.
My first area is 금정 /kuemjeong. I guess you could say the work for the sisters is hard here because we don't have any progressing investigators right now and haven't for a while. We work a lot with inactives. The one lesson we've taught since I got here was to an inactive woman named Kim Soojin. She speaks perfect fluent English (thank goodness) and our lesson was actually amazing. We prepared a message based on a conference talk and some scriptures in Mosiah, but most of the lesson was in incredibly fast Korean. Yup. Didn't understand anything. I just nodded my head and smiled. Until I looked over at Sister Lee and she looked horrified. Turns out Sister Kim had been telling about a horrible experience she had had that week. Whoops. Got to practice looking like I know what's going on... Anyway, after about 1hr-1/2 of Korean, Sister Kim (late 20s btw) turned to me and told me some of what she had told Sister Lee. In English. And then the Spirit guided our lesson so wonderfully. I knew what to say (in Konglish) and I knew what scriptures to share (in Korean) and I knew to ask her if she wanted a priesthood blessing and if she would come to church on Sunday (in Korean) and I knew that all of it was not me, but the Spirit. It was amazing. Sister Kim DID come to church on Sunday. The whole experience was incredible, and it showed me how the Lord uses us and that He WILL use us.
For the first couple days, I wasn't sure if we were doing missionary work the way we were supposed to. It's not what I imagined at all. I imagined us walking down the streets of Busan sharing the gospel handing out Books of Mormon to everyone we see with lessons every night, busy busy busy. But it's not like that. We're busy, but we do a lot of little things. For a while, it really frustrated me. I thought we were supposed to be doing big things! How are we supposed to do all the things the Lord has asked if we can only do little things. And then in my study the other morning, I read Alma 37:6-7. The Lord doesn't need heroes. He needs regular people doing their best to be obedient and follow the Spirit. As long as we are worthy to be used, He WILL use us. I know this gospel is true. And I know the Lord lives.
Love,
Sister Bonney
바니 자매
