July 13, 2014
Dear family,
I hope you all are enjoying your summer! What do Koreans do in the summer time? They eat dog. And so this coming week, we are planning to eat dog. YUM. Actually, in Korea, it's traditional. The elders ate it last week with the elders quorum and apparently, it's good. I have no idea, but to be honest, going to Korea and going back home without eating dog soup is like going to the beach and never getting in the water. (Although missionaries DO do that...)
One of the important things to know about a new companion is their favorite food. In Korea, that's DOUBLY important because food is a HUGE deal in Korea. So I asked Sis Bae what her favorite food was a little while ago and she said 회. Pronounced hway. I asked what that was, cause like heck did I know. Turns out it's raw fish. Now I've had raw fish on my mission, and it wasn't bad at all. Actually, it was kind of boring... I wanted a cool "Oh my gosh I ate this THING" story. It was not. BUT on Saturday, a member decided to take us out to lunch after our English class. She's asking us what we want to eat, and she lists off a few things as we drive. She listed hway. Trying to be a good companion, I said, "Sister Bae loves hway! That's her favorite food!" That may not have been the smartest response, because the next thing the member says is, "That's nice, but will YOU be able to eat it?" Trust your members. They know what they're talking about. I said yes, cause I've been able to eat just about everything on my mission and I figured this couldn't be any more bizarre than pig feet. And I do like fish.
Well, we got to the restaurant, and the waitress sends us back outside and downstairs. I didn't know what we were doing (not an uncommon feeling...) so I just followed. We went down to this big underground room with TONS of tanks of different kinds of fish, octopuses, sea snails, and plenty of stuff I still don't know the name for... WE WERE GOING TO PICK OUR FISH. Well, we picked our fish (and they threw in some sea snails as a free service), and then they sent us back upstairs. Now the fish wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. REALLY DIFFERENT, but not bad. I could eat it again. But they served us three different kinds of sea snails, and all I have to say is, SEA SNAILS WERE NOT MEANT TO BE EATEN. Yeah. But I could eat them. And I did. Hands down to Sister Bonney.
Well, despite the general concesus, missionaries do do more than eat. And on that note, we've seen a lot of miracles in Bangeojin this week. We have two investigators who come to our children's English class with their kids, and we had the opportunity to do a member-present lesson with them. Our members were amazing. Since Sister Bae and I are still young and NOT mothers with children, we can't exactly relate to them that way, but our members could. It made all the difference in the world. They're coming to church next week.
Also, in Korea, part member families are really common. Since there aren't a lot of members in Korea, members often marry nonmembers. Sometimes the spouses get baptized, and sometimes it takes time. In our branch, there are a few part member families who we've had the privilege to work with, and Heavenly Father is blessing them so much. The husband of the sister who took us to get hway is a nonmember. He came with us to lunch, and then he came to church on Sunday just "because he wanted to". He's had the lessons, and we weren't sure what it would take to help him, but when he came and sat down in sacrament meeting, Sister Bae and I just about died of joy. This is first and foremost Heavenly Father's work, and He is doing it. He loves His children so much and His children are us, our members, missionaries, nonmembers, EVERYONE. He's doing everything in His power to provide for our eternal happiness. And that's manifest in every little miracle. I'm so grateful to be a part of His work. It's truly a labor of love.
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Bonney
