Red Plaid Shirt: Temple Week

Hellooo. So this week was quite the adventure. We started off with having president and sister over to our house on monday. Tuesday we got to go out to a little farm----a lady from one of our English classes has a little plot of land out in the middle of nowhere and she invited us out there to eat corn and other stuff. She has a little temporary trailer/house thing that we ate in-----she said her corn was famous but korean corn is just really weird. its really starchy and chewy....kinda hard and not sweet at all. Hhahah not like the corn i’m used to eating from work! but i made a good go of it for her....she also fed us homegrown plums, PEANUTS, lettuce, blackberry jam, popcorn. it was quite the meal! then she took us out and showed us around her little farm. that seems to be a thing in this area. older, retired koreans that have enough money will just buy some land and spend all day out there farming because they have nothing else to do. i suppose its a healthy pastime though.

We really didn’t meet any investigators this week, everyone is on vacation or too busy or whatever. But we got to do some member lessons that went well.

Wednesday We had district meeting until 2 then had to go immediately to catch a bus to go exchange with our sister training leaders....who happen to be Sister Chestnut...my DAUGHTER and sister fudge...my buddy. This time i was super excited because i got to go with Sister Fudge up to Songpa.... it's the mission headquarters and its right next door to Gangnam! It was super nice to be back in Seoul again!

Thursday morning we got up (me and sister fudge) and traveled to the temple for our transferly temple session. It was really good to see some good ol’ mission buddies again. Everyone kinda gathers outside the temple after the session and takes pics and talks and it was like 95 degrees out and super humid and i got sunburnt. haha but then me and sister gooch went with some other sisters and our Icheon elders all went back to Gangnam, had lunch, and i just showed them the main drag of Gangnam. It was soooo gooooood to be back. Gangnam will always be my home in Korea! It was super hot, but there was still people crowding both sides of the street and same noise of the cars and buses moving by and the all the sights just the same! Sister Gooch really liked it—it was like showing my kid around the town i grew up in...and the Elders were amazed! haha they’ve never seen so many people before!!! We finally dragged ourselves back to Icheon at the end of a long day out in the sun but it was sooo good!

Friday our big Icheon ladies english class took us and the elders out to lunch because elder hodges might be transferring soon..... they took us to Ashelys...its like a korean/american buffet.. it was fun to hang out with all those ladies and get an expensive lunch! -----so we actually teach a ton of english here in Icheon. We have the Icheon class on fridays for 2 hrs with a bunch of middle aged ladies.....then we have the Yeoju english class on tuesdays (Yeoju is a small neighboring town) then we have Normal englsih class on wednesday nights that a few of the members come to.....its kinda crazy but they all love us!

So update with Choi So Weon....she's getting her work rescheduled sometime this month so she should be able come back to church next month. so.....yep. she’s progressing slowly to say the least. haven’ seen her in almost a month and she’s not coming to church,....but her husband is a member and still coming strong every week, so whether she gets baptized in a month or a year, she’s not going anywhere!

It was a super fun week— a lot of activities that come from being a missionary but aren’t necessary actually hands-in-the-dirt missionary work. It's fun to have those weeks though.

Words of Mormon 1:7 And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

So Jefferson takes off this week for a mission to Ecuador. Wish i could be there for the talks and the goodbyes and everything, but we’re both in the right place at the right time. Trav sent me Words of Mormon 1:7 at the very beginning of my mission (we’re now the only 2 ppl that have ever quoted from Words of Mormon hahaha) But that verse has stuck with me this whole adventure and Jeff, if you take it with you too, it’ll carry you through your best two years. We’re just humans....(or hobbits i guess, berber....) and we have no vision. Sometimes we can’t even see past tomorrow or next week. Sometimes we don’t know why we have to miss each other by 6 weeks, or why your passport is delayed or who your trainer is going to be or what your mission will be like. Sometimes we don’t know anything at all about what is to come, but we DO know the Supreme Being and He DOES know all things. Our God truly knows all things and if we’re smart enough to admit that we don’t know it all, then He can work through us to accomplish His will. Jeff, just know that you’re being guided. He’s looking out for you when no one else is...when no one else in the world knows what your mission in Ecuador is like, He knows and He knows what is to come. You can have all the courage and confidence in the world because of that. We have the assurance of an Almighty being on our side and so it will all work out in the end. You’re going to be the best Berber. We’ll miss you so much, but it’ll be the best 2 years you ever spend. I guess i’ll see you in two. Vaya con Dios! ^^ (my spanish is getting so good)

Sister Washburn

PICTURES

1. we had a gangnam reunion...with a member from gangnam that showed up at the temple to see the elder that baptized him!