Leanne's Mission Blog

· Leanne Noelle Chun <leanne.chun@myldsmail.net>

Jun 25 at 6:31 PM

We had some interesting things happen to us this past week.

Elder Swan, Sister Engebretsen (HwaYang ward), and I are rehearsing a special musical number for a missionary conference on Thursday, so Sister Engebretsen and I got together to work out the harmonies. Our beautiful companions headed out to do some other missionary work, and my companion, Sister Choi, is not very good at finding streets. Or knowing where we are. She is fully aware of this, but despite what could be seen as a slightly debilitating set-back, she said, "Never mind that. We're going to go find people." Well, as I'm sure you can guess my cute companion and Sister Engebretsen's cute companion got pretty horribly lost. We called them to tell them that we were finished (in time for the Hwayang Sisters to get home), and we discovered that we didn't really know where they were. Well, luckily for us, Heavenly Father loves His children and He looks out for them. Sister Engebretsen and I were walking toward where we thought our companions were when we happened upon a member we knew on his way to Institute with a friend. They are both very good at English, which means they could communicate with the panicked Americans, and they speak Korean natively, which means they could communicate with the lost Koreans. Long story short, we got everything worked out, everyone got home safely, and no one had to call the AP's, so that was good.

Second miracle of the week: we've been doing a phone cleaning project, just sending out a general text to all the contacts asking if they still have interest in learning English or about the Church, and we got a reply from a Sister we discovered was actually a less-active. We were able to make an appointment with her, which was kind of a miracle in and of itself, but she ended up cancelling the last minute. The real miracle happened yesterday, a couple days later: We were just finishing up MCM meeting when we got a text. It was the less-active sister asking for directions to the church building from the subway station. Holy cow. Sister Choi and I flipped out. She came to church and stayed the whole time, though maybe that was just because there was a ward 식사 after church. We discovered that she's super funny, a little quirky, and definitely someone I would want to just be friends with. Hopefully she'll start wanting to come back to church. :)

The other interesting thing that happened to us this week was that we got proselyted to by 전도사's. Missionaries 전도 (proselyte), but 전도사's are people who like to tell you that you're going to Hell if you don't repent, or don't go to their church, or give them money for a sketchy-looking charity fund. So, Sister Choi and I were sitting in a park doing our studies outside (one of the things were have been encouraged to do since the schedule change), and these two women approach us and try to hand a flier for their church. They noticed our name tags as Sister Choi introduced us as missionaries, and we proceeded to have a 30-35 minute, one-sided conversation about God and the Bible. I won't go into detail. Suffice it to say this: As pious as it may sound to outside ears, as pretentious and high-and-mighty as it may seem, I am so grateful that because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have the whole truth that God intended for His children to have (part of which includes the knowledge that all are children of God). Not going to lie, I got a little riled up listening to those ladies (at least, from the parts that I understood, which was actually a good deal more than I thought I would). I wished I could speak and understand the language perfectly so that I could tell them just how wrong they are. But then, there were some things they said which, when heard as isolated sentences, are things that I could agree with. Then you throw those isolated sentences into the bigger picture of what they believe, and I'm just a little speechless, but profoundly grateful. Also a little sad knowing that no matter how perfect my Korean is, people with hard hearts aren't really going to accept something they don't want to (1 Corinthians 13:1-2).

Brothers and Sisters, I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church that helps us learn about it and Him. The more I read, the more I come to love it. Sort of like Alma said in Alma 32, it's beginning to be delicious to me. You know me, I love delicious things. :)

I hope you have a good week! Be safe, have fun, serve your fellow men! :)

Love,

Sister Chun