HEY!
Okay, this week I definitely had some of the coolest and scariest experiences of my mission. This is going to be a long one.
We have still been finding a lot of people this week, and have been meeting with a bunch. GSY and KMLi are both doing super well. We had a really good discussion with GSY, and she told us that this week she wants to bring her boyfriend to meet us. Eternal family in the works. :) KML is getting more and more social by the day. She talked a TON this week and was actually LOOKING US IN THE EYES. This gospel does wonders. She is slowly building up her desire to live the gospel too. She even went to seminary this week! We also met with a bunch of other investigators for the first time, and while some of them are not interested in the gospel, it is good to be teaching. The finding is continuing to rise!
We had exchanges this week. They were awesome. Although, when the sisters called us we misheard who was going and who was staying and switched it. They planned on me going to Jinhae and Sister Lee to stay in Jinju, but instead Sister Lee prepared to go and I just came to Masan with my backpack and normal proselyting stuff. Oops. When we realized what happened, we prayed about it and decided I would just go anyway. It turned out to be a super good exchange anyway.
Okay, here's the scary story. There was a woman that we had met that really wanted to do the English program. She was super emphatic about starting as soon as we could so we set an appointment with her for after Jinju English class ended. When it was time we ran out and saw her waiting in her car to take us to a cafe. However, the moment we got in the car we both had the weirdest feeling. We knew that something was wrong. I just wanted to jump out of the car and get away but we didn't know what to do so we just stayed. It was horrible. The woman was super nice but was acting a little weird. I remember someone calling her and she said to the person on the phone, "We are coming." Uhh oh. We got to the "cafe" and followed her in, only to realize that everyone in there was dressed super nicely, all older men and woman, and all staring at us. We had walked into the lion's den. Now let me do some explaining. In Korea there are a bunch of different churches that are kind of fanatical about their religion. Some churches are known for meeting with members or missionaries from other churches and trying to break their faith and destroy the church. The extreme ones are pretty rare and I had only heard stories, but we had just found one. Anyway, we were ushered in and sat down at a table and two other women came and sat down in front of us. The woman that brought us said they were "women that helped her". Looking back, I remember that the whole time I had that disgusting feeling and knew that we needed to get out of there, which was super scary, but I also felt strong. I knew there was nothing those grannies could do to change what I knew and nothing they could do to hurt us. So, I just decided to keep it to business and teach English. We could tell they were going pretty easy on us and just wanted to get us to come again, but were still pretty scary. We told them a little about what we believed and then told them we needed to leave early to get back in time. And we got out of there! The woman taking us back started getting pretty weird and talking about weird religious things in the car and while she didn't want to listen to what we said, Sister Lee and I looked at each other and started teaching the Restoration. It felt good to testify to that woman. Anyway, we are definitely not meeting with them again.
We did have a really cool miracle the same night though. One of our members has been wanting to go to Seoul to meet a friend the past couple weeks and actually went this weekend. We knew that her friend wasn't a very good person to be with and so talked with her a lot beforehand to help her make the right decisions while she was there. On Saturday night during English class (right before meeting with scary church lady) she called us and said that her friend was really pressuring her to go and party with her at a bar. Our less active told her that she had changed and had standards now, but the "friend" kept pushing and saying bad things about the church. Our less active said she was scared and didn't know what to do. Since we were in the middle of English class, we couldn't say very much but encouraged her to be strong and promised to call later. After the phone call I was praying so hard for her. Later when we called her again, she told us that after talking with us on the phone, she felt super sick and wasn't able to even leave the hotel room. While her friend went and partied, our less active stayed in the hotel. In fact, the whole next day as well she was still sick, up until she came back to Jinju. While I am sad she was sick, we were SO happy that she didn't go with the friend and thanked Heavenly Father so much for helping her. I know, super weird, but we knew He was protecting her. We could really feel God's power and the authority that He has given us during that experience.
I love being a part of this work. I had a lot of experiences this week that helped me understand more how this gospel really is the most important thing and how important each of us are in this work. I know that God lives. I know Him and love Him!
I love you!!!!
Sister Stapley
Okay, this week I definitely had some of the coolest and scariest experiences of my mission. This is going to be a long one.
We have still been finding a lot of people this week, and have been meeting with a bunch. GSY and KMLi are both doing super well. We had a really good discussion with GSY, and she told us that this week she wants to bring her boyfriend to meet us. Eternal family in the works. :) KML is getting more and more social by the day. She talked a TON this week and was actually LOOKING US IN THE EYES. This gospel does wonders. She is slowly building up her desire to live the gospel too. She even went to seminary this week! We also met with a bunch of other investigators for the first time, and while some of them are not interested in the gospel, it is good to be teaching. The finding is continuing to rise!
We had exchanges this week. They were awesome. Although, when the sisters called us we misheard who was going and who was staying and switched it. They planned on me going to Jinhae and Sister Lee to stay in Jinju, but instead Sister Lee prepared to go and I just came to Masan with my backpack and normal proselyting stuff. Oops. When we realized what happened, we prayed about it and decided I would just go anyway. It turned out to be a super good exchange anyway.
Okay, here's the scary story. There was a woman that we had met that really wanted to do the English program. She was super emphatic about starting as soon as we could so we set an appointment with her for after Jinju English class ended. When it was time we ran out and saw her waiting in her car to take us to a cafe. However, the moment we got in the car we both had the weirdest feeling. We knew that something was wrong. I just wanted to jump out of the car and get away but we didn't know what to do so we just stayed. It was horrible. The woman was super nice but was acting a little weird. I remember someone calling her and she said to the person on the phone, "We are coming." Uhh oh. We got to the "cafe" and followed her in, only to realize that everyone in there was dressed super nicely, all older men and woman, and all staring at us. We had walked into the lion's den. Now let me do some explaining. In Korea there are a bunch of different churches that are kind of fanatical about their religion. Some churches are known for meeting with members or missionaries from other churches and trying to break their faith and destroy the church. The extreme ones are pretty rare and I had only heard stories, but we had just found one. Anyway, we were ushered in and sat down at a table and two other women came and sat down in front of us. The woman that brought us said they were "women that helped her". Looking back, I remember that the whole time I had that disgusting feeling and knew that we needed to get out of there, which was super scary, but I also felt strong. I knew there was nothing those grannies could do to change what I knew and nothing they could do to hurt us. So, I just decided to keep it to business and teach English. We could tell they were going pretty easy on us and just wanted to get us to come again, but were still pretty scary. We told them a little about what we believed and then told them we needed to leave early to get back in time. And we got out of there! The woman taking us back started getting pretty weird and talking about weird religious things in the car and while she didn't want to listen to what we said, Sister Lee and I looked at each other and started teaching the Restoration. It felt good to testify to that woman. Anyway, we are definitely not meeting with them again.
We did have a really cool miracle the same night though. One of our members has been wanting to go to Seoul to meet a friend the past couple weeks and actually went this weekend. We knew that her friend wasn't a very good person to be with and so talked with her a lot beforehand to help her make the right decisions while she was there. On Saturday night during English class (right before meeting with scary church lady) she called us and said that her friend was really pressuring her to go and party with her at a bar. Our less active told her that she had changed and had standards now, but the "friend" kept pushing and saying bad things about the church. Our less active said she was scared and didn't know what to do. Since we were in the middle of English class, we couldn't say very much but encouraged her to be strong and promised to call later. After the phone call I was praying so hard for her. Later when we called her again, she told us that after talking with us on the phone, she felt super sick and wasn't able to even leave the hotel room. While her friend went and partied, our less active stayed in the hotel. In fact, the whole next day as well she was still sick, up until she came back to Jinju. While I am sad she was sick, we were SO happy that she didn't go with the friend and thanked Heavenly Father so much for helping her. I know, super weird, but we knew He was protecting her. We could really feel God's power and the authority that He has given us during that experience.
I love being a part of this work. I had a lot of experiences this week that helped me understand more how this gospel really is the most important thing and how important each of us are in this work. I know that God lives. I know Him and love Him!
I love you!!!!
Sister Stapley