Learning ancient Korean chant poetry singing and other missionary stuff

This week has been a very interesting one. I'll start with this last Tuesday. There was this member who called us after we finished our service project (washing dishes at a Korean style soup kitchen). He said that he had some friends that he wanted us to meet. We rushed down to the address where he wanted to meet us. We got there and found ourselves in front of this big Buddhist temple. The member took us inside and there were all of these people gathered for some type of meeting. This member is old and all of the people were pretty old too, but we got right down to talking with them. As we were talking this guy with a suit walked into the room. This woman got up and announced him as a professional singer from Busan. He had come to teach this free class on ancient Korean poetry singing/chanting. All the people we were talking to sat down and the class started up. The member came up to us and with a smile on his face said, "aren't you so glad I brought you here?" After being forced to sit through the forty five minute class in a Buddhist temple I can't say that I was too happy that he took me there. I can, however, say that I am now a pro at ancient Korean chant poetry singing. On an even better note, it looks like we'll be able to meet some of the people at the class.

On Wednesday I took an hour and a half bus out to do an exchange. I'm not a leader anymore but the district leader wanted to exchange with my companion. I was with an Elder Cronin. He and I combed the country side looking for people to talk to. By the end of the day we had a couple good lessons under our belts and went home. 

The next day was zone training meeting. I thought that the meeting was really nice. We talked about Lehi's vision. Lehi experienced the power and joy of the fruit of the tree. Because of this experience he wanted to share the gospel with others. We talked about making our conversion the starting point in inviting others to hear the gospel.

On Friday we visited a bunch of members and LAs. I'm still kind of new in this area so it was nice to meet the saints here in Tongyoung one on one. One of the members tried teaching us Chinese characters. I think I'll stick to Korean. 

On Saturday Elder Sorensen and I took a boat out to an island in our area. The boat ride was really nice but there were not a ton of people on the island. We did meet this one really nice grandma though. She took us to all of here relative's homes. She said that she had no interest in Christianity but that her family might. Unfortunately none of the people were home.

Finishing up in Haeundae

Last week was full of great experiences. Starting off, we had our weekly service project feeding old/needy people. That is a really fun place to serve and meet some interesting people. Last week the Busan international women's organization volunteered and were working there. There were a lot of women from Europe. One Irish lady pinned my down, asking about where my red hair came from. We had a good talk about Ireland and how I went there a couple years ago. We got on the topic of family history work. She really loved the idea of our church.

In the same day we went on a bus out to a far place in our area. We came to the apartment of this man and were able to share the message of the restoration with him. He really liked us and shared some of the trials of his life. We testified how the gospel can help him and he told us to come back another time. 

On the way back I was talking to this man on the subway. A woman overheard the conversation and snatched the Book of Mormon from my companion. She wanted to know what church we were from and what the book was. My companion had a bit of a hard time explaining the book and how it was different from the bible, so I finished up my conversation with the man, (he didn't have much interest) and explained the book to the woman. She thought that the Book of Mormon was wonderful. She is attending the Catholic church but said that she would read the book and pray about it. Here's the catch. She lives in a different area. Darn. You always have to refer the good ones.

Wednesday I got to go on an exchange to Goejeong, my old area. The missionary that I went with has served in the same district as me for most of my mission so it was really fun to be with him. We met one of the investigators in that area. He was really cool and showed us all of the things that he liked that he found on mormon.org. (The missionaries never told him about mormon.org) It looks like he'll get baptized in a month or so. 

The rest of the week was kind of boring. I got a transfer call. I'm not a zone leader any more. I'll be going out to a far corner of the mission called Tongyoung. Tongyoung is a big group of islands about fifty miles to the south west of Busan. I heard that there are about a thousand islands and about three hundred of them are inhabited. Most of the people there are farmers. It is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I'm super excited! 

More next week,

Elder Harkness