Another awesome week

The beginning of this week took us to Busan. I love Busan. It's where I served over a year of my mission. Some of my greatest memories are there. I was a zone leader in Busan for four transfers. 

This amazing trip was not as great, however, for my companion. He needed to go to an army post in Busan to get a physical for his entrance to the Korean military after his mission. Two years of military service is required in Korea. It is something that every Korean male dreads. God bless America!

During our time in Busan I dropped by the mission office to get my temple recommend renewed. President Barrow is a really great person. I'm so excited to go to the temple after my mission. It's something that I've really missed. I went to the temple a couple times each week before entering the MTC and then went weekly. My new temple recommend is in Korean which makes it really cool.

That was Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week was spent as usual, working hard and trying to find people to meet. We had a lot of meetings that we scheduled but that never went through. Kind of disappointing. I've been serving for almost two years. I go home in three weeks. I think that the greatest tragedy of my mission has been when people don't take the message we are sharing seriously. 

An appointment that did go through ended up happening over a delicious dinner of fried pig intestines. Imagine a thin rubber hose filled with gristle and fat. Yep. I ate well. I think the investigator was really just trying to test my limits in Korean life. If that was the case then he seriously underestimated me. I think I could eat rocks if someone told me that it was a Korean dish. It doesn't mean that I'd like it, but it does mean that I would put on a good face and not gag as I ate. 

The other appointment was with a man who considers himself to be very knowledgeable of the Bible. We tried to keep away from the Bible bash and invited a member to teach with us. I really hope that this man reads the Book of Mormon that we gave him. We'll see next week.

President Barrow must be expecting great things from me because he made me district leader with only three weeks left on my mission clock. We'll see if I'll be able to get all of the exchanges done in time.

Last of all, We went to an island for P-day. We went biking and it was amazing. I'm so lucky to be serving where I'm serving. 

A great week in Tongyeong‏

It's amazing. I feel like I was emailing just two days ago. The weeks are passing in this blinding blur. At the same time I think back on the week and realize how many things happened. As an overview, this week was one of those that God really led us in his way, not necessarily in the way that we had planned, but that really makes it all the more fun. 

We met this one guy named Jang Saejeong. He's a middle aged man who really surprised us with his knowledge of the Bible. Many people like him immediately denounce the Book of Mormon, but he was really excepting of it and promised us that he would read it. In our time meeting with him we talked about prophets and God's relationship with us. I'm really excited to meet with him again this next week. 

Another of the great people we are meeting is Lee ginam. He's a really fun college student. We've gotten him out to church the past two weeks. He is interested in our church. Unfortunately he'll be moving to Australia pretty soon. We just have to teach him as much as we can before he goes!

On Thursday we had a pretty crazy experience. We had planned on doing a service project with a member in our ward. He set it up with this service group that he is a member of. We met up with Brother Jeong and the other volunteers and ate lunch. After lunch they took us to the beach. We went out onto the dock and everyone piled onto a boat and we went out to an island (Brother Jeong didn't tell us about that part) and we cleaned up the beach out there. It was really fun talking with the volunteers. The trip ended up being a massive success because we were able to spend so much time with them. I wish that I had taken my camera because the views were amazing.

A couple nights ago an investigators who had dropped off of the face of the earth gave us a call. It was a real miracle and answer to my prayers. We were able to meet him and find out that even though he had stopped meeting us he had continued to live the Word of Wisdom. We encouraged him to keep going and we will hopefully be able to meet  him next week.

We met Brother Yang again at the church. He was really interested in the Plan of Salvation and we were able to help him understand God's plan for us. 

Lately I have been getting emails from friends who are finishing their missions. I'd just like to give a shout out to them and thank them for their service and examples. I have found a lot of inspiration reading their weekly emails. 

Have a great week!

Stay true to the faith!

Elder Harkness

new investigators and interviews‏

The beginning of this week was really busy. Lately we've been building our pool of potential investigators. The best strategy seems to be scheduling them all towards the beginning leaving room for when they get busy or in another way can't meet. 

We met this guy named Yang Sangok. He's really interested in English, so I was a little apprehensive about meeting him. Actually he has a lot of interest and is a really great guy. He has read the Bible two times, though he doesn't attend a church. He is a middle aged man with one high school son. We met him twice last week and plan on meeting him again this week.

The next important person we met this week was Lee Ginam. He is a 20 year old who is planning on going to Australia to work and learn English. We invited him to our English class, and then our church family night on Saturday, and then to church, and then to a member's house for dinner. It went really well. Brother Lee has no religious background and said that church was very different from what he expected. He told us that the people at our church are much more human than he thought. We're just people and he felt that he could relate to that. At the meal appointment the members all bore their testimonies about the concept, "I'm a Child of God"  It was a really great experience.

We had interviews with President Barrow this week. Our district all gathered at our church here in Tongyeong and President came. While the other missionaries were being interviewed I was on the second floor doing some other work. I joked to my companion, "I better not slack off President's here." Then the thought came, "God is always watching us, we should always be on our best."

I love serving here and I'm excited for what the future holds.

Love,

Elder Harkness

Gods way and a 4th of July BBQ

Another week passes and time just seems to be moving faster at an increasing rate. This week I was able to see many miracles. It's a great privilege to serve in the way that I am.

This last Tuesday was just one of those days. We went into it having three lessons planned, and ended up having them all fall through in one way or another. Our lunchtime appointment called and told us that he couldn't meet. We spent some time on the street talking to people then wound our way over to our next appointment. We were wanting to teach the word of wisdom. The need of the word of wisdom in this man's life was made apparent when we saw him passed out drunk, empty bottle next to him and all, from the window of his house. The final investigator just never showed up to the church for the appointment. What was supposed to be an awesome day became a complete dud. We walked the streets all day. The Lord came through though in the end. His ways are better than our ways. We met a college student at a crosswalk who has been wondering about religion. We set up an appointment and met him the next day. We showed him around the church and told him about all of the functions and meetings. He told us that he has been wondering about the purpose of religion and what Christ really wants from each of us. We showed him some passages in the book of Mormon and have an appointment set up for tonight. 

The other cool part of this week was Sunday when the stake president came. He told the members that they need to visit less actives and become more involved in reactivation. After church my companion and I ran back to our apartment to grab something. When we got back to the church no one was there. The lights were off and the door was locked. Come to find out they had all gone out to visit their less active friends. Sweet!

To celebrate the 4th of July I called the district together for a BBQ. Unfortunately it rained and American style meet is really expensive so we just cooked Korean style and did it inside. Super fun!