Heart and Seoul: October 19, 2014

With my Mission mama

I feel like I need an experienced writer and poet with very little but the words in his head, a strong-willed-do-it-herself blacksmith of a woman, a red head with a good sense of humor, and big soft hearted lug of a man to look over my shoulder and help me put the thoughts in my head into words on a keyboard everytime I start these letters.

But then again Geoffrey Chaucer is dead and Ulrich VonLichtenstein wasn't even Ulrich VonLichtenstein after all, now was he?

I guess I, too, will just have to change my stars.

My heart, much like that of Ulrich's, is full of love. This week we met and taught both our lovely 성은경 (Sister Song) and 서혜정 (Emma).Both of them have very very little religious background, so we have to teach very simply, but the Spirit is always there. We are excited to watch them progress as they continue to read the Book of Mormon! We also had a miracle of miracles on Saturday. Our appointment cancelled, so we decided to go door to door at a nearby apartment. We scanned over the buildings and picked one, doubtless it was not coincidence, to begin our sharing of this message. The first door we knocked on happened to be a Vietnamese man who is here as a student and has been searching for religion, but didn't really feel anything at the churches he has attended in Korea. Yeah, okay, that's awesome.

Second door.

A father opened the door and hurriedly ushered us in, as though the family had been expecting us. We were all but completely baffled as we sat on their floor and they fed us pears and honey tea. This rarely happens, okay? It was all we could not to keep exchanging looks of confusion. It didn't take much conversation for us to learn that they had had sister missionaries over some sixteen years earlier and had very fond memories of that time. The son, now 27, had been around the block and back again searching for something more than just this life, but had become more lost in his search to be found. Circumstances arose, and we could no longer be in the home with just the men, so we went with the 27 year old 김세호, or his english name, SeaHorse, to a nearby cafe. It was one of the most amazing lessons I have had thus far on my mission. Seriously why have we not invented a way to go back in time and relive the best memories. Come on, Steve Jobs, you're slacking. (Oops, I guess we all understand why!)

I would gladly put the whole conversation right here for you to indulge in, trust me, it would be a good read, but for the sake of time and your sanity, I will just say that it was all one big miracle. Nearly every morning in companion study, Sister Seo and I have been studying the scriptures to answer our really deep, soul searching questions. And as SeaHorse spoke, he asked us question after question, the very questions we have studied the last week. It was so cool sharing with him the knowledge that we have gained from the scriptures and our pure testimonies of the gospel. He wants to change his life and learn how to obtain faith and we couldn't be more thrilled to help him.

Seriously there is nothing like missionary work. It is the coolest thing ever.

So, life is good. Not to mention the fact that I got to go rock climbing last week with our district for p-day, my little ward feels like family (don't worry, guys, I'm only replacing you temporarily), I had the coolest dream about Frankenstein (you could say I'm pretty excited for the big day), my companion and I laugh ALL the time, I celebrated my half way mark and will be celebrating my companion's this week (did I ever mention we were in the MTC together? Oh, well.. We were in the MTC together), we had another awesome lesson with a Jehovah's witness, we had interviews with our mission president, and... it's raining. Boo yah.

Love,

your William Thatcher