I Got a 소개!

So this week... a lot of weird stuff happened. As a missionary, you have good weeks, you have rough weeks, and you have a wide assortment of "interesting" weeks. This one was definitely an interesting week.

On Tuesday, we were walking around just talking to people when we met this lady on the street with crazy curly permed hair. She freaked out when we started talking to her in Korean (all the Koreans freak out when we talk in Korean because we are clearly foreigners and they don't expect us to speak their language). We started talking about the normal things, that we were missionaries and living here in Korea. The lady then turned to me and asked if I was married. I said no of course, and she proceeded to tell me about her single son. Then she offered room in her house for me, and suggested I date her son. Ha ha uh... yeah. And that is how I got a 소개! 소개 is the Korean word for referral. I got a referral! We kind of laughed a little and politely told her we had to go but that it was nice to meet her. Oh the adventures... :)

On Wednesday we had English class and this one lady came who began to ask us questions as to why we couldn't date while on our missions. She was Catholic and kept saying, "But God wants you to love others! You should be able to date! You are young and this is the time for you to date!" We told her we could still love others, but that we just had to wait until after the mission to begin dating people. She still told us that our church was ridiculous for taking away our ability to love. Once she left, all of the missionaries just started laughing. It was quite the English class.

Thursday had its own assortment of interesting things. One guy came up to us on the street and asked us if it was hard to spread God's word. We mostly just said that it was fun. But he was convinced that our job was really hard, so he bought us some 떡 (a Korean snack) and kindly thanked us. Another guy on the streets offered us some drinks, but we told him we were fine. We turned the corner and walked a ways, but somehow he chased us down and gave us the drinks. They were made out of some Korean root. Sister Carter told me they were disgusting, so we thanked him and continued on. When we got home I tasted the drink and my face must have been pretty priceless because Sister Carter burst out laughing. It tasted worse than medicine.

Friday was the most interesting of the days. We were just walking down the street when Sister Carter saw this jaw bone of some large animal. We weren't sure what kind of animal it was (probably a horse) but it was sun bleached and totally clean. I thought we were just gonna leave it but she picked it up and decided that we were giving it to the elders. She called the elders and told them to stay at the church. So we quickly went to the church house to give them their "present." We got to the church and told the elders to cover their eyes. So they did, and we whipped out the horse jaw bone. They took it, very confused. We were just sitting there, discussing the jaw bone for a few minutes, when I suddenly felt a tickle in my shirt. At first I just thought it was a tickle, but I realized it might be the crawling legs of a bug. Since it has gotten warmer, the bugs have begun to come out, and Korea has BIG bugs. I calmly said, "I think there's a bug in my shirt."  Sister Carter and I stepped out into the hallway for me to work things out.

I was totally crossing my fingers that I had only felt a simple tickle, but when I looked inside my shirt, it was definitely a bug. There was a big black beetle inside my shirt with black shiny eyes starting up at me. I didn't even realize it happened because I was so freaked out, but I screamed at the top of my lungs and yelled "THERE'S A BUG!!!" The elders couldn't see what was going on, but I definitely heard them laughing in the room they were in. I screamed real loud. Then I ran into the bathroom to really work things out. In the process of trying to get the bug out in the bathroom, somehow it flew up into my face and hit me in the cheek, and then bounced off my cheek back into my shirt. I screamed again and started freaking out. Sister Carter was laughing so hard. Eventually I was able to untuck my shirt from my skirt and shake the bug out, but there was a lot of freaking out and screaming involved. I swear I did not mean to scream like I did, but I had a big beetle in my shirt... what was I supposed to do? When we walked back into the room the elders were in, they were laughing their guts out. They had definitely heard everything. Luckily we were the only ones at the church, so none of the members got to witness that experience. Just the missionaries. I hate bugs.

Now that I have told you about our interesting week... I will switch things abruptly to a more spiritual email. :) I like to end my emails with a little spiritual moment, because I am of course a missionary. :)

Today I was reading in the Liahona a talk about questioning the truth of the gospel. It basically said that all members of the church have questions and doubts about the gospel at some point. We are surrounded by media and people and things that try to persuade us that our church is not true. But whatever questions we have, there is one answer that answers all questions. "Do you trust God?" It is that simple. Okay, so it isn't always simple to completely put our lives in the hands of God. We like to be independent and figure things out for ourselves. But really, as long as we trust God, we can never fail. He loves us and wants to help us in every way he can. When we have doubts about the truth, we must just look to God and trust in His plan. He knows all and He has a plan for each and every one of us. We don't always know why things are the way they are, why we must follow certain laws or gospel principles, but as long as we trust God, we will truly be okay. He is the one that we can ALWAYS count on. Media makes mistakes, people don't always tell the truth nor or any of us even close to perfect, but God will always speak the truth. God is our one and only source of complete and true knowledge. He loves us more than we know and He wants us to be happy more than anything else! He will always provide a way for us to do what He asks of us. We just have to trust Him.

I love you all so much and miss you as always! I hope the sun is coming out at home! :) 사랑해요!

사랑으로,
Sister Maughan