The 매미s out, and they are loud. They are singing their songs 24 hours a day, driving the rest of us nuts. They are huge, and they like to land on your window and freak you out. The wiggle their bottom halves as they sing their song. They are mysterious creatures. And the English word for them is... Cicada. The cicadas are out. Before I came here, I had never seen cicadas before. They are weird bugs. Super loud and fairly large.... But totally harmless. My companion told me that when she was a greenie, a Korean man chased her with a cicada in his hand. She had been looking at it in the tree when he ran over, picked it up and began to chase her. Her trainer fought the man off, but it is pretty funny to hear the whole story. But unfortunately more bugs are on the way... Korea has these huge colorful spiders that come out in the fall, and they can get bigger than the size of your hand. Like, they are so big that you can't squish them with your foot by any means. They are not aggressive but from what I hear they are everywhere. Should be fun. :)
"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." D&C 25:12. Luckily the cicadas weren't the only ones making music this week. Basically our whole week was centered around the power of music, though I don't know how that happened. ;)
On Monday, we met with this adorable member who is basically our Korean mom. She is so loving and kind. She also has a shih-tzu so whenever we visit her I get super excited because well... Chewy is a shih-tzu, and I never get to play with dogs anymore. I love playing with her dog. :) Anyway, it was my turn to share the spiritual message, so I decided to share that scripture (D&C 25:12) and ask her if she would sing her favorite hymn with us. We ended up singing three hymns with her, and she absolutely loved it. Music never fails to bring the spirit, and she was glowing by the time we left.
Then on Wednesday, we met our recent convert. She is actually Chinese, but she met the missionaries in Australia, then moved to Korea and was baptized here. She is fluent in Korean. She goes to China a lot because she still has family there. She brings Chinese Books of Mormons with her every time she goes home, and she always returns back to Korea asking for more. She gives them out to her family in China. There may not be a mission in China, but the gospel is beginning to spread there. So many missionaries here in Korea baptize Chinese people who then go back and spread the gospel to their families. It is so amazing to watch it happen. :) Anyway, when we met with her we decided to go into the chapel and sing songs with her. My companion and I had been practicing a version of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" (Sister Reed singing, me on the piano) for a ward activity that happened on Saturday, and we wanted her opinion on how we sounded. That then turned into us singing hymns for like an hour. And our recent convert's new favorite hymn is now "If You Could Hie to Kolob" even though there is no Chinese translation, and it is not in the Korean hymn book either. Again, music has so much power. It was so fun. :)
On Friday we had a little time to practice our song again by ourselves in the chapel. In the middle of a run through of the song, the zone leaders came in with their investigator. They were showing him the chapel. One of the elders just told us to keep playing, so we did. Later, the elders told us that because of our music, that investigator felt the spirit so strongly that he almost started crying. It was only their first meeting with this investigator, so they thanked us for the miracle.
Music can be so powerful. I know that my personal spirit responds to music more than anything. If there is one thing that can make me feel the Holy Ghost stronger than anything else, it is music. Whether I am the one making the music or the one listening to it, music is one thing that can almost always make me feel the spirit. I am so thankful that I got to use music as a missionary tool this week. :)
Love you all as always! Miss you! :)
Love, Sister Maughan
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