Well we did a lot of fun stuff this past week. We had mission tour and had a good time. So last wednesday we had mission tour with Elder Ringwood from there area 70. Since our area is in the outskirts of the zone we had to wake up at about 6 to get ready. We left the house a little before 7, took a taxi to the bus temianl and had a nice 1 and a
1/2 hour busride to 마산(ma-san). Once we got there we got on another inter city bus for about 20 minutes and came to our stop. Neither I nor elder brown had ever been to the 마산 building and we goin off of directions from one of the sister missionaries so we basically just started walking around trying to find the church. We walked around and were basically lost and then as we were walking down this huge hill we walked up we caught a glimpse of the sign of our church. So we found it and were able to make it about 30 minutes early.
So mission tour staretd at 10 and all the missionaries in our zone (probably like 25 elders and 15 sisters) were able to go and shake his hand and say hi. Mission tour lasted about 5 hours and honestly we just learned so many things i dont even know how i could begin to tell you all of them. But it should be sufficient to say that i was very energized to
go out and do missionary work. And basically the lord put in a bunch of opportunities for me to do work on the way home. Right after we left the building about 12 of us elders were going to the same terminal so we were all walking together. And we noticed this one guy unloading a whole bunch of rice bags off of the back of this truck so we all stopped and helped him unload his truck. It was so cool to see 12 elders roll up in suits and help this guy do something that honestly couldve taken him 2 hours.
After that we all piled on a little inner city bus. The inner city buses are really tiny so it was kinda funny because we have some pretty big american elders in our zone. So we took the bus back and there werent any bus going back to our area at the moment so we had to make a detour through 진주. so that was about 40 minutes and then from there we got on a different bus back to our area. The bus we got on was pretty crowded. So one person ended up sitting next to me. This usually doesnt happen. In korea or at least in my part of korea its really rude to sit next to people when there are open seats on the bus. But since it was so crowded he had to sit next to me. My companion was in a different section of the bus so i basiaclly had no korean backup. So i just started talking to this guy. And we talked about stuff. Abut korea and about language. And then i asked him some questions about church but he said he wasn't interested. So i asked him if he wanted to learn english and he said no and that he had to get off the bus at the next stop. So he got off and i waited the remaining 20 minutes of the bus ride and thought about what had just happened. I was very nervous to start a conversation with this man. Earlier Elder Ringwood had been talking to us and told us that the only way to learn korean was to make a mistake and look like a fool. Having that in mind i opened my korean scriptures that i carry with me and began reading 1 nephi chapter 1 verse 1.
As i began to read it i realized that i understood completely
what the verse was saying. I was so filled with the spirit that i
closed my scriptures and just started saying whatever i knew how to say to him. He didnt have any interest and in most cases missionaries would probably have seen that as a failure. But that was one of the greatest experiences ive had in my life. I knew that the lord decided to throw me a bone and show me that i can do more than i think i can. That whole bus ride home i felt the spirit so strongly. And i quietly
hummed and sang we are as an army of helaman. I have been born as Nephi of old to goodly parents who love the lord. I have been taught and i understand that i must do as the lord commands. I knwo that if we step out of our comfort zone the lord will bless us and make a path for us to succeed.
I hope you are all having a wonderful time. The
weather here is getting a little warmer but its still pretty cold. The wind here is super gnarly too. But ya im looking forward to some warmer weather. Ill talk to you all again next week. See you soon!
Elder Maccarthy
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