Well this past week has been a very busy and interesting week. I had some very interesting foods this past week. last thursday we went and did some more farm work and went out to eat afterwards. They brought out the usual questionable looking food and i just started eating it. There was a type of kim chi there that i started eating. It was very strange because it didnt taste like any other kimchi I've had before. So i ate some of it and ate some clam meat stuff and some other fun Korean food and that was that. Afterwards my comp asked me how i liked the octopus. And i said that i didnt have any. Come to find out the 'kim chi' i was eating was actually octopus legs. It wasn't half bad.
Then the other day we went out to eat with a potential investigator (we have a lot of those) with the sisters. We had kim chi chi kae and i actually really enjoyed it. And then they brought out these fried fish and i decided to try one of the eyeballs. It was gross haha. But other than that it was a pretty calm week. I had exchanges last Tuesday with Elder Lemmon in 진주 (Jin Joo). Elder Lemmon is from Dallas area and hes a bit of a character. But i probably had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life that night. I went to a dinner appointment with Elder Lemmon and the Sisters to a members house. It was an older couple that had a super nice house, for korea that is.
Anyways, he was talking in older people talk so i could hardly undestand what he was saying. His wife i probably understood even less. But he started talking to us about basically his conversion story. Then he turned to me and said "I think you came here so that i could tell you this story". It was in Korean though so Sister Park had to translate it to me. So for the next 15 minutes he talked directly to me telling me how on the road to being baptized he went thorugh several different sets of elders. One team found him. Another couple teams taught him and then one team was able to baptize him. He told me that it didnt matter if i didnt get a single baptism on my mission. Because the 2 missionaries that first contacted didnt find out he got baptized till 30 years after he was.
He then compared it to harvesting. It some peoples jobs to plant the seed. Its other peoples jobs to tend to the seeds and plants. And another persons job to actually do the harvest. So he said that as long as you try your hardest and are learning as much as you can in the progress that you are doing what you are called to do. There is no way that this 70 year old man in a completely different area of my mission could have known what i have been going through over the past month.
I have been struggling with this very thing basically ever since i left the MTC. The work has been very hard and more than a few times ive wondered how efective it is. But i know that this was an answer for me personally. Ive been wokring harder ever since. Ive been studying harder. And while i haven necessarily been able to teach more ive tried to be more outgoing. Theres not really much more i can do than that. My mission president told me interviews that there is no point in being discouraged. So ive made it a point to stay as optimistic as possible.
If there has been one thing that i have come to understand more and more its about what missionary work is. Missionary work is not just sitting down with a family teaching a lesson. Ive come to realize more fully what it means to represent Jesus Christ. While i have been in very few situations where i am able to bear my testimony about a gospel principle, i have been able to show my testimony to others by the way in which i conduct myself. Ive found that something more powerful then words is service. While bearing ones testimony is a very special and significant moment, when you are able to apply your testimony into action in brings on a whole different sensation.
I love you all! i hope you are all enjoying life. I think spring time is around the corner but i heard that spring doesnt last for long. Because then we get typhoon season! excitements in the air! well have a nice day and week. Ill talk to you again next week and ill see you soon.
Elder Maccarthy
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