August 12 Letter

Hi Everyone! 

It's Sister Brooksby reporting from the tropical area of Naju, where the temperatures reach a feeling of 113 degrees ferienhieght because of the humidity, or "sup-ki" as it's known to the Koreans. It's hot!

And the neatest thing about Naju is it's tiny! We can walk everywhere we need to in about an hour and a half, and only take buses for district meeting and the occasional far-living member.

So it's awesome-and it's a blooming place for missionary work!

Because of the emphasis on member missionary work in all of our meetings recently, ever since I've got here I've been trying to make an effort like I never have before to get to know our members. This past week I've been calling a different member each night (or less active to set up an appointment to visit) and during the day we've been pounding the streets of Naju (occasionally by miracle with our elders, of whom xxx Jangronim knows everything about the area) exploring and finding potentials, members and less actives. It's so much fun opening an area, and with a new missionary too, because we both have no idea what to expect. :) But we have  a blast while we walk and insa to everyone we pass on the street. I think all of Naju is going to know us by the end of this transfer. :D

There was one morning, it was a Friday morning, and I was calling all of our planned appointments that day to see if we could meet. Sister after sister said they were in Gwangju, or too busy this week and the next week. So I was getting concerned. "Heavenly Father", I was thinking, "I know that there's things Thou needs us to do out here in Naju, and I don't think it's street proselyting all day.  What do we need to do?"

Sister Deus, my awesome NOT-trainee-trainee, said, "Why don't we heart attack them and make cookies?" 

Suddenly, my greenie transfer memories in SunCheon came back to me. 

"That's perfect!" I replied. "Let's do it!"

The only problem. No Oven. Easily overcome with!

No bake cookies, no oven necessary :)

So we stopped by our local mart to get all the ingredients. But there was no oatmeal. So we went to a slightly bigger mart called Emart express. Still no oatmeal. But we heard from our friendly cashier lady there that there was a Lotte Mart in Naju, (which surprised me, it's so small here!) which would most likely have it. It also happened to be next to the City Hall, where we needed to go to get a map so we could find places. :) We made a trip out of it! And the 15 minute walk took over 45 minutes and we were both sweating an embarrassing amount of liquid and laughing all the way there. It was around 12 Where we found City Hall and a lot of local tourist attraction maps!  But the staff were all out for lunch, so we couldn't ask for a big one, so we decided to fill up our water bottle again and head over to the Lotte Mart. When all of the sudden this woman who worked there approached us. She asked if we;d eaten. We said no, but when she motioned us over, which I couldn't believe, I said we were okay. She finally grabbed my arm and took us down the hall and some stairs later we were in a cafeteria. I had no money to pay for the food there, but when I said that she just said she'd take care of it. We asked her if she'd eaten, and she said she's already had. Then, once she knew we were taken care of by the local cafeteria ajoomas she left. We both stood dumbfounded. We didn't even know her name. And here we were enjoying an amazing meal and yogurt with no way to thank her. 

 

We just couldnt' believe what had happened. Then we made it over to Lotte Mart after some awesome guys helped us find a great map of Naju (we just need to buy a magnifying glass from Daiso to be able to read it) for FREE! And then we got there and met a Korean Family that lives in Provo and the husband works at the MTC as a investigator. They met us and had three of their 6 little girls with them last two were twins! But then they bought us ice cream and said good bye and we were blown away again. And then we went into the store to find oatmeal and had at least three of the workers there running around looking for oatmeal only to find that they had none. 

So we've decided that there's no oatmeal in Korea. But I have a testimony that God watches out for and feeds his starving, sweaty missionaries. :)

Send you pictures next time.

I love you all!!

This church is true!!

Sister Brooksby and Sister Dues :) (Her name means "God" in Portugese. How cool is that. My companion is Sister God. ;)