Hello, hello!
Merry Post-Christmas! So fun to hear all of you! When you sang "Famillies can be Together Forever" I ran over to my companion and let her listen too--she smiled and whispered that you all have good voices. She loves to sing so you can definitley give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. :)
These last two weeks have been a whirlwind! The week before Christmas was filled with Ward parties, our Christmas Mission Conference, district meetings and celebrations every where--we were so busy. I got all of my letters and packages from the last month at Mission Conference and opened them that night when we got home. THANK YOU, THANK YOU! My companion and I set up the little tree with its cute little lights and opened my presents while we sipped some cider that I found in a pile of kool-aid packets in our cupboard. It felt so good. It was my little Asian Christmas.
This week was just as crazy with preparations for the new year. All Koreans go up a year on January 1st so it's a big deal. On their actual birthdays they still have a celebration but their age doesn't change until the first day of the year.
Koreans age together. I don't know why but I think that's so beautiful.
The most wonderful thing about this week though has to do withone of our investigators. He got baptized this Sunday! Woo hoo! I'm so proud of him I'm nearly exploding. He's a miracle, really. He's from a part-member family here in our ward. He came to church one Sunday and we were introduced to him by his Aunt. He's extremely shy and reserved and really only gave one word answers while we chatted. The next Sunday he came to Church again and Sis. Kim and I planned to teach the Restoration in Gospel principles. I had just memorized the "official" baptismal invitation for my pass-off (oh, I'll explain pass-off in a bit...) and at the end of the lesson Sis. Kim looked over at me, folded her arms, and gave me a look that said lets see if you really memorized that puppy.
I blinked a couple times, gulped, and then asked Choi Hoon to follow the example of his Savior and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority.
And then he nodded and said yes! I don't even think Sis. Kim was expecting that--we were both super surprised! He was baptized two weeks later and it was amazing to see him at his baptism--he was so happy and friendly and warm. When we were prepping him for his baptismal interview he bore such a powerful testimony. While he was speaking I couldn't help but think, Holy cow, this is all him and the Lord. He developed this testimony on his own and we get to watch. We just gave him the resources, invited, and watched. It was really humbling. He's our Christmas miracle, for sure.
Pass-off. Whoa baby. In the Korea Seoul Mission our President has a program called "pass-off" that pushes new missionaries to master the language and develop their teaching abilities. In order to be considered senior you have to teach all four lessons to your district leader, recite the First Vision, certain key phrases and D&C 4 to your Zone Leaders as well as teach them randomly selected principles, memorize several pages of vocab, and then pass-off with the APs. It's a really great program and I'm learning so much, it's kind of fun in a stressful kind of way. Anyway, that's pass-off. Yay for Korean!
Before I leave, a few random bits about Korea that I've seen:
1. All of the old woman wear purple (I'm not sure if I've said that already, but they do). The old woman here are my favorite. They giggle like little girls and punch like grown men. When I speak Korean to them they smile like we're sharing a private joke. When I ask them if I can help them with anything they laugh and punched my shoulder good-naturedly (I'm serious about the man-strength though, all of them have a pretty mean punch). Love 'em to death.
2. Changing hearts and changing faces. Plastic surgery is huge here. I always see posters for it on every bus, subway, and train. Prominent chins and bigger eyes, that's what every poster says. It makes me a little sad actually. I think Koreans are so beautiful naturally. It takes everything in me not to make a big show on the subway and just rip up the poster in front of them all--"You don't need this!" Rip, smash, stomp "You're beautiful just the way you are!" (You begin to feel pretty passionate about random things as a missionary...)
3. My companion had a dream last night that there was a Baskin Robbins in our closet. I reminded her about Lehi's tendency to recieve revelation while he slept. We're getting ice cream after our zone activity today.
I love the scriptures.
Love you all!
Sis. Washburn
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