The Gongju Guantlet (35 & 36)

May 12
4 min read

안녕하십니까?!

I hope everyone had an awesome start to May. I want to start off by saying, HAPPY Mother’s DAY! I am so grateful for Mom and everything she has provided for me. I most definitely wouldn't be here without her and I most certainly wouldn't be able keep going if it wasn't for her! And how can I forget about my amazing grandmothers! Some of my most cherished memories are found by spending time with them. So, Mom, Grandma, Nainey thank you all for being such an impactful part of my life. Especially you Mom, I love you!

Zone Conference!

First official zone conference happened here in Gongju. As last transfer it was a mission tour. This Zone Conference was packed full of some Bombs so let’s jump into it.

First off it was great to see a bunch of missionaries again especially the few I have gotten to know pretty well from the MTC. This specific zone conference was held in Daejeon and it was only comprised of two zones the rest of the zones and their conference will be located in different cities. Ours however was the first zone conference in the mission so we got hear of all the news and changes before everyone else. Let me tell you the Mission President dropped some crazy stuff.

First off our "3 times baptism" goal of 219 people has been axed. We had been given the statistics of our baptismal numbers and our mission is the lowest out of the 3 missions in Korea. I also believe we are in the bottom 3 baptizing missions in the entire north asia area. This area comprising of Korea, Japan, Guam, and one other country that I can't recall. In other words our baptism numbers are nowhere near 219 and don't look anywhere close to reaching it. So, the new plan is to focus on a specific statistic that was listed. This statistic was "Number of Baptisms Per Missionary." Our mission stat for this number was 0.6. In other words only 0.6 people were being baptized per missionary. Our Mission President alluded to maybe changing our goal to focus on getting that number to a 1. Or in other words every missionary in the mission baptizes at least 1 person. I believe we have somewhere around 100 missionaries. So, that would mean that by the end of this year if we reach that goal of having one person baptized for every missionary we would have around 100 baptisms for the year. A lot less than 219 baptisms but slightly more than what this mission accomplished last year which was around 70 people.

I've genuinely been kind of lost about the goals that are being set in this mission and how often they are forgotten or changed. It feels like no one actually knows what to do. Maybe they don't, but hopefully this change was divinely inspired and we will see the Lord's hand play a huge role soon.

The Gongju Gauntlet

As for how it’s going here in Gongju, it’s been pretty much the same. We've been continuing to teach our most progressing friend and we even tried to put him on baptismal date but he said he wasn't ready yet. We've still been trying to get our English class up and running again but we've been having some low success with people wanting to come.

Our finding efforts have been a grind. It has been nothing but street contacting all day everyday but we power through it because miracles just somehow happen. Just when you think you've been wasting your time walking around all day and you feel like giving up you meet some of the most prepared and elect people. Just like a couple days ago when we had been walking around as usual feeling burnt out, some random kid walks up and shouts in full english "Joseph Smith!" Potential gospel interest? I guess we will find out.

My companion and I have been doing this thing called the "Gongju Gauntlet" when we have just an absurd amount of nothing to do for the day. Gongju as a city is separated by a massive river and there are only two bridges to get across it and these bridges are about 20 minutes apart from each other. So, when we want to go finding we walk across one bridge to the other side. Then we make our way around this massive fortress/mountain to the other bridge and walk across it as well. We do all of this for the purpose of trying to talk to literally everyone.

All and all though the work is continuing. We've started to build our relationship with an inactive member who was baptized last year and hopefully get him coming back to church and even get him the priesthood.

Conclusion

For those of you who are wondering, being in Korea for 6 months does not make one fluent in the language. Big Shock. But I will say I have been seeing the gift of tongues play a role in my work. I am by no means good at Korean. But I will say I am learning how to speak to people more comfortably more and more each day. The hardest part about serving in a mission speaking a different language is not learning it, speaking it, or even understanding it. It’s actually actively not comparing yourself to others in the mission who may be better or worse than you. It can become very easy to feel envious towards others or even prideful in someone's language abilities. There have been a handful of times where I have met people who started learning the language months before me or even at the same time as me and they are just straight up better. That can feel so discouraging! It makes you feel like you haven't tried hard enough or that you aren't smart enough! But that is simply not true. If you have been actively doing the Lord's work. So, what I am trying to say is, I am actively trying not to compare my skills to others. But, instead seeking to help others, and feel happy for their accomplishments.

I've been learning a lot as a missionary especially from learning Korean as this language is just nuts. But Awesome

I hope all of you have had a wonderful Mothers Day and that rest of your week goes well!

I love Y'all

-Elder Christensen