It has been an interesting week.
To address the alarming title, I'm only teaching the guy in English class, he works with some other Elders for churchy things, but I am in fact teaching an axe murderer. Or at least, so it would appear. He's a super nice guy, very humble, submissive and receptive. Also quite strong and he just got out of prison. He spent eight years there and just was released onto parole with a tracker anklet on an insanity plea. His crime? Attacking a police officer's head with a hatchet. We aren't sure if the guy died or not, but spending eight years even with an insanity plea makes us wonder. But like I said, super nice. Brought us some apples. Calls me teacher. I like him. And for now, he likes me so that's good.
Our newest investigator is an older guy who doesn't seem to be all there. He's got a lot of self esteem issues, feels really alone and whatnot and he's also dying of diabetes. He also seemed really receptive, but before we could get past an initial meeting, he was hospitalized, so we are waiting for him to be released. These are the kind of people that I most want to help. The people who are humble enough that they recognize their reliance on Jesus Christ.
Other tidbits in rapid fire:
Me and my companion have started waking up early to do some Insanity 90x. My body is displeased.
Every time I ride the subway I see an advertisement about the Festival of Colors back home in Utah. Makes me happy, especially to see the mountains again.
We did a service project where we hiked a mountain and picked up trash. There wasn't much trash but the view was great (alas, I had not a camera) and the top of the mountain was a little grove most memorable for spiders that were FISHING for us. Like, from the trees, we would see these little spider threads descend with live wriggling grubs. It was terrifying. Did I mention that I don't like bugs?
My jundo (street contacting) skills have continued to grow. I say hard things in Korean, but I know enough to not be super awkward with the language on the street.
Tips for future missionaries: More important that knowing how to say something is knowing what to say and being confident with how you say it. If you show weakness, you are written off. If you are bold and confident (which is a quiet attribute) people listen.
Be good socially. I don't care how much football you played in high school but you need to know how to be comfortable talking to people. If you aren't, don't stress it, just work on it until is it fun and easy for you.
Learn to push without pushing them down, or as Paul puts it, "Be bold, but not overbearing." Balance is key.
Learn to care without caring. A bit harder to describe. My advice is to learn to honestly not give a care what people think of you, but to care about them anyway. Two attributes necessary to that are humility and love. You need to be able to naturally and truly care about people while not giving a care if they don't like you.
Soapbox over.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out all fear."
Til next week,
Whitlock out.
