Service with a Crooked Smile :-}

Well this week has been half awesome and half something else.

We had a pretty good start to our week, pdays are usually pretty good. 

Then Tuesday we had exchanges. It was the most glorious day. I got to go see some of my favorite families. We did some service for Sister Partl and enjoyed her company. The Liders are doing well, however, they may be moving to New York, which I am pretty sad about. We also got to go teach Ricardo, he is still a spiritual giant. He is going through some road bumps, so keep him in your prayers. I also got to know Elder Jolley a little bit better and he is super awesome. He is going to try to become a movie Director. If that happens I will be watching all of his movies.

Wednesday we re-exchanged and then the rest of the day went normally.  Mostly nothing happened that day, which is the usual.  (Even though we try to accomplish something.)

Thursday morning I was notified that I had received a parking ticket, which as you all know, is just wonderful news.  Then, our whole zone went to a service luncheon.  It was the most awkward thing.  We were being forced to sit at tables without other missionaries.  A lot of the people we would sit by would just give us the cold shoulder.  Oh well, their loss for not accepting the opportunity of a lifetime.  Then we had our weekly planning and did companionship inventory with the zone leaders.  It was pretty good.  Afterward we went and taught a guy who knows that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church.  His problem though is if he comes to church then he will be mocked and falsehoods will be told about him by non-members.  On top of that, his family might disown him.  I tried sharing with him Mormon 9:31 and talked about how nobody has the right to condemn him.  Then we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, especially 1 Nephi 8.

On Saturday we did some service for a member. We went to go mow his lawn. We got the lawn mower out and Elder Jeong took it to the backyard and couldn't start it, first face-palm. I taught him how to start it and then I explained to him how you mow a lawn. Well that apparently meant nothing to him, because as I watched him mow the lawn I just started face-palming over and over in my mind. He didn't follow the cut grasses line, he kinda just let the lawn mower pull him all over the yard. In the end I basically had to go back over the whole thing. I honestly didn't think I was going to have to teach someone how to mow a lawn until I was a Dad. I guess God had different plans. Later in the day we went to President Kahng's house to teach a bunch of the members and seek for some referrals from them. Most of that conversation was in Korean so I wasn't able to pick up much of it. However, we did get some advice on how we could get a hold of some our "missionary avoidance investigators".

The next day was great. We were able to partake of the Sacrament! Boo-yah! After church we did our studies. We then made our way over to Auburn where we were having dinner with one of our members. He is the translator for the Korean Branch. That family is super awesome. They are currently writing a fantasy novel so obviously I had to be a nerd with them for a bit. There fantasy novel is also going to have references to the plan of Salvation throughout the story. Which I think is such an awesome idea. They also said they would read the Fantasy novels that I suggested to them.

Now for this morning, I was forced against my will to do service for some members. Sometimes in the Korean Branch we don't get to exercise our agency. I was a kinda ticked that we were having to help out with this member's yard when we could have done it any other day except for today. Oh well, I guess we will be blessed for it.

I love all of you. This church is true, I am getting old for a missionary....and I'm a mormon.

Elder R.K. Northrup