In Which RoseE Takes A Trainer/Chamei Dep's Eye View of the Rest of Her Mission

RoseE writes**:

"Dear Dad,

I accidentally cut my finger open on a can of gochu tuna this morning. This is why tuna should not be eaten for breakfast.

News from the house seems to have quieted down these last few weeks. Understandable, I guess, since the Olympics are over and there aren't any holidays or birthdays in this stretch, so life's probably just kind of same-old, same-old for a while. There's Easter/Conference, but other than that nothing big until May. Kind of the same here. It's looking like I'm probably not going to serve with any of my close mission friends from here on out, and they already threw training at me so there's nothing more to dread. My Korean is serviceable, my Book of Mormon is read from cover to cover. As trainer/chamei dep, I'm the highest ranked sister in the mission. What else is there to be done? Just one more thing: I'd like to see one more investigator get baptized before I got. When Brother Cho got baptized, I scarcely knew what was going on. When Hyee Ji got baptized, I was full of dread, knowing that she was probably cruising straight for inactivity--she'd had all the lessons and kept all the commitments, but the feeling was still there that she wasn't ready. I'd like to go home with the photos from one baptism I could rejoice in and be proud of.

But I'm senior now, which means that making this marvelous thing happen is suddenly my job and not that of my Korean companion. And I haven't a clue. Not a clue. Over a year at this and I still have no idea how to be a missionary.

* * *

Ran out of P-Day just there. It's been a week, and I still don't have a clue, but now Sister Sung Yeong Ok has a baptismal date. In tears and joy. she decided to be baptized. Last week I was sure I'd never see it and then yesterday I did. Just --- babang! like that. I'm dazed, and bewildered, and overjoyed. You work for a year and nothing, nothing, nothing happens, and then suddenly from out of nowhere spring miracles that you had nothing whatsoever to do with.

Sister Yoon Jin Ah doesn't get it at all. She can't. She's coming from the MTC, with the grilled-in mindset that miracle baptisms are par for the course--an attitude that's reinforced by seeing a miracle in her second week. And I haven't the heart to correct her and explain how phenomenally rare this is. Maybe if no one tells her, she'll have a successful and bountiful mission--like how honeybees fly simply because no one's yet explained to them that they can't. Let's let her expectations stay high and see what happens.

I washed another tuna can this morning but didn't cut my finger. And we're hitting the whale museum, finally. And I discovered a secret room in our apartment. And I tried it the other day and discovered I can do push-ups now, thanks to the regular morning weight training I've been trying to make a habit of. And the tree behind our apartment is putting forth bright pink cherry blossom buds.

Being a missionary is the most drastically up/down roller coaster experience I can imagine. From paralyzed with misery to transported with joy in seconds flat. Is there a pattern of RMs* developing schitzophrenia? I wouldn't be surprised.

Love ya,

RoseE"


*RMs: Returned Missionaries

** letter received 3/26/2010