In Which 7 Days Pass

RoseE writes:

"Dear Mum & Dad,

Read Cat's e-mail before yours, so I heard her account of the proposal* first. I approve, overall. But why am I always out of town when Cat gets proposed to? Gaah!

But I'm glad his whole family was involved--I like families, generally. And I don't know how much help I'm going to be from out here, but when I land you've got my help--particularly if I don't get My Job back, which is my major nightmare at this point.

So Dad and the dongsengs made it out to SC? Cool. (Bit and Bug used to be 'The Little Ones' . . . now they're 'the dongsengs,' because they are not little and 'dongseng' is more descriptive.) Lenore wrote and said that Nora might be out in Provo for late June/early July doing some Arabic thing. Heck, it's gonna be a party out here, ain't it? Good. I like parties. Drinks all around.

So this week . . . well, it was pretty good. Sunday was awful. The weather was gorgeous, so nobody . . . like NOBODY . . . was at church. Investigators, less-actives, actives, new members . . . nobody. We were about half our normal number. I just broke the heck down and cried in front of everybody, and hung like grim death onto Ii Kyeong Bin, the one faithful young single adult recently-reactivated member sister who showed up out of our whole teaching pool. And all the poor sweet Relief Society sisters were clustering around and squeezing my arms affectionately to assure me that it was okay, and one sister even promised to invite Sis Song Yeong Ok to dinner this week. So I guess crying does get you what you want, in certain circumstances. Who'da thunk.

And that evening there was an Easter party at Matt & Charlotte's . . . there was LAMB! How they got lamb in Korea I will never know. And lots and lots of deviled eggs, and mashed potatoes, and every good thing. So it was a quiet Easter, but ended fun and well. Very up-down, and without the big ol' surprise at the end of it, but a good Easter nonetheless.

We spent Pday up in Kyeongju playing werewolf amongst the tombs of the Silla kings (not as creepy as it sounds). Good times were had with all the zone from Shinjeong to Pohang, but we got back SO late so I have but NO time to e-mail, which is sad and sorry. But the weather's warmed up, the cherry blossoms are out, Conference** is Saturday and by the time I e-mail again it will be a new transfer and I will most likely have a new greenie trailing behind me. Gaaaah!

Oh, found a couple new less-active sisters we can hopefully teach and help--one we think is a little bit nuts, possibly . . . jury's still out. And we found and chatted with a very nice and funny old Korean war vet who was hanging out of his window, and invited us to come back and hear his stories. I don't think he's much interested in the church, but I want to go anyway . . . I love nice people, and old stories. And I ate a chicken foot and got a sore throat, and am SO excited for Conference (thank you for no spoilers). And sister Yoon Mi Hyeah and sister Song Yeong Ok are still speaking to us, though I'm thinking we'll have to postpone the baptism a bit. It's okay. It's okay. We'll make it through. It will be all right.

Love you so excessively much! Don't freak out about stuff! Book of Mormon's true!

RoseE"


*The Proposal: Younger Sister Cat got engaged on Easter. He invited her to his grandparent's house for Easter Dinner. His Whole Family was there. Grama passed out plastic eggs to the kids, then to the adults, and when Cat opened hers, it contained a diamond ring. He (Jeff) got down on one knee and popped the question, and she accepted. They are scheduled to tie the knot in mid-August.

**Conference: Annual General Conference of the LDS church is broadcast to all Stake Centers. It happens the first weekend of April, but I think it's delayed getting to Korea for translation or missionary work schedule issues or something. There is also a Semi-Annual Conference that happens the first weekend in October.