Grocery shopping and Missionaries

Hi Everybody,
It's been a regular week: working at the office, grocery shopping so we could feed missionaries and investigators, etc. etc. Here's a photo of Elder Chandler checking out the huge tires on this bike!    (We see many sights on our walk to the grocery store.)

Here's Sister Chandler waiting in the check-out line.  We are almost always the only non-Japanese when we go to this grocery store.

Back to 'home sweet home' with our load of groceries that we bring home in our rolling shopping bag.  This is not as easy as you might think pulling the heavy bag up and down hills.

So it's been a busy week but not a week of many photos so we thought you might enjoy reading this from the Gwagju Korea News, a pretty good article that was written about the missionaries from the Church who are serving there in Korea:

"A Great Day Serving the Lord"

                                                     From the Gwangju Korea News: 

                                                     Words and photos by Relja Kojic

You see them downtown, walking to and fro in their instantly recognizable black pants and white shirts with name tags, holding copies of the Book of Mormon; they are the Elders and Sisters of Gwangju, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-more popularly known as "Mormons"-sharing their message with anyone willing to stop and hear it.

"Elder" is the title given to male missionaries; female missionaries are of course the "Sisters".  You will find them tucked behind NC Wave downtown, in one of several Mormon churches in Gwangju.  The Elders and Sisters inside are gracious and warmly greet any visitors.  for this article, a few of them kindly granted interviews: Mission President Shin, and Elders Kwon and Tolman.

The Church allows young men and women to volunteer as missionaries at the age of 18 and 19, respectively.  Once they have begun their mission, Elders and Sisters are assigned a mission companion and spend the first two months at a missionary boot camp, [Missionary Training Center- better known as the MTC] where they learn the rules, requirements and the language of their mission locations.  All foreign Elders and Sisters here are very proficient in Korean, a result of their diligent practice and use of the language every day.

Upon arrival in Korea, Elders and Sisters change companions and are typically assigned a companion that is a local missionary.  This is not a permanent assignment; companions change throughout an Elder's or Sister's missions, though it is possible for a pair to stay together through more than one transfer period.  the longest time Elder Tolman spent with a companion was three transfer periods, or 18 weeks.  Elders and Sisters are required to be with their companions at all times.  This means that every six weeks, a missionary faces a potential move where they must pack up their belongings and move to a different area, apartment and companion.

Elders and Sisters have an extremely strict schedule.  They rise at 6:30 a.m. and have until 8:00 a.m. to prepare for the day, eat breakfast, exercise and groom.  Afterward, missionaries spend an hour studying their holy scriptures, first alone and then with their companion for an additional hour.  They also take this opportunity to review their planned activities for the day before their language studies, which usually last until 11:00 a.m.

Afterward, the Elders and Sisters are expected to proselytize until 9:00 p.m. with one-hour breaks for lunch and dinner.  Proselytization activities include talking to strangers on the street, visiting current members of the church in their homes, visiting prospective members from appointments made in the street and possibly collaborating with other missionaries for displays to attract more attention.  Mondays are reserved as preparation day.  It is during this time that missionaries do any chores to prepare for the next week.  They also e-mail family and the mission president; during the rest of the week, Elders and Sisters do not use the internet.  They also do not partake in any other media mediums - no radio, movies or books beyond what is approved by the church.  Besides the weekly e-mails, they can video-call home via Skype, but only twice a year.  Foreign missionaries are also allowed to make calls on Mothers' Day and Christmas; Korean missionaries, on the Lunar New Year and Chuseok.

When asked about the difficulties that missionaries typically face in their time in Korea, both President Shin and Elders Tolman and Kwon agreed that the language barrier is initially very difficult to overcome.  But even in the worst situations, they say, "It's always a great day serving the Lord."

Elder Kwon,                                           Mission President Yong-In Shin -                      Elder Tolman

(End of Article)

Missionaries here in Japan work really hard, too!  We enjoyed having the Sister missionaries over after Church for lunch and then as the Sisters left, the Elders arrived with a member from Mexico who is teaching boxing to a young man from New Jersey and he came, too. (Yes, we had invited all of them to come over for lunch.) As they all ate, the missionaries taught, Jay, the young man from New Jersey while Elder Chandler and the older man, Hugo, from the state of Jalisco, Mexico, conversed in Spanish.  Hugo asked Elder Chandler to give him a blessing and so he did that for him in Spanish, too.  Hugo was very appreciative to have this blessing as he is soon returning to Mexico. Elder Chandler was also able to explain many of the things that Hugo had been trying to tell Jay to Jay as Hugo's English is not good.  It was wonderful to have them come and Jay is anxious to be taught the gospel by the missionaries.

So that's all for now, dear Friends and dear Family, we think of you fondly, and we hope you all have a great week!
with love,
Elder and Sister Chandler