Sacheon Branch Friendship Night

The other day we met with a man (named "shawnny") who enjoys speaking English and wanted to learn about our Church. Nice guy. He met missionaries a few years ago, but then lost contact. We met in his house. He was explaining how he and his wife don't agree on issues of religion, and how she doesn't really like our church, when guess who walks in? His wife came home early and was not happy to see him talking to us. She was pretty upset actually and insisted that we not talk religion with him, saying if he wants to learn about religion he can talk to her preacher. She was confidant she knew all about our Church, yet it didn't seem she really knew anything. She even got on the phone with her preacher and was pretty hysterical. We were finally able to help her calm down and listen to us. We explained what we were teaching but she was still unhappy about it. We discovered that Shawnny stopped meeting with missionaries years ago because his wife ended it. Now he's decided he wants to keep meeting with us. Nice guy, we'll see how it goes.

Then, we hitchhiked out to an island between here and Namhae (the bridge passes over this island) to find a police station and ask about a member who supposedly lives on another island. Anyway...there's no police station anymore...just a small collection of houses and one big church. We hiked to the other side of this small island and found an abandoned school, overgrown and boarded up, very surreal. Our map is over 10 years old and thus the source of our confusion. That's the story of our area it seems: "Yeah! Way back in the day, the person you seek was here, but not anymore".

It's that way with people and places. The other day we hitchhiked out to an area where a member was supposedly living, and who hadn't been visited by the missionaries in at least 10 years. We thought she was long gone and her house had been replaced by a Buddhist temple, so we almost went home. However, we spent a little more time there and found some people who knew her. They described her as "the girl who got married". Apparently she got married and moved to Masan a long time ago. I guess we were at the wrong place, so a lady took us to her actual old house and we met her mom. We didn't get the church member's phone number or address in Masan, but we felt like we finally found some closure and could send off the records to the Church authorities. That's a big accomplishment in Samcheonpo haha! Plus, it was fun to hang out with the grandmas ("harmays").

We had a "friendship night" at our church. It was wayyy fun! My companion and I prepared a song and dance routine and performed in front of the branch. My companion played the ukulele and I used homemade shakers, and we sang about our Sacheon Branch. It was pretty amazing. (Note from Sis. Bocchino: anyone who knows him will understand just "how" amazing!) We stole the show and were forced to perform an encore. Pretty funny stuff...definitely a great memory.

Sacheon rocks!!! It's getting really hot though! Apparently the monsoons come in July. Love, Elder Bocchino