Hello everyone! i hope you are all doing well. im doing as great as ever. so wonderful. this last week has been absolutely wonderful. i think i already said this before, but me and elder affleck are still serving together, and every day is really an adventure.
one thing that i have really come to appreciate while i have been in korea is the wonderful invention of the garbage disposal machine. here in korea that thing does not exist. we have to use a system called 'food trash'. there are two ways that we dispose of food waste depending on the area where you live. the first is you have to put everything in public trash cans outside of your apartment, and you keep food waste in your freezer so it doesnt smell bad untill you get rid of it, and in all honesty that one is the best option. the second one, which is the one that we are using right now. we have an orange bucket, that we have to use to put our food waste in, and it is probably one of the grossest things i have ever smelt in my life, only when you open it though. we wash it out every now and then, but it seems like no matter what we do the smell is still there when you open the thing.
also we do cook here and there, one of the favorite foods here is tuna. canned tuna is probably one of my favorite foods ever now. its not cheap here, and it is delicious!!! really tuna and spam are so good. we dont eat it a lot, but when we do it is great.
also two nights ago, a potential investigator called us and she was talking to elder affleck, and she has a lot of english interest, and then out of nowhere she starts talking about how she is scared... and lonely... (when she said that we were a little worried) and then she asked him if he loves animals. and he said yes, because he does. and then asked if he had any animals,. he said yes, would you kill your dog? she asked, and he said no, and then she proceeded to tell us at length about how eating meat is the same as killing animals. She was very persistent, and i feel a little bad because as elder affleck was getting slightly raked over the coals i was dying laughing. it was one of the funniest experiences of my mission. after that she sent us a text with a picture of a cow that said "a liar is someone who would eat me, but wouldnt kill me himself" "have a good night!" that is when we both died laughing.
we also had an amazing experience yesterday. a month or so ago we met with a former investigator after calling and when we met with him, he wanted to learn about english but had absolutely no interest. so we went our seperate ways and decided not to call him again. saturday night we were calling people again, to try and meet with people who had either not picked up their phones or who had no time the first time around. and as we were going through we called this man again, and he agreed to meet. at first we were thinking how did we forget to write that he did not ever want to meet again last time?! but he agreed to meet and yesterday when we met with him he had completely changed, he had so many questions, like what is the purpose of life, and what makes our church different. and now he wants to learn about our church. there is no doubt in my mind that the lord is 100% guiding this work with his hands, sometimes it is hard to remember that, but i know for a fact that it is true. if we had not forgotten to record that night that he did not want to meet again, we woldnt have, and he may never have had this opprotunity for a long time, because i would not have called him, and neither would elder affleck have called him. but the lord knows what he is doing, and he will use us [with] our mistakes and flaws for the best, by no means is that an excuse to not try hard as we can to be perfect in christ, but as we strive to constantly be a litte better than we were yesterday, we will no doubt suceed. because the Lord will never let us fail, we only fail by our own choosing. not to say we will not endure difficulty, and fall short, but 'failing' and being a 'failure' are two completely different things, and as long as we put our trust in god we will never be 'failures'. other than that i love this work, it is such a blessing to be a part of gathering israel for the final time, may we all "remember who we are, and act accordingly".
Love,
Elder Dobbins
korean markets and walls