The Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin: The Rich Member

The Rich Member

January 17, 1990 (Wednesday)

Elder Shumway was right. Just give it time, and Elder Benjamin and I would build up our list of investigators. It only took us a couple of weeks — almost like they were finding us, rather than the other way around. And we enjoyed every minute of it.

Elder Benjamin and I created a system to keep track of them all, and our calendar constantly filled up. Lots of first discussions. A few second discussions, and occasionally the higher numbered discussions. Bo-yeon had received his 4^th and 5^th discussions, but still no baptism commitment.

And then there was Baek Ho-sung (백호성). Today we would meet him for the first time, and he was different. He was already a member, but he had been inactive for more than a decade. At first he just wanted to talk on the phone. Both Elder Benjamin and I took turns. Every time, he would shoot the breeze, telling jokes, speaking English, and all around being chummy. And each time when we brought up meeting with him, he would try to avoid the question and then cut the phone call short.

This is, until last night … he said it was time to meet. He asked how many missionaries there were in our apartment. I said there were four of us, and he said, “Great … how about dinner tomorrow night? All four of you. I can take you all out for sut pul kalbi (숯불갈비).” That’s Korean BBQ — you’ll see what it is shortly.

I said, “What? That’s expensive.”

“Don’t worry about it, Elder Elder. I got this covered, and you are all hard-working missionaries. You deserve a break.”

So, we moved a couple of appointments around and accepted the invitation. And of course, we were all excited. We went through the day as normal—our two companionships each going our own separate ways, meeting our own investigators, and finding more.

And then when it came to be dinner time, we all converged at the restaurant. Ho-sung was already seated at the table, large enough for six people, though there were only five of us. And he had already started cooking meat. Each table came equipped with its own fire pit, fueled by gas — perhaps propane?

The smell of cooked meat permeated the whole restaurant — a distinctive combination of spices including red pepper. At each seat was a metal bowl filled with rice, and spread across the whole table were several tiny bowls filled with different condiments: lettuce, sprouts, soy sauce, egg, vegetables, different kinds of kimchi, and so on.

Ho-sung invited us to sit down, and so we sat in proper seats, a nice break from the usual sitting on the floor when we ate at member’s homes. “The meat’s not done yet,” said Ho-sung. “Are you ready for some fun?” The meat on our grill was half cooked, and half raw.

Elder Shumway extended his hand and said, “It’s great to meet you, Ho-sung. I’m Elder Shumway.” 

“Good to meet you.”

Part of me wanted to remind Elder Shumway not to swipe this investigator from us. And definitely no impromptu flarmps across the table.

Ho-sung asked, “Which one of you is Elder Benjamin?”

“Here I am. So happy to finally meet you!”

“Good to meet you. You’re kind of short.” I think this was usually a compliment, because Koreans tended to be shorter, and taller foreigners tended to be somewhat intimidating. They never called me short. I was always somewhere in between. But yeah. Elder Benjamin was the shortest of all four of us, so Koreans tended to like him the most.

“And I’m Elder Elder,” I said. I should mention that this whole time we were speaking Korean, where “Elder Elder” comes out sounding as “Elder Changno.” So, my funny name was often lost on most Koreans.

But not Ho-sung. He said in English, “Elder Elder.” Then switched back to Korean. “That still makes me laugh every time I hear it.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“Don’t say it!” said Elder Shumway. “Or, I’ll Elder Elder Elder you!”

Little did he know, I had the perfect joke waiting for him — one day: something like “You always do things the Shum Way.” But I was still waiting for the right time to use it, which never seemed to come up. In hindsight, that was probably a good thing.

When most of the meat was done cooking, Elder Riley asked, “So how does this work?” As the greenie, this was his first experience.

Ho-sung said, “I’ll show you.” He demonstrated as he talked. “First you grab a piece of lettuce. Then you can grab a piece of meat.” He pulled one off of the grill with his chopsticks. “Add rice, some kimchi. Maybe some sprouts. Some sauce. Whatever you want to add. And you wrap it up like this and eat it. There’s no wrong way to do it. You just eat whatever you want.”

“Cool.”

And we all dived in. It was a social smorgasbord. A lot of grabbing and passing tiny bowls between ourselves. And it all tasted great. One nice thing about the experience was that if there were a particular condiment you didn’t like — such as the tiny bowl of octopus, you simply didn’t eat any of it and let others have it.

As we took most of the meat off, Ho-sung started another round. He asked us how our missionary work was doing, and how it was like living in America. He had visited a couple of times through his business.

We were having fun, getting to know each other while eating great food. But then, as always, I wondered why he had invited us. Why did he need our company? Why didn’t he ever want to talk about church?

Our mission president told us often not to have dinner with others just to be fed, but we always had to have a reason, or get something accomplished, whether it be to teach a first discussion, to get a referral from a member, to provide a Book of Mormon, or some other way of planting seeds or meeting needs.

And here we were sitting around the table having fun with a member who had already been baptized, and who was not coming to church. What what we supposed to do? He had no need of the first discussion. And we couldn’t very well ask him for a referral. Perhaps Elder Benjamin would work his magic and figure out what to do. How could we get Ho-sung past shooting the breeze and on to the good stuff?

I looked at Elder Benjamin and he looked similarly puzzled, but he seemed to signal “patience.”

Not even a minute later, Ho-sung suddenly stopped laughing and said, “You know what, Elders? I miss church. I wish I could go back.”

The rest of us stopped our socializing and looked at each other in brief silence. What we were supposed to say? Which of us should respond?

Elder Benjamin took it. “You can come with us to church.”

Ho-sung replied, “No. Not yet. I don’t know how to.”

“If we go together we can figure it out,” said Elder Benjamin.

“No, you don’t understand. I was mean to my home teachers. I said things to several members, to get them to leave me alone. I was just too busy. Everything happening so fast. Opportunities everywhere, and I grabbed them all, and it gave me happiness. When it came down to it, I didn’t need church. It was just getting in the way. I’d be tired on Sundays and needed to rest. At first I figured I was okay. You know, God was letting me enjoy success for a reason, so I could put that money to good use. Hire other people so they’d have work, and help those who bought our products. And little by little, God started taking a back seat. It’s not that I stopped believing, but that I felt I didn’t really need Him.

“And to be honest,” he said, “now I don’t know how to return.”

In the next brief silence, Elder Benjamin said, “You should have faith that it will all work out. Trust me. Come with us to church this Sunday, and you’ll see. Everything will be all right.”

Ho-sung said, “I’m not ready. Maybe it’s too late for me.”

As much as I usually enjoyed Elder Benjamin’s uber spirituality, it wasn’t working this time. We were touching on some core issue — a deep pain or fear that needed resolving. While Elder Benjamin excelled in channeling the Spirit, he wasn’t necessarily that great in reading people. Neither was I, but I felt impressed to try something different.

I said, “Why now? Why do you want to return back to church?”

“I don’t know,” said Ho-sung. “Maybe it’s because after all of this success, I’m finally starting to miss it all — going to church and reading the scriptures every day. And I just met this girl, Soo-jung (수정). She’s perfect and I think she might be the one.”

“I see,” I said. “Is she a member of the Church?”

“Oh, no. She’s not. But she might as well be. She doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol.”

“You think she might be the reason you want to come back to church?” I asked.

“Maybe. Maybe that’s it. If I’m going to ask her to marry me, what does that mean? What kind of life are we going to have? Maybe she’ll need God? Maybe I need God? And our children?”

“So, what would you like to do?” I asked.

“I need a plan. I can’t go to church yet. But I need to do something. What’s a good first step?”

Elder Benjamin said quickly, “You can start reading the scriptures again. Start with the Book of Mormon.” Yay! Elder Benjamin was back on track.

Ho-sung paused and then nodded his head. “Yes. I can do that. Book of Mormon. I’ll start tonight.”

“Great,” said Elder Benjamin. “And then we can meet again to check on your progress?”

“Sure,” he said. “As long as you elders stay hungry. Oh, and do you have any extra Books of Mormon on hand? For Soo-jung?”

“You think she would read it?” asked Elder Benjamin.

“It’s worth a shot.”

“Okay then.” Elder Benjamin took out a blue paperback Mormon Kyeong from his kabang and turned to Elder Shumway. “Hey, do you have the sisters’ phone number?”

“Sure,” said Elder Shumway. “I’ll write down their information.” He grabbed the book, and while he wrote he said to Ho-sung, “These are the sister missionaries. Sister King and Sister Anderson. If Soo-jung has any questions, she can call this number.” And he handed the book to Ho-sung.

“Thank you for this gift.”

We continued eating, and for some reason this scripture came to mind: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Mark 10:25). For me, it was a simple thing to go to church, read scriptures, and help my fellow neighbors. But for him, it was an arduous chore, a source of pain. His earthly success was great, but he had trapped himself, most of his pain self-inflicted.

As the night wore on, we went back to the light-hearted earthly discussions. We enjoyed the food. We were thankful to our host. And I wondered, was he really going to start reading the scriptures again? Would he meet with us again? Or would he rather go back to relying on his own earthly successes, marry the lady, and miss out on this wonderful opportunity to return?

Next Adventure: Trip to the Zoo

An Analysis of the Nicene Creed

A year ago, I analyzed the Apostles' Creed, answering the request of a friend. Back then, I concluded that on the most part -- on the surface, my church agrees with every point -- as each point pretty much comes straight from the Bible.

Today I will analyze the Nicene Creed. I'll use the 381 version (First Council of Constantinople). And this time, you'll see a couple of points of departure as per my church's belief.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

Sounds good to me. There may be one tiny exception, but not worth mentioning here ... maybe I'll touch on it in a later post. But for all practical purposes, God created us, the angels, the planets, the stars, and so on, and so on.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; by whom all things were made;

I'm in agreement with most of this. If we were to delete "not made, consubstantial with the Father," then I'd be all aboard. The difference: my church teaches that Jesus was created in our beginning ... before all the worlds were created. In other words, Jesus was the very first entity God created -- he was "begotten" or born of God spiritually. Jesus was entirely distinct from God, and He helped God to create all the worlds. But then ...

who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;

This also sounds good. This is when the Jesus came down to Earth to gain a human body, which was conceived in Mary's womb through the power of the Holy Ghost.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;

Yep, yep, and yep -- straight from the Bible. Though, that last bit "sitteth on the right hand of the Father" seems kind of difficult if the Son is the same as the Father. Okay -- maybe I'm getting a little snippy.

from thence He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

Looking forward to it ... again, straight out of the scripture.

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.

Sounds good ... except I'm a little hesitant on the bit saying "together is worshiped and glorified," as it seems to be more about reconfirming the concept that they are one and the same. Well -- maybe that's just a technicality, as we do worship all three. Maybe I'm picking up on the feeling that we worship the three entities in different ways. We worship and pray to God. We worship Jesus as our Redeemer. We acknowledge that the Holy Ghost helps to deliver us Truth, gives us comfort, and also serves as a conduit for our prayers.

In one holy catholic and apostolic Church;

Yes -- I pause on this one, because while I'll say we agree with this, it's worth noting that here "catholic" (small "c") means "universal." And I think all religions believe that there exists a "one and true" religion that we must all seek to find. We may disagree on the identity of that "catholic" Church, but we do believe in it. We additionally believe that apostles are important in a church to help lead us. This may be unique to Christian churches, while other religions have other types of leaders similar to apostles. Though, in an earlier post I muse: where exactly are those apostles today in our Christian churches?

we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Yes -- again. Sounds good. 

So, conclusion? What my church teaches is mostly in harmony with this Creed. It's only the bit in red above, and perhaps the orange to a smaller degree, where my church would disagree.

To some people, that is a "small" difference, as do we really need to know the exact details of the Godhead in order to worship and love them? Is Jesus' sacrifice any different? Does Jesus cease to be the only path to heaven? Many argue that all Christian denominations agree on the points that really count for our salvation.

But for many others, it is a huge difference. How can one truly know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, if they can't grasp their true nature? 

While I can understand that good question, I can't grasp the idea of a just and loving God denying heaven to one only because they got the Godhead wrong, when they had nevertheless believed in Christ and had given themselves to follow His teachings and loved and helped their neighbors. I strongly believe that God will judge us based on our knowledge and how we use it and react to it, rather than on our knowledge. I sincerely do not believe that innocent ignorance will condemn any of us.

For when it comes down to it, how can we really know? God has purposefully hidden himself from all physical evidence, so that we can all believe the best we can, exercise faith, and demonstrate our ability to handle uncertain knowledge.

Even the one question of the nature of the Godhead -- whether they be of one substance, or whether they be distinct individuals -- cannot be determined by a reading of the New Testament (or Old Testament) alone. There are verses that indicate they are all separate (the appearance of all Three at Jesus' baptism as distinct individuals), and others that indicate that they are "one." 

And the different denominations interpret these verses separately. My church interprets the "one" verses as meaning "one in purpose." And what about "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9)? Well, if they are Father and Son -- wouldn't they look very similar to each other?

The Nicene Christian denominations, which comprise Catholics and most Protestant churches, interpret these differently. The "one" verses are literal. As to why they appear separately in other verses? Well, it's all incomprehensible -- we can't understand the things of God with our human brains.

Either way we look at it, there was a Great Debate in the 300s, when Arius confronted Alexander, the bishop, and other church leaders. Arius taught that God and Jesus were separate, and that there was a time Jesus didn't exist, and that he was born (begotten) of God spiritually. Alexander and others believed in an eternal generation -- something about God putting his essence into something we call the Son, which is of the same substance as God. And both sides were using the same set of scriptures to back up their doctrines.

And it was well ... tearing apart the young Church. It triggered the Nicene Council, out of which came the Nicene Creed(s). Alexander won, and Arius lost -- his ideas anathematized. And the Council officially called the "individual members of the Godhead" doctrine a heresy. (And yes -- that's poor Arius cast out in black in that picture up above. That jerk! It really was all about him.)

Thus, you'll hear today people calling my church heretical, as it brings back some (but not all) of Arius' beliefs. And of course, my church contends that the Nicene Council was acting out of apostasy -- which had already been happening for a couple of centuries by that time.

Who can say which one was right when the New Testament supports both ideas?

Well -- we are where we are now. I hope you've enjoyed this analysis -- learning how my church is similar to Nicene-based churches, and how we are different -- at least in this one aspect. What do you think?

The Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin: The Threesome

The Threesome

January 3, 1990 (Wednesday)

I know. The title may sound a little exciting to some of you, but it’s not what you may think. Keep in mind that we were all young, in the 18 to 21 year-old range. Most of us had led sheltered lives, and we were innocent. As such, we used several terms often, not realizing there may be other not-so-virtuous meanings attached. I mean — here in the 2020s, we now have an app called “Member Tools,” and no one’s the wiser. But don’t we all deserve a chuckle every now and then?

In these stories, I stick with the original terms we wrote in our journals. I also use the old Korean romanizations: that is, our city was Taegu and not Daegu as it’s officially spelled after 2000. Just know: when you read these stories, you’re going to experience the early 90’s in Korea as they were in their full glory.

So, you’re probably thinking, “Then what is a threesome?” And I bet you’ve already guessed the true definition. Following Christ’s example in Mark 6, missionaries in our church are usually sent two by two. Most of the time, we each had one other “companion,” and we went everywhere together — never alone. This way we helped each other, watched over each other, coordinated together, and so on.

But every now and then, an odd number of missionaries popped up. Instead of having one missionary without a companion, a threesome would form. These were always somewhat difficult, as it meant coordinating three people’s plans. And man — it was much easier to annoy each other.

Also remember that in our mission, we elders tended to live four in a house. That’s two companionships of two each. And today was Transfer Day, which happened once a month on average, and always on a Wednesday.

Elders Benjamin, Shumway, and I were all staying, but Elder Hansen was assigned to Miryang. And Elder Shumway was going to get a greenie — fresh from the states.

So, there we were at the bus station. Elder Hansen had all his bags, and his bus was getting ready to leave.

Elder Shumway said, “We’re going to miss you. Though, it’ll be great to have the bathroom back again.” That got a laugh.

Elder Benjamin said, “I’m praying for God to protect you in your journey. Do well, and continue sharing the gospel.”

I said, “Maybe they’ll find your Christmas presents. Don’t you ever forget Elder Elder Elder Elder Elder …”

“Elder Elder!” said Elder Shumway. “Stop that!”

Elder Hansen laughed again. “I’m going to miss you guys. Good luck with the greenie!”

And before we knew it, he was gone. The threesome had officially begun. We would be stuck together for 48 hours while Elder Shumway’s greenie first received orientation at the mission office at the same time as getting over half a day of jet lag.

In preparation for our threesome, we had two sets of calendars to consolidate, which meant we were going to be so busy, we wouldn’t have time for door knocking, street boarding, or any other general proselytizing. And of course, as district leader, Elder Shumway would be in charge.

That afternoon, our first appointment was someone new who had called us in the morning. His name was Choi Shin-bom (최신봄) and he asked for an Elder Harold, someone who served in Taegu two years prior. Though that elder was long gone back to the states, Elder Shumway successfully talked with him into meeting us that afternoon.

So we went to his apartment and knocked on his door.

And he answered. “Who is it?”

Elder Shumway said, “Foreign missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Are you Choi Shin-bom?”

“Yes.” He opened the door wider, but then when he saw all three of us, he shied back. That was one unfortunate drawback of being in a threesome. We Americans tended to be taller than Koreans, and Elder Shumway was tall, even for an American. Two people didn’t intimidate much, but add in a third person and we were suddenly a menace to be dealt with.

Sensing the hesitation, Elder Shumway said, “Oh, don’t mind Elder Elder. He’s not that mean. I’m Elder Shumway. I talked with you on the phone this morning.”

“Oh, yes, yes. Come on in. We’ll have to sit on the floor.”

Yeah — we were used to that — we were experts in floor sitting. And we had a nice discussion. Shin-bom told us he was investigating a couple of years ago, and was ready to give it another go. We took turns reviewing the first discussion. And at the end he even committed to getting baptized in a month.

As we left the appointment, Elder Shumway said, “Y’all know the rules, right? Since I answered the phone, I get this one.”

Yeah — he made up that rule. As district leader, he also usually answered the phone — that was another of his rules. But then again, not very many cold calls turned into baptisms. Elder Shumway got lucky.

January 4, 1990 (Thursday)

The next day, we got to try a new Church initiative. When most Christians hear “mission trip,” the first thing that comes to mind are all the service opportunities: planting, building, teaching, with a little bit of proselytizing thrown in there, like in the classic movie “Hawaii.”

But in our church, up to right before 1990, our missions were all about the finding of souls and helping people find Christ with very little physical labor — more in line with the original missions of the apostles first sent out by Christ.

However, someone in high position decided it was time for missionaries to do more actual service projects, spending at least a couple of hours a week. And we were one of the first groups to try it out before it went worldwide.

And get this — we had to do this outside of our Preparation Day.  So, it was kind of like getting two breaks this week from proselytizing. It also meant another fraction of a day not wearing our suits.

Our project: cleaning up a local park. And yeah. Elder Shumway picked this activity. Of course we complained because it was freezing outside, and he said, “It’ll grow hair on your chests. Buck up, Elders!”

So we put on our long johns, jeans, and relatively heavy coats. And gloves, too. Have you ever tried picking up garbage with your gloves? Well — we got to use poking sticks, but still. I’d much rather be doing these things in the summer time.

And well — I suppose I was the main one complaining. Elder Benjamin was doing his usual thing. There we were, picking up trash, and he’s saying, “You know, Elders. What we’re doing now is like our souls. How many times have we passed this park, and never noticed this trash before? Now that we’re looking for it, we see it everywhere. Sure, it isn’t that much, but the tiniest bit corrupts. And if we see it, we can remove it. He who hath clean hands, and a pure heart … Psalm 24.”

Elder Shumway looked at me as if to ask, “Is he like this all the time?”

And I looked back. “Yes.”

“Does he ever turn this off?”

“No.”

And as usual, Elder Benjamin was entirely clueless as to what we may or may not have been saying to each other with our faces.

The park was moderately large with a standard-sized running track and an outdoor auditorium. Despite what Elder Benjamin had said, there wasn’t really that much trash to pick up, so we finished early.

Just when I thought Elder Shumway would wrap up, turn in our poking sticks, and go back home, he instead said, “Well, we have another 45 minutes to fill up. How about we start cleaning the surrounding residential areas?”

Did we have a choice? Elder Benjamin thought it was an excellent idea, but I was still freezing and ready to go home and drink some of that hot chocolate I had gotten for Christmas.

As we scoured the surrounding streets for trash, we found plenty. Undoubtedly more than what we had found at the park.

And I learned in hindsight that one must be careful when navigating around random houses on rolling Korean hills with low-lying roofs. I guess I wasn’t quite looking where I was going, and the shingles on the edge of one of those roofs dug into my forehead.

The force of the collision knocked me back unexpectedly, and then I had blood trickling toward my eyes and glasses.

“Dang,” said Elder Shumway. “Are you okay?”

Elder Benjamin said, “I have my oil ready. Do you need a blessing?”

“Let’s put some pressure on the wound, first.” Elder Shumway pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at my forehead, and I wondered if it was clean.

It stung really bad, but other than that, nothing else hurt.

“It’s just a scratch,” said Elder Shumway. “Well, that pretty much ends our service for today. I guess our bags are almost full anyway.”

It was thirty minutes early, but I was mostly okay with that, but what an embarrassing way to end the service project early! And that’s not the worst part. That was the only service project I remember doing that year. Well — except for one other one at a children’s home, but in hindsight, I wonder if my little accident had killed the pilot program for the whole mission. “One day of service, and this guy bleeds all over the place — maybe we shouldn’t do this.” 

Part of me still wonders how things would have ended if we weren’t in a threesome. Maybe Elder Benjamin and I would have picked some other service project indoors — at a nursing home, maybe? And perhaps the pilot program wouldn’t have been scrapped? We’ll never know. All I know is I still have this scar on my forehead to remember.

Coming back to Thursday, we went home and I got my hot chocolate. And then we went to go teach not one, but two sets of Elder Shumway’s investigators. I suppose part of this was because my former tongbanja (companion), Elder Lee, and I had not accumulated very many investigators from our sign language effort, while Elders Shumway and Hansen had worked up a full schedule. To this, Elder Shumway told us, “Don’t worry. Keep working hard, and you two will have your own busy schedule. But right now, I just have more investigators than you do, so we’re going to see mine.” I think he just enjoyed being in charge.

Our first pair of investigators was an old lady and granddaughter who lived together. As we taught them the first discussion, the old lady kept telling us, “No, we don’t need this special book. You can give it to someone else who needs it.” 

To which the granddaughter kept mostly silent — until she wasn’t. She ultimately said meekly, “I could use that book. Maybe give it to me?”

And then the grandmother answered, “Well, it looks like we could use that book after all.”

Then we went to give the second discussion to Elder Shumway’s other investigator, and I’ll just skip to the end … the guy committed to getting baptized! Yeah, our own guys won’t commit, and Elder Shumway gets two commitments in two days? Such a show-off!

Then again, looking back, I think Elder Benjamin played a major role in helping them to commit., which makes me wonder again: had we not been in the threesome, would these guys have committed to baptism, having missed out on Elder Benjamin’s spirit? We’ll never know. Either way, Elder Shumway was going to get the credit.

January 5, 1990 (Friday)

The next morning, we finally got to teach one of our own investigators. Remember Kim Bo-yeon (김보연)? Yeah — the guy who hiked with us on Christmas — so he already knew Elder Shumway.

We met at the church, and we taught him the third discussion on the Restoration. That lesson is all about the great apostasy and how God restored His true gospel. Bo-yeon loved the lesson, especially Elder Benjamin’s testimony. And he committed to … coming to church the upcoming Sunday.

Yeah — still no commitments on baptism., though Elder Shumway pushed it pretty hard. Perhaps a bit too much — making me a little nervous that he might scare him away.

When the discussion was over, Elder Shumway said, “So — we got a little time before we have to get lunch and pick up our new greenie. How about some quick ping pong?”

Bo-yeon said yes. He had time. And down to the basement we went. Had we not been in the threesome, we would have probably skipped ping pong, but not Elder Shumway.

Well, at least there was one good thing about the threesome. Bo-yeon meant four, which meant we could play doubles without having to rotate players.

We played for about half an hour, and just like as with Christmas, Bo-yeon performed ten times better than the rest of us. He was on Elder Shumway’s team, so they won every game.

At the end, Elder Shumway said, “You know what happens to the winner — right?”

Bo-yeon said, “Oh no. Not again.”

“That’s right. FLARMP!!!” Elder Shumway jumped on Bo-yeon, and the rest of us did, too.

“Wait,” said Bo-yeon from the bottom. “Didn’t you win, too, Elder Shumway?”

“I can’t flarmp myself.”

He had a point. Bo-yeon laughed.

We got back up, and Bo-yeon took us all out to eat at the nearest shikdang. I got some chap-chae pap, or transparent noodles with vegetables and rice — one of my favorites.

After lunch, Bo-yeon went back to school to catch up on study and research. And we went to the bus stop. Time to pick up the greenie!!

As the new guy got off the bus, he waved at us and said, “Hi, y’all!”

Wait — “Did you say, ‘y’all’?” I asked.

“Sure did.”

“You’re from the South, like me?”

“North Carolina. Yep. Someone told me you’re from Georgia. You must be Elder Elder.”

He was tall and somewhat skinny. Pug nose, dark hair, and an irresistible smile. He also appeared to be very tired.

Elder Shumway approached him and shook hands. “Hey. I’m the district leader, Elder Shumway, your new companion.”

“Hi, I’m Elder Riley.”

“Good to meet you.”

The greetings continued on as we helped to grab his bags.

Elder Shumway then pointed to the sky and said to his new greenie, “You see that plane up there?”

Elder Riley looked behind him and said, “Yep.”

“Which of us is closer to it?”

Elder Riley answered, “It appears I’m standing closer, so it would be me.”

“No, I’m closer.”

“Why, because you’re taller?”

“No. Because for me it’s 8 months away, and for you — 2 years.”

Ouch — yeah — that was his favorite joke.

As we got ready to get on board the bus back to our apartment, Elder Benjamin said, “Wasn’t that fun, guys? Our threesome has officially come to an end.”

Elder Riley gasped and chuckled. “Excuse me. What’s coming to an end?”

“Our threesome,” said Elder Benjamin.

“Heh. You know what that means?”

“Yeah,” said Elder Benjamin. “There were three of us. Three is the magic number!”

Elder Riley suppressed more chuckling and said, “Never mind. I think I’m going to love living with you guys.”

I do have to admit, though … of all the threesomes I was in those two years of my mission, this one was my favorite.

Next Adventure: The Rich Member