THANKSGIVING TRAINING

Hello Mother and Family!

This week went by very quickly, but went by very well. This week we had a lot of training because, as I mentioned, Korea shuts down for 3 days during the Korean Thanksgiving. When we talked to people in-between going and coming to the church, most of them were from other places, mostly from Seoul. There were still some very good opportunities to share the Gospel!

For the Thanksgiving day, (our P-day) we decided to hike up a mountain and look out over Gwang Ju (the same one as before). It was a beautiful day and it was great to do our personal and companionship studies on top of the mountain. So peaceful and just beautiful. We came down and then had a Zone activity at the church which was fun, and then went to Bishop's house to eat dinner. The dinner that we had was the absolutely most amazing food that I have yet had while staying in Korea. So good!

Training was basically repetition, repetition, repetition. We spent 4 hours a day working on teaching the lessons in roleplays, discussing how to improve our teaching, and working on other teaching skills. It was a drilling of teaching, but I learned so much! It was great also to have interviews with President Shin and to be able to spend a lot of time with him and learn from him. 

The mission is starting a new program that will make the missionaries stretch, which is great. We talked about it and how we would accomplish it and now it is happening. It is very exciting and very different from the "old mission" as missionaries now call it. The "old mission" was a mission based on talking to as many people as possible, and finding investigators through missionary efforts and teaching, etc. However, the new mission is focused on member missionary work (big surprise...member missionary work is amazing). We now are focusing more on receiving referrals than on talking to lots of random people. This is great! The only investigator that I have seen really progress and really accept and believe the lessons is also the only investigator that we have received as a member referral. It is definitely inspired and I am excited to work towards the standards of the program.

I had a really great experience this past week with the Spirit. I was talking to a person on the bus as we were traveling home one day from contacting a former investigator. He was from Pusan, but was in Gwang Ju, his home town, for the holidays. We started talking and I asked him about what he was doing in school, what his plans for the holidays were, etc. He asked me why I was learning Korean, and I told him that I was learning Korean to share that which has made me happiest. Then I told him that I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I told him that we teach about Jesus Christ and that we teach people how to find more happiness in life. He told me that he was Christian and that he attended two different churches-one in Pusan and one in Gwang Ju (depending on where he was living). I asked him why he attended his particular churches and he told me that he went to his church because of his friends in college. He said that he was happy. (In the back of my mind the line from PMG surfaced that says that concerns are often more social than doctrinal...a good reminder) I then asked him what he thought about Jesus Christ. He responded that Christ was a good person. Then, kind of bashfully, he said that to be honest, he didn't really know that much about Jesus Christ, except that He was a good person. So, then I simply said, You should learn more about Jesus Christ. Then I bore my testimony simply, saying, I know that Jesus Christ is my Redeemer. I know that He loves me. Whether I am at school, in the United States, or here in Korea, I can always feel the love that Jesus Christ has for me. Well, he then looked at me with a little bit of a change in his countenance and said "I can feel it". This took me a little aback, but then I responded with "You're feeling a good feeling aren't you?" He told me he was. I then clearly stated "this feeling is the Holy Ghost. Through this feeling God can guide us and lead us". I then asked him if he always wanted to feel this good feeling. He responded with a "of course...why are you asking" sort of remark, and then I explained to him that when I go to church every Sunday, I feel this same feeling. I told him that we teach people how to always feel this good feeling. Well, then his bus stop came, so I told him that when he goes back to Pusan he should look up our Church and go. He left, and will hopefully look up the church and find greater happiness than he could think possible. To have this experience reminded me of the power of the Holy Ghost it was a great experience and I hope to be able to have many more similar experiences in the future.

I cannot explain how much happiness I receive in being able to tell people that God either exists or He doesn't. I know that He exists and we can teach you how to come to know for yourself that He exists. I cannot express the happiness that I get when I can share the love of Heavenly Father, as a representative of Jesus Christ, with His faithful members of the church who are trying so hard to find people to bring into the fold. It is a wonderful work of unparalleled truth.

This week goes back to normal, so there will be more opportunities to teach the investigators that we have. I am excited to teach them with the new training that we have received and to help them progress.

The point has been made very clear in our mission that the members do not help the missionaries, but that the missionaries help the members. Yesterday a member of the Stake Presidency asked our ward how many missionaries it had. Someone responded with "6". That answer was refuted with "100". It is true. He then asked how many "teaching-assistants" (he even said that part in English) the ward had. Then came the correct answer of "6". As a missionary, I have seen so clearly the power that members have in missionary work. The members that help also receive great blessings, I have seen that as well. 

Here's a little inspiration for member missionary work. It is the example of Nephi. When considering referring people that you know for the missionaries to teach, remember Nephi's struggle to get the plates. At first he received the commandment (as members have) and immediately committed to obey, even though he did not really know how or why. Then he went and evaluated the situation, which turned out to seem a little bit hopeless (at least in the eyes of Laman and Lemuel who did not know very many things concerning God). But Nephi perseveres. Through another attempt that very well could have been prompted by the Spirit, Nephi yet again fails. At this point, I think many people would turn back. They would say the Lord commanded, the situation is hopeless, I worked hard, seemed to get some inspiration and it didn't work out. However, Nephi persists because of the original commandment. He knows there will be a way and that he will just have to search until he finds it. Then comes verse 6 in chapter 4 which states he was led by the spirit without a knowledge of what he would do. Sometimes we don't know what to do except to keep pressing forward. Then as he acts without knowledge, step by step, he comes to realize how the Lord has delivered Laban into his hands, receives further instruction from the Lord and then obtains the record that blesses tons of people. That is the power of obedience, of faith, of perseverance, of diligence. For member referrals the same applies. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. You may not be working to obtain brass plates, but the people that you help with then help others, their ancestors, their descendents, their friends and neighbors, which will have, as did Nephi's effort, an impact on many more people than a single individual or family. 

Time is now at an end. I love you all so much, it sounds like things are going so very well in United States. I hope that you have a great and wonderful time. 

William

THANKSGIVING IN KOREA

Hello family/mother!!!

 

This week went by very quickly and next week will go by even faster. This week is Korea's Thanksgiving holiday, and the country literally shuts down for three full days. Because of the proselyting opportunity taken away, we will be training with the mission president and learning Korean/other lesson enhancing techniques during that time period. I am actualy very excited!

 

First, I will have you know, that, as usual, mothers are right. Yesterday the ward needed a piano player, so I accompanied both sacrament meeting and the primary (Korean children are the best!!) (Random story. We were talking about who there is in our lives that we can help. One of the questions was about how many people you can help. All of the primary children are saying/yelling "Everyone!" Then, one of the boys pops up and says "83". It was so funny, my companion and I cracked up about it later...) Anyways, yep, those piano lessons paid off, and I was able to share it with the people that I am serving on my mission.

 

This week was a little bit difficult as far as results are concerned. I've never been closer to my companion (we're pretty much brothers) and we haven't worked harder, but just haven't been finding investigators. This week being the Thanksgiving Holiday, their won't be much opportunity for finding people, so we will basically start with our progressing investigators after the holiday. This past week there were some highlights and some low points.

 

Our investigator who is progressing towards baptism is progressing very well. He is reading and keeping his commitments, which is good. We had a very good lesson with him and will continue to teach him. He came to church and enjoyed it. He is getting very busy with school, so the fact that he is giving so much of his time to the church shows that he really does care about the message that we have to share and the feeling that he gets when he comes.

 

The restaurant owners, on the other hand, have had a little bit of a turn around. We went over to their restaurant on Friday and they basically said that they understand that reading their scriptures and saying their prayers is not a difficult thing, but they said that they just don't have the desire to do it . That was pretty devastating, because he basically told us that he had given up.

But, my companion and I have plans to help get his desire going to see what the scriptures and prayer can really do for them. We will visit again today and hopefully help them realize the value of the scritpures and of prayer in a way that will help them desire and want to read the scriptures and pray.

 

Let's see. This week we helped with a very cool service project which was feeding the elderly at a park in Gwang Ju. It went very well and it was really exciting to serve the people of Korea. They really are wonderful and it was great to be able to serve and help them.

 

Last week (short letter) we had a lot of meetings. We had a zone tour and we had a training meeting. The Zone tour was presided over by Elder Whiting and was absolutely wonderful. I realize how zoned in you can get to the work of missionary work and miss the whole foundation supporting everything. It was one of the greatest meetings that I have ever attended. We were very well edified and enlightened and taught concerning the mission, other things regarding our work, and the reality of Heavenly Father's plan for us. It was great.

 

Everything is going absolutely wonderful. The weather is beautiful and people are happy. This next transfer is going to be very exciting!

 

This week I have learned some very important lessons. The message that I want to share today, that has been impressed to me is the peace that we receive from our covenants, specifically when we renew them. On Sunday, I was filled with peace through the sacrament. I cannot describe how thankful I am for the wonderful sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what you have felt, or have gone through, He has been through it. We all have our Christ-similar journies in life. We all have our joyful times of our "ministry" and we all have our times in Gethsemane. Well, it humbles me to realize that each of our individual Gethsemanes--the absolute worst times of our lives--when all--all billions of them--are added together; that was Christ's Gethsemane. He knows and He wants to help. Alma 7:7, 10-16 is very clear about the Atonement. It is the most important thing. It can help us with all our pains and afflictions. He performed the Atonement to blot out our transgressions. We can be born again through the Atonement by repenting and being baptized. As we do so, we enter into a covenant to obey Him for the rest of our lives. In return for this obedience, He gives us eternal life. Christ gave everything for us; and these verses shows what we can give to Him.

 

I hope you have a wonderful week. Happy Chew-suk (추석) aka. Thanksgiving! Remember what you are thankful for!

William

STAYING IN GWANG JU

Hey mom and family!!!

Everything is going very well, however some crazy things happened this P-day which unfortunately has left this week a little short. I will have to double report next week...so sorry, nothing in my control.

Things are so great here, I'm not changing at all with the transfer call. None of us are in our ward which is really bizarre. However, our mission president told us himself that he had been up since 12am seeking revelation for the transfer stuff, so I know that it is right, plus I've gotten my own confirmation so everything is well. I am very excited to continue working with this ward. I will update you with all the happenings that have been going on next week. 

To be short. We had a very spiritually intense lesson with the restaurant owners (with a daughter on a mission) and we are going to have to push Samuel's baptism date back (because of a national holiday and frequency of meeting) to October 19th ish. Our other investigators are going well. This week we had a ton of scheduled meetings, but we still got so many potential investigators. Although we met few people, they certainly were quality!

Got to go. Important thought is Ether 12:4. Our faith can become firm and steadfast (Mosiah 5:15/Alma 57:26-27...etc) as we realize what it is that lies ahead of us. Through that vision we will not only have the motivation to do what we know is right, but we will desire it. Continue strong, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust cannot corrupt! 

Best of luck and wishes!

William

Week #5 in Korea!

This week was absolutely wonderful.

First off, there was a HUGE thunderstorm on Thursday that was so amazing. Luckily (coincidence?) it happened through our dinner time, which was cool, because we sat out on the balcony and watched lightning strike the apartments around us. It was super intense, but very refreshing. After dinner we went out, got soaked, and met a new investigator that we will continue to be meeting with. He is an interesting person, but definitely needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his life (everyone does!). The miracle with this story is that we were in a completely wrong area looking for the address (I would comment about the address system in Korea, but you would get lost (pun most certainly intended)) and could not find it...in a thunderstorm...with limited time available to meet with him. Well, as it went, we called him a couple times, and could not find his place, so we ended up going to a local restaurant and asking them to talk to him so that we could understand more clearly where we needed to go (language barrier...). So, we do so, and of course, being in Korea (people just love to help) the restaurant owner, during open working hours, takes us in his van to the address where we would be meeting the investigator. What wonderful people!!! Well, as it turns out, we decided to go eat there the next day to say thank you, and now we have some new investigators. They are not completely interested in the Gospel, but with enough interactions with missionaries, they soon will be (like the couple that we are teaching now--was efforts of many missionaries before). Yep, that was a great night, although I was soaked from the knees down to the bone. Hey, great things happen when you do the Lord's work despite external circumstances.

So much else happened throughout this past week. So much that I wish that I could tell you all about it, but there isn't time. With all the crazy weather, it is now a lot cooler in Korea, which is a nice break from the killer heat. It is a very warm, yet refreshing temperature outside now, and we have to use blanket when we sleep or we will be cold! 

We talked to a lot of people this past week. The man on the moped met with us at a restaurant and we talked for a little while about many different things. It seems that he was at church in the other area mainly for the social aspect of things and for the relationship with members/missionaries. We are working on getting him to church, but for now he has little interest and doesn't really see a need to go to church. However, there is a seed planted and we have to find out how to nourish it. 

The owners of the restaurant were busy this week, so there was not much of an opportunity to visit with them much about the gospel. We stepped in for maybe ten minutes and talked to the mother for a little bit, but there was no formal lesson. We found out that her eyesight is not good enough to read the Book of Mormon and that it hurts her eyes to read, so we are going to navigate that barrier through getting her the Book of Mormon audio on her phone. (which then inspired us to get it on everyone that we are teaching's phone--so much easier access!) They didn't come to church again and the situation has gotten a little bit more complicated. We found out that they have been covering up their daughter's affiliation with the church from their family; saying that she is in America on some sort of other business. We also found out that we cannot teach them at their home because they live with their parents (in Korea the older adults oftentimes just live with their kids and their kids take care of them). We will find a way to teach them and bring them to Christ because we know that they really do want it, we just have to help them see how much they really want it....if that makes sense. Sad week there, but this week will hopefully produce better fruits.

Another of our investigators came across completely differently than we ever knew. This was only my second time meeting with him and he seems to be one of those investigators that understands everything intellectually, but is not willing to keep commitments. That is what we thought. And then, on Tuesday, we learned that he actually doesn't attend church because he commutes to Seoul for his job. We found out that he even called the church in Seoul to find out when they met to see if he could go up there, but the church service ends at the time that he stops working. He really has a ton of faith, but if something doesn't change, then he won't be able to progress. We are trying to figure how to best help him--this lesson he came in kind of down and a little sad--but then,  I watched beaming as the spirit slowly worked on him and at the end of the lesson he left all smiles. It was wonderful to see the change in his countenance. We realized that Monday and Tuesdays are like his weekends, and that he takes the precious time to meet with us every week. He pretty much only gets the Spirit when he meets with us, so for now it is kind of like church for him. We will help him as best we can through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Next, there is someone very special that I need to mention. His name is Samuel. He was a referral from a member who teaches English here in Gwang Ju and has recently returned from his mission in England. We had a meeting with him and it went absolutely wonderful. He is so prepared and ready to accept the Gospel. We set a baptismal date with him for September 22! At church the next day my companion and I noted that we could not even tell that he was an investigator. He came to testimony meeting and as he heard the testimonies he sat there and nodded through the whole thing. He is so great and so prepared! I am so excited to continue to teach him. He will be a strong member of the church and contribute greatly to the ward that we are currently serving in! I have a feeling he is the first of many...

This week I have had the absolute thrill of realizing the reality and the magnitude of what I am doing here in Korea. I have the wonderful opportunity and privilege to tell people on the streets that "Jesus Christ's originally established church has again been restored". I absolutely love spreading that great news to everyone that I meet, wherever I am. I have truly felt that I am a mouthpiece of the Lord as I spread His message to my fellow men. 

Remember this as a thought throughout the week--it is in Lehi's dream and it is an interesting pattern that I think illustrates missionary work very nicely. Lehi goes and partakes of the fruit of the tree of life. Then, it says that as soon as he had partaken, he looked around to spy his family, so that they could also partake. This takes on a different meaning when the word family is put into context as our "eternal family" or everyone. Next he goes on and says that he looks for specific people. That is something that we must also do. If we just look at missionary work as missionary work, then we will never have the opportunity for a specific missionary opportunity. We must be looking for the specific opportunity in order for it to come to fruition. He sees Nephi, Sam, and Sariah. He identifies them and sees where they are. Then, he beckons to them--he invites them to come to the tree of life. Sam, Nephi, and Sariah come and then they partake as well. Then, Lehi looks for Laman and Lemuel, sees them, also beckons to them, but they do not hearken and do not partake of the tree of life. There are many important lessons in this section of the dream. After looking for specific people, then we must beckon to them. This does not mean that we force it on them, but that we show them the opportunity and give them a clear way to exercise their agency. Then, they have their agency as both halves of the family had, to choose whether or not to partake of the fruit. Remember, you have partaken of the fruit already! You have the joy, and now you can look, specifically invite, and give others the opportunity to enjoy what you have! We can do this until our entire family has been invited and have chosen their ways, whether to partake or not to partake. In the end, always remember that there is no limit to the fruit on the tree. There is no limit. The Atonement of Jesus Christ has no limits--it is for everyone and for eternity. So invite! 

I wish you the best of the week! Do good things, do your best in everything, love the Lord, and look for opportunities to share the amazing gospel. We have been reminded this week by our president that missionaries are "helpers". It is the members that should lead and guide this work and that is the way that it is headed in my ward in Korea! Have a wonderful week, I love you all, and am so excited for all of the things that you are doing, accomplishing and experiencing!

With lots of love,

William Strahl

Gwang-Ju Week #4

This past week was a week that went by very fast. This week we focused a lot on member work--visiting the members. We met with a few members who were absolutely incredible! Overall, it was a pretty great week. The work is going a little bit slow right now, but it will pick up.

Right now I am in Gwang Ju, which from what I understand has more than 10 million people in it. It is huge. It is built around a mountain range that we hiked this morning to do personal and companion study as a P-day activity. It was 910m tall (about 2800ft) and had a wonderful view. Let's just say that the city extended from the middle of the horizon (which was where the mountain range stopped existing) and stretched all the way to the edge of sight, and as far as you can see. It is soooo big. You can't even understand how amazing it is. Our mission president is awesome. To him, there is Gwang Ju, and then the rest of the mission. He is really focusing on Gwang Ju right now and getting it going as far as missionary work. His dream in the Gwang Ju Temple! We are excited to be apart of his work (and also His work).

This week we met with the owners of the restaurant, but we were on a time constraint, had a little misunderstanding, and so were then not able to teach them. That was sad. They also had a funeral to attend, so they were not able to go to church, which was absolutely sad as well, but we are over it and working hard to get them to church this next week!

Many of our other investigators have lost interest or not had a really sincere desire this past week. They seem like church is just another part of life, like another class they take, and they are satisfied with the classes that they are already taking in the school of life. However, we are trying to show them that church is something that supports all the rest of the classes and makes the entire school so much better. It is so hard for someone to understand that!

This week we worked really hard, but did not see a lot of results. We worked through dinner times that we could have taken in order to get in everything that we wanted to do. The lesson of this week is how insignificant our efforts are in comparison to God on the whole. We can think that we contribute a lot to the work, but really, it is God who allows everything to happen. That is not an excuse to slack off, but a motivation to work harder because the harder you work the more God will open those opportunities that He can for you to help His children into the church.

I want to comment about the couple that we visited last night to build Jong. They were an amazing couple. Amazing. Celestial couple. We walked in, talked about his previous Job as a calligrapher (he was 70 and she was 66) and then I motioned that I could play the piano and in no time we were singing all of our favorite hymns. It was beautiful and amazing! He then pulled out a harmonica and played Sweet hour of Prayer on the Harmonica to our surprise and thrill. It was awesome. Then with his guitar, my companion played a soft melody that was great. In Korea you don't visit people without getting food, so we had a little dessert, gave them a spiritual message, and then left. It was amazing and perfect. We talked to them about trusting in God and asked about their experiences with trusting in God. We learned that this man had become the Branch president of the Gwangju Branch only 6 months after he was baptized. From there he continued in leaderships positions until he was President of Gwangju stake. His wife commented that when he was Stake President he was always at church and she was always at home taking care of the children. She said that it was really hard, but at the same time, she had seen how much the Lord had blessed him. She then humbly, so Korean by the way, that Heavenly Father had not blessed her with any sort of responsibilities such as being Relief society or something like that. We quickly responded that her support for her husband with their small children was the greatest responsibility and a great blessing to him. They are the greatest couple. They know how to live life. They love each other so much and they are so happy. We talked to our sisters who told us that they have companionship study every morning for an hour! What great examples! After having a rather down week, it was a wonderful way to end the week. There are such wonderful people all over the world!!!!

Hmmm, we had dinner with a missionary who had recently gotten back from Seoul and a member from our ward. They were awesome, and when we were there the missionary spirit was raging. It was great--we were sharing experiences and miracles that we had seen (right before we had arrived through a series of "random" events we had found many people who had literally come up to us and asked us about the church (we didn't have to initiate--they did!)) and we also so one of our less-actives that we had been working with, which was amazing and really great because I love him sooo much. Yep, wonderful experience and really helped me realize the great importance of this work!

I think you will be excited to hear that we have a meal appointment set up today with the moped man, which is great! We don't know exactly how much gospel interest he has, but we will find out!

The man  that we met that I talked about last time hasn't been responding to our calls. We know that he needed that conversation at that time; however, and so if any thing, we have prepared him for later interactions with the Church and with missionaries. He is a great man and will hopefully put his life into order with his family.

This week we also met with a lawyer, who took us into his really nice office for a chat. He was more interested in our foreigner status and practicing his english than the Gospel, but we were able to actually teach him a ton about what we believe. He is part of the Roman Catholic church and is actually the chairman of their organization to build a new building, so we will see where that goes. Pretty much the only thing that he knows is that Utah youth do not live the same as other American youth. We explained to him a lot about the church and invited him to be baptized, which he said would not work (with his position and his father, and family tradition in the religion), so we will probably visit him one other time to check his interest in the Gospel, and then move on. But, it was an interesting visit--he was one of the people that approached us on the street before the meal appointment with the members.

I can honestly say that every single day of my mission I have either seen a personal or a companionship miracle from the Lord. It is an amazing work and He blesses us so much for it. It is also a really hard work. It is a straining combination of intellect, emotion, spiritual, social, and physical that is constantly exerted. There is no end. It is also the most joyful work. The other day I was talking to a Hakseng, or a school student on a bus. When I told him that I wanted him to be happy, I made the greatest friend in the world. He wasn't interested in Religion, but I taught him about who God was, and that we can pray and told him try out prayer sometime and see if God would help him. Seriously, when I got off that bus I was one friend up in the world. I would have done anything for him, and I really think that he would do anything for me. It was such a great feeling to have made such a special bond in such a short time. I guess the cost of the greatest joy is the greatest efforts...who would guess?

This past week I also saw a miracle as I went on a split with the other missionary who came in the same time as me on Wednesday. We were at the church for our second investigator lesson which we had invited a member to, and our investigator did not show up. Unfortunately that happens sometimes. We had a member there an everything, it really was too bad. But then...another one of our investigators just walked into the church, and without a scheduled appointment we were able to teach him a lesson with an awsome member present. It was a great miracle that shows that God honors our efforts and will reward our intents. We actually had a really awesome day together as we worked really hard. What a great experience...haha, neither of us can really understand that much.

Alright...time to go! Love you so much, keep up the good work...and share the message!