Korean Philosophy

Dear Mother and Family,

Wow, Dad is what 51 now??? That's a big number. You know in Korea there two types of numbering systems, one is pure korean and the other is chinese. They use one counting system for somethings and the other for other things. The pure Korean system is used for age, but because past 50 or 60 nobody really knows the numbers that well they switch to chinese even though it should be korean! I hope that makes you feel better dad! Haha, the good ole beans and rice, spinach, and cornbread.[Note: This was Todd's favorite dinner for his Birthday dinner that the kids really don't care for!!!]  You know, Korea has shown me how good that really sounds (here I have eaten bug larvae, basically everything from the cow that you aren't allowed to eat in America (called Soon-day), and lots of other things that I don't know what they are. There's also a dog soup restaurant by our apartment that we will have to go try...). I will probably do the same thing to my kids for my birthday with Kim Chee and other Korean deliciousness!   (ps. has he tried the spicy ramen yet?? I want to know how that goes...)

This past week was fairly interesting and filled with some great surprises.

First off, the investigator that was contemplating the divorce has not gone through with it! (that is 95% sure because he talks about his wife and we have seen her around). The unfortunate thing is that now he is starting work again and has very little time to meet. Hopefully we can get his son coming out to church and then through his son help the family to come and enjoy the blessings that the Gospel will have to anyone that will accept them.

Second, our hospital bound investigator has been doing very well. He is slowly progressing and we have been able to teach him quite a bit about the Gospel of Jesus Christ recently. He really likes it, but is still a little bit restrained by his fanatic English interest. He is great. I have a funny story to tell you. So we showed him our family pictures. In the album of my companion's there is a picture of his parents at the Hawaii temple. We told him that it was a temple and he looked at the fountains and said "water-if Buddha wants to go swimming?" oh that was the best. And then when he was looking through mine, he saw the picture of Brother Martin and decisively told us that Brother Martin had been to North Korea and that he recognized him. That was great. So funny. He is the best. He also told me to tell you that a handicapped man in a hospital in Korea thinks that you are very beautiful! He's right! Oh, good times, my companion and I were laughing for awhile after that visit.

The politician has been rough to visit lately, but we saw him on the street and he still seems excited to meet. We are also hoping that we can meet with one of the students that he is teaching English to who seems to have quite a bit of potential.

We also have another new investigator from Nepal who has been in Korea for 6 years so he speaks and understands Korean enough to be taught. He also knows a little bit of English. The sisters originally met him and he came to church twice and so far is had just been a friendship thing, which was a little worrysome because it was the sisters. So yesterday the sisters had a different investigator at church so we met with him and talked to him. He told us that if he didn't want to believe then he wouldn't come, which is great because he has the willing heart that is usually very difficult to find. So, we will start to teach him and help him to come to Christ.

Also, the two young girls that got baptized have a brother who has also been coming to church. He told the sisters that he would get baptized yesterday so either they or we will help in teaching him and helping him to come to Christ and start that path that he will never forget.

There is also the student that we met and set a baptismal date with who came back from Japan. We have a meeting with him tomorrow to see where he's at and how things are going. He is great. I am very excited for this appointment with him.

Oh yeah, one more thing, it is Chinese new Year soon (in Korea Solar) which means that things are going to be shut down for three days this weekend. That means that we as missionaries will continue to train in the meantime. It's an exciting festive season here in Korea!

We also met this fantastic sister the other day. The first was someone who we helped to edit a translation of a paper from Korean to English. She was amazing. She started out believing in the Presbyterian church and then from there she started attending the Methodist church when she got married. She had her head on really straight. Big surpise, in Korea there is a big masquerade (philosphical concept) as there is in most parts of the world. People pretending to be something they are not. They buy tons of fancy stuff when really they have no money. The funny thing is that she didn't think that that went on in America...well anyways, she poured her heart out to us about how she is watching her family get sucked into this trap while she has placed her confidence in God. Where our church comes into this is that earlier she met missionaries and because they were good looking (they have a word for it in Korea just like the other way around is called Yellow Fever) anyways, she met for a long time with them and really appreciated the niceness of the people and she wanted to learn English. However the Book of Mormon was to unfamiliar to her. (In Korean the language of the Book of Mormon is very different from that of the Bible and is very difficult, even for Koreans to read). Life continued on, and then she needed help with English so she called us. She told us that her plan was to live until she was 70 and then spend the rest of her time devoted to God. She is amazing. She told us many times that she did want to learn the Book Of Mormon, except that she said that because it was something completely new, it was something that she felt intimidated to start. Anyways, we bore testimony to her and told her that through relying on God she could receive help now and that if she put God first in her life that everything would become better. We referred her to the sisters so that they can hopefully teach her more. She is a very faithful woman and we are excited to see what will happen with her family. It was a very good experience. I also learned how the Koreans describe what we call in English deep and shallow personalities, which was very interesting. It was great!

This week has gone by well! Thank you for your prayers, I can feel them helping me! I hope that you enjoy the week. The one thought that I have is simple. When we have a broken heart and a contrite spirit the Lord will baptize us with fire and with the Holy Ghost (3rd Ne. 9:20) And Elder Bednar in his talk "Receive the Holy Ghost" astutely (of course it is Elder Bednar) points out that the main purpose of everything that we do in the church is to receive the Holy Ghost. Thus, everything that we do is really to break our hearts and submit our wills to God. The paradox emerges in Matthew from the teachings of the Savior: that when we seek for our life we will lose it, but when we lose our life (in breaking our hearts and becoming contrite and submissive to the will of God, and receive the Holy Ghost) that is when we truly find it. That is when we are remember the depths of humility spoken of by Mosiah and enjoy the promised blessings in Mosiah 4:11-12 which is a very precious verse to me. I love you all so much! You are the best!