Family from Gwang Ju Tour #2

Picture from Gwang Ju Tour 2

TEACHING ENGLISH AND CHOCOLATE MILK

Hello Mother and Family!!!

This week went by very well.

Ahhh. English is not probably what you think it is. Our English class starts with a prayer, ends with a short spiritual thought and prayer, but everything in between that is...English. Normally we will teach some sort of situation (last time we taught doing phone calls). We explain the vocabulary and how to do it and then we practice. At the end we make a comparison of phone calls and prayer, say a prayer and that's it. 

Aside from the class we do a 30-30 program. This program is 30 minutes of teaching English and then 30 minutes of teaching the Gospel. Most of the investigators that we get actually come from English advertisements. In fact, President Shin was baptized through learning English...:) It helps people get introduced to the real message that we are sharing which can really change their lives if they let it. That's the way we do English...

The family came to the English class and they really liked it, but were unable to come to church yesterday which was rather unfortunate.

The Chicken Fryer...he was English interest and I went on a split with a Korean companion with him and since then...he hasn't responded. He was mainly English interest, but if he meets missionaries again he will have a good link to them!

The Rwandan Couple were on vacation for 10 days and get back today...but we are excited to work with them because they are excited about the Book Of Mormon. We will try to set something up with them for this week!

The investigator who broke his knee (ACL) is supposed to get out of the hospital this week. He is soooo funny. He lived in Australia for a while and so he picked up some funny English. He also learns English from movies and whatnot. He is a very special investigator. But, he is doing well. Because he broke his knee he is out of baseball for a season which means that he will be at church on Sunday every week :) He told us at our last meeting that since he has started meeting with us he has felt "rest" or "peace" inside. He doesn't quite understand it, but he feels it. He is great. 

The older gentleman is in KongJu. 

But we had some great other investigators meet this week.

We met one investigator on the street when I first got here and he said that he would meet us at the church on that Saturday at 7pm. He came and there was an adult activity going on (volleyball) which he really enjoyed and which he went home happy from (with a member). (he is in his 50s by the way). So, we called him and arranged through members for him to get to church and he told us that he would come to church every week! So, now we need to teach him and help him come to Christ and receive baptism. He is great though. I sat by him in sacrament meeting yesterday and he just seemed happy.

We went to church yesterday with Sidda, our Chinese investigator on a bus. We were traveling and I realized that the person sitting across the aisle next to me was watching our investigator's chinese book of mormon. I looked a little closer and realized that his phone was in chinese. That is when I just said "You're chinese too aren't you". He then said that his mother was Korean and his father was Chinese, and then he went off with our investigator in a conversation in Chinese and then came back and talked to us more. Well, long story short he wasn't really going anywhere, so he came to church with us. It turns out that he lives pretty close. He didn't seem to have a whole lot of Gospel interest, but he said that he doesn't have any friends. The church is about 40 minutes away from where we live so we referred him to the elders in that area. 

We also have another investigator who is Uzbekistanian. He is very close to being baptized and we were referred another Uzbekistanian person who seems to have quite a bit of potential (and time to meet) and so we are excited about that other lead.

We also met a person at English class who used to meet with missionaries and who used to have a baptismal date. He said that he wanted to meet again and learn English, so we are excited to follow up on that lead.

We also had a great little miracle on Sunday as well. This past week we were going out to visit members, but as we called, none of them were home, or had been visited recently by other missionaries. However the last person that we called was the Elder's Quorum President who told us of a less active to go visit. Apparently this less active has a very rough family situation. They have three daughters, but the marriage relationship is a little bit rocky and the wife seems to always be depressed. Well, when we went to visit, the father and mother were home (which was rare in and of itself) and as we talked to the father he didn't really respond at all until we were about 3/5ths through the message. Then he opened up and talked about how it was hard to come to church now that the wards had been united. We continued with our message, sang I am a child of God with his kids (the best), and then left. On Sunday they came to church as a family for the first time in a few months. He was wearing a great suit and he contributed a lot in Elder's quorum and other meetings. It was a really great opportunity to see the hand of God work in His children's lives. The Lord was able to work through the Elder's Quorum President to help this family get back to church. We hope that they will continue to come back, we will continue to visit them :)

We also met with the "already Mormon" family who is amazing. They don't seem to really understand what our church. We think, knowing them, that they have researched and looked up the church, but they do not quite understand the values of our church and what it stands for. The mother is incredibly spiritual and frankly told us that growing up in the world is really hard because youth these days aren't inclined to the spiritual, but in Korea to games, smoking, and drinking. They are wonderful, will vacation next week, but we will see them the next week.

Anyways, things are busy here, but they are always good. Another cool story. First off, it is really HOT here in Korea for the next little bit. There was a morning when we woke up and it was 88 degrees Fahrenheit in the house (6:30am), with about 80-90% humidity. We decided through prayer to go down south and find and put up our English advertisements. Well, about halfway through the day we were dehydrated and so we stopped at a little 711-like store to get some fluids. At the end I had this thought to get some chocolate milk. I didn't think that I needed it, so I continued to put it out of my mind, but finally I thought, if it has been coming to my mind this many times it must be the spirit (even for chocolate milk...???) Anyways, when I went up to the counter with the chocolate milk, the cashier was reading the Bible (in the middle of the day at work...) so we talked to her, gave her a Book of Mormon, and she told us that she wanted us to go back. We will follow up with it this week. Anyways, the Lord works through mysterious ways...even through chocolate milk. Haha. 

This week I learned a lot. As usual. But, it all comes back to:

God is our Father. He loves us. Because He loves us He sent His Son Jesus Christ. If we follow Jesus Christ, we can be happy. The Book of Mormon teaches us how to follow Jesus Christ. 

Seriously, if someone told you there was a "Happy Book" that by reading it you could be happy would you read it? Of course. Well, if we read the Book of Mormon and live according to the principles in the book, we will be happy. Why? Because the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ who atoned for all of our unhappiness. The Book of Mormon happens to tell us plainly the "great reason" for sorrow, and the "great reason" for joy. Read Alma 28:14. That is a deep truth. The great reason of all sorrow and the great reason of all joy. Nephi tells of the thing that is "most joyous to the soul" (1 Nephi 11) The great reason of Joy is light and life. Which is only possible through Jesus Christ. I know He lives and He loves us.

Have a wonderful week!

I love you soooo much!

AIRSOFT WARS IN KOREA

Hey mother, and family!

Sounds like things are going well in Oregon, Idaho, and Minnesota! That makes me happy :) 

This past week we had a busy week with meetings, but have some great news. One of our Chinese investigators named Sidda accepted to be baptized on August 17th! We are so excited for him and he is extremely excited for his baptism! Also the ping-pong investigator in 공주 is supposed to get baptized next week! That is the good news!

This past week we also met again through a pretty cool miracle a family that my companion used to teach that had a little clash with sister missionaries and it seems that they are open again to learning. They are more on the English interest side, but they say that they don't have church and that they will go to church as we teach them English. Missionary work is a little different in Korea. A lot of investigators come through teaching English. So, we are excited for them because they area really great family and although they may not understand the greatness of the church right now, they will hopefully be able to understand it more as they get into the church and feel the spirit. I am so excited for this family. We have seen them around a lot randomly and I think it is definitely heaven sent for them to be meeting with us.

I love you all so much! 

This week I have realized again the importance of the spirit in our lives and in the work. We have to work with the Lord through the Spirit and that is what other people can feel that will glue them to the church. I know that the spirit is real and that it speaks to the hearts of the people that we teach. 

This week we had a funny story while on a split with a traveling trainer. We were coming down from visiting someone and when we open the elevator from the apartment there's a 6 year old kid standing there with an airsoft gun. He goes out and shoots it, and then thinks that it would be really funny to shoot the missionaries. So, using our umbrellas as shields we charged him and was able to get out. It was really great! We had a good laugh after that!

I love you all so much.

Remember that God is our Father

He loves. He sent His Son Jesus Christ.

If we follow Jesus Christ we will be happy.

I love you!

1st week back in Gwang Ju

Hey mom and family!!!

This week went well! we met with quite a few of our investigators and met a lot of people on the street. Our investigators for the most part are able to meet on the weekends, so we have quite a bit of time during the day to work in the area which is good. We have met a lot of good people! 

This past week we were not able to meet with our family of investigators, they were busy. We did meet with our investigator who wants to bring his family to church. He said that he would come to church next Sunday, so we are excited to meet him. 

We met with another investigator that I had not met before who is really difficult. He has been an investigator for a really long time and he just doesn't see the need to really do a whole lot of things. He goes to the military in August and so we were trying to help him come to Christ before then, but he's pretty resistant. He's great though!

On Wednesday I had a split with a Korean companion and we taught our chicken investigator who is actually a frier not a driver...he's doing well. We helped him see the need that he had to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. He is very quiet and a little shy, but if he keeps his commitments he will progress well. 

We also met with a couple from Rwanda this week, Gideon and Rosanne. They had been in Gwang ju for a little while and when we met them they said that they were 7th Day Aventist, but that they did not have a church to go to yet in Gwangju. So, we met them and introduced the Book of Mormon and Gideon got really excited about something new that could help him. It was a great meeting and the two are a great couple! 

Our Chinese investigator traveled over the weekend and so he was unable to come to church and our Uzbekistanian investigator also was too busy to come to church. 

We will go and visit our investigator with the broken knee in the hospital tomorrow...

Today I have a simple thought. Christ and Satan both descended below all things. The difference was that Satan was proud and Christ was meek and lowly of heart. Christ's willingness to go below all allowed him to rise above all while Satan's desire and lust to rise above all led him to descend below all. In our lives it is very similar. If we seek to raise ourselves up in the world we really go down. If we willingly lower our Selves and accept the will of the Lord then we can rise above all things. 

This week at church I had the opportunity to see a convert that I met on the street, taught, and then a week after I was transferred was baptized. He looks so different. The person that I met on the street is gone and has been replaced by something beautiful and bright. It is the light of change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

God is our Heavenly Father. Because He is our Father He loves us. Because He loves us He sent His Son Jesus Christ. Through following Jesus Christ we can be happy. That is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it is true. I know that in my life as I have followed Jesus Christ I have been absolutely most happy. There is nothing that I can put into words that describe the process, but that's ok because everyone, no matter who they are, if they will but choose, can experience the very same thing. 

I love you all so much!

Thank you for every thing that you have done for me! I appreciate it so much!!!

GONG JU WARD MISSION LEADER FAMILY

ERIC SUNG AND FRIENDS

Missionaries in Daejeon mission

GOOD BYE TO GONG JU and BACK TO GWANG JU

Hello Mother and family!!!

Wow! Sounds like quite the time in Minnesota. I think the coldest it gets here at night is 70 now...and there is 90% humidity all the time...enjoy the nice refreshing weather of Minnesota. Yep, the World Cup is big here too, but Korea isn't very good...[It is good that Reid has a summer job.] Missionary work is a lot less spiritual labor than you would think and a lot more physical labor than you would think :)

[We told Will that we had the missionaries over for a morning meeting with pancakes.]  Sounds like quite the treat to have the missionary correlating meeting at home...with home made breakfast. I don't understand the concept of breakfast lunch and dinner anymore....

 

 There was a baptismal service on Tuesday in 공주 and I accompanied I'm Trying to Be like Jesus. Afterwards the ward members were all surprised...like "you know how to play the piano" shows you how much I have been letting my light shine...haha.

The temple's the best. Keep up the work and remember that 15 minutes a day paves your ancestors way. (Seriously, just 10-15 minutes every day at the same time works wonders...) Speaking of which, this past week I had the opportunity to learn how to do Korean family history which is great. It is written in Ancient Chinese characters, which are at the base of the Korean language. Luckily to understand the Korean language better, I had already been studying and knew a majority of the characters. God prepared me to be able to help the people of Korea with their family history! I know that it is a true work of the Lord with all my heart!

The bittersweet ending of 공주 Gongju. Now I will be going back to 광주 (Gwang ju) lol. If you pay good attention, you can learn some Korean. (They both have 주 ju) . 

This week was so good. We met 3 Cambodians on the street this week who decided to come to church and Eric also brought two of his friends to church (see the pictures) and so we were able to have 5 investigators at church during the 5th Sunday topic of Missionary work, which was fortunate to spice up the ward. Eric wanted to come out with the missionaries before I left (I've been here a long time) and so we went out on Saturday and he helped us as we taught and proselyted. It was a truly great experience. He is a wonderful young man!!!

Let's see, oh, so Eric's referrals also attend his school, so they are the smartest Koreans that I have ever taught. We taught them the plan of salvation and they understood so well, and asked many good questions. There are many people around you that have the exact same questions. Find them and help them!!!

This week also on a downside, our English investigator has seemed to have lost his church interest. He won't come to church anymore and he won't meet with members, so it may be difficult in the future to continue to teach him. He changed a lot though, and taught me a lot about a lot of things. He will keep in contact with missionaries for sure and when the time is right he will come back to church.

We met the Cambodians, who have been in Korea for 2 years, which is for foreigners to learn Korean well enough to understand at church it normally takes them about 5 years to get enough unless they are from China or Japan which have similar language parts or grammar. Anyways, our Dragon Tiger friend talked to them and had a good time with them. They are great and very kind people!

Yes! Ping Pong here is extremely popular. They have pingpong at school, at church, wherever you go there is ping pong. They have places just for ping pong and learning, etc. We met with our ping pong investigator again on Saturday. He is doing really well and getting excited for his baptism in a little bit. He wasn't able to come to church, but through a miracle we were able to meet his dad on the street during the week. We set up with him to meet his parents and get permission for his baptism for next Saturday, so hopefully all goes through and he gets baptized in a few weeks!

We didn't have a chance to meet with our Chinese investigator yet, but we will today. He is great. 

We met with our Jehovah's witness investigator who is doing very well. He is so happy and bright. He told us that because of 1 Corinthians 13 his church does not believe in latter day miracles. We then had a good opportunity to share with him some of the miracles that we have seen as missionaries and the spirit was strong. He is such a good person! I hope that he has the opportunity and motivation to read the Book of Mormon and come to church!

We also met with our old investigator whose family are all members and is feeling death approaching. Our leaders think that he is really ready for baptism, so with Eric we were able to teach him about what baptism is (the covenant) and ask him to think about receiving it. He has been an investigator for 30 years with a WoW problem...so hopefully Elder Peterson can take good care of him! 

Our Apartment investigator...I don't remember which one that is. Oh yeah, I looked back...haha. These great names...! We visited him yesterday and he didn't seem to have any more interest. He said that if he did he would call...

I feel good about the way that I am leaving Gong Ju. Our Ward Missionary as well has changed a lot. He was pretty much an inactive member when I got here, but recently, as we have taught with him and loved him he has opened up a lot. He spoke yesterday in sacrament meeting right after we team taught Eric's friends and he gave a really power testimony of Jesus Christ. Apparently in both of the Lessons with missionaries that he had participated in the last few days, both times he was asked to talk about the Atonement. So, as members helping the missionaries, always be ready with your testimony because it is the best aid you have when helping missionaries. Tell an experience that helped you learn the truth of a principle. What was hard? How did you overcome it?

Eric is a perfect example of a member missionary (there may be some bias, but it is true). When we taught with him on Saturday we taught about baptism both times. He told the same story in both the lessons, but it was a powerful one. He said that at his baptismal service a certain person (who I later discovered was Jeff Merten) came up to him and told him that Eric may not quite understand what he was doing by receiving baptism, but that later he would come to know the significance of what he did. Well, then Eric testified that the statement from Brother Merten was true. Eric received baptism but did not know all of the happiness etc., that would come after until he continued in the path. He also mentioned that his parent did not approve at first with his decision. He prayed and prayed and then one day he asked for permission and they gave it to him. That story was so helpful when we taught 16 year old Pak Gun Yung and when we taught almost 80 year old Lee Won Eek. The investigators had a witness of another member of the significance of baptism and perhaps how they might feel when they get baptized. 

Then on Sunday, he came to church with two of his friends. He had told us that he had already explained part of the plan of salvation to them on the bus ride to the church. He is a friend to them not only when he is at church, but every step of the way. He helps them answer their questions, when we sat together at church he explained what was going on and why we were doing what we were doing (with the sacrament, etc.) He is the best! I love him so much and am absolutely beyond measure joyful in the fact that I was able to see him in Korea and that he is doing so well in the Gospel!  I love you all so much! I hope that you have a really wonderful time in everything that you do, and no matter what your circumstances are, remember to turn to the Lord, because no matter what your circumstances are, He is there to help you meet them! I love you!