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!
No comments:
Post a Comment