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!
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