This week, I wanted to share one of the guiding principles in my life that I sort of realized I had this week. Simply, I never want to hear the same complaint twice. What this means is that when I hear a complaint made, or a tip proferred, I'm going to jump on it, and apply it, or change things so that the same thing doesn't come up again. It's really helped me grow, and it's improving my relationships with everybody in our house. Often, it's not even directed at me, but I still try to squash it, just so everybody can get along a little better. After all, if there's contention, we can't feel the spirit, and that means we can't do our work. We're just young men out here alone, with nothing but the Spirit of God to guide us in our work. Without it, all our effort is in vain, and we'll never accomplish anything worthwhile.
This week is Choo Suk (추석)! Choo suk (추석) is a Korean holiday. Sadly, I'm not sure what this one is, but it's when people wear the traditional clothing, called Han Boke (한복) and spend time with family. It also means people are really busy and it's almost impossible to get appointments. On Tuesday, there'll be a special training meeting/celebration, and there'll be a talent show! I decided to sing "Praise to the Man," to the tune of "The Spirit of God." Hopefully it goes well! That meetings tomorrow, but Choo Suk (추석) lasts several days.
This week Elder Harline and I have gone exploring, and we found several thrift shops! The ties there were less than $3! I have six new ties now, and it's pretty cool! They're my first Korean ties! They're gorgeous. I'll send pictures of me wearing them sometime! That's just a typical slice of my life with Elder Harline. We love to share stories with each other (and Elder Chow), and we have fun, while diligently working. This is probably my favorite transfer already. It's been wonderful, and I keep learning more and more Korean. This week I've been mixing it up, and I focused on memorization. I've memorized several scriptures in Korean now, and it's really cool! I've found it helps to mix up what you do for study every once in a while.
We had a zone training this week, and we focused on language. Not speaking properly, but literally the language of Korean. The mission keeps getting younger, so it continues to be vital that people learn as quickly as they can. I know I'm feeling a bit of the pressure. I'm one of the most fluent people in our district, and once Elder Chow leaves in a transfer or two, there'll be a lot of responsibility on me if I'm still here. That's gonna be typical across the mission; the younger missionaries have to step up as quickly as they can, especially in learning the language.
This week was really good because we actually got to teach and meet with investigators, for the first time in a while. One of them was named LJH (이주홍), and he's a year younger than me, and is really interested in different religions. He's a former, who got busy after taking the second lesson a few months ago. We're meeting with him again, and we're starting with lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's a real funny guy, and he actually took us out to dinner after we met with him! We all really like each other; hopefully we can teach with the spirit, and he'll feel that the church is true, in a way that intellectual speaking will never do.
We also met a man named Y M S (윤민석) and I'm afraid of him, he's so golden. He wanted to study scriptures with us, and do the 30/30 Family English Program. So what we'll do is study the Bible in English for half an hour, then study the Book of Mormon for half an hour in Korean! He asks questions to show that he wants to understand, and he has a lot of sincere interest. He teaches English at his brother's academy, so he's good at English, but I honestly don't know how good, because we spoke in Korean -- and that's how it should be! Anyways, I'm really excited about him. We were able to answer all of his questions using the Book of Mormon, which strengthened my testimony of it. For instance, he asked what a seer was, while reading the prophet Joseph Smith's testimony. We were able to flip open to Mosiah 8, where the first Ammon explains what a seer is to King Limhi. Later, he asked about the witnesses, and we read Ether 5, a prophecy about the three witnesses. I asked him what the significance of the witnesses was, and he understood it really well. I'm really exicted to keep teaching him. We felt in sync while we taught, and it was guided by the spirit. We asked questions, scriptures came to our mind, and God blessed all of us so that we were edified together. Even crazier, he has a referral for us! One of his students wants to learn about the church. He already sent one to the sister missionaries. He seems really solid, which scares me. It's like a "it's too good to be true!" scenario. Fingers crossed that he really is our miracle man!
We actually first contacted him when he called us up during our mission tour meeting, and that's why he's such a miracle. He just called us up out of nowhere, right after we were promised people to teach if we did our best. How about fulfillment of promises, huh?! Mission tour is when a general authority comes through and meets all the missionaries, and gives training. I think I mentioned him last week, but his name is Elder Koichi Aoyagi, and he came with his wife. His English was really good, so he spoke to us in English, as did his wife, who was adorable. They actually went around and shook everybody's hands, and when I shook her hand, I greeted her in Japanese. She then shook my hand up and down two more times, and bowed a few times! It made me so happy to put such a big smile on her face. Elder Aoyagi talked a lot about joy, and said there were two main ways we felt joy: when we feel somebody's love, and when we feel the guidance of the Lord. I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly. Sister Aoyagi talked about how our job is to "push the rock." We may not move it on our own, but all God has asked is for us to push. He'll take care of the rest. President and Sister Morrisse also spoke. Sister Morrisse gave a great talk about "looking up." Basically, we need to look up -- where we see others, and can be optimistic, rather than look down, where we're focused on ourself, and more pessimistic. I really liked it; I'll probably say more about it when I have more time. There was a lot of good phrases and ideas from mission tour, I can't possibly share them all hear. I will add one more though: a part of Christ's atonement is His power to heal our spirits. Faith in Christ includes faith that He keeps His promises. I've seen that a lot as I've read the Book of Mormon this week. We have to believe that He did what He did, and He'll do what He said He'll do.
That's it for this week; I'll try to say more next week. This pictures included are views from our apartment buidling the past few days. Today, it was so foggy we couldn't see anything outside! That was all burned up as the sun rose, of course.Elder Lynn
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