Weekly letter 2/8/2015

Miracle week!

Before you get your hopes up, there's nothing to massive. No Lazarus' or cricket-eating seagulls. But, they could end up being just as significant in individual lives, in time. Our miracles consisted of finding people off of the street who are interested in coming to church. One man called out to us, "Aren't you missionaries?" We talked with him, and he said that though he attends a church, he's not really active in it, and would like to come out to one of our services. He didn't come out last Sunday, but we're going to try and meet him during the week, and give him a tour of the church. 

     We also met Do Yoon (도윤) again. We still haven't been able to teach him a lesson, but he's agreed to help us practice our Korean, and let us practice teaching with him. He doesn't have much interest in the gospel, but I believe we can touch his heart, even while practicing. 

     Our last miracle man was a former investigator -- from the other elders. We met him on the street, and talked for a long time. On the bright side, he's interested in meeting with us. So now we have a line-up of three potential new investigators this week, which we're beyond excited about. 

     Lately I've been studying the New Testament in chronological depth, aided by a wonderful study guide titled "The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ and His Apostles." I'm reading through the Acts* and some of Paul's Epistles right now, and I've just been impressed with one simple fact: the gospel is a gospel of eyewitnesses. The reason that so many of the Apostles' day -- and ours -- rejected the gospel is it's simplicity. There's nothing to theorize and philosophize on. The gospel is a just eyewitness statements: that Jesus Christ died, and was resurrected. There's no deep doctrine, no complex theology. Just men who had seen, and had received the most important witness of all: the witness of the Holy Ghost. 

     That's what our modern day apostles are. Eyewitnesses of the divinity of Jesus Christ. We don't know exactly what constitutes their special "Apostolic Witness," but we do know that all of them know, just as well as Peter, James, and John did, that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

     A witness. This concept is why the most important thing we can do as members is gain a divine witness, through the Spirit of God, that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a prophet, that God lives and loves us, and He sent His son, Jesus Christ, who died and was resurrected for us. That's why those basic principles are what a true testimony consist of. Those are the facts; and we are witnesses to them. Now is the time, and today is the day to receive that witness. It may not come all at once. But, it will come, slowly and surely, as we exercise our faith in God and His beloved son, by obeying their commandments -- now, not later. It is only after the trial that the witness comes. We study the scriptures, we pray. Then, we listen. We listen for the whisperings of the spirit, and to the testimony of others: Paul taught that faith is kindled by hearing the testimonies of those who have faith. In other words, our witness can come as we listen to others' witnesses. 

*The Book of Acts in the Bible has been called "The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles." Pretty neat, huh? Also descriptive of the true teacher of the gospel. 

     With that thought in mind, I leave you with my own witness of Jesus Christ. He is the son of God. When He appeared to the Nephite people in America, His first words were an affirmation of His obedience to His father -- God, our Heavenly Father. I testify that He was completely obedient to the will of the Father, drinking the bitter cup and accomplishing an infinite atonement. He lived, died, and, most important of all, He was resurrected. He lives today! 

     I'm out of time for this week, but I can't wait to share next's weeks thought with you: that the ultimate mission of the Savior, Jesus Christ, was to show us what the Father is like.

Best wishes,

Elder Austin Lynn

Weekly Letter February 1, 2015

Choku!
Choku (촉구) was our sports activity this week. It's a vastly enjoyable cross between soccer and volleyball, which, like both sports, I'm not terribly good at, but always pleased to try my hand. We were especially excited because a less-active brother we've been working with for a long time came to it, marking his first step inside a church building in.... likely, years. So, yay for Bak Jay H (박제홍)! He's a really great man, with strong beliefs about family, but he hasn't been coming out due to work. We're not very worried about his family life though. The other day, he told us that he's always remembered one of the phrases from the church a while back: Family is heaven on earth. He's always remembered that, and it's affected his family life. He sets aside time for his family, and you can just tell how much he loves them. It's wonderful. As a fun sidenote, his son and I are the same age, so he calls me "son" and I call him "father." 
It's interesting to note how many "fathers" I have, in one sense. Foremost, there's my Heavenly Father, and my earthly father. Beyond that, there's Moses and Aaron, who become the spiritual fathers of all priesthood holders, my mission president, my trainer, and now this less-active man who so loves his family. Finally, there's Jesus Christ, who becomes the spiritual father of all who accept His gospel and endure to the end. Isn't it funny how much of our gospel relates back to those primal relationships found in the family?
In other news, I golfed for the very first time last week. For P-Day, the Sanbon Elders went screen-golfing! It's very popular in Korea, and all of us have always wondered what it's like. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Of course, I didn't do too well, but that's to be expected.^^ No big deal; I'll get better if we play it again. 
Hey, I'm not sure how many of you know this, but reading the scriptures in a foreign language can be exhilarating. I recently started using the Korean scriptures more in my language studies, and it's been fantastic. I'm finally to a point where all I miss are the specific words, rather than grammar forms and conjugations, so the scriptures have become another text for me to learn from. Unfortunately, nobody actually speaks in the scriptural forms anymore, but understanding the scriptures really helps when it comes to teaching. (Naturally)
I haven't started teaching seminary yet; when (or if) it happens, you'll hear first! Hopefully they ask for my help, I'm terribly excited to try it. I think it'd be a great way to learn.
All in all, this week was pretty slow, with lots of appointments punking on us. There's not much to do in that case, besides go out there and find people to meet with us. And, that's the majority of missionary work in Korea. One golden day, members will be a prime, moving force behind it, but until then there's nothing to do but put our shoulders to the wheel, and our feet to the pavement. In the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith... "Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, ... and on, on to the victory!" I am all about the business of victory. Victory over sin, victory over despair, victory over ignorance -- ultimately, victory of light over dark. 

From a lonesome private on the front lines, deep in the trenches, 
Elder Austin Lynn