5/3/2015

Investigators... 

Still not a strong point here. We're doing our best though. People just seem to constantly duck out of meeting with us! It's frustrating, but we're doing our best to get creative in attempts to find more people to teach and serve. We were able to meet one investigator; an old gentlemen named Lee  (이기원). This week as we met, we shared a passage from Mormon, Chapter 8, Verses 1-16. Brother Lee talks a lot about how his health his poor, most of his friends are gone, and his life in general is pretty difficult. After a recent training at zone conference about likening the scriptures, we decided to take his usually-off-topic comments, and make them the center of the lesson. The chosen passage focused on how difficult Moroni's circumstances were. His family and friends had all been killed, including his father; his entire nation was wiped out; the survivors were hunted by their enemies, until he was the only one left; the entire land was consumed in what seemed then to be a perpetual war, a circle of bloodshed and carnage; and, on top of all of this, just to add insult to injury, he had little room left on the plates he was recording on, and no ore to make additional plates. 

And yet, Moroni's faith was strong. He believed in the record's worth, and knew that it would be brought forth, for the salvation of many. In spite of his apocalyptic circumstances, he had hope for the future of mankind. 

Another neat connection was how Mormon (shortly before his death) and Moroni had been visited by the Disciples of Jesus Christ, while in these troubling circumstances. We talked a bit about that, and Brother Lee compared us to them, saying that God has comforted him, through the two of us. It was special to hear an investigator so openly acknowledge us as servants of Jesus Christ. 

Another great experience this week was the zone conference referred to above. We had it in our area, and hiked partway up a mountain next to our church building. We had several trainings throughout the day, from the Assistants to the President, President Morrise, SIster Morrise, and the Zone Leaders. We could feel the effects of General Conference; several talks, such as "The Music of the Gospel" were referred to several times. How blessed we are to live in a day when revelation flows down in such voluminous amounts every six months, not to mention the monthly installments the church provides in other media! General Conference really has grown on me; I'm already excited for the next one! The main theme of zone conference was our mission theme: "We are the message." One of the ways they discussed that was by following up on a recent zone training about being positive. That was my favorite training ever, and I'm still digging it. We are a positive message! 

We had yet another meeting this week, up at mission headquarters. New missionaries are trained for 12 weeks, so now that we're reaching the halfway mark, we returned to the mission office to do a follow-up meeting. At the meeting, we had some training together, then we split up into two groups: new missionaries and trainers. We were able to talk openly about any difficulties we're facing as trainers, or good things we're doing, and all brainstorm together. One thing that impresses me is that it's never negative; it never becomes a roast on the new missionaries. There's a conscious effort to be positive and kind in every comment. 

This week's emails rather shorter than normal; but have no fear! I'll be back next week with news about a missionary youth activity, where we'll discuss "The Joy of Missionary Work." Here's hoping it goes well; heaven knows we've put in enough work! 

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin Lynn