15.10.25

This week had a cool focus on Family History, since our church is hosting "Family Discovery Day" next week. Every day, all of the missionaries from the Seoul West Stake would gather and spend 3 hours promoting the activity in the area our church is located in. This activity was a wonderful chance to get into a habit of proselyting harder than we had before, because we had one of the most simple conversation starters in the world -- a flyer. Every day, we'd go out 2 by 2, carrying 100 flyers. To be honest, Elder Ryu and I never gave all of them out, but we talked to a lot of people. And that's an even greater success. I'd rather talk to one person who will actually come to the event than give out a thousand flyers to people with no interest. 
One lesson that was impressed again and again to me this week was how far I still have to come as a person. I felt like I was pretty level-headed and easy going on the streets, but something about people putting a hand up and ignoring what you say, or pretending to listen then responding, "I already believe in Jesus," or, worst of all, "It's enough," really seemed to grind my gears! It was tough not to get frustrated. Get this straight: our activity is not connected to the church. Most of the time, the first thing we say is "Yes, we're from a church, but this is not related to religion." And I think it's because, in our eyes, this activity and simply giving a flyer are such harmless, non-threatening actions that when people rudely reject that, it's difficult not to take it personally. 
So, my lesson: gain more charity, have less pride. I think I made a lot of progress, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to see something that I "lack yet." It was rewarding to face rejection later in the week and to smile, close my eyes, and feel the lack of negative emotion. That is a gift from God. 
On Sunday afternoon, my team was invited to a training for the activity, which will be held next week. I was grateful to be one of the teams chosen for this activity, and it turned out to be quite a stroke of luck: my next companion is very talented at family history. Of course, now that I've been through their orientation, I feel ready to do it, too! Because of their detailed genealogies, Korean family history is in general vastly easier. 
By the way, transfer calls came last week! Elder Ryu is leaving, and I'll be companions with Elder Dent, an Elder from my district. We're combining our proselyting areas, and I'll be (sadly) moving from Yeonsu house, to their house, close to the church (that's one pro). 
Before transfer calls on Sunday morning, we had a regular week: on P-Day we went to Chinatown, which was fun to look at, but not really much to do besides eat... which is what we did! The next day was service, followed by a meal at a members home. It's always nice to eat at a member's home... considering we're limited to eating out, or returning to our home on an hour long round trip. (Another pro to moving closer to the church!) The next day was district meeting. For our training this week, we talked about sustaining our leaders, which also included having the faith to reach the goals they give us! Following Elder Whiting's training, this has become a larger emphasis for us, and I'm glad it is. 
That day, we met 4 new investigators -- which is actually just one family. They're interested in learning English, so we began the Family English Program with them: we teach a half hour of English, then we share about our beliefs and church and God for another half hour. They're happily attending another church, so our goal is, as always the same: to help people come unto Christ. But for this family, rather than immediately driving for baptism we're going to help them build meaningful Christian habits, like prayer, scripture study, and service. The parents love their children and the children are outgoing and eager to learn. I'm excited to continue working with them. 
The last thing of significance this week was being invited to attend missionary prep class! It was fun to work with a potential Elder (who received his mission call yesterday -- California!), and I learned a few new things as well. For example, there's a quote in Preach My Gospel about how the Holy Ghost impresses upon our souls the reality of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. The teacher started talking about the word "impress" and I realized that it's a similar concept with stamping. The Holy Ghost will change us, leaving an imprint of divine truth. It's not just a passing feeling, but something that will stay with us, in some shape or form. The teacher also said something I found funny: We are the Spirit's legs! He doesn't have a body, so we've got to carry Him around to people! 
We also talked about how sometimes revelation doesn't immediately come. I thought of Nephi, learning to build a ship. The scriptures say he went "oft" to the mount to pray, that he prayed "oft," but when it talks of him receiving revelation, it simply says that the Lord showed Nephi great things. I doubt that Nephi's mind was blown away every single time he prayed -- it doesn't usually work like that. But I'm certain that his diligence prepared him to receive revelation from God. 
As a parting thought, the teacher in Elder's Quorum last Sunday shared a thought about pride, and defined it very simply: pride is not thinking about God. To bring home the point, he asked a series of simple questions: What do we choose between? God and man. Where do we live? The world. Who do we live with? Man. When we spelled it out so simply, it wasn't hard to understand why it's so easy to be prideful -- it's like faith. Something unseen, but nevertheless there is what we strive to focus on. In this material world, that can be, and often is, a difficult task.