15.9.6

Sister Bak (박인옥) will be baptized this Saturday, God permitting!

A lot of this week consisted of meeting with her to prepare her for baptism on Saturday. It's a nerve-wracking work, but it also inspires the soul -- the standards for baptism are high, but they're meant to be. We finished teaching the fifth lesson and practiced the baptismal interview so that she could feel more comfortable. Her testimony is rooted in the Book of Mormon -- prayer is difficult for her, but she keeps working on it. She reads the Book of Mormon as well as any member -- when we meet she asks questions about what she's read, and she finds herself thinking about it when she has problems in her life. My experience with her has shown me that purposeful reading in the Book of Mormon has the power to change lives and hearts. How incredible! What an inspired book.

She'll be baptized this Saturday, at 6:00. I'm so grateful that she has made it this far, and I continue to pray that nothing happens to prevent her from joining Christ's fold at that time. 

As we've met with people, I've come to realize in a very blunt way that it is not the missionary's teachings that convert people. Rather, it's the experiences they have on their own, "experimenting on the word" and feeling the Holy Ghost. Ultimately, general conference, the sacrament, and everything else the Church does will never convert us towards the Savior if we don't act on it and have our own experiences. Thus, the purpose of a lesson is to motivate a person to have experiences, and challenge them to do so. That should be the purpose of all gospel teaching -- provide understanding, motivation, and encouragement.

Last week a group of sisters took us out to eat dinner, and I thought I'd share the thought we shared with them. In Romans, Chapter 8, Paul clearly shows that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God: 

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come, 

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-38)

This knowledge gives us comfort during times of trial and courage during our daily life. But, how do we apply it to strengthen ourselves? We can find the answer in the Book of Mormon, where Alma and his people were in a bad situation, but found solace in the love of Christ. 

"And now it came to pass that Amulon began to exercise authority over Alma and his brethren, and began to persecute him, and cause that his children should persecute their children.

"For Amulon knew Alma, that he had been one of the king’s priests, and that it was he that believed the words of Abinadi and was driven out before the king, and therefore he was wroth with him; for he was subject to king Laman,yet he exercised authority over them, and put tasks upon them, and put task-masters over them.

"And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God.

"And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he put guards over them to watch them,that whosoever should be found calling upon God should be put to death.

"And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him;and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.

"And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

"And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage." (Mosiah 24: 8-16)

These people not only knew they could not be separated from God, but they acted on it -- to great effect. 

A lot of this week was spent visiting less-actives. Our ward conference is coming up soon, so we've been dropping off invitations to it. Nobody's been home yet, but we're still going strong! Another experience this week reminded me of how important it is to keep ourselves in the right environments. We went to visit somebody, but there was a pastor from another church talking to him. I've always had a lot of respect for those people, but in Korea... they have quite a bad reputation. They're highly aggressive, not very nice, and are a lot like the Crusaders -- they focus more on the "every knee shall bow," than the "love one another." So, he walked right up to us and started attacking us verbally, wanting to show off his knowledge of the Bible and "prove" we were incorrect. We left. Just five seconds around him had brought an oppressive, dark atmosphere that it took us some time to shake off. I realized that as missionaries, we do spend most of our time, if not all of it, with the Holy Ghost constantly surrounding us. Losing it for that brief moment showed a huge contrast. I would hate to live life feeling like that. Another testimony that this is the Lord's work, in an unexpected way.

Elder Lynn's Helpful Tip for Retaining Revelation 

Lately I've experienced a great outpouring of inspiration, and dare I say -- revelation -- this week during my evening prayers. There's a lot of different ways to invite revelation (pondering the scriptures, saying prayers out loud, etc) but today I wanted to share something I feel is equally as important: retaining revelation. 

How many of us have taken a test, looked at a question and thought to ourselves, "Well, I knew the answer last week..." I know I've experienced similar feelings when hearing a word in Korean that I'd learned, but forgotten, and can no longer recall the definition. Revelation from God is too precious to be lodged in our minds like food between our teeth -- fairly secure in the moment, but relatively easy to dislodge and lose in the hustle and bustle of life. 

Well, let's try to avoid that. The simplest way, in my experience, is to have a small notepad on hand while praying, or to have a study journal while reading the scriptures. Every thought, every insight, every learned morsel should be written down and preserved. Preserved for the future, because that's what faith is for. What benefit would we have today if the prophets of yesteryear hadn't written down their prophecies of the future, the things they learned? We can be certain that there'd be a lot less fulfillment of prophecy and probably a lot more confusion about God's relationship to man. 

Show God you care. Take a second, write it down. It could come in handy in the morning. Or down the road in 10 years, or even to a distant grandchild or even further. God will judge the world out of the books written (2 Nephi 29:11), so what are we writing in our lives? What are we writing about our lives? Let's look forward to the future -- it may be in the morning when we rack our brains to remember the precious gem God entrusted to us, or it may be at judgement day, when we look down to blank pages and scribbles in the book of life. 

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin Lynn