15.11.15

This last week we met with a less-active man who has good faith, but let a poor relationship with a Bishop push him away from the church, and into inactivity. We meet him every couple of weeks and help strengthen him spiritually. Last week we talked about the golden rule, specifically about how we should make time for others in our lives. I shared one of my bulwark scriptures: 3 Nephi 18:32, talking about those whom we love but hurt us, and never giving up.
On Tuesday we spent the day looking for less-actives and had a neat experience that evening that taught us more about the nature of revelation, or the way God answers prayers and helps us. We had run out of time for the day, but wanted to visit just one more person -- a potential investigator. Our choice was to turn back and make it home on time, or go a bit further and take a risk. We prayed about our choice, and offered to take the next taxi that drove by, if it was God's will that we go. We finished our prayer, began walking back towards our home, and sure enough, a taxi drove by! We flagged it down, but the driver waved to us and drove on past. We accepted that as our answer, and continued... until another taxi came by, and we tried to catch it. Once again, the same reaction. This happened a few more times, and eventually we realized what had happened. We used a specific condition -- the next taxi -- and God gave us a specific answer -- it drove past us. That was it; we had our answer. Seeking confirmation is good, but we need to learn to accept the ones God does give us.
The next day, I trained our district on -- can you guess? -- having faith to baptize! We've been talking about this a lot lately, and I was happy to continue the discussion. We did some good practice in giving the commitment to be baptized, and we were all enlightened. That evening, my companion and I prayed to be able to give a Book of Mormon to somebody, and asked to be guided. We followed small promptings, and ended up talking to a couple of teenagers, one of whom accepted a Book of Mormon. Prayer works!
Thursday was our temple day, and it was a day to increase faith: while there, I felt that there were three people prepared for us to baptize by the end of the year. Having a specific goal like that helps to focus you on your work, and it's meaning.
Friday's are normally pretty uneventful with weekly plannings, but this one was far from it -- after planning we went home for a light dinner (it was more of a snack?) then on the way out, we bumped into a man who works at our apartment complex. We were pretty sure he was a less-active. As we chatted, my companion asked him when we were going to eat together, and he responded, "Anytime!" My companion then asked, "How about right now?" The man -- definitely a less-active, as we discovered -- took us to dinner, and even asked for a spiritual message afterwards! That was more than we expected. We learned a lot about him, but he was guarded with personal information -- no age, no name (though he did say we could call him "Mormon"), no place of baptism. A funny side-note: as we walked back to the apartment complex with him, he said that I have an interesting accent. When I asked for specification, he said I sounded like a royal! He asked about my major, then told me I should be a lawyer. I guess he took a liking to my voice.
Saturday was spent talking to teenagers on the street, teaching English, and getting punked by less actives in the rain. It ended on a great note though, with a man randomly giving us persimmons, just because! 

A few words on gratitude and faith
This week I thought a lot about feeling more joy as I do missionary work, and as a result I studied a lot about gratitude, and discovered some interesting correlations to faith. In Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord commands us to do "all things with prayer and thanksgiving." When I read this, I realized that in our efforts to increase our faith, we were praying a lot more, but we hadn't increased our gratitude in proportion. I learned that when we want to increase or faith, we need to also increase our gratitude. They're three related things. The more gratitude we have, the better we become at recognizing the hand of God in our lives, which leads us to gain more faith. 

Love,
Elder Austin Lynn

15.11.8

Our faith continues to grow! And as we have more faith, we exercise it -- we act according to what we feel and believe, not what we know. Then, God starts to trust us, because we show that we're willing to act. Recently, I read that "It is better to be trusted than to be loved." I pondered that principle, and was reminded of a scripture in the Book of Mormon: Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God. (1 Nephi 17:35) In other words, God loves everybody, but He can't treat us all the same -- because we choose to let God into our lives, He'll never force His way in; God can't bless us if we don't obey. So, while God will always love us, to be trusted, to be favored, is an even greater prize to strive for. After all, we don't do anything to be loved of God. He loves those who deny or hate Him, and He loves those that serve Him with all their heart. The real question is, what will we do because of that love? Will we let it propel us forward, as the foundation of faith? Or will we take it for granted, and continue to serve the gods of this world -- pride, society, and pleasure?
So, with our faith we went out and worked! Our week broke down a bit like this: 

Monday: Helped some members moved, spent the rest of the day making up for lost time: shopping, cleaning, emailing, then doing a bit of family history work at the church so I could bring some names to the temple. 

Tuesday: Visited a less-active sister and her daughter; dressed her up in the Armor of God and discussed how we need all the parts of it to stand in these times. Brought her home teacher along with us, and know he's more inspired to visit her. Success! Got lost on the way to a member-meal appointment that night, but that was okay -- we asked a woman for directions, who later saw the other team of Elders, and helped them without being asked. People are so kind! 

Wednesday: We spent the day in district meeting, then looking for less-actives. On our way home from district meeting, we met a kid who really, really liked baseball. He asked me who my favorite team was, and I... immediately responded with The Royals! He was really excited about that, since they just won the World Series. Then, it turned out that he lived in America for a while, close to my companion's hometown in Idaho! He has a huge test next week, but hopefully, we'll start meeting next week. 

Thursday: Thursday was our big zone training for this month. We talked more about baptism, and having the faith to baptize those who are prepared. I learned a lot about prayer -- not only is prayer important, but frequently praying is. We can pray for a long time, and that's dandy, but we can't pray for an hour in the morning then be good for the day. We need to constantly reconnect with a higher power -- with God. He's there for us, every moment of every day, if we'll just reach out to him. 

Friday: Friday we realized that while we set goals in faith, we can't control outcomes. We did our part, but we were let down by a potential investigator (he still came to church, but now he's been three times, and we haven't been able to start the missionary discussions. Rats!). We taught a practice lesson instead, and miraculously visited someone right after they got a crushing phone call, telling them their son failed a college entrance exam. We were able to talk about things with him, and I think all three of us walked away understanding the relationship between father and son a little better.

Saturday: Saturday was filled with traveling, teaching English class, getting lost, and meeting potentials. The person turned out to have known missionaries for years, and isn't interested in learning about our church -- he said that every religion is true, to an extent, so it doesn't really matter how true ours is. It's true that we all have truth, and all religions are based in truth, but there is a significant difference in how much truth we possess. Joseph Smith spoke of how he couldn't believe any of the religions of his day, because they were limited by "creeds," or specific statements outlining everything they believed, and limiting their amount of truth. This Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ accepts all truth, and lays hold on it. 

Sunday: We had Stake Conference last week, and lots of less-actives came to church! I was really happy about that. That day, I read about the Prophet David O. McKay's teachings about temptation and self-mastery -- he considered them essentially the same. To finish this letter I'd like to quote a verse of poetry he quoted: 

“What though I conquer my enemies,
And lay up store and pelf!
I am a conqueror poor indeed
Till I subdue myself.”

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin Lynn

15.11.2

We spent three days this week participating in "Family Discovery Day." It was a really enjoyable activity that everybody in our stake pulled together to put on, focusing on family history, it's importance in our lives, and how we can participate in it. My team was in a room where we directly worked with people on the "Family Search" website. We helped people make accounts and find their ancestors! There were times when there was nobody for me to help, so I did my own personal family history. I was able to find some of my own direct ancestors, and, just as importantly, find many of my ancestors' children. As I did family history, I found myself becoming more and more interested in the work. In the church, we talk of "the Spirit of Elias," which is, simply the Holy Ghost, testifying to us of family history work. I know that I felt it in strong measure as I did this sanctifying work. I think I found around 20 of my ancestors during the three days we did this, and I found a desire to do it in the future as well.
On Friday evening, our investigator So J----(서정환) was baptized by his member grandfather. Because we weren't originally intending to hold a baptism that evening, we ended up pulling everything together at the last minute. His non-member father came, and had a good experience. Both the missionaries here and the local primary sang at his baptismal service. It was exciting to have a baptismal service again -- and we plan on holding many more in the future. Our entire district is excited and ready to baptize. And with increased faith, comes increased power: such as the power to find those who are ready to follow Jesus Christ.
Monday, as usual, was our preparation day. We ate lunch with some of the other missionaries in this city, then my companion sent his luggage to his new home, while I sent a box of things I no longer need in the mission field home. That evening, we ate dinner with our ward mission leader, at his home. It was a wonderful dinner, in part thanks to the strong relationships between the missionaries and the ward mission leader. After one team shared a spiritual message about the power of hymns in our daily lives, we decided to sing a closing hymn before we left for our home. As we decided to what to sing, I suggested "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again." Our Ward Mission Leader loved that suggestion, looked at me and said, "Elder Lynn, go home here. You're entered my heart now." I laughed at that, seeing that I've known him since the beginning of my mission, but it was a happy moment, even if the song we were singing was all about goodbye's.
I recently learned that the word goodbye actually comes from "God be with you." I found that extremely interesting, that when we would part in past times, we would hope that God would be with the other person.
On Tuesday Elder Ryu and I met with members a few times before he left the city. They were really nice, and I was happy that they talked to me as well as Elder Ryu. One sister was really surprised when she asked me if Korean was difficult. I told her it was easy, but just took time. Her jaw dropped, and she kept saying that was the first time anybody had ever said Korean was easy.
On Wednesday we had transfers, and I met my new companion: Elder Dent. I've known him for the past few transfers, so he's not really a new companion, but now we're working together. Our first (almost) week together has been good so far; we've met a few less-active members and one investigator. We didn't have a lot of time this week because of the stake activity, but we're ready to go hard this week. 

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin

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.

15.10.18

The big event of this week would definitely be our mission tour -- President Whiting of the Quorum of the 70 visited our mission this week, and addressed the entire mission. His topic? Faith. 

In short, he challenged our mission to have more faith to baptize. 

Historically, missions in Korea and Japan have baptized few people, but surrounding countries are seeing great success. President Whiting also related an experience where the area headquarters was visited by Elder Russel M. Ballard, (then) Bishop Stevenson, and (then) Elder Ronald A. Rasband. It's easy to see that the Church cares a lot for this area -- especially seeing who these three men are now. Elder Ballard told President Whiting that, frankly, there should be more baptisms
here, because the Apostles send only the best to Japan and Korea. 

That was an incredible thing to hear, and their next question has everybody thinking: "Why aren't we baptizing more?" 

The simplest answer -- the only answer -- is that we lack the faith and vision to do it. We're obedient, and we work hard, but a lot of missionaries are content to think they'll baptize one or two people on their mission. Almost everybody's been told by somebody, "Oh, missionary work's tough in that area. Don't get your expectations too high." That's a false principle, as taught by Preach My Gospel: "If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease,your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit." Low expectations results in low faith. So, over the past week, our mission is making a concentrated effort to exercise more faith and to truly believe that each companionship can baptize every month. When we start to see the results of this increased faith, I am certain that it will be glorious, a miracle. 

As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about lots of things we were taught about and discussed at that conference over the past few days. The interesting thing is that what I've experienced is one phrase popping up, that keeps coming back to my mind throughout the day. On Saturday, while proselyting I thought about how he mentioned that when people on the street ignore or reject us, it's not because they hate us, as an individual. They don't know us well enough to hate us! Rather, they're rejecting what we represent -- Jesus Christ, and His Church. That was sobering, but also helped to remove part of the burden that rejection brings with it. As the part of me that thinks about myself has shrunk, I've felt more sadness and pity for those who, without a word, turn away from us. 

On Sunday, the phrase that stuck in my head was that faith leads to action, and discouragement leads to inaction. What a succinct summary! Every time I turned away from a person, that thought crept into my mind: discouragement leads to inaction. And when I talked to a person, I was validated by remembering that faith leads to action. What a blessing we have to be led and counseled by men who receive revelation from God, and who can see the big picture. 

This week, we spent a lot of our time proselyting telling people about "Family Discovery Day," a community event the church is throwing here. With over 50 missionaries working diligently in the same city, every day, for a few hours, we're seeing a big increase of diligence and great progress in proselyting skills. In particular, it has been a huge blessing to see other missionaries doing their best, because it inspires everybody else.There's a song that says, "Hearts can inspire other hearts with its fire.” "Give me some men who are stout-hearted men, who will fight for the right they adore. Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men, and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more."
I have just one more thought I wanted to share: 

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

(2 Corinthians 4:5-10)

I don't know a better way to describe proselyting on the streets. It's not about us; it's about the Gospel, and Jesus Christ who gave it to us. We're not perfect (we're just "earthen vessels"), but that's just so that people can know for a fact that the Spirit we carry with us isn't us; it's God. God shines in our hearts; and so we invite others to step into the light.

15.10.11

This week we watched General Conference! I took tons of notes and, rather than just spew a bunch of them out, I'll finish today's letter with the themes I spotted in conference -- ideas, phrases, and such, repeated by several speakers throughout the sessions.
I learned a lesson about perspective last week while trying to find less-active members. We had received a new list of people last Sunday from our Ward Mission Leader, so I distributed the names and we made it a priority to confirm all of them this week. Elder Ryu and I went to find a family out on the outskirts of our area. We ended up spending around 4 hours trying to find where their apartment complex was, and if it wasn't for a very helpful realtor's office, I'm not sure we would've made it that quickly! When we got there, we were surprised by the tall wall, topped with barbed wire fence that surrounded the apartment complex. There was a large office building near the entrance, and as we walked in, a window opened and a man shouted, "Why?!" We responded that we were here to visit a member of our church, and he told us to go inside and talk to someone. We weren't too happy with that; lots of people assume we just show up to knock on doors and tell people to repent, so we get reactions like that a lot, if they don't just tell us to leave.
So, we walked in and asked this woman about the names we had with us, explaining we were looking for a family. Without looking up from her phone, she told us they weren't here. We left, walked down the street, then Elder Ryu stopped and said, "It took us four hours to find this place... If we could confirm it that would be good." So, we came back and told the woman this, explaining that we've promised to find these people. She searched a bit on the computer, and explained that not only were those names not on their records, but that it was nearly impossible for them to be here -- because that complex was for women living alone. Elder Ryu and I were startled by that, and left after thanking her for her help. We laughed about it on the street, and suddenly the security and briskness made sense. Of course we looked suspicious! Two twenty-ish year olds, one of them white, striding into a place where there's no men besides the guard outside! When we know things we didn't know before, everything can change.
Another thing we tried this week was visiting members at night, sharing a message with them across their step, and quickly leaving. One night we talked to two families, and shared a message from 3 Nephi 1, which I'd read that day. We discussed how those who follow the prophets of God will make it out alright in the end. Things may take time, but God will always, always vindicate His prophets -- because they speak in His name. And as the scriptures teach, none of God's words will fail.
Another message was from Alma 48, explaining the preparation that Moroni underwent to prepare his people for war. The principle we highlighted was that Moroni first prepared his people spiritually, then he went to work and prepared them physically, too! He didn't expect God to do everything, but he also put the issue in the Lord's hand, making himself a willing tool in God's hands.
The final message we shared was from Alma 37:37, counseling us to pray with God and seek his advice. I thought about this a lot because our mission president recently stated to the mission that, "Our biggest problem -- probably any mission's biggest problem -- is that we don't pray enough." We pray a lot -- every meal, when we leave the house, when we begin studies -- but do we pray with intent? Do we pray every time we want to receive inspiration? We ought to.
In between sessions of conference we met with our investigator. We aren't sure how much interest he has in changing his life and accepting the gospel, even though he keeps commitments, so we asked him straight up what he wants in life. He thought about it a bit and responded that he wants to find happiness. He said we find it through lots of little things; which we agreed with. We talked a bit about God's purpose and plan for us, and how God wants us to be happy. We'll begin teaching more in-depth about the Plan of Salvation next week, and hope that the beautiful truths it contains will touch his heart. 

Lastly, these are the 21 themes I noticed from General Conference.
1) God takes us as we are.
2) God will shape and mold us.
3) Ask yourself questions to lead to self-growth.
4) Trust God, no matter what.
5) God helps us to accomplish things we cannot do.
6) Keep the Sabbath Day Holy!!!
7) Boats!
8) The world is cynical.
9) Satan's after us! He's trying to drag us down.
10) The commandments help us simplify our lives.
11) Isaiah is a really valuable book of scripture.
12) We can't compromise -- in any way -- with evil and the world.
13) Belief is a choose -- choose to believe!
14) The Spirit grows brighter in darker and darker world.
15) The world is different from who we are.
16) Lots of people die. Death's a big part of life.
17) One person can make a difference through their refusal to compromise and standing up for what they believe in.
18) Don't excuse or explain away God's doctrine. 
19) There's a lot of teaching about life beyond the veil.
20) President Monson has served faithfully for a long, long time.
21) Daniel and the latter-day prophecy were mentioned a lot!

15.10.4

I thought I'd start today's letter with something I learned in language study this morning. I was reading the Book of Mormon in Korean, which has been a wonderful eye opener. There are some concepts that are more clear in Korean, and certain words with carry slightly different connotations. Couple that with a completely different grammatical structure, and you're bound to find new things every time you read. In particular I was reading Alma Chapter 5 today, and I was impressed by how the phrase "sing the song of redeeming love" was translated. It's a little complex to explain to none Korean speakers, but from the way the verb redeeming is conjugated and honorified, it's very clear that they're talking about Jesus Christ's love, in a very present, active way. When I read that phrase, the thought that entered my mind was we "sing the song of the Redeemer's love." What a wonderful song.
So, last Monday was the final day of Korea's biggest holiday. We were expecting to be alone on the streets that night, but a member from a different ward that uses our building invited all of the missionaries in the area to spend a Family Home Evening together. It's probably the only FHE I've been involved in this year! They shared a spiritual thought, refreshments, and played a traditional Korean game with us. I was grateful for these members, and I could sense the importance that missionary work had in their family. As I've served, I've come to realize that I don't worry about the spirituality of families that are involved in missionary work. As we work to show others how wonderful the gospel is, we come to realize it in deeper ways than before.
On Tuesday we met with a former investigator who we'd never met before. he's a 26 year old fellow working for a broadcasting company. He likes missionaries, so we weren't sure how much interest he had in the gospel when we first met him. We decided to focus on God for our first meeting. As follows, we discussed what he believes about God, and inquired as to whether or not he prays and reads the scriptures. He thinks that God exists most of the time, and when prodded by a question of "why," he said it's because he feels God has helped him in his life when things were tough. We explained that whenever God helps us do more than we're able to, or He teaches us something we don't know, it's called revelation.
(As a side note, some people may scoff at that. But, I would point to Doctrine and Covenants, Section 8, where God uses the instance of Moses splitting the Red Sea for Israel as an example of the spirit of revelation. Under that category, I believe revelation is what God does for us that we can't do for ourselves.)
We took that subject and explained that there are three ways we receive revelation: going to Church, reading the scriptures, and praying. We committed him to try an experiment: to read the Book of Mormon every day, pray every day, and come to church every week for a month. We promised him that if he did so, he'd know whether or not God exists. We've been sending him scriptures every day, and he's committed to come to church, so I'm very excited for him. We watched a Mormon Message about revelation together to end the lesson, and he was very impressed. After listening to Elder Bednar explain how revelation feels and works, he exclaimed, "Wow, I have had revelation before!"
https://www.lds.org/…/2012-01-012-patterns-of-light-spirit-…
The next day was District Meeting. I trained on using our new flip-chart books we received at our mission training conference last weekend, and we practiced using them in two different roleplays: one was a random selection from the book, and a second was a President-mandated roleplay about repentance, emphasizing the points we were trained on during last weekend. Both of the roleplays went really well; which is always awesome. Roleplaying is honestly a kind of weird thing to do, but I feel it's one of the most effective ways missionaries become better teachers. Nothing does a 20 year old more good than sitting down and teaching another 20 year old who's pretending to be somebody else.
On Thursday, we finally met with "Dream Man." At least, that's what he said to call him when we met him two weeks ago and had an animated conversation about the Book of Mormon. And... well, I think he was presented with a clear choice, and I hope that he chooses the road towards Christ and joy later in life. Right now, he's fighting himself. In one breath, he says he wants to find the truth, then in the next says that there's no truth anywhere for him to find, and he doesn't care. It's very sad, but all we can do is invite him to look. Like Israel in the wilderness, we've raised the serpent on the rod; it's up to him to look and live.
On Friday I spent the evening working with one of our zone leaders, and I was really impressed by a thought he shared with me the next day: as leaders, our responsibility is to help others reach their potential. He found that in a talk by Elder Wirthlin, where he said a question every leader should ask himself is: "How am I doing in helping others reach their potential?" We sat down and talked about the potential of the people in my area, and how I can help them reach that. It was a really productive discussion, and helped me remember that my most important role isn't to lead people around, but to help show them how to walk, by staying by their side and helping them grow. I am so grateful for the chance to be involved in others' progression, and I hope that I can help everybody in my district take strides forward as effective missionaries.
Saturday and Sunday passed without anything too significant, then we met a less-active young man who had just moved into our area on Sunday evening. (이솔), and boy, I love that kid. His father warned us that he was a little strange, and suffered from crippling depression because of bullying at school, but when we met, he seemed like a normal kid. He was really friendly, and turns out to know my companion's twin! He likes missionaries a lot, and is going to be coming out to church here in the future. Our plan is to involve him in our missionary work as much as possible. Nothing helps you feel good like helping others, and it's in losing ourselves that we find ourselves, and our happiness. I anticipate seeing him a lot more in the future.
General Conference, here I come! 

Best Wishes,
Elder Austin Lynn