Anyways, this week we met with our investigator Esther and taught her about the purpose of the Book of Mormon. She's still struggling with accepting anything we teach her using the Book of Mormon so we felt it important to stop teaching about the Plan of Salvation and help her better understand the Book of Mormon and why it even exists. We read a couple different scriptures from the Bible that testify and reference to the Book of Mormon. My favorite is 2 Corinthians 13:1 "This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."
I love that verse because one of the most important reasons that we have the Book of Mormon is because it is a SECOND WITNESS, or another testament, of Jesus Christ. It's a Biblical law that every word shall be established by more than one witness. If you were told by a friend that you won a prize you may or may not believe them, but if you receive another witness it becomes a truth and you have to believe what they say. Just like that, the Book of Mormon testifies to all the world that Jesus IS the Christ, and that He indeed lives.
As Sister Chestnut and I shared our personal experiences and our testimonies with Esther I could just feel the spirit fill the room. I remember asking Sister Chestnut how she felt just after Esther left, and we were both just calm and felt at peace. I couldn't help but smile and remind myself how much I love feeling that way. Seriously, having the Holy Ghost as a constant companion is the greatest gift ever! She wasn't jumping at the chance to read it, but her body language did change a little and I just REALLY REALLY hope that she felt the spirit like Sister Chestnut and I did. Maybe not as strong but just enough to help her heart open more and having more of a desire to feel more. She's still somewhat closed off .. I mean she's a catholic those are hard to teach, but we are trying to follow the spirit as best as we can while we teach her.
Speaking of Catholics, this morning on the subway train was sitting down right next to where my companion was standing. When I turned to talk to Sister Chestnut I noticed the woman take out her rosary beads and do the traditional Catholic cross hand thing.(I mean no disrespect to them but I just don't know what to call that) I just kind of smiled because it's really common for other people to do that around us. She was holding those beads so tightly the rest of our time on the train. I just that it was funny but also interesting because we weren't even doing anything, Never said a word to her and didn't plan to but because like this woman everyone seems to think we are a cult or have a demon in us. And we all know that's not true. I mean I can be cranky sometimes, but I'm so not a demon haha. So, yeah. I thought about saying hello to her, but I decided I wanted her prayer to be answered and just leave her alone.
On Wednesday we go English flyering with the Elder usually around Gyesan station. It's a really busy area so lots of people are around that we can tell them about our free english class. It's really really cold though. In Korean culture if you hand something to someone you can't have a glove on or it's rude. So, we all have freezing cold hands by the end of the night, but it's all worth it,.. at least I'm still hoping it will be. While flyering, I've seen so many different types of people. There's this one American man I always see and he of coarse knows who I am and just it's really awkward haha, then there's the really kind people. One time a man saw me and then walked into the market and came back with a warm tea (one we are allowed to drink of coarse) and gave it to me and my companion. He was so sweet. Koreans like that just make me so happy and I love seeing the light of Christ in them compared to the rest who just are rude and ignore you and don't care to take your flyer as they walk by you. One time I had a woman almost take one from me, but then she asked, "Jesus?" in Korean and I just naturally said yes without thinking and she complete rejected me and turned and walked away. I was like wow! but then I yelled to her as she walked by that it's only English class and we don't teach the gospel during it but she didn't care. And this past week I was gained up on by 3 older women Mean Girls style. They kindly took a flyer and then one of the them, I guess their leader "Regina George", just started asking me if I believe in Jesus Christ and telling me all this stuff in Korean that I could kind of understand but not really. So I played the dumb card because I thought they wanted to bible bash, but that didn't help she just started talking in really broken English telling me weird things about how Christ didn't come yet and it says that in the Bible and that He's coming to Korea soon. I was really confused and I obviously didn't believe anything she tried telling me, so I politely just shared my testimony about Christ and how He did come and will come again. But yeah I had to keep playing the dumb card, because they weren't giving up. Not speaking Korean fluently has it's pro's haha.
Sister Chestnut and I are trying hard to find new investigators. There's one potential investigator we visit but no one is ever home so we'll have to keep trying. We did just receive a referral from other missionaries so that's great! And we're also working with this cute part member family. The mom is from Canada and married a Korean which means they have mix babies! I love half races! They are beautiful!! They have a 7yr old son named Thomas who is so cute with freckles. His mom is less active and just really wants us to teach him about God so that's what we do when we visit. So we play games and teach really really simply because he's young. Then there's Graham! Aw I love Graham! He speaks in half Korean and English when he talks. It's sooo cute! Then there's the youngest Willa. She's adorable. Seriously, all of them will be so good looking when they grow up. Made me kind of hope to marry a Korean only because I want my children to be just as gorgeous as they are, but we'll see what happens with that in the future. I'll stick with being a missionary for now haha
I met them for the first time this week and they took a little time to warm up to us. Sarah left us a lone pretty much babysitting as she picked up Graham from preschool and Willa woke up from her nap and was crying but it was rough because we aren't allowed to hold babies as missionaries so we didn't know what to do and we just tried our best but thankfully Sarah came home 10 min later. Thomas is hard to teach because he is a little boy which means he gets distracted easily and just wants to play. But we taught him about the creation and how God created the Earth with His son Jesus Christ's help. We repeated that a lot it seems like as we showed him pictures of nature and stuff. Then we sang popcorn popping and once there was a snowman because he wasn't having fun. Which was nice, because Sarah then joined in and seemed to remember them from her childhood.
Right now Sarah's husband Tom has a really good job opportunity so they are nervous of how it will go and if he'll get it or not. It sadly is all relying on this dumb fortune to see if he is lucky or not though, So annoying what some people do. But anyways, if he gets the job they will move to Australia. So she was telling us about how stressful that is and how she is praying and asked for us to pray for her too. We've been trying to get her to go back to church. There's an English branch in another area and she has the desire to go with her whole family, but she struggles with prioritizing and never has time to go to church on Sunday. Really sad, but we're doing our best to just help her and give her the reminders that she needs.
Other news is that in Ansan my old investigators both have baptismal dates! Of course everything starts happening as soon as I leave. That seems to happen to most missionaries :/ But that's really great. One is the niece of 유인순 (a recent convert that got baptized with her 11 year old daughter) and the other is her coworker. So that's really exciting for them. Sister Carter was more than happy to brag that news to me. It's sad that I wasn't there and won't be there for their baptism, but I know I was apart of what helped them make that decision. And not all missionaries are able to see the effects of all the hard efforts they put into their mission, so I'm grateful I've been able to hear about my old investigators and the great things going on with them. Right now Korea seems to be on a pride cycle so it's really rough finding people to teach and it's rough getting a baptism, but when we do, it truly is a miracle. And if you are a missionary who gets to be apart of it then you're lucky. So, I'm just grateful for all the experiences I've had so far. I have about 200 days left till I come home so I hope I can make the end of my mission be a happy ending :D
LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH! Thanks for the support!!
Love,
Sister Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment