Saturday, October 11, 2014

Week Five - August 28, 2014


Annnyounghaseyouhhhh!

This week has been super busy and super good!  I have been learning so much!  The older group left yesterday to Seoul and we said bye to them.  I had a lot of Elders that I became close with so it was kinda hard to say good bye.  My district is finally the oldest district which means we are the next ones to leave!!!  It's Crazy.  I am sooooo excited!  I feel pretty good with the language.  I am able to say a few things, but not even near enough to have a complete conversation.  I am starting to be able to pick up certain words in sentences, and I can very simple respond.  I am able to read the Book of Mormon in Korean and it's amazing.  I can pick out certain words, but I have no idea what it's saying!  I am getting faster with my reading as well.  

I have set goals to accomplish certain things this week.  I memorized my Purpose as a missionary in Korean this week!!  I was so pumped when I finally got it down!  Our branch president told us that since we only have about 3 weeks left here, we need to start doubling our learning.  That is what I have been doing.  Yesterday I started memorizing the First Vision in Korean.  I hope by next week I will have it down.  Also, I am trying my best to memorize 20 vocabulary words a day, and I am also trying to study the grammar forms.  There are over like 1000 of them.  I'm not sure exactly the number, but it's crazy!  I am learning the important ones and those are ones that are used the most.  The other 900 or so don't get used that often... well as far as I'm concerned:) haha. 

This week I decided that I am going to be the absolute best missionary I can be.  I want to work hard everyday and have no regrets.  I want to set goals and accomplish them.  I know if I do this, then I will receive so many blessings.  I have been studying a lot about the restoration of the gospel this week.  I read Joseph Smiths testimony (in the beginning of the Book of Mormon), and I have also been reading in Joseph Smith History.  Joseph Smith went through so many trials and endured through every one because he knew he had a work to do and he knew that what he saw in the Sacred Grove was true.  I have strengthened my testimony this week on the Restoration of this Gospel.  I thought back to my amazing experiences on Origination and at all of the church sites we went to, there was such a strong spirit.  I have a testimony that Joseph did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I know he translated the Book of Mormon.  It is so amazing that in 2 Nephi Chapter 3 ( I think) Lehi testifies to Joseph his son of the coming forth of the Restoration and how a man named Joseph would restore the church.  I also had to opportunity of watching the Restoration video on Sunday after the devotional.  Holy cowwww that movie is amazing!  It tells the story perfectly.  I am grateful for the Restoration and for Joseph Smith enduring through hard times.  He has taught me a lot.  Without him enduring, we wouldn't have the happiness that we have today.  And because of him, I can share what I know is true with the people of KOREA!
(Click on the link above to watch "The Restoration" film which Elder Johnson was talking about.)

This week, my companion and I had a few really good lessons with our "Investigator."  We planned on teaching Baptism, so we planned a really good lesson to teach about baptism, and we felt really good about it.   As we sat down to give our lesson, we asked her a few questions and one of the questions that we asked her was, "Do you believe and have faith in Christ?"  Well, we thought she would say, "Yes," and then we would continue to follow our lesson plan.  But things changed.  After we asked her why we she didn't believe in Christ, we put our lesson plan aside and taught her all about Christ and why we need to have faith in him.  It was amazing.  I was able to talk so much about Christ in Korean.  We went completely away from what we had planned, and we were just speaking to her in Korean the whole time about Christ, and we followed the Spirit!  Something I have been doing in my personal study is every time I come across a scripture I like, I write it down in my little pocket notebook and then to the side I write like 3 or 4 words on why  I like it.  Well, I felt prompted to share a scripture in our lesson but I had no idea what one to share and It doesn't help that we only had our Korean Book of Mormon in there, so I couldn't really tell which book was which.  Anyway, so I pulled out my little note book and I saw one of the scriptures I wrote down. 2 NE 11:7.  I wasn't sure exactly what it said, but I had written next to it, "Jesus Christ."  So I grabbed my Korean Book of Mormon and looked it up and gave it to her.  The spirit was so strong, and I knew that that was the perfect scripture.  That was a really cool experience.  After our lesson, I looked up that scripture in English and it was Perfect.  It testifies perfectly of Christ and went along exactly with what we were talking about.  I can't wait to have those amazing experiences out in the field with real investigators.  I want to end with a quote that I heard in the Devotional on Tuesday, "If it is to be, It is up to me."  I loved that.
 
Hope everyone is doing well!  I miss everyone, and I look forward to another good week.  My MTC time is winding down, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can.  Thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Johnson

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