안녕하세요!
Hope everything is
going well!
This week has been great! Super busy and full of a lot of miracles!
Before I tell you about this week, I'll share my little facts about Korea.
Korea people exercise on these little wooded pathways on the side
of the road. Not a lot of runners, just a lot of walkers. Off to the side of
these paths, they have these little exercise machines. They are so weird haha. You can do the elliptical or a little sit up thing. I don't know how to explain it. I
will take a pic and send home next week. Me and my comp went running this week
in the morning a few times, and we stopped and used the machines. There were
these two bars next together so I started to do some dips. This guy walked past
and didn't stop staring at me. I'm sure he was thinking, "What in the world
is that crazy American doing... we don't do that in Korea." Hahah
Another thing is the fruit here. The fruit is delicious. The members
always give us fruit. In Korea, we always eat the normal mean with all the crazy
side dishes, and then after we always eat fruit. It's great. I'm getting kinda
fat. I am starting to really love the food and the people. Korea is
amazing!!!
(Apartment bathroom of missionaries.)
This week has been amazing. We have been super busy with appointments and have just been all over the place. It has been great. Me and my companion, Elder Skinner, are really working hard trying to help our investigators progress.
(Investigator and Elders)
On Thursday this week, it was a day that I will never forget. We were super busy, our first lesson was
with a Brother. He is an academy owner. His English is pretty good. He is open
to learning about our church, but he is Catholic and said he wasn't really
interested in changing religions. We have been meeting with him for four
weeks now, and he is slowly making progress. We taught him about the great apostasy last week because he had a lot of questions about it. We had to
explain why and how God's power was taken off the earth. Anyway, our lesson went
really well. At the end, he gave me four elementary school Korean text books
for me to learn from. It was amazing! He is really nice. I hope he can continue
to progress.
After we met with him, we had an appointment. We have have been meeting with him since I first got here. He is my first investigator. To quickly describe him, he is progressing but in a weird way. He keeps our commitments and is praying and reading the scriptures, but he won't come to church. We have tried to do everything we can to get him to come, but for some reason he won't come. He tells us it's because he is really lazy. He also has a weird phobia of keeping promises, he told us. Anyway, before this lesson, I asked my companion if I could kinda take charge and lead the message. The night before our lesson with him I prayed and asked Heavenly Father what it was that I needed to teach him.
Well,
the next day I believe I received my answer in personal study. The
Commandments. If we love God, we will keep His commandments. John 14:15. That is exactly what he needed. However....... we have taught him the commandments like two times already. But I felt like that was what he needed. So at the beginning
of our lesson, he asked if I would pray in English and be sure to bless my
family and my parents especially. When I was praying in English at the
beginning of our lesson, I felt the spirit so strong! It was great! Well, after my
prayer, I got right into my lesson. After about 10 minutes of me talking and
having him read a few scriptures, he asked a question I couldn't reply to him
in Korean, so Elder Skinner started talking to him. Well, it dragged on and on
and for about 45 minutes.
Well, long story short, Kim's phone rang which was a
miracle and so he hurried and went out and answered his phone. I could tell
that he was acting different. Well, before he came back in, Elder Skinner
explained that he tried to set a baptismal date to help him progress to, but he
didn't like it and wanted to change subjects. He tried to change the subject
like three different times by trying to talk to me. Well, I knew that when he
came back in the room he would ask me to continue with my lesson, so I was
thinking about everything I would say. Well, as he sat back down in his chair, I
started to say what I was going to say and then all of a sudden I stopped
talking and put my head down. The Spirit had a different way for me to handle
the situation.
As I put my head down and was looking at the ground, my eyes
filled with tears. The Spirit was getting stronger and stronger. I looked up at
him and he was stunned. He was like, "Johnson, why are you crying?"
Right then I started to testify of everything I knew how to in Korean. I was
speaking the words that the Spirit would have me say. I was filled with the Spirit so strong. I explained to him how much happiness I have received from this
gospel and how much I loved him and how much I know that this gospel could help
him. I shared a scripture with him. 2 NE 31:5. After he read it, he just looked
at me and in his broken English he said, "Johnson, I can feel your
heart." He said that like four or five different times. I was grateful at
that time to be able to be filled with the Spirit. I don't know why I got so
emotional, but I have received a lot of happiness from this gospel, and I just
want to share it with everyone. Sorry that was kinda
a hard experience to share. I hope you understand.
I don't have much
time, but I have really been being accountable to the Lord in all I do. I have
seen so many little miracles and blessings this week as I have created goals and
been accountable to them. I know that I am being blessed. I am grateful
everyday to serve the Lord. Some days are hard but those are the days I learn
the most.
I am doing great with
the language. It gets frustrating, but I push forward. My desire to serve the Lord is very strong. I came across Alma chapter 29 this week. It talks about
desires and how the God grants unto people according to their own desires. I
know that through my hard work and desire, people can strengthen theirs. I am
grateful for this gospel.
There is so much more
I want to tell you. I will save for next week. I am out of time. I love
you. Hope all is well. Have a good week. And know that Heavenly Father hears and
answers all of our prayers.
Elder Johnson
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