Well! All sorts of adventures and miracles this week :)
We'll start with:
이___(L___)- Guess what! We're getting a new companion. No,
it's not transfers yet. Another fun fact -- we already know her :) She
attends the Korean ward we serve in, and is going to serve as a missionary
in England ,but she's going to be serving with us in our little bit of
America/Africa/Philippines/Peru for a bit. (And Pakistan). We met a
P___ family who we're going to teach again on Tuesday!
I've never been so thankful that English is my mother tongue :)) I'm
super excited! She's a lot of fun, and it going to be interesting to see
if we can fit five people in our tiny house (we're already studying in the
living room!) And another special thing - her mother was baptized
yesterday!! Sister L___became a member when she was young with her
sister, and the other sisters have been teaching her mother for a little
while now; it was a very special service!
J___ & J___ - We met with J___on Thursday,
talked about prophets and such, and she said she had read the
introduction to the Book of Mormon, and talked about it with her
boyfriend, now fiance, a little. She gave us his number to contact the
missionaries in his area. We had a missionary meeting, and gave the
number to Sister P___ to also contact the military relations
missionaries over there, and she says, "J___ (no last name for privacy
purposes^^). I've been looking for you!" Apparently she had gotten word
that the missionaries had taught him in a previous army base, and that he
was coming to Camp Casey (he's at another base). And lo and behold, J___,who we met on the train, is engaged to J___, who already has had
contact with the church. And not only that, but we found out on Sunday
- he was already baptized! And they want to be married in the temple!
How's that for 일사천리?! (il-sa-jol-li), the word that means everything just
falls into place, aka MIRACLE! Has the day of miracles ceased? I submit
that it has NOT! :D) And she's planning to be baptized in October!!
K___and J___ - We were walking down our normal street in B___,
where everyone knows us and we wave to them through the windows. A
man and his family stops us; we had seen his family before! (on one
of those days that I had no idea why we were where we were, though I do
remember distincly that I felt like I should try to remember the twins'
names). As their twins played in one of the shops, he introduced us to
his Korean friend (we know his wife, and taught her a little once~) and
we shared a little about what we do as missionaries, and he started
telling us a little bit about her army life, and you could tell it's
really dragging him down...But we're going to try and meet on a weekend
again :)
J___, J___, A___- Some students we met for the first time we
never thought we'd see! They are awesome :) They're from the Philippines and we just had a good, simple talk
about God as our Loving Heavenly Father, and how he gives us letters and
maps through the Book of Mormon. We're excited to see them again! :D
박___ - A former preacher, interested in English and the gospel, who's
met with missionaries quite a lot, wondering about how to get to the
Celestial Kingdom. We read the "Book of Mormon Stories" version of the
tree of life, and she understood the iron rod so well! (When we sent a
text to follow up on her reading the Word of God, she said, "I will catch
the rod of iron and be going to go straight and narrow path. Thanks a
lot." and she's shared some of the things she's learned~ awesome!) We
drew her a map (I might want to send you this, Sister Thomas, the
younger, I love this map :)), including the straight and narrow path,
commandments, repentance, and covenants, all in scripture chase form.
신___-She had stopped us on the street one day a while ago, asking if
we are the missionaries who teach English, and if we can meet even if
she doesn have any religious interest. I was hesitant, because we don't
have that much extra time to take away from those who do want
to learn about the gospel, but we called her back (granted, this is
quite a while later) - she was busy with some work) and she answered the
phone, and wanted us over the next day. But we get there, and she says, "No
English today," and starts firing off questions about what we believe and
what the Book of Mormon is (and this is in a interestrf way, not a Bible-bash-y way, thank goodness). It was awesome; it was like she was teaching
us the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through questions :)
"This make sense; it's the same pattern as in the Bible"...Anyway. we're
excited :)
Sister S___- Good news! And fun things: She brought some of her Korean friends to the baptismal service on Sunday!
(I just get really excited about member missionary work :)) AND they
happened to already know another famly who attends the Korean ward :) I
think they had a good time; we're going to try and meet this week :) AND
Sister S___'s dad wants to be baptized! He's coming with his wife
from China to Korea so that Brother S___can baptize him! We're quite
excited :)
S___- Hard times. She's getting married to a Nigerian member of
our ward (YAY!! :D Awesome couple!) but some of the Nigerians and
Liberians don't think they're such an awesome couple. E___, her fiance,
got beat up this week, and there's a lot of oppostition from their
community, toward both of them and the )hurch (there was a meeting I guess
with a lot of Africans who have a Liberian group that's led by a
preacher, and they're saying that we're demonic...Because you know me
and Sister F___, we're about as scary as you get :P But anyway. It's a
problem.)
Thought/visual of the week: An object always has a shadow, because
of the light. If the light source is brighter, the line of the shadow
and the shadow itself becomes darker. All this to say, as Elder
Corbridge said in the last general conference, the truth will always be
opposed, and as Lehi says, there is opposition in all things. Surrounded
in darkness, the light of the gospel and light of Christ shines
brighter.
Love you ALL! STAY Strong, Stay HAPPY :D The gospel has a lot of
happiness in it, and it all centers in Jesus Christ, the light and life
of the world. We truly are seekers of light!
Sister Thomas the Elder
