Week 2! (July 20, 2016)

Hey My dear Kajok!

Week 2 is almost complete. I have loved hearing about your fun adventures with Pokemon (Yes, I understood Mindy, haha; I have had experience in this area!) and climbing Deseret Peak and everything. It is awesome!  It is way fun to hear from you all!

With Elder Thurgood!

My Korean is coming along well, so that is cool! It is really hard, but as we are putting in the time, it is making more and more sense. We have taught a bunch of lessons. So cool story:  Your 3rd day here you teach a new investigator. That was two Fridays ago. We ended up teaching him (His name was K.E.S) about 5 times; and then we found out that we weren't teaching him anymore. We were sad about it, because he was a cool guy and super nice.  Anyway, we have 3 class sessions per day generally, and we found out during the afternoon one that we were done teaching him. That night after dinner, we came in and there in our classroom with a teacher nametag was K.E.S! He is now our second teacher! So we have Sister G who you kind of know about, and now Brother K! He is from Korea somewhere and served in the Busan mission! It is really cool to have a native Korean as a teacher. He is really patient. We are his first group of non-native Korean missionaries. So I thought Brother D was our teacher, but it turns out that he was just helping out. Anyway, we love our teachers. Now we teach them, and they take roles as investigators, so it is really neat. You can still feel the spirit when you teach them, because the Spirit will testify of truth! Different teachers have told us that they feel the spirit and often have their own prayers answered when they are taught by the missionaries. In addition to that, different BYU students volunteer for the TRC (Teaching Resource Center or something), and we teach them on Mondays, kind of like family home evening! It is awesome. Still teaching in Korean! Our first lesson was rough (we taught at the TRC for the first time on Monday, two lessons) but our second lesson went well. The people are very patient and loving! :)

Each Sunday night at the MTC, there is a devotional, and then after the devotional we go watch LDS movies. Most of them are talks by general authorities--for example, Elder Holland has a couple talks about Missionary Work that they play. In addition to this, the probably most well-loved and attended one is Character of Christ by David A. Bednar. It is incredible! It is motivating, encouraging, and inspiring in a humorous and blunt way. He is pretty straight forward in this talk. Anyway, so on Sunday we were all in this big building called 19M where they have the devotionals. We were wondering who was going to speak, but then one of the MTC presidency counselors stood up and said that, as a presidency, they had decided to watch Character of Christ as an entire MTC. So we watched that for the devotional, and it was amazing. Some people were bummed because it was their second time seeing it. It was my 2nd time, but it was great.

I love the temple!

Me and my companions!

As soon as it was over, the lights came up and everyone stood up. In walked Elder David A. Bednar with his sweet wife! We were all kind of in awe, and just felt so happy. The MTC counselor stood up again and said, "Elder and Sister Bednar know that we show Character of Christ each Sunday night, and they occasionally decide to surprise us and show up to answer any questions about the Character of Christ that missionaries may have. Tonight is one of those nights."

Elder & Sister Bednar proceeded to answer questions for about an hour. It was beautiful. I know that he is inspired of God. I had a question I wanted to ask him, but I never got called on. However, a different sister asked a different question, and while answering the question, Elder Bednar kind of switched subjects and answered my question:)  Then at the end, he said something to the effect of "How many of you, who did not ask your questions, had your questions answered tonight? Now you can't see what I can, but I see a congregation of many missionaries smiling in response to that question. Now I could not have done that. That is the Spirit of the Lord. I know, by feelings and senses more sure than sight, that God exists and that Jesus is our Savior." And he bore his testimony; it was really beautiful. I had been having a pretty rough day and was thinking about you all, and he really boosted my spirits!

My District with Sister G

Our district is still doing great. I am honored and blessed to be in this district. It is full of loving, honest, hardworking Elders. We have spiritual discussions like I haven't quite experienced before. And we are all friends and brothers; it is really neat!

I sure love you all! Thanks for your Dear Elders, they really do mean sososososo much. Yesterday I received a lot of them, so thank you all! I am working on writing you; it is pretty difficult to find time.

This elder is from Haiti and is a convert of 7 years. What a good, humble elder.

I quickly want to add a testimony of the scriptures, and the power we gain in studying them. Here at the MTC and on the mission, we have 1 hour for personal study each day, and 1 hour for companionship study. During these times, we read from the Book of Mormon, Preach my Gospel, and other standard works. I love the scriptures. I find power in them! Through the scriptures, I feel God's love and I know that the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, bring us nearer to our Father in Heaven. He loves us. He wants us to be close to Him. I encourage you all to set aside more time for the scriptures. It doesn't have to be perfect circumstances. Perhaps while eating breakfast like mom ;), or any other time you can find. When we put in time to learn of God, we show Him our desire to understand, grow closer to, and build our relationship with Him.

Love you so much! I have an amazing family and I am grateful for you all.

Love,

Elder Beckett

Beckett Chong No

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