Hey family, how are ya'all? Sorry for emailing so late! I just went and got whooped in tennis by a bunch of middle-aged Koreans! It was awesome! A man in our ward took us to play tennis--he is just learning. Anyway, we played a bit, but only had two racquets. When it was my turn to switch out, I went to talk to the people on the court next to us, who were seriously SUPER GOOD. Like they would beat 95% of the high school players good. Me and Isaac...probably...okay, most likely would have beat them together. They were 50-ish, with one 70 year old-ish guy. When I first started, all were around 50. Anyway, I introduced myself and told them I played in high school. They liked practicing their English with me, and invited me to jump in to doubles. So I did! I couldn't keep the ball in at all. I was embarrassed! Anyway, I kept praying to play good so I could win their hearts like Ammon! Haha...funny but true. The first set we got creamed. Second set it was so weird--first off, they changed who was in and out (the people who came in weren't as good as the others, but still pretty good! Still could beat most high schoolers--they just don't miss)--and then suddenly I warmed up or something, because I could keep it in and control the ball, and we came back from behind and won the set! At that point they all commented, "He really was a tennis player!" Haha. I had some pretty good shots at the end. One of the guys followed me wherever I went and took a bunch of cool pictures of me, haha! He said, "Your form....good!" And I exchanged numbers with him. I think he wants to learn English. Anyway, I was soooo exhausted after that set, because I haven't had intense exercise in a while. But it was so fun!!
One of my miracles I saw this week happened yesterday. We have been praying and working to find a family lately, but it is pretty hard! So far, we haven't found one yet. Last week we tried to seek the Bishop's guidance asking him which less actives we should visit, and then after he told us, we went to find their apartment yesterday. We almost ended up coming back right before because of something else we had to do, but we decided to find the apartment. We had a list of 3 of them we needed to visit, but this guy was the one with the address that happened to be the one the people who were pointing the directions to us seemed to know. While we were on the way, we talked to people on the street who were there, and I met one guy, explained who we were and what we were doing. He literally said, "Gwanshim eesumneeda!" Which means "I have interest!" I was a little surprised. We kept talking to him, he told us he was walking to the park. We have him a Prince of Peace pass along card, and he gave us his phone number. And then he pointed out his family who he was going to meet--he has a wife and 3 little boys! He seems really interested in learning. I am so excited to meet him this week! I know that God helps us and magnifies our efforts. Please pray for this family to accept the Gospel and that we will be able to meet them alright.
Also, we met with Brother S__--he is a 30/30 program guy who we meet with pretty regularly. We had a great great meeting with him. He is curious about our church--he reads all the pamphlets he can get his hands on, and started the Book of Mormon! But it hasn't felt super sincere with him. But then this week he really opened up, and after the appointment we were kind of just in awe, grateful to have been a part of it. We started with the English. That was probably the best day of English we have had with him. We spoke almost all English, just really slowly because he is a beginner. But he really seemed to enjoy it and do well.
When we switched to the 30 minutes of Gospel, he immediately asked about baptism versus sprinkling water. Why do we do it by immersion? We taught that that is how Christ did it, we cited the Bible as well as living prophets, and taught the symbolism therin. He also wanted to know about commandments, so we briefly touched on it. Then we switched to what we felt was the missing link: prayer. Our mission president had mentioned this before in the transfer periodical newsletter. We followed our beloved President Barrow's advice on teaching prayer. Brother S__ had already been praying with us during lessons, very beautiful prayers. But he didn't pray at home, and we felt it would be a great benefit to him. Our ward mission leader felt the same.
We told him we wanted to talk about prayer. We asked the question, "If Heavenly Father stood in this room, what would you thank him for?" He responded a meaningful answer--his family, his health, his opportunity to meet with us. We then asked him, "If Heavenly Father were standing in this room, what would you ask him?" He thought for a second, and then spoke. "I would ask him to bless and unite my family. I would ask him for forgiveness; I haven't been keeping his commandments." And he continued a little more. We then asked him to pray in that kind of prayer, really speaking what is in his heart. We also asked him to pray to God to know if our message and the Book of Mormon were true.
And then he prayed. It was a beautiful prayer--it was a heartfelt prayer. It as talking with God. He asked God for forgiveness and resolved to do better and to pray every day. He asked God to help his family. He thanked God that he could meet with us missionaries. He asked God to help him know if what we were teaching were true. He really seemed to open up, to be sincere. It was wonderful. We meet with him again tomorrow!
Well, that's all for now. Have a great week! Love,
Elder Beckett
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