Transferred Again! (September 18, 2017)

Hey everyone! Sorry for being late! Anyone happen to be awake?  I transferred! Which means Elder A is staying for a 5th transfer in Youngdo...

I will be going to Haeundae, with Elder H_ S_ P_! He has been companions with Elder S_, and Elder Y_, too! I am really excited to serve with him. I am in the same zone as before, and we will be zone leaders, so it will be a fun new experience! 

I sure am going to miss Youngdo! L's family partially broke our hearts this week. We met, had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation (reviewed) and then talked to them about a baptismal date. They said they weren't ready for that, or to come to church, but right now just meeting us is enough. They very understandably explained how they went from athiests to now believing in God, but that they aren't ready for those big steps. However, they said, they recognize that meeting with us is much more than friendship-- there is something special, and they want to keep praying, and reading the Book of Mormon, which is great. We met again on Friday, and they had kept their reading commitment! It was awesome! We talked about Nephi killing Laban, and then read 3 Nephi 11 together, about Christ coming. It was a great lesson.

Also, Brother J G, our investigator, married our church member, Sister C! They had such a cute and special wedding, I will send pictures later. He is probably for sure going to get baptized with his son, but now I am gone... I will probably be able to go, though!

This week, also Elder Yamashita came from the 70! He was great! I loved how he was so enthusiastic-- there is a special energy and enthusiasm to the general authorities, I can feel it.

Well, I got some AWESOME birthday packages and letters this week! Thank you all SO MUCH! You were so generous and kind, and gave my favorite things, and now I can use my camera again! Sorry kind of short today, but I better go.

LOVE YOU!

Hello everyone! (September 11, 2017)

Ok! Mom and fam-- I haven't got any packages yet, but I probably will on Thursday. If we don't go to the Mission Headquarters we don't get mail, but Thursday we have a big meeting, so I will probably be able to get it then. I will let you know next week.

ALSO. 2 things. We had lots of birthdays recently! Grandpa Campbell, Jaden (Today! Tell him I love him and give him a big squeeze and arm wrestle him for me). Also ALLIE on the 13th, right??? Woohoo! And Ryan on the... 17th? Right?

 ALSO my birthday was great! L's family bought me a cake, and my trainer, Elder L did, too! Elder A gave me a cool Australian tie, I was spoiled.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE! I AM WORKING ON LETTERS SLOWLY BUT SURELY.

Ok! My week.

We met with L and his family twice, on Tuesday and Friday! They are awesome, as ever, and had kept their commitment to read the BOM intro. But they said they didn't read any more than that. We read 1st Nephi 1 together, explained a bit of it, and they seemed to like it. We invited them to read chapters 2 and 3 before Friday, which they accepted. But when we got back, they hadn't read it. We were a little bummed, cause we know if they would put in the time, they would just SOAR. So we quickly read chapter 2 together, and then moved on with the lesson we had planned: The Sabbath day. We taught it, and they seemed to understand. But they were super hesitant when we invited them to church-- they said in Korea many churches are corrupted, and they didn't want to go. We testified of the power of the Sacrament, and they seemed like they would come. But only one of them ended up coming-- the cousin, named J! We love love love J, he has such a special pure heart. He is 25 and super fun. He fit in well, and had a great experience. We meet them again tomorrow, and we will talk about agency and our power to act-- if we want to really grow and improve we have to change.

Also! Our investigator who was going to get baptized a couple weeks ago is back! He is a great guy and is the man who will marry someone in our branch. We realized he wasn't ready for baptism, so we pushed that back, but we are just strengthening his testimony of the restoration. He came to church on Sunday with his son and was just shining! I fasted that somehow we could get him back, and he came back. I am so grateful for the power of fasting.

That's about all the news for the week. We have been pretty crazy busy here lately, finding lots of cool investigators, including a dad and his son who we play tennis with sometimes! They took us out for dinner and we naturally got into a gospel conversation. We plan to meet again Wednesday.

I had a cool experience during personal study this week.

Those who are familiar with the Book of Mormon will remember the longest chapter-- Jacob 5, the parable of the Olive Tree. Well it is really long and can be confusing, but I studied it this week, and it was amazing to me. I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot, and have prayed to have my testimony strengthened of it as I have read- -God has more than answered my prayers. As I read, I don't know how to explain it, but it is just like I can feel discernibly that the book is true. It wasn't a one-time powerful experience, but a gradual feeling of the truth of the book. I love the book!

So, the parable: Basically a gardener has an old olive tree that is dying. He prunes and fertilizes the tree in an effort to save it, to no avail, so he has an idea-- take the wild olive trees and graft their young branches into the old tame tree, counting on the power of the roots of the tame tree to produce the desired sweet fruit. He also grafts the old olive tree's young shoots into wild trees elsewhere in his garden. 

While at first the trees produce good fruit, eventually they produce undesired fruit-- the gardener and his helper had done all they could to take care of the sensitive trees, but the more easily flourishing wild branches and roots took over the delicate branches which produced the fruit he wanted.

In the end, the gardner's idea is to slowly cut off and burn the wild branches from the main tree, grafting back into the tree the branches he had grafted into the wild trees in the other part of his garden. He would also graft some of the mother trees branches to the outer wild trees once more.

Well, it works, and somehow all of the trees produce the desired fruit. This parable is originally to prophecy and remark on the scattering and gathering of the people of Israel, figuratively, and literally, but I saw it in a different light this time. 

The part I liked was the last part-- about the regrafting. The Lord of the Vineyard, the gardener, has worked with these trees for so long, and yet they do not produce the fruit He needs, the fruit he knows they are capable of producing. It breaks his heart to see them not reach their potential, and he, several times, weeps over them.

There is much to learn when we view the parable as God as the gardener, and us, as the tree.

1st-- when the tree becomes corrupted, the gardener mourns, "Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard?" (vs 47) and "What could I have done more for my vineyard?" (vs 49). The servant suggests "Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good?" The branches of the tree did not realize their roots nor their nourisher, and grew up for themselves, symbolic of pride. How often do we forget that it is God that has provided everything for us, that any success we have is due to God either providing it or allowing it, and that He too, could change it all in one word? Gratitude for what we have is an antidote to pride.

2nd-- One looking at this parable might wonder- -why? Why keep changing the branches? What will that do? After all, when grafting or pruning trees, they can go through tremendous stress-- grafts can often fail, the leaves of the tree yellow, it can began to wilt.

Yet the gardener explains why he is grafting back into the tree whose lofty and bitter branches had overcome its pure roots: "And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil." (vs 59)

I think there is a lot for us to learn here: God gives us change and trials because it brings us back to our roots, to remember who we are, who it is who feeds us and nourishes us and takes care of us. It points us back to him when we overgrow and become arrogant, prideful, or overly concerned with the world.

One last principle is learned as the gardener instructs his servant on how to take care of the grafts as he raises them:

And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard."

God is patient with us as we grow, inviting us to repent and improve at that pace which is possible to us, not overwhelming us. He is loving in all His corrections.

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Miracles and Heartbreak (September 3, 2017)

The man on a right is a missionary who served in Elder A's ward in Australia. He moved from Seoul into mission boundaries, and took us to dinner one day. Super great guy, he gave us awesome advice and might teach with us soon! 

Start with heartbreaking-- one of our investigators who was going to be baptized on Sunday (yesterday) had some different private challenges and difficulties come up, and he asked us not to text him anymore, so we can't even meet him anymore. Super sad. We love him and fasted for him and his family.

The good and awesome news, which happened the day we were supposed to have a baptismal interview for the other man:

We met L_ and family! We had met them twice last week. The first time, we shared "Because of Him" and taught a little about the plan of salvation. We hadn't taught all the principles yet, L_ and his family are a bit new to religion so we kept it really simple, plus the atmosphere was a little... rowdy? So we didn't feel comfortable trying to talk about things that were too deep.

The second time, we were doing weekly planning the day before, and Elder A_ wanted to share the video "The Hope of God's Light", a video Andy shared with our family a few years ago, about the man who got into drugs and alcohol, was suicidal, then decided to fast. Nothing came of it except that he wasn't suicidal anymore, but then a month later his friend (who he hadn't seen in years) called him and asked to meet. When they met, they caught up on life, then his friend said, "Yesterday I had the strangest impression. It was from God, and it was that I need to contact you, and to tell you that He loves you, and He needs you on His side" The man was overcome with emotion, and then after years of work and struggling and repenting he brought his life into harmony with the Gospel.

See the video Here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light?lang=eng

Well we decided to show the video to L_ and his family. They were audibly stunned as they viewed it, and after we watched it they just told us how amazing it was-- they said that this story was so remarkably similar to their own lives, and that is why they were shocked and touched I doubt they were mixed up in the same things as Todd, the guy in the video, but they opened up to us a little about their lives. One day they had all decided they need to make changes, spend their time better, and improve their lives. They wanted to study English better. They also wanted to start exercising together, so they left their apartment and started walking to a nearby school. At that time, they happened to meet us almost immediately. They said they will never forget when we first said hello to them. 

The next day after we had first met, we met again, and just had fun, practicing English. They found their motivation to study English hard in meeting us, and we also introduced a little about God to them. Then the rest followed as I told you.

In Korea, churches have poor reputations of just being... business. So many people become preachers and start their own churches, other people are just very forceful and aggressive in the way they try to share the Gospel. L_ and his family told us they would have never listened to Christians or churches if it hadn't been us, but now they love to learn more. We taught the 3rd missionary lesson, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" to them, about faith, leading to repentance, which prepares us for baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, a very precious gift that helps us to endure to the end.

They love and recognize the Spirit each time we come. It is amazingly strong when we meet them. In Korean, "Holy Ghost" is 성신, or sungshin. To put it in their words, as T_ H_, nicknamed "Joey", said as we left, "I want to feel the sungshin!"

I have learned so much while meeting with this family! They are all willing to be baptized it seems. But they are moving to Seoul soon-- so they might have to be baptized there. Going forward, we need to teach the commandments, which may be really difficult-- it can be so different and new and difficult for those who haven't known the commandments to start living them. Please pray that they will accept them and that their hearts will be prepared.

Time for me to go! Love you all! Have a great week!! Talk to you next time!

Elder B

Miracles Continued! (August 27, 2017)

Ok! So I told you about the family we met last week, right? The group of students who walked past us and then we met them the next day? Well we met them on Friday!

Back up-- Friday was a little hard. I was kind of having a rough day mentally and things, just feeling a little down. Satan was attacking with whatever he could. On Friday we met with a man named Dave who was a new investigator! He is a really nice guy but pretty strong in Buddhism. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him, and he thought it was good.We are meeting again on wednesday.

That night we were studying outside a CU again, the same one we had met the students at. We did our language study for the day, then headed to the students' house that was right nearby. We went inside. They were so fun and loving and hilarious! We were talking and laughing, they were telling us some tips for Korean. They also love learning and practicing English with us. One of the most loving groups of people I have ever met, in the way they treated us, and each other. But... for some reason I felt so much stress. I didn't know why, but I felt really uncomfortable and anxious. I knew we were there to do missionary work, even though we love them and want to hang out with them I knew that if we didn't share the Gospel with them, we wouldn't be fulfilling our missionary purpose, which was the reason I came to Korea in the first place. Last time they thought the Easter video we shared was cool, but they weren't like dying to learn more. So I was a bit worried how we would get around to a spiritual message without feeling like they were being forced to listen to our message in order to be our friends. I struggle sometimes a bit with anxiousness anyway, I always have, but I also wanted to make sure we use our time wisely as missionaries. I went to the bathroom, and just knelt down and said a quiet personal prayer. It went something like, "Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be here with L_ and his family. We love them, and want them to have the Gospel in their lives. But we aren't sure how to share it with them. Please lead us and guide us."

I went back out and sat down with everyone, feeling a little better. We continued talking and laughing. We ate dinner, some good fried chicken together. Suddenly a great thought slammed into me while we were eating. I had a cool idea! In Korean, I said to them,"Hey, so as missionaries we meet with lots of people and teach them Gospel discussions. You guys are good at English, and good at explaining things... Do you think it would be ok if we practiced one of our lessons with you and you could give us some advice on how to improve?" They immediately all agreed and were excited to help. "Yeah! Of course! Great idea."

So we finished eating, and then sat in a circle on the ground to teach. They all watched us attentively. We pulled out Restoration pamphlets, and explained that when we start and end lessons we do it in prayer. They said that was alright. Then we taught them how to pray. Elder A said the opening prayer. The Spirit was very distinct, and strong, as the prayer ended. I think it was their first time praying, and after we said "amen" they looked at each other, with a surprised look on their faces, searching for a word to describe the feeling that had entered the room. I offered '경건하다' which means reverent and they agreed. Calm, reverent. They recognized it!

Well, we taught the first lesson: the Restoration. God is our Father, he loves us. He wanted us to learn and grow. We are all part of his family, and he gave us families to bless us on this earth. To strengthen and help families God gave us the Gospel through his Prophets, who teach and preach through God's authority, the priesthood. God has always sent prophets, from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and so forth. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and also a prophet. He taught the Gospel, and died for us that we might live again. After he died, He continued to lead His church through his chosen disciples. However, they too were eventually killed. God's authority was lost from the earth. Like He had in other times, God restored his Gospel through another prophet, called, as other prophets had been, when he was only a boy: Joseph Smith. But God knew that we might be doubtful, that we had no way to verify if Joseph Smith had been God's prophet. He prepared a book, The Book of Mormon as that evidence. We can pray about the Book of Mormon, and God will tell us the truthfulness of it through the Holy Ghost.

We taught pretty simply. They had discussed with us and asked questions as we taught, listening really well. We asked L_, the head of the group, to say the closing prayer. He said a heartfelt and beautiful prayer,expressing gratitude to have met with us, etc, and prayed for us. Then he closed.

Stronger than when we had started, again the Spirit was in the room very distinctly and discernibly. After he finished praying, L_ looked up and said, in broken English, " I knew scientifically that God did not exist. But now, I know religiously, spiritually, that God exactly exists." His English was a little strange, but he was saying that he had looked at God from a scientific perspective and couldn't believe. But he knew, from the lesson we had had, that God was real.

The interesting thing about the meeting was that, even though we didn't ask them to describe their feelings, they are a very intelligent group, and love to discuss things together, so they quickly told us exactly how they were feeling. L_ said something similar to that his mind had been enlightened, and he understood things in a new way that he hadn't before. And that he knew "exactly" that God exists. We explained what the Holy Ghost is. Elder A told them they could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, to have that blessing and feeling more frequently. He asked if they wanted that. One of them said, "그럼요!" 'Of course!' We told them about baptism, and they almost accepted a baptismal date-- but they are moving to Seoul next month, before the day we invited them! But we told them we wanted to meet them more frequently, and asked if we could teach them our other discussions. Again, "그럼요!" 'Of course.'

It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission. They were so good and their hearts were open! I was wondering-- why was it so spiritual? And I think I found the answer. They did not believe in God. But they were living good lives, full of love. Like I have already mentioned, they were so kind and good to each other. I think their Christlike behavior helped prepare their hearts, and the spirit quickly filled the room to testify that there was something more to life then what we can see here. I am so grateful to have been a part of such a special experience.

We have to go now! Sorry, we are updating our foreigner ID cards today cause I have been in Korea for almost a year. Crazy, huh? Anyway, I Love you all! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINDY!! woohooo!

Love,

Elder Beckett

Week of Miracles! (August 20, 2017)

Ok Y'all!

We saw the Lord really bless us as we planned specifically this week. President Jeong has counseled us to plan where to contact people on the street, where to study, and try to be specific as we do so, as well as plan how many people we will talk to during each segment of our day. Well we have been trying to do that! However, sometimes when we get behind schedule, we have to change plans for times sake.
Well one day this week we had planned to do companion and language study in front of a CU (the Korean name for Convenience Stores), but we had to send a bill to the mission headquarters, so we were running late. We thought about changing where we study, but we felt like, if possible, we should stick to plans. So we went as planned.

While studying in front of the CU, a group of YSA's walked passed. They were actually family, a 26 year old man, his girfriend, and his brother and cousin, both 25 years old. We said hello. They were very kind to us. They loved to speak English and wanted to be our friends. We told them we were missionaries, but they said right away they didn't believe in God. But they wanted to learn English and things, so we decided to have dinner the next day. I noticed how good and kind they were, to us and each other-- such positive and good people.

The next day we met for dinner. We were able to have a great fun time, but we didn't know how to share a spiritual message, as they just saw us as friends. Well, we were talking about obedience and the missionary life style-- they had asked about watching a movie together, and we explained that we didn't play video games or watch movies as missionaries. Well this actually turned into a really great opportunity to share the Gospel. The whole time we were together, we had mentioned lots about missions, the Book of Mormon, etc, but at this point in the conversation I just said, "I know that sounds too strict, but this message we are sharing is the most important thing in the whole world! And so we do those things so we can focus and share the message. Actually, that card I gave you yesterday had a little video about our message on it. May we share it with you?" And then we shared the Prince of Peace Video on Mormon.org.  After that, they kind of looked around mormon.org on their computer, and found my profile, and watch Alex Boye's "I'm a Mormon". They asked what Mormon was, and we taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them a copy!

We planned to have a fun dinner again this Friday, and we are so excited to meet them! Their friendship is wonderful, they are such good good people-- you can just feel it as you are with them. I am so excited to teach this family all together, little by little. It was such a blessing we received from 1) studying outside as our mission president counseled, and 2) being diligent in following specific plans, as our mission president counseled. I know our Priesthood Leaders, though imperfect beings, do work for our Perfect God who will accomplish His purposes.

And also. The other miracle! We have met so so so many people from all over the world.

On Tuesday my companion Elder A suggested going to a place called 태종대 (Taejongdae), a popular tourist attraction on our little Youngdo island. But NOT going for sight seeing-- Tuesday was Korea's independence day, and there were TONS of people there. Well, we did talk to lots of people, but the best missionary opportunity came as we walked back. We try to at least say hi to everyone while we walk the streets, and as we were walking we saw a big shirtless African man, leaving an apartment. We shouted hello to him, and he stopped, so we walked across a dirt lot in front of his apartment to say hello. Turns out he is from Nigeria, and he lives here with his pregnant wife. He is a very kind man, and strong, physically and spiritually. Well, we told him we could help him if he ever needed help with Korean or anything. And he is Anglican Christian, but he said we could discuss the Gospel anytime. I wasn't sure if he was going to Bible-bash or what, but we made an appointment for Sunday. 

So yesterday we met! and it was the opposite of a Bible bash-- he was so sincere, kind, and good, asking well thought out honest questions, not trying to be skeptical or prove wrong, just seek honest truth. It was a very good lesson, and ended with an invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray honestly. He accepted, and it was awesome!

I learned so much from him-- I don't think he intended to change religions by meeting us, but he told us he always allows missionaries to come to his home-- we are the first Mormons he has met, but Jehovah's witnesses,, etc have gone before. He takes what he can learn from everyone, and tries to improve his conversion. I am so grateful to meet and teach him!

Love you all! I have to go, but I will probably email a couple more emails right before my p-day ends, when you are all asleep. Love you!