Last week we went to the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival! It was a lot of fun. I will send you a few pictures. Talk about popcorn popping on the cherry blossom tree!! Seriously beautiful.
We went on exchanges with a couple missionaries last week that was fun! They were both really good elders.
One cool experience happened with JC, our Chinese friend. He loves to play basketball with us, and made us a cool chinese dinner at his house one time. But until now it has been really difficult to talk about the Gospel with him. Although it is sad, because of our intense schedules, if people don't want to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can only continue meeting them for so long.
However the appointment went really well! We had a great, sincere talk about God and who He is to us (our father). We watched "The Hope of God's Light" together with Chinese subtitles. And JC taught us some chinese characters and we had some ice cream! It was a great lesson and we are going to try and meet this week, too.
We were also able to meet our barber and talk about the restoration. He has been cutting missionaries' hair for years. He is so kind and respectful and loves members of the church, though he has no religion. It was a good lesson and he is becoming a regular investigator.
On Sunday we had 2 other people attend the viewing of general conference with us! One was J_, the student who took the BOM video with me. The other was a man who is the head of a 경찰 신문, a newspaper for police! It was really cool that they both came, though conference can be a bit long to watch when it is someone's first time (and even those who have watched for a while) and especially difficult in Korean for them to understand, even though they are Korean. It has to do with Chinese roots of the words. Anyway, But it was overall a very positive experience.
This week I want to share my thoughts on the importance of learning the principle of disciplined obedience. Everyone is born with the natural man, the enemy of obedience. When we can learn to obey God and his servants, we gain ability over sin and temptation, and the natural man within us. There are lots of enemies of obedience, as well as "symptoms" if you will, that lead to disobedience. One is complaining. Everyone has difficulties and hardships, some more than others. But "no problem is so bad that whining will make it better" as a wise man once said.
Another problem that leads to disobedience is not being teachable, or being unteachable.
While in Korea, I have found that I have had to really humble myself to learn Korean. It is easy to be prideful and not want to make mistakes, or be unwilling to take others' correction. But as I seek correction, I have found that I can improve more quickly.
There is no one proscribed perfect fastest way for me to learn this language, and so as I exchange and work with others, I often ask them how they study the language, even if the other missionaries are younger than me. I have learned a lot from the diligent example and studying methods of those who may be slightly less experienced in the language as me.
I have also had times in my mission where I was too prideful to accept others help and guidance, even those more experienced in the language than me. It was during these times that I progressed the least.
Being teachable has a direct correlation with our obedience as well as our rate of improvement and progression. Are you willing to take advice from others? Are you willing to learn from those who may be less experienced or younger than you?
It is important to know how to learn, in the business world, on the athletic field, and in our spiritual lives. We can't take anything for granted, as Elder Dallin H Oaks taught-- not the smallest amount of disobedience. But, as an earlier church leader taught, "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power."
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| Our mission president decided to do a 5k with his counselors in Gyoungju, my training area! We did it too--lots of fun. I got a better time than I got on the 4th of July 5K befre my mission, haha! |
Choose to be obedient, regardless of what those around you may choose. It can be really hard to choose what you personally believe is right when it differs from the opinion of others. But as long as we are honest with ourselves and seek to follow God, he won't let us go astray.
I know that is true.
Love,
Elder Beckett
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