Yes, it finally happened! He was able to be baptized this
week and he will be confirmed a member next week :-) I guess I should kinda
tell all that happened from that and how it ended it up happened and I'll get
to that but I want to first say that I witnessed a miracle. He truly changed
his life, I don't think I could ever express how much he changed or how much he
sacrificed to go down this path but I do know that he has never made a better
choice. It makes me want to see it again and again. I guess I'll just start
with my week and kinda explain how it got to that point :-)
So this week was full of so many different things and ups
and downs. So I don't know if I mentioned this investigator last week but last
Sunday he called us and asked if he could meet us, so throughout this whole
week we've met him a total of 5 times I think and we've taught him the first 3
lessons and has been doing almost everything he can to learn more about the
church and about everything that we can teach him! One of the lessons we began
to teach him about the Word of Wisdom (which is probably Korea's biggest
problem) and we told him that smoking was against it. He then sat there for a
moment and looked at us and asked, "Where is the trash can?". He
pulled from his pocket a full box of cigarettes and a lighter and threw them
away. I was completely shocked! Normally when you have to tell them that
they've gotta stop smoking they think you're crazy!!! But we experienced a
miracle and watched him give up his habit so quickly and so obediently, that is
what faith is. I don't know if I mentioned this but I believe this transfer is
the transfer of baptismal dates! So far that is ringing true, including the
baptism that happened this week we have 4. 4 people who are closer to God, 4
people who are changing their lives to become happier, 4 people that I've
watched become happier. I can't really explain it but in Korea it is really
stressful for people because you have to study your hardest to be able to find
a stable job, but I've seen that worry and stress lightened because of what we
teach, it's a miracle within itself! :-)
Every week we do what's called a district meeting which is
with a couple areas and we get together to just talk and hear announcements,
classic meeting stuff. Anyway I was in charge of the spiritual talk that was
supposed to last about 20 minutes. Now the kicker was they wanted it all in
Korean. I've learned a lot, and I know that 2 months ago that would be
impossible for me, but it was still nerve racking! I mean I was one of the
youngest in the district so my Korean isn't where it will be, so it made it
difficult. However I did make it through it alive and had some great things for
them to think about, I'm starting to get a little more comfortable talking to
people, I can talk to people on buses no problem! But having a talk, haha,
still kinda scary!
Mom wanted to know about english class so I'm going to
explain that real quick! So Every Wednesday and Saturday we do a free english
class open to whoever wants to come, it's designed for service and meeting new
people. Ya they teach english at school for the kids but I don't think any of
you understand when I say that Koreans study a lot. I mean A LOT. I know a
college student who studies upwards of 10 hours a day. Competition is fierce in
Korea for jobs. So there are all ages at the class, there is no average age,
all kinds of people. It also is so fun! We teach the way we learned, having a
teacher only speak the language to you! Haha so ya we for the most part only
have to help them understand if it's a weird word or a expression that doesn't
really make sense.
Elder Fox