Sunday, November 18, 2012

Wow! Busy Week

Well, hello there family! It is such a nice day to hear from all of you. Especially since I dreamed that I got to be with all of ya'll last night and when I got up it was a little sobering to realize I am still in Korea. It is a blessing to be here, but to be honest (cause I gotta be right?) I miss ya'll a lot! It was good to hear from you and all of the cool things that you are doing. Jenna is a genius....a lot jealous... I thought about college a while back when I was in the office and I remember that it was just frustrating to realize how many classes I have to retake because of my slackerness..... kinda annoying. So Jenna keep it up!

Kellie is in a cast, thank heavens she is such a good sport about it all. However I do wanna sign it. Seeing as how the last time Kellie was in a cast I was the one that put her in it.... Dangit.... Sorry Kells.

Alissa... 역시.... just rocking it as always. Keep working hard in the basketball (it is a lot of fun I know you know) and futsol is absolutely crazy. I have seen it played here in Korea and it is so fun to watch. (Dad upload me some video!)

Katie!!!! Sorry about the rough week bug.... :( I hope you keep working hard though. Remember that I love ya and whenever things are rough just go snuggle with the dog (You know they always say that Dogs are a man's best friend but I guess they could do the same thing for women...or Katie Bugs.... :))))

Mom/Dad: Wow It is so good to have your prayers. I need them a lot, this week we worked really hard and I dropped into bed every night exhausted. (But it remains fact that I hate the mornings, I'm a night person 150%) But thank you. I am really feeling like I'm getting a lot of guidance out here and it is an absolute amazing experience to see hard work become something awesome

This week was just great, me and Elder 조 are working really hard. Like really hard. We were able to find 4 new investigators this week (one of whom isn't sure if he wants to meet us anymore though (one of the downsides to this teaching english thing is even though we tell people in advance that we will teach them about our church as well sometimes it just doesn't process and they got really freaked out when we start teaching them about the gospel.... I ain't no ENGLISH TEACHING MONKEY!!!! AHHH!!!)

그래도... it was an awesome week and we were able to find some really prepared people. I have been having an awesome time trying to become a better missionary. I have been recently going back to the curiculum that we got in the MTC and have been studying that and it has been a huge help. I don't think missionaries in the MTC really realize exactly how important the things they are learning are. I am just absolutely loving the stuff that I am "learning" (i guess you might call it "relearning") and it has been a blessing for my mission this last 2 weeks. (Mom next time you meet with a missionary make sure that you drill the point into his head that the things that he is learning are INCREDIBLY important).

ANYways.. I finished the Jesus the Christ book as well as Preach My Gospel this week. I was reading them both a while back and now they are all done! It was a testimony strengthener and definitely was a blessing to me to understand a lot more about Jesus Christ. Then also to understand how I can do missionary work better. 

This week especially I was studying for one of my investigators in Alma 32. And I wanted to share something that I recently discovered (I don't know if I was just stupid before or what) that I thought was really cool.

About halfway through the Parable of the Seed it talks about how when the seed grows up in your heart you will have a "perfect knowledge" that the seed is good. As I read it originally however I always thought that all of a sudden it calls that perfect knowledge not perfect in the next verse (I know thinking about it in hindsight I was kinda foolish). But as I thought about it a little more it talks about two different things in this parable. First the Seed. Then the Fruit.

The Seed is the thing that we can know of a surety is true when it begins to grow. It becomes larger and larger and we know of a surety that that thing is good. But the Fruit is the thing that we still have to wait for. After we have first exercised our faith to find out if something is good. Even if we find out that thing we may not be able to see the true blessings of it if we do not CONTINUE to exercise that faith. We must continue to exercise it till the end and then we will get to taste of the fruit. And we already know that it is gonna be good.

I thought that was really cool (again I could just be figuring out something ya'll already know) but it made me appreciate this chapter a lot more especially as we talk about our investigators. As we planned to use this (unfortunately our appointment with the investigator that we were gonna teach this moved... anyways) it was truly a great experience and I am excited to help him try to exercise his faith and find out if the Book of Mormon is God's word. It is awesome.

I have been trying to work more on focusing on my investigators and truly lately it has been a big help. We have been receiving a lot of guidance and are finding some really prepared people. Gah I love missionary work. I love getting to see God's hand in the lives of those I'm teaching. It is hard when they don't recognize that (we are teaching one atheist) but it is cool.

I want ya'll to know that I have a testimony of this gospel. A testimony of God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know that God lives and loves us. Each and every one, that he sent His Son, His only Begotten Son, to Atone for our sins. I know that the Atonement is real, that it can bless our lives if we let it. I pray every day for you my family. I pray that God will help you in your lives. In the things you're doing. I pray that he will bless your testimonies I do it every day. I want ya'll to know I love you so much. I love you SO much!

I hope you will always remember that ;)

Love ya tons, talk to ya next week!
Josh

Enjoy the pics (the one with me and not elder 조 is the atheist investigator :))

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