Hello family and friends!
Wow this week has been absolutely amazing! Last P-day elder Barton and I attended the Seoul Zoo. That place is huge and I have never seen so many white people in Korea than I have there. On the way home I even talked to the first Korean that I have seen that is taller that me. We had such a good conversation that HE asked ME for MY number! How cool is that? That doesn't happen that much in missionary work. He was about 6'9" and loves to play basketball. I think we have the potential to become really good friends.
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| Zoo Fun! |
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| Yes, he is as tall as I! |
What I really want this email to focus on is our recently baptized investigator named Brother Park or 박정현 for those of you who can read Korean. When I first got to this country we started the first lesson with him. At that point he really had no interest in religion and really he was meeting with us because he had a lot of time and it is not too often in Korea that two white Americans want to meet with you. Needless to say he continued to meet with us. Every time that we would commit him to do something he would say the equivalent to "sure..." leaving us with the impression of having no idea if he would do what we asked or not. When we would follow up with him, to our happy surprise he would not only do what we asked but sometimes do a little more.
The first time we invited him to be baptized he gave the same answer of "sure" so like any good missionary would do, we took it as a "yes" and planned towards it. Later down that road we had a couple bumps(can't meet, word of wisdom, all lessons not being taught etc.) so we had to push back his baptismal date. The meeting after committing him to read the Book of Mormon everyday was a life changer for him. He told us that he cant explain the feeling that he gets when he reads it. It feels like a "zzzz" feeling all throughout his body. This time when we invited him to be baptized again he gave a firm solid "네" (yes) and we knew from then on that it would happen.
Yesterday at 2:00 p.m. Brother Park was baptized and taking the words from his mouth, he has "changed his life for the better from here on out". Everything that we have taught him has lead up to that point. To take up upon himself the name of Christ, our savior. After his baptism he stood up in front of the congregation and bore his testimony for the first time in his life. My didn't understand every word he said but my heart did. His testimony was absolutely beautiful.
The timing could not of been better for him because next Sunday he will get confirmed and then a few days after that he will move to mainland China near the border of North Korea. I am going to miss him so much. I have realized that even though I do not speak the language well I do know how to speak the language of friendship and love. That is exactly what I did with him and he will forever have a special place in my heart.
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| Elder Barton, Bro. Park, Elder Eads |
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| Baptism Day |
There is one thing that we get to do each Sunday that allows us to, "change [your] life for the better from here on out" and that is called the sacrament. It is through the sacrament that we renew that sacred covenant with God to always remember Christ's name in all that we do. We will always fall short but He will always be there to pick us right back up and start over- if we let Him.
I love you all and thank you so much for all that you do!
This link will take you to the musical piece that my district and I prepared for my investigators baptism. Yes it is in Korean so I apologize in advance if you don't understand what we are saying. :)
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