Companion speaker to High Councilor talk

January 13, 2019:

Good morning Brothers and Sisters, my name is Elder Goon and I recently returned from my mission in South Korea. There is probably so many good reasons why coming home is great but I’ve really been having withdrawals from my mission specifically with teaching. I’m having the most vivid dreams of teaching the gospel and it’s kind of weird. And when I’m driving, I don’t know exactly how it happens, but somehow the radios turned off and I’m 10 minutes into teaching the Plan of Salvation just teaching the road I guess and my shower has probably heard the mission of the restoration about 30 times. So I’m really grateful for this chance to speak because I really miss teaching the gospel on my mission that was something I very much enjoyed, I wouldn’t say I was good at it, but I really miss it. Today I get to speak on teaching and learning in the church, specifically with the new schedule and the new program the church has put out. Also, my talk is notes from the recent Ensign article by Elder Jeffery R Holland called Making your Life a Soul Stirring Journey of Personal Growth. I thought that was the most interesting title for this specifically the word Soul Stirring. I didn’t really know what stir meant, like I know it’s doing this (motions with hand) but I don’t actually know the definition of stir. And I looked it up and it says to mix, to add or to move. So when I think of our soul mixing I thought of our soul mixing with other souls here on earth and us helping each other. I thought of adding to our souls, a big theme in our mission was adding light to our souls. And I thought of moving our souls towards God. I think the church’s new policies on teaching and learning in the home supported by the church is a great way to stir our souls. There is a sentence that Elder Holland uses that I kind of what I want to base my talk on, it says “our souls were created to grow” and I have a big circle that says “our life’s purpose” because I’ve explained the purpose of life to many people I know a lot of many different ways but I think the word grow is maybe the most perfect way to explain the purpose of life. Elder Holland talks about how learning, becoming living and teaching are the keys to personal growth. Teaching learning and living the gospel are key principles to progression, sometimes we call it conversion, and sometimes we simply name it repentance. And I found it interesting the Elder Holland is saying eternal progression and conversion and repentance are the same thing. I noticed that Elder Holland, when he talks about learning, he makes a clear distinction between listening to a lesson and accumulating knowledge and improvement, knowing the truth and changing. I think teaching is really a part, especially to be a great teacher. I think of all the amazing teachers I’ve had in my life and they all have one thing in common and that is love and teaching people not lessons. Elder Holland talks about this. I thought it very fitting because missionaries are heavily trained on teaching people not lessons. On my mission lots of times I’d be in a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the person would ask a question about the Word of Wisdom. Nine times out of ten, my companion would say oh we’re not talking about that now, we’ll get to that later and go on with the lesson. I’d let him talk for a little bit and then when it was my turn, I’d say Brother Kim, you mentioned back there the Word of Wisdom, let’s talk about it, and I’d talk about it. And after those type of lessons, me and my companion would always have a moment where I’d tell him, we are not here to teach the Book of Mormon, we’re here to teach this man and if he wants to know about the Word of Wisdom then that’s what we’re going to teach him. I think it’s really easy to teach people and not lessons when we’re teaching just one person or sometimes 2 or 3 or 4, but when I was reading through this talk and Elder Holland was talking about teaching people and not lessons I couldn’t help but wonder about the seminary and Sunday School teachers who with the new combination of quorums have to teach 30, 40 sometimes 50 people all at once. I think it can be overwhelming to try to teach all those people at the same time. But I had an experience on my mission that I think can help people that might be struggling with that problem. I was at a devotional that I set up. I was in a position to get some missionaries together for a devotional and I invited the speaker to come and talk about some specific things because there were some missionaries in our zone that were having issues and I wanted him to address those and talk to those people. So this was a devotional for everyone, but specifically for two missionaries. So kind of went into that thinking o.k. I’m not going to get much out of this as it’s for not me, it’s for two other missionaries. But there was a moment in this man’s talk where he stopped and I could tell he was listening to something and he said “I don’t know why I have to say this but…” and he said something very short and simple for about 20 seconds, but that changed me and it hit me so hard and changed the rest of my mission. And as the missionaries were talking about their favorite parts from the devotional, as you guys know, almost everyone has the same favorite parts from the talk, but nobody even noticed this 20 second comment and no one even mentioned that it touched them or that they enjoyed it and I know that that was a teach who had prepared but was willing to listen to the spirit and for just 20 seconds was able to affect me. I don’t know about everyone in that devotional but I know that Heavenly Father is willing to teach us individually and he teaches us always and we just have to listen and as teachers we just have to be worthy and ready for Him to teach through us. The focus that I wanted to talk about today was teaching and learning in the home. As you guys know, our church has shifted from a church centered home supported church to a home centered church supported church and Elder Holland and President Eyring have some interesting things to say about that that have really related to a recent experience that I had that I want to close my talk with. Maybe 5 years ago, I heard a talk by Elder Robert E Wells. Elder Wells I guess is famous for speaking on the subject that Jesus Christ payed for our mistakes and this is kind of the topic that he always loves to speak about. He tells the story of a mistake that was made that resulted in his wife dying. He didn’t break a commandment, he didn’t do anything wrong, he just made a mistake and his wife died. After years of pain and grief he finally realized that Jesus Christ paid for his mistakes well and he was able to find peace and comfort in that. So I’ve been hearing this story for years, I’ve learned it and I know that that is true. It’s an accumulation of knowledge but up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t really have a testimony of what that meant. A few weeks ago, I was in a car accident that was horrible, no one got hurt and there wasn’t much damage but it was just a silly mistake that I made and I felt horrible. I remember right after I crashed, I thought that the Holy Ghost was in the passenger seat because he almost yelled at me “Don’t worry, Jesus Christ will pay for your mistakes”. So I thought maybe I’m going to get out and there’s not going to be even a scratch on the car. But that wasn’t true and I thought maybe I’m going to wake up and this was a dream, but that wasn’t true either. Maybe $10,000 is going to fall from the sky and Jesus really will be the one to pay for my mistake, but that wasn’t the case. So I kind of doubted that impression and thought how is Jesus Christ going to pay for this mistake? After an hour or so, my dad got involved and the other driver came and I just felt horrible and I was so scared and I thought I was going to get yelled at punished for a silly mistake. But when I got home, me and my dad had a very very short conversation maybe a minute or two which ended in my dad saying “Everyone makes mistakes, its o.k.” and then he gave me a hug and went to bed. I stayed up for maybe 20 more minutes just crying because of the joy I felt and I finally realized what it meant that Jesus Christ paid for my mistakes. He didn’t take it away, but he replaced the guilt and sorrow with peach and forgiveness. Elder Holland says this about God’s plan “Surely all things bear record of Him, that God is willing to teach us anywhere and anytime in informal moments with our children and our friends. This was truly an informal moment but my Dad’s forgiveness was able to increase my testimony of Heavenly Father’s love for us and our Savior Jesus Christ. President Henry B Eyring said “Though earthly families are far from perfect they give God’s children the best chance to be welcomed to the world with the only love on earth that comes close to what we felt in heaven, parental love. Families are also the best way to preserve and pass on moral virtues and true principles that are most likely to bring us back to God’s presence. I know that the strongest lessons I’ve learned have been from my family. The lessons that have changed me the most have been in my home.  I’m very grateful for the inspiration from our prophet and apostles to take the initiative to our homes. I know that parents aren’t perfect and children are far from perfect but if we try our best to live right and live the gospel and to teach and learn in our home that it will have 10 fold effect than just learning in church. I am grateful for this chance to speak and I‘m grateful for great teachers and great lessons and I know that as we follow our prophet and apostles that we can learn a lot in our homes. As we as a family try harder to live the gospel it brings blessings. And I know that what the prophets and apostles have taught us truly is going to make our life a soul-stirring journey. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Official Homecoming talks Las Palmas Ward

November 11, 2018

Taz Homecoming Talk:

I was supposed to prepare this week, but I was a little busy. As I sat during the sacrament hymn, I started to shed some tears. I guess it finally feels real that I’m home and I don’t really want to be hear. NO actually, I’m excited, I’m just kidding. I got home from my mission on Tuesday and I got released at 8:00 Tues. night. That was 5 days, 10 hours and 7 min ago and I know that there isn’t a second that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about going back I wanted to do that. Before my mission I was actually terrified to go, I didn’t want to serve a mission. Today I’m going to be talking about following prophetic principles from General Conference. I’m not really sure what that means so I’m just going to talk about General Conference if that’s o.k.

I’ll first say that on a mission General Conference is much better. Before your mission, you’re not really paying attention. This past conference I learned a lot of things but all the talks that stood out to me were all about trials and faith and stuff. I feel like that’s the thing I learned the most on my mission is to have faith in the Savior and to overcome trials. So I want to talk a little bit about that today. When I started my mission, it was a lot harder than I expected it to be and it only got harder and harder and harder, it was really hard. There was a lot of things happening in Korea, at home with friends and family that were hard to go through but luckily I had the best Mission President in the world and he helped my go through it. I was about to give up actually when I was about 3 months out and 4 months out. I was just not enjoying my mission at all, finding no joy and no success or miracles. I told my Mission President that I packed my bags and I am ready to go home. But luckily, he said no and so I didn’t go home. When I was going through this hard time, gratefully, I had some of my best friends with me that could really support me and help me a lot, but probably one of the biggest supports was my little sister, she was also going through a hard time and she sent me an email about a conference talk called: God Shall Wipe Away all Tears and I read that talk and that was kind of a turning point on my mission where I started to realize that it’s going to be hard and it’s going to be pretty miserable, but it’s going to be worth it and that’s when I started really growing too. As I served in Korea we met 4 apostles and 4 seventies and they all talked to us and as I listened to them talk I gained a testimony of their prophetic call. As I’ve applied things I’ve learned from them, I’ve pretty much got a testimony from their counsel and the blessings we receive from following it. The talk that stood out most to me during General Conference to me was a talk called Wounded by Neil L Anderson. He opened his talk about a bombing where a lot of people were killed and there were some missionaries in the airport that got exploded and a lot of injuries and after that they had a lot of trials with healing and things like that. Elder Anderson posed a kind of the question of all time: Why do bad things happen to good people? As I served in Korea that’s kind of the question I was asked the most: Why do bad things happen to good people? Especially because the year before I got to Korea, there was a big crash and a ship sank killing 500 students. So lots of people wanted to know why is the world so terrible why do bad things happen? I think Elder Anderson covered that really well. When I was on my mission I had an experience with my less active friend and it was probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. A lot of my old companions had served in this area so when I got there, they all told me that I needed to go visit this less active and work with him. I picked up the phone to call him and I was typing in his name and he called me. Hello, hello, oh, are you Jenkins friend? I must see you…if you’re Jenkins friend, then you’re my friend. I was like ok that’s lets meet, so I met him that day 2 hours later at McDonalds and yes there is McDonalds in Korea and it’s cheaper and it’s just as delicious. We met in front of McDonalds and as soon as he picked us him he immediately started with the excuses why he wasn’t going to church…he was busy, no job, no money, no time, but the excuses got worse and worse and he just really made me mad listening to all the excuses he had on why he couldn’t follow God. Then  started telling me about all the hard things he’s been through and all the trials  that come up ever since he joined the church and he said If God loved me when I was going to church, he should have helped me get a job, he should help me keep my job. He often told me during that meeting that’s he’s much happier not going to church because his life is easier and better. Ever since he left, his life started getting better. I really just listened to him a lot because I really didn’t know what to say exactly. When I listened to him for probably 2 hours just going on about how hard it is for him and listening to all his excuses and then all of sudden I just knew what to say and I told him that, I promised him in the name of the Savior that until he came back to church, he’d never find a job and that until he came back to church he’d never find a job and I told him that until he starts putting God first in his life that he will be miserable and I promised him that. The next Sunday, he came to church and he came 5 weeks in a row. I left the area and I came back two weeks later and he was at Stake Conference. I guess I must have scared him pretty bad. As soon as he came back, there was a light in his eyes. The ward welcomed him back and he just seemed so happy. We met a couple of more times, he really likes bread because he’s allergic to a bunch of stuff, so he can only eat bread and he kept saying you need to come  over and break bread with me. We got really really close after that. I never got to break bread with him because the day before I left that area he came to visit me and we were sitting in his car and he started crying and he broke down and said I had no friends no support and I was really lost and when you came into my life and he sat there crying for a couple of minutes and he leaned over in the car and just hugged me for a long time. He said you were right, as soon as I came back to church, I got my job back and I started to be happy again my life is peaceful. He said goodbye and I left. I thought about why did he have to fall away and learn the hard way that maybe even though following the gospel is hard, it’s much more rewarding. I thought about why he had to go through that hard time, what was the point of God taking away his job and his friends and family and basically leaving him alone for a little bit? Then I thought about by own experiences on the early part of my mission when I felt nothing but alone and was just miserable. I thought about the trials I’ve gone through and about what that’s done for me. I saw the change that this man had because of his trials. And so I guess along with Elder Nielson and a lot of the apostles that spoke at General Conference, they all said take joy in trials and lift up your heads and be of good cheer when times get hard. The biggest struggle on my mission was the temptation to think that because I’m struggling God doesn’t love me. Because there were a lot of days where I could not feel God’s love for me.  I felt like he had abandoned me and during those times it was really easy to say why is He making me do this? or Where is He now? if He loved me, He’d help me? And finally for the first time in my life I actually following God and giving Him all that I had and he’s gone…at least that’s what I felt like and  this period of time lasted well over a year but luckily during that time I had some great companions that helped me a lot. One of my companions at the time was Elder Lydon. We were in Incheon together and that was just the worse time in my life and we watched a video together about trials, times of trouble by Elder Holland and he talked about this question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And how can I be happy during trials? He first talked about the scriptures. If you look in the scriptures there is not a single fairy tale ending in there. Either they die or get stoned or get swallowed by a whale. There is a lot of hard stories in the scriptures and none of them seem to have very easy lives. I thought about all the Book of Mormon stories that I’ve come to love and how many trials. All of it is trials. But the thing that stood out most to me is Elder Holland talked about the Savior, talked about how hard the Saviors life was. We might think that our lives hard, but it’s not hard at all because no one lived a harder life than Jesus Christ. He had to be perfect every day. He faced so much ridicule and suffered for all of us in the Garden of Gethsemane and died for us on the cross. Jesus Christ was God’s only perfect son, the only son that ever listened to Him, the only son that was faithful to Him. Jesus Christ suffered more than all of us combined. I don’t know about you guys, but I would never say that God doesn’t love Jesus Christ. That just makes no sense. God loves Jesus Christ I knew he loves me and the prophets in the scriptures. But I know for a fact He loves Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ suffered for all of us. He suffered so bad that on the cross he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus Christ didn’t have to be alone. He’s the only son that was ever worthy, God never had to abandon Jesus Christ, but He did. So that Jesus Christ could would know what we feel like when we feel alone or when we’re struggling. After that talk, I really started to recognize the Savior more in my life and recognize the people that he sent to me and feel the love that he has for me. Ever since I thought about that, I’ve had more faith in the Savior and his ability to help me and comfort me. I know that when we have hard times and things don’t always seem to go our way the first thing we have to hold onto is that God loves us no matter what. No matter how hard Satan tries to convince us that God doesn’t love us, He does. In April General Conference someone quoted President Nelson who said: when people are going through hard times, the thing I want them to remember most is their identity. And so it’s no wonder that when we are going through hard times that Satan would want us to forget our identity that we are sons and daughters of God. I also know that during hard times, we need to have faith in the Savior. We need to know that he actually did suffer for us and he actually did die for us and he actually did rise again for us, that that is not a fairy tale. That’s not just something that people say to comfort themselves. That that really happened, it was a true event. And when you know that and know those two things you can get through anything. On my mission I saw so many Korean members had it so hard. It would be so hard to be a member in Korea because everyone hates you. We are the biggest cult in all of Korea and everyone hates us so bad. The members in Korea are so strong and they are so faithful, but their lives are just so hard. I’ve seen so many people whose spouses have left them or are disabled, or have kids who fall astray, have family members that die. I’ve seen so much suffering amongst the members in Korea and I’ve also seen so much suffering among my companions and missionary friends. But I’ve learned on my mission that suffering is exalting, that if we really want to get to the Celestial Kingdom that we have to suffer, we have to walk through the Garden of Gethsemane. Not in the same way the Savior did, but no matter how you get to salvation you have to go through Gethsemane and that is a place of suffering. I know that that might sound like life is miserable and everything is hard but it’s not. There is so much happiness in life and I’ve seen so many blessings and miracles on my mission. I do truly know that the Savior loves us and that we are Heavenly Father’s children. I’m so grateful for the support that you guys showed me on my mission. I’m so grateful for my parents for strongly encouraging me to go because without them I would not have gone and without my mission I would be lost, I would not be the person I am today. I know that this church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I’ve read it and I’ve prayed about it. I know that Joseph Smith saw and talked with God.

이제 한국말로 이야기하도록 하겠습니다. 제 간증을 이미 나눴는데 제 뒤에 계신 친구들한테 제 사랑을 표현하고 싶어요. 저는 여러분들을 너무 사랑하고 제 영원한 친구들이 되어서  엄청 기뻐요.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Homecoming talk in YSA ward

December 16, 2018

Good morning brothers and sisters, this morning I got a text from Courtney at about 11 am asking if I was ready to give my talk and I said “I’m ready to start writing it!” Well I waited till half time to write it, but I wrote it. My topic today is lessons I learned on my mission so I spent 2 years writing this talk. As Brother Royal said I served in South Korea in the Seoul area and I got back about a month ago. It was a good time.

When people ask me what I have learned the most on my mission it is very hard to give an answer because as many of you know there are a lot of things you learn on your mission and you grow a lot and it seems that there is never enough time. So I wanted to talk today about three things that I learned on my mission that I think are lessons that will affect me for the rest of my life.

The first lesson I learned is in 3 NE 13:33. It says something along the lines of “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you.” I don’t know if you guys know much about Korean culture but they are very showy on their money. They love money and they love making sure you know they have money. I see all the time Koreans that drive a million dollar car, but live in a 1 bed room apartment so that they can show to the world they have a nice car, but when they go home it’s not so nice. I have seen a lot of people that I have taught that all they cared about was money. I often heard from people “I know that God is important, BUT right now I have a work project, or I have to find a new job, or I have to work and get money.” But one of my favorite members that I met in Korea named Brother Park was a living example of putting God first and everything else adding unto him. He was actually the first member I talked to in Korea, he spoke perfect English, so I should say he was the first member I talked to and understood what he was saying. He talked to me about how when he got home from his mission he got married in about 2 months. His parents told him to wait till he had money to go to college, get married, and have a family. They told him he needed money before he made this big decision. And he said “NO” and got married anyways. He had 2 kids and still didn’t have a job and he told me that during that time all he did was trust that got would take care of him. He got a degree in Chemical engineering, but still couldn’t find a job. So he continued to serve in his church callings and read his scriptures and prayed and did the things he was supposed to do as he trusted God would take care of him. Well a couple years later he got a job as a business man and became one of the most successful business man in Korea and now because of that he retired about the age of 45 and no works full time for the church headquarters for no pay. Every time he speaks to missionaries, or gives a talk, or gives a lesson, all he talks about is putting God first, no matter what, and God will take care of you and everything will be added unto you. He is a living example of that. On my mission as I tried to put God first it was very hard at times, and another thing I learned is that when we put God first our life gets a lot harder because Satan works a lot harder on you. Though my life is much harder and often more complicated, it is a lot more meaningful. I have seen God in my life looking out for me and helping me when I put him before worldly things.

Serving in Korea I learned a lot of lessons in a frustrating way. You are lucky to get more than 2 appointments per week, so you learn a lot from getting rejected and canceled appointments and getting punked. And one of the biggest lessons I learned was from people making excuses. I learned there is always going to be an excuse on why you can’t; pray, go to church, or be a good person. But there is no room for excuses in the kingdom of God. We just have to do what we are supposed to do. There was a less active that I worked with named Brother Lee. He had been investigating for about 6 years. He joined the church on a miracle. He had been praying to know what church to join when he got a call from the missionaries after losing contact for about a year. He told us later that as soon as he got that call he knew what church he would be joining. A couple months after he joined he lost his job, and got a new job where he was really mistreated. He was struggling financially. His family and friends left him because he joined the church.  So he was very lonely and very poor. When I got transferred to the area I had the thought to call him. As I picked up the phone to call him he called me. He told me there had been an accident at his work and he needed help. He worked at a hospital and one of the patients he was watching got out of his wheelchair and fell and cracked his skull. The hospital got sued for a lot of money and he was in big trouble, and it was a really bad situation. So we met him for about an hour or two and I heard him say, if God loves me why did he do this to me. And he kept making excuses on why he couldn’t come to church right now. And it was very frustrating and I listened to him complain and make excuses for a long time and finally I interrupted him and sort of yelled at him and told him that I count understand how he could keep coming up with so many excuses on why you are not doing what you know you are supposed to be doing. And I promised him that If he didn’t come back to church he would get fired and I promised him in the name of Jesus Christ that until he came back to church he would be lonely and poor his whole life. And then we left. And I felt cool. And also felt really bad because I was sort of mean. But the next day he came to church and he had a big smile on his face and I was happy that I didn’t scare him off forever. We kept meeting every week because he didn’t have any friends, and often we would meet every Saturday and all he would ask us to do was pray for him. And for some reason when I scolded him, he realized he needs to stop making excuses and just come to church and every week we would meet with him he would say “I had a bad week at week, or I’m really struggling, but that doesn’t matter all I want to do is study the scriptures and have you guys pray for me.” And so I saw his heart change and I saw him realize that once you do what you are supposed to and stop making excuses your life gets better and got starts helping you along the way.

This is probably the lesson I learned most on my mission and I want to talk about most today. My mission was very hard for me and hard for a lot of people around me, lots of my companions and house mates struggled. And I served in wards where there was a lot of unfairness you could say. Toward the last month or so on my mission I was sitting  in sacrament and  a thought came to me on what I should talk about in my homecoming , So I wrote my whole homecoming talk the last month of my mission. I was zoned out because even though it was the last months of my mission I still couldn’t understand sacrament meeting so I usually sat thinking about random things. This thought came to my mind because a sister that bore her testimony. For some random reason I stopped zoning out and listened to her. Her name is Sister Kim and she went up and talked about going to the temple with her daughter. She told he life story and her husband did not like her joining the church and because of that he beat her. And he hit her so hard that she went deaf and then he left her. She had a daughter to raise on her own and now had a disability and for a year or two stopped going to church because she was mad at God. But she had come back to church and realized it wasn’t God that did that to her and she talked about going to the temple with her daughter and how grateful she was that she came back. As I heard that story I felt very sad for her, and I thought why would that happen to her? And I looked around at the ward I was sitting in and I was sitting next to a less active I had been working with who got hit in the eye with a baseball and went blind. Because of that his wife left him and now he only has a few years until his other eye goes blind and he is completely blind. On my right was a member that had a young family and was in a car accident and now his leg was very badly disabled. I saw a young single mother that was raising her children alone because he husband hated the church and would beat her all the time. I saw another member whose son was in a vegetative state for the last 10 years of his life and died at the age of 18 a few months prior. I saw someone sitting in the back in a wheelchair because he fell from 12 stories while working in construction and was now paralyzed. And I remembered one time he told me that he wants to die so bad because he is miserable living in his broken body. This list I have in my journal goes on for pages of all the suffering I saw through the members in Korea. The members I have come to love more than just about everything. And to top all that off, I', not sure that there are a more faithful and righteous members then Korea. They have it so hard there to be a member. Over here if your friends find out you are a member they so “oh good for you, you are a good person.” But if you are a member in Korea you are the biggest cult you are a devil worshiper you are the worst person in the world and you are fired or kicked out of school or bullied. So it is very hard to be a member in Korea and I think it takes a lot more faith to stay active in the church. So as I am sitting around all these extremely faithful people and seeing how much they suffer and how faithful they still are, I learned a little bit about the atonement. I learned that suffering is exalting.  I think of the only way we can all become exalted is through Jesus Christ’s suffering so it is only natural that we must suffer a little bit. Elder Holland came to our mission and talked to us about this. He told of a girl that he met that was a mother who was trying to have kids for about 20 years but couldn’t. She went to the temple every week, did all that she was supposed to do, yet couldn’t get her righteous desire. And she asked him why. Elder Holland said “when we suffer, we can’t think God doesn’t love us we have to think God loves us and is making us become something better. He told us when we meet Korean people that are suffering we need to promise them that God is their father and he loves them perfectly and He has a plan in their suffering.

The second part of my topic today is “how I improved my relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.” The biggest thing I learned on my mission was to trust God. Hopefully everyone learns that on their mission because sometimes God is really confusing and hard to trust. But as I have learned to trust God my relationship with him has improved and I realized that he isn’t just a God in heaven but he is my father who walks with me every step of my life. And he knows me perfectly and he believes in me perfectly and he is never going to give up on me and he is never going to give me something I can’t handle and I just need to trust him.

That was a hard lesson to learn, but not as hard as how I improved my relationship with Jesus Christ. Like I said my mission was very hard. At the beginning of my mission I was very frustrated learning Korean and having to eat fish all the time and bad things were happening to my family at home, bad things were happening to my friends, my companion was Korean so I couldn’t talk to him and I was very frustrated and it was very hard. Something that was very uncharacteristic of me happened to me while I was on my mission. Before my mission I was always a happy person. It wasn’t hard for me to smile or laugh or make a joke, but on my mission, because of that and other things, I ended up having to meet with a mental health doctor once a week, sometimes daily. I was very frustrated because I had never been sad as long as I could remember and all of the sudden no matter how hard I tried or how hard I faked it I could never be happy. That was for sure the hardest trial on my mission. I had been close to people that were depressed but I never thought it would happen to me and when it did, I didn’t know what to do because I had never been sad before, maybe when the patriots lost the super bowl, but other than that, I had never been sad. So I was very “broken” and there was a lot of crying and hard times and I would often think why is God doing this to me?

I didn’t realize this until I got home, until I was talking to a friend about “why do bad things happen to good people.” As you know you get that question almost daily as a missionary, and depending on who you are talking to the answer varies, but I had always said something along the lines of “opposition in all things, or God has a plan.” But for some reason when I was talking to my friend I saw it from a different perspective. I reflected on all my experiences with suffering a bit and all my hard times and thinking “why is God doing this to me?” And I realized, and this answer may not be correct, or comforting, but I think for me at least, in order for me to build a relationship with Jesus Christ, I had to be “broken” and let him fix me. And realize that he does have the power to save and heal and comfort and redeem. I think back to that year or so when it was really hard for me and sometimes I wish it didn’t happen, but I realize that happened to me so I could build my relationship with Jesus Christ and that heavenly father “breaking me” allowed Jesus Christ to heal me and allowed me to gain a testimony of His atonement and realize how much Jesus Christ has suffered for us and how much he loves us.

Of course there is so much more that I could talk about, but these are the things I wanted to share today. But I do know that Heavenly Father is our father and that he loves us and does have a plan for us. I know Jesus Christ. I know how much he has done for us and how much he loves us and I am so grateful for that. I know that when we put God first in our life everything will be good. I know that when we don’t make excuses and we don’t complain during our trials, heavenly father will lift us higher and Jesus Christ will comfort us. I know that heavenly father and Jesus Christ love me and they love you and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in Korea. I want to go back there. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mission Acceptance letter

2016-07-28

Dear Brethren,

It is with great pleasure that I accept this mission call to serve the Lord. I am excited to serve the people of Korea and I know this is where I am supposed to go. I will continue to prepare in the next coming months. I am humbled and grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and His children

Elder Taz Goon

July 19, 2016

Dear Elder Taz Kiefer Goon:

We welcome you to full-time missionary service to proclaim the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to help build His kingdom on earth. We trust that you will savor the honor and privilege of bringing souls to the Master by losing yourself in the work.

As you continue to read and study the scriptures, you will increase your personal knowledge and testimony of the Savior and His gospel. You will be motivated to be obedient and to work hard. You will learn to be led by the Spirit so that you can teach and testify with converting power. The Savior taught:

Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10), and

Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together (John 4:35–36).

To help you prepare for your mission, we have provided the following information and instructions for you to study and follow carefully.

May you find everlasting joy in your service to your Father in Heaven, His Beloved Son, and the people to whom you minister.

Faithfully your Brethren,

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Elder Goon's farewell talk

September 17, 2016:

Brothers and Sisters, DANGSIN-EUN JAEMI NAEMSAE! Before you go repeating that to people, just let me tell you what it means. Ever since I got my mission call and people found out I was going to Korea they always asked me either do you already know Korean? And I was like of course not, I’m Chinese, but they also asked have you started learning Korean? Have you started studying and I said, No, I wasn’t planning on it because I strongly believe that the reason missionaries are able to learn whatever language in such a short amount of time is because they are doing Heavenly Father’s work and they have Him on their side. I believe that when I get to the Mission Training Center after being ordained an Elder, I’ll have Angels on my shoulders helping me learn Korean. I have nine weeks to learn Korean, to be able to speak Korean and that’s not long at all. The other day I was talking to a very close friend of mine and he told me that it takes some people nine years to learn Korean and I have nine weeks. Anyways, back to the DANGSIN-EUN JAEMI NAEMSAE! Every time someone would ask Have you already started learning Korean? I’d say no, but I’ll learn but then I thought maybe I’ll learn something. So whenever someone asked me that…I’d say I learned DANGSIN-EUN JAEMI NAEMSAE! If anyone speaks Korean out there I totally screwed that up, I’m sorry. They’d be like Oh, what’s that mean? You know it’s thank you or the next day it’s like where’s the restroom or, but it really means you smell funny, so I’d just say that to them because I was tired of getting that question. Let me just start by saying I do not want to serve a mission. I’m so scared. A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to California with some friends. It was probably the best trip of my life. But I was gone for five days and on the last day I missed my mommy. I wanted to come home because after being gone for five days, I am so scared to leave for two years.  I don’t want to leave my family, or my friends, the people that I love. I don’t want to leave my phone or my TV or my comfy bed or my pantry full of junk food and my mom’s cooking. I don’t want to cut my hair more than twice a year and I don’t want to miss two of Tom Brady’s last five years. But I am going on a mission, not because I want to but because the Lord wants me to. I was reading in Luke Chapter 22 when Christ was going to the Garden of Gethsemane to suffer for our sins. And it says: And He withdrew from them about a stone’s cast and kneeled down and prayed saying: Father, if thou would be willing remove this cup from me, never the less, not my will but Thine be done. And as he appeared, an angel came unto him from heaven strengthening Him.  Jesus didn’t want to die for us. He didn’t want to suffer for all our sins, pains and afflictions, but he did because that is what his father wanted him to do. I don’t want to go on a mission and leave, but I’m going to because that’s what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I was reading a talk by President Kimball and he said: I was asked a few years ago should every young man who is a member of the church fill a mission? And I responded with the answer the Lord has given: Yes, every worthy young man should fill a mission. The Lord expects it of him, and if he is not worthy to fulfill a mission, then he should start at once to qualify himself.  The Lord has instructed, Send forth ye elders of my church unto the nations which are far off, unto the islands of the seas send forth unto foreign lands call upon all nations, first upon the Gentiles then upon the Jews. When I read that a couple of years ago, I knew that right then and there I had to serve a mission. So I started preparing and getting what I needed to done and I turned my papers in. But there was one problem, I hadn’t really ever read the Book of Mormon cover to cover for myself and prayed and asked if it was true. I always grew up in the church. I always like knew it was true, I was just taught that. My parent believed it, my leaders and my friends, so I just went along with them so as not to stand out. But then my mission got closer and I realized I don’t want to go so I thought to myself, I’d better find out if it’s true, because I’m not giving up two year of my life for something my parents believe or my friends, or my leaders. I better know for myself. So a couple of months ago, I had a long talk with someone very very close to me and I told them how scared I was and I didn’t know really if the church was true I never really took on Moroni’s promise and we talked for a couple of hours on Sunday’s or Saturday night and we decided we’d read the Book of Mormon together. The very next Sunday, like a couple of hours later, the only thing they talked about in Sacrament Meeting was reading the Book of Mormon and asking if it was true. And I can’t remember the last time it’s every been just what Sacrament Meeting’s about. So I was definitely a little glad I guess. It’s like right after I decide to read the Book of Mormon, the Sacrament Meeting’s on it. But then the following week me and my friend had read the first book of Nephi and we got to a chapter about the war in heaven and I tried my best to explain why we’re here, why we chose to follow Jesus not Satan, but I just couldn’t do it…I don’t know I just couldn’t explain. And that was again on a Saturday, and the very next day in Sunday School and we were learning about Helaman and the people wanting the key. Nothing about the war in heaven but somehow, we got off topic and we started talking about the war in heaven. President Turner explained that basically, Satan’s plan was to have all of us come down here and were forced to do good, and we all get to go to heaven. It sounds great. But one thing I never talked about or ever thought about was the people not so good are down here and the people going to heaven are here and they have to meet in the middle. So if you’re doing bad, that’s great, but if you’re going to heaven, it’s not so good. And that really stood out to me and I felt something that day. So, two weeks in a row something pretty weird, on a Saturday night I was talking about stuff and we talked about it in church. But that night in FHE we were studying Alma Chapter 12 or something, so random scripture and guess what it was about, it was about the war in heaven. And as we read Alma 12 or 13, I don’t know, this indescribable feeling came over me. People describe it as a warm blanket, or you feel hairs on your neck standing up, all of the above happened to me. I can’t describe the feeling to anyone unless you felt it. But I knew at that moment the scriptures were true, the Book of Mormon was real and that the church was true and I had to go on a mission. I know that the church is true, I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that he really did restore the church, that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ. Everyone in here whether or not I know you well or personally, or I don’t know you at all, everyone’s had some influence on me serving a mission, because of you being here every week, your example to me whether you ever talked to me you’ve all influenced me. I’m scared to leave, but I know that’s what I’m supposed to do. I know that Jesus Christ loves us more than we can ever understand. When I think about how much I love my mom or my friends, I can’t imagine how much Jesus loves us. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission. I love you all and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen