Week 3

November 2, 2016

Hello everyone!

This week has been pretty cool and went by so much but i learned a lot. 

First of all CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! they put up Christmas lights and they are so beautiful! at no it is never too early. This week has been filled with spiritual things and so much fun things!

First of on i have kinda been avoiding the volleyball gym because ya know I'm too good. haha no but its not very fun because no one is good and it isn't real volleyball. But that changed this week. Sister Ah-Fua, who is the girl who played for San Francisco in collage, and I peppered! there wasn't a lot of people playing and there was an extra court and volleyball so we peppered the whole hour! She also was a setter so she set me a bunch of times so I could hit. It was really fun and a real work out. Everyday after that volleyball has been fun because we make sure we are next to each other in the rotations and basically play beach volleyball style and don't let anyone else touch the ball. Its a lot of fun. 

The second thing is me and Elder Boren found out the best way to study our scriptures! Laying on the floor or in chairs. It is so comfy and makes our 3 hours of studying manageable. I also take breaks and do some pull ups on the door to get some blood flowing and remind me of rock climbing. 

Third Halloween was this week and our dorm had a party and everyone went around trick or treating. I handed out animal crackers and got mainly tootsie rolls, laffytaffy, and kisses. The best costume was Elder Granados who said he was the statue of liberty dressed as a Lamanite. It was funny! And everyone is super jealous of my slinky... thanks mom. 

The last thing that I did this week is I started smuggling bagels out of the cafeteria. my companions say I look like I'm on a secret mission and am super cautious and sneaky. I always sneak out an asiago bagel and eat it during personal study. That's about it for the fun stuff. Now onto the GOOD stuff that has happened this week. 

Lets start with my lessons. Me and my companions teach a lesson to an investigator each day. This week we got through the entire first lesson on the restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ. All in Korean. I have been praying so much for the gift of tongues, which is a promised gift to missionaries that the Lord will help us learn and communicate and remember our language. This week I put absolute trust in God and went into those lessons with no script. No notes. no words written down. Just the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet. I trusted that God would help me to understand and communicate. He did. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I was able to ask questions and understand their response. but in a different way than normal. I had no clue what words they were saying. They spoke fluent Korean and were talking so fast and I have only been here three weeks. But I understood them. It was like their spirit was talking to mine and I just understood what they were feeling, not saying. I was then able to answer their questions or respond in some way. It is truly amazing how much the Lord will up us if we have faith in Him. 

A specific experience I would like to share. These investigators mentioned above aren't real. They are members who volunteer their time to act like investigators. But on Monday night we taught a real investigator. NOT a fake MTC investigator. He was real and I was so excited and nervous. We taught him about Jesus Christ. I was a native speaker so he spoke so much faster then the fake investigators. but I prayed so much that I would be able to understand him. I did. I taught him about Jesus Christ and his life and all he did for us. He understood me completely. I invited him to follow Christ and strive to be like him. he said he would. and I invited him to pray about our message and he said he would. 3 weeks into my mission, barely knowing the language, I got a real investigator to pray and follow Christ. I was so amazed how the Lord works through me. He also wrote comments about our lesson. He said how he needed to hear this and he felt the spirit. He also commented on all of our Korean. He said my Korean is great and I am doing well. it was a true testament that the angels are helping me with Korean. Always.

The next thing that happened this week was our devotionals. For choir we sang Praise to the man. A song about Joseph Smith. Our choir director told us the history of that song. I would share it, but I don't have time. I'd encourage you all to read the words and think about them. as I was singing the song I cried about a thousand times because I felt the spirit so strong. I truly know Joseph Smith was and is a true prophet and restored the church. I am so grateful for his life and sacrifice to bless the lives of millions of people.    

The speakers now. On Sunday we heard from Richard N Holzaphel. He talked about second nature. He told us that we need to work hard at things until they become second nature. He talked about how when a child is learning to walk and falls down parents are so happy! they say "get the camera, Jimmy just took is first step." Despite Jimmy falling down, his parents are excited because he is trying and learning. I testify God is that way. When we mess up in life, maybe not literally, but he might say "get the camera, Taz is trying his best to be a good missionary." Or get the camera my children are trying their best to choose the right. I know God wants us to keep trying and he expects us to fail. No parent expects their child to start running after they take their first step. He encouraged us to keep trying to become more like Christ and to work until it becomes second nature like walking is for us. 

Then last night. Holy Cow......... President Russel M Nelson came and spoke. It was amazing, when he walked into the room and all 2,000 of us stood up at once, I felt the spirit walk into the room with that man. For those of you who don't know who we is he is the President of the quorum of the twelve apostles. He spoke about missionary work and how important it is. I'll share a few things that stood out to me. The first is, a question proposed was, "What do we know that the rest of the world doesn't? We know that families are sealed together forever. We know where we came from. We know why we are here. We know where we are going. We understand certain principles differently then the rest of the world. We know a lot that others don't. How are you going to prepare to share what we know?" That really stood out to me and I am excited to share with others what we know that they don't. He also talked about ancestors. One thing we know is that people who died without the gospel are in the spirit world waiting to learn, and waiting for people on earth to do their work in the temples for them. He said that people who are dead are praying and pleading that their great great great grandchildren on earth become converted and do their temple work for them. That made me really think that even if I only convert one person on my mission, I will affect their children, but also their ancestors. I will change the lives of descendants and precedents. Then he talked about Christ and the story of the Adulteress and how the people were so cruel to her. And Jesus forgave her and told her go thy way and sin no more. He talked about how Jesus said, as many times as men repent, I will forgive them. That really stood out to me and I know Christ loves us and God will forgive us of our shortcomings if we sincerely ask and want to change. He then talked about how this is the Lords work. And with Him nothing is impossible. He talked about how the Lord said he will hasten his work. President Nelson said that he has witnessed that in his life time and we are going to be apart of that. He said when he was born in 1924 the church had less than 600,000 members. Today there are over 15 million. I know that I am doing Gods work and he will help me. With God NOTHING is impossible. 

Elder Goon.