Week 35

Hey everyone,

 

This week was awesome! We were able to meet again with those two old guys we met. The first, brother Ban Seong Jool we met with only once, but it went ok. We followed up on the commitment we gave him last time to pray in order to know if God exists and he did! but... he didn't recieve any answer and still doesnt know if God exists but he said he will continue to meet with us! Since he is really old, we want to help him have Hope. He doesnt have much hope for the future since he doesnt believe in god, he is blind, and is very old. We helped him understand our message's purpose, which is a message of hope! And what do we have hope in? Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement. As we explained the importance of the Savior I kept getting this overwhelming feeling and reconfirmation of how much our savior loves us. he suffered and died for all of us. I hope brother ban can understand that someday! we recommitted him to pray again, this time with real intent. the other old guy, brother han was adifferent story. as we met he told us that he read the pamphlet but he hasa big problem with joseph smith. his presbyterian faith is very strong and he doesnt agree with modern day prophets. he said that we have the bible and we dont need to know anything else. he told us that we ccant meet anymore and dropped us after we bore our testimonies of god and joseph smith. shoot... we might try again to visit him in the library once in awhile but not too often. sorry not a ton of time today, there is a huge cherry blossom festival in jinhae that lots of missionaries are coming to. may god bless you! have agreat week everyone! love you all.

 

-elder carter

Week 34

hello everyone!

this week was really great in Jinhae. not a ton of time, but ill try to go fast. so recently our investigators have been slowly falling off a little. their progression is slow and sometimes we arent able to meet with them very often. So recently we have really been praying to find new investigators and expanding our pool of people to teach. so on tuesday we were going back to the church from the service activity we had. We rode the bus and my companion sat next to this very old man. they bagan to talk and it turns out this man has a friend that is a member of our church so he knows who we are. they continued to talk while we rode and we missed our stop because they just kept talking to each other. he is almost 100% blind so we got off the bus with him and took him to his eye doctor appointment. this whole time we are talking with him about God and he really doesnt believe in God. We stopped off at a local library and sat down outside on some benches. It was hard to understand him since he was so old but while we were talking, a different old man came up to me and starting speaking english to me! he continued to talk to me and was honestly a little loud so i went with him to a different bench and talked with him. as we talked i figured out that he has a cousin that is a member of our church so he knew a little bit about us. he actually said to me " what do you believe... Joseph Smith??" i was really surprised! haha we continued to talk more and he shared his beliefs about god and how much he loves Him. he goes to the prodestant church but said that he comes to the library everyday so we can meet whenever we have time. he is retired so he just studies foreign languages all day. so that was pretty cool! after he left i went back to talk with the first old guy and my companion. they were just finishing up talking but they were talking a little bit more about the existence of god and he said he would give prayer a try! he'll try to pray and find out if god exists!

We spent about 2 hours with that whole experience and it was cool to see how it all worked out. sometimes if we have to get off the bus we will jsut give them a card or get their number and go, but we stayed. and because we stayed on the bus and went to the library to talk i met the other old guy! everything seemed to work out perfectly! our prayer was answered, we found new investigators this week! ahh that was a good day. this next week should be good! I know god answers sincere prayers and wants the best for us. trial of faith before the miracle! have a good week everyone! look for the miracles! love yall

-elder carter

Week 33

this week was pretty good. Heard about the earthquakes in japan, prayers going out to all of them and their families. Luckily there were no earthquakes in korea so we are all safe! The Lord blessed us on that one. Because of the earthquakes in japan, elder ringwood wasnt able to come to our stake conference. I also heard an elder might have died in japan because of the earthquakes, so elder ringwood probably went back for a good reason.. so sad. but during stake conference i learned a lot. there was no translation and the speakers talked REALLY really fast so i didnt get a lot of what they were saying. But i can remember one special thing that stood out to me. one of the speakers talked about member missionary work and how they can do a better job of that. He talked about God's love. He used the Book of mormon story of lehi and the tree of life. Lehi goes to the tree and partakes of the fruit, or the love of god. once he eats the fruit, he realizes what it is, understands it, and looks up immediately to find his family. Now on the other hand, some people go to the tree and eat the fruit. instead of looking up to find their families, they look to the great and spacious building (the world) for approval and are ashamed. they fall away to the world. The speaker talked to us about us as members having taken in the fruit and how we need to take the love of god into our hearts like lehi did. If we do that, we will WANT to look up and try to share it with other people. This talk really hit me hard because that's one of the main reasons if not the biggest reason why im on a mission. Just to share a message about gods love. This was the first thing i gained a testimony about, not about the book of mormon, or joseph smith, but how much god loves us. this week i want to share messages about love, and i hope all of you can too! God bless you all. have a great week. <3

-elder carter

Week 32

Hello everyone,

pretty cool week we had in jinhae this week! so elder Ringwood of the north asia presidency came to our mission on wednesday and had mission tour! this was the second mission tour in just a short while! He will also be speaking next weekend in our stake conference so that should be good. ah he is an amazing man, so filled with the spirit and filled with so much love. i forgot to bring my notes with me today but ill try to share some of the things that i learned. We talked a lot about how the scripture stories have the same principles as today and how we can compare our lives to theirs. In 1 nephi chapter one it talks about lehi praying, receiving a vision, seeing christ and the 12 apostles, receiving a book, preaching to the people, and the people wanting to kill him. Elder Ringwood showed us how this first chapter, the chapter that every member reads and rereads over and over, relates almost exactly to Joseph smith and his story. also in alma maybe chapter 17? it talks about missionary work and the sacrifices weve made as missionaries to come here and serve the lord. How great is our calling! When we talked about these patterns in the scriptures and today's situation, i really thought about how the lord is the same yesterday today and forever. how He works and deals with men in general. I know He loves us so much. We didnt teach too many lessons this week, and our investigators seem to be falling off a little bit, we need to work better, but i know he loves all of us as His children. He wants the best for us, so He sent His son Jesus Christ for all of us. With His help we can do all things. elder Ringwood also brought us to a scripture in Moses, i believe, where it talks about making us as strong as might water if we put our trust in Him. If you think about Tsunamis or other natural disasters, you can see how strong might water can be. I know Heavenly Father can make us strong if we remember who we are and put our trust in Him. Talk to you you next week everyone! love you all.

-elder carter

Week 31

hey everyone,

this week was a really good week in the korea busan mission! lets start off with the bad news... so our investigator brother Jun Tuk Chun met with us this past week and we talked about eternal families and why they are so important in our lives. originally we had planned to invite him to be baptized at the end of march but something just wasnt right. we continued to talk and then as he was talking about his progress he's made he said that he doesnt want to come to church or try to pray because he doesnt have that much faith, and then he left after that... dang. that was a tough one. ive been praying very hard for him the past couple of days and i fasted for him this past week. he was really making some progress until recently and then very gently dropped us in my opinion. after that lesson i was pretty sad that had happened and realized how much i love him even though we didnt meet too often. also, this past week as we met with members and recent converts weve been talking about happiness. we always asked the question "when are you most happy?" and we got a variety of answers but when my companion and i really thought about it, the best times are when we can share this gospel with other people and the blessings that come from living this gospel. Recently ive just been thinking about how this gospel has really blessed my life. a scripture that is used a lot Mosiah 2:41 came to mind. very simply it says to consider the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. And it really is that simple! Only through this gospel can we be truly happy, and as a missionary ive really felt that and know that is true. ahhh... i really thought brother Jun would progress more, maybe he will! i dont know, but i pray that he can realize that through jesus christ and this gospel he can be truly happy. please pray for him! thank you! love you all have a great week.

elder carter