independence day

Happy near Independence Day!

There certainly won't be too many fireworks around here in a few days, but it is definitely beginning to feel like the middle of summer. We are feeling it, but it is fun to be out here everyday spreading the word.

We have continued to meet with Sister P. She wants to know all the facts about the church and she asks all the hard questions but isn't all that eager to experiment spiritually. She is not that happy that the answer we offer is to read and pray.  It seems too simple. She told us that she just can't get herself to pray, but we continue to encourage her. She is worried that if it is short it is not sincere, and if it is long she's afraid she will be too much of a wreck to go to work the next day. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation this week and she really liked it. The other day as we were studying Sister Cutler made a good point---you can say "hello" sincerely. Generally you don't tell someone everything about yourself right away, but no matter how simply  you speak to someone it can still be sincere. So it is with prayer. Next time we will talk about that I think. She also wanted to know why, if our purpose is to baptize (she also inquired if we had some sort of baptism quota--definitely no.), why we were meeting with her. We explained that our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ and endure to the end, regardless of where they are on that path. She seemed surprised to hear that and kind of relieved too. We will meet with her this next Sunday as well.

We saw some great miracles this week. I told you last week about Brother Jeong--the friend of a young man in our ward. Last week he wore a tie to church and this week he wore a tie AND nice pants to church. As Sister Cutler and I were sweeping the front steps before church we were excited to see Brother Jeong and his friend walk through the gate. They were the first at church. It was a good start to the Sunday.

On Saturday we really pondered the purpose of our fast. I haven't always fasted for specific purposes with my companion, but we decided to ponder about something and fast together. We decided to fast for Sister Ee, our 14 year old investigator, who at one point had a baptismal date and who we now have not seen or been able to meet for over 5 weeks. Her brother is Sean, who recently got the priesthood. Her mom is a less active sister who has come twice to church since I've been in Joongri. Her dad is really nice to us, but for some reason opposed her baptism at the time we had scheduled it initially. It has been nothing but difficult to meet with her since that time. This week we visited her parents' print shop two times to try to find Sister Ee and talked with her parents a little bit. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with her.  After Relief Society however, we were pleased to see Sister Ee and her friend sitting in the Sunday School room waiting for us to teach the lesson. It was a blessing we weren't expecting. Sister Cutler mentioned how strange and spiritual it was to meet someone for whom she had spent 12 hours fasting. They listened well to our lesson, and we definitely changed it to fit our purposes, but they listened well and still knew a lot of the answers. Now just to get her to experience it spiritually. They had to leave Sacrament meeting a little early for several factors, but I know that our fast was rewarded.

During sacrament meeting we were shocked when Brother Jeong, our investigator, got up to bear his testimony. We hadn't really ever even taught him a lesson, but he got up and talked about how when his friend invited him to church he said "I already attend a church." But, he decided to come anyway. He mentioned how this church is different and that the people all say hello to him and are kind---it's a different church-going experience than he's had before. He said he feels good at church and that next time he bears his testimony he will prepare better. It was shocking and really sincere of him. We were quite pleased.

After church we taught him the first lesson and invited him to pray and read the Book of Mormon. Because of time restraints we didn't talk quite as much about baptism as we would have liked to, but we talked about it a little bit and invited him to be baptized when he came to know what we were teaching him was true. He said he will. I think he will be baptized July 22 or 29th. We are really really hopeful about him. It is testing season so it's hard to meet with students, but we are feeling really spoiled with Brother Jeong.

Still going strong with Sister Cutler. She is a champion. We balance each other out pretty well. We are asking everyone for return appointments/contact information. This week we were passing a cute little grandma walking the other way on the street. We stopped her and asked her where she was going. She then very dramatically communicated through an animated game of charades that she had just had her tooth pulled and could not talk. We asked her if we could meet up another day and talk about our message. We were shocked when she wrote her name and number on our paper. I never expected to get contact information from a temporary mime, but Sister Cutler's faith is such that those kinds of things are happening. It was definitely the funny moment of the day, but I learn a lot from Sister Cutler in inviting people to learn more.

Life is good. I am happy. I know that the simple things--prayer, scripture study and faith really are the ways to happiness. 

I LOVE YOU!!

julia