Monday, July 20, 2015

Happy About Email

July 19, 2015

The heading says "happy about email," is that what you were going for? :)

Being senior companion is great. It's a little harder, but I think it's more fun since I don't have someone else to rely on as far as Korean speaking goes. The challenge keeps things interesting :) The language is always getting better, I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable with it. It's still super hard, but nowhere near as stressful as it was the first eight months of my mission.

So our service project is at this Buddhist-run free-lunch-for-senior-citizens place (I hope you can understand that). So we usually show up an hour or two before lunch, and then help them get things ready, thus the anchovy heads. Then we either take people's trays as they finish, replenish the rice as it runs out, wash dishes, or stuff like that while they are eating. And the best part is that we get free lunch after everyone leaves (jk, the food is barely tolerable, we usually just tell them we have another appointment and have to leave

KH is still doing well, last week we talked about the parable of the virgins waiting for the wedding, and how spiritual preparedness is something that you can't share with others. Hopefully that helped get the idea across that he needs know for himself if the Book of Mormon is true. Because he seems like he just doesn't care too much. He likes us and what we have to say, but just thinks that his religion is completely satisfactory.

Things are pretty similar with T. Yesterday we tried to show him the beatitudes in 3 Nephi, to show him how Christ came and established the same doctrine as in the old world. But he just picked out the slight differences between that version and the Bible version and went off about how Christ wouldn't have said it the way he did in the Book of Mormon. It was specifically 3 Nephi 12:18 or 19 I think, whichever verse is the most different from Matthew. He says that according to the teachings of the Bible, it doesn't make sense that Christ would teach the importance of salvation by your works. I feel like the biggest thing holding him back is that he believes that it is by faith you are saved, and your works are still important, but don't determine anything (or at least that's what he says, I think he just doesn't want to change his life around). It's super frustrating.

I don't know if I told you about J, but he is a member from the Philippines that recently started attending our ward, just every few weeks or so. Yesterday he showed up, and told us that he wants us to treat him like an investigator and just teach him all of the lessons. So we taught him the Restoration, and part-way through he opened up and told us a lot about himself. He said that he almost never went to church when he was in the Philippines. Then he came to Korea to find work, and one night he had a dream that his grandfather, who died a few years ago, appeared to him. J asked him how he was here talking to him if he was dead, and his grandfather just pointed upward to God, and then the dream ended. Apparently he has had multiple dreams similar to this one, and he came to the conclusion that he was supposed to come back to church. After he shared that with us, we continued to teach, and it was probably one of the most amazing teaching experiences I've ever had. The spirit in the room was so powerful, and at one point when I was testifying, I felt it was just the Spirit speaking, and I wasn't doing anything at all. It was like I had no control over what I was saying. It was almost like an out of body experience, it was really weird. Sorry, kind of hard to describe.  Anyway, J is really awesome, and the three of us are basically best buds :)

And I got your package last week, thank you! Good thinking on the popcorn. Luckily, my companion doesn't really care for it, so I get it all to myself :) And that plain blue tie is actually pretty sick. At first I thought it looked boring, but then I wore it and it grew on me a lot. But my favorite is the gray/blue one with the squares. Anyway, I think I have like over 20 ties by now, so it's okay if you don't send me any more :) I love ties, but it's just annoying to have a lot of stuff to worry about when I move to a new area. Everything that you wrote on the paper got to me, so I think you figured out the trick.

Have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

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