Difficult Questions

March 6, 2016

Dear Family,

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As far as rock paper scissors goes, the spirit actually doesn't help us know which one to choose or confirm it. Contrary to popular belief, the Spirit actually doesn't usually guide people through telling them what to do. Doing rock paper scissors is just to help us make a decision of which way to go, and we let Heavenly Father take care of the rest. Seems to work ok :)

PSH is doing really well. This past weekend we had stake conference, and he came with us to it. (By the way, the main speaker there was the area seventy, Elder Kim Chang-ho, or however you romanize it. He gave some really good talks about the Atonement.) After conference was over we were able to teach Brother P, and we got LGD to come with us to help teach. It was probably one of the most difficult lessons I've ever taught. We started by teaching the Restoration, but he had so many questions that it went all over the place. And the questions he was asking were really hard, things that are hard enough to explain in English, not to mention in a foreign language. For example, he asked, "If God promised in the scriptures to bless us with knowledge if we lack wisdom, why was Joseph Smith the only one to receive an answer like that when he prayed?" And there were way more questions like that which were really hard to answer. But they were are really good questions, he has a really sincere desire to learn. And the questions I was able to explain, he seemed to accept them pretty well. He was really curious about how you can pray and receive an answer from God, and I think it was a little hard for him to believe, but he said he will try, so pray for him to get an answer! :)

The hamburger restaurant wasn't very busy, only two other people when we went, but we also didn't go at a normal meal time. Koreans like to eat Chinese and Japanese food, and sometimes American food, but they usually seem to stick to Korean food. The Korean missionaries always talk about how their two weeks in the MTC was so hard because they don't have rice or kimchi to eat.

We still haven't been able to contact the guy we met after the Shinchunji members. We've called him close to a million times by now, and his phone is always either off or he doesn't answer. I had a feeling when we met him that he didn't know how to use his phone very well, and it appears that it was a correct feeling.

Elder Later has been trying to learn Arabic for the past month or two (don't ask me why, I thought Korean was more than enough language learning for one person) and has taught us a couple things in Arabic. And the other day, we were outside and some bearded guys in Muslim-looking robes walked by, and I said hi to them in Arabic, and they actually responded. Turns out there's a reason to learn Arabic :)

Today for pday we had a zone activity, going to the beach in Gwangon (which is right by Haeundae). It was super fun, we played soccer and frisbee on the beach, and it was really warm, maybe 60s or so. I'll send you some pictures.

Well, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hines