Prayers and Referrals

Alright, so I was looking through my camera before I started emailing and realized that I did not have a single new picture from this week. It's the curse of becoming an old missionary. I'm going to make a goal to take more pictures.

Anyways, this week was really good. We saw some big miracles. The biggest one happened this past Saturday. On Friday Elder Peterson and I were planning out our week. We talked about lessons and investigators. Our topic came to referrals. I told Elder Peterson that I had not seen many referrals in my mission and he said that we should try praying for some. We got down on our knees and asked for a referral to be sent to us through the internet service. Saturday morning we were doing our personal study when a call came from an unrecognized number. I answered it and the lady on the other end explained how her father attended our English class about six months ago. He is now in the hospital and said how he really wanted to meet with those American missionaries. A couple hours later we got a call from some other missionaries who were traveling through our area and found a man who said that he wanted to take the lessons from the missionaries. We're scheduled to meet these people this week.

When I opened up my email today, I saw that there were no referrals from church headquarters like we had prayed for. I can't say that I'm disappointed though. God answers prayers in the way that he wants to, the way that is best. It was awesome to have an answer to that prayer come so quickly. I often feel that I send up my prayers and that instead of giving solutions God gives me the strength to endure or the tools to make it happen myself. Those are great learning experiences, but it was also cool to see something that was a clear classifiable miracle. 

Prayer is great.

Who are the Mormons?

Who are the Mormons?

This was an idea that we came up with a couple weeks ago. It's the board in the middle asks who the question "Who are the Mormons?" the board on the right is an explanation of who the Mormons are and why we're called Mormons.

This week I was reminded why we do missionary work. I've been trying to use my time more efficiently lately. I've made these little schedules to help divide up my time and efforts. As I was writing them, it occurred to me that we hadn't been doing many member visits lately. I have always been hesitant to invite myself over to member's houses. (because of Korean culture if you visit a member house they will feel obligated to serve you a full meal.) I like it a lot better when the members come to us. But I felt that it was a prompting so we identified a family that we hadn't visited in a long time and gave them a call. Brother Pak Giho and his wife Son Minjong are a fairly newly wed couple with a toddle and one year old. Our meeting with them was so great. We had a lot of fun and dinner was really great. (I might feel a little guilty about that) After the meal we took the opportunity to practice our Korean by teaching them the first lesson. Elder Peterson, in spite of his two months in Korea, spoke like a native. The lesson went really well and Brother Pak told us about his conversion and how he remembered taking the lessons from the missionaries years ago. I got a strong feeling at that time that what I'm doing in this area is good. I'm looking for the Brother Paks in this world. They really need this message and I will work hard for them to be able to receive it. Not having many investigators has been a little hard for me lately so this was a really refreshing experience.

I found a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson that I really liked. I don't have it with me so I'll paraphrase it. "The most important interest of our church is the eternal salvation of mankind."

More next week!

Love,

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General conference with Monte cristo sandwiches

The weeks are blurring by. I had to renew my foreigner card today. The end of this month makes one year in Korea. 

This week I was hard at work with the usual. We knocked a bunch of doors. Elder Peterson and I walk our way to the tops of apartments then knock our way down. I think it's actually kind of fun. You get to jump into a bunch of people's lives for a really brief moment. They more often than not close the door but I really do enjoy the short interaction. 

The other thing we have been up to is our Book of Mormon activity. We've been setting up on street corners and handing them out through a fun little activity. There have been a lot of good teaching opportunities that have come from that. 

I was studying for a talk that I gave in district meeting and I thought about the relationship between missionaries and investigators. Missionaries take the same steps to become good missionaries that investigators take. Our conversion is the same. I hope that I'll be able to share that with many investigators.

One sad thing that happened this week was that Asad, our investigator from Afghanistan, found out that he will not be able to get an extended visa and will need to leave Korea this November. We all thought that he would be able to stay. It's going to be really sad to not be able to teach him and even sadder see him go.

General conference was awesome. It was such a good recharge for me. I upheld my family tradition by making monte cristo sandwiches

Dog soup

So this week started out with a bit of edible horror. The food pictured below is dog soup. We went out for this stuff after our district meeting. Before the soup was served they gave us the dog's skin. That's what's in my chopsticks in the picture below. It was pretty gross. The soup actually wasn't too bad. Dog meet is a bit like roast beef. Similar color, texture and taste. I'll just say that if a person suggests eating it again I probably wouldn't say no.

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This week was the last part of the Korean harvest so it started off a little slow. You would think that because it was a holiday there would be lots of people out. Actually there were very few people  on the streets. One of the fun things that we did during that time was our branch picnic. It was a really great opportunity to get to know the members better. We also got a couple less active members and some investigators to come! The weather was really nice too. 

catching bugs

Elder Peterson trying a traditional Korean game

One thing that I have been thinking about this week is the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is something that is so great. It is proof that God exists! He is speaking today just like he was thousands of years ago! The lessons in the Book of Mormon teach us how to return to Him! I love sharing the Book of Mormon.

Love,

Elder Harkness

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