So this week has been so cool!! I don't even know where to begin with because
everything has been so insane and cool here. There has been some great, some weird, some
amazing, and some hilarious things that have happened here over the past
week!
One spiritual message before I begin is Jacob 4:7 in the Book of Mormon.
It states, "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our
weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions
unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things."
I am weak. I am not strong. I am just a human,
I am nothing more than a mere servant to the most high God, to my Savior, yet
he knows me better than I know myself and loves me for who I am. Therefore in order for me to be more like who
he wants me to be, I will do all I possibly can do to be like him, and be who
he wants me to be. He takes his time and
focuses on us, is always watching us. We
may ask "Why me?" "It is just me," but why not say "Because
it's me, and because I'm his child, he loves me the most. Therefore he will
always be there to help me, even if I stumble and fall.” And, that should be our mindset! J
This week has really been
such a blessing here! I am so glad to be
at the MTC with all my friends and my family. Although they aren't my FAMILY, they are my
family. I love my teachers, Brother Chandler, Brother Memmott, Brother
Campbell, and Sister Washburn, and Jackson! They are such amazing people, and are by far
the best people to be teaching me this beautiful language of Korea! So onto my
week!
Thursday as usual is Preparation
Day!! It is so fun! Every P-Day we get to go to the Temple, we also do
like a Chips-and-Queso” day! It is so
amazing!! I Love it! We also nap and
basically P-Day is so relaxing! I absolutely
love Thursday's for this reason! We
always play Sand volleyball if the weather is nice and I absolutely love
playing sand volleyball. I get to dive
all over the place and it is so sick! I absolutely love it!
Friday was such an
interesting day too!
Some of the missionaries
in my district said that Four Square is such an intense game and it is hard, so
I balled up for 45 minutes and then played Four Square for 5 minutes. It was funny because they got destroyed.
It is hard to believe
that the older district would be leaving on Sunday and I love them so
much! It is so weird watching them pack!
In the evening, we had
TRC where we teach members in only Korean. I can comfortably teach a lesson and hear, and
respond without having to guess anything they say. I absolutely love it. My companion blanked, but that is okay because
he testified great. He was a little
frustrated with himself on his Korean, but I said it doesn't matter. As long as he will preach with the spirit,
then it is amazing! But I thought it is
cool that I could understand everything.
Then we did Companionship Inventory where we review our goals and the
week, and we are really as one as a companion. I literally think what he is thinking, and when
he is looking up a scripture, I'm like “I got it,” and he is like “how do you
know that was the one I was thinking of?” I have no idea, just another great blessing of
the Lord. J I absolutely love this
gospel, and it is so cool! After TRC and
us going back to the residence, I was writing in my journal. Then I hear a HUGE scream from an Elders’
room --yelling “Mouse!!” Everyone was just staring and not doing anything
and screaming. So I got a box and with
four elders, we caught the mouse after trashing 3 rooms it went into. We named the Mouse "Kim" because
it's Korean, and when we were going to let it out, it had eaten through the box
and fell onto my leg. I caught the
mouse and it jumped. It ran off and it
was such a good night!! So funny. J
Saturday was a
decently long day too! I was able to just really hang out and talk in Korean
the entire day. I love talking in Korean,
and watching people be like “Wait... you know four languages?!?!” I'll
be talking to some Hermanas and they will be like “No way! You can speak Spanish!?!?! “ And I'm like “Ya,” and we have long
conversations in Spanish, and then they say Goodbye and I'll see some Japanese
elders and I'll start talking Japanese to them and the natives will talk back,
but the non-natives will just be like “He speaks Japanese!?!? He was just speaking Spanish, or English, or
Korean.” Then I'll go back to speaking
Korean, and then I switch to English and they are like “No! I can't do this
anymore!!” lol J I think it is so funny. J Then, just to throw people off I use a little
smidge of French and they are like “Five!?!?” and I'm like “nope.” J
On Saturday during
personal study I got to read Jacob 2 in
the Book of Mormon! And one thing that I want to share from there is Jacob 2:18 which reads
"But before ye seek for riches, seek
ye for the kingdom of God." Seek
out God and seek to be his servant. Be his servant always and he will bless you
with riches. But we should constantly be looking for Christ and being examples
of him. Anyway, my Saturday was
pretty insane.
Sunday was very fun
too! On Sunday we got to chill out, and I went to a couple meetings
in the morning, and that was fun. I got
to read the scriptures and I absolutely love doing that! During our district meeting (community of
missionaries going to Korean of my group) with the branch president (leader of
all the Korean missionaries), the Branch president said that it is only natural
in companionship or entire classes people progress quicker in the language. And everyone was like “yea... Elder Wilson
progressed a lot faster than us. So... Hmm..” I said that I'm just thankful to be blessed by
God to learn, and that I love the language and will do my best. The branch president asked the class how we
can improve and how we can be more unified.”
My companion was like as we have acknowledged that Elder Wilson is
better than most at Korean that we try to plan things out and we work off each
other. I just love my companion. So then
after that we went to sacrament meeting which is on the MTC campus and that was
super fun! While walking up to the Provo
temple, I took a lot of pictures with people leaving especially the native
Koreans. They seemed to have stuck to me,
and I love them so much! I miss them a
bunch! Then I went to Choir and that was
so chill, and devotional on Sunday was from Chris Randall, the
Director of Administration at the MTC! It
was such a good message. He talked about
self reflect on your call --- Are you certain
of where you were going? Did you have no idea? Were you disappointed? And,
he had people stand up too. In all
honesty, never once was I ever disappointed with my call. I speak Japanese, I love Japan, I am Japanese.
But the Lord sent me to the place where I will be the happiest and grow the
most and I cannot be more thankful for being sent to Korean. I love Korea and
Korean already and I have only just begun. J
One video that he brought
up was a MTC devotional from Jeffery R. Holland, and one thing he says was
"What you want investigators to do, God wants you to do", "You want
your investigator to pray more, God wants you to pray more earnestly.”
Do you ever feel like he
isn't listening to your prayer? Cause I know there have been times where I've
felt that way. Why aren't you there, can you hear me, are you there? But I know
for a fact with a burning in my heart and pain in my chest, that I cannot deny
that he is there. That he is always listening.
Just he does things in his own time:)
Enos 1:4-5 in the Book of Mormon state "And
my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in
mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I
cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that
it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins
are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed." Do we pray like Enos? Do we pray with
intent? Do we have faith in God that all
things can be done through him? I testify that prayer is so essential!
Anyways so after the devotional, we went to see one of the
church movies “The Restoration” (Joseph Smith's search for truth led to the First
Vision and the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ) in Korean with all the
natives! I got all of it without
subtitles, and the Korean missionaries all wanted pictures with me. So I took a lot of pictures with them! I love
them so much! After the movie, we all went outside and sang to the four
missionaries leaving districts and said goodbye and gave hugs. I love them so
much, and all of them were my mentors. We were so close and I miss them all so
much!
Monday the residence
was quiet, I was tired cause we stayed up until 1:00a.m. just hanging out. I
love them!
Monday was fun, and
we had an amazing lesson with our investigator! Our investigator is really progressing and it
is so fun that we are able to teach them! I love being able to speak Korean to them and
I can't believe how fast this week has been going!
Tuesday was such a
cool day! Our lesson went absolutely fantastic! We taught 이제승
and we taught about repentance! It was such a good lesson, and we always ask
him if he has question about 교리 (Doctrine), but he says no, and we always ask what he
understands and he gets a lot of it! It
is super cool that he wants to be baptized as well! He is such a cool guy and I pray for him every
day because his life is hard. He wants
to go to school, but can't because his Grandma needs help. His Mom and Dad are divorced and always fight
and he didn't like going back and forth so decided to live with his Grandma. He
can't get a job because his Grandma needs his help. But he says when he plays music, he can
escape from the world. He really loves
God because God helps him out and hears him. He didn't have faith in God seven weeks ago,
but now, he really does believe in him. Yep!
Later that night, I sang
in the choir at devotional!! Devotional
was absolutely amazing because not only was it broadcasted to all the MTC's
around the world, but also because the Apostle Neil L. Anderson spoke! He spoke on four topics: Sacrifice,
Opposition, Adversary and Deliverance! We
got to sing “More Holiness Give Me,” and that was such a good, spiritual song!!
I loved it so much! Many missionaries told me that I was on a
screen for about seven times, but as our choir director says when you look at
the screen, you are thinking about yourself, but not about Christ. I will always think about Christ, so I had no
idea. Hah J
One thing that Elder Neil
L. Anderson said was that "Blessings will always come." How true that statement is! You may not recognize the blessings, and they
may not be immediate, but they do come. And
I know that they do come! Just be
patient they all do come. One of the
biggest blessings I felt in my life was with my little brother James getting
Ewing Sarcoma Cancer. Many may view it
as a trial, but no, this was a blessing. My brother James is stronger than I am. He is
the strongest. He is an amazing person,
and the best brother anyone could ever have. Through his trial, I can see that God is
always there and is always watching us. He
loves you and he can heal you. Thank you
so much, James! I love my family so much,
and miss them too!
Another thing that I
really enjoyed was "Am I better today, than I was yesterday." Am i
really better, and I progressing, or am I going through the motions and not
helping others? We must keep
progressing.
Finally another thing
that I want to share was something that hit me hardest: "I (The Lord) will
not leave you comfortless.” He will
always be there to comfort us and will be there. All we have to do is to ask, and he will give
10000000000x more comfort than possible. I know this to be a true fact.
I love you all very much
and thank you for all you do! Thank you
for being such great people, and as a challenge, this week I want you all to re-assess
your lives. Are you doing all you can do to come closer to Christ? Are you becoming more like him, and helping
others out? Do I pray with fervor?
I love this gospel and I
love you all. I would never trade this away for anything!
Thank you for all you
do!!
사랑합니다,
Love,
Elder Wilson / 윌손장로
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| The best way to start a great day! 6:30a.m. @ Provo Temple |
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| w/ Korean group |
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| Awesome reunion w/ Elder Fike (Serves in Barbados) from Laramie, WY |
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