Week 29

Funny story...

I'M TRAINING AGAIN! We got our transfer calls a night early, because some of our Zone is going to the Temple tomorrow since they didn't go two weeks ago. The whole time I was thinking I'd get transferred, and I was treating yesterday as my last Sunday in Won-ju. It felt great, and it would have been a fine way to end my time here. Yesterday, 5 less-active members came to church! It was amazing. We had an investigator come to Sunday school before sacrament meeting, and it turns out his mom and the Sunday school teacher were friends in high school!

The day was amazing, except for the very end of the day, right before we were gonna head home. Even though it was snowing like crazy, we still hit all of our goals for the day.  By the end of the night, it had and was still snowing so hard that all the parked cars looked like giant marshmallows. We had dinner with our branch president at a less-active's house, and our branch president dropped us off at a taxi station. We get out, walk twenty yards or so and my companion says, "I think I just dropped the phone." I ask, "in the snow or in the car?"   He responds... "I don't know."

We look around and can't find it. My companion is freaking out, (I just started letting him hold the phone like a week and a half ago.) Long story short, after a bunch of back and forth phone calls between us (on a phone at a fried chicken place) and our DL, we find out that our phone was in the car, and end up getting home super late, with our Branch President waiting in front of our apt with our phone.

We get the transfer call maybe 8 or 9 minutes later, and I answer, my Mission President tells me the transfer news for the first time entirely in Korean, "Hello Elder Reyes. Did you find your phone?." "I believe so." "Ah. Ok, well you will be a trainer once again, and continue serving in Won-Ju." My companion hears this and goes wide-eyed, then he explains where my companion is going and Elder Yoo just throws himself on the chair, and wallows around the house the rest of the night. I wish we could have had more time together, we were both hoping to get to stay together, we're learning so much from each other.

I call my ZL, who already heard the news, and he picks up the phone and just laughs, " Ahaha ha ha! Again? I still haven't trained and I go home after this transfer!"

Ok, with that out of the way. I was in Seoul on Monday for a Leadership Training meeting, and we received some great training on asking inspired questions, listening, not being afraid of silence, and waiting for the promptings of the Spirit to discern their concerns.

Later that week, we are teaching a man who we've met a few times. At first we thought he didn't have much interest, because he wouldn't take a copy of the Book of Mormon. We planned to drop him as an investigator, but the last time we met him he had some great questions about what happens to us after this life, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation. When we tried to give him a pamphlet, he said, " I still need more time, before I can accept something like that."

So this last time, we focused on God, and the Book of Mormon. At the end of the discussion, I told him, "I know you didn't accept this last time, but we want to give you The Book of Mormon." We explained that everything we're teaching hinges on whether or not this book is true. We re-explained the promise in Moroni 10, and that if you pray to God with real intent, you can know through the Holy Ghost...

Again, he didn't accept it. He said, "I need more time. Later I will accept it." I asked, "What are you expecting to happen between now and 'later?' "He said he didn't know. I didn't respond, I just waited. The man squirmed in his chair, then just looked down at the table. The silence was definitely uncomfortable for him, but it was one of the most peaceful and clear moments of my life. I felt the Spirit prompt me to ask this, "You haven't told your wife you're meeting with us. That's why you can't take any of this home. Is that right?" As I said this, he looked up at me and said with a quiver in his voice, "Yes. I haven't told her." And then let out a big sigh.

Often times, we are being lead by the Spirit without realizing it. Like in Siheung, a 15 year old kid just coming up to me on the street and telling me he's a member of our Church. I'm so grateful we were able to reactivate him. The same type of things happened in Won-Ju, after a 2/12 hour bus ride from Seoul, a man came up to us and said the same thing, "Hey, I'm a member of your church." (We're meeting him for the third time today). I could have been walking down any street, a number of things could have put me and my companion on a different bus, but we were just put in the right place at the right time.

Other times, like with this man not telling us his real concern, the Spirit can be felt so strongly, and you can be guided so specifically, in what to say or do.

Either way, as long as we are striving to be worthy of the Spirit, we will be guided.

-Elder Reyes