Last week was probably the biggest miracle week in a long time!! It was such an awesome week for us here.
On Tuesday we met with the two grandmas, 조명옥 and 소춘애. We took a mini DVD player with us and we watched the Restoration DVD with them. It was really good and they both enjoyed the movie. We talked a lot about the priesthood and then we talked about baptism. We invited both of them to be baptized and they both said no. 소춘애 knows that our church is true and she loves our church but she said that she can't be baptized because she has a lot of friends at her other church and that if she leaves that church all of her friends will be mad at her. So we talked about Nephi and how when God asked him to do something hard he did it and was blessed but she said she doesn't want to do it. We were really sad but we will continue to meet with them a few more times and really try to help her to have the faith to be baptized. They can't meet until next transfer though so we're sad about that.
On Wednesday we had combined district meeting where we talked a lot about extending commitments and we did role playing teaching and extending the baptismal commitment. It was way fun. Then we had a zone blitz! We were in an area in our zone that is having a hard time finding investigators to teach. We had the whole zone there doing different finding activities for 4 hours. It was really fun and I got to go with a lot of other missionaries. We found many cool people for the missionaries there to teach. We then had a testimony meeting and were on our way back to Il-san.
Wednesday night we had dinner with two members and our investigator 이강원. Our members were sooo great! They taught him so much and answered a lot of his questions and he committed to continue learning and to be baptized. It was such a spiritual experience for me to hear the members bear their powerful testimonies of the gospel. Then Elder Dorrough and I each took turns bearing our testimonies in not-as-good Korean. It was such a great night for 이강원.
On Thursday we met with 김수연. She is still doing great! We meet with her to help her with English but she is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy! She and her husband are doing really well and we got to talk to them on Saturday night (after English class) about baptism and why it's important. We also talked to them about the word of wisdom. They were so surprised that we don't drink coffee or alcohol.
On Friday we met with 이강원 again and he had one of his friends with him. Her name is 하선송. He is teaching her English and she really wanted to meet us so she stayed at his house till we got there to teach him. She had heard a lot of really really weird stuff about Mormon missionaries from her preacher and so she wanted to meet us to see if it was true. Then after she met us she loved us! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon with her and then she was telling 이강원 about how much she liked our church and that they should go together! We were super pumped. But then for some reason they didn't end up coming to church so we were kinda bummed. But we'll talk to them both again tomorrow so hopefully we can get them to church this week!
On Saturday we met a new investigator named 양순호. He came and picked us up and took us to McDonalds. He then took us to his house because his father really wanted to meet with us. His father heard about our church because of Mitt Romney and so he called our church building but nobody answered. Our ward mission leader found the message on the answering machine and called him and got his information so that we could meet with him. The father is in a wheelchair and has some bad disease. He loved having us over and we picked him and his wife up as investigators. We are going to go back to their house next Saturday and eat with them and teach them more about the Book of Mormon. I'm so excited!
We also had English class on Saturday night. It went really well and we had a lot of people there. We split into two classes, one for the little kids and one for the adults. I love English class lately because almost everyone who comes is an investigator so it's a really good opportunity for us to teach them about the gospel and practice English with them.
Sunday was the best day ever!! I sent a picture last week of me and a kid named 박상민 that we met and picked up last week. Well he came to church and he brought his mom with him. Apparently his father attended our church a couple of times 35 years ago and likes our church. So when 상민 said that he met Mormon missionaries and asked if he could come to church his father said "Go!" We took him up to the young mens class and sent his mom with the Relief Society. 상민 loved the class and he's sooo close with all of the young men in the class. He was marking up his scriptures and asking questions and stuff. It was awesome!
Then while we were in there our ward mission leader came and grabbed me and told me there was an old investigator downstairs that said he wanted to be baptized. So we went downstairs and met with him. His name is 김승표; he's 39. I visited his brother a couple of times because he has been less active lately and I actually ran into him one time when I tried to visit his brother. He decided that he wants to learn more about the gospel and wants to be baptized. So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and watched the Restoration movie with him. We bore our testimonies to him and then set a date for March 25th. We can only meet him on Sundays but we know that he can be prepared by that day! We're going to try to set that same date with 상민 and his mom. So everyone please pray for that day! We could have 3 people baptized that week. We could have 4 if 이강원 starts coming to church.
After church we met with 박정하 again. He doesn't have a lot of interest in our church right now but he loves to sing hymns. So we have been going to his house and singing our church hymns with him. He's really talented at the guitar and piano. I recorded some of us singing and will send them in a few minutes. I don't have a good singing voice so i'm sorry.
Anyway things are going amazing here in Il-san! Thanks so much for your prayers and support!!
I love you all!
-Elder Rife
