ELDER OAKS VISIT

Hello everyone! Hope y'all are good! This week was super super good! Some very fun/interesting things happened. 

Two weeks ago we found a 목사님 (I think pastor in English, but not sure anymore haha) on the street and he agreed to meet with us again at our church to learn more.  So anyways, Wednesday afternoon he came to our church and we taught him the Restoration.  He said the churches have to be "public churchy" they have to be made by the people and approved by the people not by God.  What? That doesn't make any sense right?  Why would you follow a church not approved by God? He also said the Book of Mormon is Joseph Smith's private confession and so it's not true.  He used the scrip in Revelations 22 that says you can't add to these things, so BoM is false.  Super classic pastor scrip against us.  Anyways, the guy wanted to Bible Bash super hard, and obviously I know everything he's gunna say and how to refute it, so I woulda won.  But Bible Bash isn't the way to go.  The ZL that was with me for the day started to get a bit contentious.  So I decided I was done with this.  I said, we have another appointment, so we have to go.  But before we end, can we ask one thing?  And then I taught about the Book of Mormon and how he can know if it's true.  Bore testimony of the Book, and Joseph Smith.  I invited him boldly to read and pray.  And he said yes.  I ended with a prayer and said we can meet again this week.  The spirit was not there when there was contention.  But as soon as I ended the contention, a spirit of peace entered the room and we were hit with what my friend Elder Tuttle once called a "spiritual freight train."  It was awesome.  The power of your own personal testimony is amazing, it is so strong.  There is nothing stronger.  I've met so many convert that have told me, I knew the church was true because of the missionaries testimonies.  Never be afraid to share that witness.

The next day we got to go to Busan to hear from Elder Oaks!  I saw Elder 장세영! My trainer! First time in forever! I got some pics with him, but because my camera is at the apartment I will show you next week! He's super handsome.  haha!

Elder Oaks is so awesome, we shook hands, and he grabbed my elbow, looked me in the eyes and said, Hello Elder.  It was so simple but I could feel his love for me so much, it was super awesome!  One thing I really liked that he said is that Korea's circumstances right now make this a great time for the churches growth.  We need to be working and getting referrals from the members and trying our best.  The other thing was that because of the evils of the world, Korea needs this gospel.  He said that only the missionaries and the gospel will save the people of Korea from what is becoming of this world.  It's also something president Barrow has said. That as long as there are missionaries who love and serve the people in Korea, it will be a safe place and the people will be protected.  

It's like it says in the Book of Mormon.  "the word of God had more effects on the hearts of the children of men than the sword." That may not be exactly right but it's in there somewhere.  

The gospel has a unique ability to change lives that nothing else has.  Only the gospel can save this world from what it is becoming and it's own destruction.  Only the gospel has the power to change our lives.  And only through the gospel can we receive eternal happiness.  I know that this is true.  I know that God's priesthood authority is on the earth, and it is held be, by Elder Oaks, and by many others. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith translated it by God's power.  

I hope you all have a great week that is filled with happiness and the spirit! 

Remember to serve everyone you see!

--

Elder Geddes

Not sure what's up with this!

Jundoing on a workout path

Us Jundoing on a another workout path

Eating Bingsu before starting language study in a cafe

Me sleeping while Elder Lee emailed this morning

The party we had with some members before emailing.  Ate Kimchi Jiggae and chicken meat.

Hello! So this is my first time emailing in Gyeongsan! It's a pretty cool area.  It's right on the outskirts of Daegu city so it's still pretty big.  There are multiple Universities so there is a ton of students and a ton of Foreigners.  Super awesome! I like talking to young people.  It'll be different than my old people in Miryang.  My comp is Elder Lee.  He is hmong.  It's like a special kind of Mongolian person.  But he's from California.  He speaks hmong, English, Japanese, and Korean. He leaves in two transfers so he dies with me.  Which will be fun.  I'm practicing my hmong to say hi to his parents when they come to see him and I meet them.

  

We have two investigators. One is an old dude that comes to church almost every week and loves Americans.  So that's fun.  I only met him for a few minutes on the street.  We also found a new investigator this week from Afghanistan.  His name is Janee (Johnny but he spells it funny).  He is Muslim but he is really curious about learning of our church and Jesus Christ.  And he also committed to read the Book of Mormon!! He can speak decent English so we have to teach simply but he gets it.  He's also rich and a college student so he bought us Banana Juice at a cafe.

One thing that I guess I relearned this week was that our faith builds during the hard times.  People are busy here.  They are a little less kind sometimes than in the countryside. So lots of times I just get ignored.  But anyways I was having a tough time and no one would acknowledge my existence and so I started just saying hi and passing people a little bit.  I just had a lot of fear.  But I recommitted and kept going after a couple minutes of frustration. Then all of a sudden this car pulls over and the guy wants to talk to us.  It was a pastor from the Protestant Church and he really kinda wanted to argue about revelation.  But we took it calmly and testified of ongoing revelation as the word of God and he agreed to meet with us again.  So while we were talking about this later we said hello to this guy and he stopped and asked where our church was.  We told him, got his number and will hopefully be meeting with him this week.  

If we just have the faith to push through the hard times the Lord lifts our burdens.  I was reading in Mosiah this week. And you know the people of Alma have heavy burdens from the Lamanites.  And because of their prayers and their diligence in trusting the Lord, their burdens were lifted and they were able to make it through.  When we will do the same, Work hard through tough times, and have faith when it's hard, then the Lord will strengthen our faith.  

Love you all, have a great week! Look for opportunities to serve others! 

PS Elder Oaks is coming to our mission this week so I'm pumped up!

Sorry this is the only pic, Elder Lee has the good ones but his camera is being weird right now. This is us doing language study in a cafe with basically a Korean snow cone. We were asked to start doing studies outside so people can see us doing stuff and be curious.  Pretty fun.

New Area! 경산

Hello and good week everyone! Happy mothers day! This mothers day is a little sad because I had to say goodbye to my Korean mom here in 밀양 Miryang.  I got a transfer call on Saturday. I will be going to 경산 Gyeongsan. It's by the big city Daegu.  However it's the countryside of Daegu.  I'm the king of the countryside! So much countryside.

 

The happy thing about mothers day is that I got to call my Mama! Happy mothers day Mom!! Love you! The fam is doing well it seems so that's good. 

This week has been busy.  We had an exchange, I got to go to Dogye with my boy Elder Fox! We ate Famous Miryang Pig Soup that day and it turns out that will be my last time eating it.  It's so good.  We had an awesome meeting with this guy named Dan, he is Korean, that's his English name. He is an investigator in Dogye.  We kind of just talked about how he can get a firm testimony of our church.  We went completely off the lesson plan and talked all about the Book of Mormon and sincere prayer.  We taught in English so we were able to be super bold.  The spirit was really really strong.  Just bearing testimony of the BoM and Prayer and promising him blessings.

I was studying for the talk I was assigned for Sacrament meeting.  It was on President Uchtdorfs talk called Perfect Love Casteth out all Fear.  Super great talk. I really liked what he said about focusing on Christ's goodness.  If we focus on the goodness of Christ we won't have to worry about the scary things going on around us.  Christ will always fight our battles, so we don't have to worry. 

It was really sad to say goodbye to these people I've only known for 4 months.  I'm super grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in Miryang.  I'm sad to go but I know the Lord needs me to be in gyeongsan.  I'm excited to go.  

Sorry for the kinda short boring email but I have to head to Daegu. Love you all!

Last time with my horse and my fancy pants!

Last time with Ku Minjoon

We ate so much raw fish!

My Korean Family!

안녕하세요!

This week has been super awesome.  We have seen a ton of miracles recently.  We went from having only two investigators at the beginning of the transfer, and since then we have been able to find 3 new ones! And the thing is we aren't getting lots of people to call and meet up with later but the ones we do meet are super prepared and have a good rate of turning into investigators.  

On an exchange last week Elder Johnstun gave a name card to a man on the street who ended up actually calling the number, which is a super miracle, but we were able to meet him and his family at their house! First time I've been in an investigator's house other than Hamed back in Andong.  We were able to talk a little bit about the gospel, and introduce the church. We also taught their 6 year old son and his friend English.  It was super fun.  We'll be meeting them next week and teaching them the message of the Restoration, and also English again!

We also had a Miryang Branch picnic.  It was at 위양못 Wuiyang pond.  The branch was super excited about it because there was a sister missionary that served in Miryang a long time ago that came back to visit.  We ate 삼겹살 (Samgyeopsar) delicious pig meat.  It was so good.  After that we went to 도계 (Dogye) for district meeting and district jundo.  While we were jundoing there was this kid who asked one of the missionaries what happened after he died, he said he had been to a lot of churches but none of the pastors could tell him.  So he said they would meet again and gave them his number! Super prepared kid! Miracles are everywhere to be found, even outside of your area! We see miracles like this all the time here!

  

We had a super cool experience on Sunday.  President Barrow came to Miryang for church! I don't think there was a single second in that church meeting where I didn't feel the spirit.  He and Sister Barrow taught about the Spirit, it is so important to listen to the Spirit, and Elder Rasband and Joseph Smith promised that if you act on what you think is maybe the Spirit you'll get it right 9/10 times.  That's the only way we have been able to find people to teach here, is listening to the Spirit to put us on the Lord's desired path.  The other cool thing was that President Barrow and the Stake President talked with our Investigator Ku Minjoon and basically told him you need to get baptized and were super bold, the spirit was so strong there.  I think it could've been a changing point for our Investigator.  He is super awesome.  The goal is to get him baptized in the next two transfers before President Barrow leaves.

 

My spiritual thought is a commitment, that's the best way for you all to learn and feel the spirit.  Go read Mosiah chapter 14. Just do it! And ponder what the Savior has done for you and how much Faith he must have had to do what he did.  How can you get that kind of Faith? What do you need to change to have Faith like Christ or Abinadi who taught this message to King Noah and gave his life for the gospel? What ever the Spirit prompts you to change, do it, and I promise you all that he will strengthen your faith. 

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Us and the Sisters at the pond

ZONE CONFERENCE AND HIKING

Hello everyone! 

This week has been a pretty fun one.  We've gotten to do some cool stuff!

First off we officially got a new investigator! It took weeks but after a lot of faithful prayers and long street jundo sessions we found one! His name is Brian.  We met him maybe two weeks ago.  On Tuesday we taught him at his English Academy, he is Korean by the way, but his English is amazing.  He wanted to learn about our church and try coming to it because he doesn't like how other christian churches always say you need to pay money.  We taught him the first lesson and it went ok.  We had some trouble with the balance in the lesson cuz Elder Johnstun talks fast and a lot but it went good and Brian liked it.   He prays every day.  He went through some tough times and he said that he would pray to God and that eventually he found a job, found a house.  And then got money to start his English Academy.  The power of prayer is super awesome.  He didn't end up coming to church which was sad.  But hopefully next week.

We also had the opportunity to go to Busan and do a hiking Zone Conference! It was on the last week of the Saviors life.  We would stop every once and a while and listen to talks from missionaries in the 창원 (Changwon) zone.  It was really cool to hear all the great talks on the Savior and his atonement.  There was one point in the hike were we talked about the sacrament and how it wipes you clean from all of your mistakes.  We did a really cool object lesson where we stuck red dots on a picture of a lamb for all of our mistakes.  And then we flipped the paper over and it was clear, and they said that's how it is after the sacrament if you go in prepared.  Also one interesting thing I thought about what this question, I want all of you to ponder this this week.  How would your life be if Christ said no I don't want to be the Savior and so we had no Savior? I would feel dark, and gloomy always.  There are times when I feel lost and sad and awful and without the Savior there to pick me up I would feel like that all the time.

I took one study sesh just to look at the differences in the sacrament prayers I ended up running across sacrifice in the bible dictionary.  One thing that I liked was it talked about the order that the jews did sacrifices.  They would always do the sin sacrifice first.  Followed by the burnt sacrifice, and then the peace sacrifice.  It symbolizes the repentance process.  You offer your sins and the spirit burns them away and cleanses you, and then you find peace with God.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to repent and use the Christ's atonement in my life.  

Ok now for a fun story.  This morning I went to 만어사 (Manoh Temple). It's a buddhist temple that has an interesting back story.  There was a poisonous dragon and a treachery woman (not sure what that is) that got close to each other and it caused storms that made it impossible to grow crops for four years.  The king tried to use magic to cast them out but it didn't work.  Then he called up Buddha.  Buddha came with 6 priests and 10000 heavenly men to cast him out.  The king was so happy that he made a temple.  Then there was a prince who was looking for a new place to live.  So he asked a monk and the monk said where you stop you will live.  He was followed by a school of 10000 fish and stopped at this temple.  He then turned into a rock, and so did the fish.  So this temple has a giant rock and then tons of boulders that if you hit sound like bells.  Pretty neat eh? 

Anyways that was my week! Hope you all have a good one!

Action shot of the hike!

Busan from the top of the Mountain

Miryang team and Heemang the pony

Buddha

Us and the fish rocks

The Temple