When I first came to Gwangyang a few months ago we had a district proselyting activity in a nearby city called Suncheon. As we were walking into the park where we were going to do the activity I felt prompted to talk to a college-age guy walking next to me towards the same park. I honestly fought the prompting for a while but finally opened my mouth to find that he was super happy to talk. He said he not only had never seen missionaries before but had never spoken to a foreigner. I introduced our message a little bit but he politely said that because he already has a belief that it would be inappropriate to meet with our missionaries. Even though nothing came from it that experience has given me a lot of confidence with talking to people.
Because one of the Suncheon Elders was emergency-transferred out and couldn't be replaced, we have been in a trio with the remaining Suncheon Elder, Elder Summers, and have been covering both Gwangyang and Suncheon for the last two weeks. On Thursday morning, Elder Summers suggested that we go street contacting in a part of Suncheon that he's wanted to go for a while. We took a bus to a seemingly random place and after walking around for about an hour not finding anyone to really talk to, we took a break in a convenience store to sit down and have a snack. After about five minutes, literally the only person that I know in Suncheon walks in: the student I met five months ago in the park. I jumped up and greeted him like an old friend. He was almost as excited as I was. Upon sitting down and talking with us we learned that in contrast to when I first met him, he has been looking for religion and also has interest in learning English because he wants to visit the US. We taught a simple version of the first lesson in that convenience store, he took a Book of Mormon and is excited to keep meeting. I'm just a little bit bummed that I won't be able to teach him because he's not in my area, but by this point it's pretty clear that I can trust God's plan for these people.
That was one of the coolest miracles of my mission so far.
Good stuff is happening, I'm really happy. Yesterday we got transfer calls and I will be staying in Gwangyang to continue training Elder Hyun but this transfer I will also be district leader. That is an exciting new challenge, I'm going to learn so much especially because there will be two new missionaries in our district.
Ooh! I also got to sit next to a German guy on a 45 minute bus ride, that was pretty cool. He had never really heard anything about the church and assumed it wasn't in Germany. He was really good at English and I awkwardly told him that "Ich spreche ein 조금 Deutsche" Dang it Korean. After I gave a basic introduction to the church, he started talking about how all organizations like governments and churches no matter how well they start out, will all become corrupt eventually. If he had said "all organizations of men" he would have been correct.
1 Nephi 18:2 "Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men."
This work is led by God. I love how clear it is that the church is not an organization of man. It will not shift to the world's moral standards. I've been trying to put more focus on studying the words of living prophets in the recent general conference and I have felt the Spirit's strong witness that their words came through Him.
I know this church is true. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that if we ask God, he will tell us where we need to place our priorities. I still don't know very much about Jesus Christ and my relationship with him is still weak, but I bear my testimony that He lives and will replace our weaknesses with joy if we let Him in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Elder Brown
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