President Choi called us to REPENT

Hi all,

 

The last week was a great week. We had a pretty intense Zone Conference. Not surprisingly, President Choi talked about "High Expectation" again. Each of us was given a paper saying how many souls we could bring to the water of baptism at the end of our mission by baptizing one soul each week. Mine says 46, which means I can help 46 souls to make the covenant with our Father in Heaven by having a baptism each week. President Choi said that we had to repent if we still had doubt about our baptismal goal for this year, which was 1663 convert baptisms. I don't have any doubt about it. I know that it isn't going to be easy, and we all have to make lots of changes, but this goal is definitely achievable as the Lord has really been hastening His work. One of the evidence of it is the age change of missionary. There are now over 80000 full-time missionaries all over the world because of the age change announced in October 2012. I said at the beginning that it was quite an intense Zone Conference because President Choi called all of us to REPENT a couple times. He talked about the importance of DILIGENCE. He said that if we worked hard throughout the week, we would still be happy even if we couldn't find any new investigators. He said that missionaries who were not happy or depressed was because of their slothfulness. I wouldn't say that I was slothful, but I really could be more diligent. I know that sometimes I get less motivated in the late evening because most people get upset when we knock on their doors. I asked myself if it was because of my lack of faith. I have been praying to have more faith that the Lord will still put people on our path even during those evening hours. I definitely have pondered a lot after the Conference. I have been praying for the strength to overcome my weaknesses. My companion and I have been getting better at talking to EVERYONE, even those awkward situations. Instead of just saying hello, we would tell them we are missionaries, and most people ignored us. But at least we have given them the opportunity to learn more about the Restored gospel.

 

My companion and I also talked about how we could teach better as a companionship. We both knew that we had to be bolder and more persistent, so that our investigators could understand the importance of our message. One of our investigators always tried to switch topic whenever we asked him if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon. We decided that we had to keep asking him until he answered, and we did. I think my companion asked him at least 4 times before he said that he hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon. So I told him again why we invited him to pray and extended the commitment again and again throughout the lesson until he finally said yes. We both agreed that we had never been that bold and persistent before. I know that as we continue to make changes and try our best to overcome our weaknesses, the Lord will lead us to those who are ready to hear the gospel.

 

We had a miracle last Saturday. We were prompted to tract in buildings 5 and 6 of an apartment complex close to where we lived, so we went there. After getting door slams and rejection for a million times, we found one person who was interested to learn more about what we believed. His name was Alex and was 16 years old. He didn't show any interest at the beginning but didn't shut the door either, so we started bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon. He said that he used to go to a Christian Church with his family when he was younger and told us that his grandpa passed away not too long ago. So we briefly told him about the Plan of Salvation and testified to him that families could be together forever. We invited him to be baptized as he received a confirmation that our message was true, and he said he wanted to be baptized! We prayed with him on his doorstep, and he said he felt something, which we know was the Spirit. We set up an appointment for this Saturday, and we would bring someone who was about his age with us. We are very excited about it.

 

I am grateful for my Mission President, who always teaches us in a simple way. He reminded us to always check our spirituality as Satan could get into our heart very easily when we started breaking the rules. I am grateful for the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can repent and do better each day.

Love,
Sister Leung

With Sister Lee (from Korea) We are the only Asians in our zone.