11-24-13

Hello all!

 

First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I have a huge testimony of the importance of being thankful! God has given us so much here on Earth and we have need to thank him daily. Recently I have started a "Gratitude" journal. I simple write 5 things down every night in a separate journal that I am thankful for that day. It is fun to see and helps me appreciate things more. I am thankful to be able to write everyone and to hear about how everyone is doing! Seems to be going well back home and I am so glad!

This week was BUSY! But a good busy. Last Monday we played a Seoul Book Zone Turkey Bowl! It was way fun and I told my companion that it needed to snow for it to become a true Turkey Bowl. Sure enough, we came out of our morning emails and a blizzard was taking place. The first snow while I have been in Korea! It was super fun and exciting!

Then on Tuesday we had a Kim Jang. This is a HUGE service project where people from community get together and make Kimchi for less fortunate people! We made SOOOOO much kimchi and I wish I could explain the whole process, but I will just send a few pictures instead. It was a lot of fun though! I think we made about 2 tons of Kimchi. Literally.... haha Kimchi for days!

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Pons who is in my Dongee (or age group). He and I are both 18 and he actually plays Ultimate Frisbee as well so it was WAY fun to hangout with him for a day and to go hard.

On Thursday I was thinking what exactly it means to "do missionary work". Because I can sit there and talk to people all day and tell them what I am doing, but it just felt like something that anyone can do. I thought what makes me different as a missionary? As I was thinking about this, a little boy and his mother dropped a sack of their yogurts which then proceeded to roll everywhere. I instinctively dropped down to help pick them up and then the little boy came up to me in English and said, "Thank You!" with a huge smile on his face. It was after this small experience that doing missionary work and being a missionary is simply just serving the Lord and doing what Christ would do. However, I also realized that I'm not the only person who would have bent down to help those people. I realized that the only difference between me and any other member of the church is that I have been set apart to be a missionary. I know that every member can do missionary work. Missionary work isn't walking around in church clothes and telling people to believe. Doing missionary work is simply living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and looking for opportunities to serve others! I would encourage all of you to live your lives in such a way that you can each call yourselves missionaries. The familiar phrase "every member a missionary" has never had more meaning than it does in these days! May we all join together as Latter Day Saints and BE missionaries by LIVING missionary work.

We also had a miracle this week. My first couple weeks in Korea, we set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. However, we then lost contact with him for at least 4 weeks. We were about to drop him, when our prayers were finally answered and we saw him on the street! I had prayed that day and told Heavenly Father that we were trying to find this lost sheep and save his life. Sure enough we found him on the street. What a miracle! He apparently had received a new phone so his old phone number that we had been calling wasn't actually his. So we now have his number and are back in touch with him! Hopefully we can continue that progression that we once had with him!

On Saturday Elder Fonnesbeck played in a Stake Talent Show with one of our Young Men! It was super fun and I'm telling you that Korea has got some talented kids! So fun to watch the Korean culture that played out.

Yesterday was our Primary Program in church! Korean kids are seriously the cutest! I wish everyone a good week and a Happy Thanksgiving! The church is true! HOORAH! GO BROCNOS!

 

-Elder Hobson