3-16-14

Hello!

 

First off, Happy St. Patrick's Day! I live with an Elder from England right now and he says you aren't allowed to celebrate St. Patrick's day unless you are Irish. So of course, me being me, I want to celebrate anyway just to spite him haha. Any ideas of funny things I could do?

So last week I got my first Korean haircut. It was kind of sketch for awhile and still isn't the best, but I am working on pulling off all variations of hair styles!  I figure you got to try it all.

This week Elder Kim and I had 12-Week Follow Up. If you don't know what that is, it is a meeting where all the trainers and their greenies go and discuss how they are doing with the new 12 week program that the church has implemented. It was cool and they talked a lot about companionship unity. Elder Kim and I get along so it's not like we needed it, but it still seemed to strengthen us and help us improve which is always cool. On the way home from that meeting Elder Kim and I started talking to a guy while we were waiting for the train. Our conversation was going good and he was a really nice guy and seemed fairly interested. While we were on the train I noticed another man who was listening to our conversation and also seemed pretty interested. So our conversation turned out to be with these two old men who had suddenly become best friends with each other because of us. One would ask a question and then the next guy would bounce off of that and ask another question. We gave one of them a Book of Mormon and the other was suddenly asking for one. It was a cool experience and since I am a foreigner, we took pictures with them and got their numbers and sent them on their way. It just goes to show the power of numbers and of friends. Then on that same train a lady called me over and said in English, "Are you Holy?". I don't know if you have ever been asked this, but I didn't quite know how to respond. She sensed my lack of response and said, "Spirit? Do you have Spirit?". It then clicked for me and I said, "YES!!!!!" haha. She said, "I can tell." Turns out that she had been in contact with the Sister missionaries in our area just a couple days before. So I got to know her a little better and told her I would have them call her.

On another occasion this week Elder Kim and I were doing street contacting. We walked up to a cross-walk and I didn't really want to, but I really felt like I should talk to this kid. We started talking and walking and he wasn't very interested. I was questioning the prompting I got when out of nowhere a guy ran up next to us and said "You are Mormons right?". We said, 'Ya, how'd you know?". He said he knows a little about our church and doesn't believe what we do. So we asked him what he believed and it was super funny as the guy sat down with us and basically taught us the first and second lesson doctrine for doctrine with our church. We told him that he may have been misinformed and that his beliefs were the same as ours. We got his number and while we were talking I saw a foreigner eyeing us from the side. We sent the man on his way and the foreigner ran up to us and said, "You are Mormons right?" (Elder Kim and I looked at each other kind of quizzically wondering what the heck was going on. We hadn't introduced ourseves to someone in like an hour and a half... people were talking to us first.) We explained to him that we were. He said he was from Pakistan and always sees Mormon missionaries but they are always too busy or he is too busy. He said he saw us talking to the guy and was going to leave in 2 minutes if our conversation didn't end. This was quite the miracle because the previously man had purposefully missed like 10 trains to talk to us and we didn't know when he would leave. Just goes to show that the Lord's timing is everything! We talked to this guy and he came to Church yesterday and we taught him all of the first lesson and parts of the others! Elder Kim translated for him! What a bunch of miracles! Hopefully he is willing to commit to finding out for himself if our church is true!

I read a story this week of a lady who had gotten old and gone blind but when the missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon she was able to see when she tried to read! Quite miraculous! Then she received her patriarchal blessing and since she couldnt see, she had the missionaries re-read it to her when she got the hard copy. In her blessing it said that she would have joined the Church 25 years earlier if a missionary would have decided to serve. That hit me hard! We all have a place in the Lord's plan! Elder Kim often brings up the analogy of us being in the Lord's tool box and the Lord putting together a masterpiece with his many tools. We have used that analogy a lot and compared it to building/putting together a car. You don't start by putting on the fender first and then the windows (so on and so forth). There is a very specific order in which things are to be done and many different tools that the maker must use. Same with missionary work, maybe I am one of the men in the pit who hands the maker tools. Maybe I am the electric screw driver. Maybe I am supposed to baptized 150 people, maybe I am only here to prepare the hearts of 10. Bottom line is that we don't know what the Lord's plan is for us, but we are his tools. He will use us for the function that is needed and in the right time and order. I hope that makes sense the way I described it . Anwyay, the church is true! I love you all! The Lord is omnipotent!

 

-Elder Hobson