114 BOM's With A Few Days Still To Go!!!

Thank you for the words of advice. This week we really saw miracles related to our goal of giving out Book of Mormons. We made a goal to give out 94 by the end of January, and we thought it was crazy, but we're now up to 114, and still have about a week left. My companion, Elder Bybee, is the muscle behind this whole activity. He's great at talking to people, and gives out books like candy. I can really feel his testimony every time he talks about the Book of Mormon, and I know the people he talks to can feel it too. We were able to meet with one of our investigators, MRK, who we haven't met with in about a month. He's doing great, and it was wonderful to see that he has progressed since we last met. He had so many good questions and insights about the plan of salvation, and he's eager to read and pray.

 

This week I've been able to feel the Savior's love so much. When it's hard to carry 16 books of Mormon in your bag, or when it's cold and you don't want to go out, you want to take a break. But if you put your own desires aside, and do what God wants you to do, he will make your burdens light, and through miracles, lift up your spirits. It's in those times where things seem hard that you find miracles. I know God lives, because he is a God of miracles, and there are miracles every day in the work of salvation.

 

Until next week, stay warm and remember to pray for an opportunity to introduce someone to the gospel!

 

Elder Franchina

16 BOM's in One Day!!!

This week was incredible. There's not much to report, most of our investigators were busy, but in the 4 or 5 hours a day we find between appointments, we were able to go above and beyond our goal of giving out books of Mormon. We were planning on giving out 4 a day, and by the end of the month, we'd have given out around 100. We thought the goal was crazy, but one day we decided to give out 16 books. I loaded my heavy backpack (maybe that was a big part of the motivation, the more I give out, the lighter it gets), but in under an hour and a half, we had given out 9, and by the end of the day, we were empty handed. It was incredible. Since the beginning of January we have given out 77 books, and plan to give out more before the end of the month. I didn't think we could do this, but it just proves to me that if we set goals with faith, the Lord will help us, and we can accomplish anything.

 

Thank you for the prayers of faith offered by those at home, they help us every day. We have trials on our mission, but there are wonderful members like you at home that take care of us, and there are wonderful members here in Korea that make sure we're taken care of. Thank you so much everyone!

 

Jordan

The Worth of a Soul

Hello everyone!

 

We met with a few new guys this week, the highlight of which is a guy named NDY, who is an American stationed next to us at the army base. He bought us hot chocolate and we had a really great discussion about..basically everything. From medical school to foreign languages to missions. He knows a ton about our church, some of the guys he's in charge of on base are Mormons, and he said he can really see the impact missions had on his RM troops. He was pretty straightforward that he's comfortable in his belief and that trying to convert him is pointless, but he started to ask really good questions, like how we study the book of Mormon to help us. Do we read a specific story that applies to us or do we just read from cover to cover?

 

We talked for a little over an hour, and thing I'm most grateful for is that when he started to talk about his faith beliefs, I could feel my testimony growing as he talked about examples of service from the scriptures, etc. He's a really good guy, and he and his wife will have us over for dinner later. We're really excited.

 

There's a less active in our area who's going through a really rough time with losing almost everything he has, so the church is stepping in to help, but I have to be the translator, the English branch is helping, but they don't speak Korean. So we've been with him a lot, and it's been kind of stressful, handling bills and forms, bank account numbers and such, but all of that stress goes away when he looks in your eyes and expresses his deep gratitude for what we do. When it talks about the worth of a soul in D&C, and how great our joy will be if we are to save but one soul, it's not just helping people make steps towards baptism, but also helping them endure to the end. This man was lost, and he's coming back, and it brings me so much joy to see him  at church, enjoying the atmosphere and the spirit.

 

Other than that, we just talk to people on the streets or subway. Our zone set a goal for us:

Give out 1,500 Book of Mormons by the end of the month. There are 16 companionships, so that evened out to 94 books in less than 4 weeks. We have to give out 4 books a day to make the goal. That seemed impossible at first, sometimes you can go weeks without giving one out, but as my companion and I focus on introducing the Book of Mormon when we talk to people, it becomes easy. We're well on our way to completing our goal of 94 books, hopefully we can surpass that goal. I'll send a picture of our tower of books, hopefully it'll be gone soon!

 

I love you all and hope you can find the opportunity to introduce someone else to the book of Mormon this week!

 

Elder Franchina

Reactivation Work

Time sure does fly, doesn't it?

 

The temperatures are rising and falling, but we're keeping warm.

 

Yes, my new companion, Elder Bybee, is very enthusiastic. We're both new in the area, so we're still trying to figure out our area, but we don't really get lost, we can always find our way back to a subway and get home if we do. We've only been here for 2 weeks, but we've already found around 5 people that are interested. Two of them show really good potential. One is the 84 year old guy I might have mentioned a while back, he's really nice, and the other is a guy we just met the other day for dinner. He studied in America for 10 years, and he wanted to meet with us because we seemed cool, but then he started to express a lot of interest in our church. He wants to meet and learn more about what we believe. We also met a guy who was born in New York, but his parents are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and he's just the nicest guy in the whole world. We met him last night, and he accepted everything we said. Super nice guy. He doesn't live in our area though! He is here for a few days staying at a friend's place, but he will go back to start up school again soon, so we'll have to refer him.. Oh well. I'm glad I was able to meet him at least once. It was impossible to be sad or grumpy around him.

 

This guy, brother T, called us and he is here in that military branch, and they're trying to do some less active work. There's a Korean guy that is going through some rough times, so they want to go help him, start helping out with the bills, etc. but he needed a translator, so they called us. We went and visited, and he was so nice. He said he wants to start coming back to church. So we got some stuff worked out with the bills, then on Sunday we got a member to come out, pick us and him up, and everything. He loved church. There was even a baptism. I was super stoked about this because less active work in Korea is super hard. The apartment contracts can expire every 2 years, so it's almost impossible to trace less actives. But now we have been able to reactivate someone and he's already made friends at church!

 

This week I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Christ. It's so hard to understand and I'll never fully understand it, but this week I've been thinking a lot about how through Christ, we have our perfect example, but not only requiring us to become like him, he gives us the help we need to do it. Through the atonement, we can overcome addictions, receive that needed healing after years of pain, whether physical, mental, emotional, or social. There's so much love behind the sacrifice of the Atonement. He was perfect and didn't need to, but because he loves us, he gave his life so that we can receive eternal blessings.

 

Thank you for your support and love, I can feel it daily, and it helps me carry on.

 

Elder Franchina