101215 Korean Joke about Grandpas and finding Love

Where do Korean Grandpa go to find love?  So the answer is e-harmony.com. It is funny because grandma is harmony in Korean. Hahaha... Yeah that was my companion’s joke in the MTC. Anyway somehow this week it got up to the mission president and he sent it out to the whole mission. So that is exciting.

Happy birthday David! And belated happy Birthday Brook! Memory of David- I remember just looking at David when we biked Slick Rock together. He just said a little thing about why he loved slick rock. How it was hard--just you and the bike. I was so impressed by that attitude and the ability to enjoy pushing yourself. Memory of Brook- I am sure this was mentioned, but I remember when we were camping and I checked his belt and Dad didn't so as he was repelling off the edge Dad stopped him and asked him if his harness was correct and that must have been freaky, but Brook remained totally calm, though he may have been freaking out on the inside. Impressive.

Yeah this week was good. It turned out that we just watched conference at the same time as church, just in a little room so we could watch it in English. It was cool, yesterday when the English ward normally starts a couple came in to church. They were in Korea to solidify everything for their adoption of a Korean baby. So we stopped in between the two Sunday sessions and talked with them, and explained why there was no church, and why the temple was closed. Yeah they were unlucky. Anyway it turned into an hour long talk about the whole story with the adoption. They were just a really sweet couple. Their names are the Whites. Anyway they felt very inspired. And their kid's Korean name is "white" or something close to that so they felt that was confirmation of what they are doing. Funny thing about the whole adoption process here: you can only adopt if you  are Christian, but you have to sign a thing saying you will not force a religion on the child. I just think that is funny.  But anyway it is always nice talking with vulnerable faithful people. One other funny thing he said was that when we go home our assignment is still the same. Expanding our priesthood was his main point, but then also he said just like transfers to go to your assigned area and find you new companion as soon as possible. Haha. So yeah, my companion is excited :). [His companion goes home in just over a month]

The main investigator we have now goes by Handy Choice. He is a little weird, like maybe some psychological problems. He met with the missionaries before, but would only want to learn in English, so they worried he was only doing it for the English, so they dropped him. Plus when they refused to teach in English he freaked out on them. He came back and so we met with him. He still will only do things in English. He says he thinks to himself and everything in English. I have never heard him speak Korean, and neither have the other elders. But his English still isn't fluent for sure, but it is hard to tell if that is just learning disability or what. He hates Korean for some reason. He honestly does seem like he wants to learn about the Gospel. He doesn't work or anything so he spends most of his time at home, reads scriptures and researches things. So we give him longer commitments and assignments that he always does. He has a baptismal date,  but we want to find out more about him before really moving forward. But the good news is he likes us and so we can teach him a little in Korean he said he will help us with some practice lessons, so I will see if he speaks Korean there or how that goes. He seems sincere to me, but he may be a little hard to have no matter what ward they let him join, so it is just an interesting situation. We will see. He seemed excited to teach me Korean, so it is interesting.

Any thoughts on Joshua or Handy Choice? It is cool, we have two people who want to, or are at least interested in baptism. I told David this,  but our mission has 150 as our goal for baptism's this year, which is less than one per missionary per year, so having two solid potentials is pretty solid!

Conference was great. I am just so impressed with all of our church’s leaders. Nowhere is there a more humble, intelligent, and faithful group of people. It is really amazing. I liked the ponderizing thing. I have wanted to memorize one scripture a week but  haven't been good at doing it so I will start doing that now. Plus by pondering  it will hopefully stick for longer and become more meaningful. A few things I noticed. There was a lot about faithful women, and the value of women. Also a lot about death, or death stories. The apostles and prophets seemed so real to me. I could feel their love and felt as always that they are indeed inspired of God. The first scripture that I am going to poderize is Hebrews 11:24-26, inspired by Brian. I have memorized it before but wanted to ponder it more. So I studied about faith. Faith is powerful. I feel like I lack so much faith. I listen to my own will, I doubt God's promises and blessings, I judge people, etc. I want to develop a more childlike trust and faith in God. So yeah that is my goal, this week and on my mission, and throughout my life.  I feel like I don't really understand what true faith is. I mean, I know what it is, but I don't feel like I have ever had to really rely on it, or have ever chosen to really consciously and deliberately cultivate it. So, perhaps my test is to choose to rely on faith when I don't have to. That sounds bad, but hopefully you understand what I mean.

Anyway I love you all!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Sabey

P.S Yes, Mom, we do work out, but mine aren't great. It is hard for me to really get going and motivated to work out right when I get up. But we do have soccer and basketball once a week, so those are good work outs. And I haven't been meditating here. I honestly wasn't ever super tired. I slept a lot of the flight over so I adjusted pretty quickly and well. Plus there is so much English I think it isn't as mentally exhausting I think. But I am going to try to just force myself to speak more Korean. I think it isn't super fun for my companion to listen to me try to put sentences and stuff together or to try to explain what he is saying, so I will work on working with my companion  a little too. I got the Dear Elders! They just go to the mission home and then when the zone leaders or we go the mission home or people from the mission home come here we can pick them up. And I think you are supposed to send it to the mission home.

Hey President,

This week was good. We are meeting with some pretty interesting people. I definitely feel like I am doing more worthwhile things now. Although our two main investigators that are progressing speak English  I feel like I am not learning as much as I would like in Korean. The one I find most interesting is a Nigerian named Joshua. He is in Korea for work and has a lot of faith in God. He has felt God's blessings a lot in life. He said he sometimes just smiles and laughs because he sees the difference God has made in his life. He recently was reading in the scriptures about baptism, and had a desire to be baptized again because he was only baptized as a baby. So he said he was considering being baptized in our church. The problem is he is very involved in an international church that he attends. He is like their youth pastor. He believes the book of Mormon is true, but he also feels like God inspires and leads lots of churches. He thinks the church he grew up in has the same doctrine as ours, or are both at least true. Any way he asked if he could get baptized, and we explained what had to happen. He wants to, but he doesn't really want to leave his old church. He said he wants to keep his eggs in multiple baskets, where he can make more of a difference or something. We said that probably wouldn't work. He wanted us to ask you about what you can do for him. I know he will have to participate and be involved in our church, and probably can't be a pastor and proselyte with another church, but we said we would ask you, so I am. What are your thoughts?
I loved having conference. It was a powerful and spiritually rejuvenating. I want to be able to feel the spirit more consistently in my life, so I want to work on keeping my thoughts on spiritual things. My companion, I have noticed, tries to do this. He isn't perfect, but I have noticed as he makes mistakes or has harder days, he tries to refocus and that is something I appreciate and can learn from.