Monday, July 24, 2017
Culture, Faith and Forgiveness

Playing ping pong with one of our investigators, Bak Seongwoo​

Mom and Dad,

Thank you for your letters to me each week. They uplift and encourage me and always seem to provide for me the recharge I need to tighten my tie, slip on my shoes and get back to work for a week.

A quick note before I start into this letter: I write my letters, usually, without the idea of an audience in mind. They are addressed to you two specifically. This one, in particular, you may want to edit or rewrite before you post it onto the blog. I trust your judgement. And with that out of the way ...

I took a bath with my mission president and seven other Elders this morning. Yep. We got a call last night from the APs inviting us to go with them and President Jeong in the morning to Heoshincheong, the largest bath house in Korea. We left the house at 6am and met up with Pres. and the other missionaries.

And so, for nearly an hour and a half we all wandered butt naked from pool to pool while President Jeong told us faith-inspiring stories from his mission and gave us advice. Definitely an experience I never thought I would have. I love culture.

President Jeong is a wonderful man, with so much faith. I was worried that I would have a hard time adjusting to a new mission president, but he is absolutely wonderful. I am grateful, so very grateful, for all that President Barrow taught me, and now I am grateful that I have had a few weeks to learn from President Jeong as well.

We were planning on a baptism this weekend for Brother Tuan. At church we talked a bit, and he is making wonderful progress, but I felt that we should postpone the baptism one more week. I don't want to make the mistake of baptizing a less-active. I want to make sure he really understands the importance of what he is about to do. And so, he is re-scheduled to be baptized on August 5th.

Minh, unfortunately, has fallen into a bit of a tough situation. He still wants to meet, and he wants to come to church, but he started a new job in which he works from 8pm until 5am, usually arriving home around 7am and so he sleeps during the day and is usually very tired. And so he has been too tired to come to church for the last two weeks. We have an appointment with him on Tuesday evening.

It has been difficult to meet with our Korean investigators lately, as most of them have left on vacation (school break just started). Hopefully we will meet back up with them in a week or two. 

Brian! I love that kid so much. I don't remember if I mentioned it to you or not, but he is jobless again. Basically the police showed up at his factory and arrested all of the illegal immigrants. Everyone but Brian and one other man was arrested (Brian was the only legal one, the other man apparently ran and got away). And so now since there are no workers, his company closed down. Probably for the best, anyway, because as it turns out his boss has been scamming him out of money for the past few months.

And besides all that, he continues to express nothing but faith. He confidently told me that he knows God has a plan for him and if he obeys the commandments everything with work out. Because of his job he had to move a couple hours away from the Jungni ward, but he travels back every Saturday evening and spends the night at the bishop's house so he can continue to attend church on Sundays. He has grasped onto some spiritual truth that many long-time members are still groping for.

Brian is traveling all the way down here to Busan on Friday to visit me one last time.

This last week I spent every mealtime and as much time as I could spare at nights reading Spencer W. Kimball's book The Miracle of Forgiveness. Apparently this book has been banned in many missions because it causes missionaries to feel guilt and confess things that don't need to be confessed, and so you have to receive special permission before you read it. And wow, I can see why. President Kimball is very straightforward. But it is one of the most enlightening books I have ever read, and I am learning so much from it. President Kimball helps you to see why every single commandment, no matter how small, is necessary and significant.

And I can't help but think that truly, forgiveness is a miracle. Perhaps, as President Kimball says, it is the greatest miracle that God can perform. Our Heavenly Father is very patient with his less than perfect children.

President Barrow once told me that "Heaven is not filled with the beautiful and the perfect, but with the scarred and the broken." He also once told me "if you feel inadequate, it's because you are. You must rely on the Lord."

Those are my thoughts this week. So much to write, not enough time. This gospel is true, I know it is.

Love,

Elder Sorensen

Yangsan, a city within our area boundaries. This is from the top of an observatory.