This week has been good, but not easy. We saw some good things happen this week, but there were also a lot of disappointments and frustrations. Our investigator with a baptismal date broke down on Tuesday and pretty much completely dropped us. He just isn't ready or willing to give up alcohol. I guess we were a bit too enthusiastic in helping him quit before he really had the desire to do so for himself and he just said that he has too much stress, that he doesn't think he can quit, and that we can't continue to contact him because he is too stressed. It was pretty heartbreaking to hear. Hopefully he will find a way to come back later and we will try to keep in touch, but we can't help him progress if he is not willing. We also had another investigator drop yesterday who just doesn't have time or enough invested interest to continue to meet with us. He seems to be pretty religious and eager for truth, so it's hard to see him reject the truth, but I have hopes that he might still find it in the future.

 

On the bright side, we have been meeting with a member referral and although I think progression might be slow, there is a lot of potential and I'm very excited to work with him. There was a lot we couldn't control this week, but there is always room for improvement, so we will press forward, hopeful for a better more successful week!

 

Maybe my favorite part of this whole week, though, was General Conference. I know you all already saw it, but it is still just as good a week late halfway across the world. I loved it! There is a lot that I learned, was reminded of, and definitely need to improve upon. It is such a blessing to have living prophets to give us up-to-date reports and guidance on how we can improve our lives, come closer to our loving Father in Heaven and our Savior, and to increase our efforts to help others do the same. Most of the English speaking missionaries in the area all meet at the Stake Center to watch it together, but we stayed in Mokpo to watch it on a laptop because we had a lot of appointments we didn't want to miss out on and we were out of money to make the trip. I loved it!

 

Here are a couple interesting/exciting things that happened this week. One day were were proselyting and we heard from behind us someone call out "Hello! Hey!" We turned around to see who it was and it was some random Korean kid on the street. He came up to us and just wanted to talk with us, so we were happy to oblige. His English name is "Ocean" and apparently he saw us a few times but just wanted to talk with us (probably to practice his English). But he took us to his nearby business and we just talked for a while. He is 26 and he is pretty much a genious. He owns his own whole compositions studio, a game programming company, and a stock trading company, and he works at the three for a living. He was just a super cool guy and has some cool perspectives on life, like how he notices he is blessed and just wants to help other people because he can only be truly happy if both he and others are happy. I hope we will be able to meet him again and teach him more about the gospel.

We also helped a member salvage some glass shelves from an old store. It took us an hour or so to take it all apart and then we headed back to drop it off. We were about to pull into an intersection when we heard a massive crash from behind the truck. The back of the truck had opend and the glass slid out and shattered all over the street. It was crazy. We scrambled to pick it all up with cars honking and driving on either side of us. Luckily we weren't in the intersection yet, but it was still a pretty exhilerating experience. Crazy days... gotta love 'em.

 

I'm pretty much out of time, but I just want to share one thought I have had recently that has really helped me a lot. I have kept the last line of "Come Thou Fount" in my mind a lot recently and it has had a renewed and deeper meaning to me over the last few weeks. It's the part where it says "Here's my heart, O, take and seal it! Seal it for they courts above!" I love that because I think that that is one of the hardest things to remember to truly give to God - our hearts. I think a lot of us are pretty diligently in doing our best to give our offering of time, effort, love, tithing, and almost everything else, but in our scramble to sacrifice it all, we forget that we are still clinging to our hearts. I often worry if what I'm giving is enough, if I'm truly doing my best, or if everything is really all going to work out the way it should, but all of those are sure signs that I'm still holding onto my heart and haven't let God take it - let HIm heal it, seal it, and send it back to me full of peace, power, confidence, charity, and assurance that He is God, that this is His work, and that I am His son. I know that through the power of the Atonement, as we turn to God and give it ALL - especially including our hearts - He will make up for the lack and imperfections that we unavoidably have bless us with the peace and power to press forward in all that we do.

 

Thank you for being wonderful! Thank you for being 1004s!! (haha that's a Korean language joke - I challenge you to try to figure it out)

I love and appreciate you all! God be with you!

 

-Love Elder Tolman