This week in sacrament meeting, there was something called the Primary Program, where the young children sing songs and share brief messages, always the best Sunday of the year. Last time it happened while I was a missionary though, there was only 3 kids in the ward so the missionaries did it too, but this ward has about 15 kids so I just did translation this time. But when one of the 9-year-old kids was sharing a brief message, he was quoting an old church leader, so their title was Elder ____ (some name I can't remember) But when the kid tried to say the person's name every time, he said "Elder Bigelow" instead... It was quite endearing and it means that I have been here for quite a while :) The sad part was that he felt like he had really messed up and cried after, so this story has quite the sad ending but I figured I'd share it~
As we were walking this week, we met a man who stopped us and asked what the "Latter-Day Saints" part of our church name meant. It was a perfect opportunity for us to explain the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, as well as introducing the Book of Mormon. After we explained it, he said something along the lines of "Wow, I never knew about the Book of Mormon, or that there were people following Jesus Christ on the American continent either... If this Book is true, this can't be taken lightly! I'm a leader in my Christian congregation, but if this is true I am going to have to tell all of them about it too... I can't just believe all of this right away though. I'll try reading it, and then I want to meet and talk about it." For all those that have been a missionary, you will understand exactly how great of an experience we thought this was. Now, I don't know how things will work out with him, but I'm grateful that The Lord put us in his path so that we were able to meet this man.
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| Jared didn't send this but I pulled it off the blog written by his mission president. He has a fun personality demonstrated by this photo bomb. |
And the highlight of this week was a visit to our mission by Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles. We met in Seoul, and were able to spend roughly 3 hours with him. It really was life changing- He spent most of the time answering missionaries' questions, as well as letting us ask questions and helping us to find the answer to them. My favorite part of it was something that he said along the lines of:
" You will likely never have another opportunity like this in your life. You are here for three hours in an audience of 250 people, meeting with one of the 12 apostles, 2 mission presidents, and 2 members of the Quorum of the Seventy, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So if there's one thing that I hope you learn from this meeting, if it is only one thing, I hope you understand that you don't need an apostle to answer your questions. You have the promise of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and a promise from God that you can receive answers and revelation from God." Cool, right?
He also spoke a lot about becoming agents who choose to act and become what God would have us be, rather than just being acted upon as an object. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to learn at the feet of one of the Lord's chosen apostles, it is something I will never forget~
(PS there should be a picture of us with Elder Bednar on the mission blog soon)
Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Elder Bigelow
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