Me love English

Hello everyone! I'll start off the week with a picture from our children English class~

The writing didn't show up very well, but it says We Love English. The problem was, one of the kids was holding the W upside down so it said "Me Love English".... Maybe we're going to have to be better teachers so these kids don't leave class sounding like the cookie monster...

Other than that, our week was super busy, we are meeting with a whole lot of people so I'll give a quick update on a few of them:

최석원- He is the one that used to be a pastor in another church and began meeting with us to 1-learn English, and 2-learn about our church so that he could start his own eventually. He knew that our church has very good systems, like the lack of paid ministry, worldwide uniformity in administration, humanitarian aid, and a system in the church that doesn't include advancement or being higher than any other member, and so he wanted to learn from it so that he could start his own church eventually. But as we have been meeting over the past 6 weeks or so, we have seen a change in him that I never would have expected. He quickly realized that the systems in this church are not just due to clever administrative tactics, but it is because this church is led by Jesus Christ in all meanings of the word. He realized that although many churches have become corrupt and all about money, that there still is a pure church out there, and his whole perspective has changed. We don't know what the future holds for him, but he intends to continue learning about the church. This is him~

민병희 (Min-byeong-hee)- We met her doing service at a secondhand store a few weeks ago, her son is marrying an American and she wanted to learn English, so we have met her twice now. She loves to practice English, and we love to help. One way that I have been teaching English recently when we teach 1 on 1 is having my companion lead the conversation while I write on  piece of paper. I write down things that we said that they didn't understand, translations of some words, and I write down what they say in correct and natural English, the students have really enjoyed it so far. But 민병희s is also very interested in religion, and has wanted a religion that matches her values. In her searches so far, the religion that has best matched her culture and values has been Buddhism, but she has been very interested as we have talked together about our church. She was excited to learn about the Restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith and the fact that it was such a significant event that happened not too long ago. And she said to us a few days ago, "Not a lot of people in Korea know about your church, I didn't either until I met you. But now that I know, I think that even if I don't join your church I can still help a lot of people know about your church. I've already told over 20 people since we met for the first time last week!"

I feel really blessed to be around such great people, both those that are of our faith and those that are not. I'm looking forward to a great week with a special visit from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, I'll let you know how it went next week!

Love,

Elder Bigelow