July 7, 2014
Dear family!
I hope you all had a great week! We had a great week in Bangeojin.
In Ursan, (Bangeojin is a part of the city of Ursan) we had the whale festival!!! It was a great opportunity to talk to people and especially families. In Korea, students and working parents spend so much time out of the home at work and school (usually 6/7am-11pm/12am) that it's really difficult to find families together. At the whale festival, families came together and we were able to talk to so many people about our family programs. We spent two days at the festival proselyting and it was so much fun; it felt so good just to be able to talk to people and share our message as freely as we could.
Also, yesterday we had a baptism for a woman named Sister Kim Yoon-ja. She's in her 60s and her son is a member in the Daejeon mission. He introduced her to the missionaries in Bangeojin, and she met with the sister missionaries for four transfers before getting baptized yesterday. It was such a sweet experience to see how happy she was and how sincerely she desired to be baptized. Her son visited to baptize her and we were privileged to hear his testimony. He shared how he met the missionaries and was baptized in 2012 and since then had been praying and striving to help his mother accept the gospel. He spoke of how he thought maybe if she lived with him that he could help her more (She's a widow and he's unmarried.), but he felt that he should not move to Bangeojin and Sister Kim didn't want to move to his area. So he prayed, tried to follow the Spirit, and waited. Over time, he had time to visit Bangeojin and introduced the missionaries to his mom. She also became friends with some of the Bangeojin members, and although he had to return to Daejeon, with the help of the members and the missionaries, she was able to learn and accept the gospel. It was such a tender experience to see him and Sister Kim together on such a special day for their family.
Being able to be part of the baptism yesterday reminded me of something. Brother Shin, Sister Kim's son, cared so much for his mom, and he wanted more than anything for her to have the joy that he had found in the gospel. And she did find and accept the gospel. But it was not through very much of anything that he could have done. It was the Lord. The Lord helped her to know that this gospel is true. The Lord helped her and guided her. Although we are friends and family, everyone is first and foremost a child of Heavenly Father. Our parents, children, brothers, and sisters - everybody- is our brother and sister because we are all children of God. We are all equal in His eyes and because He loves us so much more than we could ever imagine, we don't have to worry. Because Heavenly Father loves Sister Kim, He is taking care of her. He does the same for everyone because we are His children. It's a wonderful truth, and I'm so grateful for this precious chance to share it with everybody I can.
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Bonney
PS We found two more rats this week. YES! Bangeojin branch 2 Rats 0 ^_^
