The Lord is guiding His work

            We shifted our teaching schedule again this week to provide the soldiers extra practice with the words and reading. We’ve worked hard and now we wait for them to take their tests and see if we made a difference in their scores.  At least they have positive things to say to the director about our class.

          

            I had a tender mercy with our sergeant. Before our last day of class I prayed that I might have the opportunity to share the gospel with the soldiers and this sergeant in particular. Just before he left class he asked me the name of our church, where our church is located, and what denomination we are? It opened the door for me to share a number of things about the church and answered my prayer.

            
                On Saturday we joined the young missionaries in a mission conference. It is the Lunar New Year so all of Korea is celebrating in their homes. The streets of Seoul were all but deserted when we arrived in the morning and there was a woman sleeping in the bank entry way with the ATM machines when we stopped for cash. There were a few protesters out and the center of Seoul was bustling with families when we returned to the train.

                We learned more about the Korean culture and the Lunar New Year. The missionaries played a Korean game with sticks they throw and did group jump rope competitions. The other sister missionaries plus one elder and I mended clothing for missionaries. Mostly we sewed buttons on coats and repaired busted pant seams. We had training from Salt Lake City via video and the changes to the missionary schedules and key indicators were announced. The missionaries are very excited about the time added to their preparation day.

I met with two Korean women who want to learn English this week. One lives in our apartment complex and asked the elders for English lessons. They can’t teach her alone in her apartment so they brought her here. She was easy to connect with and giggled almost to the point of tears when I substituted Korean words in the scripted conversation we were practicing. The second is a soldier with a doctoral degree in acupuncture medicine licensed to practice in California. She joined the Army as a medic to gain U. S. citizenship and be able to work in the U.S. when she finishes her tour of duty.  I fell in love with her. It was so hard not to invite her to attend church with us and share the gospel with her. I guess it is okay for me to want to share the gospel with everyone I meet and I can dream that they will love it one day as much as I love it.