Participants in History

                Family Home Evening studying the Doctrine and Covenants is a wonderful way to begin our week. You can see Wayne, our sister missionaries (Sister Hale and Sister Frint), Bro. Kamarath, our new elder (Elder Yu), Ellis and Elder Shepherd.

                We met twice with Victoria this week. On Tuesday the elders tried to make certain she understood all the commandments she would be covenanting to keep when she entered the waters of baptism and we took time to address concerns she had as well. She joked that she had joined lots of churches before and it was always very easy, but this church was hard.

As we moved toward her baptism interview on Thursday, she was worried that she may not pass. After Elder Anderson (assisted by Elder Barney as translator) finished the interview and told her that she was ready for baptism Victoria wanted to celebrate passing her baptism interview. She took seven missionaries to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner.

                We recognized the rice and enjoyed a soup with bean sprouts, but the only other food we recognized were these tiny crabs. The elders said you were supposed to crack them open and suck out the meat. Wayne was brave and tried. He said he didn’t detect any meat, only what tasted like crab waste and sand. I noticed that none of the elders ate two.

It was a one-person business. Our hostess was also the cook, waitress, busboy, and diswasher. She was very friendly and told Victoria that she doesn’t go to church now because many people come to eat at her restaurant on Sunday. There was a group of three men who came to eat while we were there and almost every chair was filled.

                The whole week was focused on the baptism of Victoria on Saturday evening. As soon as we arrived at the chapel in Uijeonbu, the Korean sisters surrounded her, trying to make certain everything was perfect.  This was Elder Shepherd’s first opportunity to baptize and he was very, very happy. I think Victoria was disappointed that neither her daughter or son came. Often she expressed the wish that she had found this gospel while her children were still young so that she could have taught them about it in their youth.

                She shared her testimony by dividing her life into four parts: her childhood that was hard because her mother died when she was one and she was raised by two different step-mothers; her married life as a wife and mother which began when she was twenty and ended when her husband was killed suddenly in a car accident at age 34; her professional life which came as she completed university studies and worked as director in a counseling office in Seoul; and her time as a member of Christ’s true church that was beginning today on her 60^th birthday.

                There were almost forty people who came to celebrate representing her new gospel family. Among the group were these two young women who called Victoria their teacher. They were happy women who requested copies of The Book of Mormon from the missionaries before they left. They do not live in our area so it will be other missionaries who have the opportunity to meet with them as they begin their journey to know for themselves whether The Book of Mormon is the word of God, truly another testament of Jesus Christ, and whether Jesus Christ truly restored His priesthood authority and keys to Joseph Smith establishing His kingdom for the last time in our dispensation.

                The journey continued on Sunday when Elder Anderson (with Ricky Kong as interpreter) confirmed Victoria a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with the invitation to receive the Holy Ghost as her constant companion. He gave her a sweet blessing to be filled with the Holy Ghost and the gift of charity as she keeps the commandments and serves those around her.

                Also in the meeting was a member of the bishopric from the Uijeonbu Ward. He had come to welcome Victoria, but also to officially organize the Dongducheon Group with a group leader with authorization to meet and administer the sacrament in this area of South Korea. Sunday will be a historical marker of the expansion of the gospel here. The Korean sister who gave her very first sacrament meeting talk today has been able to attend sacrament meeting because of the organization of this group. Since they began to meet with us in January, she has only missed attending once. She still travels a long way to bring her son to church. She also taught the Relief Society lesson and was at the baptism on Saturday night. There were more than twice as many Koreans in our meeting today than Americans and Africans combined.

                Rachel and her two sons came to sacrament meeting on Sunday for the first time in many weeks. Her husband was not with her to help her wrestle the two active boys so Sister Hale volunteered to help me teach the boys in a Primary class during the second hour. This freed Rachel to enjoy an hour of church without distractions and gave us an opportunity to provide the boys with gospel teaching through activities, stories, and song. They are darling boys, Eli and Evan, with a full measure of energy. We are hoping having Primary available for the children will encourage this family to return to regular church attendance.

                I invited all of the Relief Society sisters, Korean, African, and sister missionaries to my home to watch the General Women’s Conference together. My invitation was accepted by the sister missionaries and two of the three African sisters. The spirit in the General Women’s Conference and the music were wonderful. Even though both sisters insisted they needed to leave directly afterwards, both stayed to eat and visit. They needed the fellowship as much as the instruction. We will continue to pray that these sweet sisters will return to full activity.