Farming?

Hi Everyone!

 

We got to farm this week! A lot of pear farming, which is what Naju is famous for :) (You know those really big, round Asian pears we used to buy? Yeah! I picked some! and they are evern MORE delicious in Korea!!! :D) A family in our branch owns a plot of trees, and they had to get them all farmed by this end of the month, so they requested some help. Which is awesome because it's our Branch President's parents, who's mother is a member, but whose father never joined the chruch. Good bonding time, among the beauties of pear picking, frog catching, and we even saw a strange, ferret-like animal that was huge! SIster Deus was scared it was going to pop out again and eat her :) I even had the opportunity of dropping an iron bar onto Sister Deus' poor head. Come to find out she's been through much worse and survived-Her ancestors are German and apparently they all have really thick skulls... She's okay! Just a bit of advil later....

 

So the referrals we ended up anticipated didn't come through, I believe due to our lack of follow up, and just because sharing the Gospel with your friends can be really scary. It's not easy! So in our district meetings, sacrament meetings, Zone conferences and everything we are focusing on how to help our members overcome their fear of doing missionary work. Because we can find, and we can even see baptizms through our own efforts. But they are very few and far between.

 

And if we are to meet the goal our mission and stake president both set for all of us of getting 10 people into the chruch (whether reactivation or baptism) we need to see more results than the 10 we've gotten this year so far.

So we need Members!

 

I'll be honest, I've never done missionary work this way before. In my whole mission we've never really focused on members and referrals this much. I was always like "Yeah! There's my awesome friend in America, working off of referals and seeing baptisms!" but I didn't think that was how it worked here. We focused a lot on less actives and finding through our own efforts. (English program, flyers, tracting, door-to-door) So I feel kind of like a new missionary again, and now I'm getting to stretch myself and our memebers in ways we've never stretched before.

It's definately a change and a challenge, but just this past Fast Sunday, we were seeing the missionary spirit stir!

 

It started with Sunday morning. We were standing in the doorway, greeting members as they came to church. The Branch president had aldready greeted us, when all of the sudden he came back. "Sister Brooksby, You will share your testimony on member missionary work today, right?" he asked. I'd had a feeling that morning that it would be a good idea to prepare to do that, so I replied with a solid
"Yes President!" then he approached one of our elders (he's been a temporary elder here from another area while Elder Kim has surgery and recovers) and told him to give his introductory talk as well. Insa Marsuem Iragoyeyyeo. (Yes, that's Korean ;)

 

So, to make a long story short, I did, and I was just praying because I wanted to be totally sincere for these members and share with them what ever was really going to help them. And then I felt Heavenly Father take over. I just testified that there is someone perpared among each of our friends that the Lord needs us to share with. And I told them that My dad was my example of missionary work, and another district leader I had once who always said "I don't want to get to the Celestial Kingdom alone!" I told them all how they touched me and inspired me, and how that I'm only 22 years old and a forienger to their culture and language and everything, but I know that the Lord works through us to touch His children and bring them to Him. And how none of us want to be alone in Heaven-we want our best friends up there with us. :)

 

The fire has been lit! I watch our ward mission leader bear her testimony about inviting a family in their neighborhood to FHE together, and even though she was scared at first, she ended up talking with them a little about the Gospel. And the result wasnt' that they were baptised or even intrested, but I was SO proud of her and so grateful that she opened her mouth. That was one of and still is the hardest things for me about my mission. But I know that if we do, only miracles can happen. Only blessings can come because when the Lord makes a promise to us, if we do our part we can see it fufilled every time.

 

My companion, Sister Deus, has an uncle that's been less active for 50 years. He went inactive as a teenager and has hated the chruch since. Everyone in his family knows that's it's not good to talk to him about the church or religeon of any kind. But she's been writing him every week or every other week since she started her mission. She talked to him about her experiences, about the Atonment, about the changes she is seeing people make and the changes in herself. He never responded. But just two weeks ago her mother emailed her to say her brother (that uncle) said he'd like to come back to church.

 

If we believe and trust God above our fear of rejection or failure or whatever, and we speak to our friends and famliy and everyone out of love, only miracles like this can happen. I have no doubt.

The rest of our Sunday meetings were testimonies just like Sister Park's. The members were lighting each other's excitement for missionary work, and I couldn't believe it. I was so thankful.

 

It's not coming all at once. There' aren't any baptisms this week. But I know that Heavenly Father is excited for Naju. He's excited for the sacrifices we make to share the Gospel. He is so rpoud of us, especially when we do teh hard things. He loves us. I know He does and I'm so thankful for this opportunity to share my testimony with everyone and to see it and everyone around me grow. We can only go up. When we follow the Lord and hold fast to His promises, we can only go up.

 

I'm so thankful for my fellow missionaries too. Just two weeks ago, at the end of Zone Conference, we were invited to stand and share our testimonies with each other. One sister, been out about half her mission, stood and with tears in her eyes shared her testimony. "I need this gospel." She said. "I just need this gospel. I don't know where I'd be without it."

 

I love you all. Keep up the missionary work! There's no greater work we can do than this one. The neatest thing-Let's go to Heaven together!

 

Sister Brooksby