Thank you to everyone
who sent me emails, letters, and gave encouragement to me throughout this
entire process and during my life. All of your advice, kindness, and
effort has truly touched me as I move onto a new chapter in life.
Specifically, I would like to thank the Permenters, Walburgers,
Andersens, Seibers, Varinis, Elwells (Sam and Amelia as well), Lyons,
and the Burns for the wonderful letters. I cannot respond to all of
them, but you have my sincere gratitude.
So
the format of the letters will be simple. First, I'll give some
important events that occurred. Next, based off my Mission President's
advice, I will share an experience with the new culture or language, a
testimony of Christ, and a testimony of the Restoration.
So
to start, this week was incredible. Incredible as in impossible,
glorious, invigorating, splendid, demanding, and any other word you
can think of. The Spirit is strong here, and you can almost taste it in
the cholesterol and trans-fat packed "food". But I really do actually
like the food... My companion is incredible. he is the District Leader
and although he is young, he is learning to become a leader and a
fantastic missionary. I have to remind him occasionally of his
purpose and calling, but he is truly incredible and I am blessed to have
him. We have taught 4 investigators in Korean and we can pray fluently,
read the scriptures (slowly and we don't know what they say), and I
personally have learned over 100 vocab words. Its a humbling but
empowering experience.
So a tad bit on the
Korean language. Sentences are inverted so that the word order is
subject, object, and verb, which is super cool and fun. We have only
learned basic sentence structure and one prepositional phrase
structure, but I love it.
Now a little bit on
Christ. Goo-Joo (romanized) is the word for Savior in Korean. When I
came into my room the first day, I found a picture of the Lamb of God
stuck in between my mattress, so whenever I looked up at the bed, I saw
the Savior. I've had so many touching experiences with my Savior this
week, that I can't share them all. But when we taught Be-Gu-noo (our
investigator's name) all we could say in the language were simple
sentences like "Jesus loves you," or "Jesus is your Savior". But that's all
we needed. The Spirit testified that Christ was in fact his Savior, and
when we asked if he believed he said "ne, Cho-nun mit-da' (yes, I
believe).
For all of those who are not LDS or
who don't have a firm testimony of the Restoration, I testify to you it
is real. There are prophets today. God still speaks to his people and
his Gospel is present on the earth today. The Holy Spirit will testify
to you if you read the book of Mormon and pray sincerely. I can't teach
you. No man can teach you. I can't prove it to you. But God can. Pray.
Ask. Listen. Humble yourself. And you will know for yourself.
With Love,
Elder Nathan Coleman
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