February 22, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Again it was a great week in Korea. It was the Lunar New Year, so things were not as productive as they could have been, but we did get to go to Chinatown, which, of course, was incredible. It was pretty Oriental, so for those of you who are into that, I hope you enjoy the pictures. Not too much progress teaching-wise, none of the people we are teaching came out to church, but at the same time nobody took significant steps backwards. We have formed a pretty solid base of people to teach, so that is all going well.

So for my message I will share a quick scriptural passage we shared with one of our friends this past week. "And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away. And I said: Lord, how is it done? And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole." (Enos 1)

One of the most difficult things to teach in Korean is the feelings of the heart when you receive an answer to prayers or when you receive forgiveness. But I think this scripture describes those feelings the best. Our guilt is swept away. It doesn't only partially heal like a scar, but it is swept away like the footsteps in the sand. As we pray with the effort that Enos did and as we ask God to forgive us of our sins, it will come. We don't know how it will come and we don't know what we sometimes have to do to make everything better, but it will come. Our hearts are mended, our mistakes are forgotten and our lives are changed. I know that when we ask God how can he forgive us of the things that we have done, we will have the same answer that we read in the scripture. It is because of our faith in Jesus Christ who we have never before heard or seen. We then can go and be whole once again. I pray that all of you will understand and act on this promise. Turn to him. Please, please ask. Anyone who asks will receive. Anyone who seeks shall find. To anyone who knocks, He will open. Please let him heal your heart.

I love you all,

Elder Coleman