Repentance

June 26, 2016

Hey everyone! Another great week here in Korea and of course another week where I don't have a ton of time to talk about all the crazy stuff that happened. One culture thing that I did learn this week was that when you have had a hard time doing something, never say that you have. Lie and say it was easy. For example, if you worked really hard to prepare something and someone says "you worked really hard!" your response should be "nah, it was super easy, I barely spent any time doing it" even if you spent the last 36 hours not eating and stressing over it. Haha so that was fun to learn.

Anyway, this week I want to mention briefly a principle of the gospel and life that brings us great joy and peace. It is called repentance. Repentance is recognizing that we have done something wrong, stopping that action, confessing to the person we have wronged or to God, and then trying to make up for the harm that it has caused. Although simple, repentance is very hard to apply and can sometimes be a scary process. We think that if we repent, we may be embarrassed or look weak. Alma, a prophet in the Book of Mormon, says this about repentance:

 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

I promise that if we repent, not of just the big things and the embarrassing things, but of the small things as well, we will find peace. This is always true. It may not be true in the short term and the consequences may be very severe, but I promise you that in the long run, apologizing and changing is always the best thing to do. I know that repentance is the best way for each of us to improve our relationship with God and Christ. Even if we do not believe in Christ or God, repentance is the only way that we can find peace and change to become better people.

I love you all and I hope that you can all find true joy this week

Elder Coleman

June 20, 2016

To my friends and family,

This week has been a good one. We had a lot of meetings, which is, of course, good and bad. You get to hear great things, but you also don't get to go outside and just talk to people on the street. But, fortunately, we had some chances to do that as well. Some culture I learned this past week is something my companion taught me. A lot of Koreans like to speak in a little bit of a round-about way, kind of like suggesting things that would be good to do instead of asking directly if someone will do it (my mom likes to do this a lot). Anyway it has been a fun week trying to learn to speak more indirectly and more naturally. 

Today I want to talk about goals. Setting goals is a principle of faith; we set goals that we believe that in the future we can achieve. When we set an ordinary goal, we have an expectation, or faith, that in the future if we prepare in a certain way and work hard, we can achieve a desired outcome. In my life I have learned that without goals, we are kind of like ship without a rudder, just kind of going where the wind or the waves of life take us. When we set goals, it may be hard to reach them and there are, of course, still challenges, but we have a direction where we want to go and we can head that way. 

One way that we can have more successes in accomplishing our goals is by asking the Lord to become involved in our goals. When we seek divine help for our practical trials, I know that we can find additional strength and additional wisdom from heaven. If it is a righteous or good goal, I also know that God will provide a way to accomplish that goal. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Sorry for no pictures again, I can't figure out my camera again. 

Elder Coleman

Overcoming Weaknesses

June 12, 2016

Hey everybody! It was a super busy week this past week, and today was no different! We had to go to the middle of Seoul to drop off my companion so he could go get a military body check-up. In Korea, every man has to serve in the military for 2 years. If they cannot physically do it, they have other options, but almost everyone goes. It is apparently super hard, but they have phones after like 5 and they have breaks every month or so, so I feel like being a missionary is harder haha. 

The topic that I want to talk about today is overcoming our weaknesses. As all of us are well aware, we are not perfect. Not everyone believes in Satan, an actual spirit who tempts us, but most everyone believes that every person must choose between right and wrong throughout their life. It is almost always more difficult to make the right decision.

Most Christians believe that after the earth was created, Adam and Eve, the first humans, were put in the Garden of Eden. There, they were tempted by Satan and because they fell into temptation, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Before they left the garden of Eden, God gave this promise to Eve regarding temptation and the devil:  

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 

The King James version states that the “bruise” in its second use actually means “crush.” So what this promise means is, although sin or Satan or bad choices will bruise our heal, we always have the power to crush the head of the serpent (Satan) and overcome those sins. This is best done as we pray for strength, specifically to overcome our weaknesses. As we do that, I know that Heavenly Father will help us overcome our faults. I have seen this in my own life and in the lives of the people around me that I teach. If we are humble and sincere and truly wish to overcome our weaknesses and avoid bad choices, our loving Heavenly Father will, of course, help us.

I love you all and I hope you all work to overcome those things in your lives that need to be changed.

Elder Coleman