Tyler's Mission in Seoul: Week 7

This last week has been a great week of learning to be a better teacher and learning Korean!

Last Thursday we went to the temple and did a sealing session. I've never seen one of these before, so it was an awesome experience. The blessings promised are amazing. My goal for my future investigators is to get them here and to help them understand the blessings the gospel can offer. There's nothing like the joy temple blessings can bring, both in this life and throughout eternity.

A common theme throughout the last week for me, and especially in my prayers, was to stay completely focused on the Lord and on this work that I'm doing. It's so easy to become distracted during the end of a study time or toward the end of a day and not study as efficiently as I should. So I decided to just look at one day at a time. I pray in the morning just to have focus and diligence that day. Throughout the day, I work as hard as I can to focus on studying the language, the scriptures, and Preach My Gospel to learn to be a better teacher. I think about the "investigators" we are currently teaching and how I can help them, and how I can better serve them and the Lord today. Then, when the day is done and I've so clearly seen how the Lord has helped me to be diligent and focused, I end the day with a prayer of deep gratitude. Doing this has made my language skills increase in leaps and bounds. I can construct thoughts and ideas far more easily, and I'm understanding way more of what people are saying. I'm learning so much about how much I can do when I trust in Heavenly Father to help me and how much joy we can receive when were serving Him and others, sparing not a thought for myself.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks talked during our Tuesday devotional this week. He focused on teaching by the Spirit in order to meet an investigator's needs. This is something Elder Cable and I have been focused on improving in our lessons. In our last lesson with Lee Jaeseung (Brother Chandler), we were more focused on what he understand and what he wanted than teaching him another lesson. We were shocked by how differently this went. Lee Jaeseung talked about his parents, and how he wasn't sure he wanted to spend eternity with them because they had never been very focused on him, but rather on their careers. They now spend their time traveling. We weren't sure how to respond at first, but we told him that the Lord could help him with anything, and challenged him to study the Book of Mormon and pray in order to receive answers and help. We also asked him to share the Book of Mormon with his parents. My goal for him is to realize the purpose and joy Heavenly Father's plan can bring us. It seems that his parents are searching for joy and purpose in their own lives, so I hope they recognize that Lee Jaeseung has found it.

It truly amazes me all that we can do in a language that was gibberish just a couple months ago. The Lord really does bless on when we are committed to serving him. I haven't even gone to the field yet, and I already feel like a different person.

Thanks for all your messages! I'm so excited to be leaving for Korea (a week and a half left!).