Yeah so I had a whole email written out to send, but for some reason, it didn't save as a draft on my iPad and now I don't have the time to write out what I had written. So I apologize, that I don't have time to send much of an email. It's been a crazy week. We moved apartments, we hosted a branch FHE activity, we had Zone Conference and we had to set up, attend, and clean up for a funeral. We didn't have much time to do actual missionary work which is unfortunate, because we needed to meet with a lot of referrals and potential investigators.
I am also convinced that I need to learn Korean faster than I am, because I was trying to tell the Korean lady cutting my hair that I wanted to cut my hair short on the sides, but not shaved, but she didn't understand apparently. She pretty much did anything, but what I thought I was telling her, so if I don't learn Korea before my next haircut in 6 months by the time my hair is back, I am going to have a rough one. It's funny looking back at it, but when I first saw my hair fall off, I had a panic attack. I just want to be able to tell the people what the Spirit wants me to be able to tell them. Right now, I feel held back by what I should be able to say. I want to be able to talk to everyone I see, but all they see is a white guy who doesn't speak their language rambling on in some attempt at Korean. On the bright side, the branch members all speak English (not that they use it when talking to me), but I hear them talking to their kids in it all the time. So at least when I offend them on accident and then start apologizing in English, they know that I am trying to say sorry.
We have been making some serious progress with one of our investigators Li. He is actually Chinese, but he is moving forward quickly and has a sincere desire to know if the church is true. He doesn't know if there is a God, but wanted to see proof of our church, over the course of a few lessons, we have taught him, and he is progressing. In his prayers he asks to know whether or not he should follow science and reason, or if he should believe in God out of faith. He is going to church next week and is continuing to meet with us. We are really excited about him. Our investigator Cathy, is hard to get ahold of, and didn't meet with us this week. So that was a bummer, but we will see what happens.
My whole life, I have thought that missionaries were perfect, then a few days ago, I had a realization. I sat there after Zone Conference and was thinking “Missionaries are so great. Any time I see them, they have the Spirit so strong." Then I realized that I was a missionary and my mindset changed and I realized something. Because I am a missionary, and am anything but perfect, that means that not all missionaries can be perfect. I am so far from perfect, but that is what is amazing. God uses imperfect things and brings about great things through them. I may be new in the mission field, but I have already seen miracle after miracle and I know that all those good things, are from God. He loves us, and even though it has to be tiresome to deal with us as imperfect as we are, he still works with us, helping us to be more than we are. I love being a missionary. For me, there is no better place to be than here in New Jersey. This mission is where I am supposed to be, and I don't know why yet, but God does and I will do my best to let him turn me into who he wants me to be. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Sorry that my email got deleted so I don't have time to send one out with all that I did have, but that's just how life works. Until next week!
-Elder Jacob Nickerl
P.S. Here is a couple pictures really quick and then I need to go. Here is the neighborhood area we live in. It's really pretty. Then this is Elder Owens and I making 김밥 (keembap). This was our branch FHE meeting. I didn't get any pictures of the branch. Hopefully next week. And then the last picture was us eating with our investigator Alex.
No comments:
Post a Comment