Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Baptism
Sorry for the lack of emails lately.
Things are good! The Branch seems to be shrinking a little, as members are moving away. We're hoping to get some less active members back to church though. A team of sister missionaries is now working with us in Bangojin, so we're working together to help some of the members here. Some exciting things are happening.
We've started teaching the son of a member as he is preparing to get baptized this Saturday. He's still eight years old, so he's not our investigator, but his mom still wants us to help him prepare. His Dad is not a member of the Church, but his mom was baptized a few years ago and has taught him a lot. He's a good kid and we're excited for his baptism on Saturday.
General Conference was great! Love, Elder Bocchino
Things are good! The Branch seems to be shrinking a little, as members are moving away. We're hoping to get some less active members back to church though. A team of sister missionaries is now working with us in Bangojin, so we're working together to help some of the members here. Some exciting things are happening.
We've started teaching the son of a member as he is preparing to get baptized this Saturday. He's still eight years old, so he's not our investigator, but his mom still wants us to help him prepare. His Dad is not a member of the Church, but his mom was baptized a few years ago and has taught him a lot. He's a good kid and we're excited for his baptism on Saturday.
General Conference was great! Love, Elder Bocchino
Living By Faith
Spring has arrived in Korea! The cherry blossoms are out, the birds are singing...and the weather is turning hotter. :(
Yesterday we went to Gyeongju (my old stomping grounds) and met with about 10 other missionaries to see the beautiful flowers and trees. It was really fun and we came together as a Zone. Everyone had a great time! I was able to see a few friends I had made in Gyeongju and remember the good times.
This past week, we met with KyungJin (the coffee shop guy). He's doing good! He's really skeptical of organized religion, but has a lot of sincere questions about our beliefs. He was talking about the difference between reading good words in the scriptures and actually having those teachings penetrate your heart. (the difference is the Spirit - we must study in faith and invite the Spirit to testify of the truthfulness of what we're studying). We invited him to read in the Book of Mormon: Alma 32. It's about the test of faith, and how we exercise faith in things which are believed but not seen or known. When we exercise this faith, the Lord blesses us. It is after the trial of our faith that we see the miracles and can receive the witness of the Holy Ghost. That is the pattern established by God. I hope that he can read about that and feel the power of the Spirit. I think we can all exercise more faith and be more believing. We should all live by faith rather than fear. I learned that this past week and will try to apply it! Hooray for learning by the Spirit! :)
Church members and missionaries in Korea will gather this weekend to watch General Conference. It's a week late due to needed translation. I'm excited to hear the teachings and learn from them!
Transfer calls are tonight, so I could get a surprise call to leave Bangojin. That would be sad. We'll see!
13 weeks left! The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Mormons Made Simple
Sorry for not writing last week....it's been a little slow but also kind of busy at the same time.
Two weeks ago, I went on splits for a day with Elder Wells (he's my dongee and is now a ZL here in Ulsan). It was really fun and we shared lots of memories from the MTC. We tried to visit some less active church members and bring them banana bread that Elder Moore and I had made, but they weren't home. Then we visited a man who had randomly approached Elder Murray and I several months ago.
His name is Gyung-Jin and he came up to us one morning and asked if we were "Mormon missionaries". He spoke very good English. He said that he'd read the Book of Mormon and learned a lot about our church from an LDS friend 6 years ago while serving in the Korean military. He remembered a lot of stories from the Book of Mormon and expressed an interest in learning about it again. We kind of put him on the back burner for a few weeks while we got busy with transfers and other things...but luckily, Elder Wells and I were able to visit him. He runs a coffee shop in a busy part of our area. He was very happy to see us and gladly received the Book of Mormon that we gave him. His family was originally Baptist but has become disappointed with the Christian churches in Korea and currently doesn't attend church. He currently is kind of cynical about religion and is not sure what to believe. We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with him, and he invited us to return and talk more. Elder Moore and I returned the other day, and had a great time! I guess that a famous Korean singer committed suicide the other day, so he asked questions about the afterlife. He was asking very in depth questions.....very interesting guy. It's interesting because for every question he asked, I could think of an answer in the Book of Mormon (of course there are similar answers in the Bible as well). That experience strengthened my testimony of the truth that the Book of Mormon answers the questions of our souls.
He told us how he's been pretty skeptical of religion these days, due to some troubling issues in his family over the past year or so. "Then, you guys showed up and started teaching about God" he said. "I think it might be a sign" he added.
Wow, no matter how he accepts the message we teach in the coming weeks, this experience has already strengthened my faith and assured me that the Lord loves us. He loves Gyung-Jin - the coffee shop owner, and He loves me. I know that there are people who are seeking for truth but know not where to find it. He's found it. I just hope he can realize it.
Gyung Jin spent some time studying in China and the U.S., and even spent some time in Portland, OR! (cool huh? we talked about Mt. Hood)
Final note, this site is pretty interesting: "http://mormonsmadesimple.com/". Good, simple explanations. The missionary video gives a good overview of what kind of program I'm in.
The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino
Two weeks ago, I went on splits for a day with Elder Wells (he's my dongee and is now a ZL here in Ulsan). It was really fun and we shared lots of memories from the MTC. We tried to visit some less active church members and bring them banana bread that Elder Moore and I had made, but they weren't home. Then we visited a man who had randomly approached Elder Murray and I several months ago.
His name is Gyung-Jin and he came up to us one morning and asked if we were "Mormon missionaries". He spoke very good English. He said that he'd read the Book of Mormon and learned a lot about our church from an LDS friend 6 years ago while serving in the Korean military. He remembered a lot of stories from the Book of Mormon and expressed an interest in learning about it again. We kind of put him on the back burner for a few weeks while we got busy with transfers and other things...but luckily, Elder Wells and I were able to visit him. He runs a coffee shop in a busy part of our area. He was very happy to see us and gladly received the Book of Mormon that we gave him. His family was originally Baptist but has become disappointed with the Christian churches in Korea and currently doesn't attend church. He currently is kind of cynical about religion and is not sure what to believe. We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with him, and he invited us to return and talk more. Elder Moore and I returned the other day, and had a great time! I guess that a famous Korean singer committed suicide the other day, so he asked questions about the afterlife. He was asking very in depth questions.....very interesting guy. It's interesting because for every question he asked, I could think of an answer in the Book of Mormon (of course there are similar answers in the Bible as well). That experience strengthened my testimony of the truth that the Book of Mormon answers the questions of our souls.
He told us how he's been pretty skeptical of religion these days, due to some troubling issues in his family over the past year or so. "Then, you guys showed up and started teaching about God" he said. "I think it might be a sign" he added.
Wow, no matter how he accepts the message we teach in the coming weeks, this experience has already strengthened my faith and assured me that the Lord loves us. He loves Gyung-Jin - the coffee shop owner, and He loves me. I know that there are people who are seeking for truth but know not where to find it. He's found it. I just hope he can realize it.
Gyung Jin spent some time studying in China and the U.S., and even spent some time in Portland, OR! (cool huh? we talked about Mt. Hood)
Final note, this site is pretty interesting: "http://mormonsmadesimple.com/". Good, simple explanations. The missionary video gives a good overview of what kind of program I'm in.
The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
