Faith, Prepared kids, and a lot of heat... Closing off another in Ilsan! August 14, 2016

 Morning everyone! Wishing you all a happy anniversary today... What of? Korean independence! Korea today celebrates its liberation from Japanese colonization shortly following World War 2.

So the atmosphere in Korea today is a lively one!

But as for the events of this past week here in Korea Seoul, our team has been starting to find lots of tender mercies as we set appointments to teach lessons at an accelerating rate to prepare ourselves for this coming week! It seems like God is trusting us with some of His prepared children to work with this coming week.

However, not all appointments are alike. This week, for instance, we set an appointment with, we thought, a nice kid we met by the lake and talked with for a bit, who we couldn't get a phone number from but we gave him a card with our number on it. So we go down there with high expectations, but soon we find that it wasn't him, but a middle-aged woman working as a missionary from a rather infamous church here in Korea. We quickly left the situation, with a warning from president not to work with people of that religion.

But later on, we were able to meet with Eliot and help him work on his commitment to live the Word of Wisdom. It went really well and we gave him a new baptismal date for the 2nd of November (which gives him enough time to quit entirely)!

And just yesterday, we left a ward gathering early because we felt like there were prepared people outside, and as the dinner had ended it wasn't too big of a deal to step out. So me and my companion go out to talk to people, and we find not one, but two really prepared kids on the street! One doesn't have a phone, but we're meeting with the other one on Wednesday to teach the Restoration!

And lastly, Transfers are in, and me and Elder Conley are to stay together in Ilsan! However, the other elders out here will be closing their area and combining it with ours as they move out to other areas. So we'll have a lot more people to talk about next week!

Thanks for reading my long email, and I'll close it off with a quick thought.

This week I learned that the principle of faith not only means faith in Christ, as important and essential as that is. It also includes faith in yourself. You have to believe that you, with God's help, are able to accomplish anything, and that you can do the things that God expects of you. Then, when you are weak or cannot go any farther, having faith in Christ allows you to have confidence in the future, and that things will all work out.

Love you all, and I'll talk to you next week!

~Elder Skinner