Dear Family, friends, loved ones,
Week one in Daejeon! What a ride, huh? It has been pretty
crazy week. and I'm not sure what to write so I'll just backtrack and see what
my fingers pump out of this here keyboard.
So our transfer meeting was Thursday in Daejeon at the
church next door to the mission office. This past transfer was a big one. The
group that went home was pretty big and President felt really impressed to
change a lot of companionships. Like half of the companionships in the mission
had change-ups. And with some many older, experienced missionaries heading
home, the lot has fallen to a lot of younger missionaries like myself to fill
some leadership positions. My zone this transfer has all new district leaders
and lots of young missionaries. Like, I'm still young and I have almost twice
as much mission experience as our sisters in the district. Luckily Sister Lee
is American-Korean so the language isn't a big deal. Our other sister, Sister
Pahler is from some small province in the Philippines. Some small island in the
sea. Elder Johnson in the other companionship is my younger 동기
(I'm not sure what the true English equivalent to that word is...younger MTC
District?? Yeah, the jury is still out.) and is a senior over Elder Young.
Elder Young is nice. He's from Ohio. And he kind of reminds me of Dudley from
the Harry Potter books. But Dudley from the end of the series when he warms up
and puts the tea outside Harry's door to wish him goodbye. Hmmm, I'm not sure
if I'm painting the perfect picture. . . I'll just send pics in an ensuing
email, tell ya a 1000 words, ok, sounds good.
Elder Hernandez. What a guy!
I love my new comp. And I need to publicly apologize. It turns out that
he is from Honduras. NOT Guatemala. Though he likes Guatemala. But not Mexico.
Ok, I had to straighten that out. But he really is the best. He is like my very
own gordito burrito Hispanic friend!
And really quite smart. Korean is his
fourth language because he's fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. His
English really is quite good, especially considering he only studied it in
elementary school. Let's just say the gift of tongues is real! Amazingly few
number of communication difficulties. At least in the last four days^^. He is a
convert of two years and is fantastic! I'm not really sure how they do things
over in the Central America region, but they do it right! Elder Hernandez's mom
and brother were members and Elder Hernandez was a minister for the evangelical
church. (Pretty crazy. He was a minister for three years, and he was baptized
at 19. Anyways.. moving on) One day his Mom was pretty sick and couldn't take
herself to church to Elder Hernandez offered to take her. He went and they were
super late for sacrament meeting. Like they got there at the "amen"
of the last talk. He stayed to sing the hymn, then some cute old lady got up to
give the benediction and prayed for FIFTY minutes! I think my South American friends have more
patience than I. Super long prayer. And Elder Hernandez didn't know what to
think but decided to stay. And stay he did! He liked the block and was baptized
two weeks later! I don't know his entire story yet but I imagine it's pretty
eventful because at five months of membership he was called to the high
council. So he was a high councilor for several months and actually went all up
and down South America on church business. My favorite tid bit was when he went
to Cuba to be a chauffeur and translator for my friend Jeffrey R. Holland. Yep,
mom you did read that correctly! Elder Hernandez appreciated my bound
"Best Talks of Elder Holland" book and I appreciated his picture of
Elder Holland hanging on our wall. Elder Holland is the best! He told Elder
Hernandez to serve a mission and....fast forward several months....he got
called to Korea! So I guess Elder Hernandez is the first missionary from South
America to ever serve in Asia. Ever. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool too.
I'll share more details forth-ward.
Another highlight of serving with Elder Hernandez is that
one of our investigators Enrique is taught in Spanish and Emanuel is taught in
Portuguese. And then we also get to teach our friend John who is from
..Nigeria?? We teach him with one of our ward members, Anthony, who is from
Kenya. It has been a pretty international weekend. And the weekend was great
because we had Stake Conference! Elder Whiting from the Seventy came and his
talk was very pointed and so great! He taught so well and so clearly! The
spirit was very strong. Actually, I'll
refer back to him for my 2.0.
I love my new area. It is very big, and very new and I feel
like I'm in over my head, but all is well. I really feel and know that the Lord
is with me. He is backing me up and helping me to so his work. My district is
very young and there is a lot of pressure for us to have baptisms this
transfer, essentially to do the work of missionaries twice our age. Sounds nigh
near impossible. That's why I love God. For things which are impossible unto
man are not impossible unto God! That is the truth. But if any of you have a
minute you should check out SeJong on the web. It is huge! And beautiful. My
area is the largest geographically in the mission and there is so much that is
beautiful here! I love the Lord and am excited for this opportunity!
2.0
So Elder Whiting's question posed to the congregation was
"what is the one gift you would give you posterity when you pass
away?" varied answers may include "a prosperous future", "a
great education", "a great job". These would be very common
answers in Korea. But Elder Whiting shared the story of the Savior's visit in
America and there we learn what the "most desired" gift should be. It
is the gift of the Holy Ghost! He said it and I went like "...Yeah, ok,
that makes sense that that would be the correct answer, but why?!" It is
because the Gift of the Holy ghost is central to it all! It testifies of truth,
the Holy Spirit of Promise is what secures for us the promised blessing of
heaven and covenant. It is the Holy Ghost that will comfort us and will bring
the love of God unto and into our hearts. That is the truth! That is the most
precious gift! And we each have the ability and opportunity to receive it each
and every day!
I love that! And I love the symbolism he shared with the
signs of Jesus' birth and death. When Jesus was born there was a day and a
night and a day of light., continual light! and when He died there was a day
and a night and a day of darkness. In our lives when we are reborn with Christ,
when we truly live up to our covenants then we can continually live in the
light. When we are resurrected we will come forth with our families to forever
enjoy the light of the Lord. And if we fail to heed, we will be alone in the
darkness. I choose the former. I love all of you and I love this gospel! I know
that is it true! I testify of that.
In all things, Onward and Upward!
Elder Tucker
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| me with the best convert in the world, Anna!~ |