Filled with Love

So this last week Sister Capener and I managed to run into like every bible basher or 전도사 (jeondo-sa) that we possibly could. 전도사 means "gospel preaching person" and there are a lot of them on the streets. We share the street with a ton of other churches, and for some reason they really like to pick on the Mormons. The funny thing is, I don't know why they like picking on us. As soon as they start trying to fight with us, my Korean flies out the door. Mostly because well, I don't wanna fight. And I can pull the "I am a foreigner and can't speak Korean" card if I have to. Anyway, they like to talk to us and try to fight with us, even though it is pretty clear we are not Korean and can't understand half of what they say. But the first time we were attacked this week, I was just super kind to them. I answered all their questions that included things like "Where are you from? Where do you live now? How long have you been in Korea?" They tried to get me to come into their church house but I kindly told them we had to go. I apologized for having to leave quickly but told them thank you for talking to us and to have a good day. The funny thing is, while we were trapped by 전도사s there were a lot of people watching us, and I think they were impressed at how we handled it. Rather than fighting, we chose to be kind. I mean Jesus wouldn't choose to fight, so why should we?

The second encounter we had with a 전도사 was with our investigator. This 전도사 was a Jehovah's Witness who literally popped out of now where. We were outside playing with our investigator's dog at a playground when this lady just came up to us. She asked us where we were from and handed us an English pamphlet. I read the name of the church and sighed a bit. There are Jehovah's Witnesses every where in Korea I swear. I thought to myself, "no.. not in front of our investigator." For some reason though, I had an idea. Why not just try and relate to this lady? So I asked her how it was talking to people on the streets, if it was hard or not. I told her it is hard for us too and that we get rejected a lot. I told her that all we are trying to do was share Christ's love. She went with it really well for a while, and the spirit was strong. I then brought up Christmas and the lady decided that that was the turning point. She freaked out and said that Christmas wasn't Christ's actual birthday and that we shouldn't celebrate it. I told her that it was just a special time to remember Christ. This is when the miracle happened. Our investigator came up to us and looked at the lady. She said "I am not Mormon. But I believe in the same Christ that these two girls do. And we all know that Christ wasn't actually born on December 25th. But that is an unimportant detail, and Christmas is just a special time to remember Him." She then went on to testify about her beliefs and defend our own. She was INCREDIBLE. I was so proud of her! The Jehovah's Witness lady walked away after that. And I said a prayer for her in my heart. I knew that she was just trying to share her beliefs as we are, but it is hard to go up against the truth of the gospel.

After this encounter, we sat down on a bench with our investigator. We had been teaching her about the Holy Ghost these past few weeks, and she had a moment of revelation. I asked her if what the lady had said did anything to change what she believed. She said "No, words can't change what I believe. I believe what I believe because of what I feel." Then she realized that that feeling was the Holy Ghost, and that only God, through the Holy Ghost, can change what she believes. We had a super deep talk about the Holy Ghost and about Christ and His love for everyone.

Which leads me to why I named this email, "Filled with Love." Both times we encountered people fighting against us, I felt a huge amount of love for these people. Because of that love, I didn't fight with them, but was rather kind to them. I didn't want them to walk away feeling like they had won, or that we had won, but rather wanted them to walk away and say, "Wow, those Mormons were so nice." I never thought I would love someone who wanted to fight against me. But I have felt it. And that is why and how Heavenly Father loves all His children. I imagine this is how He feels towards those who rebel against Him. Heavenly Father loves even those who rebel.

That being said, we still shouldn't rebel against Him. Haha. Anyway, love you all and miss you always! I am excited to skype with you next week! :)

Love, Sister Maughan