July 2018

Hello family and friends--- it is me your favorite Elder!  I officially have 3 weeks left until I go home! So this is my 3rd to last email to y'all. This past transfer I have been so busy! It's weird but missionary work has come easy recently. As some of you might know, I posted some baptism pictures on Facebook this week. The lady I baptized is Sister 이세현 --- her English name is Sarah.  I first met Sarah about 5 months ago with Elder Kim. She came to our English class for about 3 weeks and then just randomly one day attended Sacrament meeting. Ever since then she has come to church almost weekly . We started meeting with her outside of church and talking to her about the gospel. We found out that she had been taught 10 years ago by Sister missionaries. 

 

Anyhow, when we started teaching her, her behaviors seemed kind of strange and a bit weird. She had lots of problems in her life but as she continued to attend Sacrament Meeting every week, it looked like she had genuine interest.  Her family was very against her coming to our church and her sister even texted me and told us not to meet with her again! (Yes, Sarah is a grown woman! haha!) 

However, over the past month-and-a-half we have been teaching her lessons and have been helping her overcome her problems through the Gospel. She loves coming to church and the members have done a very good job at fellowshipping her every time she comes. She has lots of new friends and she feels very happy and loved in our ward. She was a little nervous and scared to get baptized because she has issues with being under water, but I reassured her and told her that I would be holding on to her and promised that  she would not drowned! She is a very nice lady and very cute and innocent.

Next week we have another baptismal date planned for Sunday. Her  name is 정겨운 Jeong Gyo Oon  and she was taught by the sister missionaries about 1 year ago and had a baptism date set but when the day came, she got scared and never went to the church. Well she came back about a month later and said she wanted to get baptized and she was sorry for not getting baptized before. She ended up doing the same thing the second time and left the day of the baptism AGAIN! A 3rd time she said she wanted to get baptized, we told her that she had to wait about 5 weeks and if she attends church every week that she could get baptized. We have been meeting with her every  week and she's progressing very well. This Wednesday she will have a baptism interview with our Mission President and if he thinks she is ready,  she will be baptized this Sunday. Will you all please pray that she'll be able to overcome her concerns and fears and go through with the baptism on Sunday? She was able to see Sarah get baptized last week so hopefully that helped ease her  worries. 

This has been a great week! I love this gospel and it can bless and CHANGE everyone's life if they allow it!

Love you all

Elder Stagg