안녕하세요!!

안녕하세요!! 

Korea is great as always, the winter has been so mild, spring has definitely come early. 

The new transfer is in full swing and we have so much good time to proselyte! 

Last week we were able to go out and do a lot of street contacting. Of course there are those that don't accept the message but to raise my voice in Korean and testify of Christ is one of the greatest if not the greatest experience ever. 

This week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Rhodes (i think you met his mom or what not but we came to Korea together). During the exchange we just did amazing things! Miracles were everywhere! We met with 3 people and picked them up as new investigators, and had quite a few street lessons. The best part was as we worked together the spirit filled our hearts with even more desire and fire and we literally ran from place to place, person to person. The work just never stops! I love it!

 And I LOVE that my family, YOU are all involved with it at home. Listening to the miracles that our family is having in missionary work truly gives me great strength. I have prayed countless times in behalf of you asking the Lord to keep you in safe hands and out of harms way. He has answered my Prayers, he gave you the greatest spiritually protective blessing of doing missionary work! I love you all so much and I hope you know, that I know, that you are truly in the hands of the Lord. 

Love, Elder Kaufusi

PS: answers: MOM...yes I got my license thank you so much for doing all that. Nothing better than a picture of a 12  year old, (at least thats what I look like in my picture) with the measurements of 6'10 250 lb... haha classic. and Yes I got your package that came with the license a couple weeks ago, so I am super happy as always.

Hello

Mother...you get mad at me for short emails!!!!??? Just kidding 

I appreciate you taking the time to email me. Dad made up with his amazing sermon from stake conference.  It's always a blessing to hear from everyone in the family! 

Here in Korea we are seeing a lot of miracles. 

One happened not exactly to me but to a missionary i know. 

he was having some hard times and up till this point in his mission he had wanted to go home multiple times. We are decently close and so for 2 days I was on exchanges with him last weekend. For those two days I prayed so hard for him, that the Lord might use me as a tool to allow the spirit to be felt in his life. Spiritually this Elder just was dying and did not want the gospel in his life. He was allowing himself to be lead into the mists of darkness and thought that returning to the great and spacious buildings is what he wanted in eternity. 

It was very stressful and Truly sad to see a fellow servant of the Lord in this position. 

During our exchanges we talked a lot about his decision to go home and pursue the things of the world. The end of the first night, I felt that I had spoken a lot and shared many experiences that he could learn from, but he still wasn't changing. 

I went to the Lord in earnest pray and just asked, "Lord what should I do? I have no idea, I will do whatever is asked of me if you will just ask me." The thought came to me that I should just bare simple plain pure testimony to him. The next morning we had another talk and as the thought came to me to bare testimony i followed, and bore strict testimony of God and Jesus Christ, their love for him and desire for him to return. By the end we were silent and continued to sit. We watched a mormon message and then he turned to me and said, "It's too bad, I think that I wanted to stay for a second back there." I knew that the spirit touched him, but it wasn't enough. 

However, He had an interview with president, his stake president and his father, yet he still was set on leaving. I coudn't understand, I thought that surely someone's words would touch his heart. I couldn't believe that after hearing everything he was still set on going home. I prayed again but the feeling that came was that it would be ok and that the lord's will would be accomplished. That night he prayed to God and in desperation asked for a witness that he was needed on a mission. The next day he got a call from someone random person asking to learn English. They said yes, but the person said that he wanted to meet with them immediately. After church they met with him and he told them how he had a sister that was baptized into the church and that him and his children want to have the same things his sister had obtained. He asked if he could learn of the Gospel and come to church from then on out. This elder couldn't believe his ears, truly the Lord had sent a sign to him. He told us that evening that he was willing to stay and that he gained a witness that God was there and that he needed to become the missionary the Lord needed. It was a miracle. To see and hear this Elder find/remember the Lord. I didn't know how it would turn out, but I do know that constant prayer and faith in the Lord saved my brother from spiritual darkness. Well That was  a Long story/miracle but it truly was amazing. 

Love you family!

Love Elder Kaufusi

Service of the Lord

Another amazingly packed week here in the Korean vineyard.

 The biggest Korean holiday of the year was this last week so we held a massive conference and My companion and I had to do language progress evaluations with like 13 people and they each take about 1 hour and a half so I got to talk with a lot of missionaries. It's always such a faith building experience to hear the testimonies of these amazing missionaries and see them progress in korean but more importantly spiritually. It was good. The transfer is next week and we finished calling and telling everyone everything last night. 

It's neat to see the hand of the Lord just reach down and make things happen every transfer. Going on transfer 4 with my companion. We are super excited! Hope everyone is doing ok. 

I love it here and don't know if I'll fit in back home. I think I should just stay here for a while... Anyways I love you all so much, and I know the Lord lives and Loves you too! 

Love Your Living Son, Brother,

Elder Kaufusi

Last weeks email

Sorry got caught up in doing transfers with President so couldn't email till right now. Not a lot of time, there's always more to be doing but I'll give you a sweet miracle that happened this week. 

We had this investigator named go-joon-hyoung and he was picked up before I got here. Anyways when he first had a baptismal date everything was great, he did the interview and was prepared. However, when we went to call his mom who lives 4 hours away she denied. He wasn't able to get baptized and it was a pretty big deal and everyone was so sad. 

He felt really embarrassed and didn't come out to church for a couple weeks. In fact, he didn't even meet with us for a couple weeks. We had tried to meet up with him, but it just never ended up happening. well after a couple weeks rolled by he started to come to church again to see his good friends in the ward. then he started going to activities. However, when we asked if we could meet he still was too busy. Finally last week we met with him and had dinner and talked. We originally didn't want to bring up baptism with him because we were afraid that it would be too much for him, but the Lord helped us and we talked about it. His response to baptism was that he felt more ready now then ever, and that he would truly put a great effort into persuading his mom. 

We ended up hearing him talk to his mom and it was amazing. He didn't shy away, he told her what baptism was and that it wasn't the same as sprinkling (his mom is catholic), and the spirit worked on her and said it was ok. That very week we had his baptism and it was a great meeting. I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to see the Lord's omnipotent hand in this work!

I've been here the longest i've been anywhere in my entire mission, and i've been with my companion the longest I've been with anyone. We are going on 4 transfers together (6months). We are going to make this last transfer explode and we will bring down so many miracles it will be unbelievable! 

Love you all so much!

Elder Kaufusi 

HELLLLLOOOOO MY FAMILY

Well Thanks for the Emails, great to hear that no one is hurt and what not. Sister Christensen (president's wife) said that she saw that a Kaufusi in salt lake died in the paper last week or something. Do you know who it is? 

The work is going great, We have had a great week of zone conferences but also proselyting! I went to the east coast and walked along the ocean with president and my companion one morning. It was so cool. We stayed in a hotel and it was like a family vacation! It's about a 3 and a half hour drive so we packed into presidents car and went over there. The conference went well, I'm so grateful for the misssionaries that I get to serve with. THey are inspiring.  THat night we drove back. I of course grabbed a whole lot of sea shells and a bottle of sand. 

A miracle we had this week was yesterday, sunday, we had some appointments and they all went well. That night I went to my old ward's mission leader's house and had dinner and shared a message using some of the sea shells. But the big miracles came when during the dinner my companion just let out a "YES!" and it was a text from our recent converts girlfriend. She is great and we were teaching her the lessons and she had a baptismal date but then her uncle said a lot of bad things about our church and her parents banned her from coming to our church. It was heart breaking. She was doing so well. Well the text she sent during dinner was that she persuaded her parents and from now on she will be able to go to church! HUGE MIRACLE! The Lord truly softened the hearts of her parents and strengthened her faith to be bold. Also we were on the way home last night and I saw this kid just smoking off the side of the road and I just got that feeling that he needed to be talked to. I went and introduced myself and started talking. we came to find that he had been to our church with his friend but because of work and things he was unable to continue. We asked him if he attended a church and he said, "yeah, yours, i used to go every week." Then he told us that he wasn't baptized. Now we will start meeting with him and help him to progress to baptism and lifelong membership! It was such a miracle. All it took was just the smallest hesitation and I would have missed talking to this prepared kid. But I know that the Lord was leading us. Im so grateful for this work, it is the greatest! 

I LOVE YOU ALL.

If there's anything that I can do for you let me know. 

Love,

ELder Kaufusi

Quick

Momma,

This one really will be short! We get a P-day today and I MUST WEAR the clothes you sent me for christmas! I Love them soooooo much and just everything. Such an amazing year of christmas. I believe the whole mission had a good time both temporally and spiritually at our big conference. Anyways, I loved hearing from you all. Continue to be the amazing perfect family that I love so dearly, and I know the Lord will bless you!

Funny experience of the day: I broke another pullup bar....it hurt...

Spiritual experience: I was able to go to a ward i served in and see to little girls that I originally picked up as investigators get baptized. It was such a spiritually uplifting time and I cried so many tears of happiness for them. Seeing the ward members and that they remembered me was also a sweet blessing. 

I Love this work. !!!!

Love, Elder Kaufusi

Off to the Airport

Going to the AIRPORT! 

Not because I'm coming home right now MOM gosh....don't get your hopes up, but because we are going to get the new missionaries right now! Just thinking about them and the MTC spirit that fills korea when they step off the plane is making my heart beat so fast! I love the opportunity I have to take part in the first moments of these new missionaries' missions. It's such a blessing to me, if they only knew how much they mean to me, our mission, and most importantly the Lord. 

Anyways, I'm sorry to hear about the death of grandpa. I didn't know him very well, but I know that if he didn't exists I wouldn't have the amazing Mother or life I have now so I'm grateful for the role he played. I often think about the idea of forgiveness and as the scriptures say we must forgive others if we are to be forgiven. 

A random thought I had early in my mission was, "had I forgiven everyone?" As I was praying I thought of Grandpa Illyn and realized that even though I didn't know him or what not, i held this grudge in my heart against him because my grandpa was not like all my friends grandpas. I remember that night I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to forgive me of my hardened heart, and as the Saviors atonement took over I was able to feel that sweet peace that comes from turning my will over to God. I pray that in the next life Grandpa Illyn will find the mercy and love of the Savior again.

 

This week has been busy with transfers and everything. Slept in my suit last night. Greatest feeling ever!!!!! Love seeing the Lord's work move forward here in this part of the Kingdom. 

Sounds like the family is doing well. I pray that you will all seize the opportunities this Christmas to testify of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nothing brings the spirit quite like missionary work! 

Love you Family and I will call sometime... on Christmas...our time is always...changing so I can't tell  you exactly when yet. 

Thanks for everything I have my box sitting under my little christmas tree that I found in an old missionary house. Love you!

Elder Kaufusi

PS

Tell Jared that he can live at our house in 6 months with me and we can continue our missionary work together!!!! really though tell him that he better wait for me. If another one of my brothers gets married while I am on my mission then i might just stay here and be a missionary forever!!

메리 크리스마스‏‏

Hello Family! 

Sounds like you had another great week! I love hearing the great stories and experiences that you send! Here in Korea, things are going on! The season is getting very busy. 

We have transfers next week so we spent about 7 hours in president's office today. I'm so grateful to labor with such a spiritual leader like President Christensen. 

As for a miracle that happened this week. I was doing something called "passoff/language progress program," It's just a language program that we have all the missionaries go through to help them stay focused and progress faster. The last thing they do before they "passoff" is meet with us here at the office and we go over things and do some roleplays and evaluate them. It's not only a great opportunity to help these elder's in the language but also to come to know them personally and spiritually grow through sharing testimony. I was with an Elder that I actually have been pretty close with, I was his first exchange when he got to korea about 5 months ago. Anyways, I was able to talk to him and ask him some questions. He began to tell me of some concerns and I had the opportunity to give him a small training, share some things I learned in personal studies and bear testimony. It was interesting, Everything that I had studied and had been pondering about lately seemed to fit this situation. As I talked to him his attitude changed. I bore testimony of his sacred calling, the Savior, and the Love that is required to overcome difficulties and walk in meekness and humility. When I finished talking he looked at me and with great humility thanked me, and presumed to tell me that he had been pretty worried lately but that the things I said were an answer to his questions and his prayers.

 I was and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be put in situations were I can be a tool for the Lord. I know like Ammon that as to my own strength I am nothing, but to be strengthened and led by the Lord is one of the most humbling and joyful experiences. 

How I love the Lord. 

At this time of celebration I hope that we all might look for opportunities to be tools in the Lord's hand. Be worthy and prepared to seize these experiences and feel/share of God's Love.

Love,

Elder Kaufusi

PS: I got out of President's office and to my great surprise there was this massive box on my desk!?! Thank you so much! Most blessed missionary in the World!!!