Brother Hong where are you going?

I attended Methodist, Presbyterian, and Holiness church before I joined this church. I learned from the Pastors that the Mormon Church is the worst and that I should never associate.

But then I learned that missionaries teach English for free. So I met them.

I met the missionaries to give them hard times rather than with interest in the gospel.

 

I carefully read the booklets the missionaries gave me, but with the intent to challenge and defy. I read and compared the Bible and the booklets. I did to find the parts that are not based on the Bible, all night through.

 

Of course, I didn’t read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants because back then, they were considered to be Devil’s books.

 

Every time we met, I made the lessons difficult. And possibly as a result of it,

I went through three different companionships.

 

I was an investigator who the missionaries found difficult and challenging.

I was a very demanding and arrogant seeker.

 

One of my last missionaries was a veteran missionary with really good Korean who had only two more months in the field before returning home.

I was baptized by his dedicated and inspired teaching.

 

Just before my baptism on January 10th, 1981, on December 31st of 1980, which was before the decision to get baptized was made, I was on my way to a pub with friends for a year-end party. And I thought I would drink happily with friends tonight and no longer attend the church.

As I walked down the street toward the bar, I heard someone calling my name saying, “Aren’t you Brother Hong?”

 

I turned around to see a very short woman who told me that she saw me at the church, and she said, “Brother Hong where are you going?”

I told to her that I was on my way to a pub with friends for a year-end party, but she said that I shouldn’t go and took me to a cafe near and called another church member.

They then took me to the YSA year-end dance held a church building.

I thus avoided the drinking and managed to overcome this could-have been hindrance to my baptism and to my eventual growth in the church.

 

A sister who saw me when at a church meeting reached out, and resultantly I did not fall away from this Church.