About a month ago my dad got an e-mail from one of his mission companions who is currently a mission president in Korea. He asked my dad about a woman who thought my dad had baptized her while he was on his mission in Korea and she wanted to get in contact with him. My dad okay'd the release of information and soon heard from Sister Koo. He didn't recognize the name at first but after some more information he started to remember. After more information my parents found out that her husband was a general authority so they were coming to Salt Lake for general conference. Sister Koo wanted to see my dad and so my parents came to Salt Lake for conference. (Now this has a double bonus for me because it means homemade cinnamon rolls for me....not that everything is about me...) Before they came up my parents went through the cedar chest in our house and dad got a good reminiscing moment with all of his mission things. One of the most treasured things he found was a Bible he had everyone that was baptized while he was a missionary sign. He looked and found Sister Koo's name and then was sure that he had in fact baptized her.
Friday afternoon was the day appointed to meet with Sister Koo. I picked up my parents at my sister's house in Farmington and we headed to the Marriott Hotel in downtown SLC. There have been very few times where I have seen my dad get this nervous/anxious/excited. It was pretty cool. When my mom saw her in the lobby I felt such a surge of joy. When she saw my dad both of their faces lit up. My dad doesn't look much like he did when he served a mission so I think she had a hard time recognizing him at first. In the e-mails she talked about the sparkle my dad had in his eye and once she saw that I think she knew.
It was an amazing experience to see my dad relive part of his mission. Being the youngest, I didn't hear much about his mission. It was so far away from the time I was born. I had looked in the cedar chest a few times and seen the things in there and sometimes he would tell stories about how he only had to knock on 7 doors his whole mission and he got in every single one. He never said much about the people who had come to the church because he taught them. In that moment I felt so proud of my dad and his decision to serve a mission. After Sister Koo was baptized the rest of her family was baptized (her brother was a member before she was). She then helped fellowship her future husband's family into the church. Elder Choi (her husband) is a member of the area 70 in North Asia.
On Sunday we were able to go to a fireside that the Korean ward in Provo had for all of the Korean General Authorities. I didn't understand much of it seeing as it was in Korean and sometimes the translation wasn't the best but the Spirit was amazing. Sister Koo pointed out my dad (it was a bit of a delay because of the translation....kind of a funny moment) and you could see those missionary feelings come back into his heart.
I am so grateful I was able to experience this with my parents. My dad talked about how as a missionary he didn't have the ability to really keep up with the people he taught. It's not like today where everyone has facebook and can contact you. Sister Koo looked for "her missionary" for 40 years. The timing of her finding him couldn't have been better. Everyone likes to know they've done something to help someone else. Truly a once in a lifetime experience!!!
1 comment:
What an amazing story! Thank you for sharing.
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