Date: 12/05/92
The publication of a collection of personal histories of the early members of the Church in Korea has been hadded to the historical record of the Church.

The collection, Early Korean Saints, was published in Korea this year and contains some 825 pages of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of missionaries, members and leaders from the 1950s to the 1980s.

The histories were compiled by Spencer J. and Shirley J. Palmer and will eventually be translated into English.

According to Brother Palmer, a former mission and temple president in Korea, this is the first collection of its kind in the Church. Its value, he said, is that it is a comprehensive work that accurately reflects the Korean perspective.

A number of examples include the suffering of the people. Kim Ki Yong, a son of a Protestant minister in North Korea, related his traumatic and inspirational story:

At the beginning of World War II, he was drafted into military service by the Japanese government in Korea. He was captured in Manchuria and became a Russian prisoner of war for four years. The temperature would sometimes drop to 30 degrees below zero, and he was forced to subsist on a small piece of bread for three or four days. “I often prayed for the Lord to save my life. The only purposes I had in life were to see my parents, my brothers, my friends, and serve the Lord.”

He was released from the POW camp and returned to North Korea. In 1950, he and his family traveled as refugees to South Korea in a fishing boat. He studied English and years later contacted LDS missionaries to help him learn the language. Brother Kim soon realized that he believed most of the messages the missionaries taught him. Because of his experiences during the war, he felt that he had been guided by inspiration through much of his life, and inspiration led him to join the Church. He has since served in many responsibilities, including that of stake patriarch.

The difficulty of conversion is related in the life story of Chung Bok Dong, baptized in 1960:

“Foreigners can never fully understand how difficult it is for young [KoreanT people to counter the traditions and beliefs of their parents. . . .

“One day I mustered up the courage to approach my father regarding my new-found faith. I asked him if I could join, and he simply replied, ‘No. No, and don’t bother me again about this. . . .’

“So before we approached my father again we held heartfelt prayer and fasting. When I spoke to my father this time he said he noticed something different in my appeal. He said my attitude and determination were somehow different. To my surprise, and without much further discussion, Father said, ‘You can join. . . .’ ”

The Book of Mormon was a powerful influence in the lives of the early converts.

Early convert Cho Joong Hyun recalled, “I received the Book of Mormon as a gift and it raised pestering questions. . . . Several times I entered the forest and prayed sincerely on my knees.

“I wanted God to appear to me the same way He did to Joseph Smith, if He did, to let me know if the Book of Mormon is the Lord’s. But He did not. However, after a while, He let me know it was His through a different method. While I was reading the Doctrine and Covenants in the Ch’unch’on City Library, the Lord’s Spirit spoke to me in a small clear voice that shook my breast, saying ‘This is mine.’ I was surprised and shed many tears. . . .

“[LaterT I ordered 20 copies of the Book of Mormon from the publisher, made a display case, and went out on the streets to try to distribute them to the people.”

LDS Church News, Deseret News.  1988-1998. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company