Hi! It's Me!

FAMILY!!! HI! How's it going?? Good, me too. 

I am slightly worried that August is almost over with...time goes by sooo fast! (though I have to admit I am extremely excited for fall and cooler weather!!) I have actually been having nightmares about it!  This past week I have had a couple dreams about me being home.  I don't know why I had to go home early, and no one knew either, all I knew is that I was there and I was heartbroken.  I knew that I needed to still be in Korea and that I needed to finish my mission!! Really though, I was devastated in my dream! But luckily I would wake up and realized I was still in Korea, still in the country that has taken my heart completely.

This past week was the first time I realized how much the Korean culture has affected me...if I come back weird, I'm sorry! haha This last week my companion and I had a dinner appointment with the American family that lives in our ward.  The dad works for Exxon and is working in Ulsan with Hyundai.  Anyhow, we got the invite and my companion and I were SO excited!!  First, when we walked into their apartment I was greeted with a strange smell... it smelled like America! haha That night for dinner Sister Priedman cooked lasagna!!  It. Was. So. Good.  So we SAT at a table with a table cloth and we had napkins!  The table was set with forks and knifes and the food consisted of ONLY the main dish, salad, and bread.  SO STRANGE!! haha THEN on top of that I struggled with trying not to speak Konglish (KOR-ENG) and I had completely forgotten the words "will you please pass" (sorry mom, I know you must be in shock right now).  I am rather glad that is wasn't spaghetti, so I didn't have to show off my nearly perfected slurping skills.  haha 

I hadn't realized how much i have changed... It was rather funny.  I am so used to sitting on floors with short tables that are jammed packed with side dishes that you just reach for with your chopsticks to add to the only thing that is personal, your rice bowl.  The dinner was delicious though, and they really spoiled us with the American cuisine. 

This week my companion and I were able to find 2 more investigators. One is the mother-in-law of a lady in our branch, and the other is the guard of the apartment complex of a Less Active member we have been visiting.  I am extremely excited to continue teaching the both of them.  The grandmother is so kind.  When we taught her we began teaching her about God being her Heavenly Father, but she stopped us mid sentence and said that she wanted to learn how to pray!! She has little to no religious background, but she knows the beliefs of her son and his family (they are in our ward) and she is finally ready to see for herself if these things are true.  She has always heard their prayers and she wanted to be able to pray on her own.

The Guard is a sweet older man. We pass by and talk to him every time we go and visit our LA and he is always grateful to have someone to talk to for a bit. After trying to meet the LA this past week, we stopped by and talked to him again.  Soon the conversation turned to the gospel.  What started as a simple conversation turned into us teaching him about our purpose, the purpose of life (Alma 34:32) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  During our conversation we found out that he has been looking for a church to join since his wife passed away.  Today we are going to go see him again and we will be teaching him the Plan of Salvation.  I am SO excited to be able to testify to him that God has a plan for all of His children, and that he will be able to see his darling wife again.  I definitely have a good feeling about this next meeting. 

Overall this week was really great!! We taught our last lesson to Sister Yang in preparation for her baptism THIS SATURDAY!!! I am soooo thrilled for her.  It’s kind of a bummer because she is moving to another branch (same district) but she'll be baptized in our area and then she'll officially be theirs.  Because she has been investigating for so long, she will already have friends in that area and they are soo excited to welcome her into the branch. 

This past Sunday was District Conference and we had our own General Authority visit. Elder Yamashita (spelling? Again, I only know it in Korean) come and spoke with us and it was wonderful!! His English was wonderful, so instead of going from Japanese to Korean to English he just had a Korean translator.  His talk was wonderful though.  He shared the story about Lambert the Sheepish Lion, explaining that this lion cub had grown up amongst the sheep and he thought of himself as one of them.  One night, as the howls of the enemy wolf drew closer to the flock, the lion cub felt something stir within him.  He started running towards the foe, and as he ran to save those he loved and stop this dreaded enemy, he realized who he was and who he could become.  He was a lion and he was stronger then his enemy.  Then Elder Yamashita asked a question of all of us.  He asked us if we were the lion or the sheep in this story.  I hope that we can be the lion in our lives.  I hope that we can recognize within ourselves the roaring lion of courage that can defeat it's enemy and protect those he loves.  I also think that because the lion had love is his heart, love for those who he thought to be his family, he was able to recognize the potential within himself.  Love truly conquers all; yeah it's a little cliché, but I still think it's correct =]

Thanks for all the love and letters!!
From the past emails, people seem to be curious if I have had any more bath house experiences... I'm sad to say that nothing outrageous has happened.  I still get stares (especially if someone new comes in that hasn't seen me before hehe) but its great because I am making LOTS of friends hahah  I did get a nice compliment for a sweet grandma the other day as she was glad to see that I was embracing the culture soo well haha!

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!! And I love y'all!!

**Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!