MIRACULOUS!

Family!!
Hey y’all!! So last week I wrote in the title of the email that it was a "week of wonders".  Well, if last week was a week of wonders, then this week has been truly miraculous! Where do I even begin!?!?!

The week began as any other. We were finding old members, and trying to see why they weren't coming out to church.  We had some amazing meetings with a few of them and it was good in being able to finally put a face to a name on a list.

Thursday rolls around and it is time for our weekly planning!  I LOVE weekly planning!  Though it lasts FOREVER it is wonderful to be able to really sit down and think about the area, to think about their needs and the people we are teaching.  It is fun to pull out the teaching records and, with a prayer in our heart, plan what we are going to teach and when. I love being about to think about all the people individually and really think about what Heavenly Father wants for them.

This session we were doing just that for our newest investigator JuHee. (Bomi's friend).  She came to church again that Sunday and she is just drinking everything up! She is so beautiful, inside and out. During weekly planning we got out her teaching record and we began to see what she had been taught and what we wanted to teach her that night for our appointment.

We decided that we would finish the first lesson, but that we would also extend her a baptismal date.  (A specific day that she could prepare for to make the sacred covenant of Baptism.)  We had done this process for one of our other investigators and made her date for Nov 11th.  For JuHee we decided to make her's for the next week, on the 18th.  After we made that plan, I had a prompting from the Spirit that I needed to change the weeks around.  I sat there looking at the calendar and I kept feeling that the weeks needed to be switched. JuHee needed to be baptized on the 11th.  I expressed my feeling to my companion and we decided to make the switch.

That night was a fun lesson. We met JuHee and Bomi at the church where we made pancakes and then had the lesson.  The lesson was wonderful!! The Spirit that was there was so strong and tender. We talked a lot about prayers and what the answer to prayers are like for individuals. I was again SO grateful for Bomi to be there as she bore her testimony about the answers to prayers.  The Branch President even joined us at the end of the lesson and bore his testimony as well. It's fun to have all this support.

The time came during the lesson that we were to extend the commitment to prepare to be baptized on the 11th.  My companion asked her if she would be baptized and she agreed.  Expressing that is was what she really wanted to do.  Then, I told JuHee that we had been thinking and praying about her a lot that day and during that week.  I explained that we felt that she could be prepared to enter the waters of baptism on November 11th.  When I said the date, JuHee's eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face.  "How did you know?" She asked. Confused, she then explained that her birthday was the next day and the 11th sounded like the perfect day!!!

I am so grateful to know and recognize that Heavenly Father truly knows each of His children individually.  He knew when Juhee's birthday was, and He knew that she would be ready to enter into that sacred covenant the day before.  I am grateful that He told us and that we were ready to listen.

The next miracle, came the next day.  And I will never forget that morning.  Like any other Friday morning, we were at home doing study. At 9am we get a call from President that we were not expecting.... OK... Let's back up... If y’all remember a few months ago, after Sister Yang got baptized, Sister Yun and I were preparing for another investigator to be baptized as well, the darling grandmother, Sister Kim HwaSoon. The date was set {Sept 9}, but after the interviews we were informed that we would have to wait a little bit longer.  For whatever reason, we needed permission from the First Presidency before she could be baptized. Then, because of General Conference and other things, we had been waiting 6 weeks.  Being able to continue to teach her and see her testimony grow and grow was amazing. The phone call Friday morning was from President telling us that the permission had been received and Kim HwaSoon could be baptized as SOON as was possible!!

That phone call was sooo special to me!! Sister Kim had been waiting anxiously for 6 weeks. She wanted to be baptized soo bad!! She was ready to make that step, but not just for herself, but so she could help her family members as well.  She knew that she had found the truth and she was ready to join in with all of her heart.

As soon as the phone call ended with squeals of delight, I remember just sitting there for a moment, and then falling to my knees in tears as my companion and I offered up our deep thanks to Heavenly Father for granting Kim HwaSoon the chance to be baptized.  As soon as the prayer was over we called her up to tell her the news!! The tears were renewed as we combined our joy with hers. 40 minutes later, after countless phone calls, the date and the time of the baptism were set=Sunday Morning at 8:30am!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last lesson with Kim HwaSoon as an investigator was a sweet one. We talked again about the covenant of baptism and she was just so excited.  And then, in her tender, simple prayer she thanked Heavenly Father to have finally been able to find the truth, after a long life of 73 years. 

Sunday morning my companion and I were at the church at 6am to fill up the font.  The Baptismal service was wonderful.  Sister Kim truly looked like an angel dressed in white, and you could feel the presence of countless other angels gathering in around her as she entered into her new life.  Her grandsons played a piano and violin musical number and my companion and I were able to talk about her grabbing onto the Iron Rod as now she draws even closer to Heaven and Home.  We then gave her a new Triple Combination with a picture of Lehi's dream in front and her name, baptismal date, and a note from us on the inside.

My joy is truly full!! It was wonderful to have JuHee at the baptism that morning and now she is even more excited for the 11th to come!! I am excited for her.  She is going to be, and already is, an incredible strength to the youth in this Branch.

The miracles continue in ShinJeong and I'm excited to see what this next transfer holds! With the spirit, and the ever growing companionship unity, I'm excited to be able to bless more and more lives with this wonderful gospel.

My study time this week only added to these spiritual experiences. This week I recorded 15 pages worth of what can be called my "Conversion Story".  It was wonderful to be able to look back on the years of my life and the months of this mission and to see how I have changed and grown.  In a personal letter I wrote to Emily I said that since I have been here in Korea I have felt more like "me". I'm not the same person I was before, or have ever been in my life.  I am learning and growing and changing, but in that change I feel like I am coming closer to my Heavenly Father, and in this journey heavenwards I am becoming whom I was created to be, I am becoming "me". 

I love this glorious work.  I love the change it brings to people's lives and I love the happiness it can, and does fill you with.  I am humbled that Heavenly Father has trusted me to teach these wonderful people.

Thank you for your constant prayers! I love you all and I miss you like crazy!!

kiss love hugs!