No Words

Darling family,
Sorry this is coming to y’all so late, and it will have to be a short one too...

Today we went to an Amusement Park! haha Gyeong Ju World! It was a blast!  I love my district, though it's strange being only 1 of 2 Americans in it; good language practice though, right??

This week was full of some ups and downs.  We were excited this week to have a lesson with our other investigator JeeHee (she is the daughter of our recent convert).  Lessons with her have been going wonderfully!  Her faith has grown so much and, as always, I'm blessed to have the privilege to be able to see it happen. 

If you remember in my last email, I talked about weekly planning and setting up 2 baptismal dates for the two girls, and then we switched them. This led to the miracle of JuHee being able to accept the date of the 11th, the day before her birthday. Well, this lesson with JeeHee we were going to give her the date for the 18th.

As we were walking to the bus terminal to head to her house I had mixed feelings.  Part of me was excited to go, but the other part was telling me that it wasn’t the right time for the invitation.  I brought the concern up with my companion to see what she felt. She was skeptical. She didn't feel like there was any problem, and so I decided to trust her and we would keep to our plan.

The lesson with JeeHee was amazing!! The Spirit was so strong as we talked about Heavenly Father's Plan for us.  At the end of the lesson it was time for my companion to  give the commitment. When we told JeeHee the date that we had been thinking and praying about, her eyes went big.... "my birthday?" she said. At that moment I couldn't keep the tears from coming to my eyes.  We had no idea, but Heavenly Father did.  Heavenly Father knew that it was JeeHee's birthday, just as He knew that it was JuHee's birthday.  So amazing.

That moment I thought that the bad feeling I had early must have been a mistake.

After the lesson we are heading out when we run into our recent convert, her mom, Sister Yang.  We tell her the exciting news about her daughter preparing to be baptized.  Her eyes get big... "OH, I hadn't realized it was going so well..." Hmm... I realized with dread that we hadn't been involving the busy mother as much as we should have.  Sister Yang explained that it was good, but that she wanted to talk to JeeHee for herself. 

The phone cal that we got the next day wasn't very encouraging.  Sister Yang explained that after talking to JeeHee, she felt that JeeHee wasn't ready; that she wasn't taking things too seriously.  I am grateful for the mother's concern. Baptism is a big thing, something that needs to be prepared for with a sincere heart. But a part of me is afraid that because it took Sister Yang nearly 3 years to decide she was ready to be baptized that she might make JeeHee go through the same process. 

My poor companion has had a rough time with all of this.  And I'm sad because I didn't listen to the promptings as well as I should have.

But we felt that the date needed to be extended, and so we did.  Through this we can now see how to help JeeHee and her mom work more closely together in building up one another. Now everyone realizes again, that as missionaries we have a purpose and we will work towards accomplishing that purpose through the promptings of the Spirit.  Right now the hardest thing is just knowing what to do next....

Other parts of the work are going great.  We are getting busier and busier every week and it is so much fun!!.

I love you all, and you are in my prayers. Thank you for keeping me updated on home, I'll make sure to keep a certain beloved family in my prayers this week. 

Emily: I love the house!! It looks super cute!!! More pictures please!!
Gwen: maybe I'll see if we can send Mallory your way again!! He's always willing to answer questions... I'm really really really sorry that you missed him.  Thanks for the updates on your life!
Mom and Dad. I love you both!!! Thanks for being great!!
M&K... are y’all alive ^_^ ㅋㅋ(korean haha)

kiss love hugs!