Week of LOVE!

Hi family!! How is everyone doing???
I hope y’all had a fantastic Valentine's Day!! Because the dear Sister Taylor and I sure did!

We had decided last week that we were going to have a companionship date night (more like date dinner, we don't have THAT much time as missionaries!)  But Sister Taylor called dibs on being the 'man' and I was the 'girl' in the "relationship". When dinner time came around, I was banished to the other room so Sister Taylor could make our dinner. For her, I was able to take some time and write her a "love letter" and then I had the other sister's in the house buy me a box of chocolates that I could surprise her with!! (in Korea, Valentine's Day is a bit different. It's a day when the girls give to the boys, not the other way.. and typically the girls give chocolates. ((so because I was the girl in the 'relationship', I had to follow tradition!!)) ) Time came for dinner and I walk out to the BEST Valentine's Day date that I have EVER been on!! haha Sister Taylor had gotten two red roses that were sitting on the table. The table had been decorated with hearts earlier in the day. There was Josh Groban playing the the background and we have a little chandelier in the kitchen that was turned on for some good mood lighting haha.  Sister Taylor had made CREPES! They were so stinking delicious! Crepes, flowers, chocolates, Groban, love letters...yep, it was a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

My favorite part about the week was that my darling companion wrote me a small note every day with a little quote and a piece of gratitude. Needless to say, we both felt perfectly spoiled this week. Not only from the love that was within our companionship but also the outpouring of love that we felt from our Father in Heaven this week!

This past week was a little hard when it came to appointments. A couple times this past week we had made an appointment to meet up with people that we has met while proselyting. We made the appointment, confirmed the day of... and then we were waiting... and waiting.. They wouldn't answer their phones and they never showed up. ㅠㅠ (Korean crying faces..) That was hard, and then on top of that, my companion is having a hard time with homesickness as well.  It just seemed like that our hard work and such just was not going how it was supposed to.

On Wednesday, things began to change. With permission we were able to get Priesthood Blessings from our district leader, Elder Hahn from New Zealand. The Spirit of love and comfort and peace abounded. Heavenly Father was near, and He knew us.  He has heard our prayers, and He promised that we were doing what we were supposed to be doing and the direction we were to take was going to be evident soon.

From that day on, Sister Taylor and I really evaluated how we had been talking to people on the subway and on the street. We were doing a good job opening our mouths, talking to people, introducing who were were and then exchanging numbers, but nothing had been happening from those. After lots of prayer and another special fast we realized it was time to be more bold, but also more trusting. We were going to give ourselves over to the Lord and our purpose completely. We wanted to share our testimonies and really truly invite people to hear our message and the happiness we have to share.

Since that choice and the actions that followed, there has been that thing...That something that was missing before.. and that has made all the difference.  We are talking with people and we are sharing our testimonies! It's such a neat experience, and so far, most of the people we have been talking with have asked for OUR number first.  ^_^ And then this week we have 3 appointments set up with people who have GREAT potential!!

Oh there are so many stories I want to share!!!!

Ok, real quick, I'll share 2!

First, Sister Taylor met a girl named Chanda in the MTC what is preparing to go to Hong Kong on her mission. Chanda was an English teacher here in Korea for awhile and was able to build relationships and share a little bit about the church. We got a letter from Chanda the other day and in it was her phone number list of the teachers she taught with and she asked us to call them and give them a chance to hear the message that she so desperately wished to share with them. She highlighted one name in particular and said that if not anyone else, she hoped that we could meet this one. Doing all 29 phone calls was a blast!! I certainly had to use my fast speaking Korean to explain who we were before they could hang up... but I didn't really have to do that. As soon as I said Chanda's name, EVERY PERSON was SOOO excited that I knew Chanda and because of this kind foreigner that was soo nice to them, they were all very willing to hear us out, and we were even able to set up times to call again and/or meet later. 

One lady said that she was going to a different church, but because of Chanda she knew that our church was so good and she knew that Mormon's were wonderful people and she would always remember that. So many other said the same thing. Though they weren't interested in the moment, they were so grateful for the kindness and love of Chanda. The best moment is when we called Chanda's special friend. She was soo excited to be able to talk to us. Chanda, from just being a friend who was kind and sharing the Light of Christ she had within her, has touched so many people and they will forever remember her! It was an honor to talk to these people and be able to associate myself with someone who had obviously been such a good example of her Savior and for her testimony.

Second, in the process of making these phone calls, my companion and I had to find some quieter places to go. First was a post office. Here we met a man. He is in his 50's, he was an English Literature teacher and spoke pretty great English. We talked and when he found out that we were missionaries he started talking about how he was studying the bible in English and such... the conversation continued and one thing led to another and we set up a time to meet the next week at the same post office, and we are going to begin reading and studying the Book of Mormon together in English!!! We gave him a Korean copy so he could read in advance and be able to understand a little better, but this Thursday we will begin!

It's amazing to see the blessings that come from putting your trust in the Lord.  When you think you are doing good, you can always be better when you take no other thought then wanting to answer the Master's call of "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men". (Thanks daddy!)

I love missionary work!  It's not easy and it has some disappointments, but this chance is so wonderful and joyous and makes you have a smile on your face every hour of every day!

I love y’all! thanks for all the love and support!
kiss love hugs!

Happy 설날

Happy Korean New Year!! It's now the year of the snake!!

Sorry this is coming to y’all a day late, and I’m afraid time is short, so the email will be the same. Like American big holidays, everything here seems to shut down for a couple of days... Saturday we had a fun meal with some members. Because of the holiday we got to go to it with the Elders and we just sat around sharing funny missionary stories, especially because the family's son just came back from his mission. It was a blast!! We just laughed and laughed. My poor companion had a hard time following along and relating at times, not having had the crazy times yet herself, but she was a good sport.

On Sunday for church we had a total of 24 people (including the 4 missionaries.. this is a ward that usually has about 80)  But Korean holiday tradition is for everyone to go to their hometown and relatives. After church we had the Korean traditional New Year dish!! It's a rice cake soup and it is SO GOOD!! I love it!! So that was a fun highlight.

Like mom said, this week went by really fast with nothing too huge standing out. But the work is going forward and my companion and I are doing great!!!! I love her so so so very much. We have the chance right now to prepare for the Sister's Conference next week down in Busan. We are going to sing the song "See it in Everyone” by Hannah Bradshaw, it's an EFY song ((I discovered in on my wonderful iPod from Gwendel!! thanks!))  It's goes along with what we have been talking about and it's going to be fun!  Sister Taylor has been practicing it on the guitar, Sister Kersey will be on the piano and we are planning on doing it with all the Sisters, so hopefully it turns out great.

Today was a really amazing day!  We were able to go down to the Boo to have a Training meeting with all the new missionaries.  I love being able to get with the other missionaries and feel of their Spirit and see what they are all learning.  The Spirit there is so special as we really learn from one another. One Elder made a comment that I loved!! 

We were talking about the things a companionship needed to be successful: obedience, submissiveness, prayer, a testimony. But Elder Mortenson made a comment saying that you can have all those things and still not be successful if you do not have LOVE in your companionship!  How true is that!?! Goes back to the first great commandments, which all the laws of Heaven hang on: Love the Lord Thy God and then Love your Neighbor.

How grateful I am to have the love in my companionship right now, and how much that is enabling us to recognize and receive the blessings from Heaven.

Sister Taylor also taught be something really sweet today.  We were doing a practice teaching where the new missionaries had to teach the trainers, in Korean.  It was hard.  As we began I could see Sister Taylor forming a question within her mind, one that would take vocab and grammar forms that she wasn't too solid on. She tried once... stopped... tried again... stopped and then sat there quietly. You could see the Spirit working within her and she thought deeper of the things she could say. The question that she then asked was so simple, but it was a question of power. One that went into my heart, and made me think and really feel the spirit. It wasn’t pretty Korean, but it was from the heart and the Spirit, and that's what made it matter. I realized again today that there is power in simplicity.

I love this work and I love learning this Gospel!!! How grateful I am to be here every day! Thanks for the love, the prayers and the support

Hope y’all have a wonderful Valentines Day!!!!!!!

kiss love hugs!!

FEBRUARY!!

HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!!

WOW!!  Can you believe it is already the second month of a new year!?! I know I can't! How is everyone doing?  Sounds like there are some fun plans for the Super Bowl, I hope everyone had fun getting together. I miss those family gatherings!

Well another week has gone by in the Beautiful Daegu! There were some days this last week when it really really felt like spring time and I LOVED it! Unfortunately, it took another turn for the cold.. but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be changing for good soon.

I forgot to tell y’all about my fun P-day adventure last week!  We went to the the Largest Buddhist temple in Korea, and it is the one of most importance as well. (Though the name is alluding me at the moment! haha sorry!) It was absolutely beautiful. Our bishop actually took us up there, and as a special bonus for the American missionaries, he found us a guide that spoke English!!  She was awesome and she let us know what everything was and what everything meant-that had to be my favorite part-finally understanding the symbolism of things. 

This temple is the home of the largest Buddhist Monk University and it houses the religion's most precious library!  And Gwen, you would have LOVED the 'secrets' to this library. The library is a record of the Buddhist scriptures that are written on boards of wood. There are 80,000 pieces of wood, and each piece has 642 characters written on them. They are considered to be the most perfect record.  Every monk that wrote on the plates had to pray and bow to Buddha before they wrote a single character, and did that every time. There is some belief that Buddha himself wrote it because the handwriting is exactly the same on all the boards. A more modern feature to this ancient temple was one of the temples houses Korea's oldest Buddhist statue.  But the temple was HIGH TECH! It constantly measured the humidity and temperature, and if at any point it detected that the buildings where on fire, the Buddha would be send 6 feet underground to be protected. I'll have to share later all the other cool things I learned, but it was really neat to be able to go there and understand a little bit more about this religion that is such a huge part of Korean culture.

As for the work, things are going great!!  We are still doing a lot of tracting and proselyting and it’s going great! We've had some pretty neat experiences with the kind people of Korea!! This past week we were coming back from a visit, and we were taking a bus we've never been on before. Well, when in doubt, ask for directions, right!?!  I had been talking to my companion in English, but I needed to know where to go so I asked the boy in front of us where the nearest Subway stop was at and where we needed to go. He quickly told us that it was the upcoming bus stop, so we got off really fast. When we got off and started walking I soon realized that he had told us the wrong stop... Luckily I'd been down that road before, so we made our way in the general direction of the stop.

As we walked a little ways, there was the boy again, coming our way. He came up to us and apologized profusely because he told us the wrong stop! He said he was surprised by Americans speaking in Korea, and he got confused. This boy has gotten off at the next stop and came to find us so that he could fix his mistake.  We walked together to the Subway stop and we shared our message and got his number.  He was SO NICE!! And it was so kind of him to go out of his way to make sure we didn't get lost.  We're referring him to the Elders, and I'm excited to see what happens.

There are a few more stories like that this week, and I'm excited to see how things go!  One student I talked to on the Subway texted us first, said that she read the pamphlet and proceeded to tell us all that she had learned about Christ, and she seems excited to be able to learn more.

I think of all these experiences and I'm grateful for Dad's perspective in his last email.  He said that baptisms will mean nothing if there is not something deeper within. That is something that my companion and I have been trying to remind the members of here in this area. They are too focused on getting people into the water, that they forget to bring them closer to Christ. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father's method is always one of progression and growth, constant development and not just a singular moment or goal.

At our district meeting this week, Elder Han was talking about "ARISE". He shared a story about the Savannah's and how the lion and the antelope wake up in the morning running to survive.  He said that as missionaries, we were awakened when we were set apart as missionaries, and now is the time to arise.  Go up, Go forward. He said that if we wanted blessings withheld from us, then all we need to do is stay absolutely still.  I loved that. I'm already awake, the sun is up, but am I running?  Am I going forward? I'm grateful that every day brings a new day to improve and go higher.

I love missionary work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Like...A LOT!! It's so fun, and hard, and funny and worth every moment of it! Thanks for all of you love and support and prayers. The missionaries in the world can't do it with out them.

I miss you all!  And I love you more!
kiss love hugs

Till next week! Be safe, be good, and behave!

"Opening Your Mouth"

FAMILY!!!!  HI!!!

How wonderful it was to open up my email today and see emails from all y’all!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Things are still a little bit on the chilly side here in Sangin, but we have had somewhat warmer days!  I have to say that I am SO ready for Spring to come! 

Oh man...I don't even know where to begin!?!  Hmm...How about with: I LOVE MY COMPANION!! Working with her is the biggest blessing ever! Yes, it is really really really different!  It's strange to speak so much English again (I don't think I have spoken this much English since September....) and it's funny when I just slip into Korean and then I realize she can't have Konglish conversations yet...but things are going well. Sister Taylor is picking up on things pretty quickly, so that's good. It's funny being the companion that talks the most in the lessons these days, but I know that Sister Taylor always has my back, and I try hard to keep her informed on what is going on in the conversation. She's a good sport and is always ready to bear her testimony and share the things we have practiced and prepared. Food is a little hard for her right now...She misses the "simplicity" of American food and some of the things still freak her out a bit; but again, give it some time and I think she'll warm up.

The fun part about serving with her (one of them) is that it makes me think about when I was a newer missionary and I thought everything was strange. Now, when she points something out, it's a bit odd to think that its foreign! I'm always like: "How is it in America??" Haha I don't really know what is odd and what's not; it all just seems normal. It has been fun sharing the things that I have picked up and learned. I like being able to share all the things that I have accumulated. I think Sister Taylor was rather relieved when her first meal at a members house was spaghetti hahaha!!

Well this week began with inspiration and was filled with miracles. Last week, as we were knocking doors, Sister Taylor just said: "You know what I think? I think there are some very special people waiting for us to find them, people who God has prepared, and I think that we need to search them out" As the Spirit also touched my heart, I couldn't help but smile and agree completely! And so it began!!!!!

Everyday we planned time to go out and proselyte, whether on the subway or bus stops, we even tried at a University (but it was closed because of vacations haha).  As we take a look back on the week we can see how much Heavenly Father has blessed us! PMG teaches that finding people is an act of faith. We don't know what is going to happen, we don't know where the conversation will go (if they talk at all), we don't know how they will accept our message, and things like that. But that doesn't matter, because we love God, we love our message, and we have the faith that He will lead us to those people who need to hear our message. And can I just say!?! My journal is FILLED with stories from talking to people.

We met one lady on the train that knew who we were because as a little girl she played with the missionaries at the church, which was across the street from her house.  To her, we gave a Book of Mormon.

As we were talking with someone else, a girl asked who we were and where we were from, she went on to talk to us in English because she was a English-Lit major and she gave us her number, really excited at the prospect of being about to meet again.

Another Christian family we met and they explained about their mother passing away and how that led them to search out God and beginning attending church. To them, we talked about God's love and the Plan of Salvation and we gave them a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon.

My companion and I took a bus we hadn't originally planned on, and I sat next to a woman. We began talking about her family and life and soon she asked for our number, texted us the next day and now we have an appointment with her this Friday.

As we were waiting for a subway, I saw a man reading a sign in English, and I went up and introduced ourselves and explained we teach free English classes.  After talking some, he said that he went to church as a little boy and always believed in God, but he wasn't going to any church now.  We got his information, referred him to our Elders, and now they have an appointment with him this next week.

We were out finding a house that we wanted to visit and we stopped into a market to ask for directions. The girl working recognized us because she said she had seen similar people walking around, but she had never talked to them, though they seemed nice. We had a great conversation with her, got her number, and we are planning to visit her again this week.

One day during pros. my companion was having a hard time, but was trying to talk to as many people as she had the courage to. At the end of the day, as we were about to say prayers, she shared with me something that she had just realized. She said that it was a hard day, but she was just praying for the faith and courage to be able to talk to people, and it ended up that EVERY person that she began to have a conversation with ended up speaking really really good English and she was able to do missionary work without any help.

I could go on and ON about the things that we experienced this week and the people we talked to. It was SO cool! By the end of the week we had received 15 contacts and given away 10 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Truly the Lord fills the mouths of His servants and He blesses us beyond measure as we put a little faith and trust in Him.

Of course my week has also been filled with funnies too (trying to figure out a sticker machine that is yelling at you in Korean, yet everything is in Japanese!, quoting movies and songs, having an old man whisper in my ear that I am beautiful and that he will miss me, and getting lost a couple of times and then having old grandmas argue about which is really the right direction, companion date night where we watch the Testaments movie while drinking banana milk....)  but those moments just add to the silver lining of missionary work.

We've taught lessons, and testified of Christ. We have shared our message with those people around us and we learned for the scriptures. We have the desire to continue to do so! I have a feeling that the miracles of Sangin are only just beginning to happen!! There is SO much more waiting to happen, we just have to continue to work hard towards them. I know that the Lord is mindful of everyone and there really is a quickening happening in the work, and I am humbled and excited to be apart of THIS work at THIS time!!

Thanks for all the love and support! I love you all dearly and I hope you know that I miss y’all, but Korea has my heart right now! (so much that I am STILL having nightmares of ending up at home when I KNOW that I am still supposed to be in Korea haha ((really though, they are NOT fun dreams! I just cry and cry and wonder why I am at home and NOT in Korea!)) )

Love y’all, mean it!
Oh...and I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!

Who Doesn't Love Pictures!?!

Here are some pictures she sent us this last week!

Eating Dinner at their apartment!

Picking up Sister Taylor at the Train Station

Riding the Train back to Daegu

I L.O.V.E MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!!!! like for reals though..

FAMILY!!
Hi!  How's is going?  Good, me too!

So the last time I wrote I talked about how I would be having the AMAZING privilege of training again, and in the mean time (while waiting for the new missionaries to arrive) I would get to go play down in my old area, ShinJeong!

So the story begins there!!
To my great delight I got to go down to ShinJeong with Sister Cutler, who is one of the girls I came with to Korea. This is both our second time training, and I think for the most part we were just excited to spend a couple days together. OH and was it fun or WHAT!?! 

Our first night in my beloved Ulsan, we had a dinner appointment with the Priedman Family!  Sister Priedman knew that I was coming, but none of the other girls did. So we head on up, ring the doorbell, the youngest, Emma, answers and at first she just says hello, and then she was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!" haha she was so excited to see me and then I spent the next couple of minutes passing hugs around.

The next couple days that followed were full of hard work and lots of growing!! From my Kiran experience, and a couple other events, I realized that YES! I can speak the language! And NOW, more then ever, was the time for me to use what I have been blessed with, to Open. My. Mouth. Wide and talk with the people around me.

I learned a lot from Sister Cutler in those couple of days. She is absolutely fearless, and with the two of us together, we were absolutely unstoppable!!!

The original plan was to spend Tuesday in Ulsan, and then go back to the Boo on Wednesday to meet the new missionaries and get things started... Well, the poor new missionaries decided to have one of their own adventures!! They arrived at the Airport Monday morning ready to go! They are dropped off, the bus leaves and then they go to check in... Only to discover that their plane had been canceled because of a snow storm in Japan!  So they returned back to the MTC (which would just be awful!! haha) and left the next day!! Well, they finally left SLC and landed safely in Japan. Upon arrival  in Japan, things were a MESS!! Planes where coming and going but they were all mixed up...So again, these poor missionaries missed their flight and got to spend the night in JAPAN! FINALLY on Thursday afternoon they arrive in Busan!

When Sister Cutler and I heard this, we were a little sad but at the same time, not really, because that meant that we got to spend a couple more days together! We shared the good, bad and ugly about training the first time and what we wanted to do differently the next time. We set goals, and made plans. It really was a good week of building each other up. I think her and I had to have set some sort of record or something!!  We served together for 2 and 1/2 days and in that time span we taught 5 lessons and received 10 contacts from proselyting!!!!!!  It was AWESOME!!

With those few days behind us, and more pumped then ever to do missionary work and to spread the Gospel, we met the new missionaries. Like the other times of training, we went to a big subway station, proselyted, and then had dinner. During that time, me and Sister Cutler switched between the American (Sister Taylor) and the Korean (Sister Pak).  I have to admit that we both knew from the beginning who we felt we were going to be with. Sister Cutler hit it right off with Sister Taylor and I with Sister Pak. It was so easy to work with Sister Pak. We just flowed and fed off of each other. We chatted like old friends and it was the best. It was strange being with Sister Taylor because I have never been with an American before, and when I was ready to just talk a mile a minute, she was left behind trying to catch up.  It was good though, to slow down at times, and give her the confidence she needed to have her say what she remembered from the MTC. That night, when Sister Cutler and I went back to sleep over at the Gumjeong house, we both just KNEW who we were going to be with!! It seemed so perfect, and things fit together soooo well!!

Then the DAY came.  We head to the Boo to have breakfast with the missionaries and wait anxiously for President to announce who we were going to be paired with. (Which we already knew right!?!) The time comes for the announcements. We do something fun where Sister Cutler and I stand behind the trainees and when they open their eyes and turn around they see who they will be with! lol  So we go and I stand behind Sister Pak and Sister Cutler behind Sister Taylor. And then we look at President.... And he shakes his head no... And motions for us to SWITCH!!!! Sister Cutler and I just look at each other with HUGE eyes!... WE SOOO DID NOT EXPECT THAT!!!!!

So, from that moment on, I became companions with Sister Sarah Meleana Eliza Rose Taylor from Provo, UT.  ((Her family owns the arabian horse ranch in Payson and the "Taylor Maid"  costume and beauty shop in Provo on Center St!!)) She is gorgeous and funny and sweet and FEARLESS!!!  This was NOT what I was expecting to happen, but as every day goes by I know that Heavenly Father really does know what is best and He knew that we needed to learn from each other these next 10 weeks. 

That's another thing!! Because the MTC is changing things, and we have to have a 4 week transfer. I only get 10 weeks with her!  =[  But we will just have to make the most out of it!!

I can already see the miracles happening in this area. Things seem to be waking up again! We are getting visits with members, we are finding new places and new people.  We are both loving the work, and I love being able to help Sister Taylor grow in her confidence.  This is going to be SO MUCH FUN!! I know that Gwen said that she hoped that I would get the Korean Sister to keep my streak and to keep up with the language, but I have to push myself TONS now because I don't have a Korean to figure all of it out for me! haha And I do get to help her learn lots and it’s fun to be able to share the things that I have learned from my other companions. Though it is still strange speaking a lot of English again. ^__^

There are TONS of fun stories to share from this week, like going to go knock doors, and asking for directions, and getting a total of 18 contacts last week!!  But the time is short right now.  So we'll have to save some for later!

Know that I love y’all and I am SOOO grateful for all the love and extra prayers. They are needed and greatly appreciated. Pray for us this week!! We are BUSY and our schedule is so full of appointments; so pray for us not to kill over by the end of the week...and if we do die, know that we died in the happiest and greatest Christian cause of the WORLD: bringing other's closer to Christ!!

Love you!! Mean it!! Miss you!!

Transfer #8

FAMILY!!!
Hi! How is everyone doing?? From the emails it sounds like everyone is doing great, which makes me happy.

So...are y’all ready to hear about Transfers!?! So like normal, the calls came to us on Thursday night.  During that week leading up to the calls, I really didn't have any particularly strong feelings of what was going to happen.  I had some thoughts, but no strong impressions. Thursday night came and I found that I was nervous!  Like really nervous!!  I had butterflies like crazy, though I really couldn't figure out why. A little after 9pm my companion got a call from the AP's that told her she was going to be transferring...but they didn't say anything about me... When her phone call ended, the butterflies did NOT go away. I just kept thinking "there is going to be another phone call... there is going to be another phone call".  At 9:26pm the phone rang again, and my companion handed it over to me. As soon as she answered, I knew who it was and the butterflies and nerves completely disappeared. The first thing I said was "I was wondering when you were going to call!" And then President replied with "I tried 4 times!!" haha

President Gilbert then goes on to tell me that, once again, I will have the opportunity of TRAINING a new missionary!!!!!! There are 2 sisters coming in!  One is American (Sister Sarah Taylor) and the other is Korean (sister 박세영 bak seh yeong).  The Korean Sister is also really good at English because she studied in Hawaii. Anyhow!  Me and Sister Cutler from my MTC group will be training for our second time. I don't know until this Thursday who my new companion will be, but I have to admit that I am really really really excited to be training again!!

When the call came from President, I instantly felt peace, and joy, and excitement. I know that this is what I need to do right now and I'm excited for the blessings and miracles and opportunities it will bring.

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of companionship I want to create with this new missionary. More then ever, we need missionaries who are obedient, loving and grateful.  Busan has a temple on the horizon and we are working hard towards it. I want a companion who will love; Love me, love the members, and love the work. For that to happen I know that I need to first love the Savior, and love her. Though I kinda feel like I'm whitewashing and training at the same time, I'm excited for the Light and the Spirit my new companion will bring to our area. What a blessing she will be, whoever she is, to the Sangin Ward.

I think what I'm FIRST most excited for in this week is spending time with Sister Cutler.  She is currently serving in Shin Jeong, so I get to go back and visit everyone for the next couple of days!!!!!!  I'm SO SO SO excited!!!!!  hehe  And since both of us have trained before, we are already talking a lot about how to do better and what to change etc. It'll be a good week of learning. I am so grateful every day to be apart of the Korea Busan Mission Family.  Truly, this is the greatest mission in the world ^__^

I love you all and thank you so much for all your love, support and prayers. Say a little prayer for the new missionaries coming in. Bless them to come in with fire and to help us move this mission forward to the level Heavenly Father needs it to be at. I'm excited!  This is an exciting time here in Busan!! More and more missionaries are coming in!!  I actually hope that I will have the chance to continue to train these last 5 transfers of my mission. If I can't forever serve here, then I want to make sure the next 'generation' of missionaries takes care of my dear Busan.

Cool thing I learned/ realized this week...I was looking through my old MTC notebook and I found a quote from one of the elders in my classroom. He said "If we are not living to be loving, then what is the point?" Studying the Savior's attributes and life this past transfer I was able to see even more clearly that the Savior and the Godhead, are all personages of Love.  So, "if we are not living to be CHRISTLIKE, then what is the point?" 

**I think that this is something that I want to focus on this next transfer with my new companion.  Truly, if we love the Savior, then we will love others.  And if we are living to be loving then we are fulfilling our divine potential.

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!
and I love y’all!!