Dearest, Darling Family,
HELLO!! How are all y’all doing? First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!! 축하합니다!! Sounds like y'all had a fun weekend! Daddy, that movie theatre sounded amazing! Can I go there too!?! Haha
Last week was a wonderful closing to my privilege of training the dear Sister Sarah Meliana Eliza Rose Taylor! We had a wonderful 10 weeks with each other and there was lots of tears as the end of training came up. I wish we had had more time together, but now she gets to learn from someone new!!
Ok, y'all ready for this!?! Transfer Calls were on Thursday and......I WILL BE STAYING IN SANGIN!.... and....I WILL BE TRAINING AGAIN!! Yep, round 3 here we come! I wasn't surprised about the training part; I was more surprised about the staying in Sangin part. With the large influx in missionaries, there is only ONE companionship of sisters that is not either IN training or will be training!! This transfer, 7 sisters are coming and next transfer 10 sisters will be coming. That means that by the end of 2 transfers, pretty much every sister in the mission will be training. So fun right?!! I am so excited with how many missionaries are coming in and I am so excited that I get to be a small part of it all.
Today was lots of fun. The training and transferring missionaries all gathered to the Boo and we had the opportunity to hear from President and Sister Gilbert about where the Lord wanted us to go this next transfer. They have us reading 2 articles from the Liahona {Ensign}. One is in preparation for this coming week of Easter. It is titled: "He is Risen" by President Eyring. I am excited to see what I will be able to learn as I remember the Savior and as I strive to do His work the way He would do it.
The other talk is "Mission and Ministry of Jesus Christ". That one we are studying, especially the scriptures, in preparation for Zone Conference. It would be fun to have y’all study them as well, so I can get your thoughts on the matter!! {Follow the links of the Articles to read along with her this week!}
Especially when I am able to gather together with other missionaries, I am grateful that I am serving in the Korea Busan Mission. The work is hastening and I know that the Lord is looking out for all of the missionaries in this Mission and the World. I heard a rumor that the Church is projecting nearly 100,000 missionaries in the world by this next year I think! Can you imagine!?! Heavenly Father loves His children SO much and He is ready for them all the hear His gospel! President Gilbert commented that it is the fulfillment of Jacob 5. Amazing.
I have to say thanks to my dear family! Thanks to Mom and Dad for their examples, and for teaching me to, not only obey the commandments and standards, but to obey them with love and exactness!! I am so grateful for the love of doing what is right that you instilled in me. Thank you for the love y'all have for each other. That, too, is one of my greatest examples. Thanks dear sisters for all that you do! Thank you for your love and service and always thinking of others. A special shout out to Gwendel, thanks for keeping up my blog. Two of the Sisters that just came in last transfer said they were looking up things about the mission when they got their call and they found my blog and were able to follow along with all the posts!! Small world, huh?! Not gonna lie, I was a little embarrassed, haha! But if someone out there reading these posts gets to feel a portion of the love that I have for this people and this work, then I don't mind who stumbles upon the blog! Matt and Kaylani, I love y'all dearly!! Thanks for working hard in school and at jobs, and especially at church. I know that y'all have a huge impact on those around you. Let your light shine for everyone to see! You have lives to bless.
Thanks to everyone for all the love and support! For all the kindness and the hard work. I am grateful to know y'all and to have you in my hearts as I serve the people of Korea! In the Trainers Meeting, they always ask what some of the things are that we learned from our Trainers... but I think that my list of those things can include the things that I learned from y'all as well. Without your love, patience, encouragement, courage, faithfulness and testimonies I would not have had the strength to serve, nor the heart to train.
I love each of you!
I hope and pray that this week each of us remember our Savior and really prepare ourselves for this Sunday, as we once again partake of the sacrament in remembrance of not only His death, but also His life, and the Life and the Light that He gives to all of us.
Love y'all, mean it!!
Oh, and as for the subject line, this week on Wednesday I will have been in my beloved Korea for one year. Oh how quickly time goes by! It's fun to think that I am training, in a sense, ME one year ago!!
Darling family!
From the various complaints I've gotten about ME sending this off at a weird time, I am assuming y’all went through a daylight sayings (which has just been confirmed by emily). haha That, and everyone seems to be doing well! Life seems to be jammed packed full of fun times which is exactly what it needs to be!
Well this week here in Daegu started off normal. We were doing great missionary work! Meeting with members and investigators, proselyting and all that good stuff. We had a fun mountain hike (a favorite past time of Koreans) with our investigator and some members. During that hike, I was able to have an amazing talk with one of our members about faith and enduring to the end. She said that EVERY DAY it is a struggle to study her scriptures and pray, but the easy alternative is much worse. I asked her how she did it, how she kept going forward if everything was so hard. Her first reply was, when things get hard, when you might get offended or have a hard time, the first thing you DO NOT DO is leave church. She said "do not stop going to church! You need the strength of the Church." We touched on a few other topics as well, but I was just in awe at her amazing faith and testimony. She has the heart of a missionary, the heart that I am striving to develop. It was an amazing hike learning from her.
Thursday we had our English Book of Mormon class with the Elders and our (now their) investigator. It was a neat lesson and we were able to also teach the Restoration and commit him to be baptized when he received the confirmation that these things were true. It was neat. After that lesson we went over to a members house to follow up on their "day of service.” Their 'reward' of sorts for their day of committed service was that we baked them an apple pie!! They absolutely LOVED it! It was a delicious dinner of Duck, and then followed by an apple pie, made it perfect! I'm grateful for the members here being so willing to strive to be a little better.
But that's when the crazy began.... dun dunnn dunnnnn. So we knew that we would be moving houses... but we didn't think that the move would happen till next month... and then the call came on THURSDAY night that we would be moving at 9am on SATURDAY!!! 헐
Thursday night we also had some sisters from another area come to our house for the night... yeah, six girls...one house. Y’all understand. Then comes Friday...our day of packing and cleaning. And it was literally ALL DAY LONG!!! There was SO MUCH stuff!! Different from just packing up your own stuff for a transfer, we had to go through everything. Twas a very long and tiring day. But by the time night time came around we were in pretty decent shape. That night, for our last night in our house, we had some fun! We were all a little slap happy from a long day and lack of sleep, so we relaxed with some Korean face masks and reenactments of Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean.. I was Voldemort, my companion was Jack Sparrow... it was epic! Haha Though I admit 10:30 bedtime was absolutely Heavenly!
Saturday morning comes around and the real crazy begins.. I'll have to give you the condensed version...we had the AP's, our bishop, and our district of Elders all at our house moving things downstairs and out (it was really really weird to have men in our house!!!). While they were coming in and out, I was finishing up the cleaning of.. Well everything... bathroom, kitchen, fridge, stove, cupboards etc. Then it comes time for the big stuff to be moved and they realized that there is no way the dressers and table are doing to be able to be taken down the 3 flights of stairs, let alone out of the window. In the middle of this, the people who are going to move into the house after we are done, decided to show up. As we are trying to move, they decided to take a look around and begin complaining about everything that they didn't like or they felt was wrong!
At this point, the Bishop and the AP's (Assistants to the President) are no longer there (they went to the new house to start putting furniture in)... so we have these angry people asking the Americans and ONE Korean all these questions that none of us understand, nor have the answer too. During this, a moving truck is called and through the window gets all the large stuff out. As they are loading up their trucks we get a call from the other sisters saying that the house is different then the one we saw before... different and smaller!!! So now we are trying to decide there, what stuff we can and cannot take with us... Good bye couch, good bye mattresses, good bye 2 out of the 4 desks.... Finally things are loaded, old house is empty, and we are about to leave when new people start getting angry again... apparently something was up with the water! Anyhow, they were throwing a fit over 600won.. the equivalent of $0.60...
By this point I’m stressed out, and it turns out it is only the beginning as we go into our new TINY TINY TINY apartment and have to figure out how to fit 4 girls in a house meant for maybe one and a half people! Closets in one room, desks and table in the bigger room, 'beds' in the other. Our bathroom is the size of about 2 airplane bathrooms put together and our kitchen probably smaller then a camper's kitchen. It.. well... it was an adventure to say the least. An adventure and 3 very very long days!
Some highlights were: eating "dinner" amongst the boxes, sleeping on the floor, the contagious giggles brought about from lack of sleep, stress, and the ridiculousness of the entire situation. It was a weekend to remember!!
But I have to say, that not doing missionary things for about 3 days was really really really hard! It made me realize how much I love the study time, prayer time, and mindset of a missionary. It was an interesting perspective that I am grateful for! I love being a missionary!!
We also had a very special moment as we knelt in prayer in our new house. Amongst the boxes and zero walking space, we thanked our Heavenly Father for our blessings, and we asked that this new house be a place of learning, and of the Spirit, a place where future missionaries will come to and be able to have a place of refuge as they prepare to go out each day and serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength. I may have a face now full of stress acne, but I have a heart full of gratitude that I am a missionary and I get to dedicate myself to the work everyday.
I love you all! and I miss you! Be safe this week and have fun!
kiss love hugs!
FAMILY!!! Hello!!
From the sound of the emails I've gotten, sounds like everyone is doing fantastic!! It's good to hear that everyone is having fun. I'm SUPER jealous of Gwendel right now!! Sounds like the surprise was well worth it! hehe Thanks for the video Gwendel! Haha MOM! Your scream was priceless hahah {Gwen flew home and surprised Cheryl and Vince for her Spring Break!}
I too got a bit of a surprise this past week...but mine brought only tears. On Tuesday I get a call from the mission office and they asked me what airport I wanted to fly into so they could confirm my plane tickets... ㅠ.ㅠ(Korean cry face) Yeah, I sobbed after that one!! But you know what, I still have LOTS of time! So they can just buy those stinkin tickets and I won't even worry about it!
The weather this past week was absolutely heavenly!! Felt closer to summer rather than spring a couple of those days! The weather is a bit colder again today, but I'm hopeful that the warm weather will be staying for good, here shortly. That means I'll get to ship home all of my winter clothes too!! I'm ok with that!
This week was amazing. One of the highlights included President Interviews on Thursday! I love President and Sister Gilbert so very much! Usually how it works is when the missionaries are taking turns being interviewed by President, we sit with Sister Gilbert and she fuels the gospel discussion on something that we have been assigned to study. But this round went a little differently. To coordinate with the new teaching curriculum, we were each assigned one of the parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and with our companion we were going to teach it to each other in the Savior's way. It was really neat, but I admit my favorite part was planning for it with Sister Taylor!! She had some really neat insights.
Our topic was faith and we spent the whole week reading and studying about Faith and how it especially applies within the Plan of Salvation. We used a lot of things from Alma 32 where faith is compared to a seed. We drew the 'steps' of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) and under each step we drew a tree progressively getting larger. We talked about how our seed of faith can progress only as we progress in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, when the small seedling of faith grows into the "Enduring to the End" part of our life, that is when it needs to be the strongest and the largest; that is when the tree becomes most mature and if we endure well, we reap the fruit which is sweetest above all.
When we started thinking about how that may apply to the Eternities, we recognized, that a lot in this life is a remembering progress. Before we came to this earth, we lived with the Father. There we were taught and we grew, and we accepted the Plan that was placed before us. Here in this life, our faith can be strengthened as we seek to remember what we once knew in the eternities. But we realized that if that is as far as we go, we will stop progressing forward. The second part requires us to look heavenward. To reach out into the future with trust and Faith, with an eye single to the glory of God. In a sense the roots we put down are the remembering of what we once knew, and the branches reaching towards the Celestial sun light is the faith of becoming who we were created to be. Faith is remembering to become. But the roots of our faith needs to be in the soil of Christ. Overall it was an awesome lesson, and we drew a pretty sweet diagram! ^^
Talking with President was pretty sweet, and we both got a little teary eyed. I asked him if I could train till I went home and he said that, with my 3 remaining transfers, I'd probably be able to train 1 and a half more times!! Which makes me really happy!! With my time remaining I want to help someone else learn to love Korea as much, no, more, then I do now. I want to be able to make sure that my Korea is in good hands to carry the work forward.
Another really good part about this week was our own day of service!! On Wednesday we had planned going out to this far part in our area (an hour by bus) and we were going to go find and visit Less Active Members. When we headed out that way, we stopped in on some members who owned a restaurant. Our purpose was just to do a 10 min. lesson, but the Spirit told us that we needed to stay there and do some service, helping around the restaurant and such. (Which we normally do later on in the week).
As we served, we saw that Brother Jeong was REALLY sick and having a hard time functioning that day, and that his wife was also getting a little sick. Since we were there to serve, they were able to relax a little bit more and save some of their strength. Kind of teasingly, they asked us how we knew to come in that day...We didn't, but Heavenly Father did. When it came time for the lesson, again, the Spirit showed us the way we needed to go, rather than follow the lesson plan that we had made. It turned out to be my most favorite lesson with her. We shared a scripture from 2nd Nephi: Christ always remembers us because we are written upon the palms of His hands. We then talked about the Atonement and the comfort of knowing that we have a Savior that loves us and knows us each individually. In the words of Daddy, we were all leaking by the end. I feel that something else was ailing them even deeper then a cold, and I know that Heavenly Father directed us to their rescue that day. He knew exactly what they needed and how grateful I am that, after fasting and praying, I was able to be entrusted with their care for a small moment.
This week was full of service and lessons and lots of other moments of little things that warmed our hearts and the hearts of other people that were put into our paths. I have to say a BIG thank you to my dear sisters for sending me and my companion a wonderful package!! It came on a day that she really needed it! Thank you for turning out and thinking of someone else. I know it seemed like something small, but it meant so much. I too am grateful to be able to see little tidbits of the family and y’alls holidays! Thank you thank you thank you!
I love you all dearly!! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
kiss love hugs
Ps: thank you Sister Davies and Sister Hatfield for the emails!! I love you both dearly! Thank you for the small emails that always feel like they are packed with a whole bunch of love. You both are a wonderful example to me!
And for general info, I don't think that Busan is going to be affected by the new Seoul mission because there used to be 2 missions in Seoul anyways. I think they will just figure it out in the current Seoul mission.
FAMILY!!! 안녕하세요!!
How is everyone!?! Sounds like things went well in everyone's lives this week. Congratulations to Bear Hatfield who got his mission call! It's SO exciting to see so many people getting ready to go! I love it! I'm still waiting for someone I know to come out to Busan! That would just be soo much fun!
This past week didn't go exactly how Sister Taylor and I had planned, but we did have some fun times! I have to say that I'm super impressed with her and my sense of direction. When we have some time we usually like to go onto the subway to talk to people, but we felt a little adventurous one day and decided to take a bus!! Never been on that bus, I only slightly knew where it was going, and I had no idea how we were going to get back to home afterwards; but it was so much fun!! After getting off at a stop that I have NEVER been to, we were able to find our way back to a road we knew AND find a members house from there. I love going down new roads and making new connections, and it was fun being above ground and seeing things around us! The Couple Missionaries here call the missions subterranean because, if there is a subway system, we are hardly above ground! (and then we get in the car with them and it's like a whole new world!! haha)
This week we weren't able to meet with our investigators, but we did have some really amazing member lessons! In the mission we have been talking a lot about the Character of Christ and “Turning Out.” Especially turning out in acts of service every day. After learning a little bit more about that in the transfer meeting, we decided to share that idea with the members that we met with this week. One Sister we met with, we were able to have a really awesome conversation! We were talking about ways we have served throughout our lives, and the blessings that have come from that. She served a mission in California, so we shared mission stories back and forth. And she shared with us how, as a missionary, she had always felt God's love. She felt it as she received the strength she needed to go on her mission; she felt it when she had the rough days in the field; but she said she felt it most at the end of her mission. As she was about to leave and return back home she said she felt God's love most then. Not because it was a difficult and trying time, but because she had learned to love the people she had been serving SO much she felt she was able to understand more fully the Love God has for each of His children. She felt God's love most when she felt like she was able to see people and love people that way that God would. I love that perspective!
Later in the lesson we were talking about when we are in the service of others we are only in the service of God. How through our lives and through our service we can constantly share what we believe. It's HARD turning out, thinking of others rather than ourselves, but the blessings and the happiness are far superior. We then were able to share a Bible Video with her. It's the newest one of Peter and John preaching the gospel. They have been forbidden to teach about, speak of, or serve in the name of Jesus Christ. But Peter boldly shares his testimony, and that burning conviction in eternal truths will not allow him to remain silent. Then after being thrown into prison and whipped, we still see them sharing with the people the thing that was most precious to them. Again, we see that the things that make us happiest are the first things that we want to share. I have never been happier on my mission than the days that I am just out talking with people, sharing this message, and testifying of Heavenly Father's love!!
After sharing our message with her, we committed our member to pick a day. For that one day, they are to try and turn completely out: turn out in service, think of others, help someone else, leave note for her husband, call up an old friend, write a letter to converts... ANYTHING! To just have an entire day devoted to loving as the Savior would, in having every thought and action directed at helping someone else. Of course, a day like that would be HARD!! So we decided on the day, and that day we would remember her in all of our prayers so that she could do it and have an amazing experience. What was neat was, as we were about to say the closing prayer, she said that she knew exactly who she needed to go see. While we were talking she had thought of someone and she felt that that person needed someone on that day. I'm excited to go visit her again and see how it went!!
The rest of the week went well! Nothing else too huge! We had some fun in the 4-man house this past weekend!! Before we began our fast, my darling companion made Crepes!! So we have a feast of crepes with bananas, strawberries, peanut butter, nutella and my FAVORITE 고구마 GoGuMa. Is a Korean yellow sweet potato and I can eat it like candy!! It was SO GOOD!!!
Sunday, after we ended our fast, we had spaghetti, salad, steamed veggies and apples (the best part is, ALL of those things were cooked in the rice cooker! Seriously, I love that thing!!) For dessert my companion outdid herself and make us an apple pie!! Oh my goodness, it was divine! So the 4 sisters in my house enjoyed apple pie as we watched "Legacy" in the family room on our mattresses! (We all had a sleepover! Haha best sleepover ever! We were all asleep by 10:30!! It was beautiful!! hahaha)
Things are going great here in Korea. I love this work, and I love being able to serve these wonderful people! Korea is truly amazing, and the people are even more special.
I love you all. You are in my prayers! I hope all is well this next week for y’all!
kiss love hugs!!
Chalene and Sister Taylor have had fun lately.
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| Daegu |
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| Traditional Korean Dress |
Family!! HI!!!
Can you believe it!?!?! Not only has Feb. gone by ridiculously fast, but another transfer has gone by as well!! Seriously, time needs to slow down.
As I was talking with my MTC group, we all realized that we only have 4 transfers left, and this next transfer is only going to be 4 weeks! (We have to match up with the MTC or something). ((Daddy, transfer days are the 29th, and then I will leave for Seoul on the morning of the 30th, go to the temple, play a day up there and their our flights are on the morning of the 31st.. which means I'll be in America on the 31st. Sorry for the confusion)) It makes me sad that I only have 4 weeks left with Sister Taylor, but by the looks of this past week, we are going to be busy!!
We have had SO many miracles this past week! This whole transfer we haven't had hardly any opportunities to teach. The investigators we had from past transfers all dropped us and so we were left to try our faith with proselyting and referrals from others. Heavenly Father loves His missionaries, but He also loves those who He has prepared! He loves everyone, and He will give people the chance to hear the gospel in the most unexpected of ways.
We were blessed with SIX! 6! new investigators this week!! All were amazing, but I only have time to tell y’all about one right now. His name is Bak Shin. He is about 70 years old, and he studied at Duke University in Philosophy. One day on the subway he came up to my companion and asked her about the book she was holding. "What is the Book of Mormon?" "How are the Mormon's different?" "Are they Christians?" My fabulous companion was a superstar are she began to testify of who we were. The ride was short, but we left him with a pamphlet and he left us with his number, saying that he would like to meet again.
Fast forward a week. We meet up with him with one of our members who is about to leave on her mission. We had sincerely planned for this lesson, knowing that with his mind and knowledge, we could do nothing but bring the spirit into the lesson and let a member of the Godhead take our message to his heart. It's always hard trying to describe later how a lesson went, but here are some of the highlights that I liked and remembered.
We first began by asking him about his background and belief in God. On the train he said that he was atheist, but we wanted to see if there was a time in his life that he ever believed or thought about God. He explained to us that in middle and high school he was a part of one of the first Christian schools in Korea. There, he was 'instructed' in religion, but he never seemed to be able to find the answer to his questions. When we asked what his questions were, he said that he had always wondered why man was here, where did we come from, what was our purpose and where would we go. The way he explained it was that he could never find his answers within the church that he was going to, so he turned to other sources, which I believe led to his study in philosophy. Here the Spirit prompted us to ask if, while studied in that field, he had found his answers. He did not reply.
As the lesson continued we were able to testify to him that we had the answers that he was looking for. We could teach him, and he could find out from himself. We made it clear that we didn't want to prove us right, and prove him wrong, but we wanted to help him find the answers he had always searched for. We knew that our message was right, but we also knew that if he did not put forth his own effort, he would not know the truth of what we were saying. Being a Professor of Learning, he readily agreed to put in his own effort. We were able to teach him about Prophets, after he made the comment that he hated when he saw “professed christians” going to church, and then going back to live their lives however they wanted the rest of the week. We taught him that through a prophet, we not only know of Christ's gospel, but we also know how to live it, and we know that there are people in the world that live their beliefs every day.
We talked with him about Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ, receiving the call to be a prophet and restoring Christ's church upon the earth. His favorite part of the lesson is when we said that there was evidence of what we were saying, and that evidence he could read and study for himself. That is the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God, then Joseph Smith was His prophet of the Restoration. He kept on saying how much he liked that there was a book, something he could read and study for himself.
As we were finishing up the lesson he confessed that he made it a point not to visit with or meet with people of other religions. But, apparently he saw us a couple of times on the train and he felt that he needed to talk with us. At the end of the meeting, he said that he wanted to continue to meet and learn more about the Book of Mormon. My companion finished the lesson with a powerful testimony that she knew the Book of Mormon contained the answers to all of the questions he has ever asked, the questions he has had gone unanswered in a lifetime. The Spirit in that lesson was so strong and so tender. It may have taken a lifetime, but I know that Bak Shin is about to find the answers to all of his questions.
How grateful I am for this Gospel and the fact that I get to teach it and share it with people! I got to read the Book of Mormon with a man, and he said "Joseph Smith is a prophet, huh?" I got to testify to 2 girls that they were Daughters of God, divine princesses with the potential to become queens. I got to teach a mom and her sister about the beauty and importance of family. This week was WONDERFUL!! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!
A fun thing this week too, my first trainee, is going to be training this next transfer!! That makes me a "grandma" in the mission field. President told me today that in 2 transfers every sister in the mission will be training!!! (That's how many new people we are getting!) So you never know, I could train 2 more times! Oh and I found out my trainer is dating the AP of my first transfer and I think they are going to get married (in Canada) which makes me SO HAPPY!!
Oh and crazy thought, within 2 transfers, my sisters group will be the oldest in the mission!! ahhh!!
Well I love y’all! thanks for all the lovin and prayers!
I love missionary work!!
kiss love hugs!
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!
