{I put links to some things she mentions....don't forget to take a look!}
Hello
family! I hope everyone is doing well!!
Gwen! Thanks
for all the pictures!! I AM SO JEALOUS!! ahhh seriously! That's way fun that
y'all are staying in little Korea =] Now all y’all need to do is take New
York City, times the tall buildings but 100, squish it all together a bit more,
add the smell of kimchi and fish and then you've got big Korea! I can't wait to
hear about all the adventures! Especially Newsies!
So it was
another fantastic week in the "Land of the Morning Calm". Have I mentioned that I
love it here? Because I do! It seemed like everyday this week Heavenly Father
gave us a reason to thank Him with all of our hearts!
Monday was
my first P-day and it was lots of fun! I love the Elders in my
district! They are tons of fun! Elder Grose and Elder Jang are the
AP's, and then we have Elder Innis who is the DL and his companion Elder
Yoon. I think my favorite part about P-day was our jam session. Elder
Innis is AMAZING on the piano and Elder Grose is twice as amazing
singing. Needless to say we had a great time putting some fun twists on
the hymns. After games and a delicious lunch (black noodles...so good) it was
time to get back to work.
Tuesday
brought a wonderful experience. During that day it seemed like all of our plans
were falling through. When you look forward to talking to someone and
teaching them, it is always a little bit sad when they cancel. But as always,
the Lord was watching over us, and because we prepared with faith He put
someone in our path. That night at the bus stop we were about to head
over to visit a member when she called and cancelled on us. While my
companion was on the phone I began to talk to another man at the stop.
(Because he was older it was ok to talk to him). I found out that he knew
some English, so between Korean and English we were able to get to know each
other and I was able to explain why we were here serving. Half way
through the conversation my companion joined me and when we finished talking, not
only had he accepted the Book of Mormon but we also got his number in order to
teach him more. I think my favorite part of the conversation was when he
explained that his family was living in Manhattan, and we were able to testify
to him that although we are apart from our families now, we are able to live
with them for eternity. Before we parted ways he explained that this
wasn't his typical route home. On seemingly a whim he decided to go
shopping further away from home then usual and then take a completely different
bus all together. I know that it wasn't by coincidence that we met him
that night at the bus stop. With the Lord, everything is 100% probable.
The next
miracle came the next night. We have been in contact with a lady who was
referred to us from her friend now living in SLC. She wanted a Book of Mormon
and we were able to finally meet her! (She is so incredible nice!!! I
think the funniest thing had to be when she thought I HAD to be an actress or
super model from America. By the end of the discussion she made sure she
had a picture with me Hahaha The people of Korea do wonders for my self-esteem
lol jk jk) Anyhow, she was so excited to finally meet us. She told us that she
remembers seeing the missionaries as a little girl, but because they were
American she didn't think they spoke Korean and never talked to them. But what
has interested her the most in our church was her friend’s love to this church
and its gospel. She wants to know what it is about our church that could
invoke such great pride and devotion from its members. She knew about
some things but is curious to know more about Joseph Smith and the Word of
Wisdom. At the end of our meeting we gave her the desired Book of Mormon
and she was excited to begin reading. I look forward to meeting with her and
her two children again.
It's amazing
to see whom the Lord is preparing their hearts softened to the gospel. Speaking
of that, the next miracle came two days later on my companion’s one year
"birthday". We were in an area searching out some less active
members to go visit. On our way to one apartment complex we passed a
woman and her adorable son. When we passed her we simply said hello, but
the Spirit told us to say more. We soon began talking and we introduced
ourselves and explained that we have a message that will bless families.
Without much hesitation she invited us up to her apartment for a drink (one
thing y'all need to know about Koreans, the way they show love or gratitude or
kindness is often through food. One lady we were having a friendly conversation
with on the street made us follow her till we found a place where she could buy
us a drink and something to eat. Another man we visited INSISTED that he
buy us a bushel of oranges because we walked too far to come visit him. These
great people are so kind and generous and would do anything to show you that).
So we went up to her apartment and so started the hour-long discussion of our church. This mother was so amazing. She has such a great love for
the word of God, as we could see when she showed us her very loved and worn
bibles. She explained that she wanted to know what made our church
different. Even though she has never met missionaries before she could
see a difference. Building off her love of scriptures we explained that
the Book of Mormon was another testament of Jesus Christ. Comparable to
the Bible, it too contains the word of God. And when you prayerfully read
and studied its pages you would come close unto Christ. We taught how
like the prophets of the Bible, Joseph Smith is a prophet of God; and through
him Christ's gospel was restored to the earth. She was intrigued and excited to
learn more. She readily accepted the Book of Mormon and agreed to read
and pray about its contents.
I love this
missionary work!! I love having the special opportunity to help people come
unto Christ and recognize their diving potential. I think my next
favorite part about the day was calling Sister Gilbert and telling her about
it! I swear she was more excited then we were haha. It's wonderful
to have such great support for this work. I especially feel all the
prayers from home, Thank You.
The icing on
the cake was General Conference this weekend!!!!! I LOVE GENERAL
CONFERENCE! So on Saturday we were able to watch it in English with
Korean subtitles. Then, on Sunday we had our own little room for the
missionaries to again watch it in English...this was a pretty interesting
adventure haha After LOTS of technical difficulties we had to watch the Sunday
afternoon session in just Korean... my brain couldn't take it for too long so I
kinda fell asleep... haha I'll have to study the messages in a month lol
Oh man!!
Y'all would be SO PROUD of me and all the foods that I ate this past week! Haha
So on Wednesday we have District Meetings. SO fun! We get together, go over
mission announcements, we have a gospel lesson, and then we learn and practice
some Korean. (This part was hard because everyone there has been here for
a year+ or they are Korean lol) But my favorite part is when we each
talked about our investigators and we were able to receive input and advice
from one another. After all that it was time for Lunch!! We went to a
restaurant and I had DUCK! It was actually really good!
Next food
adventure happened on Thursday. If you remember me talking about my
definition of sushi mix up... well Thursday is when we had raw fish. And
yes... it was really really raw. Haha Like, some things still had faces-raw, lol!!
But overall it wasn't too bad. Most of the fish didn't really have a
taste. You would put it in a lettuce with some kimchi, and pepper paste
and then eat it like that. I had some other interesting things but I have no
idea what they were so I can't really describe them, haha! Some of them were a
little chewy though!! Hahaha (I can't just imagine mom cringing lol). The
member was impressed that I was so willing to eat everything! Thanks mom
and dad for always making me try things at least once!
Friday,
because it was Sister Lee's 1 year, we went out for lunch! We had these
really good noodle-stuffed-kinda-looked-like-sausage-things. Soon Deh I believe
it was called. And it was delicious! For dessert we had some
delicious vanilla ice cream and a waffle (it's kinda fun that they make waffles
into desserts!)
It has been
so fun here! I am really enjoying myself and my companion says my Korean
is getting better (though I think she is being nice lol!) Like the MTC, I think
my favorite and most sacred time I spend here is in the morning during my
scripture study. The scriptures have become so precious to me and I am grateful
for everything that Heavenly Father is teaching me through them.
In the MTC
there was a talk given about the need to sanctify ourselves in order to
accomplish this work. I was curious to see what the scripture had to
teach about how we sanctify ourselves. I first read in Helaman 3:35. After reading it a few times one part really stood out to me.
It was along the lines of "and we became STRONG in our HUMILITY"
Whenever I think of humility the word strong or strength doesn't really come to
mind. As I was writing my thoughts about that word choice my mind was drawn to
a scripture mastery scripture, Ether 12:27. This scripture describes that
the Lord can make weak things become strong. I have looked over this scripture
many times in my seminary years, but I have never noticed that it contains the
word humility, not only once, but 3 times. In the scriptures, when
something is repeated 3 times, it is the superlative, or a concrete and very
definite and eternal truth. We are weak and the Lord is strong. We cannot
be filled with the Lord's strength if our hearts are already filled with the
pride of ourselves. The last scripture that was brought to mind was Alma 26:12. This is a missionary story and they are rejoicing in the strength
the Lord has given them, because it is through the Lord's strength that they
were able to succeed. I know there are more ways to become sanctified unto the
Lord, but I also now know with more assurity that there is great strength to be
found in humility.
Thank you for
the love and prayers. I love you all and miss you!
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