April 27, 2015

This past week was fairly good, we had some times where we had tooooo much time, but we also had a fair number of appointments. However, on Wednesday I got pretty sick. I don't think it was a cold, but just some sort of virus. Tuesday night I didn't feel too good, and Wednesday morning I woke up and wasn't good either :P I took some medicine and Sis Hurley told me to sleep some more, even though that is usually not allowed. That helped a bit, and we still proceeded to go to an appointment, but after that appointment I felt AWFUL. Body aches and I had a fever, so we called Sis Barrow and she told me I could sleep for a bit, but we had to cancel an appointment. 

So that was no fun, but I slept for about an hour, and after felt relatively better. So we went out to proselyte :P Which was maybe not the best idea, but we had lots of miracles!! On the way there, we ran into this guy who stopped us and said he had been to Hawaii and seen the BYU there and the temple and such, and that he had a Mormon friend who had given him a Book of Mormon a long time ago. He wanted to meet, and we did the next day! It was way awesome. We met with the Elders, and he just wanted to know all about our church and what we believe, and such. Which NEVER. HAPPENS. First time on my mission, ladies and gentleman. So we hope he will continue to meet with us and be interested. 

So anyways. Back to Wednesday, we were only out for like an hour and 1/2 or so, but we met some other really nice people, though for English. After that, I was sooooo exhausted and felt worse than before, so we went home and collapsed on bed for awhile. We got permission for me to go to bed early because I had a 100 degree temperature :P But in the morning I felt much better!!! Yay.

Not too happy about hitting my 1 year mark

On Friday we had a district meeting, and it was fun because it was with all the new people, and one of them is a little trainee :P haha. He's from America, so it reminded me of my first week in Korea. I had no idea what in the world was going on :P But GUESS WHAT?! I hit my year mark this last week! April 23rd, I went to the MTC a year ago! CRAZINESS! Time flies so fast! So I did some reflecting on the last year, and there are basically no words :P So much has happened, and I've learned so much. Basically, I'm so grateful for my mission. A mission is so weird... happy, sad, fun, boring, awful, great, so much! And I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything, because I've learned (and am learning) so much, and I feel so much more better/happier. I can't even describe it. Even though it is exhausting and hard sometimes, I don't want to go home. :P I'm glad I have 6 more months, but I know they will fly by fast. So I'm trying to work my hardest and do everything that I can. 

That time we crashed a 1-year-old's birthday party

Anyways. Weird story for the week: we crashed a 1 year old's birthday party at a super expensive ($50 per person) buffet. The parents of the 1 year old used to live in Ulsan, but moved. But they came back for the party because of family, or something. So anyways, us missionaries were not originally invited, but a member who planned to go suddenly couldn't, and wanted us to drop off their gift, sooo, all 6 of us did. And they told us to stay and eat. And it was possibly the most awkward meal I have ever eaten. We had no idea who any of those people were. BUT. The food was really good! Haha. Sis Hurley describes a mission as "one big awkward moment", and at that moment, it was definitely true. :P 

Besides that, nothing much else to report. I did think a lot about what you said about service, and though I didn't do it every day (probs forgot), I did have it in the back of my mind, and I think it's a really good thing to keep there, so I'm going to keep trying to pray for opportunities to serve. I think some did come up, and so that was cool. We helped a member make a scripture case, and so that was cool. 

Today, even though it was Pday, we met a lady who we had met on a bus. She just wanted to feed us, so we went to her house and ate lots :P so now we are full :P

Anyways. That about sums it all up.

April 20, 2015

This last week was the last of the transfer, and for the first time since being with my trainer, NOTHING HAPPENED!! Haha. So Sis Hurley and I are still together in Shinjeong! Fun fun. I guess we haven't learned our lessons yet, haha. So that'll be fun, and it is good too, because we have had so many miracles lately and have had so much going on.

Overall, this week has been pretty normal. We met people, did stuff, etc. Haha. Sorry, my head hurts right now and I'm tired, soo...

 

 The most eventful things I guess though was that we met with a new-ish investigator with that Swiss member... It was... good. But also, she talked a lot. So. We didn't get to teach her like anything all week, so that was annoying. It's actually rather frustrating, because we are supposed to be teaching, but haven't been able to 'cuz we can't get a word in. So anyways. 

 

There was this less active that we had been working with every week, but now we can't meet her anymore :( She has depression, and she said her mom doesn't like that she meets with us and such so much... SO :'(

But we met another member who is kind of less active, but her mom has interest, so hopefully something will work out with that.

 

On Sunday, we had probably one of the most frustrating lessons I've ever had. It was with this looong time investigator who I had met a few times, and it was the first time for Sis Hurley. But the last time we met it was strange (she was the one who brought up Unicity, or whatever), and she brought that up again, and was basically bagging on our church and the Book of Mormon. We would try to answer her, but she wouldn't listen, wouldn't believe us, or wouldn't let us get a word in. She kept interupting and even though we HAD ANSWERS to what she was going on about, she wasn't letting us deliver it, and if we did, she was like "no". ... So we had to call the Elders in for help, because two foreigners can not talk like that with a Korean. So, that lesson ended up being almost 3 hours, and well... even when a Korean explained things to her, she didn't listen to us. It was really sad. And well, we won't meet with her anymore. Her heart was just not open, she wouldn't even try to think about what we said. So. :(

 

Today we went down to Busan for the transfer meeting to see everyone. It was so fun! I love transfer meetings, and it was super great. Sis Hill is going to be in the same zone as me!! :) I'm so excited about that! She's so fun. 

 

So anyways. I love you all, you're all awesome, and I'm learning lots... there's so much I could write about, but to be brief, I was thinking about that story in the Bible where there's people donating money to the temple's treasury or whatever, and these rich guys throw in huge amounts, and then there's this one poor woman who can only cast in a small few coins, or whatever. 

I was thinking of that in terms of missionary work (and life), I want to be like that woman. Because sometimes you look around and you see missionaries who are SO GOOD, they teach so well, speak Korean so well, train a billion new missionaries and whatever else. And that can be discouraging if you compare it to that amount, but I have learned that what matters is that I cast in all that I possibly can, like that woman. What I have to contribute is different than that of others, so you can't compare it to others, but you just have to be sure that you are giving all that you have. If that makes sense.

April 13, 2015

This past week has been great! Mostly. But seriously, we had so many miracles and blessings this week! Which was great, because the last few weeks have been dry and drier of anything happening. 

On Tuesday, we had a lot of good things happen. We had interviews with our mission president, and while we were walking to the church for that, we ran into this lady who basically was like "oh, you're missionaries? Give me your phone number card. I've been studying lately about churches" Our exchange was so short and I think we were both in so much shock that we UNFORTUNATELY did not get her number, but she got ours.. so we hope she calls. Cuz really. That literally NEVER happens!!!!!! So that was exciting. 

 

 

Then the interviews were just really good. Pres Barrow is just way awesome and he cares for the missionaries a lot, and helps a lot and listens to us and the Spirit well. I asked him about some things I had been thinking about, and he responded to those, and then paused for a minute, and addressed concerns I hadn't even brought up. Rock on, Pres Barrow. Rock on. Haha. From that stuff, I've been learning a lot about how it is the duration of our faith that matters, no matter what is happening, we just need to trust God and do what is right. 

 

Honestly, missionary work is hard sometimes and can get discouraging, but we can be happy knowing that we are doing all we can, no matter if there are not any outward signs to show for it. While I was in my interview, someone called us that we had met on the bus previously, and we might meet with her next week, which would be so cool!! So that was another miracle... And then during English class, this one lady who only started coming last week was asking us a lot of questions about our church, and a member (who served a mission) helped explain some things and basically taught her a lesson :P It was awesome! And so we set up to do the 30/30 English/religion program with her, and met her twice this last week! That was way exciting. We are hoping that things go well with her, because she is sooooooo sweet, and she has some interest in our church, which honestly we don't get much :P 

 

On Wednesday we had a Zone Meeting. The miracle for that day was after we had a meal appointment with a recently moved-in member. As we left, we ran into this one lady on the street who needed directions (and I have no idea why she asked us 'cuz we are obviously foreigners, but luckily we knew), and we ended up talking to her for 30 minutes!! She was also really interested in us and talked a lot about stuff. I've honestly never had an experience like that, so that was cool. We got her number, so hopefully we'll be able to meet her sometime. 

 

Thursday after service, we went to Bangoujin to meet with other sister missionaries to watch the General Women's Broadcast thingy. 

 

Friday was a busy day, because we had 3 appointments, which is NOT common for us. But we had a REEALLY good lesson with a less active we have been working with for awhile. She says she has never felt the Spirit and it is hard for her to believe and she doesn't have much faith, and she doesn't really seem to want to act. But we taught her about happiness through Christ, and I KNOW she felt the Spirit. I don't know if she knew how to explain it or recognized it as such, but she definitely was thinking more deeply and acting differently than usual, and was quiet for a little bit when we finished up. BAM. The Holy Ghost is real, haha. I just love those moments when I know that we have done and said what God wanted us to say, and I know He helped us know what to say. That was legit.

 

We were preparing for the picnic. Note the holes in my stockings.

Then we had an appointment with that new lady from English class. It didn't go as well... we really just didn't have time to teach what we wanted. And then we met an older investigator that we haven't been able to meet the whole time I have been in Shinjeong. She was nice, and she'll be interesting to teach.. She has a strong personality :P Friday night, we found out that our phone isn't working anymore!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! We can only receive calls and texts, but we can't call or text anyone. Sooooo.... that's irritating :P And it's not just us, it's the whole mission, except for a few phones. So we can't call anyone to set up appointments or tell them that we are home and such. It hasn't been working since then, and still doesn't work. They told us they would fix it on Monday morning.... but now it's 3:00 in the afternoon and it still doesn't work. Sooo.. I hope they get that figured out soon, or else we will have no appointments this week :P Or we'll have to get really creative using other phones. Sigh. 

 

So anyways. On Saturday, we went with some of the elders to a member's house and got stuffed with large amounts of curry and persimmon. Then we spent most of the rest of the day watching General Conference!!!!!!!! I seriously loved it so much! We finished watching it on all on Sunday. There was a lot of talks that I liked, but I really liked Pres Uchtdorf's talk about grace. I really liked that part that he talked about how we are saved AFTER we do all that we can do, not BECAUSE OF all that we do. We always need to do our absolute best to follow Christ, but we still will always need Christ to help us. Ah. There was just so many good things that they talked about. 

 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/the-gift-of-grace?lang=eng 

 

 

So yup. Things here are going well!! This past week has basically shown me the principle that I had learned as described above. We have been trying so hard all transfer to find new people to teach, and we just kept trying, and suddenly this week we got ALL KINDS of miracles and people popping out of nowhere talking to US (which is so rare). I'm really grateful for that.

 

 This coming Thursday is transfer call day, so we'll see what happens! We are predicting that either we will both stay together (which would be a first for both of us) or something crazy will happen, like... opening a new area or training :P Haha. Who knows. I'll tell you next week what happened. 

April 6, 2015

This week... well. I don't really have much to say about it. It was just okay. It probably wasn't the best I've ever had... maybe it was because of the rain? :P haha. Not really. The weather has actually been pretty nice lately, though the past few days has been raining. Sooooo. We really need to find new investigators, we really only have two, but one of them fell and hurt herself and is going to go to a hospital in Seoul.. So. We have been finding ways to fill our time. 

 

Tuesday was eventful in that I ate a bug!!! It was nasty.. There's this Korean food called (spelling is probably way off) Bondegi, which is a silkworm larva... You can eat it just straight up or cook it. We had an appointment with a member who thought it would be fun to feed us some things we have never eaten before, in addition to her other good cooking. So, I managed to get away with just eating one. It was about the size of a jelly bean, but not nearly as appetizing. The flavor was okaaaaaaaay, I suppose, but what made it so nasty was when I bit into it, it kind of exploded with bug juice. :P Nasty nasty nasty. 

 

Wednesday we had District meeting, and well... we have some interesting Elders in our district... one had the talk part for the meeting, and for April Fools, he decided to.. Hm. well. He wrote on the board while singing/humming really random tunes and then suddenly turned around and threw a plastic cockroach at someone, and then continued... We were all really confused. :P

 

 

Anyways. I went on an exchange this week with the sister training leaders, so I went to Kyongju, which was pretty fun. We took a train. On Thursday, when we were headed back to the train station so I could go back to Shinjeong, we passed through a street market, and saw a WHOLE cow head just sitting by the side of the street. So we took pictures, of course. :P I'm debating sending the pic because it was kind of gross. :P Haha. 

 

 

And then at the station while waiting, a woman came up to us and said "Helloo, Jesus Christ loves you" and handed us this little pamphlet and weird candy things. The pamphlet was kind of depressing, actually, about how because man is sinful they can't feel God's love..? What? And the candy was legit weird. Sis Nielson tried to get me to eat it, but I refused. We opened it to just look at it, and it smelled like normal candy, but it looked like a butterfly cacoon. Weeeird. And a train station worker passed by, so we asked her what it was, and she told us to throw it away because it came from China :P Haha. SOoo, we tossed it. That, my friends, is why you don't accept candy from strangers. 

Chinese Dragon Beard Candy

Friday was kind of depressing. We met with two less actives, and one said she doesn't intend to come to church anymore (she had been occasionally. she has depression though, and it looked like she was having a really bad day), and the other only seems to let us meet with her 'cuz she is nice, but doesn't really want to act. Then we did a district proselyting activity and absolutely no one was interested :( But we got ice cream, so that made everything better :P On Saturday, our branch had a picnic, which was pretty fun, and luckily it wasn't raining in the morning. Soon after the picnic ended though, it started to pour :P 

 

Other than that, we met with a part member family, and I really love them. We had a pretty good lesson with them about finding answers to questions, and basically set up to meet them more consistently. So I hope that turns out well :)

 

Today it has been raining, but we went shopping with other missionaries, so that was pretty fun. We haven't seen General Conference yet (or the Women's Broadcast) because of the time difference, but have plans to do that this coming week. I really look forward to it! It should be really great! :)

That's about it. It is crazy how fast time flies, but I'm really glad to be here (no matter how weird it gets :P) 

On an exchange with Sister Nielson

Cherry Blossoms are Everywhere!

 

March 30, 2015

This week was pretty good... but weird :P We were not able to meet investigators basically all week, but we met a lot of members :P So we got fed a lot, but most of it wasn't too much, which was nice. Yummy foooooood.

 

On Wednesday we had a district meeting in Bangoejin, which was Sis Hurley's training area, so afterwards we met a recent convert that she had taught. So that was fun. Her son looks like an adorable mixture of Harry Potter and "Where's Waldo". Haha. Anyways. That evening we had a really good lesson with some members. We talked about member missionary work and stuff.

 

Thursday was really weird. It was one of those "bad days" in which things just.. don't work out and you just want the day to end. But a lot of weird stuff happened. :P I think the only good, normal thing was the service project we did in the morning. As we were leaving, the weirdness started. We ran into the LEGIT Korean Santa Claus. We heard a bike coming up behind us, so we moved out of the way, and a rather large, old man (large in Korea is strange, everyone is small and thin) rode by in a BRIGHT red suit jacket and pants. He had completely white hair and a bigger beard than I have ever seen on a Korean man (they also typically don't grow facial hair). He jollily rolled past us with a chuckle and "hellooo! Pretty!!" ('cuz Koreans like foreigners). We kind of paused and just watched him continue riding. hahaha. After that, we intended to proselyte a bit, but there was A) no one around B) no one wanted to talk to us. Well, except for a man that Sis Hurley knew from Bangoejin. He lived on the same street as them and had 4 dogs, and would constantly offer to buy them shoes. He apparently has an office in our area, and ran into us. He was way excited to see Sis Hurley, and so we got his number. :P 

 

Then we headed to meet with ParkHyangMi, the one who likes to ask interesting questions about spirits. We got there a bit early, so while we were waiting she called us and said she was sorry, but she had fallen and gotten hurt, and couldn't meet us that day, and had completely forgotten to tell us, so we had to travel another 30 minutes home... :P sad. That night, as we returned home for the day, well. The weirdest thing happened. We live on the 3rd floor, and there is no one else that lives in that stairwell, because the 2nd floor is the apartment office, and so we have a separate stairwell from the rest of the residents. So, we heard someone coming up the stairs behind us, which was weird, 'cuz no one else lives there. But we got to our door and opened it, when this guy in his 20's or so hurries up the stairs to us. He said in some garbled English "uh, Sorry, but uh... (looking at Sis Hurley) are you.. solo??" Meaning "single". Hahah. "Can.. could I.. have your number?" Sis Hurley was kind of in shock/paralyzed, so I awkwardly told him "Uh, well. We are missionaries." Awkward pause. "So.. we don't date." awkward pause. Haha. Then he basically said, "ah well, you are pretty (to Sis Hurley), so..." So I said "Well. Have a good night!" hahahaha.Oh man. So funny. We died laughing afterwards.

 

 

One other weird thing that happened this week was we visited a sort of less active member, who lives really far out in the countryside outside of Ulsan. So buses don't come that often, so when we were waiting for the bus to come home, we noticed a fruit stand next to the stop, so we went to see if there was something we wanted. The guy there was super kind, but as we were talking with them a bit, this suuuuper old, Korean equivalent of a redneck came up to us. He was super interested in us as foreigners, where we are from, how old we are, blah blah blah. I could barely understand a word he said because "rednecks" have such STRONG accents (and I can barely understand clear Korean). But essentially, he was trying to get us to come to his house. (He wasn't creepy, by the way, just... from the country :P) He was positively insisting on it, but we kept saying, no, sorry, we have to take a bus soon. He even grabbed at our hands and arms, trying to get us to go. At this point, the nice fruit stand man told him to go away, which he did for a bit. But as we were later sitting on the bench, he came back and started bothering us some more. He wanted us to take a picture on his phone of us, and he had this old flip phone. He didn't even know how to function it, so he gave it to me, insisting I take a picture, I was assuming of ourselves. But.. I took a picture of him instead. Hehehe. I just didn't feel like selfie-styling on this old man's flip phone. He kept saying stuff (I don't know what, but he kept putting his hands on our shoulders, very friendly. He even put his hands on our heads and pushed them together and remarked about how we look like twins. (Sis Hurley is blond haired and blue eyed, by the way.) (... and I'm not). Then before leaving us, he asked if we knew any Korean songs. Nope. So he proceeded to belt one out for us. Hahaha. It was so funny. So out of tune. I don't even know if it had a tune. But it was so funny. He left us, quite happy. I think we made his whole life. :P We just kind of awkwardly laughed through the whole thing. Man. Korea. It's a funny place :P 

 

Anyways. The only other stuff worth mentioning is we took a bus on Sunday to Sis Hurley's last area, Jinju, where an investigator she taught there got baptized. So that was cool, but it was a long bus ride. 2 1/2 hours one way sooo... Lots of bus riding :P 

 

Sooooo yup. That was this week. It was weird. I've been thinking a lot about... lots of things? :P haha. It is crazy that next month I'll hit my "year" mark. So crazy!!! aaaah. I'm trying to use my time as best I can, and do things as best I can, but I know I have my faults and weaknesses, which is not cool, but I know that Heavenly Father helps me to do the things that we need to do everyday. I'm learning to trust Him more, and I am trying to become someone that He can trust too. Anyways.. I hope you all have a good week!! I love you all!! <3

 

Tessa

March 16, 2015

Things this week have been WEIRD. I've been exhausted all week, though I think its because I have come down with a cold or something. Meh. 

 

But anyways. Yeah. Just weird stuff happened this week.

We had some really good lessons with that investigator I mentioned who is really interested in spirits and the afterlife. She has been meeting with missionaries for awhile now, and in November she said she was uncomfortable praying to God because she goes to a Buddhist philosophy school, so she felt conflicted. But this last time we met, we didn't even have to ask her, when it was time to start the lesson, she was just like "I suddenly feel like praying. I'll pray" YEEEEEEES!. Hahah. That was exciting, I was really happy about that. yesssssss. 

 

Crazy story: When Sis Hurley started missionary work, she was in Bangeogin, which is pretty close by (same district). It was there that this investigator first met the missionaries and heard about our English program. We have been teaching her in Shinjeong (my current area) because that is were she lives. So we figured out the timing of it all, and it turns out that it was Sis Hurley that she first met! Crazy stuff!  

 

 

So, I think the weird stuff started on Wednesday. We had a potential investigator, we had gotten her phone number on a bus, and she was pretty friendly, so we wanted to see if she wanted to meet with us. Well, she hadn't texted us in awhile, but then randomly she texted us on Tuesday saying she had been busy during Solar and was currently sick with the flu and in the hospital (because Koreans are hospitalized for the flu.... ... anyways.). She said she couldn't convert to our church because she would get kicked out of her house or something (even though she's like 50), but that we could come visit her in the hospital. Sooo, we did. Haha. It was kinda weird to meet a woman I had only met once in the hospital :P But it worked out. She was friendly and gave us a bajillion snacks, because Koreans shower their visitors with food :P haha. So that was nice. We almost got stuck in the hospital for a long time though, because just as we were about to leave, they started waxing the floors to the hallways RIGHT outside the room we were in.... They said it would take an hour to dry, and we were like "nooooooooooooooo" haha, and we look like cute foreigners, so they figured a way for us to get out. :P 

 

Then we visited the Swiss Korean lady who is in the hospital too. It was fun, and towards the end, a few other visitors came. One was a member, and one was a less active member whose mom was in the hospital too. So, as we left, the member asked us to go visit the other lady's mom for a second.. That was weird too. We just said hi to her for a moment (she was super old), and then she asked us to pray with her so.. we did. It was cute, but we were also confused. No idea what was going on. Then after that, we wanted to put a message card on a member's door, and it wasn't too far from there, so we started walking.. We walked around for awhile, and were kind of narrowing in on the address, when a different member drives by from a different area. So she gives us a ride. It was just such a random day.

 

Some other weird things were in Saturday. We had a Relief Society activity of some kind, apparently for the anniversary of its foundation, or something. It was so weird. Each branch did a performance of some kind, and so our branch did a "synchronized swimming" routine. It was waaaay fun, and so silly. The other branches also did weird/silly stuff. I don't even know how to describe it, haha. There was this funny kids dance that a bunch of middle aged women did, it was hilarious. I feel like something like that would never happen in America, it would be too "embarrassing". haha. Super fun though.

 

Sunday was also really weird. On Saturday, we had run into this one lady on the street, and it was strange because she approached US, and for reasons we didn't understand, wanted to meet us. She was quite eager on it too. Soooo, we weren't sure what to expect, but we agreed to meet her the next day, Sunday. So we arranged to meet her at the place we had first met, and as we waited there, a different lady comes up to us and says that the woman we are waiting for will be late, and so just come with her. ... I was nervous, because there are some... interesting... people who might want to Bible-bash or something, so we were afraid it was one of those churches or something. But we went, and it was some kind of business? It was so weird. Apparently what it is (I think she had explained it to us when she first talked to us, but we didn't understand a lot of what she said, sooooo...) is they have some sort of product they were trying to sell or something? They showed us all these completely BOGUS before and after pictures. You know the stuff, people who are balding in one picture and have hair in the next, or wrinkles being fixed, pimples, etc. Before and after beauty pics. that were DEFINITELY just printed from off the internet. So apparently, their product cures pimples, wrinkles, balding, graying hair, eye bags, scars, 3rd degree burns, Parkinson's disease, and CANCER. Sooo. yeah. That happened. Sis Hurley was nice and was saying stuff like "oh, wow. cool. amazing.. yeah.." etc. But I didn't even try to hide my not-caring and disbelief :P It was when they saw my facial expression that they stopped trying to show us pictures. :P Haha. Soo. Actually, if you could do some research for me, I am curious what "Jeunesse" is?? And what is networking? Because they also asked us about that. Anyways. So. We just told them about missionary work, and how to pray. Hahaha. I don't think we will be seeing them again, but for some reason they were so eager to try to get us to watch some sort of hour-long presentation or video or something. We were like, "uh, no, bye." Hahaha. Anyways. So, Weird stuff. I still can't get over how weird that was.

 

Today we went to COSTCO!!!! Yaaaay!!! That was fun. It felt like America :P

March 23, 2015

This week was pretty normal, I think? Haha. I'm not sure what normal is anymore. Anyways, on Tuesday we helped clean the carpets at the church. That took several hours, and the windows all had to be opened for several days... Which we weren't too happy about because kids. :P But nothing happened, so that was good. Wednesday it rained all day, and we were unfortunately outside a lot of the day :P On those 2 days, we did a lot of calling from the area book, which has records of old investigators. Occasionally, we go through them and call people who might be interested in meeting again, and so we did that, and found someone! So we met her later in the week, which was cool. She wants to study English, but she might also be interested in church.. We'll see :) 

 

Thursday, we had a Zone Meeting, so that was fun. It was fun, and we talked a lot about how to develop "Christlike attributes" and such. And I also got a letter from Sandra Amon!!! That was exciting!! And I also got a book I ordered, "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" (yeah, don't judge. haha). So it was basically Christmas :P And the book is way good! I recommend that all members read it :P haha. That evening, we went to a community choir concert thingy. A member was in one of the choirs, and she invited us, and we got permission, and an investigator to come with us. Fun fun. They all sounded really good. 

 

 

Um. yup. I don't really have much to say about this week. I feel like I've been serving with Sis Hurley for forever, already :P haha. She's funny, and extremely sarcastic :P We are really different, but we get along well. I'm too lazy to really say much more. There's more stuff and thoughts I've had, but. eh. :P

March 9, 2015

This week has been crazy, and crazy good, and weird :P Haha. The usual, I suppose. Last week was the last week of the transfer, and once again I have a new companion :P Haha. I'm with Sister Hurley now, who is a transfer younger than I am. So we met at the MTC, she was coming in as I was going out. So this should be way fun! My last week with Sis Erickson was really good, we had a lot to do and it was just fun. I really liked serving with her, we got along super well. So, we met with that one investigator who likes to ask interesting questions about spirits :P This time it was "when I am a spirit, will I be able to see color???" uuuuh. Gee, I don't know. I assume so :P Haha. But we have been having some good lessons with her, so I hope things will continue to go well.

Saying Goodbye to Sister Erickson

Hello, Sister Hurley

Wednesday was really CRAZY but good. I shall call it the Day of the Taxis, because we hsad to take sooo many to get to all our appointments on time. In the morning we had our last District Meeting of the transfer and took a cheesy auto-timer picture (the usual), 

and had to hurry (by taxi) to an appointment with an English class member to make Mandu (?) which is basically a dumpling/pot sticker thingy. It is way yummy, and she taught us how to make it. It was so fun! I'll have to make some when I get home, if I can find everything. Simple enough, I suppose.. 

Anyways. After that we went to an investigator's office. She is the one we wandered around for 2 hours trying to find last week, but this time we had the name of the place, so we found it really easily. She has been ignoring our calls and texts all transfer, so we were just wanting to catch up with her and see if she was interested in meeting with us anymore. It was my first time meeting her, and she was way nice, but essentially doesn't want to meet anymore, which was sad, because she had so much potential. She used to attend church all the time and almost got baptized, and really seemed to understand well and had all these great experiences (from what I heard about her), but she is now "too busy". It's an excuse, really, but she seemed to know that it was wrong. We shared a short message to her about God's love for her no matter what, and so we had her read this short article passage, and right after reading it she just said something like "But, isn't it also true that if I don't do what I should, God will punish me?" Uhh... I don't know how she jumped from love to punishment, but, we explained it to her and answered some other questions she had (sounded like justifications for not meeting). It was just sad, because she had been SO CLOSE to becoming more happy and such, but... she is choosing not to.

Anyways. Right after her, we went to visit the Swiss/Korean member and her mom in the hospital. It was nice to visit them really fast and talk. The parents really like hymns, so we sang one to them before leaving. In the same room was about 5 other patients, so it was a little awks, but it was also really fun. I felt the Spirit, and just happy. And we gave them all cookies (gotta reward them for listening to our awful singing, right? haha), so that was fun. And then after that we had an appointment with the Priedeman family. They are so nice. It was a good way to end a busy day :P But we were really full :P

Thursday was transfer call day, and we were both fairly sure Sis Erickson would leave, so she had already started packing. Haha.. Sis Erickson is a screamer, so it was so funny. She was on pins and needles waiting for the phone call, and at one point Sis Priedeman called us to ask about something, so when it rang, she screamed. I was like "Shh!! It's just sis Priedeman!!" Haha. And then later after we had finished planning, Sis Erickson was so worked up she turned on some music, so I wanted to make sure the volume of the phone was up, which apparently makes the phone ring again, haha, so she screamed some more. Hahha. As I was trying to explain that it was an accident, the phone ACTUALLY rang, and a LOT of screaming insued, haha. I had to tell her to be quiet so I could answer the phone, haha. So COOL STORY. Sis Erickson is going to go to Suseong!!!!! Suseong has had no sisters since I left there, so she is reopening the area with a Korean companion. I'm so excited for her! She is going to do great, and I was able to fill her in on the area and people we had last been working with. So cool, so fun. :) I'm sure she'll do a great job.

The rest of the week was also busy and such, but less interesting, I think. Eh. I'm actually just too lazy to write about it. But anyways. I'm with Sis Hurley now and I am excited to serve with her! It should be great. :) I'm learning lots and I love it. :D

March 2, 2015

Things this week have been good, interesting, and tiring :P Hahaha. I never realized how much time I would spend during missionary work laying on the ground at home completely done with the world :P haha. Face-palm. :P So not missionary-dignified like. haha. Anyways. This transfer is wrapping up. On Thursday we will get a transfer call probably. We both think Sis Erickson will leave, which is sad, because I think she is the companion I have gotten along with the best. We've had a lot of fun. She keeps teasing me that I will train. We'll see, I suppose. 

 

We had a fairly good week. We have this one investigator who seems to be progressing fairly well. She's sincere, but also has some random questions about spirits and such. She has a Buddhist background, so some of her questions make sense, but I still don't understand WHY she cares so much about certain things. It's hard to explain :P It's just something I've seen a lot of, people focus too much on things that really DON'T matter. Like what Christ really looked like, or how many rules are in the Bible, or why Moroni is on top of the temple, or random stuff about spirits. It's just that frankly, I don't know, and honestly don't care all that much. What I do care about is my own personal progression and relationship with God, if I'm helping others, how to learn and grow as a person or in faith, etc. There are more important things to worry about, haha. Annnywaaaays. 

 

On Wednesday we had a slightly rough meal appointment. It was with an older member of the ward, and so she just made us some kinda old traditional Korean foods, which means they are relatively tasteless. :P So the food wasn't bad, it just had no flavor. :P So we just choked down as much as we could :P Later that day we wandered around for about 2 hours trying to find an investigator's work who has been basically ignoring us. We just want to see her to talk to her to find out if she has any interest anymore, because she used to, but suddenly stopped contacting us. So we tried to find it, but wandered around a lot. We called a lot of people who apparently knew where it was, and they gave us directions, but we were just lost. But I learned that good things come from your apparently useless wanderings :P Haha. While wandering around, we ran into this older member of the ward. She was sitting in a butcher shop (not sure why) (I'm also not sure why there were 2 full length, huge pigs hanging on the wall), and we just popped in to greet her for a second and continued our wandering. We later heard from the Elders that the people in the butcher shop know some members, and those members referred their friend to the elders because our little visit made them curious. Fun stuff! 

 

We had a really good appointment with a less active member we have been meeting to study the Book of Mormon in English. She is progressing so well, and even though she is socially very shy and has a hard time being around people, she has really connected with us and has opened up a lot. I really love her, she's so sweet. We are just worried that she doesn't have anyone in the branch that she really connects with, but we are praying that she will find someone who she likes being around.

 

Sunday was a really good day, mostly, because we had a meal appointment with some members (who cook super well, haha), and there were other members there, so it was super fun and just really nice. And we shared the message, and it was LEGIT. We got tear-points, haha. We made 3 of them tear-up. There's a really good Mormon Message video called "You Never Know" (you should look it up). It is kind of long, but it really connected to those women, because they go around doing soo much good, but sometimes it is hard to see the good that we are really doing. That was just really good :D 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we went to a bamboo forest park thingy near our house, across the river. It was super fun! Almost the whole zone was there and we could rent bikes for free, so we had lots of fun.

Today we had a hard time finding a place to email because the LG store kicked us out :P haha. So we are sitting in a cafe, hoping they don't do the same. Man. Public computers. So hard to find. :p

 

 

Some fun facts of strange/bad things that happened this week: we saw a kid almost get run over (he dashed into the street right when the crosswalk changed, and a car tried to run a red light). Then we also saw a man on top of the City Hall (we live directly next to it) threatening to jump off, so there were a lot of police. Then on Thursday we saw a huge building on fire near our service place. It was a hotel under construction, so luckily no one was inside, but there was all this smoke coming out of the top floors. Then there have been these kids breaking into the church. They like to cook some rice and leave a mess in the kitchen (it's a recurring problem). The problem is there is a window that doesn't close, and so they climb in there, and also the emergency door is easy to open. So to try to stop them, the elders blocked the window shut with a rod, but they still got in that night and in revenge blocked the men's toilet with toilet paper. Silly kids. And ALSO, that member who usually lives in Switzerland got into a car accident with her elderly mother while riding in a taxi. The taxi (taxis here are crazy. wait. just kidding. that's all cars. :P) turned too fast, went off the road, and flipped over. She apparently had to crawl out the back window because that was the only way out. But luckily they weren't hurt too badly. She had a neck brace on, and her mother fractured a rib.

So this week was crazy! 

 

Anyways. As for just my thoughts, something I learned recently was to not be content with our weaknesses. It is easy to say "that's the way I am" or whatever, but God knows who we can become, so He'll push us to be that, and won't let us just be content being "okay". So I had found some ways I need to improve. :P 

 

February 23 - Keyboard Problems

Sooo, the computer I am using doesn't have a functioning "n" key, so I've been pasting each one in, WHICH IS RIDICULOUS 'cuz I apparetly eed a lot of ns. So I'm givig up o the key for ow, uless somethig comes out weird. sorry :P Haha.

Ayways, this week has bee pretty good. Sort of. This past week was Solar, the Luar ew Year/Chiese ew Year, which meas that everyoe was busy, so we could't meet with basically EVERYOE. But we had some projects that we were workig o, so we were able to fill our time. Oe Solar day we ate dinner with a America family, the Preidemans. It was really fu, ad they are very kind. The day after, we met with the Korea woman who usually lives i Switzerlad, ad her parets, who are less active members. They were so sweet, ad it was really fu. I really ejoyed meetig them, though they were super hard to uderstad because they have really strog accets. 

 

Oe funny thig we were told by her dad is that we look prettier tha Hilary Clinton, which is quite a relief :P  Yup... ot too much has bee goig o this past week. So... ot much to say. Today was really fu though, because we wet to the coast today with some other missioaries ad looked at pretty stuff.  :P I'll sed some pictures.

 

we played more at the playgroud tha we probably did at the ocea :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

because cats are the reason we go to the ocean, obviously. the elders tried to teach them, but the cats just ignored them. nothing new :P ;)

 

 

Dad's Note: In the next email, I asked Tessa, "How long has your computer been without an 'n'?" (The correct answer is: "I don't know, because my calendar has no 7's").