Merry Christmas!

This past week was so great!! On Tuesday we had a Christmas mission conference where we received a lot of training and also had a lot of fun. I saw all my missionary friends and It was just the best way to spend Christmas here in Korea. We all play apart in the hastening of the Lord's work. Each one of us has different abilities and talents that we use to help other people. I really liked how we did this really cool activity where we went from the beginning of our mission to the transfer that we are in now and we were able to see how each one of us is connected to each other and we all play a role in this mission.
The main celebrating of Christmas that we did was the mission conference. The Lord's work doesn't stop so we don't stop working hard either. Plus, Christmas eve and Christmas are like the best day to go out and find people in Korea because it's more of a "date night" than a stay in with family kind of thing. So Christmas day we walked to Mc Donald's for lunch. We tried to be somewhat American on Christmas haha. While we were on our way there, we got a surprise call from our ward mission leader inviting us over for lunch at 1pm with him and his family. Being the fatties that we are though, we still went and ate McDonald's still and then ate more at his house.
I love how I teased Tyler for eating too much McDonald's but I've probably eaten it more in this past two weeks than he has. Shame on me.. so embarrassing.
Christmas Evening we attended the ward Christmas party. The primary children played some bells and sang and us missionaries put on a little musical for them as we sang Christmas songs. I didn't get that filmed sadly. So I'll have to ask around if a member has it. I think the Bishop got it so I'll ask him later.
On Friday I skyped home and saw my awesome family. That was probably the best Christmas gift I could ever ask for. I miss you all so much!!<3 Sadly, that short time was just not long enough.I can't wait till I can talk to you all again on Mother's Day. But no one's counting... hehehe
Friday night we had a lesson planned with our recent convert and her coworker that we usually meet with twice a week, but she was running super super late so we had to cancel on her sadly. Then we hurried to our next appointment that's about an hour away by bus and met with our 30/30 program investigator. It was our 11th time meeting so after English time we had to kind of "break up" with her and remind her about our program and see if she is interested in our gospel message... she totally isn't which we already knew but we asked her anyway, and so next week will be our last time meeting with her. After that we will have no investigators. :( It's really interesting how when I first came to Ansan I had picked up a ton and was teaching a lesson or two daily but now we have like no lessons practically. Really sad... But we still have been working with the ward and a lot with the young women. Sister Carter and I have taught young women's every single Sunday and done the young women's activities so we are at least still doing something with our time. The young women are all mostly less-active though so it's been a real stress for us because there's no one helping us really. :( This week is transfer calls though, so I'm eager to find out if I'll be leaving Ansan finally or not. If I stay, I'll be happy cause I love the ward members, but I'm going to go nuts with all this stress. Bleh! Let you know next week!
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Skyping Home For Christmas

Don't have too much to write this week, but I'll be skyping you on Christmas so that'll make up for this lame email.
This past week were had a pretty stressful weekend, but we made it to P-day so we're doing good. Elder Gordon my district leader sold me his guitar for $20 because he doesn't want to take it home so I want to learn. Sister Carter said she'll help me learn. Hopefully I won't get bored and give up but if I do I'll sell it haha. No big deal. It was only $20 haha. Sorry this is so short. I must be going now. We have a lunch meal with the Bishop's wife soon so I must go and I have no time to write. Sorry!!!


Because I had to get off in a hurry I almost forgot something I wanted to share with all of you.
At this special time of year don't forget the real gift we've been given, our savior Jesus Christ.
Share the gift with everyone you know :) The church made a fantastic video and if you haven't watched it, please do. I've shown it to everyone here that we have met with pretty much.
www.mormon.org/christmas

Love you all!! <3

Can You Feel So Now?

I have been super excited all week for today to come so that I could email. Knowing that little baby Tucker was going to be born and I couldn't be apart of it when it was happening was really hard, but it's been really great seeing all the pictures and videos you all sent me. He's a cute little stud! So happy to meet him in person when I get home. Thankfully by then he won't be as fragile.

Anyways, back to missionary work.. this week included Taco Bell two days in a row, participating in Anyang's new stake center ground breaking, and a great interview with mission president! We only got 2 lessons this week, but that was improvement! They were member lessons too! Of coarse the taco bell was my favorite part, but I had a rather spiritual week this week.

My district leader, like I said last week, is getting pretty trunky since he will be going home at Christmas. However, he still prepared a really spiritual training for our district meeting that I really wanted to share with all of you. We read first from Preach My Gospel about the spirits role in conversion. The Bible dictionary says conversion is "changing one’s beliefs, heart, and life to accept and conform to the will of God (Acts 3:19). Conversion includes a conscious decision to give up one’s former ways and change to become a disciple of Christ. Repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ make conversion complete. A natural man will be changed into a new person who is sanctified and pure, born again in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17; Mosiah 3:19).

In the Book of Mormon there's the story of Alma the younger who was the son of Alma a prophet. He did not believe the teachings of his father and became a wicked man. Alma the Younger and the four sons of King Mosiah fought against the Church. They persuaded many people to leave the Church and become wicked. But one day an angel appeared to them. The angel spoke in a loud voice that shook the ground.  The angel asked Alma the Younger why he was fighting against the Church. Alma the Younger was so astonished that he could not speak. He became so weak that he could not even move his hands.Alma, along with other Church leaders, fasted and prayed and asked God to help Alma the Younger become strong again.After two days and nights, Alma the Younger was able to speak and move. (Mosiah 27)
Long story short, after that experience Alma the younger repented, along with the sons of Mosiah and all of them became missionaries. This story in the Book of Mormon is kind of known as Alma the younger's conversion story. However, it's not quite and I'll explain why.
Later on in the Book of Mormon in Alma 5, Alma the younger speaks to people in their cities and villages throughout the land. In verses 45-48 he shares his testimony.

45 And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?
 46 Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.

According to the bible dictionary, a conversion includes repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, AND continued faith in Jesus Christ. Just seeing an angel wouldn't convert Alma. I'm not saying it's not a spiritual experience, but that was just one of the many spiritual experiences that make up his personal conversion as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Everyone at some point in their life has or either will experience a change of heart and has a deeper desire to follow Christ's example.
In Alma 5:26 it says, "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
"Can you feel so now?" it says. I love that! During our district meeting this question really caused me to reflect on my own personal conversion story. I've grown up in this church so it was really hard for me to pick a time in my life where I had this really big experience where my heart was changed and I knew I needed to be baptized. It's more like the little spiritual experiences and truths that I learned that helped shaped my conversion to what it is now. I sure wouldn't be on a mission if I wasn't converted would I? hehe
From when I was a little 5 year old in primary I've known I am a child of God and that families are eternal. I learned from the parents the importance of attending church weekly and keeping the Sabbath day holy. I bet Kara can remember how I couldn't ever play on Sundays haha.  I learned the importance of scripture study and prayer. I learned all about the stories in the Bible and the Book of Mormon; then later as a young woman, I read the Book of Mormon for the first time cover to cover and came to know the truth of that holy book of scripture for myself. In college, I learned God's plan for me and that going on a mission was the right thing for me to do. I could go on and on about different things or events that happened that helped develop my faith and conversion.
The point is that conversion isn't just a one time thing. "Can you feel so now?" Are we continuing to feel the spirit testify to us the many truths that the gospel brings to our lives? If we aren't feeling the desire to be grateful to our Heavenly Father and "sing the song of redeeming love", then we need to do all the things in order to continue to feel that again and again. Those things are going to church weekly, reading our scriptures and praying daily, fasting, service, and just doing everything we can to exercise our faith. I've seen such a difference in how much more I can feel the spirit because I'm daily doing those things. I wasn't perfect at doing all those things before coming on a mission. In fact, it was rather easy to just slip into going through the motions. I occasionally picked up and read my scriptures, went to church every week but it was more like I was putting my time in the pew inside of really trying to feel the spirit and learn while there.

I don't know exactly why I felt a prompting to share this with all of you, but I know there is a reason. I really felt the spirit strong during that district meeting as we shared our personal experiences and so I hope at least one of you appreciated this :)

I love you all so much, and I just hope you all will continue to strive to feel the spirit more in your life.
Love,
Sister Kelly

21 Days of Trunky Christmas

Sister Carter and I had a less eventful week this week. Almost all of our appointments fell through and there's not much of miracles to share. :(
On Monday night though we did family home evening with Brother 유상대 (second counselor in the bishopric) and his family. His wife Sister 이금희 made us some spaghetti just like all Koreans feed us missionaries. Except she had garlic toast too! :D I love spaghetti though so I'm not complaining. Their 11 year old daughter is adorable. She really wants to have a puppy so her mom made a deal with her that if she read the whole Book of Mormon she can have whatever she wants.  On Monday she was currently at Ether and yesterday at church she said she finished  all of the Book of Mormon and showed us a picture of her new beagle puppy. Just made me laugh because she reminds me a lot of myself. I'll have to tell her mom to have her read the whole Bible. It's a lot bigger hehe.
 Anyways, for family home evening Sister Carter and I shared the message of Christmas and together we all made a paper link chain. Each link we wrote a scripture about Christ's birth on it so that every day as a family they can read a scripture together and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. However, members here in Christmas don't really need to be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas is a lot less worldly than it's become in America. After the lesson we played a fun Korean game called Oh-Moke (not spelled correctly.) It's similar to connect 4 but on a game board and you have to get 5 in a row. After watching everyone play I figured out the strategy pretty quickly. Haha I beat the son 3 times in a row! He was getting so butt hurt and kept wanting a rematch. Every time I see him now I ask him if he is practicing. I'm not sure if I can keep my winning streak, it might have just been beginner's luck, but we'll see.  
Our English class still had a good amount of people show up. We even had a some new faces too. The elders are even meeting one on one with one of them too so that was awesome!
We also had exchanges with the sister training leaders this week. Sad to report that I didn't really witness any miracles this time. I think the new sister training leaders are bit more serious and make it awkward. As soon as exchanges were over Sister Carter said she had missed me a lot haha. I love having a fun missionary companion. Missionary work doesn't always have to be serious you can have fun with it :) So, I'm grateful we only had to do that for one day.
Our district leader Elder Gordon is going home at the end of this transfer so we came up with an idea of 21 Days of Trunky Christmas album. Every day we sing a trunky Christmas song for him. So far we've come up with All I want for Christmas song "All I want for Christmas is to go home", Oh Christmas tree song "Oh airplane ride or airplane ride how soon I will be flying", I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus song "I saw president with travel plans" and today's is Feliz Navidad song "i packed all my bags. I packed all my bags. and sent them to the mission home."

Last night we all had dinner with a member who has two less active children one is in young women's and the older is now almost done with high school. So they invited all of us missionaries over so that we can become friends with them. Seriously, I have been trying for like two months trying to be friends with the daughter but Sister Carter is so great that as soon as she meets her she has her laughing. So I'm positive Sister Carter was meant to serve here in Ansan. The members just love her and compliment her on her Korean. Haha last night they said you are just like a Korean who can't speak Korean. We think that's a compliment...maybe? haha Either way they love her!
On our long bus ride home, we all began talking about miracles that we've seen and how when people talk about missionary work it's a lot different than what you experience on your mission. Yes those amazing miracles of having the spirit guide right to a prepared person who is ready to receive the gospel into their life does indeed happen, but for all of us at least, we probably have those type of miracles happen like 2 times in a year. So far, I haven't had that happen. We all shared our experiences of little  miracles we've seen. Miracles of having an investigator read the Book of Mormon without us evening asking them to or like my miracle where 길은희 prayed after she hadn't prayed in so long!  Yeah those all don't really sound like miracles when you asked about what happened to them now, but they were tender mercies to us in our eyes. There is no way those things happened without the Lord's hand being in our work.
I hope you all can try finding those little miracles or tender mercies in your life.
Love you and miss you all!
Sister Kelly 켈리 자매

It Was Snowing!!

It's finally December! I've been waiting and waiting. As soon as it finally comes BOOM! Snow comes too. We had the first snowfall of the year. I was just sitting at my desk studying and heard something outside so I looked out the window and IT WAS SNOWING!! It's not sticking to the ground yet though, so  I'm hoping I get my winter boots soon because my feet are freezing in these flats.
Whenever transfers come around you can tell how much you are loved by how many meals you are invited to. Sister Jeong had a ton of members who asked but we only had room in our schedule for 3. On Sunday we had a meal with the first counselor and his whole family. Super fun. Then on Monday night we had one with the Bishop, his family, and 3 youth from the ward. The Bishop's children are the cutest! They made Sister Jeong and I some letters and gift boxes. And little 준서 (Joon So) had a nerf gun and he had fun shooting it at the sliding glass door. One of the young men decided to tease him and he put the nerf bullet all the way at the top of the window. Watching Joon So trying to get it done was hilarious. In his cute little korean voice he kept saying, "I don't need help. I don't need help."
On Tuesday night we had our last meal at a fancy restaurant with two of the relief society women. I don't know what exactly I ate, but it felt like Thanksgiving turkey to me so I was happy. Then Wednesday was my half way mark!! Yay for 9 months! I celebrated by going to transfers and that's pretty much it. I also met with the zone leaders so I could finish the first lesson in our mission language program. My goal this transfer is to finish it all so I can go to President Morrise's home and have brunch with them right after Christmas. So far I'm off to a good start.

My new companion Sister Carter is hilarious! We broke the ice real quick when she farted in front of me. So yeah we're getting along great. She's from Virginia somewhere closer to Washington, D.C. She is 21 and like ridiculously talented. She can play tons of instruments, can sing, speaks like fluent Korean and just is really funny and a movie nerd. So, she fits in our district perfectly.

On Thursday we walked to the service center because we were like literally BUTT POOR! We had lots of fun there. Because Sister Carter was new there, the woman who work there asked her to sing for all of the elderly there. It was so fun. They even asked me to sing. The only english song I could think of was once there was a snowman haha. It was fun. While there I had a man tell me in in Konglish that I have a nice body haha and we also witnessed an old man flirting with all the old ladies. It was hilarious. In korean he was like, "oh are you done eating" implying he'll take their trays and then one of the old ladies slaps his butt and laughs saying, "stop! you know i'm not" Sister Carter and I just busted up laughing. Then later we say the same way flirting with another old women. She was sitting in her walker laughing and yelling for him to stop as he pushed he completely down the hall. The best part was after he pushed all the way to the other side he laughed and just walked away leaving her there. So funny! I love elderly people. 
For Thanksgiving dinnner we went out with the elders to a buffet called Ashley's. Cheesecake is normally about $18-$20 so we wanted to go there because it's only $12.90 for the buffet and they have endless cheesecake. I ate soo much! We had a really fun time spending thanksgiving together. Nothing replaces thanksgiving dinner at home though. For me it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, but we tried by saying things we are thankful for. Because I didn't have any cash on me I tried using my card, but it declined for some reason. So I'm grateful for the elders. they ended up paying for me. I hate the end of pay periods -__-

Today we got more money though so we're finally not poor! On Saturday we only had like a spoonful of rice left so we went to the elders begging for some rice. I felt like Oliver Twist "Please sir may I please have some more?" haha Elders pretty much had no rice after they gave us some so hopefully a miracle of endless rice happens to them because they fed the servants of the Lord before themselves haha.
Anyways, I love you all. Glad you all had a great Thanksgiving! If little baby Tucker is born this week please make sure to take pictures and videos for me. I'm bummed I can't be there for it.
Stay warm!!
I almost forget to tell you!! We had a miracle this week well I guess two miracles. So on Wednesday we have our English class, and this was the first time in a long time that a ton of people came. We had our usual students but then we had at least 4 new faces. And it was really fun! And we made sure to have them all commit to coming this next week. I'm praying they do. Our English has been so sad lately with only 2 coming sometimes just one student. So having a ton was great. Sister Carter says she's the reason lol but whatever the real reason I don't care just as long as they come! :D Then last night we got a call from a former investigator. She is the wife that Sister Jeong and I randomly ran into at a cafe and one of the Sister Training Leaders Sister Stout used to serve here and she taught this family so I guess she called them and on Thursday we have an appointment with them when Sister Stout comes for exchanges. So that's awesome because I haven't been able to get into contact with them and having Sister Stout coming back here helped a ton!
Love,
켈리 자매

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of things happened this week. It went so quickly. Another investigator dropped us. So now we only have one. I had an awesome visit to the temple on Thursday where I got to see my MTC companion Sister VanWeezep. LOVE HER! Had some really cool experiences where I could tell the Lord's hand is in missionary work, I did Kim Jang again, and got transfer calls!!! My new companion is Sister Carter! :D Yay! She is currently serving with Sister Johnson. Sister Jeong will be transfering to yeonsoo (not sure if that's how it's spelled hehe) she will have a korean companion so that's great for her. I'm super stoked to have Sister Carter though. She's hilarious and I think we'll get along pretty well.
As for the miracles I saw this week.. On Tuesday Sister Jeong and I were visiting some less active members. More like trying to visit less actives. We had planned the night before who we would visit so they all lived near one another. So we visited the first one, a family... no one was home :( Then we tried looking for the 2nd one, but the address has been changed to the new address system so it was confusing for us to find where it was. My companion stops at this building that didn't look anything like an apartment so I questioned her at first when she started to walk in. "Is this even an apartment," I said. She said, "no... I don't know" and immediately I felt this curiosity to want to see what my companion was doing and so I followed her up the staircase. We got to the 3rd floor where this door was open. My companion asked a woman who turned out to be working there and she said she'll help us find the address. Well turns out the address we were at was indeed that address we had for the apartment. However, the less active doesn't live there because no it's a service center. As much as that sucked, we witnessed a miracle. As we were talking to her, she began asking us so many questions and eventually she started asking if we can teach English there as a service and also be friends with her daughter. She asked for our phone number and gave us hers and her daughters! She was only English interest but it was amazing! We left just in awe, just letting it all sink in. We had planned on looking for a less active member, but the Lord instead had other plans for us. Then after we visited the other less actives one of them included Sister 길은희, the woman who we always visit and I had the wonderful experience of prayer with her. Well, we visited her and her daughter answered the intercom and said her mom wasn't home. We told her to  tell her mom we came and we'll visit another time, and just as the intercom was about to turn off we heard her mom in the background! I was so mad! She told her daughter to lie to us! Ugh! My companion rationalized saying it wasn't her, but it so was. It really makes me wonder what happened. She was talking about going to church with her daughter but now she won't even let us visit.
On Friday we had a really spiritual lesson with Sister 유인순. Our plan was to talk to her about coming to all of church and not just sacrament meeting and teach about the importance of that. WE started about by reading from the Book of Mormon about the prophet Lehi's vision. We focused especially on 1 Nephi 8:31. After reading my companion talked about how should strive to be like those people and continue to "hold to the rod" and do what we can to endure to the end. As my companion was teaching I had a thought go through my head as quickly as you would see a feather blow by."Ask her what changes can you see in yourself from when you were baptized to now?" If one wasn't in tune with the spirit you'd miss it. Thankfully, I was. Without even thinking, I just asked her. In the past I always worried about figuring out if I even know how to say that but I just knew that question was inspired so before I could even let myself doubt my faith, I asked her. And as I said it I felt the spirit insistent become stronger within my heart. Because of my inspired question she shared an experience she had with prayer that week and it was an amazing experience she had! Later, after the lesson, I asked my companion about that question asking if I said it right. And she said it was perfect Korean! I couldn't believe it! The gift of tongues really worked! I've been studying and studying and I'm finally seeing the miracles of the gift of tongues more. And for the first time she actually understood my Korean and my companion didn't have to repeat for me. Complete miracle!
And last I got to help make some kimchi with the Anyang stake. Back home we do tree planting, but here we do stake kimjang haha. It was way more fun than the first time too. It was raining, but we were in the underground parking of the Sanbon church so it was great. I took more pictures this time so enjoy looking at those.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for this wonderful opportunity to serve a mission and be in Korea. I love you all so much!
Take care!
Love,
Sister Kelly 켈리 자매

Brrr... It's Getting Cold!

I miss California weather. I will never ever complain about Utah and California weather ever again. It's so cold here and it hasn't even snowed yet! I don't know if I'll make it this winter. Everyone here also keeps saying that because this summer wasn't too hot that means the winter will be super cold. I want to go home!!! WAH! I don't want it to snow!!
Despite the cold I had a pretty alright week. On Monday we, us and the elders, ate sushi with our ward mission leader and another ward member. So good! I wasn't brave enough to eat a lot of raw fish though. If I was back home I don't think I ever would have tried it, but I'm more used to asian food so it wasn't too bad when I did. Then on Tuesday we had lunch at a less active family's home. So good. It was nice having a nice home cooked meal. Afterwards, we walked to different less active members' apartments in the freezing cold. The wind didn't help at all. It was pretty disappointing walking around in the cold only to find out that they weren't home. When we got home though we got a random call from another less active who we haven't been able to visit for a couple weeks. So the next day we visited her and she gave us some cold squid to eat. Wasn't very good. After we visited her our 30/30 investigator 소정연 (Anna) who didn't have any gospel interest texted us telling us she can't meet anymore. So that was sadly a little bit of a relief. We were going to have to drop her soon, but she dropped herself for us.
Thursday was the coldest day of the week for sure. There's a myth here that says that when 수능 (similar to SAT and ACT) comes it's super dooper cold. And I believe it! I was freezing! Maybe it didn't help that I was outside helping preparing some kimchi to be made though haha.We went to Geumcheon to help with what's called Kim jang.(pronounced kim j-on-g). Every year around this time everyone starts making new kimchi. So we helped make some for a service activity. It sounded fun at first, but touching cold wet cabbage in the freezing cold didn't really make it easy to enjoy myself. They filmed it though and I was actually interviewed so that was pretty cool. I probably looked so dumb. They asked me and another sister to talk about how it's fun and all I could think to say was how I was sorting through the trash. They wanted to get as much kimchi as they could from the cabbage so I had to go through the broken ones on the floor and find the good leaves of it. Normally that wouldn't be called trash but on tv I called it trash haha my bad! They told me it aired on NBC so if you want to try finding it search geumcheon kimchi NBC maybe.. On Friday they continued the Kim jang but we are so busy on Fridays so we couldn't help. Sadly, we missed out on the fun part of making the kimchi. Oh well. Now I just said we were busy on Friday but actually all our plans seemed to fall through this week. Both our two other investigators canceled on us, but we were able to meet with both the recent converts. And they were really good lessons. 최금자 is preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and so we are in the process of helping her get a temple recommend interview with the bishop for that. As for 유인순 and her daughter, they too are preparing, but have a much longer time until they are ready it seems. It was a really good lesson though taught about revelation and feeling the spirit and how those go together. On Saturday we had a planned appointment with the 21 year old girl 차해라 except she never showed up and later after an hour since we texted her she replied saying she didn't see it. So that wasn't so bad as her just not showing up, but she doesn't seem to interested it seems because it's super hard to make a 2nd appointment with her. We invited her to church like usual, but she didn't show up. Our less active did though only because we made an appointment with her after church though. Either way she came! :)
Temple is this Thursday and transfer calls are this Saturday. Super excited! This week will be a good one. I am hoping I leave, but if I stay in Ansan I'll be ok. I'm just a little nervous about what changes will happen. I don't think I'm ready to be a trainer, but everyone keeps saying I just might be training the new Korean that is coming. Guess we will see.
Love you all lots!!
Sister Kelly 켈리 자매

I'll Be SKYPING Home For Christmas!

I don't have much to say this week, because our schedule is the same every single week. However, Mom wanted me to write one so I am. On Monday night when we went to go grocery shopping we stopped at a crosswalk. Only to notice that the elders were on the other street corners. And we all ended up going to the same grocery market to buy food. Made us laugh because it was random We hardly see the other missionaries unless it's a planned thing. Then on Tuesday we met with the less active YSA again because she had a interview that night for a job but it was a English interview so she wanted to practice with me. At least that was the plan, she is really good at English so we ended up just reading the Book of Mormon together. (Her suggestion too) I then ended up going through the whole history of the Book of Mormon because she wanted to know who was who because she didn't remember from when she was little. It was cool. Of coarse when I did that it was all in English, but I never realized how much I actually know about the history of the Book of Mormon. I even told her about this paper that I have about the Aztec and the Incas who have stories PRETTY DARN SIMILAR to the Book of Mormon. I got it from institute. Anyways, it's all from a book called Ancient Americas and the Book of Mormon I think...?? Can't remember.But she majored in History so she was loving it and was so interested. So I'm planning on giving her a copy of the paper that I have.
We have one investigator who is progressing write now. But she is super interested in learning about the second coming and it's deep so it's going to be a challenge helping her. But we'll try our best. This past Friday we taught her about the purpose of the Book of Mormon and used scriptures a lot to help her understand and see how the Bible and The Book of Mormon work together as witnesses of Jesus Christ. She said she's willing to read it and find out the truth, but at the same time all she wanted to read was about the second coming and millennium. So, I'll keep you updated about her.
As for our other "lessons" we don't really call them our investigators. They are just 30/30 program for English. Not interested but we still of coarse are trying our best to find ways that the gospel can help their needs.
Lately my companion has had some rough times and she just doesn't want to talk to me, but I'm working through it. Trying to serve her as best as possible. We still get along, but I think the 3 transfers of being together is finally affecting us. I'm positive we won't be companions after this transfers over.
Speaking of transfers.. we have about 2 weeks left! I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving so crazy! It'll be my 9 month mark too! Wowzers! Time is flying. Also some awesome news: when we met with the Less active young single adult girl she said I can use her computer on Christmas and then when we visited another member she said I can use theirs too! So happy!!! Can't wait till Christmas!! And little Tucker comes too<3
 Anyways, Love you all! Have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Kelly

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! I hope you all had a fun Halloween. We sure had fun here in Ansan. This whole transfer has just been filled with miracles. We had a less active give 4 referrals to the elder. So random, but it was awesome! And 3 of them came to the Halloween party and so did the less active! Fantastic.  Our investigator 차해라 (21yr old) also showed up to the Halloween party and she had a blast. At the party I did face painting and she was so impressed how great I was at it. However, I was terrible in my opinion haha. All I did was a pumpkin and cats on everyone haha. But she had fun so that's great. She's been busy so we haven't been able to meet with her,but after seeing her she said she'll be able to soon. But just the fact that she came to the Halloween party was a miracle! So great. This past week we also had a lesson with recent converts Sister 유인순 and her daughter 다소. We taught about baptisms for the dead and preparing to go to the temple. 다소 was super excited. However, she is only 10 so she will have to wait till she is 12 years old. But she really wants to get baptized by proxy for her grandma.  So that was a really great lesson. Normally, our lessons are pretty rough with them because 다소 always brings her friends with her and she can't stay focused. But that lesson it was just them two so it went great! I totally felt the spirit and I am so excited to help them prepare to enter the temple. As for other investigators, well... we dropped Sister 박미연. The 30/30 program was long overdue and she wasn't keeping any of the commitments that we extended to her and has no interest in God, so we had to say goodbye to her. She understood, but it was so awkward. It was like I was breaking up with someone. haha Our other investigators are doing ok. We have 2 progressing investigators right now, but let's hope they continue keeping their commitments. One of them is really open but she has so many questions I can't answer them all right away like she wants. I left that lesson so overwhelmed because I don't speak Korean as well as I wished. I was even a little frustrated because I knew how to answer her but I couldn't say all of that in Korean. I needed more time to learn the vocabulary and prepare.. But now I'm trying really hard to prepare for her next lesson on Friday. She still doesn't understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon and where it came from and why we read it with the Bible. So I'll be studying a lot for that lesson.
Well, that's about it.. I love you all!! have a great week!!
LOVE,
Sister Kelly

Miracles, Miracles, and More Miracles!

I just want to start off by saying that I LOVE exchanges with the sister training leader. Every single time I go on exchanges, miracles happen. Zone conference was great.We learned more about feeling the Holy Ghost, making goals and finding by the Spirit. It was great. After zone conference I began exchanges with Sister Hoffman, who is also a red head. YAY for ginger power! haha. Anyways, this time I got to leave AnSan and went to GimCheon (I think that's how it's spelled in English). We did some street boarding with the elders and it was really cool. The board had different life questions like "where do we go after this life", "how can I find happiness", "why do we have trials", and "which church is true?". We then just ask people on the street as they walk by if they would like to put a sticker under a question. Of coarse not everyone stops, but whenever people did. They would put the sticker under the question they want the answer to. Then we would hand them one of our pamphlets that would help them find their answer. It was actually really fun. But so difficult because I kept forgetting how to say to put a sticker in Korean haha. That night we got a call from Sister Hammerl and my companion saying that we had received a referral from the Seoul Mission. It's a woman and her husband and they love members of our church and they want to be taught about baptism and they are interested in baptism. Amazing!!
The next morning Sister Hoffman and I were walking on our way to a park near the apartment and we met a woman who recognized us as missionaries and she is an English teacher and she has been to our church before when she lived in America. So that was awesome! So Sister Hoffman is keeping me updated about that.
After that we went to the park, only to be met by another church who then tries to preach to us about their beliefs. We just kindly listen and then they kindly listened to us as we shared our beliefs, and then we left. So, that was like that other bible bash. It was very sophisticated and polite. That's how it should be, but yeah we talked to lots of people and then exchanged back. 
By the time I got back to Ansan I was so relieved. It felt good to be back in my own "home". On Friday we met with a new investigator who was a referral from another zone. She lives about an hour away from us, so we actually got home at 10pm because our appointment with her went a little over. By a little I mean a whole 30 minutes over. But she's so nice and also an English teacher haha. Pretty much all my investigators are English teachers it seems.
This week all our appointments seemed to either not go well or they were canceled. The 21 year old girl didn't even come to church or our lesson. Wonder what's going on with her?? But we had a random woman come to the church after church who was curious about our beliefs and so we gave her a little lesson and gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Hopefully she calls us. Other than that we are in the process of contacting that referral we received.
Sorry this email kind of jumps around.. I love you all!! take care!
Love,
Sister Kelly

6 Months!

Hey there everyone! On Tuesday we all went to the Bishop's house for dinner. It was their sons birthday party and the  Bishop's wife had been wanting to feed us since they couldn't for Cheosok. It was super fun and the food was amazing! I took pictures so make sure to look at those. Then on Wednesday we met our new elders. The greenie Elder Evans is super smart and already knows a whole lot of Korean. It's insane. And the other one is Elder Steel. He's being greenie broken by Elder Munk. Both of them seem like they will fit in just fine in our district. We went and did english class advertising together as a district and seeing Elder Evans try to talk to every single person possible brought back memories of my greenie days. I wish I could help him more, because I know exactly what it's like being new and not knowing anything. And that's when it hit me that by the end of this month I will have been in South Korea for 6 whole months!! Ridiculous! I always say time flies, but really... it's go soooooo fast! I've been here 6 months! By Thanksgiving I'll be at my half way mark already. So crazy! But enough of that.. If I talk more about it I'll get trunky haha.

So the miracles from last week seemed to kind of lessen this week. Our investigators aren't progressing AT ALL. The 21 year old girl 차해라 didn't even show up to church or our lesson like she said she would, and we received a Book of Mormon back from that the Harmony that we had given service to. She said she can't read anymore, but was still very grateful for our service. We tried our best to get her to keep it. Saying it's a free gift and she can just  give it to someone else who might want it. But she insisted we take it. So that was a little disappointing to have the what I thought was a miracle really not be. However, even though I had some disappointments this week, I still had some miracles. On Thursday, after our service activity I was still hungry so I asked my companion if I could go get a churro or donut on our way back home. But then I had a thought about this waffle cafe close to our house and decided I wanted that instead. Well, turns out the Holy Ghost was guiding my stomach and taste buds. Because if we hadn't had gone to that Cafe then we never would have met with two former investigators. It was a husband and wife who are super dooper smart. He has his masters and she was a nurse for 50 years. We ended up sitting with them talking for about 30 minutes until we had to go. So hopefully we can start getting in contact with them again.
Then on Friday we got a referral from another sister missionary whose area was closed down because of the lack of sister missionaries coming to our mission. So she was referring her investigator to us and we now have an appointment with her this coming Friday. Super excited about that because she is really good at English and also has some gospel interest. Hopefully all goes well :)
Yesterday, we also visited a less activity family who we've never met or seen before. When we got there the mother was super nice and just welcomed us in. She is a professor at two different schools I think... with the lack of Korean I couldn't really understand all. And so while there she had students come over to practice for a debate. We just sat talking to the 25 year old daughter. She seems super cool. She is in her last year of college and has gone to America before for school and just traveling. She said that when she went to Utah she stayed with a family that are members and they reminded her that she needs to go to church again but never did when she came back to Korea. But now she said she will :) And we made an appointment to visit her next Sunday :) So it's a start at least. The whole family is members but all less active so maybe with the help of the elders we can get them all coming to church again.
That's about it for this week.
Silly quotes of the week: During companionship inventory of weekly planning, I said to my companion in a sarcastic way, "Do we have any challenges that are keeping us from... " and then Sister Jeong cut me off and said, "EATING!" haha yeah I guess we eat too much.
If you saw me and my companion together you would see how well we get along so that's why we don't take companionship inventory too seriously haha. We don't really need it.
On another day my companion was whining like a baby trying to annoy me because I told her she can't haha, so while she was doing this I tried to say you're a baby in Korean but accidentally called her a demon instead of a baby. We had a good laugh.
Anyways, stay tuned in for next week where you'll get to hear about Zone Conference  and exchanges with the Sister Training Leader!!
Love ya and miss all of ya!
Sister Kelly