Trusting in the Lord

Well.... we didn't meet our goal to give away 5 copies of the Book of Mormon. However, we did increase our faith and learned a lot about relying on and trusting in the Lord's timing. Every day we leave our house after kneeling and saying a prayer together as a companionship. So, on Monday when we prayed, we sincerely pleading with Heavenly Father to allow us to meet our goal to give away the Book of Mormon that day. It was our Prep day so we didn't really think much would happen until later that night, but to our surprise the Lord already was blessing us with opportunities. While we were on the train heading to my greeny area, Anyang, to go shopping, I was practicing some new Korean grammar I learned with my companion. I noticed a woman in her 20's who was staring at us. Now it's pretty normal for people to stare at me, so I just ignored it and continued to talk to my companion as she continued to stare. Just as our stop to get off was coming she asked us about our church and said she was curious completely catching us by surprise. My companion without even thinking just instantly started introducing the Book of Mormon and got the woman's phone number and we promised to call her apologizing that we had to get off at that stop. I was in complete amazement seeing this miracle unfold before my eyes. As soon as we got off the train I just started smiling with joy as I ask my companion and I soak in what just happened. Later we called her and she is totally interested in meeting with the missionaries!! Except, she lives in another zone area so we had to refer her to the mission office who will then refer her to the missionaries who serve where she lives. Either way, it was a cool miracle to meet her like that.
On Tuesday, my companion began our proselyting time with a prayer. We only had about 2 or so hours to give out a Book of Mormon so we really needed to rely on the Lord. We had planned ahead a time where we wanted to go and when we got there I noticed an elderly woman who had a small cart for groceries kind of like the ones we take to the beach When we walked past her something about the cart sparked an interest in me. It really was a prompting from the Holy Ghost, but it was so quiet I didn't notice it. But after we passed her I felt a stronger prompting and when I turned back to look at her I saw she was trying to walk with her cart except one of the wheels was broken. So immediately I told Sister Jeong that we had to go help her and so we did. We ended up walking about 3 or 4 blocks ( I sent pictures of where we walked) carrying her cart as we talked to her. When we got to her house she was so grateful that she wanted to give us money, but that's not what we do. We aren't paid. We just simply wanted to do service for her. So after explaining that to her, somehow... with all the Korean I couldn't fully understand what was going on. But somehow my companion got this old woman to take the Book of Mormon and commit to read it. Completely left me amazed! Definitely made our night. We continued trying to talk to other people, but that was the only Book of Mormon given out that day.
The rest of the week our schedule was a lot busier, but whenever we had free time we were outside diligently trying to find people to talk to. That patterned followed all the way to Sunday night. We said many many prayers silently and together as companions, trying to best follow the promptings from the Holy Ghost, but it seems as though the harder and harder we tried to talk to people, the more and more rejection we were receiving. We never were able to reach our goal, but I still saw a miracle each day. One day I talked to a man from Florida. NOT KOREAN, except i thought he was. We had a really good friendly conversation and so I felt as though that is why we went to the place we went. And last night we met a woman who met missionaries a long time ago. And she said she wants to meet again and she'll call us. So even though we never gave out Book of Mormon's the still used us in other ways. I know that when I am prepared and I'm striving to be obedient to all the mission rules and keep all the commandments that the Lord is using me to do His work. He strengthens my abilities and provides guidance. I love being the Lord's representative!

Some other random things are that I've been teaching my companion some Disney and Christmas songs. She can sing Supercalifragilisticexpalidous and grandma got ran over by a reindeer fluently. :) haha Don't worry she teaches me some Korean too. However, her famous quote is "I'm a Korean but I'm not good at Korean." haha she is funny. Oh, I also see my car everywhere!! Each time it reminds me that I miss driving! Thankfully I haven't seen the car in red here so it's not my same car. :) haha Oh and this week are going to the temple! I love temple days. Ya know why?
 Psalm 21:4"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."
Love,
Sister Kelly

Fun Week!

Hey there! I'm sure you're all wondering how Cheosok went so I'm here to tell ya.First, on Monday we spent the evening with some Russians! They were visiting their friend who is a member in our ward. One of them isn't a member so they wanted us to come along and just have fun. We went and got some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and walked around a cool park here in Ansan. Cheosok conference was a blast though! So much fun! We we had some training from President Morrise, and also a special guest. Elder Han! He's so nice! He was one of the first missionaries in Korea. He also translated the Book of Mormon into Korean, and he was made a general authority in 1991. He's also been a mission president. First one in Korea and then also other missions in Japan and in Utah I think. It was cool to be able to have every missionary in my mission all gathered together. However, I felt like it should have been a lot more missionaries there, but then again my mission is small. haha In my mind I imagined more missionaries than that that's all. So Elder Han taught us a few things about Korean culture. Some things I already knew and others were interesting and new to learn. President Morrise gave us a lot of new material for helping with learning Korean so that's way cool. The church added to the First 12 weeks booklet adding in things about learning a language. So President Morrise emphasized how the church is emphasizing the importance of learning the language. He said that Korean isn't hard. It really isn't. It just takes a lonnnnnggggg time. After training we all ate lunch together, and then had a fun proselyting activity where we went out and had to do a scanvenger hunt  about talking to people and doing service, etc, and that ended with zone skits and a talent show. It was way too long though, but so funny. I recorded the skits, however, I can't upload them to dropbox because it will take about 4 hours it says. But the skits aren't that good or funny to you anyways because it's half in Korean and it's mission inside jokes haha like about Korean taking a long time and eating spam haha. So we can watch them when I get home in August and I'll explain them to you. The talent show was mostly just missionaries singing. Some were really cool unique things though. Made me wish I had a talent that I could show, all my talents are like being a good listener or something along those lines. Anyway, we didn't end up getting home till 10:30pm! It was so great though. Best thanksgiving/Christmas ever!

Not much else to really report. However, I got my companion to exercise her faith with me. We made a companionship goal to give away 5 copies of the Book of Mormon this week. That may not seem like a lot, but we can barely give out 1 or 2 so it's a good goal I think. I just really want to start seeing some miracles happen. And I've read over and over again in the scriptures about how to do that is to exercise your faith and the only way to do that is to act. So after much convincing I got her to make the goal with me. Sister Aoyagi had shared a story about two sister missionaries who did the same thing except 10 Book of Mormons in one day.  By 8:30 they still had one copy left and so they prayed asking the Lord to provide one more person between then and when they went home for curfew at 9. And after they tried they saw a girl who was walking alone down the street and they talked to her. She wasn't really interested at first but she took the Book of Mormon when they gave it to her. The missionaries insisted on meeting again the next day to talk about why they wanted to give her the Book of Mormon and at first she had plans but she said " what you have to say seems to be more important than what I had planned so I'll meet with you and cancel my plans."  Later this same girl was baptized. Complete miracle! So I want to do exactly that! And so next week I'll let you know how it goes. Pray for me ok?  LOVE YOU ALL!
Love,
Sister Kelly

Fun Happenings in Korea

Happy 추석! (pronounced Chew sowk) So here in Korea they don't celebrate Thanksgiving (because that's an American holiday duh!) but they have their own holiday and it's called 추석. It's much like Christmas and thanksgiving where everyone gets together with friends and family and eats lots of food and give each other gifts. My companion, Sister Jeong, even gets to call home to her family today. If only I was Korean too! :( Sorry guys! haha So tomorrow all the missionaries in my whole mission will be getting together to celebrate and have a mission training as well. I can't wait. All the older missionaries say it's super fun. But that's not all that's happening here in Korea. Last week we had a mission tour where Elder Aoyagi from the quorum of the seventy came with his wife and they spoke to us for 3 days. My zone along with two other zones met together for this meeting. So I was so excited to see not only Sister Gooch, but also Sister Johnson, AND my favorite Sister Van Weezep! They all are as sweet and as beautiful as ever. Since we first came to Korea that was the first time we were all together again. Elder and Sister Aoyagi gave such great talks-in ENGLISH too. Their Japanese and so it was powerful hearing them speak to us in broken English but nevertheless, I felt the spirit. So wonderful. We also all got to eat out at a restaurant together. So pretty much the whole restaurant was filled with missionaries haha. The last thing that's happened lately is that we picked up a new investigator!! :) And she's gospel interest!! Grrr. English interests are annoying! Haha Anyways, she was a referral from some missionaries in another zone. When we first contacted her she just asked us to pray for her, but after we texted and called her about how we are praying for her, she wanted to meet! :) Great right? So, this past Saturday we met her in person for the first time. She told us about the many trials she is having right now and as we just talked to her she just started asking questions about this church and about the Book of Mormon. We ended up reading the introduction together and she said she wants to read the whole thing! Sounds pretty golden right? I hope I haven't jinxed it -__- but there's potential and if all we do is help her come even a little closer to Christ that's all worth it. I've also starting notice how much Korean I actually know and understand. I still have lots to learn but I met one of the newest missionaries who came and they know nothing. So it was nice see how much progress I've made the 4 months I've been here.
I love you and hope you had a awesome day. God bless! <3
Love,
Sister Kelly

It's beef, not DOG.

At the restraunt

Oh the Joy of Being a Missionary!

This past Friday, as my companion and I were walking to go to an appointment, we reach a light intersection where a lot of people are. At this intersection we can cross diagonally in middle of the street on a crosswalk instead of go to one street and then the other crosswalk after that. When we got to the crosswalk I had a prompting from the spirit to cross diagonally to the other side of the street. Not really thinking anything of it, telling myself it wasn't necessary to cross that way and staying on this side of the street was fine. Crosswalk light turns green saying we can cross, and a herd of people begin to cross wherever which way. With the huge crowd of people I never really noticed what was on the side of the street that I chose to say on. Just as we finished crossing the crosswalk I see a foreign white man proselyting (in Korean) to every one that walks by, saying "you must repent! Or you will go to hell!" that's all I caught because of the little Korean I know. I immediately regretted not choosing to cross to the other side of the street, but I had hope that since I was in a huge crowd of people, maybe he wouldn't notice us. Of coarse, I forgot I am also a redheaded foreigner in the middle of a crowd of Koreans. Who wouldn't notice me?
As soon as we walked by him, he recognized us as "Mormon" missionaries. He asked us to stop and wanted to ask us one question (saying this all in English to me completely ignoring my korean companion). And to be kind, we stopped only to realize that he wanted to "bible bash" with us. He started off by asking, "what do we have to do to go to heaven?" and I began to feel a burning within my chest-knowing that it was the spirit. I stood there just looking at him thinking of what I was to say. I said a prayer as fast as I could in my head asking for the spirit to be with me, and immediately the feeling with my head grew stronger and stronger. Now there are many answers that one could say to answer this man's questions, but I knew he was looking for a certain one so I stayed quiet, trying to let the spirit guide me. My companion also was quiet (mostly cause he was speaking really fast in English and she didn't know what he was saying) I decided to tell him, "follow Jesus Christ" In my mind I was thinking that Jesus Christ says over and over again "come unto me", "follow me" etc etc. and He set the example for how we should live our lives. When we follow Him, we strive to do all he did (be baptized, be charitable, etc) but immediately the man said, "No! that's wrong. The answer is believe in Jesus." Then he continued on saying because I answered slowly it shows my lack of knowledge and then went on telling about how he used to be catholic and how "Mormons" are just like Catholics. A cult and they tell you you have to be a "Jack Mormon".  How I'm going to hell. He even said, my companion is ok because she is Korean and doesn't know better, but because I'm not I am going to hell because I don't believe in Jesus Christ. The more and more he talked the stronger I felt the spirit even to the point that my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I remember hearing explicitly these words in my head, "Leave! You have to leave now."He continued on and on stating many false beliefs about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, like the usual false things like that we worship Joseph Smith and that he wrote the Book of Mormon, etc. I knew we needed to leave, not only because he wanted to argue with us but mostly because we had an appointment we had to get to. So just as I was about to speak up and bear a quick testimony, my companion spoke (in English) to him. I noticed he actually listened to her as she bore her testimony, and I as I began to speak he wasn't wanting to listen he just tried to talk over me as I clearing stated the church's real name "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." I emphasized Jesus Christ's name and quickly told him that I know this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Because I have read it and prayed about it and the spirit testified of it's truth to me. He was silent as I said that probably because he was thinking of how he can find fault in what I said. When I noticed he couldn't, I said that he can't take away what I know to be true. His only comeback was that Jesus can. Which really doesn't make much sense.. so after we finally got the chance to leave my companion and I talked it over and we learned a lot from that experience. My testimony has only been strengthened from it and I will continue to do what I came to Korea to do, to share the gospel. I also learned that it's really really difficult to be like the Savior and have compassion and charity towards everyone, but after reflecting on this experience, I just feel sorry for this man. Some where in his life he must have had a hard time, maybe he still is. But he still is a child of God and I never knew I could have Christlike love for a man such as this, but I really did. I just felt sorry and wanted to help him, but he wasn't open to listening.
I know this Church true and that Jesus Christ lives. I am not ashamed of my testimony and I will forever share it.
Love, Sister Kelly

 2 Nephi 7:6-7" I gave my back to the smiter, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
  For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed."

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth..."

Begin With The End In Mind

Hey everyone! Sorry my emails are always so long!
Zone Conference was this week. And the main topic was "Begin with the end in mind." That means a few different things, but the main thing is that when we are trying to find people to teach, our goal isn't to just baptize them. Our goal is to one day get them to go to the temple to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. I also got out of conference that it also can mean something personal. To help myself grow spiritually, I can begin my day with a prayer that is linked to my pray at the end of the day. I've always known this but it never really hit me until zone conference. Our prayers in the morning are the start of us telling God how we will improve and ask for his help. Then throughout the day we have little prayers that lead up to our final prayer at the end of the day where we report to Heavenly Father everything that happened that day. We tell Him about things that we didn't do and need to work on. We thank Him for the miracles and the tender mercies He blessed us with and then we tell Him how and what we will do to be better the next day. And by so doing we will grow and be able to actually recognize the change we are making.
I've noticed that as I've started to do that, it's easier to also recognize spiritual promptings and I can truly see how I am progressing. Sometimes it's difficult to say prayers every morning and night. I know I struggled with that back home, but on a mission it's still hard sometimes. I am more exhausted than I've ever been every single day. So I really just want to keep my prayers short and get straight to bed, but I have noticed that when I pray with real intent and not just going through the motions and saying repetitive things, that I am actually having a conversation with my Heavenly Father and I'm not just "getting on the phone" and saying something real quick and hanging up.  When I tell Him the details of my daily life, I know He is listening.

Anyways, another important thing that I got out of zone conference was the importance of family history work. We learned how we can better use familysearch.org to find people to talk to. My companion and I have used the pass-along card and pamphlets and it really is something that the koreans are interested in. Family history is very important to the people here. Just this past Tuesday I had an investigator asking me all about my ancestors, where they came from, how they joined the church, etc. I tried my best to tell her, but I felt embarrassed because I honestly didn't know very much. But after that lesson and after zone conference I've really grown a desire to want to learn and do my family history. My companion are hoping that this investigator will find interest in doing her own family history work, because right now she has no interest in the gospel. Same with our other new investigator. In both lessons with them, I learned the importance of sharing my testimony. Our lesson with a woman named Ann (her English name) was the most difficult. She is only an English interest so it was rough lesson. We began teaching lesson 1 about the restoration of the gospel, but soon after we taught her the 2nd principle the gospel blesses families, I had a prompting to just stop teaching. My companion was probably way confused when I just stopped all of a sudden. I just sat there thinking.  I realized that Ann has no belief in God and us teaching her was like we were just talking to a brick wall. I asked some inspired questions which I know can't remember, but from those questions the spirit guided me to share her my personal experience with prayer. (Don't you just love how this has to do with what I learned at zone conference. Totally not planned. INSPIRED! haha )
And as I shared that experience I could tell from her body posture and facial expressions that she was actually listening to what I was saying. I told her that she has the gift of agency. She can choose to listen to our message it's up to her, but I bore the most sincere testimony I think I've ever given of this church and that I know it's true. I don't know how she felt or what she got from what I said, but I know I felt the spirit and my companion said she felt the spirit so that's what's important. I know that the spirit testifies of truth and that no know can take away my personal testimony. It's the one thing no one can bible bash about. It's your testimony and no one can tell you your spiritual experiences didn't happen. I left that lesson with the confidence that my testimony impacted her somehow. Many she doesn't have the interest right now to believe in God, but we never know.. somewhere down the line she might meet missionaries again and come to believe?? Only God knows :)

We also had a lesson with our recent convert where we learned she is struggling with some of the commandments. We made goals with her to help her one day go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. She will have trials along her way, but I know the temple is the place to be. I want her to be there with me :) So I am excited to help her along her journey.

Anyways, that's about it for this week. We had a 5 week transfer so that means we had transfer calls! Yay! My whole district is staying put in Ansan. Strange I know, but we're happy about it. Just means there's still work we all have to do in this area. Also, my old companion Sister Chao is going to be a sister training leader! So awesome. But in another zone so I won't see her as much anymore :( but she'll be great!

Love,
Sister Kelly

Random funny fact about Korean:
Koreans love America and so they sell a lot of clothing with random english words or phrases. Here's one that we say recently: "Don't worry, Be Yonce"

Miracles!

This week started off so great! We witnessed a miracle! Who doesn't like miracles right? A women (that the elders gave a English flyer to) called us and said she wanted to do the 30/30 program. We were super excited when we met with her the next day because she wanted to meet with us like 3 times a week.! Crazy right!? 3 times! Sister Jeong and I had planned to start off with how to begin teaching in Preach My Gospel and just get to know her better, but she saw the Book of Mormon and asked about it. Sister Jeong began to just introduce it and it seemed to go so well. I know I felt the spirit. The whole time that Sister Jeong was talking I wasn't really sure exactly what I should do. I wanted to be apart of the conversation but I just didn't know what to say, let alone did I understand anything. So I said a prayer to myself, and I received revelation! AMAZING! I felt this strong urge to give her the restoration pamphlet. We already had started to tell her everything in it, so I hesitated. But I knew it was a prompting so I gave it to her. And in the best Korean I could say, I asked her to read it and we would be talking about it next time we meet. And she said she would! Great right?  Immediately after the lesson, Sister Jeong and I began to picture this woman's conversion and we realized, if she was truly golden, she could be baptized by the end of the month! Amazing! I asked my companion if we could say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for this miracle. It felt cheesy to ask that- realizing how much of a sister missionary I am truly becoming haha.
English class was once again a success on Wednesday night. We played charades which was a little hard for them but I had fun haha. On Thursday we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I stayed in Ansan with Sister Lyman and Sister Jeong left. Boy was that a fun adventure! It just reconfirmed to me that all of you are right. I am terrible with directions. JUST TERRIBLE! We didn't have any lessons planned so we just had free time to talk to people on the street. We had planned to go with the elders but because it was raining they didn't want to anymore. Sister Lyman and I then decided we would visit a member in the ward. I had been there once before with Sister Jeong so I knew the buses to take. That was the start to our fun adventure of being lost haha. I ended up telling us to get off two stops too early. I thought we missed our stopped and so we walked until I would recognize the area. Well, I never recognized anything haha. We only walked straight down one street a long ways so we just turned around only to realize somehow we went in a circle? I still don't understand how? It's one straight street! haha But yeah, we walked all the way back to the bus stop we got off at and took that. Only to realize we took it going the wrong way. The bus went to it's last stop at a gas station where a bunch of buses were. We had a good laugh because of how random that was. I ended up calling the Elders for help and that got us going the right direction where I got us lost again by getting off the bus too soon. But we found our way home safely. Getting home at around 10pm. Yeah I had to call the Zone leaders and tell them. The elders all had a good laugh at my stupidity haha.  The next morning after exchanging back, we received a text from that one woman and she said she has completely no interest and her husband doesn't approve either. So that was a little bit of a downer. But we're doing ok. I understand it may just not be the right time for her to receive the gospel into her life.
I also finished reading the Book of Mormon yesterday. I was so happy! It only took me 3 1/2 months to read it. Fastest I've ever read it.  Reading it again only strengthened my testimony of it's truthfulness and I learned so many new things I never noticed before. I thought I had a good understanding of the stories, but now (probably because I am a missionary) they all made complete sense and I learned so much about how the missionaries like Alma, Sons of Mosiah, and Amulek were and how I want to be like them.  I can't wait to begin reading it all over again :)

Oh and I made dinner on Tuesday! With A-1 steak sauce ! So good. I miss eating delicious American food, and as soon as I admit that, the members take us to eat pizza hut. Hahah Yup on Friday we went to Pizza Hut Restaurant. It's super big and fancy here. Like it was a sit in diner. So good too. Sadly, so expensive. I ate a ton so it was worth the money. haha Anyways, that's about it this week. I loved hearing from all of you! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Kelly

Just Keep Swimming

This past week I was feeling a lot better. It had a lot to do with going to the temple on Thursday. I love temple p-days because not only do I get to attend the temple and be inside the Lord's house, but I only have to wait 3 whole days and then it's p-day again. Awesome right? Going to the temple was just what I needed. When we got there I had to wait a whole hour for the English session. That's the downside of having a Korean companion. But it was fine I was able to sit in the waiting room with President Morrise's wife. After my session was over, I felt so rejuvenated and recharged. I realized I didn't need to worry so much about my worries. Sounds weird,but yeah. I felt like I could just refocus my attention to serving the Lord will all of my heart again. It's still really hard and I have so much to do and learn still, but I just realized it wasn't important to focus on my doubts or worries. All that was important was helping people come unto Christ. I read an old ensign magazine on morning and there was a talk about "Enduring Well" I wrote about it in a letter to Alejandra. So, I apologize to her now for repeating it haha. I really wanted to share it with everyone because I really liked what it says.

Remember the movie Finding Nemo? One of my favorite characters is Dory. Somewhat because she's just the funny one in the movie, but also because of what she teaches Nemo's father, and us. Dory and Marlin go through obstacle after obstacle together, but Dory, being the ignorant yet optimistic fish that she is, would sing a song I know you all can quote, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim."
Dory and Marlin never would have made it through the huge swarm of jellyfish if they didn't keep swimming. They never would have met crush and squirt and got directions if they didn't keep swimming. And last of all, they never would have found Nemo again if they didn't keep swimming.

No matter what trials we each go through we must keep swimming in order to see the blessing waiting for us. I know that as I kept reminding myself to "just keep swimming" I was more confident in getting through the day. I found more confidence in talking to random people. I still had lots of hard times and I know I will have plenty more, but as long as I just keep swimming, everything will turn out ok. Which I can definitely say it's working. Sister Jeong and I picked up a former investigator again. She is interested in learning English, but we still have the chance to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with her. And we also will probably pick up a new investigator this week... hopefully.
I also witnessed 2 baptisms.. sadly it was just the bishop's daughter and another ward member's daughter. But hey! I was still so happy for them and it gave me hope and made me really exited to one day be able to help one of my investigators take that step and become baptized. Just gotta keep swimming is all haha ;)

Other than that, my week was good. I was able to convince my companion to go to taco bell (it really wasn't that hard haha) and we hung out with Elder Monk, and Elder Kim from my district and also Sister Chao and Sister Nebeker. It was way fun. I also visited the bishop's wife. I learned that she makes the best food ever. She made us probably the most delicious steak I've ever had. So good! She also makes some mean burritos! Oh! and last Wednesday for the first time ever, we had a really good turn out at English class. Probably about 20 came? Maybe... just 2 was nice. The weeks before we had no one show up haha. So hopefully we'll continue to be blessed with success :) Last thing is that I  helped my companion teach the young women's class on Sunday. We talked about dating haha. Since Sister Jeong has never dated she wanted me to share my dating knowledge.. ummm yeahhh it didn't go so well. My Korean sucks still that's all I have to say haha. I did a lot of cerades and pictionary haha

I hope you all are doing good. It was good to be able to hear from you all :)
Remember to just keep swimming this week ok?
Love,
Sister Kelly