When you pray to have your eyes opened..

First of all, can I tell you how happy I was to be able to skype you all this past week? ahh it was the best and fastest 1:30 minutes of my life! Sadly Jett seemed so scared of me but hopefully that will change real quick once I come home. I hope you all had a really great Christmas! I know that I did! It was definitely one I will remember forever.

This week Sister Lee and I prayed to have our eyes opened and Heavenly Father answered our prayers. We had the most incredible experiences and saw so many MIRACLES!

I wish I had time to explain everything in great detail... but well... I don't.. ha so I will do my best

Monday: After emailing all of you I was sitting waiting for the other missionaries to finish when a lady came up to me and started talking to me in Korean. (this is pretty rare because most people don't assume I speak Korean.. I always have to start the conversation) But this lady was interested in why I was in Korea so I was able to bear a simple testimony to her of Jesus Christ and give her a card that had the "He is the Gift" QR code on it.

Tuesday: The Mission Christmas Party! sooo fun! I was feeling grateful that I have such great friends that have become my family here in the mission.

Wednesday: We met a lady on the street and was able to give her a Book of Mormon and teach her a lesson. Also on the bus ride home our bus drived happened to be a less-active member (not "happened"... it was a miracle) He let us go on for free because he loves the missionaries. we were able to get to know him a little better and share a little message with him.

Thursday: The miracle of the day was that I was able to talk to my incredible family and that I didn't cry. This was a miracle itself. :) I love you family<3 Oh and at our Christmas party a member brought her friend who wants to start meeting the missionaries each week! #newinvestiagtorrrr yay.

Friday: As I served food to the elderly people I couldn't help but feel completely grateful for my life. So many of these people look homeless. Some appear starving the way they sneak food into their bags and always come back begging for more. I can't even imagine a life like that. It is such a priveledge and a blessing to be able to serve these people here in Korea. More of a priveledge than a sacrifice.

On Friday as we were going out to proselyte, Sister Lee and I prayed that we could find a new investigator.... This night was full of miracles as we met several people who want to meet us this coming week. we found many potential investigators! I know this was because we prayed with Faith. The elders called us this day and told us that a new girl will be coming to english class on Saturday because she saw our free english class poster.

Saturday: Another day full of miracles. As we were buying a couple things at a gas station the owner of the store was staring at my name badge so I told him that we were missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He told us that he sees the elders at the gas station all the time. He continued to check out our items and give them to us but as we were leaving I felt a strong impression that I needed to go back and talk to him again. I immediately went back to the counter and told him that we were sharing a special message about Jesus Christ. My companion stepped in and pulled out a Book of Mormon asking him if he has seen one before. 30 minutes later we finished a lesson and committed him to read the Book of Mormon. He told us to come over whenever to talk more about our message. It was awesome. I'm so happy that I followed the prompting that I received from the spirit. We were also able to watch "He is the gift" video with him<3

The second miracle of the day was when we went to English class and met the girl that the elders had told us of the day before. We asked her if we could share a short message with her after class and she agreed. By the end of our lesson she was praying for us<3 I love missionary work!

Sunday: we met with 한미숙 (Sister hanmisuk) and her two 9 year old daughters who we are doing the family english program with. Right now they are our only progressing investigators. Momma I brought those stockings that you sent me that say "God loved us so he sent his son" we stuffed them with snacks and candy and gave them to the girls and the loved it so much. The Miracle was when we started the spiritual message and the husband came in really quick and said,"hey, before you leave, can you give me a Book of Mormon?" I think every missionary would love to hear those words come out of anyone's mouth. We tried to contain our excitement and invited him to join us for the lesson. As we taught we were able to answer several of His questions about the Book of Mormon and how it is different than the Bible. I shared Moroni's promise with him and testified that I know this promise is real.

As you can see God truly helped us to see Miracles this last week. I know that if we pray to have our eyes opened, He will help us open them. I know that this is God's work and not our work and that we must align our will with his in order to be successful.

I want to end with my simple testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that through His atoning sacrifice, His teachings, Hope, Peace, and Example, He can help us change our lives, face our trials and move forward with faith as we journey back to Him and our Father. I have seen how my life has completely change as I allow Him into my life. As I allow him to change me into a better person each and everyday. I'm grateful everyday that I can rely on Him to strengthen me and I'm grateful that I can teach others about him so that they can experience the same joy that I felt when I allowed him into my life.

Love you love you love you!

Sister Hurley

oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The recent convert we have been teaching! and our elders in Sacheon!

Christmas Skype Sesh

We finally got to talk to Courtney on Christmas! Well it was Christmas Eve for us but Christmas for her.  She is doing so good! It was so great to Skype her and see her beautiful face! Isn't she pretty?!!  The whole family got to be there and I could tell Courtney was excited to see that we haven't changed too much!

Merry Christmas!

In honor of Christmas, your scripture for the week is Helaman 14:2-8

This Christmas Season I can't help but be grateful. Grateful I have the greatest family and friends in the world and grateful that I can be a missionary at this time especially here in Korea serving these incredible people that I love so much!

I'm so excited to see all your beautiful faces in a couple days! You on the other hand, are probably mostly excited to see how awkward and weird I have gotten:) Lucky you!

This upcoming week is full of PARTIES for me! tomorrow we have a mission party for all the missionaries which should be really fun! on Wednesday we have our jinju ward Christmas party and on Thursday we have our Sacheon branch Christmas party so this should be a fun week!

This last week has been a really great week for My new companion Sister Lee and me! Sister Lee is so incredible at missionary work and although it is her last transfer with me she is determined to work hard until the end so I am super happy:) She has already taught me so much about not only how to do missionary work well but how to do missionary work smart. I can see that she has worked really hard on her mission!

To be honest, Christmas in Korea is a lot different than it is in the states. The Korean missionaries don't skype their families like the Americans do on Christmas because there are other holidays that are bigger.

This year the missionaries in my area created a board that said "Why do you celebrate Christmas?" on the board we wrote things like family, friends, love, decorations, presents, and Christ's Birth. we had people put a sticker on the picture of the reason why they celebrate Christmas. We used this board as a way to start conversations with people and to share our message of Christ. Sadly only a few people put Christ's birth as the reason they celebrate Christmas but we were able to share our message of Christ with many of them!

Although it's challenging each day to find people interest in our message, I will continue to do my best because I know without a doubt in my mind that Christ is our Savior and I know that the only way to find true peace and happiness in this life and in eternal life to come is by following His Gospel! I'm Grateful to be a missionary here where it is the most challenging thing I have yet to do in my life yet it is the most important work in the world. I love you all so much and hope you have an incredible Christmas!!<3

Love Sister Courtney Hurley

Korean fun fact:

In Korea, I am actually 20 years old right now and at the new year I will be 21! When Koreans are born they are 1 years old and on new years they become 1 year older! So sometimes I forget that I am actually 19 because everyday I have to tell people I am 20! and soon to be 21!

6 Months!

This last week I hit my 6th month mark and I can't believe it. Time is going way too fast! I can hardly believe it is almost Christmas! This last transfer absolutely flew by. We received the transfer call last thursday and learned that I would be staying in Jinju but Sister Kang would be leaving to go to Bangeojin (my first area that I love so much)! Honestly this was a really sad transfer call to receive. Sister Kang and I have become really close so it was a really sad goodbye! Despite the language barrier, we always found ways to serve each other and we became really good friends! My new companion is Sister 이명희 (Sister Lee to make it easy for those who don't read Korean... haha) So yes my new companion is another Korean!:)  Sister Lee went to BYU idaho for a couple years before her mission so she can speak english really well! She will spend her last transfer with me before she goes home. She is from Seoul and is the oldest of 5 kids. When she received the transfer call to come to Jinju it was really hard for her because she was in the middle of training someone, it was her last transfer, and she really loved her area so it came as a complete shock to her. She was 100% certain that she would stay because they almost never make trainers stop training in the middle so it was strange. I have a goal to make this the best last transfer for her because I know that would be a really tough situation!

This last week we had to drop an investigator. It was the first time I have had to do that and it wasn't easy but I know that it felt right and that it needed to happen. She has met the missionary for years now and is still not progressing. Her heart is so closed to religion and I truly think she is just using us to help her learn English... so it needed to happen. BUT.... on a happy note, the same day we dropped her, Sister Kang and I found the most miracle family ever! A family of four with 2 daughters. We are doing the family english program with them, but the parents are really curious about our religion! Our first meeting they were asking all sorts of really good questions. We will be meeting them 2 times a week now so that will be really great!

I don't have a lot of time to write today because it was transfer day and we had to travel to headquarters to have a big meeting but I hope you are all having a really great Christmast Season! If you haven't watched the video "He is the gift" on lds.org yet, go watch it! We have been passing out Christmas cards to everyone with that QR code on it. Because Christ is the greatest gift this Christmas season, I encourage everyone to think of something they can give to him too! My family does this every year and I have truly come to love it. Whether it is finding someone to serve everyday or working on being more patient. There is always more we can do, more people we can love to show Christ that we love him. I love you all so much!

Sister Hurley

Awkward Moment (Hey it's Whitney, I wanted to add this awkward moment that Courtney sent me that I thought was hilarious. She prob didn't want it on her blog but oh well :))

that awkward moment when the elders investigator says "In korea, your face makes everyone else's look ugly" hahahaha I died laughing. ahhh I love being in Korea Whit.

SNOW!!

This morning while I was in the bedroom I heard a scream from the kitchen. I was a little concerned until I hear the words (noon wahyo!) 눈와요! Which in Korean means It's snowing! I was surprised and embarrassed at how excited i got. You would have thought I was 5 years old and seeing snow for the first time. But you know they say the happiest people find joy in the little things right? Is that what they say? not sure. haha but today will be a great day because there is snow! Something that is not very common in Jinju! I decided yesterday that I wanted to take more time to write a good letter for you all since I always seem to run out of time so we will see how this goes:) I will go through the highlights of last week!

Monday:
We had Family Home Evening and we went bowling! I had the spiritual message and I decided to talk about President Monson's talk love is the essence of the gospel. I talked about how we can't truly love God if we don't love our fellow travelers as well! The Miracle of the evening was walking home from the bowling alley talking to a member in our ward and feeling like I could actually held a conversation with someone in Korean rather than being that awkward person who sits listening and
not being able to respond. It's the little progress I notice each day that gives me some hope:)

Tuesday:
We had 3 lessons! I'm not sure what other missions are like but this is a lot for one day in Korea so we were beyond excited:) I will tell you a little about the people we are teaching! 윤성민: sister yunsoengmin. An investigator we have in jjinju. She has met the missionaries on and off for about 3 years or so by now because she loves the family English program that we do. Right now she is not
progressing and she hasn't been for a while so we really feel that she needs to be dropped:( because we think she is using the missionaries to learn English for free. So this week when we meet on Thursday I plan to give her my final testimony and poor my heart out to her before we drop her. I never thought about having to drop an investigator... normally they drop us. haha I know that she feels the spirit in our lessons. especially when we watched the restoration film with her but she doesn't seem to care to find out for herself whether our message is true. She first needs the desire to know truth... like it says in alma 32. Without that initial desire... we can't progress and our faith can't grow!

장윤정: sister jangyunjeoung our super awesome recent convert in sacheoen! She was baptized back in July but we continue to meet weekly with her. We just finished teaching her all the lessons again and we are preparing her to be able to go to the temple! I feel so comfortable around her and I can really see Christ light shining through her.

Sister hong and jeoung: 2 investigators we have that are students at our branch presidents academy. In Korea, the students always go to school and then go to academy after school! They are usually there
until 8 sometime 9 at night! super crazy! But anyway... our branch president is super awesome and he said "all my students are your potential investigators" haha so each week we go to his academy and
build relationships of trust with his students and sister hong and sister jeoung we teach them a lesson each week! It's always fun teaching students because we can relate to them really well! right now only sister hong is progressing because sister jeoungs family is not religious at all so we are still working to help her believe in God.

Wednesday:
I was feeling grateful so I started a gratitude journal. something I never thought I would actually do because it always sounded a little cheezy but I have been surprised at how much my attitude about so many things has changed. I truly am trying to make each day of my mission the best day it can be. Wednesday was also great because I got a Christmas package from my incredible family <3 ahh I was so happy when I saw the blow up Christmas tree haha. we blew it up and put presents under it. seriously so fun. Thank you! also I got even more happy when I saw the ensign! love it so much and I never leave home without it. THANK YOU!<3 Wednesday we were also able to have lunch with a less active who said he wants to attend church!

Thursday:
Another day I was feeling especially grateful to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. Grateful that I can be a missionary at this time. To be able to shout praises to my Savior every single day. I Know He lives. How special it is to be a missionary around the time we celebrate his birth. The miracle of the day on Thursday was as we were leaving our apartment we saw a member in our ward (about age 18) She saw us and ran up to us hugging us and crying. All sorts of things were happening in her life and she was having a really rough time. I know that God put her in our path so that we could help and comfort her.

Friday:
Another day with 3 appointments! Sister 황수정: hwangsujeoung is a less active we have been working with each week. We were able to meet her sons this last week and talk to them about the Book of Mormon.

Sister jeoungahrim: a 19 year old student and our investigator! Her mother is less active but we have been meeting their whole family together each week and doing the family English program with them.

Saturday: The absolute best day of the week the the biggest miracle! WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR and she is incredible. She was originally found in Busan but she lives in our area so we are able to teach her! During our lesson with her on Saturday she explained to us that she loves reading the Bible. She also asked US if she could come to church with us on Sunday. When I shared the scripture Alma 32:21 with her she absolutely loved it! She really loves the scriptures. She is so happy and loves talking to us so I'm excited to see where this goes! We will be meeting her weekly now. Also on Saturday the missionaries threw together a winter party for the branch in sacheon. we played games and ate delicious food (spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches..
what did you expect? we are poor missionaries...haha) but it turned out really well and 3 investigators were able to come!

Sunday:
Fast Sunday. I have noticed it is 5x harder to speak and understand Korean when I don't have food in me so fast Sundays are always a little struggle. But this only means I will never complain about fasting after the mission. If you can get through fast Sunday as a missionary...you can probably do anything. also, Sunday night, after planning, I gave my companion a haircut! yeah what? haha I guess I'm following in your footsteps momma and Whit. :) It turned out pretty good...i think. It was fun nonetheless and she liked it:)

Sadly this week on Thursday we will receive the transfer call telling us if we have a new companion or if we are leaving the area. Sister Kang wants to stay companions but normally they don't keep the follow up trainer with the follow up trainee together for more than one transfer so we wall have to wait and see. This transfer has flown by! I have really loved being companions with Sister Kang. The language barrier has been a little rough but I know I have learned so much korean because of it<3 I have learned so many other things from her as well that are a little hard to put into words.

I'm going to leave with some funny/awkward/embarrassing moments.. well because that is my life.

*That awkward moment when you accidentally ask your companion how much her boyfriend is when trying to ask her how many boyfriends she has...hmm at least we both got a good laugh out of that.:)

*That awkward moment when I tell our recent convert I want to major in math education and then she gives me some math problems that she is doing for her homework that I can't solve...I have forgotten how to do certain kinds of math! maybe I should reconsider my major... haha

*That embarrassing moment when at the winter party, a member (age 18) brings her best friend and I ask her her name but I can't seem to pronounce it right so I say I will try and write it (because we were right next to a white board) but I failed to notice I was using red marker which is a big no no in Korea. If you right someones name in red it means you wish death on that person... ahhh. I completely forgot. luckily my companion stopped me in the middle and they all just laughed. Also,  because I'm foreigner, they didn't think much of it... phewwww.

I hope you all have a really great week! Try to find someone to serve every single day!

Love you all so much! I'm blessed beyond measure to have the greatest family and friends in the world!

Love Sister Hurley

I always try and take picture with my companion because she is so pretty but she won't let me!

BOWLING IN KOREA

made a goal to get 150 and got 163. This is why making goals is important. haha:)

YAY we got a picture together.

Playing the pop everyone else's balloon game at the Winter party!

The hair I cut!

SNOW!!!

THANK YOU FOR THE NATIVITY SCENE MASKS! SERIOUSLY SO FUN!

I think our primary president is going to use them for the upcoming Christmas party!
She was so excited when she saw them!

Our Christmas tree<3 soo fun!
If Sister Kang leaves me next transfer she will only be here
for the first 4 gifts so we only put the 4 out.
We had so much fun blowing up the tree together. haha.

What Koreans do at parties. ping pong. my kind of sport. Another reason I love Korea.

I finally bought a new bag. I'm kinda in love with in.
It has AUSTRALIA on it! and KOREA<3

Hey this is the com (perssiman) that I was talking about that we prune for our service activity!
The orange stuff! honestly I'm not the biggest fan of it.. but I eat it anyway to be nice.

The dog of the lady we do the service activity for! He reminds me of Max!

Guess what this picture is? This is our church! yep.
The second floor of this building! If you look really closely on the
right side of the building there is a sign that goes from top to bottom saying
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" well in Korean of course...
so you might not find it. This is our church in Sacheon where we only have about 15 members!

Korean money!

My area!

The Korean People. ahh I love the Korean people.

My area too. sooo blessed. sooo pretty!

December is here

Well Family,
I'm excited to inform you that now I've almost converted all of South Korea so they may be opening up a mission in North Korea sooner than expected! YAY<3 okay im kidding. in fact we may only have one progressing investigator at the moment but we are working our little hearts out to find more people to teach. Some Exciting activities this week included: picking red bean pods off of trees for our service activity. I know I didn't grow up on a farm, but secretly I maybe could have, haha I love
it:) I love being out in the nature trying to communicate with old Korean women who I can't understand but I continue to smile and try to communicate.

This week I had the opportunity of teaching an Islamic man Korean during our English class which was also exciting!

This week we picked up a few more potential investigators who we will be able to meet this week so I am excited!

Fun fact about the Korea Busan Mission:

Our mission has a special text with a special code that all the missionaries receive if North Korea invades.

This week I met a woman on the bus whose religion believes the Korea is the center of the Earth and is the most dominate country. so that was exciting.

Love Sister Hurley

Next week I will tell you a little more about the people we are teaching!

Thought I(Whitney) would add Sister Hurley's response when her mama asked her what she eats :)

We eat ramen a lot because it is cheap. today for breakfast I had dried squid though so that was tasty. I actually do really like it. Maybe I will send you guys some haha. for lunch and dinner we usually have kimchee and rice. They eat rice sooooooooo much here. like a lot a lot. We actually kinda eat out a lot because with our area being so big we usally aren't home for dinner time. There is something called kimbob which is kinda like sushi that is super cheap here and they sell it everywhere so I eat that a lot and it is super good! mostly I eat a lot of really weird things that I never ate before coming to Korea but that are actually pretty good now:) I'm starting to really like korean food a lot. But every time I say that I'm forced to eat something new that I don't really like sooo we'll see :)

We eat with the members probably about 3-4 times a week so pretty
often! The members really take care of the missionaries here and are
always making sure we are stalked with rice and kimchee haha.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well since it's the week of thanksgiving and all... I have truly been reflecting on the many blessing I have received in my life because of the knowledge I have that I have a Savior. Having His gospel in my life has added a special light that helps me get through each day a little happier.

Well today has been a really relaxing P-Day but it was well needed. We were supposed to have a sister zone P-day 2 hours from our area but because Sister Kang and I are absolutely exhausted so we decided to stay home and rest a little bit. It has been nice:)

This last week I was able to go on the funnest exchange of my life with Sister Hill<3 She is only one transfer older than me so we both don't speak korean super well or really know what we are doing but we both have the fire of being new missionaries so it was a blast! In the 2 1/2 hours we had to street contact we managed to receive 7 contacts and a lesson on the street. (in korea this is a lot okay? haha) But not only did we see so many miracles on this exchange, I learned soo much from her. I am a firm believer that exchanges are inspired. She taught me that I can actually do a whole lot more than I thought I could do. That We don't need to speak Korean perfectly to be good successful missionaries. Everyday I am reminded of How imperfect I am. I have so many weaknesses that I am working to overcome. I still am terrible at Korean too haha. Some days I still can't believe I am trying to learn Korean... haha. but I know that we aren't meant to be perfect. We aren't expected to be perfect. At least not in this life. We are only expected to try to be a little bit better every day and turn the rest over to the Lord. He literally makes up the difference. He fills in the gaps for what we aren't able to do. I'm so grateful I have the knowledge that I have a Savior that can lift my burdens.

This week was also super good because we found a new family to teach! The mother is a less active and she has 3 children. We are doing the family English program with them. I feel there is something special about this family and I am excited to be able to teach them<3

It's been a while since I have sent awkward moments... don't worry, I still have them:)

This last week instead of asking if I could have more potatoes at lunch I asked if I could have more boys. namja vs gamja. they sound really similar okay?! haha so I hope that made you smile a little bit although I am miles away.

I hope you all have a really great week and thanksgiving! I hope you know how grateful I am to have each one of you in my life.

Have the Best week of your life!

Sister Hurley

My area <3

The Sound of Music Korean style.

Me and Sister Hill on our exchange!

Read the book of mormon this week everyone! It's true!

Did I mention that I'm learning how to text in Korean?!

Yummy Food :)

my house:) suppahh nice! sometimes I forget that americans sleep on beds though..

5 Months... what?

I can't believe it has already been 5 months!... seriously I do not really know where time has gone... Anyway... this last week was really quite great because.... I learned a lot about the SPIRIT.<3 I'm going to apoligize in advance because I again... don't have much time to say all that I want to because today we are having a zone Pday about 2 hours away from our area but I will do my best to give you all a good letter:)

This week was soo much better than last week! Sister Kang and I are learning how to communicate better and better with each other everyday. We were able to really open up to each other this last week and understand each other.. it was really neat. Also... I made her want to learn English:) She used to hate English because it is so hard but with me still not being good at Korean... she is sorta forced to learn a little haha but she is excited and has starting asking me questions of what things mean. She can actually understand a lot of what I say from what she learned in school growing up so that has been really nice. I try to speak korean to her as much as I can though! We truly have come to love eachother as we find opportunities to serve eachother each day!

This last week I had the opportunity to teach about the Sabbath day and the importance of keeping it centered on Christ. Memories flooded my mind of when I made the decision to not play volleyball on sunday because I knew it was important to keep the day holy. I was able to share this experience with a family in our ward this past week and testify that we truly are blessed when we keep the commandments God has given us. It was a really neat time for me to share this experience because I could feel the spirit helping me know what to say. Sometimes I feel I get to caught up in learning to speak korean perfectly that I focus too much on the korean rather than focusing on the actual experience and the spirit. This past week I had several experiences where I was able to testify and feel the spirit working through me. These were times I want to remember forever. I know that the language of the spirit is way more important to learn that the language of Korean. The spirit is what converts people.

Also this last week I was able to meet the members of the sacheon branch! Running two areas is soo busy! we switch off each sunday which sacrament meeting we attend. In sacheon there are only about 15 members that attend church so it is like a ward family! We live in in jinju and the church in sacheon is about 1 hour and a half away! So much traveling! In Sacheon they actually have two sacrament meetings on sunday becasue their is a lady in the branch who absolutely not make the first one so us missionaries do I second one for her a little later in the day for only about 30 minutes. I had the opportunity of speaking at both of them because I'm a new missionary and that's what we do haha. I say opportunity because I actually love speaking in church now:) I mean I still stress about it a little bit because Korean... and yeah Korean. But I truly love testifying what I know to be true about our church. I love feeling the spirit work through me. This last week I sought the spirit more and I felt it in more abundance. I worked to truly forget Korean, not worry about making mistakes and let the spirit guide. The spirit is so important! please strive to have it daily! pray for the spirit to guide your life! love and serve those around you! The most important time in your life is now!

I will leave you with a couple scriptures that played a role in my life this past week.

D&C 122:9

John 14:27

Love you all! thank you for all the support. I can feel your love all the way from america to korea! hope you have a great week! I am praying for you!

Love Sister Hurley

Changes for days.

SOO Many Changes in this last week! Change is always a little hard but I know that there are good things to come! My new companion is Sister Kang, I think I mentioned this last week but she is such a boss! She is pretty young in the mission and only in her 5th transfer but she is completely qualified to be follow up training me.  Her mom and her are the only members in her family and her parents are divorced so yes. She is "daybock" which means "big squash" in korea. which basically translates to awesome.

They use that for things that are a big deal. Anyway, this last week has been quite challenging trying to communicate with each other. We carry our phone dictionary around with us everywhere we go and use it multiple times a day! A lot of the times I am confused as to what is going on but I know it will get better. I know I will learn Korean and hopefully a few other things from this experience:)

Other changes... Our apartment is a mansion compared to my last one. Which means it has 2 rooms! My last one only had one and it was meant for one person to live there haha so I feel like I'm the most spoiled missionary around now with 2 rooms! You think I'm kidding... It's seriously super great:)

Anyway...like I mention last week I am now over 2 areas! A branch and a ward! We switch off each week which one we go to which is a little challenging. The areas are about 1 hour away from each other so we spend a lot of time traveling which Is really a  bummer but I will use this time to study or find people on the bus to teach so it won't be too bad. We don't have many investigators right now so we will have to do a lot of finding this week! Also because we have two areas that means 2 MCMs, 2 service activities, 2 english classes, so each week is pretty full from the start!

I had the opportunity of speaking for the 3rd week in a row in church yesterday and I will be privileged to speak again in my other areas branch next week which will make for 4 weeks in a row! Let's just say i'm beginning not to stress about things like this anymore which is a really great thing haha. It is a lot more fun to speak in church now that I can speak a little bit more too! I know I'm improving a little bit each day even when it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

It was super fun to meet some of my new ward members yesterday! They are all so sweet! The children all attacked me after church and started playing with my blonde hair. I will have to send a picture haha it was pretty funny:) There are a lot of less actives in the area I am in now so I think that this transfer we will work really hard to reactivate them!

Other exciting news! Because one of the areas I am over (sacheon) is really country, every saturday we prune persimmon at our ward mission leaders mother's (who is not a member) farm. haha it is actually really fun and quite the adventure. Never thought I would be doing this on a mission... but I can say that about a lot of things. Persimmon is SOO popular at this time of year in Korea. Sadly I didn't really know it existed before coming to korea!

Anyway this last week was good but hard as always. Missionary work is tough but worth it. I'm here because I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much and I know that they need me here in Korea at this time. To help the people of Korea but to also teach me so many things that I didn't even know I needed to learn! I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to be here! I want to work hard every day and do what I can to be a little better and to help others come unto Christ. I love you all so much! Thank you for you love, prayers, and support! It means so much to me! I pray for you all everyday!

Sister Hurley

Mission t-shirt!

Sister Kang and I

They like me cuz I have blonde hair... haha

New life in Jinju!

SOOO Much has happened since last week. I feel like it has been a year since I wrote last! Thursday night I received a transfer call telling me that I would be leaving bangeojin and that I would be going to jinju! I would be over two areas. one has a branch of about 15 people in in at the other has a ward with about 50 people in it! My new companion is Sister Kang! She is Korean and this is now her 5 transfer so she is pretty young but I already love her so much! I am in for tor the adventure of a lifetime because she doesn't speak English very well but it only means I will learn Korean super fast right? She is seriously so sweet and kind<3 One thing I didn't think much about before I left to Korea was transfers. I didn't realize how hard it would be to leave these people that I have come to love so incredibly much. I have come to understand how we can show love and feel love despite a language barrier. Because it was my last week in bangeojin I wanted to work harder than I ever had to make sure I left feeling like my work there was done. We were able to meet Stacy again (the australian) and give her a BOM. She is so incredible. I had a couple "ahh teaching in English is so easy" moments.. but I got over it pretty quickly because I couldn't imagine serving anywhere besides Korea. I know someone needs to teach the Korean people the gospel and I know God trusts me enough. Stacy told us that she sees a light in us when we speak. Its a testimony to me that God is truly with us everywhere we go. <3 We also had the opportunity this last week to meet with a Filipino. Sister Bonney and I met him on the street a couple weeks ago. His native language is cebuano and he seemed interested in what we believe so we ordered him a cebuano book of mormon that we were able to give him before I left. I don't have this much time this week but know that I am living it up in the countryside of jinju with My incredible Korean companion sister Kang! I love you All so much!

That moment you realize you are in Korea when you are at the branch presidents house and you have live octupus in front of you on your plate. it's tentacles suck to your tongue...ew. haha. But sister Bonney said "If you chew it really fast it stops moving!" haha sooo funny. I LOVE KOREA<3

Sister Hurley

Korean kids from my first area.

A sister I got to know well in Bangeojin<3 love her soo much!

Note from Sister Kim's son

Bangeojin ward mission leader!

Sister Bakmiyeon. She helped so much with our recent convert Sister Kim <3

Korean Food! :)

I ate live octupus. yes. it was still moving when I put it in my mouth. It was actually not bad... haha.
#adventureisoutthere