11 Days Until Korea!

안영하세요!!

Tomorrow is the day! I get my flight plans! I head to 한국 (Korea) in 11 DAYS! August 11 is the big day. Where has the time gone? My time here at the MTC has flown! I have never been so excited and scared for something in my entire life. My 한국말 (Korean) still needs a lot of work but I have come a LONG way since the first day. I can't wait to get to Korea!!!

On Sunday I woke up and had an intense feeling that I was going to get called on to speak in church. I spent the morning preparing my 5 minute talk in Korean. We have sacrament with our entire Korean branch which now consists of 89 missionaries! We have a very big branch! The whole sacrament meeting is always in Korean which is really neat. After we take the sacrament, a member of the branch presidency gets up and announces which two lucky missionaries ( a sister and elder) will be speaking that day. It is seriously like the hunger games! Everyone prepares a talk but nobody knows if they are giving it until they announce their name. "From district E we will have...(I'm thinking to myself Just say my name already... I know it's me) Hurley 자매님 speak" YEP. So that happened. I spoke in church on sunday. All in Korean. I felt it turned out pretty well. The branch presidency is always so sweet and gave me such nice compliments like "You're ready for Korea right NOW" and "Your pronunciation was incredible!" Such a confidence booster but I know I still have SO MUCH I still need to learn. They are just good at making us feel good. 

Tuesday night devotional Brother Groberg (the actual missionary from other side of heaven) came and spoke to us. He talked about the importance of bearing testimony. It was a really neat devotional and he even showed so clips from the movie the "other side of heaven".

Recently I have been studying the Atonement a lot and it has been changing my life. I have so much gratitude to my Savior Jesus Christ for the Sacrifices he made for me. Me and Sister Dayley have been praying and seeking revelation about how we can better help our investigators. After our prayer, we both knew automatically that our investigator Brother Kim NEEDED to learn more about the atonement and how it can help him in his life. Yesterday we had the opportunity of teaching him more about the atonement. As we read scriptures together and testified to him of our loving Savior, he felt the spirit. I think it was one of our best lessons yet because we could really see him coming unto Christ and wanting to follow him.

I am truly so incredibly grateful for this privilege I have to be a missionary and to serve my Savior and my Heavenly Father at this time! 

Love you all! Don't have much to say this week. I will be in Korea before you know it and will hopefully have tons of crazy stories:)

Love Sister Hurley

Awkward Moments

• This past week I was teaching my investigator about the atonement and he was asking some pretty intense questions when I found the perfect scripture to answer his question. It was in Helaman 5:11 but instead I accidently had him read Helaman 4:11. You will all have to go read the differences to see what made the moment so awkward haha. My poor teacher was trying so hard to stay in character and trying not to laugh. Good news...we learn from our mistakes. haha. that will never happen again! (you gotta give me a break though... it is a little challenging finding the scriptures in the Korean Book of Mormon haha I will get better though) 
• Also during a different lesson about the atonement this past week at the end we were giving the pamphlet to our investigator. (The word pamphlet and atonement are very similar in Korean) My companion accidentally said "This is your atonement!" instead of "This is your pamphlet" Oh the look on our investigators face was priceless. We couldn't help but laugh at the moment. So many words in Korean sound so similar!

  

  Said bye to Sister Eyring this last week sadly! She will change lives in JAPAN!

  
  

  

  
  The new missionaries going to Korea arrived!

Happy Pioneer Day!

This past week, the oldest district left to Korea so my group is now the oldest! We also had new missionaries come in yesterday that are going to BUSAN! So this was super exciting!  There were 3 new girls that I am excited to get to know better. Before the older group left, one of the younger elders asked them if they felt ready to be going to Korea. One wise elder responded, "If you relate the readiness to the amount of Korean you know, you will never be ready." This statement is SO TRUE. I dunno if you know this but Korean is tough. haha. So many words sound so similar and the sentence structure is completely backwards!

I would be lying if I said this past week wasn't challenging. Every week seems to bring some unexpected challenges. Tuesday, however, everything seemed to turn around for the better. I received a couple dear elders that day that said exactly what I needed to hear. The day got even better when I went to Tuesday night devotional. (I dunno how I'm going to survive without these in the field, they are the best part of the week!) Stanley D. Ellis came and spoke to us. The strange thing was that himself personally only spoke to us for about 10 minutes. He had 8 of  9 of his kids there (the 9th one is currently serving a mission in Korea! whoot whoot!) ALL of his Children have served missions and he had each of them bear their testimony on missionary work and share some advice. It was such an incredible devotional! He read a letter from his daughter in Korea who has been their 9 months and has had no baptisms but talked about how there is no where else she would rather be. Several of his kids talked about the jealousy they felt that we get to the privilege of serving the Lord at this time. This is the only time I can full-heartedly devote my life to the Savior! This is the greatest thing I could be doing right now. One of his children talked about expectations. Oh how my expectations of missionary work are so very wrong! He said, "Do we value what comes, or do we look for another?". "Blessed is he or she that is offended but is immersed in the work anyway". I love this. Missionary work is hard but all we can do is take what we have got and make the best out of it! ATTITUDE truly is EVERYTHING. Another Big topic of the night was Obedience. EXACT OBEDIENCE. I have been trying really hard while I have been here to be exactly obedient but one thing I had struggled with was the 10:30 bedtime. We would have lights out but often times I would be stressed out about the next day so I would study Korean for a little longer or worry about our lesson plans. After Tuesday Night devotional I recommitted myself to being exactly obedient which included being IN BED trying to fall asleep at 10:30. Tuesday night I DID IT and Wednesday... I saw a MIRACLE. EXACT OBEDIENCE BRING MIRACLES. People say it all the time but I didn't really understand it or believe it until it happened to me. Yesterday was incredible! I got to host for my 3rd and last time which was just as fun as always! I hosted one really sweet girl from Guatemala who barely spoke ANY English so it was challenging trying to communicate with her but she was so happy to be here and to be a missionary! It was a tender mercy to be able to host this sweet sister who would soon be learning English so that she can serve her mission in California. Anyways... the MIRACLE of the day happened after hosting. Sister Dayley and I had 10 minutes to prepare a lesson for our teacher Lee Ja Mae Nim. We were stuck when we were preparing and didn't really know what direction to go and before we knew it, our time was up. We said a prayer before going in that we would have the spirit with us to help us. Being completely honest... Our Korean was a struggle. We struggled forming even basic sentences. We weren't sure where to go next with our lesson when the spirit suddenly prompted us to ask her about her mission and what she taught her investigators about the Doctrine of Christ. She responded slowly. There was a lot of silence but it wasn't awkward silence. It was the kind of silence that felt good. We knew the spirit was there. I felt prompted to ask her if she would share an experience with us. (Sister Lee grew up in Korea but served her mission in California, spanish speaking and now she is going to school at BYU and is an incredible Korean teacher here at the MTC. One of the only sister teachers and we love her so much!) She shared the sweetest experience with us and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Although we couldn't understand her story completely, we could feel of her sweet spirit. We bore our testimonies to her. THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG. We finished with a prayer and then she was supposed to give us feedback. She started to tear up again and asked us why we asked her the questions that we did. We explained that we felt prompted to. She told us that she knew we were inspired to ask those questions. She told us to never worry about our Korean but to ALWAYS focus on the spirit like we did in that lesson. If we do this, our investigators will KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that our message is true. She said if we were to teach every lesson like we taught that one that we will change so many lives. It was a real confidence booster for me and sister Dayley and an experience I will never forget. It was a true Miracle. Moments like these make every challenge of missionary work worth it. The experiences I am having here in the MTC are REAL. Everyone, even our teachers, are struggling with things that we as missionaries can help. I have never been so excited to be a missionary.

I love you all SO much. 

Sister Hurley

Awkward Moments

• That awkward moment when you show up to gym wearing the EXACT same thing as an elder in your district. Shorts form the bookstore, and the Korea Mission Shirt... haha
• That awkward moment when a native Korean comes in and talks to us in Korean and we realize how little Korean we actually know because our teachers are white and speak really slowly and clearly to us.
• That awkward moment when you talk about bath houses for 45 minutes of class and realize you will sometimes have to teach the gospel nude to a bunch of Korean women. So that will be an adventure to say the least...
• That awkward moment when you break a glass in the lunchroom. and then people stare. a couple missionaries even clapped for me.  

This is the district that just left to Korea!

Working hard in class... or hardly working?

Week 5 say what?

HEYYYY

I don't know why I am writing right now because yesterday was P-day (at least that is what it feels like! haha) Has another week really passed? This past week was similar to all the other weeks here in the MTC!

A few highlights included:

Our investigator Brother Kim hyeoung sheek committed to baptism! I love watching our investigators come closer to Christ. Tomorrow we will be teaching him the Word of Wisdom!

We taught our investigator Brother Hwang the Word of Wisdom and It was really hard for him to hear because he smokes, and drinks coffee and tea. He was so willing to try giving it all up. I can't even imagine how hard that would be but I know that the blessings that I promised to him living the word of wisdom are real. I know that coming unto Christ will help him be happier.

We gained a new missionary in our district last friday! His name is Elder Harvey. He was originally called to serve in Canada, french speaking so he was here for 2 weeks learning french when he was reassigned to California, Korean speaking! He is Taiwanese and learned a year of Korean in college before entering the MTC because he is planning to go to school in Korea after the mission!

Last week in TRC I had the opportunity of teaching a 17 year old Korean girl who is thinking about serving a mission. Through my broken Korean I bore my testimony to her and I explained to her why I chose to serve a mission and how much I love being a missionary. It was a really neat experience!

Sunday was incredible as usual. Sometimes we have time to watch Mormon messages online which is always a highlight! My companion recently got called to be the music coordinator in our branch so she often has meetings on Sundays. Because of this, I often go on splits with a Sister in my branch named Sister Nielsen. I love Sister Nielsen so much and we have become such great friends. It is fun feeling like I have 2 companions!

Tuesday Night devotional we got to hear from L. Edward Brown who was a former mission president in KOREA and also a former seventy! He talked about having confidence when we share the gospel.  After all, we are going out in the name of Jesus Christ, So there is no reason we shouldn't have faith in his name. He also talked about how we as missionaries are promised power from on high. This is the only way such young people on missions can do such great things. This threw me back to a conversation I had with dad before leaving on my mission.I asked him why they didn't send out more experienced and older people to teach the gospel. I am now coming to understand that although me and most the other missionaries out here ARE so inadequate, they send us because we have Christ on our side helping us every step of the way so we are so powerful.

After Tuesday night devotional review my Branch President came and spoke to my district. He asked us how our Korean was coming along and then gave us the x + 2x=3x challenge. X is the number of words we know now. 2x is the number of words we need to learn from now until we leave the MTC so that when we leave the MTC, we will know 3x words! I was at about 300 Tuesday night. Which means I need to learn 600 more words before I go. I have been and am going to have to work harder than I ever have in my life but I am up for the challenge and I am excited!

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to host again! SO MUCH FUN! I was able to host a girl from Japan who had never been in America before until now. She had very broken english but I was able to feel her sweet spirit and know that she was going to be an incredible missionary.

To end on a spiritual note, this last week i really came to understand and realize how God truly knows each of us personally. When I first got my call to Korea, my family knows how inadequate I felt. All I could think about was the language barrier I would have. It was sometimes really challenging for me to trust in Heavenly Fathers plan for me and that is why Proverbs 3:5-6 became one of my favorite scriptures. Being a missionary, I feel so close to my Father in heaven and have come to realize how personally he knows me. I haven't been to Korea, and I won't be stepping off that plane for another 4 weeks but I already love everything about Korea so much. I love the language, the culture, the people, and so much more. I feel so incredibly privileged to be trusted enough to help the people of Korea come unto Christ.

I love you all so much!

Sister Hurley

 Awkward Moments 

That awkward moment when we find out we can look at blogs during additional study time and so a lot of the elders in my district found my blog and started reading all the awkward moments. That awkward moments when the elders in your district are reading your awkward moments that often talk about them. haha they thought they were funny though. I think.

1 MONTH.

HEY.

I can't express how incredible this past week has been! Seriously SO GREAT! On Friday we got to do this thing call TRC where a real member in the provo/orem area that is Korean or speaks Korean comes and we get to teach them! My companion and I got to teach a sister named Sister Park. She was born in Busan! We talked to her a lot about prayer. I know that God hears ALL of our prayers and that he will always answer us in his own due time. After studying a lot about prayer for this TRC lesson I committed to making my prayers more meaningful. I challenge all of you to do the same! Here at the MTC 10:15-10:30pm is known as quiet time. It is a time set aside specifically for us to pray and communicate with our Heavenly Father. I love and cherish this time so much and always look forward to it! I know that he is watching over me. 

In the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18:20 tells us: "And whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given you." We must pray with Faith and with real intent if we desire an answer. I know that sometimes what we desire most may not be what is best for us. God know us perfectly. He knows what we need to progress. I have learned this lesson a lot these past few weeks.

I hope everyone had an incredible 4th of July! It was definitely one I will never forget being here at the MTC. We had a special devotional that night and got to watch Seventeen Miracles! They also let us go out and watch the Stadium of Fire Firework show which was so much fun! 

Sunday night we had another devotional where a man named Josh Wright came and spoke to us. He is an incredible pianist. He played several songs for us and I couldn't help but think of Christopher and his musical talent! I think Chris would love Josh Wrights music. Everyone should look him up!

Tuesday night we got to hear from yet ANOTHER member of the quorum of the 12,  Neil L Anderson! He gave an inspiring talk on the power of the Holy Ghost.

Another highlight of the week was that yesterday (Wednesday),  I got to host the new missionaries that came in!! But even more fun was that I found my friend Isobelle Sorensen from High school volleyball who is going to Taiwan and I got to Host her! (being a host includes welcoming them at the curb and taking them to get their books, find their residence and their classroom) It reminded me of the day I came to the MTC and how ready but nervous I was and how HAPPY I was to have my friend from BYU Dani Hamblin as my host.

This last week our lessons with our investigators have improved immensely. We set a baptismal date for our investagor Brother Hwang! We are teaching our other investigator Brother Kim later tonight which I am excited for. (our investigators are still our teachers right now but it's crazy how much they feel like real investigators when we teach them. We love them so much and want to do whatever we can to help them)

I had kind of a fun experience yesterday where our teacher introduced us to an inactive member Brother Kim who was born into the church and when he joined the military for two years he heard some bad things about the church so he went inactive. We were supposed to do all that we could to help him so my companion and I prayed and felt we were to teach him about faith and prayer. Our entire district was to teach this man but after 2 companionship's had taught him, our teacher came back and said, "alright so now Brother Kim has been meeting with the missionaries and they have been helping him and now he desires to go on a mission but he is struggling with the word of wisdom" (plot twist I know right?) haha so instead of teaching him about faith and prayer we quickly planned a lesson on the word of wisdom (which we had never taught before). We prayed together as a companionship before every lesson and I know that God was helping us know what to say. It went so great! It was kinda fun having a last minute change:) I'm sure that this will happen often on the mission when we have to change lessons in order to meet our investigators needs. 

Anyways...As you can tell it has been a very eventful and WONDERFUL week! I can't believe I have been here for a month. Time is flying by!  I love you all so much and appreciate all the love and support I am receiving. I pray for you everyday!

Keep on doing good things! Remember to keep the big picture in mind!

I LOVE YOU

Sister Hurley

Being a missionary is the Best!

Awkward Moment Time :)

Courtney said she didn't really have too many awkward moments this week but she did tell me that she got her Korean Name this week! This is what she wrote about it:

We got our Korean names this last week (in Korea our names will be in Korean so they can read them) my name sounds like sister "holy" if I were to romanize it. sounds pretty sweet right? Oh unless you take into account that the word in Korean that sounds like our last name is lower back. Not so cool after all. I guess that's an awkward moment. You might as well just call me sister lower back from now on. haha:)

Awkward Moments

Hey, it's Whitney for a sec. Courtney and I have been doing this thing where we send each other our awkward moments of the week.  It's just something to make us laugh but some of them are SO funny so I thought I would share them on this blog even though she may kill me. :) Hopefully she will thank me for the memories later..  I'll just start creating a section after each letter with the awkward moments of that week.

These are the ones she has had so far:

• That awkward moment when you want to laugh in a serious situation is my life here. Especially when watching my district attempt to sing korean hymns. We can't read fast enough for the songs so lets just say it doesn't sound the best... haha. 
• That awkward moment when you ask an elder in your district if he wants a kiss but you are talking about the chocolate kisses your aunt sent you. Yes that happened. Talk about awkward.
• That awkward moment when you're singing alto in the MTC choir when you should be singing soprano so really you just look like that one girl from pitch perfect who is really quiet... oh and then they show you on the big screen during a devotional with 6 members of the quorum of the 12. haha.
• That awkward moment when you are trying to adjust your magnetic missionary name badge when the magnet on the inside of the shirt falls down. In front of elders of course..pretty awkward.
• That awkward moment when I am sitting at a table in the lunch room when I see a friend at the table next to mine so I wave and wink at her... but my district leader thought I was winking at him... #mylife #whyamisoawkward.
• That awkward moment when another day it is lunch time and I take a big drink of ice water when an elder in my district makes me laugh so hard that I spit it out on everyone around me. I have never done this in my life haha why does it happen now? I only made it more awkward when I said, "I figure you don't get to go swimming on your mission so I was just helping you out.." haha I promise my district really does like me. well I think...
• That awkward/ funny moment when we are reading the Korean Book of Mormon in class and after each verse we are supposed to make a comment. My teacher made a comment that was super great, then asked if anyone else had something to add. An elder in my district rose his hand and literally said the EXACT same thing my teacher had just said thinking it was his own words. No one could hold it in. Everyone just started laughing so hard. The elder then said, "sorry I sometimes just repeat things without noticing." don't worry, he was laughing too pretty hard himself. We ended up only getting through 2 verses in the Book of Mormon because we couldn't stop laughing. It was another moment of "what is this life we live?" haha
• That awkward moment when the alarm doesn't go off so you wake up to the sound of a toilet flushing. (this one was from my companion sister Dayley:))

 Hopefully this gave you a laugh:)

4th of July!

Momma and Liz thank you so much for the 4th of July packages! Me and My companion are wearing our matching shirts today! We love them so much. Also, there were enough cupcakes for all the sisters in my branch (all 12 of us), all the elders in my district, and my teachers! They were delicious. Thank you so much!

Being completely honest, this past week was the most challenging one yet, but I still LOVE being a missionary.

Tuesday Night we had another incredible devotional. Lowell M. Snow (A former Seventy) spoke to us on becoming true disciples. He told a story of 2 elders in Germany who couldn't speak the language very well. They taught this lady who decided to be baptized. Later when they asked her why she decided to be baptized she said, "honestly I didn't understand everything you said but it was the virtue in your faces that drew me in" She said she saw Christ when she looked at them.

I want to be like this. I don't know how fluent I will ever be in Korean, but I want people to see the light of Christ when they look at me. A quote Tom shared with me this week in his email was, "Live so that those who know you and don't know him, will want to know him because they know you". I love this. 

Yesterday, the Korean Branch here at the MTC gained 30 new elders and 2 new sisters so that was exciting! We love Wednesdays here at the MTC because all the new missionaries that come in.

One of my favorite teachers this past week left the MTC to go work for the Mormon Channel. On her last day, I got to have a one on one interview with her where she shared the scripture ALMA 31:38 with me.

It says:

"And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in Faith."

This scripture is so powerful. The knowledge we have that the Lord can truly "swallow" up all of our afflictions in the Joy of Christ if we pray to him in Faith is amazing. I KNOW this is true. I have seen him guiding me every step of the way as a missionary. He WILL lift our burdens. He knows  what I need to go through right now so that I can be a successful and happy missionary. 

We are teaching two investigators right now and we are learning so much from this experience. I have seen how powerful the spirit is in teaching our lessons. Through our broken Korean, our investigators have been able to come closer to Christ only because the spirit has lead them.

I hope that you all have a wonderful 4th of July!! Go light some fireworks for me!! I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Hurley

We weird.

The big map that is apparently a MUST to get a picture by :)

In our matching shirts!

4th of July Cupcake Party!