The hardest and BEST week of my mission

If being completely honest, this week...was the absolute HARDEST and most challenging week of my mission yet. I think that the hardest part for me was realizing that I have now been in Korea for 5 weeks and have not taught a single lesson from Preach My Gospel. We have had spiritual thoughts at members houses, read the Book of Mormon with our investigators to help them understand it better, have testified on the street, but sitting down and teaching the restoration, or the plan of salvation. or any of the full lesson plans has not been something I have experienced yet. In the MTC i had the opportunity of teaching almost daily so I felt as though I was learning and progressing. With the lack of teaching, I have been feeling as though I have taken a step backwards in progressing. I have been worried that I have forgotten how to teach because i haven't done it in a while. This was so SO hard for me to accept. Friday of last week, everything seemed to hit me so hard, i felt so low. So incredibly low and discouraged. i wanted more than anything to have an opportunity to teach. i just felt like crying. I turned to the scriptures and read several verses about having patience. i felt i had been patient for so long already but Heavenly Father wanted me to wait a little bit longer. I knew in my heart that i was supposed to be on a mission and that I was needed in bongeojin (my area) right now so I continued to trust in the Lord and in his timing. I then turned to Heavenly Father in prayer. I prayed for help. Help to free me from the place that I was. Feeling so desperate for love and support. I prayed for help to understand what i needed to do to progress. I prayed for experiences to help me learn to teach and continue learning Korean After, feeling so ultimately low, (sorry this email sounds so depressing... just wait, it gets really good)...That night i saw HUGE MIRACLES. i can't share them all but a few include:

walking home from the bus stop Friday night, sister Bonney and i started talking to a sweet lady (probably in her 20s) on the street. She was so intrigued as to who we were and what we were doing in Korea. After explaining to her who we were and what we do we asked her if we could meet with her again to share a message and she said YES. she said that she is not very religious but that she really wanted to learn more. so we have an appointment with her for FRIDAY. YIPPEEEE.

Next miracle...another day we met another lady on the street. ( we can only talk to girls on the street and the Elders can only talk to boys) This lady was so interested in us (mainly because we are foreigners that speak korean) and wanted to take us out for food right there on the street! We were a little worried that she only liked us because we are American but We now have been communicating with her back and forth and we have an appointment with her tomorrow. She said she wants to attend our church this week! She sounded sincere so we hope it happens!

The BIGGEST Miracle of the week has to do with our progressing investigator 김현숙 자매님 (sister kimhyeonsuk) . We got a text from her this past week saying that she wanted to be baptized by the end of the month! #WHAT!!!!!!!!! The missionaries have been teaching her for a couple months now and she is now ready for baptism. Heavenly Father is working so hard on her right now. Yesterday at church I was able to teach my very first lesson to her! (She had already had the first 3 lessons before I met her.) I taught her the word of wisdom. Before now we had only studied the book of mormon with her because she was having a really hard time understanding it.  (I think it is even harder to understand in the Korean translation too) Anyway.. tonight... in like 30 minutes... we are going to have dinner with her family and meet her husband. Before now, he has wanted nothing to do with our church or the Book of Mormon but now he wants to meet us because he knows how much this message has meant to his wife. Please pray for this sweet family especially  Sister kimhyeonsuk. Thank you so much!

Other highlights of the week include:

Elder Aoyagi came to Korea and spoke to our mission! It was so neat! His talk was definitely inspired. He spoke in Japanese so there was three translations going on (japanese, english, and korean) it was super cool! Also my companion has the voice of an angel so she made me sing in this small choir with her for the event. there were 8 missionaries (4 sisters and 4 elders). we sang Savior redeemer of my soul and the spirit was so strong. It was actually a really neat experience for me so I'm happy that she made me do it.

This week was full of so many incredible miracles! With Recent converts, less actives, potential investigators, and investigators we are now working with 14 people. We are truly blessed here.

Fun fact: 

The man on the street that kissed my companions hand got a new puppy (he now has 4 dogs) also he gave sister Bonney and I both huge boxes of snacks. We see him about 3 times a day because he always hangs around our church:)

Awkward moment:

When we are teaching the kids in our English class how to play big bootie so they can practice their numbers and our ward mission leader walks in (who speaks English) and asks why it is called big bootie. haha

I love you all soo much and miss you like crazy but this work is true and I love it with all my heart <3

Sister Hurley