4 Months..Say What???

Another week in Korea as a missionary is a another week well spent! It is crazy to believe I have been on my mission for 4 months now. I feel as though I was born in Korea and have lived here my whole life yet at the same time, I feel time is flying. I'm am continuing to have experiences that will impact my life forever. As one of my MTC friends put it, "This is the Hardest thing I have ever loved". How true is this statement! Missionary work is tough. Korean is tough. But Each day bring miracles that are indescribable. Well I'm going to attempt to explain a little why this week was so good!

Monday: I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before but my area is on a peninsula which means we are surrounded by the ocean<3 (I know...I'm spoiled) There is a certain beach called 대왕암 (daywangam) where we usually go at least once a week to street contact because there are usually a lot of people around there! But, Last Monday for P-day, we went on thee prettiest hike around there! You don't have to believe my words...I sent pictures! We met up with the other missionaries in our district and had a district P-day! super fun! Later that night we had a lesson with the Elders. Every Monday night (for the last 3 weeks) at 6:00, we teach a lesson to 3 employees at a nearby hospital. They are interested in English so we do something called the family English Program where we teach them English for 30 minutes and then teach the gospel for 30 minutes. Last Monday we were able to teach them the Restoration and it went really well. It has been fun to see that as my ability to communicate increases, I have been able to feel the spirit testify through me stronger.

Tuesday: We had interviews with our Mission President! He always knows what to say. He told me exactly what I needed to hear. Also, quick story time: About a month ago, Sister Bonney and I met a lady on the street who asked us if we would like to join her English club. She told us it is once a week and that we would be able to talk about our church so of course we jumped to this opportunity! However, after meeting with her for a couple weeks we found that no one in her club was interested in hearing our message. They all come from different religious backgrounds. We told them in order to continue meeting we needed to share a message about our church. The head lady of the club said "I don't think this is going to work" We were devastated! BUT!! then a miracle happened. A few hours after our appointment with the English club, The Head English lady texted us and thanked us for meeting her and that she would love to meet separately sometime to talk more about religion.<3

Wednesday: No appointments so we made invitations for general conferenct and passed them out to ward members, less actives, and investigators. While we were out and about we ran into our recent convert sister kim<3 She invited us over for lunch. Sister Kim has been doing so incredible since her baptism. She has an added light to her and she seems so much happier!

Thursday: I don't really remember so probably nothing too exciting...haha

Friday: SISTER BONNEY's BIRTHDAY!<3 Ended up going to dinner with our Elders and the sisters in our district because that night we also had exchanges! We went to a place called Burger Mugger which is like America in a box. The best burgers in Korea! surprisingly I have eaten a lot of Burgers in Korea because apparently Koreans think all americans eat is hamburgers so they always feed us them! I think I have eaten more burgers here than in America haha. Sister Bonnie was able to go on vacation and leave the area for exchanges on her birthday. We call it vacation because all you have to do is what the leader of the area tells you to do. I was able to stay in our area and be on an exchange with Sister Koo! There are always so many things we can learn from exchanges. Sister Koo is a convert and the only member in her family. I am truly surrounded by such incredible missionaries! We talked a lot about what makes a missionary successful.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY:

I got to be consumed with the spirit as I watched GENERAL CONFERENCE! anddd I got to watch it in ENGLISH (which is a blessing in itself...Sister Bonney had to watch april conference all in Korean! I can't even imagine how hard that would be...) We had one investigator come to conference which brings us to the story of Stacy. Stacy is AUSTRALIAN. We met stacy about a month ago. She approached us on the street because she was curious as to why we were in Korea. She told us that she has taught english here for 3 years! We explained why we were here, gave her our number, but she never called... However...a week and a half ago we saw her on the street again!! We invited her to attend church with us the next day and SHE CAME! As a foreigner in Korea it is a little more difficult to join the church because all the members are Korean but Sister Bonney was able to translate sacrament meeting for her! Then... Thurday we invited her to General Conference and she came! Miracle! Picture 6 foreigner missionaries watching conference downstairs in English with one investigator. haha. Anyway we have our first real lesson with her this week where we will teach the restoration... IN ENGLISH. what? yeah weird haha. I'm so excited!

Moments:

I recently learned the word for Cat in Korean which is (go-yang-ee) and the word for hometown is (go-hyang-ee) with the subject marker so I may or may not have though someone was asking me where my cat was rather than where my hometown was...

While we were street contacting this week we ran into a man from idaho who is a member of the church! He went and bought us all snickers which was theeee best:)

ANYWAY I love you all so much and I am sooo grateful that I get to spend eternity with you<3 That is why I am here. I have been blessed beyond measure because of the message of the restoration. How blessed I am to be able to share that with the people of Korea. Always remember that we are here to be proved and tested because God loves us so much! He wants us to enjoy all of his blessings!

<3 Sister Courtney Hurley