This week was HOT.

The weather has been so HOT and HUMID recently sometimes I feel like i'm going to pass out while we are walking... haha but somehow i always have the strength to keep going. I still love Korea even though it's summers are deadly.

This week was a little sad because we had to give one of our investigators to another set of sisters! We have been teaching an investigator who lives in a different area about an hour away because that area hasn't had sister missionaries for almost a year now but last week sisters whitewashed into the area! I'm sure they were happy to have an automatic investigator haha:) i will definitely miss teaching Sister Kangyeoungmi but I trust that the new sisters are exactly who she needs to be taught from at this time.

On wednesday I was able to go on exchanges to a place called pohang! i went with a korean sister name sister Ha. We had a really fun time. I am always able to learn so much from the other sisters in the mission! Recently i have been thinking a lot about the spirit and how we need to put our trust in the spirit rather than ourselves when we teach lessons. Sometimes on my mission i would get really nervous before teaching a lesson but I have come to learn that there is no need to be nervouse as long as we strive to listen to the promptings of the spirit. We must strive everyday to be worthy so that we can feel the promptings of the spirit!

On friday we were able to meet Sister Pakjihyeon!!!! It has been about a month since we had to stop meeting her because of family matters. but we have been keeping in tough with her and this week she said we could visit her! Ahh I felt so happy when i was able to see her again. she said God has been blessing her a lot. I'm hoping we can start meeting her weekly again.

We saw miracles this week! While doing an english activity on the street with the elders, i stopped a woman on the street who when she realized who we were she got so excited(this never happens...a lot of people run away) but she told me that she met the misisonaries about 30 years ago and that she was baptized. she said she attended church well for a little while but then stopped before she started a family. But she said that at the time she was meeting the missionaries, she was SO HAPPY. We were able to receive her contact information and she said she would love to meet again! ahh yayy:) I know that this is God's work and that he is leading us to those who need our messages at this time.

Also Sister Goyumin came to church again this week. During gospel principles class we talked about baptism and Elder Ha talked about how when he was baptized, he didn't know all the doctrine very well but he will always remember the warm feeling that he felt as he came out of the water. As soon as he said that, Sister Goyumin said "So I don't need to know everything to get baptized?" She has been progressing so well and absolutely loves church! She has become really great friends with a member in our branch. I know that because of her desire to learn about the gospel, her heart is open and the gospel has been able to change her life for the better.

Question of the week.. How can you measure success in the mission field? bapttisms? obviously no.. so how? This is something Sister Thornley and I were able to talk about this week. We talked about how progression is a really good way to measure success. The progression of our investigators and our own personal progression. The person we are becoming and our commitment to help others. Giving up our old selves and the natural man and allowing the atonement into our life so that our natures can be changed. I'm grateful I have learned so much about the person I want to become while serving a misson. I can't imagine my life without it! Best decision I have made in my life.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!<3

Sister Hurley

playing the candybar game for family home evening.
first time they have ever played it!

last day with sister Kang!:( giving her to the new sisters!

Hello from Korea!

Hello from Korea! 안녕하세요! It was a really really great week! The Book of Mormon challenge we are doing has been really amazing! no matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon you can always learn new things and feel the spirit so strong. The elders and us worked together this week to create a program for our branch to read the Book of Mormon with us! each family signed up for a section of the book of mormon (having to read about 1 page a day) and by the end of 6 weeks as a branch, we will have read the whole Book of Mormon. When we announced it yesterday a lot of members got really excited for the challenge.

This week we were able to meet our incestigator Sister Pakhyangmi. The first thing she tells us when we get there is that she forgot her Book of Mormon... I was kinda thinking... "oh no... she only cares about english....not our messages" We started by teaching her english as usual but then when the message started we started to ask her a few basic questions to see where she stands about the book of Mormon and it's truthfulness. She said that she knows that the Book of Mormon is God's word and so we asked her if she believed our church to be God's true church established on the earth today and she said yes! and so we invited her to be baptized and she said yes!<3 AHH so happy. I really felt from the moment I met her here in shinjung that I was supposed to meet her and teach her. We have gone through a lot with her as she had to got to the hospital in seoul for 2 1/2 months but now she wants to get baptized. The problem is that she has to go to Seoul on the weekends to teach a workshop class so she has never been able to make it to church:( she knows that inorder for her to be baptized she needs to come to church but she's not sure she wants to sacrifice her dream job. Man why is missionary work so hard? haha Investigators get so close but there is always something they need to sacrifice that shows if they are really willing to take on christ's name. I know that missionary work is never easy because salvation wasn't made to be easy. Hopefully we can get her to see the importance of coming to church. Right now she is planning on getting baptized when her dream job finishes in a year and a half.....THATS A REALLY long TIME!

Kimsurgi is doing really well and has read to 1 nephi 10! She can recognize the spirit so well and I know that she feels the church is true but I don't know if she is willing to leave the church she is already comfortable in!

Also Goyumin is doing so well!!! She prayed at the end of our lesson for the first time this last week and then she came to church on sunday and stayed for the whole 3 hours and she said that she really enjoyed it! she has such a strong desire to learn and I am so grateful that we are able to teach her at this time. She asks really deep questions that are sometimes hard to answer but usually during companionship study before we meet her we think about all the possible questions that she could ask about the BOM reading and we study to find answers. Most the time she asks the exact questions that we talk about the morning of.

Sunday night The elders and us set up a table in front of a department store and loaded it with Book of Mormons and tried to give one to everyone we could see! we were able to teach a lot of lessons and give out a lot of Book of Mormons. The elders we are working with right now are really awesome! They both understand their purpose and work really hard everyday to fulfill it. This last week was a week of a lot of really hard work. Everyday I felt so exausted but I know that when we feel like giving up is when we need to try and work a little harder. I know that it is my love for my Heavenly Father that keeps me going everyday. and I am so grateful for the love that I am able to feel from Him everyday as I serve His children. I know that through the gospel of Jesus christ, everyone can change their life around for the better and prepare to meet God. I know that we all make mistakes and sin but through repentance and the grace of God we can become forgiven and clean inorder to enter His presence again. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to share this knowldege with the people of Korea. Some days are so hard... or well... most of the time it is hard. haha. but I know that it is all worth it because this is the most important work in the world.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Sister Hurley<3

Guess who upgraded to a thicker pad for a bed??

Korean food! so many varieties!

The elders....

Kimsurgi and the missionaries<3

We found the most golden family this week during street contacting!

trainers<3

trainees<3

The Elders! Elder Ha and Elder Smith!

If you do 100 pushups every night you will be able to do this....

playing in a bamboo forrest on PDAY!

My desk... i dunno why I took a picture of this.

My lil Australian Sister Fiso!

hey I can still do a backflip! yayyy

몰몬경

The title of this letter is 몰몬경 because that means Book of Mormon in Korean which is what this week was all about! It was another really great week serving my incredibly merciful Heavnly Father<3 I just like to start again by saying how grateful I am for the experiences I am having.

This last week we were able to have lunch with a sweet member of ours who is in her 60's (Sister Kimdoknam). As we prayed about what message we should share with her, Sister Thornley and I were lead by the spirit to know exactly what she needed to hear. This member has a very strong testimony of the BOM and a very strong love for our Father in Heaven. in fact she spent 2 years of her life reading and then writing the entire Book of Mormon! She has like 5 huge notebooks of when she had written everysingle verse in the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. She said that it really helped her to focus on every single word individually and what they mean. She mentioned that it definitely wasn't an easy task, but that it was completely worth it has her testimony of the Book of Mormon grew so much. As we talked with her over lunch, she talked about the many blessing she has seen since she has joined the church. ( Her and her husband both joined the church in 1979. They used to both be buddhist) As she spoke you could tell that her love for her Heavenly Father was real and that she truly knows that He lives. For the message we decided to sing the song "because I have been given much, I too must give" She was smiling through the whole song because she absolutely loves singing. (She is in a choir and decided to sing us a couple of her choir songs during lunch too:) so fun!) We shared Jacob 2:17-19 with her which talks about sharing the blessing that we have with others. This scripture hit her so deeply. She looked at us and said that she has a goal to find an investigator for the missionaries by the end of the year but that she isn't seeing anyone around her right now that she feels is ready for the lessons. She then went on to tell us that this was the exact message that she needed to hear. She told us that she has a friend who is has an illness where she forgets a lot of things. The member said that she often feels prompting that she needs to go visit her but that it is sometimes so hard so she doesn't do it. She said that she felt that Heavenly Father sent His angels (us) to bring her the message that she needed to hear so that she would go and visit that friend of hers that needs help at this time. Sister Thornley and I felt so happy after leaving her house and felt that we were really able to be an instrument in Heavenly Fathers hands to bless His children. I'm so grateful for this sweet members testimony and that it was able to strengthen my own. I know the Gods loves us so much and wants us to share the blessings we have with those around us.

Yesterday Sister Thornley and I traveled to Busan for transfer meeting! Neither of us is transfering but we had to go to the meeting because we had a half-training meeting afterwards. I can't believe Sister Thornley and I have already been together for 6 weeks! happy we have another 6 weeks together!:) The sad part is that I'm starting to feel that I only have 6 weeks left in shinjung! It makes me so sad to even think that because I have absolutely loved this area with all my heart. I know I need to work hard until the end. During transfer meeting, president issues a challenge to all the missionaries... dun dun dun. Read the entire Book of Mormon. cover to cover. in this next transfer. 6 weeks.  15-16 pages a day! IM SO EXCITED. I have never read the entire Book of Mormon in that short of a time so I am up for the challenge.

Yesterday during transfer meeting, a certain elder shared a scripture that really stood out to me. Matthew 6:4 "That thine elms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly" Made me think about the good works that we do each day as we strive to follow Christ's example and how we don't need to let these works be known to everyone. God sees all the good works that we do just perfectly and he will reward us for them.

Well it has been a great week! God is real and the Book of Mormon is true. if you've forgotten this, read your scriptures and pray everyday. I promise you will come to know that God lives and that He has restored the true church upon the earth today. It is more important than anything else.

Love you all more than Koreans love being white!

<3Sister Hurley

The Elders with a member!

Family Home Evening!

one of my favorite quotes ever!!!!<33333

Old pic I found!

My old companion and Sister Park and her daughter (investigators)

What's the 4th of July?

Happy 4th of July! I kinda forgot what that was this year. probably the first 4th of July I have had without fireworks! In fact you would think Sister Thornley and I would have celebrated a little bit but we both had know idea it was the 4th of July until it came and left... haha. Bute it seems like you all had a great fourth of July!

This week was a really great week! well okay.. pretty much every week is a great week here as a missionary in Korea:) ahh I still can't properly express how much I have come to love the Korean people! This morning sister Thornley and I went to a "grandma" park (there are lots of these little outside workout parks where old people go to workout here) and we just sat on a bench and watched people and talked about how much we love Koreans. We couldn't imagine serving anywhere else.

This last week was cool because we were able to have District meeting at the beach! We had a special meeting where each team had to think of one of the investigators they are teaching and think of what concerns they have or why they aren't progressing. Sister Thronley decided to talk about Sister Kang. Our lesson with her this last week was a lot of reestablishing expectations of our visits. She really loves meeting with us and loves what she learns from the Book of Mormon but she still has a really hard time believing that God exists and that He will answer her prayers. She kinda like us a lot more than religion... She also told us this last week that she doesn't really like that we give her homework assignments like reading from the Book of Mormon. She just wants to study it when she wants to study it... So we explained to our district the concerns that we have about her and as a disctrict we talked about ways that we can better help her! It was a really helpful meeting. Not only did we talk about it but then the Elders in our district prepared to teach us as if we were Sister Kang so we could get a different perspective of what we could do with her. I really feel that what they taught us was SO INSPIRED and we received a lot of great ideas for what we can do better to help her! It was a very spirit filled meeting!

Tuesday night during planning we were feeling impressed that we needed to visit a certain less-active named sister OhJiyun the following day. although she hadn't answered our texts or calls for a really long time we decided to follow that impression and go visit her on wednesday! We made cookies and a message card and walked the 40 minutes to her house (no buses went that direction). On the way there we asked several people if they knew where the appartment was that we were going to so that we could strike a conversation with them. One lady we met happened to be walking to the same appartment so she walked us all the way there and we were able to introduce our church to her! unfortunately we got all the way to Sister Oh's appartment, knocked on her door and....no answer. we tried again... no answer! so we left the message card on her door and the cookies also and kinda feeling a little sad cuz we had walked all the way there, left her apartment building. Just outside of her apartment building a man approaches us and asks us if we teach english. We told him of our english classes and also of our Family English program.He asked how much it cost and when we told him it was free He couldn't believe it! He kept asking "Is it REALLY free??" We assured him that it was and that we are missionaries serving in this area. He told us that He has two children, a daughter who is 10 and a son who is 12 who both needed to learn english. We set an appointment for the following evening! I'm so excited to be teaching this family! we have met them twice already! They are currently attending a really big christian church in our area so they already have a belief in God and in Christ. Teaching families are the best! ahh. I really feel that we were supposed to meet this family. His children have so much light to them!

Now for an update on some investigators:
Kimsurgi: She is doing so well and has been reading chapter of the Book of Mormon everyday!<3 It has been a little hard to meet her because a couple weeks ago her parents got in a car-accident and have been in the hospital. She says it's not very serious but that she needs to go visit them everyday. please pray for her!

Sister Goyumin and Sister Kimjuyeoung: They continue to study the Book of Mormon like crazy. This last they read Enos and we were able to have a really good lesson about prayer. They already knew how to pray in a sense of what you say to start aned finish so we decided to focus on how we can pray inorder to receive answers to our prayers. I know that we much pray with real intent and without doubts inorder for this to happen. God wants to answer our prayers so badly but we must first exercise faith in Him.

To end, I would just like to bear testimony that I truly know that God lives. I have come to know this in a way that I didn't know was possible on my mission. Yesterday as I was sitting in church during sacrament meeting I was thinking of the many ways I have been able to see God's hand in my life. I know that He answers our prayers. Serving here in Korea has given me the opportunity of teaching a lot of people who don't believe in God. I can't imagine growing up not knowing that we have a loving Father in Heaven and knowing of His plan of happiness. I'm so grateful that I have this time in my life to bring this knowledge to His children. Because I grew up in the church, I pretty much felt from a young age that God exists. I never really doubted His existence because I was taught in my youth that He was real and I was able to have experiences where I knew that he heard and answered my prayers. As I remember the times in my life that God has blessed me with numerous answers to my pleads and prayers, I know that God lives. He will show himself to us as we exercise our faith in Him. As we read the scriptures and as we pray to Him. I know that as we show love to those around us, we are able to feel the love that He has for each of us personally. This last week I have been able to feel His love at a deeper level. I'm grateful for His hand in my life

I love you all so much and hope you have a fantabulous week! It is transfer call week but i'm pretty sure Sister Thornley and I will stay together for one more<3 Ahh I love shinjeoung! I'm convinced that i'm staying here until the end of my mission:)

Love,

Sister Courtney Hurley

sooo prettyyy right? #KOREA

Our district<3 the zone leaders were gone...

District meeting on the beach! my hair has gotten so long again!!

One of the workout machines for the elderly... and the missionaries!

Grandma parks are the best. Why don't they have these in America?