Monday, August 17, 2015

폭염

Well the scorching heat wave of summer is finally coming to end and I can breathe a little better outside now! so that's good right? Although the 3 flights of stairs I walk up everyday to get home are still killer. I thought they would get easier... ha but no. Last Monday Family Home Evening was a total success! 3 different families were able to come and we watched the 20 minute restoration video together and then played a fun game where everyone has a spoon and there are two goals on each side of the room. We have to use our spoons to try and get a pingpongball through the goal. It's kinda like soccer but 10x more itense. haha soo much fun. It's a pretty common game in Korea. During the restoration film I sat by this cute 8 year old boy who was asking me tons of questions about the video. It was seriously so cute. He was so interested. "Did Joseph Smith really see God and Jesus Christ?" He asked. Grateful I could say with confidence, "yes. yes He really did"

Tuesday we were able to meet two progressing investigators! We were able to teach sister 이나현 about God and prayer. Sister Thornley had a great idea to try and teach similar to how Ammon taught King Lamoni about God. We asked Sister Lee if she believed in God and she said she didn't know..we then asked her if she believed in something greater, like a spirit, or something that created the earth and she said yes. We were able to explain to her that that was God. She listened so well. especially as we taught about prayer. We used a metaphor about How when we leave our parents and go to college, our parents still want to hear from us right? They would be sad if we left and didn't call them ever or let them know what was going on in our lives. When we are away at college, we may not be able to see our parents, but we can still call them and let them know how we are doing. It's the same with God. We can't see him here on earth but we can communicate with Him through prayer. He wants to hear from us so badly. Before we finished she said, "can I try it?" we were so excited. She said a beautiful prayer and of course thanked our Heavenly Father for being able to meet with the pretty sister missionaries:) so sweet. Her faith has grown so much from when we first met her. She felt so awkward the first time she came to english class and we started with a prayer. She had never prayed before that in her life. But now her desire to learn is growing. She is so cute! We also were able to meet Sister Goyumin on tuesday with our sweet member Sister Kimsewon. It went really well
and I was so grateful for the member present. We tried to set a baptismal date for August 30 but she said she feels too inadequate. She looked straight at me and asked "Do you think I'm ready?" I know
she is. She is worthy and her desire is strong. She has felt the spirit before and she has recognized it. I know that when she is baptized she will be such a strong member. I have felt so grateful that we have been able to teach her.

On wednesday we were able to meet someone new... who is RUSSIAN! We are starting family English program with her. Her husband told her not to meet us because we are a church but she did anyway... haha. yay. We are teaching the mother and her 10 year old daughter.

Wednesday night we were able to meet a member who has been struggling with depression. We were able to bring and share a message of peace. And how we can find peace in this imperfect world.

I Just really felt so happy this past week. I love Korea. I love it so much. I love the people and I don't want to go. I miss my family so much (well because they are the best in the world) but I know once I
leave, I will miss Korea so much. I have come to love the people here so much. I have learned so much from them and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I LOVE MY MISSION<3 I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father.

The elders had a cool experience this week where they met a Philippino lady on the street is is a member of our church. She has been less-active for a little while because she has been living in Korea but her sister has been telling her that she needs to come to church. She was having a hard time finding our church so she started praying that she could find it and then she met our elders on the street. They said she was speechless. She knew it was an answer to her prayer. She also has a friend that is a nonmember who she wants to bring with her to church! yay:)

Friday we were able to have a Sister Conference in Busan and it was really awesome! President Barrow's talk really stood out to me. He talked about Repentance and how it is probably the most mentioned commandment in the Book of Mormon and Bible. How us missionaries should be experts at repentance. I have been studying repentace recently and it has been really cool. Sometimes I forget that no only is Christ's atonement and repentace for my investigators, but it's for me. I can be forgiven of every sin and we can feel completely worthy and clean everyday through repentance. If you haven't studies repentance before, do it! It has really helped me a lot:)

On Sunday our investigator Sister Baekminsuk came to church for the first time. She slept through most of sacrament but during the second hour we were able to teach her the plan of salvation with our elders and a couple members. She got a long so well with the relief society sisters! yipyipeee.

Said goodbye to the chinese family sunday night because I think I'm getting transfered this week:( Ahh it's gonna be hard saying bye to everyone!

I reflected on my mission quite a lot this past week. How different my life would be if I decided not to go to Byu or on a mission. To be honest, growing up, I was always afraid of failure. I didn't want to put myself in a situation that I could possibly fail.  I didn't want to go to BYU because I felt it would be too hard but God told me I needed to go there. At byu, a series of events happened in my life that have led me to doing missionary work now. When I got called to Korea, I felt it was too big of a task for my ability. and it is. There is no possibly way I could do this without my Father in Heaven. He has guided me through this journey and I am so grateful for the strength he has given me.

I haven't sent awkward moments for a really long time so I though I would throw some in this week! Especially because Whitney had her baby and I know this is probably her favorite part of my letters:)

That awkward moment when the Elders investigator goes to give me a hug and I stick out my hand and say "uhh sorry we can only shake hands.." and then he says "oh. right... later". I dunno why he said later....but yeah. awkward.

That awkward moment when a member wheres a shirt that says "naughty" on in to church. poor lady probably had no idea what it means...

That awkward moment when the branch president called to tell me that he left some peaches at the church for us but I though he told us that the copy maching was broken. yes. korean is still hard.

That awkward moment when we are about to pray before companionship study and Sister Thornley looks at me and says "Did you say Amen this morning when I prayed?" I actually didn't... I had fallen back asleep and then woke up and her prayer was over... I didn't know how long it
had been since she had stopped praying and then she was saying her personal prayer...haha aww. so sad. but kinda really funny at the same time.

That awkward moment when an elder in our area got a letter from his friend in Guatemala who said they usually have around 50-60 baptisms every transfer in their zone but that their mission president feels they could and need to be doing a lot better....Well This last transfer our zone as a whole was able to have 2 baptisms! and that was pretty good!

I love you all so much! This next week will be crazy busy for us but I'm so excited. Hope you all have a great week! Shoutout to my cute Sister Whitney who just had her baby!

Love Sister Hurley

We had a sisters conference this week! So funnn!

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