Monday, November 23, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

Two weeks ago at transfer meeting, a sister going home who I have served in the same district with for almost my whole mission (Sister Hill) said something I've been thinking about a lot recently. She said, " I know I fell short of the missionary that God wants me to be, but He's okay with it, because I tried" This was said by one of the greatest missionaries I have met in our mission. She worked hard and was faithful through her whole mission and gave everything she had to this work but even she felt inadequate. I know that I have always set high standards for myself. And I know that Heavenly Father has high standards for us too. But I also I have come to realize that even more important that reaching our high standards, is that we did our best. I know our missions mean more in the end when we know we gave everything we could.

Sister Yang and I fasted with the elders this past week for our area to be able to progress more and to be able to find new investigators. And we were able to see a miracle! One of our sweet members referred one of her 15 year old students and His mother to meet the missionaries. We were able to meet them this week and it was really special. We taught about the word gospel. what it is. and how it has blessed our lives. We shared Mosiah 4:15.
15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

The spirit was so strong. The mother loved it so much that she made her son read it again just because she felt so good as He read it. She knew it was a truth. We are so grateful that we can be teaching this mother named Sister oohyun and her son. They have no religious background so they may progress slowly but I know they were able to feel the spirit and our love as we met them this past week. It made me think about the importance of loving people into the church. As people feel our love, They will be able to feel Gods' love and want to know why we are so happy. It's because of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we are so happy. I know that I grew up in the church but I never felt the gospel was forced upon me. I had parents who taught me the truth and helped me to go in the right direction but I always felt I had a choice whether to accept the gospel or not. But every time I went to church, I felt good. I felt the spirit. And especially when I tried to apply the things that I was learning at church into my life, I felt happier. I knew I was becoming better. For me, the choice was easy to accept the gospel because it made my life happier as I lived it. I know that anyone that strives to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ will become happier!:)

A cool thing that happened this week was when Sister Yang and I were coming back from district meeting, we were in another area called Gumi and because we had to wait a little while for our bus we started talking to people and we met a lady from North Korea! She explained that she escaped through china with her husband and came here 5 years ago. She spoke korean but had a different accent than the people I have met on my mission. She said that she has never seen a church in North Korea but that there is a little buddhism. We were able to bear our testimony with her that we know God lives and loves her. It seemed like it was the first time in her life that she had heard about God. How grateful I feel for the opportunity I have to share the gospel with so many people that have little to no religious background.

As we were weekly planning this past week we were talking about our investigator sister Parkhesun and Sister Yang and I felt so strongly that she will be baptized. It's something that she doesn't talk a lot about with us but we have been praying that her desire to be baptized will grow. So we visited her this past week and within the first 10 seconds of seeing her she brought up baptism and how she feels she needs to get baptized! She knows that she needs religion in her life. The problem is that she still has a lot of doubts. She likes our church the best out of other churches she has attended but she hasn't received a strong impression yet that our church is God's only true church. We fill strongly that She will get baptized but of course on the Lord's time and when she is ready:) We are excited to continue to work with her and help her overcome her doubts.

We also had the opportunity to visit a potential investigator who was in the hospital this past week. She was so happy to have visitors. She wanted to introduce us to everyone in the hospital because she worked at the same hospital for a year and a half so she knows almost everyone. It was awesome. she just walked around and introduced us and what we do to everyone she knew in the hospital. I think we were able to meet like 30 people!

I received a call from my past investigator Sister Parkjihyun from shinjung. (The one who teaches taekwondo). She sadly informed me that the sisters got taken out of Shinjung. There are no more sister missionaries there because there aren't enough sisters in our mission!:( I was so devastated to hear us because there are so many people that I love so much in Shinjung and want them to be able to meet the missionaries. :( hopefully they will get sisters again soon! She was calling to see if I was coming back to shinjung before I left Korea so that I could say bye to her family. I told her that I wasn't sure yet. (We are able to take one P-day our last transfer to go and visit one of our past areas but I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.) She said if I don't, than she is going to come with her kids to Andong to say bye to me. I have just felt so much love from her. It was definitely a highlight of the week to be able to hear from her!

I will end with the funny moment of the week:

So in our mission, making planners is a really big thing. Missionaries love to get creative and try and make a really spiritual or fun planner for another missionary. So because this is my last transfer, The korean elder in my area Elder Lee decided it would be funny to make me an eternal marriage planner.... SO not funny because I'm not getting married for a while. haha but On the front there is a picture of a couple holding hands and on the back there is a picture of like wedding rings and big writing that says "Temple Marriage". So the funny story is that this last week at district meeting, we had just finished the meeting and were getting ready to leave when an american elder in my district who is still pretty new to korea saw my planner and wanted to look at it more in detail. When he flipped it over to the back side and read "eternal marriage" he said "합시다!" which in english means "let's do it!" It took me completely off guard so I started laughing a little bit and he finally realized what he said. He than says, "oh no! sorry! I meant to say like you need to get married in the temple!" It was just a really funny moment that he gave me permission to share. Hopefully it will give you a good laugh!:)

anyway, sorry for talking your ears off! I love you so much!!

Sister Hurley<3

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