1 MONTH.

HEY.

I can't express how incredible this past week has been! Seriously SO GREAT! On Friday we got to do this thing call TRC where a real member in the provo/orem area that is Korean or speaks Korean comes and we get to teach them! My companion and I got to teach a sister named Sister Park. She was born in Busan! We talked to her a lot about prayer. I know that God hears ALL of our prayers and that he will always answer us in his own due time. After studying a lot about prayer for this TRC lesson I committed to making my prayers more meaningful. I challenge all of you to do the same! Here at the MTC 10:15-10:30pm is known as quiet time. It is a time set aside specifically for us to pray and communicate with our Heavenly Father. I love and cherish this time so much and always look forward to it! I know that he is watching over me. 

In the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18:20 tells us: "And whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given you." We must pray with Faith and with real intent if we desire an answer. I know that sometimes what we desire most may not be what is best for us. God know us perfectly. He knows what we need to progress. I have learned this lesson a lot these past few weeks.

I hope everyone had an incredible 4th of July! It was definitely one I will never forget being here at the MTC. We had a special devotional that night and got to watch Seventeen Miracles! They also let us go out and watch the Stadium of Fire Firework show which was so much fun! 

Sunday night we had another devotional where a man named Josh Wright came and spoke to us. He is an incredible pianist. He played several songs for us and I couldn't help but think of Christopher and his musical talent! I think Chris would love Josh Wrights music. Everyone should look him up!

Tuesday night we got to hear from yet ANOTHER member of the quorum of the 12,  Neil L Anderson! He gave an inspiring talk on the power of the Holy Ghost.

Another highlight of the week was that yesterday (Wednesday),  I got to host the new missionaries that came in!! But even more fun was that I found my friend Isobelle Sorensen from High school volleyball who is going to Taiwan and I got to Host her! (being a host includes welcoming them at the curb and taking them to get their books, find their residence and their classroom) It reminded me of the day I came to the MTC and how ready but nervous I was and how HAPPY I was to have my friend from BYU Dani Hamblin as my host.

This last week our lessons with our investigators have improved immensely. We set a baptismal date for our investagor Brother Hwang! We are teaching our other investigator Brother Kim later tonight which I am excited for. (our investigators are still our teachers right now but it's crazy how much they feel like real investigators when we teach them. We love them so much and want to do whatever we can to help them)

I had kind of a fun experience yesterday where our teacher introduced us to an inactive member Brother Kim who was born into the church and when he joined the military for two years he heard some bad things about the church so he went inactive. We were supposed to do all that we could to help him so my companion and I prayed and felt we were to teach him about faith and prayer. Our entire district was to teach this man but after 2 companionship's had taught him, our teacher came back and said, "alright so now Brother Kim has been meeting with the missionaries and they have been helping him and now he desires to go on a mission but he is struggling with the word of wisdom" (plot twist I know right?) haha so instead of teaching him about faith and prayer we quickly planned a lesson on the word of wisdom (which we had never taught before). We prayed together as a companionship before every lesson and I know that God was helping us know what to say. It went so great! It was kinda fun having a last minute change:) I'm sure that this will happen often on the mission when we have to change lessons in order to meet our investigators needs. 

Anyways...As you can tell it has been a very eventful and WONDERFUL week! I can't believe I have been here for a month. Time is flying by!  I love you all so much and appreciate all the love and support I am receiving. I pray for you everyday!

Keep on doing good things! Remember to keep the big picture in mind!

I LOVE YOU

Sister Hurley

Being a missionary is the Best!

Awkward Moment Time :)

Courtney said she didn't really have too many awkward moments this week but she did tell me that she got her Korean Name this week! This is what she wrote about it:

We got our Korean names this last week (in Korea our names will be in Korean so they can read them) my name sounds like sister "holy" if I were to romanize it. sounds pretty sweet right? Oh unless you take into account that the word in Korean that sounds like our last name is lower back. Not so cool after all. I guess that's an awkward moment. You might as well just call me sister lower back from now on. haha:)

Awkward Moments

Hey, it's Whitney for a sec. Courtney and I have been doing this thing where we send each other our awkward moments of the week.  It's just something to make us laugh but some of them are SO funny so I thought I would share them on this blog even though she may kill me. :) Hopefully she will thank me for the memories later..  I'll just start creating a section after each letter with the awkward moments of that week.

These are the ones she has had so far:

• That awkward moment when you want to laugh in a serious situation is my life here. Especially when watching my district attempt to sing korean hymns. We can't read fast enough for the songs so lets just say it doesn't sound the best... haha. 
• That awkward moment when you ask an elder in your district if he wants a kiss but you are talking about the chocolate kisses your aunt sent you. Yes that happened. Talk about awkward.
• That awkward moment when you're singing alto in the MTC choir when you should be singing soprano so really you just look like that one girl from pitch perfect who is really quiet... oh and then they show you on the big screen during a devotional with 6 members of the quorum of the 12. haha.
• That awkward moment when you are trying to adjust your magnetic missionary name badge when the magnet on the inside of the shirt falls down. In front of elders of course..pretty awkward.
• That awkward moment when I am sitting at a table in the lunch room when I see a friend at the table next to mine so I wave and wink at her... but my district leader thought I was winking at him... #mylife #whyamisoawkward.
• That awkward moment when another day it is lunch time and I take a big drink of ice water when an elder in my district makes me laugh so hard that I spit it out on everyone around me. I have never done this in my life haha why does it happen now? I only made it more awkward when I said, "I figure you don't get to go swimming on your mission so I was just helping you out.." haha I promise my district really does like me. well I think...
• That awkward/ funny moment when we are reading the Korean Book of Mormon in class and after each verse we are supposed to make a comment. My teacher made a comment that was super great, then asked if anyone else had something to add. An elder in my district rose his hand and literally said the EXACT same thing my teacher had just said thinking it was his own words. No one could hold it in. Everyone just started laughing so hard. The elder then said, "sorry I sometimes just repeat things without noticing." don't worry, he was laughing too pretty hard himself. We ended up only getting through 2 verses in the Book of Mormon because we couldn't stop laughing. It was another moment of "what is this life we live?" haha
• That awkward moment when the alarm doesn't go off so you wake up to the sound of a toilet flushing. (this one was from my companion sister Dayley:))

 Hopefully this gave you a laugh:)

4th of July!

Momma and Liz thank you so much for the 4th of July packages! Me and My companion are wearing our matching shirts today! We love them so much. Also, there were enough cupcakes for all the sisters in my branch (all 12 of us), all the elders in my district, and my teachers! They were delicious. Thank you so much!

Being completely honest, this past week was the most challenging one yet, but I still LOVE being a missionary.

Tuesday Night we had another incredible devotional. Lowell M. Snow (A former Seventy) spoke to us on becoming true disciples. He told a story of 2 elders in Germany who couldn't speak the language very well. They taught this lady who decided to be baptized. Later when they asked her why she decided to be baptized she said, "honestly I didn't understand everything you said but it was the virtue in your faces that drew me in" She said she saw Christ when she looked at them.

I want to be like this. I don't know how fluent I will ever be in Korean, but I want people to see the light of Christ when they look at me. A quote Tom shared with me this week in his email was, "Live so that those who know you and don't know him, will want to know him because they know you". I love this. 

Yesterday, the Korean Branch here at the MTC gained 30 new elders and 2 new sisters so that was exciting! We love Wednesdays here at the MTC because all the new missionaries that come in.

One of my favorite teachers this past week left the MTC to go work for the Mormon Channel. On her last day, I got to have a one on one interview with her where she shared the scripture ALMA 31:38 with me.

It says:

"And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in Faith."

This scripture is so powerful. The knowledge we have that the Lord can truly "swallow" up all of our afflictions in the Joy of Christ if we pray to him in Faith is amazing. I KNOW this is true. I have seen him guiding me every step of the way as a missionary. He WILL lift our burdens. He knows  what I need to go through right now so that I can be a successful and happy missionary. 

We are teaching two investigators right now and we are learning so much from this experience. I have seen how powerful the spirit is in teaching our lessons. Through our broken Korean, our investigators have been able to come closer to Christ only because the spirit has lead them.

I hope that you all have a wonderful 4th of July!! Go light some fireworks for me!! I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Hurley

We weird.

The big map that is apparently a MUST to get a picture by :)

In our matching shirts!

4th of July Cupcake Party!