Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Happy Holiday here in Korea!

Yesterday was something called 추석 (chewsoak) This is kind like the Korean version of Thanksgivng and it is HUGE here. Most everyone goes home to there families so the streets are completely empty and no one wants the missionaries over to their houses so what do we do? A MISSION PDAY of course! So yesterday, instead of writing home and getter groceries, we took the 2 hour bus ride to Busan to party with all the other missionaries in the mission! What did we do at this party? We ran a 5K. What? haha yep! In the middle of the heat and the humidity all the missionaries got in their p-days clothes and went for a run:) It was actually quite fun! My mission president and his wife are super fit so they decided it would be a fun activity. and it was! Most of the day we just talked with other missionaries and ate some Korean Barbeque. Overall it made for a really fun day. On the way home, my companion and I were able to meet a couple of people on the buses and share a quick message about the plan of salvation. We literally watched a women read the entire plan of salvation pamphlet in front of our face. It was awesome.

Recently We have been getting a lot of contacts for our English class. English class has actually been a really great way for us to get investiagtors. It really gives them the opportunity to feel the spirit. I really enjoy English class becasue I feel like I can actually contribute because I speak English:) (well... sorta....I feel like I am losing it) (yall probably think i'm crazy cuz all my letter have a lot of spelling errors. It's only due to lack of time I promise! hehe)

Anyway this last week we had zone meeting. This is all in Korean of course and I got complimented at the end for making it through without crying which apparently is an accomplishment for everyones first zone meeting in Korean because we can't really understand much of anything. At the very end, my companion was a complete saint and translated the testimonies for me. One elder got up and talked about love. He read the scriptures in 1 john 4:16-21 (go read them!<3) He talked about how we always say that we love God, but if we don't love someone here on earth, then we really don't love God. This is pretty much what the scriptures are saying. We are hypocrites if we say we love God but we don't love his Children. Anyway, just something that made me think.

I invited our only progressing investigator to be baptized this week. She didn't say no but she said she just needs more time. The next day she called us telling us that she wants us to meet her husband and that she told the people at her catholic church that she wouldn't be attending their meetings anymore. This was HUGE. I love watching her continue to progress.

This last week I met a lot of foreigners which was SOOO FUN FOR ME. I got to talk to all of them:) I met people from California, Texas, Italy, and the U.K. They weren't just on vacation either, they actually lived in Korea! We have one English Branch in our mission too which is super exciting.

AWKWARD MOMENTS:
When a guy in your phone texts us asking about English class and after giving him the information he says he wants to see a picture of us because he knows one of us will be his future wife. Don't worry mom, we didn't text him back.

That awkward moment when a drunk korean man grabs onto my companions hand and kisses it and then won't let her go until she gives him her shoe size because he really likes us and wants to buy us shoes. (the difference between drunk koreans and drunk americans) Even drunk Koreans are super nice. haha.

Anyways, I love you all! The Church is true!

Sister Hurley

I thought I would add a couple paragraphs from a letter Courtney sent me :)

What I do on p-day?
nothing really exciting... haha buy food, email, chill with other missionaries, sometimes eat at cool restaurants, play ping pong. There are ALOT of cool things in Korea to do I just haven't really done any of them yet. but I'm sure I will eventually:)

What I do Everyday?
Lots. we always have something to do and if we don't, then we are finding people. always street contacting. a lot of times we have appointments. If not with investigators, with members, or less actives. We teach English class, have meal appointments, but mostly we street contact. plus I'm a new missionary so an hour each day I get trained. do things like watch the district or role play scenarios.

All day we look for people to teach. we talk to people on the street. make them aware of who we are. hand out pamphlets and Book of Mormons, bear testimony. SERVE, or hand out english fliers. that's what i'm the best at right now because most people are actually interested in english haha. But really I just love having the time to look for opportunities all day to just serve. Just last week we saw this really old lady rolling a suitcase going to the hospital and she could barely even walk and it was POURING RAIN. like sooo hardcore. so we just went and talked to her and we were able to help her and carry her suitcase for her and walk her to the hospital. Moments like these make me soo happy.

There is this really old man that comes to our english class each week who is soo sweet and soo dedicated to learning english. He gets so excited when he understands a word in English and He absolutely loves coming to our class. Moments of watching the look on the peoples faces that we are serving is the best feeling in the world. Awww. Whit. If only you could see how much I love these people.

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