Merry Christmas!

In honor of Christmas, your scripture for the week is Helaman 14:2-8

This Christmas Season I can't help but be grateful. Grateful I have the greatest family and friends in the world and grateful that I can be a missionary at this time especially here in Korea serving these incredible people that I love so much!

I'm so excited to see all your beautiful faces in a couple days! You on the other hand, are probably mostly excited to see how awkward and weird I have gotten:) Lucky you!

This upcoming week is full of PARTIES for me! tomorrow we have a mission party for all the missionaries which should be really fun! on Wednesday we have our jinju ward Christmas party and on Thursday we have our Sacheon branch Christmas party so this should be a fun week!

This last week has been a really great week for My new companion Sister Lee and me! Sister Lee is so incredible at missionary work and although it is her last transfer with me she is determined to work hard until the end so I am super happy:) She has already taught me so much about not only how to do missionary work well but how to do missionary work smart. I can see that she has worked really hard on her mission!

To be honest, Christmas in Korea is a lot different than it is in the states. The Korean missionaries don't skype their families like the Americans do on Christmas because there are other holidays that are bigger.

This year the missionaries in my area created a board that said "Why do you celebrate Christmas?" on the board we wrote things like family, friends, love, decorations, presents, and Christ's Birth. we had people put a sticker on the picture of the reason why they celebrate Christmas. We used this board as a way to start conversations with people and to share our message of Christ. Sadly only a few people put Christ's birth as the reason they celebrate Christmas but we were able to share our message of Christ with many of them!

Although it's challenging each day to find people interest in our message, I will continue to do my best because I know without a doubt in my mind that Christ is our Savior and I know that the only way to find true peace and happiness in this life and in eternal life to come is by following His Gospel! I'm Grateful to be a missionary here where it is the most challenging thing I have yet to do in my life yet it is the most important work in the world. I love you all so much and hope you have an incredible Christmas!!<3

Love Sister Courtney Hurley

Korean fun fact:

In Korea, I am actually 20 years old right now and at the new year I will be 21! When Koreans are born they are 1 years old and on new years they become 1 year older! So sometimes I forget that I am actually 19 because everyday I have to tell people I am 20! and soon to be 21!