NEW INVESTIGATORS

For all those who were wondering... THIS WEEK WAS A LOT BETTER THAN LAST WEEK. and only 1 appointment fell through!

This is what happened:

TUESDAY:
We had 2 appointments. One with Sister Kang and one with Sister Pang. I absolutely love teaching these investigators so much because they have so much desire to learn and are always really engaged in our discussions. But.... we are still working to help them strengthen their faith in God! We are teaching them both again today and I'm really excited to see how it goes. Between these two appointments, Sister Broyles and I grabbed a bite to eat and I started asking her all sorts of questions to find out "Who the real sister Broyles is". and it was actually quite fun. I learned how really different we are! She grew up reading books, and listening to classical music, she loves art and writing, and she doesn't really stress about anything. And I grew up playing volleyball, listening to music with more of a beat, I love Math, and I pretty much stress about everything... so there are a few differences haha. But we talked about how our differences have really helped us to learn a lot more in the transfers we have had together than we would learn if we were really similar. I really have learned so much serving with her! This week is transfer calls and we are both kinda feeling like she is leaving....but we are hoping to stay one more! I'll let you know what happens next week!

WEDNESDAY:
We woke up bright and early at 5AM to the sound of the firealarm going of and lights flashing throughout our apartment... so we decided it would be a good idea to leave our apartment in case there was actually a fire. Well we go outside and we realize that our apartment is the ONLY ONE with the alarm going off and the lights flashing so we got a little concerned that even the landlord wouldn't know what was going on and he would stop it but sure enough we saw him coming running down the stair and into his office and a few minutes later the alarm stopped. There was no fire... but we just ended up going back upstairs and to bed... and we still don't really know what happened. yup.

But also on wednesday we were able to meet a less-active that I had never been able to meet so that was pretty cool. She invited us over for dinner and we quickly realized how hard her life is! He husband works all day and doesn't come home until about 9 and she has a new-born baby and another son who is about 2 so she is always so busy and tired. We are hoping to be able to continue to visit her and help her out a little bit with her duties as a mother!

THURSDAY:
nothing super exciting... we got a new phone so we had to transfer all our contacts over. It's a samsung flip phone (that all the grandpas and grandmas have here) and it always give the Koreans a shocker look on their faces when they see it (because literally like 99% of the people here have smart phones) haha so it makes for a fun conversation. Most people just really don't understand why we don't have a smart phone even when we try to explain we really don't need one. :) we also did a little proselyting with our new surveys and we were able to talk to a lot of people about religion which which was great:)

FRIDAY:
Woke up and... WENT RUNNING! It's been a little while since i've been out of the house for exercise time so it felt great:) On friday we were also able to meet sister Park who sadly mentioned that " She likes US more than she like RELIGION"... I think she thought that would make us feel good... but my heart was a little crushed. She has good feelings about the Book of Mormon but we need to get her to see why it is important! We also were able to meet a less-active on friday who we have been meeting once a week for a while now. When we invited her to church she responded by saying "yeah if I have time" but she said it in a way that was like "ahh crap I need to hurry and find something to do so I don't have time" and Sister Broyles and I both sensed it so I decided to ask her what was holding her back from coming. There was the chance that she could have responded by getting defensive but I felt the spirit when I asked the question so I knew it would all be okay. She then began to open up super hard core to us telling us her concerns. She has SO much gospel knowledge! (she has been less-active for about 10 years now but the missionaries have met her on and off for about the past 2 years) She began to tell us that she knows a lot about the Book of Mormon and our church and what she needs to be doing but it has been so hard for her to be able to get it in her heart. In order to come to church every week she wants to be able to really believe in her heart. We know that this can only happen through the spirit. She said she desires to feel it in her heart which we know is the first step. We will continue to meet her and help her feel the gospel is true in her heart. Teaching her has really taught me the importance of having a testimony in our hearts. We can learn about the gospel our whole lives and have lots of knowledge about what we need to do and why but until we really know in our heart that it is true, we can't do much. We much always strive to have our testimonies rooted deep into our hearts! We must create an environment that makes it easy for us to feel the spirit.

SATURDAY:
While we were preparing for english class, one of the elders in our branch was telling us that a man texted them saying that he has seen our church website and is interested in learning about our church and that he also wanted to come to our english class. He was expressing his excitement to us as His companion received a call from the same man who the elder was talking about. Well it turns out that the "he" actually turned out to be a "she" and she had a friend with her who was also interested in learning about the church... so now we have 2 new investigators! yippee:) Later that night we received a call from the APs telling us that they had a referral for us. someone who has gospel interest (not english! #miracle) so we are excited to be working with these new people!

SUNDAY:
We had branch conference! also in the evening we went proselyting and we met the sweetest lady and her daughter who we were able to teach about the Book of Mormon to. As we handed her a copy she seemed so surprised that we would give her such a special book. Moments like these of testifying of the Book of Mormon are really such highlights of missionary work. I love it so much!

MONDAY:
a man we met the night before on the street called us and said that he wants to meet! He said he needs help and want to hear God's words so we were able to set up an apppointment with him and with the elders for this week! Also we had SPORTS DAY. which consisted of playing lots of sports with lots of members and other missionaries. Made for a really fun and exhausting day and I'm really sore!

Basically This week was a good one! I've been reflecting on how much my mission experience has meant to me and how I really don't want to leave being a missionary. This is really the most important thing I could be doing in my life right now! It is so hard, but so worth it! I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Courtney Hurley
"Believe in Christ!!"