What's the 4th of July?

Happy 4th of July! I kinda forgot what that was this year. probably the first 4th of July I have had without fireworks! In fact you would think Sister Thornley and I would have celebrated a little bit but we both had know idea it was the 4th of July until it came and left... haha. Bute it seems like you all had a great fourth of July!

This week was a really great week! well okay.. pretty much every week is a great week here as a missionary in Korea:) ahh I still can't properly express how much I have come to love the Korean people! This morning sister Thornley and I went to a "grandma" park (there are lots of these little outside workout parks where old people go to workout here) and we just sat on a bench and watched people and talked about how much we love Koreans. We couldn't imagine serving anywhere else.

This last week was cool because we were able to have District meeting at the beach! We had a special meeting where each team had to think of one of the investigators they are teaching and think of what concerns they have or why they aren't progressing. Sister Thronley decided to talk about Sister Kang. Our lesson with her this last week was a lot of reestablishing expectations of our visits. She really loves meeting with us and loves what she learns from the Book of Mormon but she still has a really hard time believing that God exists and that He will answer her prayers. She kinda like us a lot more than religion... She also told us this last week that she doesn't really like that we give her homework assignments like reading from the Book of Mormon. She just wants to study it when she wants to study it... So we explained to our district the concerns that we have about her and as a disctrict we talked about ways that we can better help her! It was a really helpful meeting. Not only did we talk about it but then the Elders in our district prepared to teach us as if we were Sister Kang so we could get a different perspective of what we could do with her. I really feel that what they taught us was SO INSPIRED and we received a lot of great ideas for what we can do better to help her! It was a very spirit filled meeting!

Tuesday night during planning we were feeling impressed that we needed to visit a certain less-active named sister OhJiyun the following day. although she hadn't answered our texts or calls for a really long time we decided to follow that impression and go visit her on wednesday! We made cookies and a message card and walked the 40 minutes to her house (no buses went that direction). On the way there we asked several people if they knew where the appartment was that we were going to so that we could strike a conversation with them. One lady we met happened to be walking to the same appartment so she walked us all the way there and we were able to introduce our church to her! unfortunately we got all the way to Sister Oh's appartment, knocked on her door and....no answer. we tried again... no answer! so we left the message card on her door and the cookies also and kinda feeling a little sad cuz we had walked all the way there, left her apartment building. Just outside of her apartment building a man approaches us and asks us if we teach english. We told him of our english classes and also of our Family English program.He asked how much it cost and when we told him it was free He couldn't believe it! He kept asking "Is it REALLY free??" We assured him that it was and that we are missionaries serving in this area. He told us that He has two children, a daughter who is 10 and a son who is 12 who both needed to learn english. We set an appointment for the following evening! I'm so excited to be teaching this family! we have met them twice already! They are currently attending a really big christian church in our area so they already have a belief in God and in Christ. Teaching families are the best! ahh. I really feel that we were supposed to meet this family. His children have so much light to them!

Now for an update on some investigators:
Kimsurgi: She is doing so well and has been reading chapter of the Book of Mormon everyday!<3 It has been a little hard to meet her because a couple weeks ago her parents got in a car-accident and have been in the hospital. She says it's not very serious but that she needs to go visit them everyday. please pray for her!

Sister Goyumin and Sister Kimjuyeoung: They continue to study the Book of Mormon like crazy. This last they read Enos and we were able to have a really good lesson about prayer. They already knew how to pray in a sense of what you say to start aned finish so we decided to focus on how we can pray inorder to receive answers to our prayers. I know that we much pray with real intent and without doubts inorder for this to happen. God wants to answer our prayers so badly but we must first exercise faith in Him.

To end, I would just like to bear testimony that I truly know that God lives. I have come to know this in a way that I didn't know was possible on my mission. Yesterday as I was sitting in church during sacrament meeting I was thinking of the many ways I have been able to see God's hand in my life. I know that He answers our prayers. Serving here in Korea has given me the opportunity of teaching a lot of people who don't believe in God. I can't imagine growing up not knowing that we have a loving Father in Heaven and knowing of His plan of happiness. I'm so grateful that I have this time in my life to bring this knowledge to His children. Because I grew up in the church, I pretty much felt from a young age that God exists. I never really doubted His existence because I was taught in my youth that He was real and I was able to have experiences where I knew that he heard and answered my prayers. As I remember the times in my life that God has blessed me with numerous answers to my pleads and prayers, I know that God lives. He will show himself to us as we exercise our faith in Him. As we read the scriptures and as we pray to Him. I know that as we show love to those around us, we are able to feel the love that He has for each of us personally. This last week I have been able to feel His love at a deeper level. I'm grateful for His hand in my life

I love you all so much and hope you have a fantabulous week! It is transfer call week but i'm pretty sure Sister Thornley and I will stay together for one more<3 Ahh I love shinjeoung! I'm convinced that i'm staying here until the end of my mission:)

Love,

Sister Courtney Hurley