I'm Coming Home ^^

안녕하세요!

I cannot believe that my final week in Korea is here. Seriously, as missionaries we always joke about how it feels like we were born, raised, and will forever live in Korea. But then our release date comes around and it is super confusing because it isn't supposed to end.

This past week, Sis. Reed and I have been working harder than ever to make sure that the transition to her is as smooth as possible. As we have been working incredibly hard, we have seen a lot of miracles! 

On Wednesday, we met a new investigator her name is Zero. She is a 24 year old Chinese Academy Teacher. She recently left China and has been trying to learn Korean and English. As we talked with her, she mentioned that she has never really had a religion because of where she grew up. As a result, she doesn't really know a lot about God and now that she is here, she really wants to learn about Him. 

Sunday, I said my last goodbye over the pulpit. The tears were just flowing everywhere. Fail. It was super embarrassing, but luckily one of the 6 year old primary girls pitied me and drew me a picture and gave me chocolate. She must have known that I can't wink because my picture she drew of me has me winking. Win. 

I have loved being a missionary for the past year and half. 

At the beginning of my mission, my testimony was still pretty weak and I definitely questioned whether or not I was still sane.

Now, I have no doubt it my mind that this is God's Church.

The Book of Mormon is true.

I know He lives.

This is His work and He loves the Korean people.

I'm super bummed to be done, but I know that I will be back. I kind of promised my ward that I would because I called them my Korean family. Sorry Mom and Dad. I will start saving money now.

I will be going to the mission home on Wednesday Morning. All of us will stay there for 2 days. On Wednesday, we will visit old areas and members/investigators. On Thursday we'll go to the temple and have a last meal with the mission president/testimony fireside and fly back Friday afternoon. All of the missionaries coming home with me will go to Texas, but then we will split up after that. We are super excited to be able to talk during the plane ride. AH! I am freaking out.

I love you and cannot wait to see you!

-Sis. Chao

Last full week!

---

여러분,

I am FREAKING out that my mission is ending. Last night, Sis. Reed and I were writing in our journals when we both realized that this Saturday would be transfer calls. Sis. Reed is freaking out because it is very likely that she is going to be senior in this area. I think she will do fine because she is a great missionary. 

This week has been filled with ups and downs. Our recent investigators in 만수 has decided to go missing. We haven't seen her at church for the past 3 weeks. So, Sis. Reed and I have been trying to visit her house and contact her, but she hasn't been picking up. We have been praying for her a lot and hope that we will be able to find her soon. All of the members are super worried about her and try their best to contact her.

A miracle from this week is that we found a new investigator. She is 26 years old and a college student with 4 majors. I didn't think that was possible, but she is doing it. She doesn't really have much of a social life nowadays, but she wants to meet with us as much as possible. I am hoping to meet with her a couple more times before I head off to the mission home next week. 

Oh, lets not think about that. ㅋㅋㅋ Seriously, I really don't want to think about going to the mission home next week. 

Lately, we have been doing a lot more street contacting now that the weather is getting warmer. A lot of people are super curious as to why we are always so happy and talking with everyone. It is a great conversation starter. The gospel of Jesus Christ has this ability to make people happy. I am really hoping that we can find the area new investigators and help our current investigators progress. I just want to make the transition to Sis. Reed and her new companion as smooth as possible. 

-Sis. Chao

"Prophet"

안녕하세요!!!

So....everyday I look at the calendar and I freak out a little bit. I cannot believe that I will be coming home so soon. Don't worry, I am definitely not trunky yet but knowing how much time I have left has really pushed me to be more courageous and loving when it comes to missionary work. 

The other day, Sis. Reed and I were talking about how rewarding being a missionary in this area has been. We have so many amazing and real relationship with the members, that we have been able to learn from them and help them strengthen their personal testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. We are just so lucky to be serving here in Mansu!

This week, we met with one of our investigators. We were sitting at Baskin Robbins and we somehow got talking about the definition of our names. Our investigator told us that her name means Chosen by God. Immediately after saying it, she gasped with surprise and said "Oh my gosh, I am chosen by God...I am a prophet." Sis. Reed and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing...she definitely remembers what the definition of a prophet is, but I don't think the application was correct. 

Another miracle from this week is that we were able to meet with Jay again! She randomly called us this Friday and asked to meet at a coffee shop near her work. When we arrived, she talked about how she missed meeting with us and wanted to meet again before we left. Sis. Reed and I are super excited because she has a sincere desire to learn about Christ. Not to mention, she has the cutest baby of all time. We have another appointment to meet with her on Saturday :)

Sis. Reed and I are working harder than ever to get our investigators progressing towards conversion. The two investigators we met last week and invited to church were not able to come yesterday, but they promised us they would come this coming Sunday. We will pick them up if we have to! :)

Also, we promised one of our investigators that we would make them Fajitas. Do you think it would be possible to send me the recipe?

-Sis. Chao

Halfway

        

안녕하세요!!

I cannot believe how fast time is flying, I just got my flight plans through email today... ㅠ.ㅠ It can't be time already, but thankfully I have a solid month or so to finish up my mission strong. This week has been filled with a lot of miracles, especially when it comes to our investigators in 만수!

Every week, we go and visit one of our investigators and her cousin at their makeup shop. Usually when we go, we talk about a principle from the missionary lessons but we never really had a real sit down lesson with both of them. On Tuesday, we decided to drop off this little pastery that we picked up at a bakery. On our way over to her store, we noticed that there were a lot of people. Instead of coming back later, we decided to go introduce ourselves...after all one of them could have an interest in the gospel. Being the gem that she invited us to sit down and chat. As we sat there, there was so much awkwardness...seriously....so much awkwardness. Her friend kept staring at us and talking about us, but never directly to us. Finally her friend asked us to see the scripture case that we carry around with us. Then she started asking us all about why we needed the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Priesthood, etc. We pretty much had an entire lesson. The miracle was that she was so interested about what we were talking about that she invited us to come back on Sunday (yesterday).

Yesterday, we went and we just talked about the Bible/Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Jesus Christ. While we were sitting there, I just felt prompted to ask them about their plans next week. Their entire underground market has the day off next Sunday.  Then I just asked, "Are you really planning to come to our church someday?" They immediately said "Yes, of course...In fact, why not next Sunday?" Sis. Reed's and our mouths almost dropped to the floor. They pretty much invited themselves to all 3 hours of church.  They also really want to have a member lesson so that they can ask their super hard questions to a native korean. ㅋㅋㅋ I am not sad about that. Some of the words they used are really hard to understand. Yesterday, we were whipping out all sorts of dictionaries to translate what she was asking. 

Korean- definitely will be a lifelong task of learning. @.@

-Sis. Chao


 

First week of March

안녕하세요!!!

Spring has officially arrived in Korea, but you probably wouldn't be able to tell because of the weather. For some reasons, the weather has decided to play games with us and randomly goes from hot to cool. Just like Utah :) Perhaps Korea is preparing me to come home soon. Yikes, I don't want to think about it yet!! I cannot believe that I only have one month left in this amazing country!!

This week, we met with a lot of investigators and had really interesting lessons/conversations. One of our investigators (Ms. Park) asked a lot of questions about how our church functions. Actually, now that I think about it...a lot of the people we have met on the street/train/church have asked us about how a church can function without a paid clergy or minister. It has been really fun to talk about how members and revelation drive the church.

On Tuesday, I met with President Morrise for my last interview before my final interview. President Morrise and I just joked for 10 minutes and we just talked about miracles that we had both seen. He apparently still remembers the one time he came and visited me at the Law Library. Apparently, I am a lot different than I was before. I honestly don't know how much I can believe because he is definitely biased. ㅋㅋㅋ He is our mission president after all. He told me that he is really excited to see where I go next.

This week, I also was able to go on exchanges with the new STL's companion. Her name is Sis. Kil and she is from the southern area of Korea. She is super cute and is a fantastic missionary. One of the things that we talked about is street contacting. It has been super hard for her because people are just brutal to Korean missionaries. So, during our time together...we did a lot of street contacting and we made it fun. Towards the end of the day and the rejections got a little bit brutal, instead of crying we just burst out laughing. I'm not really sure why, but sis. Kil has started to change her mind about street contacting. During our daily planning session, we just talked about we have to give everyone a chance to accept the gospel.

On Sunday, I had the best surprise!! My favorite Korean companion has officially moved back to 인천 and is in 만수 ward boundary!! It was such a great surprise and we just laughed all throughout RS (Sorry teacher). She looks absolutely amazing and is such a solid YSA now. We plan on having a lot more member present lessons in our area now!

Have a great week!

Sis. Chao

Happy Lunar New Year

안녕하세요!!!

This week has been incredible and we have seen so many miracles. One of the biggest miracles we have seen is with our investigator Sooyun, who works at a beauty shop in our area. She has known missionaries for quite some time, but has never really been interested in learning about the gospel. So this past transfer, we have been working really hard to build a good relationship with her. On Wednesday, we decided to buy her some lunch and invited one of our member missionaries to come along. During the lunch, Sooyun really opened up about her belief in God, how she is actually interested in learning about the gospel, and how the only real barrier for her to come to church is that she has a hard time understanding religious words. So, Sis. Reed are super excited because we actually have a direction to go and have a member missionary who has built a good relationship with our investigator. 

Thursday- We had the big 설날 conference with our zone. All of the missionaries got together and had a wonderful day celebrating Lunar New Year in Korea. The first activity, we all made dumplings and kimbap. We did make a lot of dumplings, but the ones we made with the bishop's wife was definitely a lot more delicious than the ones we made as a zone. Definitely missing the years of experience needed to make delicious dumplings, but that is also because the elders tried to help...ㅋㅋㅋ (just kidding, they did a great job). We also watched “Meet the Mormon”, a very inspiring movie for sure. Then we went to China Town and did a scavenger hunt. In Chinatown, there is a huge statute of General McArthur.  Everyone here loves him...I guess that means I have to do more research about him when I get home. 

On Friday, a member called us and wanted to have dinner at our favorite hot pot buffet restaurant. Her daughter is leaving for a mission (today) and we are pretty close with her. Her daughter asked a bunch of questions about missionary work, but her biggest fear was the MTC and American food. Her mother told me how she wanted to sneak tuna into the MTC. I told her that she probably wouldn't get it past customs, but that you or some friends would be more than willing to send her some at the MTC. So...if you could do that :) She would absolutely love it and I would be super thankful!

This week has been good, but I am excited that the holidays are over. Now, there will be a lot more people to talk to on the streets and buses. Time to find some new investigators! :)

Love you-

Sis. Chao