뿅!!

안녕하세요!!!

This week has been incredibly fun, but incredibly busy. So I will start right away... I realize that I am at the point where emails have just because super weird and bullet pointed. Sorry!! Someday I will write better emails again. 

On Monday, all of the sisters met together for a sisters conference where we learned about budgeting, cleaning, exercise, and all those other useful things. The funnest part was probably being able to reunite with some of my old companions. There was a lot of laughter and talking about our new areas. After the sisters conference, Sis. Morrise pretty much ordered us to stay indoors until Sis. Reed was able to function at a pretty decent percent.  So Tuesday was pretty much spent inside doing phone calls, studying Korean, and losing my mind a little.

Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Sis. Jeong in 연수! . Sis Jeong is such an amazing missionary and incredibly fearless when it comes to street contacting. I am pretty sure we stopped every single person that went by us. At first, a lot of the conversations seemed a little fruitless, but then we started talking to a bunch of high school students. We started joking about pop stars, high school life, and then introduced why we were here. One of the students said that she has been going to church by herself and has been looking for a new church. Miracle!! During our exchange,  I also learned all of the English that she has been learning from the American missionaries. Here is a little preview....

"Whatever major loser"

"Shun"

"Shank"

"You are a weirdo"

I don't know who has been teaching her these things, but it always sounds oddly sweet when she says it!! 

Love you,

Sis. Chao

QUARANTINE

안녕하세요!!

Well, if the topic line didn't give it away....this week's focus is really going to be on being sick. My companion got a super nasty bug on Monday and has been out for most of the week. It has been absolutely crazy!! She has been taking medicine everyday and sleeping all the time but she hasn't been able to get over this bug. Even today she has the sniffles, headache, and congestion. I always thought that I was a really good nurse and cook, but this week has showed me that there are definitely areas that I can improve in. Sis. Reed is a champ and doesn't really complain about my cooking, but that might be because she can't really taste anything. 

It hasn't been super bad, but it has made missionary work very interesting. The past few days, we have been trying our best to contact less active members, investigators, and potential investigators.

Oh, miracles- Sis. Reed has been able to go out for small periods before she turns into a zombie. So on Wednesday, we met with our recent convert and a YSA who is leaving for her mission in a month. It was super great to be able to talk about missionary work and preparing for the temple. One the soon-to-be missionary is a bit nervous about the MTC food, but I promised her that you or some friends in the area could send her some tuna. She was going to try and bring it with her to America. 

Another miracle that has happened this week is that we found a new investigator!! She is 27 years old and has a deep connection with another Christian faith, but she really wants to learn about our gospel. She came to church yesterday and she said that she will be coming next week!!! This Tuesday, we will be having a member lesson with her...so keep us in your prayers!! 

Other than that, we are doing really well here in Incheon!! Missionary work is amazing and it is moving forward at His pace. I hope this week was wonderful!!

-Sis. Chao

Incheon!!!

Hello~~

Ah, can you believe that January is halfway over and that my birthday is this Wednesday? I really don't want it to be my birthday because I will be like 75 in missionary years. Seriously, everyone keeps sassing me about how old I am getting. I truly will be a grandmother missionary in no time. 

This week has been pretty busy, but filled with miracles. Towards the beginning of the week, we had a lot of appointments with members so that they could say goodbye to Sis. Gooch. She is super sad to leave, but she is having loads of fun in her new area. I know because she keeps rubbing it in my face with photos. Destruction I miss Sis. Gooch though. We definitely had our fair share of sibling conversations at night. It was ridiculous how fast we became friends. 

That being said, I love being with my new companion Sis. Reed. She is 21 years old (today!) and she is from Provo, Utah. She is in her 5 transfer and 3rd area! Crazy, right? Hopefully she will stay in this area for a while. I cannot imagine having to move so often. She is really excited to work here and her enthusiasm is definitely paying off. This week alone, we have met with 5+ potential investigators! We are hoping that most of them will become real investigators this week. So keep us in your prayers! 

On Wednesday night, we stayed in the mission home because of MLC the next day. It takes FOREVER to get from our area to the Mission office, so once a month we get to stay in REAL beds.  It was a great council and we talked a lot about being more responsible with our time and accountability. I think our focus will be on the call in report this coming zone conference... Exciting, right? Who doesn't love numbers? 

Other than that, missionary work is moving forward faster than ever here in Korea! We are super excited for this coming transfer and have several investigators who could potentially have baptismal dates in the coming weeks. 

I hope all is well!! 

-Sis. Chao

Welcome 2015 - Year of Miracles

안녕하세요!!!

This week has been incredibly busy, so I will start from the beginning. On Monday the elders, Sis. Gooch, and I decided to do an activity together to start off P-day. In our church, there is this random bag of ball pen balls. So we decided that we would have a giant dodgeball game. Our elders decided to make forts out of chairs. One Elder decided to take it even a step further by making tank barriers. I am not really sure what that means, but it made it incredibly hard to throw balls at him. After P-day, we went and had FHE with one of our favorite members. We talked about how the beginning of the new year is often associated with new beginnings. Then we tied that to the atonement. Overall, it was a really good FHE. 

On Tuesday, half our district got super sick. Something is being spread around the missionaries in Korea and it is not good. So Tuesday and Wednesday, we were sentenced inside to recover and make phone calls. Tuesday night, we went out and met with Sis. Wright and Sis. Moyer for a language evaluation. Anytime we meet with those two, we laugh a lot. 

On Thursday, the missionaries in our district woke up super early to welcome the new year with the ward. We met our ward at the base of this hill and then we hiked up. Once we arrived to the designated spot, we sang a hymn and the bishop prayed. He then told us all to individually pray for ourselves, family, investigators, friends, etc. Essentially for everyone...it was super good because it remotivated us to be better missionaries. After hiking, we went to the bishops house and ate rice cake soup. It was so good :)  

Friday we helped a couple in our ward move to their new apartment. While we were helping the move, we found opportunities to share the gospel with maintenance people. It was really cool and we extended an invitation to them to learn more about our church. We hope they take us up on our offer.

On Sunday we received transfer calls! Sadly, Sis. Gooch is leaving but she is heading to Gangnam!! Whenever we talk about transfer calls, she would always joke about how she wanted to go to the city. My new companion will be Sis. Reed and it looks like she will be my last. I am still STL and I am super excited to be able to end my mission here in 만수!!  Can you believe that I only have 2 transfers left? I cannot...it definitely is not something I am going to be able to process for a while. 

-Sis. Chao