Last Week in 안양?

안녕하세요!
I cannot believe that this is the last week of my fourth transfer in Korea. Every time Sis. Kim and I look at our planners, we are always so surprised at how fast the time has gone. We have seen so many miracles while serving together. Part of us hopes that we will have one more transfer together, but we also are excited to be asked to serve elsewhere with other people. At the end of the day, we know that we will be friends for much longer than this one transfer. We have already promised to go to each others weddings and other important events in life. I truly have found a friend for life! We will find out about transfers this coming Saturday. Whoo!
Sis. Kim came out at the same time as my previous companion. She just passed her halfway mark, but she will not be done with her mission until next January. So, she will bless a lot of lives!
This past week, Korea experienced one of the greatest tragedies. You have probably heard about it, but it particularly hit at home for us because a lot of the students came from our zone. We have been praying almost every minute for the people who are affected by this tragedy. Sis. Kim was telling me that it is pretty regular for high school students to go on trips together as a school. All of Korea is mourning the loss of the people on the ship and have cancelled/postponed a lot of the activities and festivals planned for the next coming weeks. Everyone just wants to do what they can to help those affected by the tragedy. This tragedy reminds me a lot of Elder Wirthlin's talk "Sunday will come." Essentially in the talk, Elder Wirthlin talks about Christ's last weekend alive. How on Friday he was crucified and on Sunday he rose again. Elder Wirthlin stated that we will have our Fridays, where it seems like the world is falling apart, but he emphasized that Sunday will come. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. 
This past week, Sis. Kim and I have seen a lot of miracles in regards to investigators. Every week, we meet with Grace 자매님 and have small discussions about the gospel. She is one of the most difficult investigators because she has been coming to church for several years, but she has no real desire to be baptized. So, we were really surprised when she asked to meet with me and Sis. Kim. This past week, Grace 자매님 asked us if we wanted to go on a picnic with her and her daughter in law. We happily accepted her invitation and was able to see the most beautiful flowers! It was like an ocean of purple flowers. As we walked through the flowers, Grace and I were able to have a wonderful discussion about religion and what she believes. It turns out, that she feels something different about us and wants to know why. Another miracle from this week is that 하영 and 건희 were able to attend a baptism yesterday! The bishop's son had a baptismal service and so we invited our two young investigators. 하영 was actually really interested and asked a lot of questions. The YW have also started trying to befriend her and so 하영 really enjoyed church yesterday. We are still working on friends for her younger brother, but a miracle is a miracle! We are so excited because we can see their progression and desire to learn more..even if it is really small. A progression is a progression. 

Love,
-Sis. Chao

Hello black noodle day!

I cannot believe that it is already the middle of April. Where did all the time go? Sis. Kim and I have been working incredibly hard and have been doing everything we can to help our investigators progress and come closer to Christ. This past weekend, Sis. Kim and I were finally able to watch General Conference! Wow, there were so many important things that were said. I never realized how informative and uplifting hearing a bunch of talks can be. Now, don't get too crazy...I still have not been able to stay awake for all 6 sessions, but it will happen eventually. I promise. :D My favorite talks were definitely ones that were centered on treating others kindly and being aware of what we say to other people. It really struck home that some of the most hurtful things we hear can come from the ones we love the most. I also loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. That is why Sis. Kim and I have made it a companionship goal to have an attitude of gratitude. I suppose we have already started doing that, but we are starting to list more miracles down in our planners every single day.

Other miracles that we saw this week, well....Sis. Kim and I have been conversing with everyone and pretty much everything. The other day, we walked for a really long time and passed this park. We thought it would be a great idea to talk to people there, but lo and behold someone else's church was already there...and they had popcorn. Haha, seriously, other churches are cunning geniuses when it comes to inviting people to join there church! So we decided to leave and go to our appointment first and the possibly stop by on the way home. On the way home, we went back to the park and saw a cute grandmother sitting on a bench. After talking with her for a bit, a bunch of other grandmothers walked over, which is great because when elderly grandmothers get together it is a party. After a few minutes, Sis. Kim and I realized that we had met several of the grandmothers a few weeks ago. We all laughed and one of the grandmothers wanted to exchange numbers with us. She hands Sis. Kim the phone and I hear this gem of a conversation

"Grandmother, you have 89 missed phone calls and 45 messages."

"I have no idea how to use that thing. I only know that 1 is my son, 2 is my daughter in law, 3 is...."

Seriously the cutest thing ever. Sadly, a lot of the missionaries no longer know how to use technology. Yesterday, we could not figure out how to plug in speakers to a laptop computer. Ah, who needs technology anyways...completely overrated. 

Anyways, other than that...nothing super eventful has been happening here. Sis. Kim and I still eat like crazy people, but with less rice. We still talk to each other all the time and cannot believe how fast time has gone. We really love serving together, but are excited to see what is in store for the future!

I am going to try and upload pictures to Dropbox today!

Love you,

Sis. Melanie Chao

p.s. Essentially, if you are single you have to eat black noodles today. They have a love centered holiday every 14 of the month. HAHA

안양!

Hello Family,

Can you believe that it is already April? I can because Korea is beautiful, but the weather still hasn't made up its mind as to whether or not it should start warming up or continue to be cold. Today, Sis. Kim and I have a hike planned and possibly a picnic with a couple other missionaries in our zone. I am excited because I have been wanting to explore the area for a long time. 

As for me, I wasn't able to watch General Conference this past weekend because it has not been translated into Korean yet. So, I will actually get to watch it this weekend with 안양 stake and all the missionaries in the zone. I am not really sure whether or not we will watch it in English or Korean. Either way, it is the word of God, I will feel the spirit regardless of what language it is in. 

We are really hoping that are most recent investigator (Kim Che Sook) will come to General Conference this weekend. She has been progressing fairly well and believes a lot of the principles we have been teaching her. The only real thing preventing her from progressing is her attending church on Sundays. Unfortunately, she doesn't want to come to our church yet because of all the friends she has made at her current church. We are hoping to have a member come to her lesson and start the befriending process. 

Another one of our investigators, Kim Son Ja 자매님, is making our lives as missionaries very exciting. This past week, we met with her twice and both of them ended up with her lecturing and Bible bashing. Essentially, she has no real desire to learn about the Book of Mormon and is convinced that because we are not experts in the Bible...that we do not believe in the Bible. Needless to say, we are not really excited, but that is partially because she is really trying to convert us to her religion. The other day, she offered us a part time job because she felt bad that we were serving as missionaries for "free". When Sis. Kim asked her about the job, Kim Son Ja essentially said that she would pay us 7 dollars to listen to a potential missionary for her church. Seriously, what a gem...so creative. :D

Oh yes, I do teach English every week. It happens in every area of the mission. Right now, I am teaching a 24 year old student who is planning on applying to graduate school. She speaks English fairly well and we talk as if though we have been life long friends. Every time we meet, I really want to try and invite her to meet with us and take missionary discussions. It is a slow process, but she is warming up to the idea of talking about religion. 

-Life in Korea-

So, I have finally had a moment that made me realize that I live in Korea. The other day, Sis. Kim and I were on the bus and saw a bunch of school girls swarming around men with colorful hair in front of a school...a girl's middle school! Sis. Kim and I got off the bus and started walking up the street and guess who those men were...K POP STARS! Haha, I am not really sure what group they are from, but I saw my first K pop group. SWEET!

I cannot believe how fast time is going!

Love ya!

-Sis. Chao

It's Spring!

Hello Family!

I have so many things I need to tell you! First of all, it is finally Spring in Korea and it is beautiful. Remember in Mulan when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, but the dad is super depressed because Mulan ran away? Well, that is what parts of my area look like...minus the sad father. It is amazing and I will definitely be taking pictures with Sis. Kim this week. Be prepared for some epic sister missionary photo sessions. I will send photos once I figure out how to make the computer stop corrupting all of my photos. I really like them and want them to stay forever!

Things here in 안양 are getting busier everyday. This past week, we met with a lot of potential investigators and progressing investigators. One of our investigators (김재숙) previously met missionaries, but had to stop meeting with them because she got really busy. Well while street contacting, I introduced myself to her and she was incredibly excited to meet Sis. Kim and I. We met with her a couple of days ago and she is so sincere and really wants to follow Christ. She asked a lot of good questions about our church and took notes. We will be meeting with her again tomorrow and I cannot wait! Ah, seriously...heart of gold. The other investigator is 오해진 and she is 23 years old and suffers from a mental disability. She loves coming to our church because of the pure feeling that she receives every time she enters the front doors. We don't really know what we can do for her, but we really want to help her come closer unto Christ. 

Another cool experience that we had this week is that Sis. Kim and I finally understand the missionary purpose. Everyday when we street contact, people ask us what makes us different from the other missionaries. As we thought about the question, Sis. Kim and I realized that we are not telling them to join our church and that all of the other churches are bad. We are merely inviting them to come and listen to a happy message about the restoration of Christ's church. If they reject the invitation, we still love them and chat with them about their lives. Not to mention, other churches wouldn't hire a person like mw who has terrible language skills to promote their church. 

Oh, cool miracle...yesterday 12 less active members came to church! MIRACLE!! 

Other than that, there really is not anything new in my area. We are working hard and trying to help strengthen the church in this area. Um, I really wish I had something funny to say...but I don't. Sorry!

Love you all! 

-Sis. Chao

Working hard

Dear Family,

This week has been exceptionally good because Sis. Kim and I have been working really hard on trying to help our investigators progress and find new investigators to teach. Two of our investigators 강윤경 자매님 and 김허자 자매님 are progressing slowly, but surely. 강윤경 자매님 has a real desire to know God, but she still has a hard time wrapping her head around a loving God who allows His children to experience trials. She has not come to church yet, but we are going to try our best to have her attend one of the General Conference sessions in 2 weeks.  김허자 자매님 is still trying to convince us to study the Bible with her, which isn't a bad thing but I think she is trying to convert us to Presbyterianism. Whenever we try to talk about the Book of Mormon with her, she always asks why it is called the Book of Mormon and the symbolism behind the Bible's title in Korean. I try not to laugh every time she asks it because I think it is sincere, but she asked the question like 50 times. I am not exaggerating. 

Another investigator that we have been meeting with is 오해진 자매님. She is incredibly interesting and we don't really know how to approach teaching her yet. Mentally she has a few problems, so it is hard for her to fully comprehend what is happening at church. That being said, she has told us multiple times that she loves the feeling of church. She comes almost every week.

하영 and 건희 still come to church every week, but they really don't like Sacrament meeting. I don't blame them because I don't think I liked them when I was there age. We are trying to think of things that could keep them busy at Sacrament, but we really have no idea. If you have any ideas, please let me know because we are stuck. 

 I am attaching a picture of a recent convert 이예솔자매님. She is probably one of the most incredible members of this church. Whenever we talk, she brings up a scripture that she liked from her studies the previous night or something that stuck out to her. I also really like her because she gives me jelly. (I know...I need to control my sugar intake).

Love ya!

Sis. Chao