A day of faith... is a day of miracles!

 Actually this week I wanted to write about an awesome experience we had! It was either Tuesday or Wednesday and we had planned the night before and we had no one to teach. All of our investigators were either busy for the next few weeks, or dropped. Thus, we needed to spend the day finding someone to teach! 

     In my personal study that morning I had done some reading about faith. I decided if we were going to get any work done it would have to involve a lot of faith. So, I got on my knees and I prayed "Heavenly Father, I would like to find someone to teach. I have faith that if it is in thy will we can find someone." And right then and there these words came to my mind: "Faith is a principle of action, show my thy faith by thy actions, and then you shall be given what you desire." Whaooo! So crazy! It was awesome! So, I shared the thought with my companion in companion study and we both decided we would have a faith filled day! 

It started on the bus. We were headed to have lunch with a member who has a less-active daughter. I sat down across the way from a lady. I wanted to talk to her. And before Satan even had time to whisper a useless thought I was asking where she was going. She was headed home to the same apartment complex as the member we were visiting. So we talked and I told her about our English program. She was fascinated we were doing all this service. We got off at the same stop and we exchanged numbers. She was also curious about missionaries. It was great!

The meeting with the member and her daughter also went well. We gave a thought about forgiveness. The daughter has some trauma from a member of the church before and hasn't gone to church since, but you could feel the spirit in our meeting- I think the message was perfect.

That night we went to find a less active woman. When we found the house and knocked on the door the woman who answered was not who we were looking for. She has a four year old son. We told her who we were and about our 30:30 program. She loves meeting new people and she doesn't know any English, so she was very excited! She agreed to meet a few days later.

So, it was our day of miracles. We have since met with the woman at the door- her name is 김미숙, and she's super nice. Hopefully we can teach her lots! Always looking forward with an eye of faith! Really though guys, if you have faith you can pretty much do anything (righteous).

Other experiences... Really I never have enough time to email! Haha life XD 

It snowed here on Tuesday! It was so great! :D :D :D :D :D :D 

And my comp and I had a tim tam slam a few days ago- she enjoyed it haha I think we need to buy a lot more tim tams today. XD We played Jeopardy in English class this week, one of the subjects wasn't a subject at all- it was eating as many choco pies as you could hahaha it was soooo funny. Elder Karlson had a great time totally failing. 

Ah yeah we also had exchanges this week with the STLs. I went to the 신품(I think) area and my companion was sister Langi- there are 11 kids in her family hahaha. 7 boys 4 girls haha. We sticker boarded that night, and the next day we went to a senior center and answered questions the old people asked us in english. I think my favorite was "Have you ever had a romantic experience in the snow?" When they heard I never had a boyfriend there was quite a shocked/disbelieving reaction. Even my companion was like "No way." Haha I love Koreans. 

Ah a few days back we went to meet with a member- but we took the wrong bus so when we got off at the stop (which was one of many with the same name) we were in the wrong place, so we ended up running-RUNNING- around for 2 hours trying to find a bus stop or taxi. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere haha. It was fun. My companion felt so bad after she bought me banana milk haha. 

Yesterday we got to meet with a cute little 8-year-old who's mother wanted her to understand baptism and desire it for herself before she got baptized. She's such a sweet little girl. And her mom has such a great testimony!

We also got to meet with a 16 year old girl that was a previous investigator back in September who had to stop meeting because she was so busy with school. She is so sweet and innocent, she loves prayer, and loves the missionaries. We taught her some English and had a short spiritual thought about prayer, it went great. Hopefully she will accept baptism if all goes well!! :D

That's about it for the week! There's really too much to write, but it was all amazing and faith building. The last thing I want to say is read Alma 27:17-18. Really, repentance is such a gift. It brings joy and peace if you let it. Learn for yourself the joy of repenting, the joy of being clean and forgiven.

MUCH LOVE!

Week 3: Whoa YEAH!!! GUESS WHO'S IN KOREA?!?!?!?

Oh. That's right. Me. :)

So first things first: my plane ride! I sat down in my seat and did not move from it until we landed. Since my flight was booked later than the others I sat kind of far from everyone else, but it was good because I was able to teach a short version of the first 2 discussions to the girl sitting next to me who had met a missionary on a plane before and really liked learning about religion. :) Magical. Already seeing miracles and the plan of our Heavenly Father for His children. 

When we got off the plane we (eventually) got through customs. Everyone kind of just followed me. :P It helps I had been there twice before. 

We got through customs and eventually met with our mission president after getting our baggage. We met the office elders, old office elders (Yang Hail was one of the old office elders! Wow so crazy to see him!) and new office elders. 

We put our bags in the car then got on the subway and talked to people about the book of mormon for 2 hours on the way to the mission home. Because I was the only girl there I had 2 Elders as my companions hahahahaha. Elder Yates and Elder Lee make good companions, though I think Elder Lee was half asleep the whole time. 

After we got off the subway one of the Korean Elders was talking to me and asking me questions in Korean, every time I answered he just went "Wooooowwwww" And kept saying "No way" under his breath. He was so shocked. Most of the Korean Elders just had this half-amazed-half-awestruck look on their faces the whole time. It was funny haha. Btw Korea is tripping cold right now. Its not been above 20 degrees the whole time I've been here and during the day it's been as low as 0 degrees. DEATH. Haha.

Yeah so we had dinner. President is a big fan of making puns in Korean. He was telling us all his rice puns while we ate. then I had an interview with the president. He showed me my area on the map, and also showed me a picture of my companion. My companion was the only one he had chosen by then because I was the only Sister there.

So the next day we got up and made cases the our copies of the Book of Mormon. Mine looks pretty dang awesome. I don't have a pic now but I'll show you all later. So yeah, then we had some training and stuff and then at lunch the elder's trainers all slowly wandered in. My trainer showed up a bit later and we said hi and stuff. It was kind of an odd way to do it haha totally anti-climactic. :P 

Then we had some more training, then we went into a different room from the trainers and we all got more training and stuff then we went back to get our assignments. Many sarcastic comments were made about wondering who my trainer was. Haha most of them were made by me. Ah, her name is Bae Joon Shim. She's from a town in the Taejon mission, and she likes to be funny, but also get things done. She likes Konglish a lot. She kept saying how she was so lucky she got me as a companion because she "didn't have to teach me anything". It was pretty funny. 

Well, the Mission president called up the trainers, then he called the trainees and we got our pictures with our trainers, then after everyone had their trainers we had some time to get to know each other, then we had a role play introducing our companions to members. 

When President played a member he was so funny! They all took turns and stuff, so the Korean assistant who talked to me a lot seemed to try and compete with the president to be more funny. He lost, by a long shot haha. President is really funny. :D 

So yeah, we finished our training and such and then we all got our stuff and left. We took the subway home then dropped my bags off, then we went to teach and help out at English class. There are 6 people in my new district, my and my trainer, Elder Lant (DL) and his greenie comp Elder Roylance, then the ZL's Elder Matthews and Elder Karlson. Elder Lant is funny. Ah Elder Matthews is from Australia. 

The next day we saw the worldwide missionary broadcast. We had to stop partway through for an appointment with a lady who isn't an investgator, but her daughter is. She likes the sisters and thinks of them as daughters, so the plan is to be her friends until she is ready to hear the gospel. So we visited with her and looked at family pictures and such. Then she gave us food. It was kind of spicy, but my comp really can't eat spicy food, even though she's Korean. So she had a hard time, but endured :) 

Then we went back and watched the rest of the broadcast. After that we had a lesson with a woman who was going to America. She's very receptive, but her sons are kind of noisy. We taught her part of the plan of Salvation but didn't have too much time so we went home.

The next day we had our weekly planning session for a few hours and such. Then we went to find some less actives, but I think they moved. That night we went sticker boarding- we got a board that said in English and Korean "Why do you want to learn English?" and there were different answers like "Mother said so" or "Work" then people would take a sticker and put it on their answers. It was a bunch of fun! I know missionary work can get discouraging if you do it a lot and always get regected, so it was nice to have so many people willing to put stickers on a board. Koreans really turn into little kids around stickers! Their eyes light up and they get so excited to use a little sticker. So cute. Once they put a sticker on we gave them a card for English class. It's super effective. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

So the next day at English class only 2 people from the advanced class showed up because it was so cold. So basically I did nothing because the elders taught them. I tried to memorize some phrases, but it wasn't working out. I felt kind of useless. :P Then we cleaned the building for church the next day and set up the chairs. The Elders are super OCD about making sure they are in the right spot!

After that we tried to street contact, but since it was so cold no one was out. So we went to our appointment with a member early. We had dinner and shared a message. She really reminds me of Mom. She's a funny lady. She took us home in her car, too. I was so grateful. Its so cold outside!

Btw, if you brush your teeth and eat kimchi right after, it tastes really odd.

Sunday we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and discussed our investigators and PIs. It went well. At church the mission president came. While I was talking to my comp his wife came up and asked if I could translate for her, so I said sure! Then she clarified that she was speaking and needed someone to translate it into Korean so the members could understand. Needless to say I felt wholly unqualified but agreed to do it. After I gave my introduction she stood up to talk and I did my best to translate. It went pretty well. I messed up a bit reading the scriptures but overall it was a good first try. :) When we sat down she said "That's going in the history books. Never had a greenie translate their first sacrament meeting, and I've only ever had one other non-korean sister translate for me." So it was great.

After we had classes and such. In RS a lady taught about how she had a trial of faith because she wasn't happy, but how she was able to get revelation to just focus on the light and all would work out. She's had a great change of heart.

We had our meal after church and we sat with some member ladies who were fascinated while talking to me. It was very cute. 

It was a thing by the end of church whenever a member asked how long I had been there I would respond "5 days" and they would attempt to clarify by asking "Not the area, how long have you been in Korea?" And I would repeat 5 days, and the cycle would continue until they figured it out and practically passed out. Then they would ask how I learned and such. Haha so funny :)

 

We also had a good lesson with a part member family after church. Well, not so much a lesson as a short message about prayer. The wife who is a member shared a great experience and I think her husband was touched. Though he's a bit of an introvert, so I think he doesn't like being around a lot of people, he still enjoyed it.

That's been about it! That is my week. 

 

I've already learned a lot, and I've met a lot of cool people. Its awesome!

Oh yeah, I'm in 곡반정. Its in the suwon area :D

Sister Sierra Brooksby

Korea Seoul South Mission

Week 2: I Was Going To...

Haha wednesday night we also had a bit of fun making a "bed chorus" because all of the beds squeak and make different noises. I'm sure our neighbors were not happy. Hahah. And, my companion snores. She sounded like a phone on vibrate that night hahahaha. 

Thursday- we went to get my face checked out. Ha. Funny. So I get there to the office and they put me in the room. Eventually the doc came in and checked it out. Then he told me to sit in the chair and proceeded to (PAINFULLY SLOWLY) remove his gloves, ceremoniously throw them away, delicately wash his hands, and then dry them until you couldn't see a speck of moisture. It probably took the guy like 5 minutes to do that. Then he sits down and says all serious "Now I'm going to be aggressive with this. You need 2 antibiotics, here is where you get them. I will send the prescription. Come again on monday to get checked out." And then I left. That's the jist of it. He didn't even tell me exactly what the problem was! I assume it's just an infection, so whatever! :P It was so funny thought. So then we got the prescription off-MTC-campus (Rebels!)

Also, my comp and I discovered that the little board with "our purpose" on it was magnetic. So I did this whole epic thing where I would say "Our...... PURPOSE!" And throw it on the board all dramatically. For some reason, it was super funny. Ah the dinner line that night was so long. SOOOO LONG. Ahh and that night the sisters were learning how to pray. Our teacher taught us a thing to do to remember how to say "Please bless us" You act like a train and move your arms in a circle and stuff and say "Chook bok hae joo she ops so suh" Like a train. So we had our break, and I decided we would make a sister train and we went around the entire floor saying "Please bless us" in Korean like a train. XD

Friday- So at gym today Sierra Kehrer showed up! She didn't know I was there. I didn't know she was there. Her and her mom just came to check out the gym really quick. Sierra works at the TRC sometimes. It was cool haha, and random. Ah, one of the Elders had a birthday. Happy Bday Yates Changronim. After lunch I was officially in a trio with my awesome two new companions. So my companions are Sister Lee- funny story she lived in New Zeland for 10 years. Her English is better than her Korean :D She's super goofy haha. Not like a typical Korean girl at all. You can tell she's not really from Korea haha but I love her a bunch.

 My other companion's name is Sister Kang, she's more like a typical Korean girl. She likes makeup, she's very caring, she's still working on learning a lot of things, but she knows how to improve so its awesome! Anyway, that day we taught investigators. It went okay, I've learned a lot since then, I'll say that haha.

Saturday- We did some more teaching, learned some more. It was funny, in class Elder Koo was writing our names on the board for prayer and stuff. He had forgotten my name. He thought my name was the name of the other sister. I was like "Elder I'm sad now!" And he was like, "That's why I didn't want you to know!" It was fun. We all laughed about it.

Sunday- I taught the lesson in RS about Enduring to the end. Everyone said it was awesome. I thought I did a pretty good job too. Then in Sacrament me and my old district sang "I am a child of God" The first verse/chorus was in Cebuano and Tagolog. The Second was Korean. The third was english and I did a descant in Korean for the chorus. It went so well :) Lots of people after said to me "I didn't know you could sing!" You know. I'm not sure what that means. Is it like, "Ah, I didn't know your voice was so good! It sounds professional!" Or "Oh, I didn't know that your voice didn't resemble the mating call of a tone-deaf animal!" Oh yeah, after all our classes and stuff we usually go on a temple walk. It was awesome. It's always great to be by the temple. :)

Monday- So we usually get our gym clothes on, get sack breakfast, then eat and study in the room before gym time on monday so we don't have to get dresses. So I was all ready to go and I went to the other room to get the girls but they were dressed in dresses. Apparently we had to eat in the cafeteria so that Sister Lee could give a letter to her sister who worked there.

Dont take this the wrong way guys- if any of you worked at the MTC cafeteria, I'd probably just live off of sack lunches,. 

Anyway, it was Elder Koo's bday, so we went and got him some presents from the store. After lunch everyone gathered in the room while the elders got mail, but they were coming up the stairs while everyone was going into the room so I had to distract them. That's a difficult thing, both the native Korean Elders aren't super chatty, and they walk with purpose. It was a relief to hear the door close as soon as we rounded the corner. We successfully surprised him :) Ah, so later after our study, before dinner, I asked if everyone in our native korean district would share their favorite scripture and testimony of the book of mormon. It was an awesome experience. After though.... Hahahahahahahahaha so I was like "Man I love you all sooooo much!" And I made a big heart over my head and one of the Elders was like (and you have to understand the elders are both explained very simply: Awkwardly adorable.) in English "Oh, you are so cute." The way he said it, we all laughed so hard. It was so awkward and funny haha!

Tuesday we taught and stuff. Neil L anderson came to visit for our devotional! I was singing in the choir! It was awesome! 

That's it for now!

Email From Takoda....

Hey Sierra,

The youth of are ward are writing letters to you. How does that sound? Plus, you made me want to go on a mission. Plus you blown away the Elders in Korean classes great. I told sister Minarchik about you. She just laughed and said "she is really good at it."

Love Takoda

One week... Three districts? Now Leave the MTC Early!

HELLO!!!!!!!! Hey, hi, hello, wassup friends?

And you know, family.

SO! I am here at the MTC! Wow yeah its been great! So much has happened in so little time!

So I'll go day by day for all those of you who like chronology and details. 

1st:

My Host's name was Sister Foutz, she's going to Texas, spanish speaking :) WE started off, I went into a room and got my tag and mtc access card (It lets you get into the buildings, eat food, and you get $8 on it every Wednesday. Like an MTC pass-of-all-passes haha) and then went to the bookstore to get my language books. I went in, got them and a nice korean was in charge of directing me. When he heard I was going to Korea he said "Hello" In Korean to which I responded "Yes, Hello" In Korean back. Apparently I sounded too native, because he accidentally almost directed me the native way before someone corrected him. :)

Next I went and put my stuff in the room. I live on the top floor in room 435 I think :P 

Then I was directed to the classroom where I met my Cook Island companion- Sister Tuaputa. She actually lived in Australia/ New Zeland for a long time so she has the accent. She also really loves Korean stuff. One quote that does a good job of describing her is when she said "We're companions! No personal space unless you're in the bathroom!" While holding my arm. So yeah, she's cool. She's got a great testimony and she's progressing in Korean very quickly. She knew a bit (like the alphabet) before she came out. 

My district consists of 5 sisters. Us, and a Trio. The other sisters are Sister Campbell from SLC, Sister Alcober from Phillipines, and Sister Arcillia from the phllipines. Because there are no Elders my comp is District STL. Although I'm the senior comp. :P Our stl's are Sister Davis, Sister Muitalo, and Sister Feinga. They're all awesome!

While everyone else spent time learning the alphabet, I kinda chilled. Our teachers and the other Korean speaking missionaries soon learned what Sister Brooksby is all about. I'll give you some quotes. "So, your companion is better than a lot of returned missionaries..." Brother Driggs (YES HALEY, MY TEACHER. DRIGGS.) said that to my comp. "I know she's better than me!" Sister Washburn- my other teacher. I mostly got super blank/ amazed stares from the Elders. It was tripping hillarious. 

2nd day

Alright, so I we had study time and class time and all that mess. Brother Driggs talked to me about how good my Korean was and also talked to me about transferring with the natvies when the come in. (They came last night! :)) We also met the Branch Presidency. President Perriton. Haley do you know him?

3rd day

So I had totally forgot to pack chapstick. So I got it from the bookstore, but when  I threw the package away I threw the lid away with it hahahahahah Oh well. We did lots of study to focus on our investigator which we taught that night. Lee sem was her name. I did most of the talking in the lesson so my comp got super discouraged, but I tried my best to explain how if she has faith it will all work out. We've both learned a lot. The teacher for the natives wanted to have a one on one lesson with me. So he taught me alone which was awesome.

4th This morning we had a service assignment, we cleaned in the devotional building. We went to get sack bfast after but my comp forgot her card so we had to go back to the room and get it. I had another lesson with Brother Kim. We taught another lesson. My comp did better, but she still got a little discouraged after. 

5th

Fast sunday!! Ahh biggest challenge of mtc experience. We had our branch meeting. I bore my testimony in Korean which was a bunch of fun. I didn't feel like going, but my comp wanted to, so we went on a temple walk. It ended up being good and distracted me from my hunger which was great. I also helped one of the Elders translate an email, it was from a roleplay investigator, I was helping him translate it. DINNER! YES DINNER!!! I DIDN'T DIE! We had an evening devotional, which was great. And last of all we watched "Character of Christ" A bednar video. That was also super great. I learned a lot. I have a long way to go. I also met with pres Perriton about transferring with the natives. I've had a lot of meetings like that. With basically every teacher. 

Ah also, out district used to be 28A  but now we are 3D becase of the new year.

6th We got sack bfast this morning, when I went to go heat up my bagel in the Microwave one of the sisters in the trio was about to place her hard boiled eggs (shell and all) inside the microwave. I then proceeded  to save us all from the horrible experience that almost ensued. No boiled eggs in the microwave like that guys. So we went to get the mail (BTW I haven't gotten any, you guys are such slackers. For reals. Dear Elder anyone???? HM? Jk but for reals you should write me.) and my comp lost the paper and forgot the pass. So we didn't get it. We had a sub teacher tonight, he was odd. But its cool. :P

7th So basically yesterday I woke up and the left side of my face was swollen. Yeah. Not sure what to do about that. Its been like that ever since the, I can't tell if its getting better or worse? I'll probably go to the clinic tomorrow. I also had a super hard time breathing yesterday, but hey, its all cool. We also had our tuesday devotional, and then district meeting which was awesome.

That's about the long of the short of it. Oh yeah, and.

I'm transferring to the native district as of 20 minutes ago, so tomorrow I will be in a trio with 2 korean companions. Haha. Woo hoo. I fly to Korea on the 18th of this month. Hello short lived MTC experience!

Yeah, yeah thats about good.