"Is she a Korean?" May 30 2016

Hello one and all!!!!!! I hope your week was as awesome and miracle-filled as my week here in the Seoul South mission was!!!!!!

First off, I'm not going chronologically here when I talk, so bear with me ;) Yesterday one of our investigators was baptized!!! It was a beautiful, spiritual day of rebirth! 

Our investigator, Sister Kim, has come a long way, and we've seen a lot of changes in her life! I've been so blessed to be a small part of her conversion and helping to bring her to Christ. :)

Yesterday, there were 13 investigators from our district in church! 5 of them were our investigators! We were so happy! Its been miracle after miracle here in this ward, and we've had the great privilege  to be here to witness it! 

Okay, moving on to the other stuffs^^

Our awesome DL had been very nervous all week about interviewing our investigator for baptism. So we practiced with him on Tuesday. Its his first time interviewing someone in Korean. :) 

We went to visit Less actives a few days ago, when we went into one of the apartments we saw a couple in front of us going up the stairs, the lady looked at us for a moment but didn't say anything. We went to go to #205, on the second floor, and as we followed behind the couple, we saw them go inside a door and close it. Door #205. XD Well. We rang the doorbell. They didn't answer. We think the LA moved and a different family moved in. XD

We had a super fun time cleaning the font for the baptism :) Lots of water, soap, and fun times. Who knew cleaning a font would be so much fun? I kept thinking "We gotta clean the inner vessel!" I don't know why. Haha.

Anyway, after cleaning the font we went to go to the church building by the American base for the baptismal interview. (This area covers 2 buildings) As we rode the bus we saw the Elders, who we were going to meet at the church, and they ended up getting on the same bus. The bus we were on, #20, comes like, every 3 minutes, but the Elders happened to get on the exact same bus we were on haha. Oh life.

On Thursday we had District meeting. We learned about one of my favorite parts of teaching! HTBT (How To Begin Teaching) the most important part of making a first meeting conductive to the converting spirit of the Lord! So we learned. Our mission president asks that we do a role-play as a part of every DM, but we had to go, so we didn't have a lot of time. So our DL told us that he would chose one team to demonstrate HTBT for them. Guess which team (of the 3 teams) was chosen? Yepppp the sisters ;) It was fun. When we finished the DL was like, "Yep! That's why I chose the sisters!" 

So we went to go visit a member, and we got there a little early, so my companion asked if we could take a picture on the rock path of this river. She wanted to do a jumping shot. I wasn't quite into the whole jumping thing, seeing as we were standing on rocks in a river, so she jumped alone. My companion wears tennis shoes because of ankle problems, but she ties those shoes very lightly. So my companion jumped. 

One of her shoes decided it would like to be a boat instead. 

It was alright, I grabbed it before it floated away, but the best part was that we got a picture of it because the camera was on a timer! Haha it was great! :)

So we were headed to visit a less active, and apparently the bus in front of us broke down, so everyone on that bus got on our bus! It was packed and all, but the funniest part was that the same set of Elders who got on the same bus as us 2 days earlier had been on the bus that broke down, so they ended up getting on our bus! So we've accidentally broken the 'don't travel together' rule on accident twice. XD

On Saturday we met with a 7 year old investigator who's brother was baptized not too long ago. She will be baptized next week Monday, on her birthday. Its great and such, but we only have 2 times to meet with her and teach her all the lessons. Woo! So Saturday we met her and taught her all of lessons 1 and 4. The Restoration, and the commandments. Gratefully, she had met with the missionaries with her brother, so she had heard most of it before, and has come to church a lot. Next week we get to teach lessons 2,3, and 5! Wish us luck! 

While we were teaching, the member who was with us also brought her son who is the same age as our investigator. When I spoke, I got through 2 sentences and he turned to his mom and asked "Is she Korean?" and his mom said "Of course! Her name tag says so! Her name is Baek Sool Be." (My Korean name) To which he responded "But her eyes are blue" and his mom said "She was born that way because her mother prayed a lot" and then he said "Mom, you didn't pray a lot." Super adorable! :) At another point in the lesson we were introducing the Book of Mormon and asked "If you want to learn math, what do you need?" (Expecting: Math book!) To which he responded "The Book of Mormon!" Hehe super adorable. :)

Saturday night at about 8pm it came to our attention we hadn't gotten flowers for our investigator. Her baptism was the next day, and most stores were closed. So, we went to a place with lots of shops and looked around, but couldn't find any, so after much deliberation (and ruling out stealing flowers from the local park) we decided we would just go home and not worry to much because they were probably all closed. Then, on the way home, my companion looked out the window and said "Oh Flower shop!!!" So we got off the bus and ran to the flower shop that we pass every day (why didn't we remember that there was a flower shop 7 minutes from our house, I don't know!) and went inside. It was late, we needed to go home, but there was no one in the store. So we called the number twice, and no one answered, so we just planned in the store and waited a while. Then, 18 minutes before we had to go home we called again, the lady answered and said she was out on a delivery and would be back in 10 minutes. So, we waited, then she came, we bought the flowers, and RANNNNNN home, arriving 3 minutes in time. It was quite the adventure!

And that was my week! It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and a lot of miracles!

I'm so happy I get to serve here. I hope I'm here in this ward for a long time and continue to exercise faith to see even more miracles and joy!

Love you all! I hope this week is great for all of you! Pics to follow! :)

The dates are a reflection May 23

Hello everyone! Friends, family, loved ones! 

Another great week in the best mission in the world! 

This was transfer week! I will update you all on that one at the end of the email.

This week was a great week! Lets go event by event, shall we?

On Monday we had what's called a TIP brunch at the mission home. Missionaries in this mission have been given a special book made by our very own President Morrise, it details vocabulary and scriptures to memorize and requires us to teach practice lessons to our companion and leaders in Korean. Its a great program. Its separated into the 5 lessons, and if you finish one lesson you can go to the mission presidents house on Monday and have brunch with the other missionaries who finished. This past monday was the last Monday TIP brunch was help because our amazing Mission President will be going home. There were over 50 missionaries all crammed in the mission home, and the mission home is not large. It was a bunch of fun :) I think almost half the mission was there. 

That night we went to visit some members randomly, the first sister we visited was not exactly thrilled when we came, but we asked if we could have a short prayer together with her and she invited us in to pray. We prayed with her, and she remarked that she felt a lot of peace. Her heart was changed and she opened up about how she had been having a lot of health problems and it was giving her a hard time. It ended up being a really good experience. When all else fails, pray!!

One of the Elders in our district has been working very diligently to bring people in. He invited 5 high school boys to our English class on Wednesday and they all came! It was great! Especially because the numbers have been decreasing lately. But I can say one thing... Swiss cheese. He he he.

So we went to teach an investigator about the Restoration and we asked the Elders to bring the Restoration video because we don't have one, and we were waiting at the church and we got a call from them 15 minutes after they were supposed to come and the Elder said that he left home, and then went back because he forgot the vid, then they left home again, and forgot the video again, so they had to go back a 3rd time haha. Then they got to the church and gave us the video, and then my companion and I looked at each other and laughed because we forgot the DVD player, so we had to go all the way home again to get it haha.

We went to the hospital so my companion could get physical therapy. I sat in the waiting room. My bag was on my left, and my companions bag was on my right. Then I had a thought "You should put your bag with your companions bag, someone may sit next to you." So I did, and not two minutes later a woman in her 60s came in the office, then sat next to me! So we talked about the weather and things, and I told her who I was. We had a good chat about families and such. It was a great experience. Always heed those promptings!

Ah, so we went to go visit another less active, on the way we walked behind these two girls with a dog. The poor dog had to go to the bathroom. About every 5 feet on the sidewalk there is a tree, so the dog would run up to the tree to relieve itself, but the girls wouldn't stop, so before it could go the girls had walked past and were pulling it away, so then it would run to the next one to get a head start but the girls would catch up and pull it away again. It happened like 5 times before the girls noticed the poor dog was struggling!

We rode the worlds slowest elevator on Friday. It was a blast. Hehehe

In church yesterday there was a sister and her kids who came that I had never seen before, so I introduced myself and asked for their names, and it turns out they were visiting from Chonan where Haley had served over two years ago! The sister still remembered Haley and we all took a picture together! I will send it. :) 

Also, this week we have 3 baptismal dates, and Sunday we will have a baptism! Exciting things happening in Korea!!!!!! Don't give up, even when people say Asia is a hard place to serve. Its worth it. Just have the faith to do what God needs you to!

Its about our desires. May 16th 2016

Helllllooooooo everyone!

재 사랑하는 가족과 친구들 안녕하세요!!!! 

This has been a great week! And I totally forgot most of it! Well, I didn't forget, I just usually write down in my planner the stories I want to tell when I email, but this week I had no time to do anything, and since I didn't write it in my planner, its hard to tell you what I was busy with!

Actually, gratefully my memory is not broken, so I will tell you what I remember from the week and hopefully not miss out on funny stories. 

Monday was a normal proselyting day besides email in the morning because we had Temple Pday on Thursday. So, we were going to meet the Elders and go sticker boarding, but they Elders ended up doing something and we waited for them for an hour. It was cool, we got to watch this funny guy direct traffic and get upset if people didn't park perfectly. He was quite the character. And then he would talk to himself all the time "Doesn't she know how to drive?" or "She should have gone more to the left." 

Tuesday we met a lot of members and ate with them :) I love the members here in this ward. They're all so cute and awesome. We also ended up waiting at a bus stop for our investigator for about 30 minutes. A few days later on we visited her house and had a lesson with her. She had lost her phone and has health problems, so its possible if she had gone to meet us she would have collapsed and stuff. So hey, if an investigator doesn't show up, don't be down, they could be doing it to save their life! :) Always nice to give the benefit of the doubt.

Wednesday was not exciting, or not exciting enough to report on. We did missionary stuff. XD

Thursday was temple pday!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! We went to the temple, which was awesome, then after we went with a bunch of missionaries from the 2 zones that went to the temple to the Han river and rented bikes and biked for an hour. It was a bunch of fun. I missed bikes. One Elder made the comment about how other missionaries in biking missions would probably look at us biking on pday for fun and think we are crazy. XD True story. On the way back to our area we took an express bus which takes about an hour. A woman got on the bus with her adorable little boy and sat by me. The little boy was quite the bundle of energy! He loved to touch things. So for an hour I helped keep him happy with all the random things in my bag. He also really liked the Book of Mormon and my nametag. I think its a foreshadowing. Haha. Anyway, his mom was super grateful. :) Always good to be an example of Christ everywhere you go!

Friday we met a few investigators and had weekly planning. Weekly planning here is always super interesting because we always get to anticipate the next week, which always proves to be very busy! I love it!

This weekend we had Stake conference!!! It was super fun though because I got to see all the members of the ward I just transferred from. They were all super happy to see me and I was super happy to see them! :) Some of them didn't recognize me at first because of my glasses haha. 

The Saturday session was mostly filled with babysitting! Not really, but we sat next to an RC who has 2 daughters with lots of energy!! I also sang 'Amazing Grace' in the Saturday session. 

Sunday morning all the 8 sisters in the stake stood by the doors and said hello to everyone as they came in. The members loved it :) So cute!!! One sister came up to me and her husband asked "Are you the one that sang yesterday?" And I said yes. And the sister just stared at me for a very long time and then said "Can't you sing again for me? I want to hear you sing again." It was so sweet. :) The members here are so nice~

That's about what I have to report! Life is good, the work is great. :) 

Boards, rain, parties. Missionary life. May 9th 2016

Sup friends, family, others! 

What's good with life and such? I'm doing pretty grand. I got to Skype with my family, do some cool stuffs, all that jazz.

So to be more specific let's just talk about what I actually did this week.

The Elders asked us last Sunday if we could go sticker board with them Monday and we said we would go if we didn't have an appointment. Well, we didn't have an appointment, but just like 2 weeks ago, it rained again! I think it's rained basically every time we try to go sticker boarding! Well, because we bailed on them last time we just went ahead and decided to sticker board in the rain anyway. 

I will never do that again.

Don't get me wrong, its fun. Its also cold, and stickers don't stick very well when the board is wet.

Actually funny story, we agreed to meet at 6:30 but the Elders were late so we went and bought stickers. So we both got stuff at Daiso (store), but paid for stuff separately, so I finished first and then came to see what Sister Hwang was doing, she was just putting the receipt in her bag, but when I looked at the counter I saw what looked like what she had bought. But you know, I figured she wouldn't buy stuff and forget to put it in her bag, so I didn't say anything. So, we went and met up with the Elders, but when Sister Hwang looked in her back to grab the stickers they weren't there! Turns out, when we were at Daiso. On the counter. Where I saw them. Hehe. So we had to walk back and get them hahaha. 

Tuesday (I think) we went to visit a member and when we got to the apartment we went into the doors and stuff, then took the elevator to the 14th floor, but when the doors opened we only saw room 1401 and 1402, and we needed 1403. Turns out we went in the wrong doors haha. That's not embarrassing at all. The member asked us "Didn't you come in earlier?" So we had to tell her we went in the wrong door haha.

On a different day we were in the South part of our area walking to a less active's house when a lady stopped by us in her car and asked if we had an appointment. She's apparently a member at the English branch, though she is Korean. So, after we visited the LA we went to her house. She gave us so much stuff!!!!! Juice, snacks, etc. It was great! She served in Taejon. She seriously loves sister missionaries soooo much. :)

We had zone training this week, that was cool. :) I practiced the song for Stake conference before we started but my voice was totally hoarse because I am getting over a cold so I was super worried, but it's gotten better, so that's good. 

This past Saturday our ward had a hot dog party. It was... A hot dog party :) It was fun haha. A PI came that was a referral from the Elders who had met her on the bus. We will probably meet with her this next week, so that's cool. :)

We visited a LA before church yesterday and my companion accidentally left her Book of Mormon and Camera there. XD We will go and get it today hehe.

Hmmmm other than that, not much crazy news to report.

Though I did want to share with you all a message. Msh 23:21-22. Read it. God gives us trials so that the good people can become better. A trial is a sign that God trusts you to improve and continue to rely on Him as you grow and progress.

Love you all! I love my Savior! I love Korea! I just
LOVE!!

It was his birthday... And he wouldn't let us forget. May 2nd 2016

Hey, hey, hey friends and family! Happy May! I can't believe its come already! It's been 4 months already! I can't believe it!

Anyway! Lets talk about my week, shall we? Oh, but first, did you all get to read that talk on following up that I recommended? I sure hope so!!

So last Monday we ate at a members house and shared a message. The brother really liked to talk. He talked for a super long time, and then when he was done he asked "Any other questions?" And my companion and I were like, "Oh good, now we can finish up and go home on time." But then one of the Elders kept asking him questions! So both of us were like "How do we stop it...?" So I kind of just went Sister Brooksby style and when the Elder was going to ask another question I just put my hand up and said "End of the questions!" And everyone laughed and we were able to finish the message. XD

I got sick this week haha I almost lots my voice, but I didn't so it was all good!!

Man a few days ago it was soooooo hot here! And then the next day it was cold. The weather is totally bipolar.

So on Wednesday it was one of the Elder's birthday. He was so excited. He asked us "You know what day Wednesday is, right?" A lot haha and was very diligent in reminding us. XD So we made him a party hat. We were originally going to just buy one, but they were all ugly, so we just made one haha its pretty awesome looking, but we haven't been able to give it to him yet. 

Oh we had our interviews this week! That was fun :) President was telling me about how he had originally had different missionaries in the area I am in now, but nothing felt right until he put my companion and I here. Nice to know this is for sure the place I'm supposed to be!

We met with a member on the Base today. The Army base here is basically like a tiny America in Korea. It's pretty funny. Its also super weird to see so many foreign people! When we are with the member she gave us steak. In Korea steak is SUPER expensive, but in tiny america its just the same as regular america. After the meal she also asked if there was any American food I missed, but there really isn't any. I love Korean food haha. But I told her brownies, so she made some for me :) So nice hehe. She also said if I ever want American food to tell her. So sweet.

The couple missionaries are serving here in our area and they called us up on Thursday and asked if we'd like to go and eat with them and one of the sets of Elders, so we said cool and they came and picked us up in their car. Then we proceeded to drive up and down the tiny streets of Korea trying to find this place we were going to eat at. It took about 25 minutes to drive to the place you can usually get to in 5 XD It was quite the adventure! But the food was good, so it was all worth it. Though we ended up being late to DM and our poor DL had written happy birthday messages to himself and signed our names on them. Its okay, we gave him a bday present and it was all better.

We had exchanges this week with the STLs! I went to the ShinGal area. That's the same area I went to a few weeks back when my companion went to the Koreans meeting. The exchange was fun, we met with an investigator/ member together and taught the Restoration. Oh yeah, haha, the STL I was companions with was new to her area I think, so she kind of wandered Suwon station for a while trying to find the bus to her area, and as it turns out we just had to take the subway haha.

The next day we met a less active, then after that we went to find another house, but my comp got lost again hehehe so we just wandered a bit then ended up just going back to the station and exchanging back. Oh yeah! During exchanges we were on the subway and we met a student. WE talked with her a lot and my companion was like, "Lets take a selfie!" So we did, and then I got an idea. So I told her "Sister, you should send that picture to her!" And so we got the girl's number and sent her the picture. Missionary work sneaky style. :)

So on Saturday we went and visited a LA who's daughter hasn't been baptized yet. We wanted to get to be better friends with them, so we brought cards and played UNO with them :) It was a lot of fun! It was a great way to bond with them. We will teach the daughter as an investigator next week :)

We had an activity with the RS this week. It was yoga. Quite the time. A bunch of older women working out or stretching for the first time in who knows how long :) They all kept looking at me and my companion doing hard poses and saying "Its because they're young!" It was a lot of fun. I'm sore. XD 

That's about it! I think :)

Have a grand week everyone! Love you all!

Rain, rain, rain... And walking! April 25th 2016

So, as you may have guessed, it rained a lot this week!! It was a bunch of fun though. :) 

Last Monday dun dun dun dun dun I got glasses. Yep, since I came to Korea my vision went along with my ability to speak English. Heyyy its okay, now I can mostly speak Korean, and I have some fancy new glasses I acquired last week. Last monday the Elders wanted to go sticker boarding, but when we were supposed to meet it started pouring, so we called them and told them it was raining and we would not be joining them to stand in the rain and be drenched. Our half native American District leader asked if we were afraid of rain. Ha. No. 

This week we met with one of our investigators down at the building by the Humphry's air force base. It was a great lesson! It was a great miracle too, the sisters who were recently called into the nursery presidency were there cleaning the building, and it turns out the key we thought was for that building wasn't the right key, so because they were there we were able to get in. :)  

We did a lot of walking this week. We spent lots of time visiting Less Actives, or just wandering around looking for addresses that apparently no longer exist! :) Hey it was a bunch of fun though. I'll probably know this area like the back of my hand soon enough! 

Aww some unfortunate news, one of the sisters in the zone will be going home today. She needs surgery on her knee. Its actually crazy how many people especially in this mission have medical issues that they are sent home for. Even my companion and I will go to the hospital for her this week. Knees and ankles are a problem here in Korea because we walk soooooo much. 

In English class this week I had quite a new experience. In the last ward it was mostly adults, but here there are a lot of people who bring their kids to learn English, so my companion and I spent half an hour wrangling little children and trying to make learning the ABCs interesting for them XD

We visited a member a few days ago and got totally lost on the way. A nice lady helped us though. She insisted we take a taxi. Very sweet. She wanted us to wait for her nephew to come so they could give us a ride. People here are so nice! It was really funny, on the window of the taxi there was a sticker and in English it said "Man+go= Mangoes" hahahaha Totally didn't make any sense. I saw a a lot of funny shirts/sweaters this week that had English phrases on them that made no sense whatsoever, but they were wayyyy funny! 

So on Friday my companion and I both made a goal in Weekly planning that we wouldn't eat after 8pm. That day we were out until way late and didn't get to eat dinner until 8:15pm haha and then we got a call from a member who was outside our house waiting to give us food! They gave us pizza and Kimbab. So, hey, Friday goal didn't go so well, but other than that we've been doing good. :)

We had a ward potluck on Saturday for a family who is moving away. There was a bunch of people all crammed into one (big for Korea, not big for America) apartment. It was hard to move around haha. Right after that, we left a little early and had missionary correlation at the church, the WML wanted to take us over in his car, but there wasn't a girl, so we just decided to walk because it was only 10 minutes. Our DL told us to take a taxi and told us he would pay for it, we said  "See you at the church!" We didn't take a taxi. I'm still trying to decided whether or not that's considered being disobedient to a leader? Hehe.

Yesterday  my comp and I practiced our song again, then we preformed in sacrament meeting. I sang and she played "Savior Redeemer of My Soul" It was great! Everyone loved it. Though my throat has been sore the past few days, so it wasn't as good as I would have liked, but heck as long as people felt the spirit it was all we needed to do! The Brother who spoke after our musical number said "Well, Sister Brooksby surprised us last week because she speaks Korean so well, and this week she surprised us because can sing!" Everyone laughed.

I've actually been thinking a lot about talents recently. Sure, I have some talents, but what I've thought about recently about is how my talents aren't really mine. Whether it be singing, speaking, or something else, each of the talents I've been given from God are to be used the way He would have me use them. The same goes for everyone. The talents we have been given aren't given to us so that we can boast, or so that we can show off. The talents we have been given should be used to bless the lives of others, to bring joy, and to further the work of the Lord. Think about it this week, What talent do I possess, and how can I use it to do good? Just like in the parable of the talents, as we take what we've been given and use it, we can gain more. God will bless you as you share what you have been given with others!

I also invite all of you to read the talk by Elder Ballard titled "Following up". Next week I'll be following up on how well you've read and applied it! ;) I'd love to hear stories from you if you have any!!

Another thing my companion and I have been thinking about this week is gratitude. So, when you have time (Because you will) I also encourage you to read President Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. I can't recall the title exactly just now, but its also great! Life is so much happier and fulfilling when you can express gratitude for the things you've been given, I promise there's a lot! Not only that, but remember to always live in a spirit of gratitude. Live to see and appreciate the things around you!!!! :)