week 10: dear people i love...

dear people i love,

First of all, it was so great to talk to you yesterday! boy that hour flew by :P you guys are the best family ever. oh and i finally opened that package all the way AND THOSE BOWS ARE SO CUTE! my companions were like "wait, you got MORE bows?!" bahaha i'm wearing the blue and white striped one right now and i love it! and i refrigerated the yak shik and i'm excited to eat it! my companions want to try some of it too. oh and jee your cards were sooo cute! and that family picture you sent me- yeah, hwa jil wan jun jo wa! everyone looks so good in it gahhh i love you guys! and thanks for all who wrote to me; i loved hearing from you :D (tycee, we were at a baptism and these kids kept crying but i pulled out the window stickers and they were quiet the rest of the baptism! leave it to miss brown to calm the kids! bahaha you're great!)

so christmas was so great here! the members and our investigators totally made sure we weren't feeling homesick with all sorts of gifts and goodies and everyone was so loving and invited us over even though their families were all there and stuff. i know exactly what kind of a member i want to be when i get back because i've met sooo many awesome members here! but the best part of the day was seeing one of our investigators receive the best-est gift everrrr: the gift of the Holy Ghost! we had two baptisms on saturday and one of them was steph and she is AMAZING. she's had a rough past but she is so teachable and humble! so as we started teaching her, you could see the change in her countenance because the atonement kicked in to her life! before she was like "i just want to know what you have to say. i DO NOT want to be baptized or anything. i'm not interested." but as we met with her, she was like, "so when can i get baptized? what do i have to do?" and she's been reading her scriptures and praying like crazy! and because of the power and strength she got from those simple things, she was able to just completely let go of drugs and gave up cigarettes! the other day, she was like "you sisters are the best. you better have lots of blessings bestowed upon you for having to deal with people like me. wait, did i just use the word BESTOW? where'd i get that?!" and we were like "gahhh you've been reading your scripturessss yayyyy!" the change in steph's life has been a huge miracle and it was possible all because of Jesus Christ! she is going to be such a great contribution to her ward and the church! but you know what's funny? satan knows that too. he knew that she was going to be a great member and influence so this past week (the week before her baptism) all sorts of things were going wrong! she got into arguments with her mom and she got really really sick and her 3 year old son got sick and she wasn't feeling well when we went to see her and she had cravings. BUT GUESS WHAT? she kept turning to the good in her life and she got baptized! tadaaa! she is on God's team and the cool thing is that His team always wins :D it was so cool to see her receive the Holy Ghost on Christmas! the best gift everrr on Christmas! how appropriate :)

Anyway, life is fabulous here in SLC! we had 2604 baptisms this year in the mission! the Lord really does love ALL His children and wants everyone to receive the blessings that the gospel brings. He's so great :) this church is soooo true. I'm so grateful for what Christ did for me. and for you. and for you. and for you!! the only way that someone so imperfect (meeee) can participate in such a perfect work is through the loving atonement of Jesus Christ!

No matter what, keep praying because that's what makes Christ smile: "And when Jesus had spoken these words he came again unto his disciples; and behold they did pray steadfastly, without ceasing, unto him; and he did SMILE upon them again" [3 Nephi 19:30]

love you all.

sister cho

"our district picture!"

"steph's baptism yay!"

"we're teaching dylan and kaley and they're going to be baptized in january!"

"christmas eve we all slept by the christmas tree bahaha it was so fun :)"

week 9: It's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

dear my amazing familhee,

i have so many things that i want to tell you but just not enough time to write it all out hahaha but since we like lists, i'll just list them out!

1. first off jeehee congrats on the 4.0. no biggie for you right? :P and the great score on your ochem final! gahhh hopefully i'll be as motivated in school as you when i get back lol also, i'm so excited that you got your camera!!!! email me pictures, yes?? haha and i'm so glad your schedule worked out the way you wanted it to! i know you hate uncertainty lol and tell max i said thanks for being awesome :D how's hole-digging? bahahaha and i had no idea ee mo had a girl hahahaha i love our family! tell her congrats from me!

2. not sure on when i'm going to korea! i haven't heard anything! but i want to spend christmas here with people i've gotten to know and love so i hope it's not in the next week haha! but we can talk more about that when i CALL HOME THIS SUNDAY! which brings me to the next point lol

3. so i get to call home Sunday 3:30pm my time so 2:30 california time. i hope that works! can't wait to talk to you all :D

4. i heard from leashh!!! thank you thank youuu! i can't believe you're home leash!!! i want to send you a christmas card so email me your address, kay??!! i'll write more in a letter cuz we're all leaving for the store in a minute :P sa rang hae balgan mori! haha

4. so on saturday, we had our mission christmas devotional and guess who was there: ELDER AND SISTER OAKS! it was awesome! we all got to shake their hands, one by one (like in 3 nephi!) and it was so coool! you know how there are people who just "beam?" i didn't quite get that but i get it now seeing Elder and Sister Oaks! i want to be like thattttt! that's my new goal. to BEAM because of the gospel in my life :) so the sister missionaries got to sit up real close to the pulpit (so i was in row 3 of the chapel) and so the sisters got to shake his hand first and then i got to see everyone else shake his hand and it was the coolest thing; with one hand shake and hello, his light just transferred to each one of the people that shook his hand. CRAZY HUH? so everyone walked away with a huge smile! it was real neat. and it's a mission tradition to sing silent night in all the languages represented in the mission so groups of people got up to sing it in their languages so my companions learned it in korean throughout the week and we sang it there and it went really well! all the other groups were really big but ours was just us three so we put harmony into it and it sounded pretty! and elder Oaks whispered to us "well done!" after we finished! haha it was such a neat experience!

5. so the Oaks spoke to us for like an hour and it was great! Something i really liked was the phrase sister Oaks put on bookmarks that she made us! it says "OBEDIENCE is the price. FAITH is the power. LOVE is the motive. the SPIRIT is the key. CHRIST is the reason." it made me think about what we are all doing in this life! we are trying to progress and become better so we can live in eternal happiness with Heavenly Father! i'm so grateful for this knowledge! 

6. love you all. merry christmas. 

Sonhee!!

week 8: Happy Holidays!

*NOTE: I still haven't sent sonhee her christmas package yet, so if you'd like to include a short message in it, just send me an email at jeeheecho@gmail.com or a facebook message--i'm sure sonhee will appreciate all of your love and support! :)


First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! thanks for being the best dad everrrr :) I can't thank you enough for the example you have been in my life; everything you've taught me about life and the gospel has/is coming in handy on the mission :) and thank you for your email! unfortunately, these computers don't have korean encoding/typing so i couldn't read it! but i'll read it when i get to korea and can email there :P sounds like you've been having a busy month so far filled with music! yay :) oh i meant to tell you last week, i met a korean family here and the dad's name is brother Kang Hyun Suck and he said that you two were MTC dong ki or something like that! they've been here in west valley for like 5 years and we had dinner at their house last week! so she made bulgogi and had different kimchis for us :D Sister Thompson LOVES korean food so she was so happy; she's really good at using chopsticks cuz she studied in Japan for a while. and this was Sister Mousseau's first time trying Korean food and she finished everything on her plate haha she said she loved the bulgogi but she wouldn't go out of her way to get kimchi bahaha 

This week has seriously gone by so fast! We've been to 6 different Christmas parties for the wards in our stake to get referrals and they were all so fun! so don't worry mommy, missionaries here get taken care of especially during the holidays! We were asked to judge a pie contest at one of the parties so we tried a spoonful of like 20 different pies! it was only a spoonful of each but it was all so sweet so we felt sick at the end of the night :P there was this one pie that looked like a peanut butter/caramel pie and it looked really good so we tried it and we all looked at each other with our cringing double chin faces because it was some sort of lemmony tangy pie! we just kinda forced it down and moved on lol it wasn't a bad pie but it was just not the peanut butter sweet taste that we expected. i think that happens to us in life; we get something/God gives us something that we aren't expecting. and what we get isn't bad; actually it's good for us because God gives us what we need exactly when we need it to become better and stronger. but i think we sometimes don't like to accept the things that come our way because it's not exactly what we expected. but i think that as we lean on the Savior during those times, we can progress and become better! :)

As far as investigators go, it's been a rough week because people just haven't been home and one of our investigators didn't make it to church this past sunday so he fell off date :( but we're going to keep working with him so he can be baptized in january yay! but after all this "trial of faith period," we found two families who have been inactive and they want to start going to church again and they have kids who haven't been baptized! the Lord really does prepare people and what's really cool is that He let's imperfect people like us help find and teach them!

Today we have a sister's luncheon so i've gotta get going but i want to end with a thought i had during scripture study. i was reading 1 nephi 2:16. this is where Nephi really wants to know of the mysteries of God that his dad was able to see in a vision. in that verse, it says he had the three things Elder Oaks said you need to change, achieve, and become something: desire, faith and labor. He had "great desires"(desire) and "did cry unto the Lord" (labor) and "did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father" (faith). and his becoming, achieving and desiring was that he "did not rebel against him like unto my brothers." i'm trying to follow this pattern of righteous progression and it's just made it more clear that the church is true!

Love you all!

-Sister Cho

"we had korean food last week and sister mousseau tried kimchi for the first time!"

"we had papusas last week and i've rekindled my love for el salvadorian food :D "

 "that's sister winn, our mission president's wife! she's so great"

week 7: there is sunshine in my soul today--even though it's cold :D

**side note: SISTER CHO'S CHRISTMAS PACKAGE: I'M SENDING HER A PACKAGE SOON AND I'D LOVE TO HAVE HER FRIENDS WRITE HER A SHORT NOTE/MESSAGE FOR ME TO INCLUDE IN HER PACKAGE. PLEASE EMAIL ME AT jeeheecho@gmail.com. I KNOW SONHEE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU :) --Jeehee Cho






yep even though it's cold. and i can see my breath. and it's snowing every now and then. I AM SO HAPPY :D i'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the gospel. and by maybe i mean OF COURSE slash FOR SURE. 

jeehee- your temple/devotional trip sounds like it was a lot of fun! glad you had a good time! and tell brook congrats from me :D and what a perfect calling for you miss "i love being organized all the time!" secretary is one of the hardest callings ever! there is so much work! but i know you'll be fabulous because you're so organized and prepared! and thanks for the address! sorry for no pictures this time! i forgot to bring my cord but i'll attach some next time :)

so there have been so many things going on this past week! there is this awesome guy named mike who has been meeting with us and he is in a rough spot with his family cuz his wife was upset with him and wouldn't let him see his kids who were sick so they were in the hospital! but he kept meeting with us and started doing all the right things like going to church, praying and reading his scriptures and he decided he is going to be baptized. you know what the crazy miracle is? he just found out that his family just started meeting with some missionaries and are going to church! we could call it coincidence because neither party knew the other started meeting the missionaries but there's no such thing as coincidences. but there are things called tender mercies yay!!! when we are doing the right things, Heavenly Father really takes care of everything else! last week i got to teach him about the Book of Mormon because he was confused about the Lamanites and Nephites and where they came from so i drew a picture and broke it down (it was so fun--like teaching chem 105--but even better and more rewarding because it's about salvation!) and it was SO NEAT to see him just soak it in; he had no doubts and he didn't question the truthfulness of any of it because he is a man of so much faith! i can't wait to talk to him after he reads about the Brother of Jared cuz he's a lot like him; he acts on faith and then sees "the finger of the lord"/ the hand of the lord in his life! Anyway, he's so awesome!

there is also this boy named Isaac we are teaching and he is SO great! but when we teach him he looks like he isn't paying attention and doesn't talk much; the only thing we saw when we met with him for the first time is a half smile when we talked about a cool story in the Book of Mormon (a war story in alma since he's a teenage boy haha). BUT GUESS WHAT??!! the next time we met with him, he told us that he's kept his commitments to pray and to go to church! WHAT??!! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM??! and he told the bishop that he's getting baptized! REALLY??!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT. 

and the only reason why miracles like this happen is because THIS IS THE TRUE CHURCH. and God's hand is directing his work. this gospel is what softened the heart of mike's wife and prompt her to meet the missionaries. and the gospel is what caused a change in a teenage boy enough to make him want to pray and be baptized. and the gospel is everything that keeps me going. and i love it. 

stay warm. go to church. and share the gospel with those around you. i know it's hard but remember what Elder Holland said: "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. salvation never was easy. we are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our great eternal head. how could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?"

love you all :)

Sister Cho

Week 6: pictures from the field!

"my last day at the mtc i got your package! (i'm wearing them in one of the pictures jeehee! i love them!)"

[Sonhee with her district and district president before they left for Korea!]

"thanksgiving was a blast at one of the members homes! we all made rolls together!"

[sportin the casual wear on thanksgiving! :P]

"there was a man in one of our wards who has a donkey! so we went and saw her and the smell totally reminded me of the epic farm visit i had before bahaha! but this time i knew the mud wasn't mud. it's.. gross stuff :P"

[Sonhee with her new companions]

"That girl getting baptized is dylan! isn't she awesome? i wish you could meet her!"

Week 6: first week in the mission field!

JEEHEE! I NEW YOU'D GET IT! i'm so happy for youuu! that's gonna be great especially for the pcat :) wow and you got your CAMERA??! bahaha speaking of cameras and pictures, a couple weeks ago when i was at the mtc on our temple walk, i was getting everyone in my district together for pictures and this girl came up to me and was like "are you jeehee's sister? i figured sing you're asian, and you have a bow in your hair and you're organizing a cute group photo!" bahahaha i guess she was in your ward last year or something; i'll have to show you a picture of her later. and by later i mean like 17 months :P anyway, I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! :D

so this past week has been CRAZY! but in an awesome way! so i left the mtc on tuesday morning, right? and i left with two other people waiting for their visas; a sister going to argentina and an elder going to new zealand. and all three of us were wondering why they'd send us out so early in the morning cuz it's just an hour-ish drive anyway. but when we got to the mission building, the mission president was there and he gave a little welcome introduction and paired us with companions and SENT US OFF TO WORK! My companions are sister Mousseau from PA and sister Thompson from long beach california and we're in a "tri-force" as sister M calls it :P Sister M has been out for 15 months and she is AMAZING at talking to people and asks so many good inspired questions! so i'm learning that from her :) and sister Thompson's been out for 3 months and she's AMAZING at being able to relate to people no matter who they are! and they are both so strong and exactly obedient! (for example, right when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, one of the sisters immediately says a companionship prayer and it just starts the day off so great! at the mtc, my comp and i just made sure to say a companionship prayer before leaving our room, but it really does invite the spirit when you do that right off the bat!)

You know what's so cool? this mission is the highest baptizing english speaking mission! so guess what i did that night i got to the mission? i contacted people with the sisters in my first area of West Valley, taught about baptism with my companions (who are AMAZING TEACHERS!! i'm learning soo much from them!), AND I GOT TO EXTEND AN INVITATION FOR BAPTISM! AND HE SAID YES!! oh man, i can't even describe what it feels like to see someone make changes in their lives to be happier by accepting the gospel! his name is dylan and he's 13 and i didn't know him too well because that was the first day i met him but my companions say that he wasn't even interested but his sister wanted to know about it so then he started listening in and now they are both going to be baptized in the next few weeks! 

Also, this past saturday, we had a baptism! Her name is Dylan (i know, two dylans!) and she is the sweetest 9 year old everrrr! and she is so smart; when she told us about what she read, she can recount every little detail :) her mom's been less active but now they both come to church together! 

I love it here so much! it's cold but i don't care because i can feel the spirit so strongly wherever we go. and the spirit of god is like a FIRE burning... hahaha. i know lame.. but i thought it was funny :P anyway, miracles do still happen! we just need to put forth some effort to make them possible and watch for God's hand in everything. I don't know everything; in fact, it says in alma 37:11 "now these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me." but i do know the things i need to know. i know that god lives. and he loves each and everyone of us. and jesus christ is my savior. and his church has been restored to this earth. and through this church, we can be eternally happy! act on what you know and you will find so much joy as well! Pres Eyring said "there is danger in the word 'someday'" so when you feel prompted, make sure you ACT! and you will be blessed; i know this because i experience it every day :)

I love you all :) 

-Sister Cho

Explanation for pictures:
-thanksgiving was a blast at one of the members homes! we all made rolls together!
-there was a man in one of our wards who has a donkey! so we went and saw her and the smell totally reminded me of the epic farm visit i had before bahaha! but this time i knew the mud wasn't mud. it's.. gross stuff :P
-my last day at the mtc i got your package! (i'm wearing them in one of the pictures jeehee! i love them!)
-that girl getting baptized is dylan! isn't she awesome? i wish you could meet her!

ps. jeehee, sorry if i don't address everything you talk about! but i read everything and i love hearing about everything, don't worry! and i do care about everything in your life so keep updating me! but sorry if i can't respond to everything :P love you!

pps. this is my address for here but i don't know how long i'm gonna be here but oh well :P
3487 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106

Week 5: Korea delayed, New [temporary] Mission Call!

Hiiii!

 

So I actually have to go do a little more packing so this is a short letter but I'll make sure i write more next week!

 

I hope all is well at home! I am writing a day earlier because I'm leaving for my temporary mission tomorrow morning at 6:30! And i know you've already heard family but i'm going to be in the SALT LAKE CITY MISSION until my visa gets cleared :D I'm so excited for another change that is full of opportunities to meet more people and learn more! (I hear you can take investigators and teach them AT temple square too! how awesome is that?!!) I don't know how long i'll be there but nonetheless I'm excited to enter the field :) and this morning I said bye to all my native korean friends in my district and the american missionaries going to korea! Total of 15 missionaries!!! yay for missionary work in korea too! :D i'm excited for them too! it's so great to see all these missionaries being spread around the world to preach the gospel and help people come unto christ and gain ETERNAL HAPPINESS! It's been such a great experience here at the MTC, but i'm ready to leave :)

 

Thought of the day: we had President Harris of one of the district presidencies speak to us this past week and he said "There is NO LIMITATION to who you are. but you must know the Savior." and i thought a lot about that this past week, and i realized the only way to know the Savior is to put forth work and effort. President Benson said, "One of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. if a missionary works, [she] will get the spirit; if [she] gets the spirit, [she] will teach by the spirit; and if [she] teaches by the spirit, [she] will touch the hearts of the people; and [she] will be happy. there will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and intrests are centered on the works of the ministry. That's the secret--work, work, work. There is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work." ISN'T THAT GREAT?! :) I know that in all things, we can reap the best rewards when we put in our everything. yep. give 100% and you'll see everything work out the way it's supposed to. Because God loves us and gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it :) I know this church is true and i love it! and i'm so grateful that families can be together forever. Love you all :D

 

-Sister Cho

 

Jeehee: got your package! gahhhhh i LOVE THEMMMM! yuck she dong sang bba kkae op so :) i got your email dearelder, and i don't have time now but i'll write you a letter when i have time!

Week 4: changes to departure date/mission call!

Hiiii :)

I hope your week is going well! Because mine's going great! But i have some crazy news:

so i'm supposed to be going to korea on the 21st of this month, right? BUT my visa hasn't been worked out yet; I talked to the travel office and the guy who's in charge said that the whole dual citizenship paperwork has to be processed before i can apply for a visa and that isn't going to be done til January!! so I GET ANOTHER MISSION CALL THIS THURSDAY! weird huh? it'll be stateside, and maybe here in utah somewhere but i'll be spending the next month and half somewhere not-korea--but i'm so excited! (it's weird because i thought daddy and i talked to the embassy people in sanfran and they said that we could apply for a visa as long as the paperwork was in and it didn't need to be fully processed before applying for a visa. but i guess that's not possible!) BUT NOW I GET TO CLAIM TWO MISSIONS YEEE! more experiences + meeting more people + a chance to preach the gospel in English = perfect for sister cho, right? yay :) anyway, so I'll be able to call home before i get on the plane for wherever i'm headed whenever i'm headed out from the MTC. I'm usually not a big fan of uncertainty and unexpected change but I've realized that it is through adjusting to change in a Christ-like manner that we can progress and become better; so i'm not too worried about anything right now :)

That takes me to addressing your dearelder miss j cho. I think change is a great way to improve and become better so i'd say don't do research and instead, try anatomy too. I think you'd be great at it! just make sure you're not overwhelming yourself with too much to do; physiology and lab should be a breeze for you especially after you've had anatomy, and nutrition is really not bad in terms of work load. yeah drop history of creativity and build up experience. looking at the class load, i'd say this would be the semester to do it because you've got your ochems out of the way too! i'd say if you have the chance, to go for it. i'm glad you're keeping your options open! that's what's in 2 nephi 2:26 and what elder bednar called acting and not being acted upon. i think it's great that you went out of your way to keep that option open for you so now you can think about what you want to do and pick the best choice instead of just letting the choice act on you so you have to take what's left, does that make sense? DON'T BE AFRAID OF CHANGE jcho. i'm not super good at that either but change often brings the opportunity to grow and learn more about yourself and that's exactly what we're here to do. and i love hearing from you so don't apologize for "talking about you" or whatever. i love hearing how you're doing :) also, you're a GREAT teacher so whatever class you teach, you will be a blessing for your students. write me if that wasn't clear enough and i'll write you a letter :) (also i wrote you a letter but maybe it didn't get to you. my last TRC is tomorrow, thurs 1:35-2:35 and last time we didn't have anyone come cuz they're short on volunteers who are korean! but if you can't, no worries cuz i'm guessing you have class! :))

Dad: don't worry! i'm excited to have two different missions :) but i know you did a lot of work on my dual citizenship paper work so if you just wanted to know for your personal benefit what's going on with my situation, you can look it up and the guy you'd call to get travel information/visa information at the MTC is Don (1801) 240 5167.

Mom: that's exactly what i needed! thank you for the order! i just wanted to make sure i had some blush ;) love you!

Thought of the day: i was reading in Matt 14: 30 about peter walking on water and i remember learning from someone that when it says that they SAW that the wind was "boisterous," it probably means that peter was looking down at the water instead of at the savior (because you can't SEE wind being boisterous unless it's acting with something like water!) so don't look down! look up at the savior! church is true i love you all! i have 23 seconds now haha!

-sister cho

*(finishing my thought) look up at the savior and you won't fall into the water!

Week 3: New happenings in a new district!

Helloooo!

It's been another amazing week here at the MTC :) Sorry for writing a day later; my P-day has actually changed to Tuesdays now because I got transferred to the Korean district this past Wednesday! (Sister Bulouniwasa actually left for her mission today to Georgia!) I miss my old district and sister bulouniwasa but it has been such a great experience being with the native korean elders and sisters! My district has three korean elders and four korean sisters (including me) and my new companion's name is Sister Lee! Turns out we were in the same group at the young single adult camp in korea a few years back! how awesome is that? she is so great! she helps me out a LOT! Being in the Korean district is really fun but i have to work harder because obviously i'm not a native korean so I don't know the gospel words in Korean so sister lee's been helping me build up my church vocab and we've had so much fun together. yesterday, during gym time, we ran on the ellipticals and sister lee and i practiced discussions together and seriously, time flies when you are not staring at the timer on the machine and instead are engaged in an awesome conversation about helping others come unto christ!

so my new teachers are sister lee jin sook (yeah jee, chan ok's sister!!) and Brother Cho (remember that guy we played angry birds with at hyeku unnnie's house jeehee and minhee??! yeah he came as our "new investigator" and he recognized me as "the girl who wasn't very good at angry birds! lol) and they are just so great! Learning about the atonement in Korean from two Korean returned missionaries just made me want to go and study like crazy and be as knowledgeable as them! So the korean district all sit together and it's so funny because one day someone will be like "i brought go choo jang today!" and another day someone says "oh i brought kimmm!" haha i love being korean :D

Today was actually a really interesting day. a camera crew from LDS media came (people who do mormon messages) and they needed to film our district doing day to day things at the mtc! The purpose of the clip is to encourage Koreans to serve missions and apparently the clip is going to be shown nationally in Korea in all the stake centers when Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Choi (of the seventy, who was here today!) speak in two weeks! So they interviewed us and i was just so grateful to mommy and daddy for teaching us korean so that i could be a part of something cool like that! Also, the camera crew was all american so they needed a translator (cuz the interviews were all done in Korean) so i did a LIVE TRANSLATION FOR THEM! and seriously, heavenly father prepares people for what comes later in life and i remembered back when i was little and daddy always had me translate during sacrament meeting and i was so grateful! gahh, cho family, you are AWESOME. i am so glad i can be a part of the cho famil-hee foreverrrr! :)

Okay, six minutes left gahh! So i want to share something i learned this week that absolutely made me so happy :) I was reading in 2 nephi 31 where Christ is talking about baptism. He seriously repeats baptism like a bunch and then baptism is all over the book of mormon. i was thinking about how nephi had to engrave the plates with his own hands and i wondered why he put in the same stuff over and over again; i mean i would have been like "oh my hands hurt and i've written this stuff previously so i'll just stop now" but instead he keeps writing it! i realized it's kind of like how our parents want us to succeed and they tell us over and over and over and over again things like "are you done with your homework?" or (minhee) "have you practiced your flute?" or "make sure you don't forget that deadline." HEAVENLY FATHER WANTS US TO SUCCEED! i know that with all my heart. our parents tell us things because they love us. and likewise, heavenly father tells us things over and over again because he truly loves us and only wants us to be with him again in the celestial kingdom and be eternally happy! i know this church is true and that the doctrine of christ is the only way for us to be truly eternally happy! And i'm so excited to be able to share this knowledge with people who don't have it and only settle for what they believe is "happiness."

Thank you for all your support! I love youuuu! :D

-Sister Cho

Week 2: more love from sister cho :)

엄마 아빠 잘지내시죠?

요즘도 바쁘시겠군요

아빠는tapes다 잘 씻었어요?그전날밤 쓰셨겠죠?? ㅎㅎ

엄마는 요즘에도 민히 아침 싸주시나요?

민히보고 일찍 일어나서 스스로 싸라고 하세요(코딱지 만한게! 엄마보다 더 늦게 일어나!) ㅎㅎ

저는 아주 열심히 살고 있답니다~!

아침 6시반에 절대 못일어 날거라고 생각했는데 일찍 자다보니깐 일어나 지던데요?? ㅋㅋ

자랑스럽죠~~??

아이스크림도 딱 한번 밖에 안먹었고! 브라우니는 손도 대지 않았습니다~! 잘했죠??

뉴스킨 화장품 잘받았고요~! 색깔은 기억이 안나서 집에가서 체크 해보고 다음주에 메일로 보내겠습니다~!

저는 정말 이것에 대해 감사하고 있습니다. 다른 사람들의 배경을 모르고 있다가 여기 와서 새삼 부모님이 저에게 얼마나 큰 축복인지 깨달았습니다~!

제 동반자가 요즘에 피아노를 가르쳐 달라고 하더라고요~!가장 쉬운 찬송가 하나를 가르쳤는데 동반자가 정말 좋아하고 항상 연습하고싶어해요~!

엄마가 연습 하라고 하라고 했을때 연습좀 더할껄....

어쨋건~!피아노 가르쳐 주셔서 감사합니다~~~!

오늘 점심시간때 나중에 디스트릭 될사람이 내일 한국 디스트릭 옮겨야 된다고 해서 아마 내일부터는 한국말 공부만 와장창 해야 될꺼같습니다!

그러나 저는 정말 기대되요~!!

요즘에 몰몬경을 한국말로 읽고있는데 어렵지만 읽으면 읽을수록 몰몬경이 참되다는것을 느끼고있습니다.

어렸을때 가족끼리 한국말 경전 공부한 생각이 나더군요.그것에 대해 감사합니다~!.

지희 한태는 영어로 써야되니깐 나중에 더쓸께요~!사랑해요~~!~!아이 러브 유.~~!~!

So this past week has been another busy one! Where to start?!

Sister Bulouniwasa and I have been teaching our investigators (our teachers pretending to be investigators) and their names are Nathan and Emily. It's been such a great experience so far even though they are pretending! We got Nathan to pray out loud for us! Yay!!!!! It made me so happy because he's been telling us he's uncomfortable praying for like dayssss which felt like yearsss! but he changed after we told him that Heavenly Father wants to communicate with him just like his father wants to hear from him often! That was greattt! But Emily, she didn't do the reading assignment we assigned her and that just made me so sad. we were both bummed because seriously it's like ONE CHAPTER! 1 Nephi 1 is like 2.5 pages long!! and she said she was just too busy that she didn't get around to it! But it's so short and you could do it in like 15 minutes! then i realized that Heavenly Father probably is way sad when we decide to go to bed without reading even just one verse :( so i'm trying to make scripture study way more meaningful now :) anyway, it's probably weird for your to read that i'm getting so emotionally attached to these fake investigators! and yes i think it's weird too! but it's cool to see that i can develop a deep love for those who i don't even know because i want them to have what i have--the gospel of Jesus Christ which makes me happy not only in this life but for eternity! Gahh i can't wait to get out to Korea!

So i started reading the Book of Mormon in Korean and whoa it is so powerful! but it's really hard! i read it side by side with my english ones and every time i read i just get really grateful that we did korean scripture study when we were little! i remember sitting in our living room and daddy passing out the copied korean scriptures and the kids just being like "awwwww noooo not in koreannn!!" but now i'm so grateful! the gospel is so true! and heavenly father prepares each one of us for a specific purpose in life; i know that mommy and daddy stressed Korean in our home because my mission is to be a messenger of Heavenly Father to those people in korea! Wow, the plan of happiness is so perfect.

This past sunday, sister dalton came to visit us and she gave a really good message! She said when you go running, you never turn around to go back when you're in the middle of a hill. you might as well push forward and finish it rather than using that energy and time to go back to square one. it's so true. we all face things in our lives that are hard but they are opportunities for us to grow and become closer to Christ. We need to keep pushing forward because that is how we refine ourselves to be worthy of the blessings of the celestial glory!

Gahhh i have so much to say but not enough time to say it all! Just know that i love and miss you all but i'm loving the MTC and i'm excited to go out to Korea in a few weeks! Scripture of the week: Alma 37:37 "counsel with the Lord in all thydoings and he will direct thee for good..." he loves us and wants what is best for us so let us pray often! :D

-Sister Cho

ps. mommy, i've only eaten ice cream once and haven't even touched the brownies! hahaha proud?

pps. there is a group of korean missionaries here and we all get together and eat dinner and some how they have access to kimchi! haha so i've been eating rice and kimchi for the past few days! i love koreans bahahaha :D

Week 1: Hello from the MTC :)

Family and Friends-

So I was going to try really hard to type in Korean but then I realized I only have 30 minutes to write, and my Korean typing would require triple the amount of time! But maybe sometime in the future, I will try and type in Korean :P For now, I will stick to English!

Wow. It has been such a great week! Basically every minute of the day is planned so it's hard keeping up but every day has been rewarding! And going to bed at 10:30? I LOVE IT! Mommy, I should have totally listened to you growing up when you told me to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier because it feels sooooo good! Minhee, you should try it sometime ;)

I'm still getting used to alot of things, like when people say, "What is your name?" I have to catch myself from saying "Sonhee" and switch to "Sister Cho!" and when people ask "Where are you going?" I say things like "oh, to the gym." or "to the classroom." but what they mean is where are you going on your mission haha Anyway, everyone here is SO HAPPY! and at first I didn't get really how everyone could be but then it made sense because the Spirit is so strong and one of the fruits of the spirit is LOVE (Gal 5:22) so of course everyone is sweet and super nice! The first half of the day went by really fast; they gave us our name tags and then had us attend an opening orientation where we all sang "Bring the World His Truth" (the MTC changed the words to "We are now the Lord's missionaries" and it was so awesome looking at my name tag and realizing YEP I SURE AM!) and "Called to Serve" and it was so neat to look around the room and see so many missionaries from all around the world all here at the MTC with one purpose: to invite others to come unto Christ!

So let me tell you about classes! I'm in this program called ADL (advanced language) and it means that I'm in a class with missionaries who are good at English but it's their second language so they need to learn a few more gospel related things in English. What's great is that my district (and zone) is so diverse! My companion is Sister Bulouniwasa (easiset way to say it is to think of "bologna" like a bologna sandwich and "wassup" minus the P") and she is from Fiji! She is so amazing; her siblings are inactive and her parents aren't members but she is so strong in the gospel and her testimony is a rock! she knows all the scriptures and references (which i need to work on haha) and she even knows the page numbers of almost all the hymns in the hymn book! She is so great and i love her. I have already learned so much from her :) My district leader is Elder Andrada and he's from the Phillipines (sp? sorry, no time so i'm just going to keep going!) and he's going to serve in Vegas, and his companion is Elder Maiwiriwiri from Fiji going to Vegas too! and we have Elder Cho who is the same "Cho" as us so we're probably related!!! and he's from washington going to Vegas and his companion is Elder Andoh-Kesson from Ghana going to Alabama! Isn't that so neat?! The church is so true because it works all around the world! it brings peace and comfort to everyone and this has totally strengthened my testimony of a loving Heavenly Father who loves and knows each of us :)

Our teacher is Brother Erickson who served in France and Sister Wheeler who served in Czech (sp?) and they are excellent! We have been teaching them as "investigators" and at first it was kinda scary but then i realized it's just like talking to people in normal life pre-mish but now i get to talk about the gospel which makes it even better! so after i realized this, teaching has been SO AWESOME! we even dropped the b-word (baptism) on the second day with one of them!

Daddy, I also went to choir practice here because Ryan said that he went and absolutely loved it too and it was so great! The director is amazing and all the people there are there because they want to be and it makes such a difference in the outcome of the song! we sang this song called precious savior dear redeemer and we talked about how Matt 4 relates to the song and how the Savior cares about each one of us just as He cared for those on the ship when he calmed the seas. Gahh I only have 5 minutes left but basically, daddy you would have loved it! And I'm going to keep going :)

So much more i could tell you about but I just don't have time!

I love the gospel. It is so true. I know i have only been here for 6 days now but everything i have seen, heard, and felt so far has confirmed that this church is true! we have a loving heavenly father who knows us by name. he loves us so much that he has given us the opportunity to become like him by sending us to this earth in family units to gain experience, progress, and change! I KNOW that through reading the Book of Mormon and sincerely praying to God, each of us can gain a personal tesimony of the plan of happiness and come unto christ! I love you all and and keeping you in my prayers!

-Sister Sonhee Cho