(June 10, 2012)
wow so much happened this past little while!! so here we go!
1. so last week when i didn't write much, IT WAS MIRACLE WEEK!! because we got 4 new investigators and another one this past week! so basically, sister hill and i have been doing everything we could think of to find new people to teach but we couldn't find new investigators. but we kept going and doing the things we needed to/could do in order to keep showing faith--like 전도, we 전도ed A TONNN!! i got to the point where i questioned whether or not i really knew what faith is because i thought i was exercising faith in finding new investigators, but it didn't seem like our efforts were bringing about anything! and right then, we got a phone call from our district leader who gave us a referral of a mom and a daughter who want to do the 30/30 program so we met them AND WE'RE MEETING THEM EVERY THURSDAY NOW YEEE! and then, we had a lesson with an investigator that we recently met AND SHE BROUGHT A FRIEND. wow. that was AWESOME. but here's the best part: so last saturday, sister hill and i were wondering where we should go 전도 and we thought of a place called 구로 Digital 단지 역. we hadn't really 전도ed in that place much so we decided to go after English class. we tried to get on a bus that would take us there but all these buses lined up in a row and the ones we wanted to get on were in the back and we figured they'd stop closer to the front but they just left!!! so we missed a few buses like that and then we missed another bus because we asked the bus driver if his bus goes to that place but he said no but then while it was driving off, someone told us it does. lame huh? so 10 minutes later we finally got on bus but this one dropped us off a street next to the cross walk we wanted to be at. but we decided to 전도 at the crosswalk we got off at first (cuz there were SO MANY PEOPLE THERE!!!) and then make our way over to the other place. so we talked to people there for a while and then we were just overwhelmed with how many people there were so we just decided to go down to the other cross walk. and right when we got to the next crosswalk, a lady walked up to us and asked us what we were doing. she came from 부산 so she had an accent and she looked mid 50's. and she was so so super nice!! and she told us she wanted to meet us!!! I KNOW, MIRACULOUS RIGHT? if your jaw just dropped, then you may now close your mouth tee hee ;) so we met her and we told her about a ward picnic we were having on wednesday and she was like "oh great! that'll
be so much fun! i'll take my sunglasses and everything too!" sister hill and i were like "wait, what's going on?!! so many blessings!!" so she came to the picnic and she came to church this past sunday too!! she was like "okay well i'll see you next sunday too, right?" bahaha it was so awesome! so i think i have a better understanding of the idea that miracles happen after the trial of your faith. (i realized i don't get to pick the duration of the trial of faith period :P) and i definitely have a better understanding of the phrase "blessings poured upon you" because they were totally poured upon us!!!
2. so monday we went to the zoo as a zone and it was sooo fun!! i held a baby leopard (that's trained so it was real nice) and a NON poisonous snake!! it was super hot so even when we're not doing anything, we just sweat. so it's way gross but you get used to it :P but nonetheless it was so much fun :D
3. so on tuesday, we visited that girl, remember the 11 year old who asked when the missionaries are coming back? yep her! we visited and she just was totally NOT SHY anymore!! and we played some games and then taught about prayer and turns out she's been going to a random church close to home BY HERSELF because her family doesn't go but she wanted to!!! so she has had a desire to go to church! and guess who popped into the picture: sister cho and hill yeee! yay for the spirit who knows everything and gives us promptingsss! so that went super well! we want to invite her to family home evening with a ward family on an upcoming monday!
4. English class is going great! boy i love teaching! we reviewed "where are you?" "im in the kitchen/yard/bathroom/etc" and "what are you doing?" "i'm eating, playing soccer, washing/etc." so that we can present it as a skit at the end of this month for our english class presentation! it was so cute, this little boy was like "i'm in the chicken!" because chicken was a word close to kitchen! and i remembered jee you and i had that problem too when we were little! and remember "보란색?" bahaha
5. the church is true :) and miracles come in the Lord's time if we are just doing our best in being obedient during the trial of our faith. i knew this principle in my head while growing up in the gospel and attending church and seminary and stuff. but now i can say that i know this principle with all my heart :) read ether 12 if you have time! i always just thought of verse 27 when i thought of ether 12 but there's so much other good stuff about faith in it too!
6. i'll send you all those bows when i can jee :)
7. love you all! have a great week!
sister cho
pictures
1. our zone at the zoo looking at the elephants!
2. a dinosuar play place at the zoo :)
3. the snake!!
4. the kids at the picnic
5. the miracle investigator we met at 구로 who came to the picnic and to church!
(June 24)
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! i love you daddy :) these past few months, i've learned that a lot of what i have to offer the Lord is stuff i learned from you and mommy. thank you :)
this week just flew by! the hours went by slow because it's just been really hot so time spent outside seems to be going slower but the days and weeks go by so so fast! i want it to slow down!! i love being a missionary :D
anyway, monday, we got transfer calls and sister hill and i were really sad because we thought we'd be split up but guess what? WE'RE STAYING TOGETHER HERE!! YEEEE!! the AP who called us seemed to be taken off guard because when he told us we were staying together, sister hill and i screamed and gave each other a high five and he was like "uh... okay... have a good night..?" hahahaha :D this is so great because first of all i love sister hill, she is so comfortable and way fun to be with! and second of all, the english class presentation is this next saturday and we've both been working so hard on preparing for it (teaching the kids, making props etc) so we are so glad we're going to be here for it! oh, and this other 교포 missionary and I were asked to be the hosts (사회 sp?) for the presentation so that should be super fun! i'll be able to send pictures of it next week yee! :D
so on wednesday, sister hill and i were walking to the bus stop and this lady popped out of no where and said to me "our church made it into this magazine this month!" and she just started flipping through pages of a magazine and went off for 15 minutes saying that heavenly mother is on the earth today. and she's korean. and how the 2nd coming already happened. and the whole 15 minutes she was talking to us while we were walking to the bus stop, she asked me ONE question. it was "you've never heard of our church have you?" i'm not about to claim that i'm a perfect teacher/missionary cuz i'm not. but this lady wasn't really taking the time to get to know me or make her message applicable to me. and i really appreciated her caring for my salvation, because really, she was a nice lady. but even when i agreed with some things she was saying, she didn't realize that i agreed with her and just kept going on with what seemed like a memorized message. i knew that PMG is really inspired but i think that this encounter added to my testimony that Preach My Gospel is inspired. cuz there's this whole section that talks about LISTENING. and then discerning needs of people. and relying on the Spirit to know what to say and do to fulfill the specific needs of each person. this encounter then added to my testimony that our prophets are called of God. and that this church is true :)
on sunday, we had a lady who randomly came to church! WOW huh? yeah so she just came 30 minutes early and so sister hill and i started talking to her so we could get to know her. but she was SUPER SECRETIVE. like when we asked if she lives around here, just to make conversation, she wouldn't tell us. and when i asked about her family, she just smiled and didn't say anything. and then she asked questions like "what category does this church go under? baptist? catholic? etc" and "who is the highest person of the church?" and when we gave answers, she compared them to other churches, and although she did seem to have genuine curiosity, she didn't seem very satisfied with any of the answers. it was awkward to say the least. but good thing i love and embrace awkward situations:P a few minutes before sacrament meeting started, i felt like it'd be best if we just were friendly and let her FEEL THE SPIRIT. so i showed her my family pictures even though she wouldn't tell me anything about herself. and when i showed her our family pictures and explained how i was a normal student before my mission, she asked questions about me and commented that i seemed to have had a great life (she especially liked the picture of our family at the beach, where all of us are wearing those hairbands, including daddy! she was like "your dad seems to be a fun guy." haha!). and then she opened up a little bit about her life! and she told me about how she's kept busy these days with her little grandson who is 3 years old! it was so cool. and then sacrament meeting started; i never prayed harder for someone i didn't know than at that point. i just prayed the whole time in my heart that she would just feel the spirit. and guess what? I'M POSITIVE SHE DID. cuz i did. and back in the salt lake city mission, i learned that we can know if people are feeling the spirit if we feel it too. it was really cool to see her smile at the youth speaker giving a talk on loving one another and watching her listen to a sister speak on following gospel pirinciples. she hadn't seen just normal people give talks before at church cuz usually it's just one person. and then the last speaker
answered the question she had about prophets! not a coincidence :D she was still secretive about herself as she left but we're hoping she comes back! (we gave her a Book of Mormon so hopefully she'll read it yee!)
anyway, sorry, running out of time! spiritual thought for the week: Elder Neil L Anderson said, "Faith is not only a feeling. It is a decision." i thought that this was cool cuz i know that as we choose to have faith, we will be much happier in whatever state we are currently in :)
love you.
sister cho
(i'll send pictures next week!)
(June 17)
dear people i love.
it's officially hot. and sticky. but as usual i'm doing fabulous :D thanks daddy for your email! i laughed at the funny parts hahahaha :)
so this past week was crazy in that it wasn't our normal schedule because we had temple day and president Lee's farewell conference and 2nd ward's ward conference! it was a spiritual boost week! lots of edification :)
so temple day was great and 할머니 할아버지 were at the temple too and it was also elder rife's temple day so we all got to take some pictures! it was so funny, when we saw 할머니 i was like "let's get a picture with my grandma!" and he was like "you mean OUR grandma." bahaha! it's so great that our families are so tied together through the gospel--like how Bishop Rife is gonna seal you and max jee! The temple was so great! it's been like 2 months since we've gone because we go once a transfer but we went at the beginning of the first transfer and now we're going at the end of the 2nd transfer so it feels like it's been forever. there is a certain peace and serenity that is really hard to describe that is felt at the temple. heaven is gonna be AWESOME because it'll be like that all time tee hee :)
anyway, on wednesday we had a farewell conference for President Lee and all the sisters wore 한복s to surprise him and sister han and they loved it :) i don't know how he was doing it but he was as energetic and smiley and happy as ever! everyone was sniffling and such but he was still smiling as usual-- even during the song "god be with you til we meet again!" when i asked him how he was so happy, he was like "well, i guess it's just cuz of the blessings i've received through the restored gospel." he and sister han are so great :) they will be missed!
Yesterday we went to 전도 in an area that sister hill thought would be nice to go to because we haven't gone there much and last time we went it worked out great (like the people were nicer and not as rushed) so we went there and guess what? IT WAS IN THE SHADE! it was in the shade of a huge homeplus store (kinda like a costco store) so we were way cooler than we thought we were gonna be! BLESSINGS YAY!!! anyway, while we were there, a man on a bike asked us what our poster was saying and he brought up Mitt Romney and so we had a conversation about what we believe. but then he told us that our church is not true because there is no apostle-ship like there was back in the day of Christ. and we listened with a smile on our faces and then tried to explain to him that we do have apostles but then he brought up the fact that mohammad (sp?) and joseph smith both claimed they had a revelation so to him, it doesn't make sense that our church could be established all of a sudden through "revelation" without apostles. I remember the distinct impression i felt at the 2 or 3 moments where he just talked over what we were going to say. i could tell that he just did not have an open heart. and he wasn't going to listen to anything we were going to say. so we smiled and said if you have questions later to contact us. and he looked at me and said "well, there's no hope for the american because americans support your religion because it started in their country. but YOU. it's not too late for you to save yourself. really think hard about this sister cho. cuz you'll see it doesn't make sense. i'm giving you advice as a korean to a korean."
and then he realized he heard me speak english to sis hill so he was like "or wait, are you from america too?" and i had to break it to him "네, 사실 저는 교포에요..." and he was like "ohh... well still think about it..." and then he left! it's a bummer i'm a korean-american huh? :P heehee it was kind of funny. actually it was really funny :P anyway, it's so interesting how the adversary will work really hard for people just to have a closed heart and not be open to listening to anything. man i love meeting people through 전도! helps me realize how blessed we are :)
Thursday, it was really hot and sister hill and i were going to go visit a less active woman and her family but they lived further away and it was really hot and even though i bought a cute pink bunny fan, all it really does is move hot air around so we were just really exhausted. so for a minute we thought about just working on things at the church where it's cooler. but we decided we should go. and usually, the less actives we try and visit aren't home or they pretend like they are not home. but at the time that we went, this lady was there! and she told us that her kids aren't really ready to go back to church beause they're really busy. but you know what was so cool? she told us "i hope you know that even though sometimes it seems like your efforts aren't directly rewarded with bringing people into the church, you missionaries are making differences in peoples' lives that you don't even know. i know that although my son is too busy to go to church, when he's stuck in hard times, i see him pray. and that's because missionaries keep dropping by and strengthen him. so i thank you. and i know it's hot but keep it up. you're doing great." THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED. it was the hug from God that we needed to keep going. it was the hug from God that proved that He is our father and knows us and our needs. and it was the hug from God that confirmed to us that when we push ourselves to do the things that we know we have to do but we don't want to do, that's when we are rewarded with the things that we need the most.
God knows and loves each of us! if you have time, i think it'd be great if you could read You Matter to Him by President Uchtdorf from a two conferences ago :) love you all!
sister cho :)
sorry i have no time so i will send some pictures and i will explain
the crazy miracles we saw this past week!!!! basically we got 4 new
investigators! all a blessing!!!! love you all!
pictures:
zone conference with fellow missionaries, and with president
at our picnic, i won water tissues with this old grandma hahaha
picnic with a recent convert and with sister hill :)
all the pizza boxes we went through at zone conference lol
