week 56: it's officially fall :)

So it was another fabulous week here in seoul! we were so so busy this week but being is busy is such a blessing! :)

1. We were able to meet 4 new investigators this week! it's been crazy because referrals have just been pouring in from people we didn't expect and they are all such different people but they were so fun to meet! It's really interesting because they all want to learn English so it's been really fun speaking more English :) One of the investigators is a man who had previously planned to get baptized but life got in the way so he couldn't. So we're going to try to help him get back on track to baptism :) This past week has been a huge testimony builder that PMG is really inspired. There's this part called "how to begin teaching" which helps missionaries figure out where to start when they meet a new investigator and with each person that we've been meeting with, this "how to begin teaching" part just helps things flow and establishes expectations from both the investigators and the missionaries so no one is confused or misunderstands each other. yay for our inspired PMG :D

2. we visited a less active lady who is just so sweet but she's never home. we were worried that she wouldn't be home again so we thought maybe we should call her and then we felt like we should just go and not be worried. so we followed this gut feeling and yep, she was home and invited us in and we had a great conversation about the importance of families and education in the home :) the cooler part is that as we were leaving, we asked her if she could pray for us. and she said "well, i don't think so, i don't think i should because it's been too long and i haven't attended church recently anyway..." but it was so cool because we told her that there's no such person who isn't worthy or able to pray and sister lee added, "oh, it's okay! that's the more reason to pray!" and gave her just one little push. and guess what? she prayed. and it was such a sweet prayer. and afterwards she said "it's been 10 years since i've prayed!" WOW. how cool. even though she's not coming back to church right away or anything, it was so cool to see how people can change when invited to do so :)

3. lastly, on friday, we MADE KIMCHI! two of our zones 김장ed from 10am-5pm and it was so so fun. i figured out that to make the 아줌마s and 할머니s happy, you need to get the 양념 and 무 stuff all the way up to the top of the cabbage ;) and yes, mommy, i will be more helpful when you make 김치 when i get back ;) what was really cool was that the grandma and other single lady at my table were just such fun people to talk to. infact, the single lady (she was in her 20's) was interested in our English class so we exchanged information and she said she's coming next week :) MIRACLE.

4. the thought for the week comes from elder bednar's conference talk a while back where he said "Most frequently, revelation comes in small increment over time and is granted according to our desire, worthiness, and preparation." We have been relying on this principle of revelation because we have no idea what kind of lives these new investigators have lived and we really don't know what things they need from the gospel. i guess it'd be easier to just stated what i do know of them which is basically their names and how many people are in their family :P so we really don't know much at all! but Heavenly Father does. and how lucky we are that He's on our team ;) all He asks is that we have a desire, are worthy, and prepare the best we can. and He gives us the rest :) and how awesome is is that this works for all aspects of our lives :) He's great.

Love you all,

Sister Cho

ps. jee, thanks for your package!!! your pictures are so so cute!!! :D max, i loved the yellow socks!!

pictures:

sisters at 김장

me and sister lee with our district leader

and with our zone leaders in action :)

week 55: a lengthy email for once :)

Dear People I Love,

oh boy these past two weeks have been so so crazy! But full of so so so many miraclessss!!! Yay! So here's what's been happening in a nutshell:

1. ok so jee, i just got notice from you and from our mission office about my departure date being changed from april to march! boo. but i'm sure it's that way for a reason! :/ (remember this smiley face jee? teehee) thanks for being so optimistic though sis :)

2. We had transfers two weeks ago (sister kim went to 화곡!) and I am training a sweet Korean sister named 이정빈자매님 and she's just great! she's always willing to do anything we need to get done so i love that about her :) Oh and i've always heard of lots of miracles happening in an area where a new missionary comes in but i'm seeing it first hand now! All of a sudden, we got referrals from people left and right and we actually are teaching 3 new investigators this week! WOW. We've been trying our best to stretch ourselves and do our best and blessings have really just been pouring :D boy, not only is this work spiritually rewarding but it's funnn :)

3.so other neat things happened too during the past two weeks but my thoughts are currently consumed with something amazing that happened this weekend! So we got a call from our APs this past Friday night, that on the next day, we would be teaching two chinese people who just want to be baptized! WHAT??! yeah that was what i thought to, where did you come from dear miracle? they speak little a little english but no korean so there is a sister in our ward who is super good at chinese (everyone says she's like a native!) and so we got to teach in korean and english and that sister translated for us! it was SO COOL!!! and they were so so prepared! AND REALLY, THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT WE WEREN'T EXPECTING! so one of them got baptized yesterday and the other is getting baptized today!! what a blessing it was for us to be able to teach these amazingly prepared people with our translator! it was the sweetest experience ever because even though i couldn't understand what they were saying before the translation happened, we could feel the spirit so strongly because they were so prepared and so thirsting for knowledge! even though we taught all the lessons in 2 days (we taught 3 in one day and 1 the next day! sister 이 didn't seem like a new missionary!) the two people were so interested and so they just kept asking questions and weren't tired or 지쳐 at all!!! it was the neatest thing everrrr! we were so so blessed! :D also, i want to learn chinese now lol :) i learned one thing: jjun lehi (yeah, like lehi from the book of mormon!!! that's how i remember it lol) means "대단해요" or that's great or something like that. i know it's got a positive meaning but i don't exactly know what it really means :P but i mainly like that it has the word "lehi" in it. cuz lehi's awesome.

4. okay so the thought i'd like to leave you today: i've been continuing my studies in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi and i read the part where Christ asks Nephi why he didn't write down Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies. and then i remembered the part in ether 2 where the Lord chastens the Brother of Jared for three hours because he didn't call upon the Lord. and then i remembered a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk in conference a few years ago where he talked about how the Lord chastens those He loves so we can improve and become better and worthy for celestial glory. And as i've been thinking about how we are all pushed and stretched/ trying to push ourselves and stretch ourselves not only in the mission field but just in life in general, i understand Christ's love for us on a totally different level than i knew before. Elder Christofferson says "If we sincerely desire and strive to measure up to the high expectations of our Heavenly Father, He will ensure that we receive all the help we need whether it be comforting, strengthening, or chastening." and i know that this is true :) 

love you all! have a great week! :)

sister cho

pictures:

sister nelson finished her mission this past transfer! so it was my last picture with her!

me and sister lee

our zone at the temple this past week :)

week 54: [short email]

Jee,
can you forward this to mommy and daddy and minhee? i don't have time right now! oh boy. so tomorrow is temple day so we are having pday then so we actually have to go to an appointment right now so i don't have like any time to write! i'm sorry :P but this transfer, I'm training a korean sister named 이정빈자매님 and i have been called as the coordinating sister and i don't know what that really entails but i'll be finding out soon! i'll try and write more next week when things are settled in! sorry! 

love love love you!!! thanks for checking my visa! sounds good to me! 

sister cho

week 53: hello!

okay so i don't have much time today cuz we have only one computer for both me and sister kim!

so i'm doing great and i'll write more details next week sorry :P 

thought for the day: ""if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams," wrote Henry David Thoreau, "and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." In other words, never take your eye off the ball." -Elder Joseph B Wirthlin we know we want eternal life. so let us not take our eyes off of it!

i'm sorry it's so short today but I love you all!! (엄마 이메일 잘 받았어요 ^^ 사랑해요~)

sister cho

week 52: News from Sister Cho

[Note: This Friday is her YEAR MARK! Crazy how time flies :) --Jeehee ]


So a few things first:

Jeehee! your pictures are so so cute! so i show my companion all the pics you send me and she thinks you two are cute! (I have your wedding invite on my bookshelf and we have companionship study everyday where we sit facing each other and sister kim always sees your invite so she was like "oh i'll probably recognize them just walking around on the streets sometime!" lol) 

and daddy- bahahaha 이강호 형제님과의 관계가 좀 복잡하네요 ㅎㅎㅎ i laughed when i read the explanation :D

oh and a few weeks ago, i got papers from the office asking about my DEPARTURE INFORMATION! gahhhh! time is going by so fastttt! anyway, so 엄마 아빠가 나 대릴러 올건지 12월달 까지 알아야되. 비행기 표 때문인가봐요. 못 오셔도 괜찮아요; 그냥 그때까지는 알아야되서 알려드려요 ^^ 생각 해보시고 알려 주세요 :) i guess they like to take care of that stuff early on! sad to think that it's almost over! but i feel like i just startedddd! 

anyway, so the awesome miracle for the week goes something like this: there is this less active lady who we've been meaning to visit but she doesn't like us to come over without calling but when we call she doesn't really want us to come. so then we can't go whether or not we call! so we decided to stick a mini candy bag with a message in it on her door. we had planned to do this on monday but we had an unexpected service opportunity so we didn't get to go. and so we went through the week and hit thursday. we had planned to really go stick that on her door that day during the day time but our schedule got pushed back and changed a bit (this seems to happen a lot! so yay for backup plans :P) and so we didn't have time! but that night at 8pm, her name (not face cuz i have never seen her since i've been here in hongje) just popped into my head. and i was hesitant to bring it up with sister kim cuz i thought maybe it was just me thinking of things and not the spirit (that was a lame thought huh? cuz all good thoughts come through the spirit! like elder bednar said before). but i just kept seeing her name in my head so i just told sister kim that maybe we could go and post that on her door. she was so cool, she was like "oh if you felt like that, then let's go now!" haha she's great. so we went and i was just thinking it wasn't a big deal because we were just sticking something on her door. so anyway, there are 2 flights of stairs to get to her house so we usually use the elevator but we decided to take the stairs because it was only 2 flights. and we went up the first flight and we saw a shadow of someone at the top of the 2nd flight. and i thought "hm, we probably look scary in the dark going up the stairs when people usually use the elevator!" but lo and behold, the lady there was the less active lady! and she said "oh, it's the missionaries! come on in!" and she was real happy to see us! WHAT CRAZY TIMING!!!! really God is really good at this timing things; He's got it down! turns out she was just out for a minute to take out the trash!!!! so we were able to talk and personally deliver a message! IT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVERRR. we were both just in aweee. and she said she'd like us to come back in two weeks!!! WE WERE SO HAPPY. yay for the Spirit!!!!

we also watched conference this past weekend and it was just SO AWESOME. i felt like we were at a movie premier on saturday because all the missionaries in our zone got together to watch it at 신당와드 in english and all the missionaries were so so excited to watch conference! hahaha and on sunday, we watched it with our ward (in korean, so that was a neat experience for me cuz the voices are all very different lol) in honje. anyway, i just want to close with a thought from conference: President Uchtdorf said that we should enjoy the ride and not expect to find happiness at the END! find it during the journey! this reminded me of this member in 금천 who has a few children and she said that when she was raising her first child, she used to get impatient when the baby would do things like take all the tissues out of the tissue box or roll out all the toilet paper! but now, with her 4th child, she's realized that those moments don't last forever and she said she's enjoying them now and she says "oh look at how cute you are in pulling out all those tissues!" lol but it's true! i only have 4 transfers left but i'm going to continue to make everyday meaningful and happy so i hope you all do that as well! :)

love you all!

sister cho

pics: honje subway station :)missionaries in seoul and buk zone practicing a song for a musical number in a fireside this saturday! and the sisters we watched general conference with :) we were lucky to have watched it with president and his wife too! yay seoul zone! :)

week 51: Hello from a Happy Missionary!

dear people i love-

first of all: JEEHEE HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! :D love you so so much sister! you are such a big blessing in my life (as well as a host of other people's lives!) so keep being great; maybe i'll catch up someday! oh and your pictures from last week and your wedding are SO CUTE!!! gahhh! (i don't look so bad as a cardboard cut out ;)

and we watch conference this coming week because we get the DVDs! but i can't believe they changed the age for missionaries! awesomeee!!

So I don't know why the last email didn't get through last week! but yay! you get two this week :P 

So this past week was just miracle-filled, as usual! The high light was that our little miracle investigator, the 12 year old we met on the street came to church yesterday! YAY!!! and guess what the best part is? SHE CAME AND STAYED TIL 12:50PM EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS HAVING HER BIRTHDAY PARTY AT 1PM! She was so cute! she was like "um, would it be okay if i left 10 minutes early today?" and we said if she had to go then that's fine. we asked her if she had something she had to do and she told us it's her birthday party! um, WHO DOES THAT?! that just gave her enough time to run back home! wow! we were so happy :D and during sunday school, SHE GAVE THE CLOSING PRAYER! and it gets better: and when i asked her what she learned in sunday school, she pulled out her Book of Mormon and said, " we learned about prayer in 3 Nephi 13:6-7." SHE REMEMBERED THE REFERENCE! GAHHHH! she's so great :D we are worried because she is worried about what her mom will say about her being baptized, but we're going to prayerfully figure out how we can meet her mom and we're going to really study out what we should say ("obtain the word" first!) anyway, we are SO SO happy that we get to see her progress!

Another miracle happened on Saturday. Sister Kim and I wanted to attend this musical fireside put on by a church scholarship foundation but the person we wanted to take couldn't make it :( so we were bummed that we couldn't go ㅠ ㅠ But we decided to go with our back up plan which was going to English class in 불광 now that 서대문 is combined with 신촌 and too far away from us. On our way there, we felt like we should call our investigator who was interested in learning english but she's always really busy with her two kids. but we called her anyway because we felt like we should. and she said, "oh, i'm glad you called. i was debating on whether or not i should go, but i guess i will now! where can i come pick you up?" YAY SPIRIT!!! so she just dropped what she was doing, and she came to pick us up to give us a ride there! BUT IT GETS BETTER. So while we were waiting for her to come get us, we got a call from one of our members who said she had a referral; one of her friends she just met like a few minutes ago was interested in english class so she gave us her number and asked us to call her! we did, but we weren't really expecting her to come today because English class started in 20 minutes. but she said, "oh okay, can i go today? and can i bring my 5th grade son?" WHAT?! we were so surprised! OF COURSE YOU CAN! :P So we added 3 new people to english class!!!!!!! and they really thought it was fun, and the referral lady asked us about the Book of Mormon and was really good with accepting what we explained to her! sister kim and I were like about to cry because we saw so many blessingssssss! it's so interesting that sometimes, what we plan for ourselves is not what God has planned for us. And when we try our best to do all that we can, God just shows us His plan for us (which is way better than what we plan for ourselves!) and blesses us with miracles! We heard that the musical fireside was good from the other missionaries, but we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we were supposed to go to English class today! Heavenly Father is so so amazing :D

Thought for the week: I read something in a past Liahona by Elder O. Vincent Haleck of the 70 and his father's motto was this: "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." whatever good we are going to do, we might as well do it 100%, do it fully, and give it our all! because it is in thoroughness we find satisfaction. And that's when we show Heavenly Father our faith. and that's when we see blessings pour into our lives! 

Love you all!
sister cho

pictures
sister kim and i were at a harvest festival that they held in front of gwanghwamun and we got to make bouquets with rice plants and try on "king's clothes" lol it was so so fun! :D

week 50: happy Chuseok!

Dear People I Love,

Happy happy 추석!! We're emailing today (Tuesday) because everything on Monday was closed because of the holiday season! It's such a big holiday here! Traffic was really really bad starting Friday evening because EVERYONE goes to visit their parents/grandparents for the weekend! It was really interesting because on Saturday and Sunday, there were really not very many people on the streets because everyone was gone! it was an interesting feeling being in "empty" seoul lol It's back to normal now though :)

 

Sunday, we were invited to two 식사s: for lunch, we went to a ward member's house and for dinner, we were invited over to 남복출 감독님's house of 서대문 ward. Both were so much fun! So i actually found out the 2nd Sunday i was in 홍제 ward that the family who invited us for lunch is actually related to me! lol 이강호b is somehow related to 할아버지 :D so that was a fun lunch appointment :) and when we went to dinner, the bishop had invited the temple president and his wife and also all the people working at the temple too! So it was so fun being able to talk to those familiar people that we see when we go to the temple but never had a chance to get to know! And turns out they all know you daddy! (one lady said she grew up with you and she sang opera with you at a fireside once! and one couple said that they stayed at our house in Pleasant Grove! small small world!) Anyway, it was such a fun night! and the food was SO SO good!! :)

 

anyway, something cool happened on monday that i want to share. So the missionaries in our mission are advised to talk to 20 people every day about our message and on monday, our evening schedule was a little tight so we had talked to exactly 20 people and we were on our way to visit a member. Usually, sister kim and i try to talk to more than that but on monday, that's all we had time for. But we saw a lady at a bus stop with her son after we had talked to the 20th person for the day. And we felt like we should talk to her so we did. She was a little cold and clearly said she wasn't interested in our message or in receiving our card. BUT THEN, her son, who looked like 11 or 12, said "hey mom, but I want that card!." and the mom was a little surprised and was taken off guard by her son but still said she wasn't interested. but the son said 2 more times that he wanted to take our card! So HE TOOK OUR CARD. and kept looking at it even after we left! sister kim and i were just so amazed at the miracle we saw in talking to the 21st person! we really see miracles when we push ourselves just a little more than what we think we can do, because that's the point in which we rely fully on Heavenly Father! that's the thought i'd like to leave for this week: we really see miracles when we just push ourselves a little more than what we think we can do! and never delay a promtping, as elder Evans taught last conference! He said miracles happen and lives are changed when we act on those promptings we receive!

 

anyway, love you all! have a great week :D

 

sister cho

 

pics

bishop's kids in hanboks on sunday for chuseok!

the family i'm related to who invited us for lunch!