week 68: hello from seoul :D

2/3/13

Dear People I love.

So last week, it was super warm so i was like wow maybe spring is coming sooner than i though! but then it snowed today so scratch that thought :P but things are going great here in shindang! (i'm going to romanize the korean because it seems to come up in chinese characters, right?) so we're we're getting busier these days but we love it! the past few weeks has been full of trying to find new people to teach and so we did a lot of jundo. but you know what's always so cool? blessings pop up from places and at times where you don't expect it. so we had been jundo-ing a lot but haven't been finding people who want to meet with us but we kept going--that's always the important part i've repeatedly learned, to keep going. and then last week, we got a referral from the office of this lady who wanted to learn more about our english program because she wants to teach her children english at her house. We went to her house and oh my, the house was sosososo nice! when we got there, a tutor hired to teach chinese to her kids was just leaving and there was another teacher coming later after our visit too. we found out she's a pharmacist and her husband is a doctor! (how cool cuz i want to pursue pharmacy too!) sister lee and i were wondering why she wanted us to come over when she could probably find a lot better qualified english teachers to come. as we were getting to know her, she explained, "so i really wanted to hire english tutors that could come to our house and teach my kids here, and so i went online to look and i couldn't find anything! they were all hawkwons that required my kids to go there and i wanted someone who could come to my house because my kids have some health problems and it would be easier to be at home. so i looked and looked, and the only thing i could find was your guys' church website offering a gospel and english program. i had attended your church missionaries' english class when i was younger and i thought those missionaries were really good people so i figured i'd give you guys a call. i'm not sure why i couldn't find anything else, maybe i'm just bad at searching online..?" sister lee and i looked at each other and we were both thinking "oh, heavenly father might have had something to do with this :D" so we are going to be meeting with them every week and they are interested in and very open to learning about our church too! yay!! so we're excited!

another cool thing happened yesterday. after church it started snowing a little but it wasn't too bad. so we went home and broke our fasts and then we looked outside and it had just kept snowing! when this happens, we are advised to wisely figure out what would be the best use of our time; we can go out if we feel so prompted, or do phone calls, or other things. for some reason, even though it looked like no one was outside, we felt like we should go outside. so we did. and guess what? there was like literally no one outside :( we got to the crosswalk that we wanted to jundo at and no one was there. but we decided to wait a few minutes. good thing we did because then people started come out cuz it was dinner time-ish. so we started talking to people. it was harder to give people cards because people were carrying umbrellas and they didn't want to take cards but it was still fun talking to people. after 20 minutes or so, we saw 2 women on the side of the crosswalk we were on. i didn't know which one to talk to: one of them was an older lady and older ladies are usually nicer when we talk to them and the other one was a an ahjumma and was wearing an orange coat and a face mask to protect her from the cold. naturally we might have talked to the other woman but after saying a prayer in my heart, i felt like we should talk to the orange coat lady. we talked to her and she just kept walking kinda fast and she looked like she was looking for a certain place. like even though she looked busy, we asked her if she wanted to meet us for 15 minutes to talk about our message of eternal families. usually, the answer is no :P but to our surprise she said "well, you see, i was supposed to meet my friend here at 6:40. and so i left the house thinking i'd walk here and meet her, but then the snow was too bad so i took a taxi instead. so i have like 30 minutes and i just need to find a coffee place that i can just wait for her at. do you know of any? oh and i don't like long boring religious talks but if you insist, (and we did :) a short chat's okay i guess..." sister lee and i were like so surprised :D we found a tous les jours bread store and sat and she asked about the book of mormon so we taught about it. she took our number and pamphlet and wasn't comfortable giving us her number. but regardless, i know that that was why we had to go back outside in the snow.

so anyway, things are going great! miracles always happen as we do our best even though we aren't perfect. Our mission president, President Christensen said something that was really cool pertaining to this fact. (jeehee this is for you since you love math right now ha) x + infinity = infinity. we are x and Heavenly Father who leads this work is infinity. so as long as we're trying our best--no matter how inadequate we feel or how imperfect we are--things will work out because God is adequate. and God is perfect. how awesome is that. 

Have a great week! love you :D

sister cho

pictures: our shindang district! and our zone at zone conference :)

week 67: hi hi!

1/28/13

so we had to move places that we email at today and the computers are slower so I don't have much time :P

But i'm doing great and there are miracles happening left and right! Just as an example: Yesterday, sister Lee and I were on our way to a member's dinner invite and we realized that we should have gone to 청구역 instead of 신당역 to get there the fastest. But we were already in the 역 and that's the direction that we were lead as we were just talking to people. So we stuck with our choice of going that way. We were walking down the hallway to get to the subway and we saw this man keep looking back at us on the moving walkway in the subway station. and then he asked if we were church people and if we could teach him Korean and about the church! Turns out he is a Thai man and speaks English and his wife is Korean and they are interested in learning about religion! (He asked us "Do you guys sing songs in church too? I want to see what it's like!) wow. you really just never know what is going to happen. So we just have to act and let everything else unfold :) We're going to call him today so hopefully we can meet his family! :)

thought for the day: President Uchtdorf said something that has really rung true to me the past week as sister lee and i have been learning our new area! It was something like "Those who are humble in this life will wear crowns of glory in the next!" Humility is so important in helping us receive revelation and promptings from the spirit :)

sorry it's so short! but i love you all!!!

sister cho :)

week 66: It's warmed up a little yay! :)

1/20/13

dear people i love,

wow this past week has been filled with change of all sorts! change in areas, members, district members (our district has the APs and the Office Elders and they are all so so 훌륭해 so we've been learning lots from them!) and 분식 places too :P but it's really been interesting that as we're thrown into change, we rely a lot more on our Heavenly Father because we have no other knowledge of anything else! and we also are so much more grateful for people in our lives as we depend on their help to get us adjusted to the change :) ahh this work is so great and it's always so fresh and new, if that makes any sense! :P 

so because the area's new and neither of us know anything about it we've just 전도ed-- the one thing we know how to do! and it's so cool because we were able to get several phone numbers of people interested and also give away book of mormons. When we do what we can, the Lord just provides the miracles :)

Thought for the week: I've been reading in Alma recently and it's cool to see again that there are alwayssss new things to learn. In chapter 2, the Nephites prepare to meet the Amlicites and we read that they were very detailed in their preparations; they had all sorts of weapons and they appointed captains and leaders to lead them to battle when the times called for it. They did all that was in their power to prepare and then they had the Lord on their side too! It's interesting to see that the church always works really hard to help people be prepared for anything starting from things like preparing food storage and staying out of debt and having a reservoir of faith for spiritual trials too. The Lord's way is indeed the same yesterday today and forever :) And so it is with missionary work too :) planning meetings, and study time = our preparation to meet God's prepared people and fight evil which is not in the form of the Amlicites today but definitely still exists in other forms :)

sorry i don't have any pictures this week; it's been a lot of just moving and stuff :P love you all!

sister cho 

ps. i've decided that max looks good in pear wrapper crowns. 

week 65: hi hi :)

1/13/13

so guess what? we have transfers this week and sister Lee and I found out we're going to be staying together but we're going to 신당! so we're going to do some packing and stuff today :P so I don't have much time but here's something cool that happened this past week!

We met this woman this past Monday and turns out she had a dream a few years ago where someone she felt represented God gave her a bible and told her to read it. And so she thought, "maybe my life is really hard right now because i haven't been going to church..." and so she read the bible! and then she got a job, and her husband's work started going well too! So she said she started thinking about going to church and then met missionaries (sister Bennett in the summer! who i think is engaged as a sidenote!) on the street and didn't think much about it and gave them her phone number. Then when she was really having a tough time in her life a few months later, that's when we called so when we met her, she really had no idea why she came to meet us; she just thought that maybe God was leading her to look at religion more so she agreed to meet! We decided to meet on Thursday afternoons but her work schedule is irregular so we're not sure how we're going to refer them to the elders because that's a time that most men work cuz elders need another man to meet female investigators. But we are going to refer them because we are moving to shindang on wednesday! but we'll find another way to have her be taught if it doesn't work out with the elders. But we are excited for her :)

anyway, thought for the day: Someone said in sacrament meeting yesterday "don't complain to the creator and ask why He created the tiger. be grateful that He didn't put wings on the tiger." hahaha i laughed out loud when i heard it! (it was even funnier in korean!) He was talking about how there's always something to be grateful for :) So let us all be more grateful this week! Because gratitude is a simple way to show love :)

love you all!

sister cho

ps. mommy and daddy thank you for your emails! I can't believe you have my flight plans already! it's going by way to fast!! :P

pics:

english class kids! (we're playing a game sister hill gave me!) gonna miss them :)

week 64: cold on the outside but warm on the inside :)

1/6/13

dear people i love.

so this week has been full of so many cool miracles! :D let me share one of them with you!

so on Tuesday, we were coming home from a meeting called Zone Leader Council where we were trained by President and Sister Christensen on how to teach according to the Spirit and the meeting was really so spirit filled! (It's really cool to hear from all the zone leaders of the mission; i'm so grateful and humbled that I've been able to attend the past 3 times as the coordinating sister because i've been able to learn so much from each of the experienced zone leaders and i've really gained a motivation to do and be better as a missionary as i've heard from each of the elders and also from President and Sister Christensen. President and Sister Christen sen are truly called of God; for lack of better words, all i can say is that you can feel it in their presence and through their words.) So after this meeting, we were on our way home on the 7018 bus and there was this couple sitting next to us across the isle. So we started talking to them and actually the man just pretended like he wasn't listening and it was just the lady 아줌마 who occasionally smiled as we lead the conversation. and turns out they were going home from visiting their child's home to eat 떡국 for the new year and we started talking about families and we explained we teach about eternal families and introduced the Book of Mormon as evidence of God's love for all His children. I offered them a copy and the wife turned to the husband who had heard everything but never looked at us :P and she whispered in his ear something which we assumed had to do with taking the book we were offering. and then the husband kinda shook his head and the wife gave us a smile and said "we don't need one, thank you." we said that was fine :) we had delivered our message but we wanted to keep talking to them so we just continued the conversation for about the next 5 minutes about their family and also about how we made 떡국 at home and how that was an adventure! then we stood up to get off at our stop and the lady whispered something in the husband's ear again and this time the husband guy kinda looked at her softly and had said something approvingly back to her after finally looking at us (yay!) and the bus stopped, the doors opened and we pressed our bus cards on the card reader machine to get off and said good bye to the couple. and the lady said last minute "um can you give us one of those books?!" sister lee and i were like SUPER happy---but we were just about to get off so we were surprised and the bus doors were open for us! so sister lee said to the bus driver "uhh!!! 아저씨!! 잠깐만이요!! can you hold on just a sec?!" (but all of that was in korean, don't worry haha) and we took all the 전도 cards out of one of them and gave it to her quickly! with just enough time to tell her to call us later! we were just so shocked after we had gotten off the bus. and we wondered whether a change of heart (it was a small change but still, a change!) could really happen in like 5 minutes! and then we concluded that yes it can, because God can do anything :)

it reminded me of something i read recently in an old liahona where elder Lesueur stated, "We are all flawed in some significant way...we need only give our best effort to the Lord. In turn he will bless us and magnify us and, in a marvelous way, make us whole." we aren't perfect, but as we act on what we know, He can work miracles :)

so many other cool things happened this week but i don't have time to share them all :P 

have a great week! love you all!

Sister Cho

ps. thanks so much for the other christmas package! the bows are super cute (you somehow knew all the colors of bows i DON'T have so that was perfect! lol) and the scarf was super cute too! and the candy is being well shared! :D 그리고 제가 가장 좋아했던것: 아빠 엄마 편지는 제가 지금 딱 필요한 사랑과 동기였어용 ^^ 훌륭한 부모님이 되 주셔서 감사해요! 사랑해요! 

pics: we took sticker pics last pday! :)

week 61: happy winter time!!!

12/16/12

dear people I love,

It was another great week here in Seoul! But I don't have much time today!

Our ward got combined with 녹번 and 불광 and it was SO SO SO cool to be able to see a full chapel! It felt like church in america especially cuz the building we meet in is very much like the american church buildings! It was really cool. Yay for more family names to get to know :)

So remember the miracle student we met on the bus? yeah, well we met her again and as we did "how to begin teaching" like it says in PMG (so inspired, by the way) with her, she had mentioned that she wants to know about the Plan of Salvation so we taught her about the pre earth life and she just had a TON of questions! It was really interesting because I guess I had taken that knowledge for granted! Like we learn from primary that we lived as spirits with our Heavenly Father and that we chose to follow the plan God had for us to come to earth. But a lot of people don't have this knowledge and I knew that but it clicked for me more as I met with this sister and saw how she wanted to know more about the pre earth life! She liked the scripture Jeremiah 1:5 (that the Lord knew us before we were born) and wanted more information from the Bible about it. We ran out of time so we are going to continue teaching about it next week! We are so excited though because she seems to have real intent! There is nothing more awesome than being in a room with the spirit. and someone who WANTS to feel the spirit.

Okay, so it's already time to call for Christmas already!! I will call korean time: December 25, 2012 at 11:00am. and we can talk for 40 minutes! California time i think that's December 24, 2012 at 6:00pm, right? yay i'm so so excited!

Short and sweet thought for the week comes from elder marvin j ashton: "The oil of spiritual preparedness cannot be shared." I always wondered why the 5 virgins couldn't share their oil, but i realize more and more everyday that no matter how much you want to share spiritual preparedness with others/ no matter how much others want to share it with you, you are in charge of collecting that oil drop by drop through things like prayer and church attendance and scripture study (cuz other's can't do that for you!). I have so many weaknesses but as long as we're trying, we have heavens' help so we're good :)

love you all! i'll send pictures next week! love you!

-sister cho

ps. thanks for the pics jee! you guys seem so happy! yay for eternal families! :D

week 60: Happy winter

12/9/12

Dear people i love, 

so yep this week has been pretty cold to say the least! but it was still a fun week :D

but first jeehee: thanks for the pictures! gahhh, it was so cool to see those people that i know all in one place again but not in korea! i'm so glad elder rife's homecoming went well! man their family is just so amazing! their family has influenced so many peoples' lives; even here in Hongje, there was a lady whose daughter served a mission in Daejeon with President Rife and she just had compliments to give without end about their family! :) it's such a huge blessing that our families are closely knit :) oh and if you're wondering, like father like son, elder rife's korean is SO GOOD! in fact, i heard one missionary say "oh we are going to print this document for our zone in english and korean for the missionaries; except elder rife will get one in korean. because he's basically korean!" so true!!! :)

also mommy and daddy: 이메일 잘받았어용 ^^ 시간이 진짜 빠르게 흘러가네요! 벌써 얼마 안남았네 ㅠ ㅠ 사랑과 조원에 감사해요! 끝까지 화이팅 입니다~ ^^ oh and this past sunday was the last meeting we had at Hongje (cuz we're combing with 녹번 next week!) so past Hongje members came and there were people who knew you! like 이형근 형제님 and 최숙난 자매님! ^^ oh and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY on the 12th!! i am so grateful for your example! i remember when you started randomly talking to people at grocery stores and at pharmacies, i didn't think much of it. but that's what i'm doing all the time now and it's so much easier because i've learned that through youuuu! :D love youuu daddy!

so a cool miracle for the week: so on Friday, it was snowing and cold. but it's so cool cuz you really see miracles when you just push yourself a little bit more than what you think you can do. so we decided to go out and talk to people still instead of doing phone calls. and the first person we talked to wasn't rude but just ignored us. and then the second person we talked to, she was an 아줌마 and she didn't say much when we talked about the Book of Mormon and eternal families but when we asked if she wanted to meet us later, she unexpectedly say "yes, can you come to my house next week?" WHAT??!  wow. and she voluntarily gave us her number AND address! turns out she has the same last name as me too! (like the same chinese root too!) sister lee and i were like so so happy and grateful for that miracle :D

okay, well i've gotta go now but the thought for the day: "discipleship is the pursuit of holiness and happiness. it is the path to our best and happiest self." said President Uchtdorf! sometimes doing the right things at the right times seems a little inconvenient :P but everything that we know we need to do and become is for us to be happy :) have a great week!

love you all!

sister cho

pics: the first snow for us!

some sisters on a pday!

last hongje ward sunday!