week 75: last bit of news from sister cho :)

3/25/13

So this is my last Pday! Weirddd.

 

It's going to be a short email :P Our investigator's still on date for 4/7 yay! We met with her this past week and taught her part of the 3rd lesson along with commandments to see if she's had any problems with them to resolve before her baptism. We were so happy to hear that she's got no problems with the commandments :) Boy, we're so happy for her :D When we asked her what thoughts she had when we invited her to be baptized, she said that she just felt good about it. She said that she could tell through the members she knew that this church is true. And she said that there's something different about missionaries! How so cool :)

Well, it still doesn't feel like i'm going home! but this past week, i've been thinking a lot about the purpose of life and how my mission helps me to fulfill that purpose. So our purpose on Earth is to prepare to meet Heavenly Father as it says in Alma. And among the various ways a mission helps us prepare to meet God, the mission for me helped me gain and develop Christ like attributes. With all the unexpected, interesting, random, things that happen to missionaries during missionary work, I realized that everything that happens to us during this time gives us a chance to develop attributes of our Savior. It was amazing to see that everything that happened to me (the good and the less good), all was to help me become molded and created into becoming more like Jesus Christ--that is if I chose to let myself undergo these changes :) I am filled with inexpressible gratitude for a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to help me change and become better :) I was able to have an interview with Elder Aoyagi this past week for mission tour and he told me that the mission is the MTC for our lives. I'm sad to be leaving (and sad is an understatement haha) but i'm ready to put this to the test :)

 

Come what may and love it, right?

 

Sister Cho

pictures: my comps and i got companionship rings! :)

week 74: Happy Spring :D

3/18/13

Dear People I Love,

two big miracles for the week, ready?

1. So the weather is warmer! yay :) huge miracle :P

2. Our companionship has been trying our best to find people to teach in this area; we've met a lot of super awesome people (like a sign language translator! cool huh?) but there hasn't been very many people we could consistently teach--until this week! we met several really great people who want to continue to meet yay! and one of them was a referral from a member:

So there is a member in our ward who is friends with a cute girl our age who got in to the BYU Hawaii piano program--but she's not a member! So that's where we enter the picture, right? The member was so awesome because she set up an appointment for us at her house and even prepared dinner for us too! boy, she's awesome to say the least :) so last wednesday was the first time we met this sweet girl, right? but while we were preparing to meet her, we felt that she's ready to be baptized! (she's known this member and her family for a long time and her aunt is actually a member too!) So we prayed about it and decided to set a date for her baptism that we felt she would be prepared by. So we went to the appointment and, oh my goodness, she just seemed like a member already! Having our prepared thoughts confirmed, we taught the first lesson (and it was so spiritual; sister arthur described the first vision in korean and it was beautiful! :D) and sister 구 invited her to be baptized. andddddd yep, she said yes! :D we are so excited for her!!!!!!!!!! she said the closing prayer and she was like, "Heavenly Father, i don't know everything at this point but please help me to understand well and learn little by little as we meet to be prepared." We basically felt like we floated home because we were so happy for her! :D

Among the various things I learned from this experience, I think two points stand out the most to me. First, as I've continuously seen on my mission, the Lord doesn't ask us to be perfect; doing our best brings blessings-- regardless of what "our best" may be cuz that's different for each person. Sister 구 is just starting out her mission, sister Arthur is in the middle, and i'm at the end. and our experiences, strengths and weaknesses are all different. But as we each stretched ourselves a bit more to fulfill our individual "bests," that's when unexpected blessings came in unexpected ways :) so cool. 

The second thing I pondered about while reflecting on this experience has to do with prayer. I read a talk by President Monson this past week in which he talked about something he learned while he was on an assignment in Tahiti. He was talking to the Mission President there, President Baudin, about the Tahitian sea captains. The mission president stated "They are amazing. The weather may be terrible, the vessels may be leaky, there may be no navigational aids except their inner feelings and the stars in the heavens, but they pray and they go." President Monson goes on to explain that no matter what we are doing or what we're facing, we should always pray and then go. As we were preparing to meet this sister, we didn't know much about her. But looking back, we subconsciously stuck to this idea of "pray and go"--which is what we have learned from our childhood in primary til now. and Heavenly Father led us to pray about what she needs and led us to the appointment. and the Spirit took care of everything else :) it was a neat experience :) maybe this week, we could find something that we each individually could "pray and go do" :)

Well, that's it for my second to last email yikes! time flies!

그리고 엄마 아빠 선교사업동안 늘 힘이되주시고 사랑해주셔서 감사합니다! 만날때까지 화이팅~^^

Sister Cho :)

pictures: missionaries at a zone activity, my trainer 박자매님 came to our stake conference! and a member dinner appointment :)

week 73: yikes time just flies!

3/11/13

dear people i love so much.

oh boy. time flies! yikes i only have like 18 days left! ㅠㅠ seriously. where has the time gone?! well, you'll be glad to know it's getting warmer yay! :D 

so we've had a crazy week because we're trying to juggle 봉천 and 노량진 wards and there is just a lot to do! but that just means more chances to see miracles, eright? so as we've thought about how we can find more people to teach in our new area, I came across this line in PMG that stated that we will be guided by the Spirit in our finding efforts as we strengthen recent converts and less active members. We decided to put PMG to the test and so on Saturday, we decided to go visit the less active members in our area. We left the house with a map on my camera of where they live, a message card to give to them, and a big prayer in our hearts that they would be home and welcome us. And so the journey began :) as we were walking with very little clue of where we were headed to, there was a woman walking a little ways in front of us. I felt like we should say hello so we did. She kind of gave us the cold shoulder at first but then we found out that her sister lives in California--in santa clara-- so she opened up to us a little. then it was so cool because there were two other people walking slightly in front of us, so sister Arthur and Sister Gu went and each started talking to one of them :) This woman and I continued our conversation and I didn't mention anything about our religion; just talked with her about families and stuff. and then she asked me about the book I was holding! :D so we talked about the book of mormon and how it has blessed my family! She said that she believes in God too. She goes to another church but wouldn't say where when I asked :P and then she said "well, we have different beliefs, so here let me give you my number and we can talk about this stuff sometime." I wasn't quite sure whether she wanted to convert us to her religion or if she was really wanting to figure out what's different about our church, but one thing i know is that she had a good feeling about us three; we really seldom know how much people can really tell that something's different about us as members of the church. so that was really cool! :D

2. so then the other sisters finished talking to the other people in front of us and we continued on our way. and we were trying to find this three way road but couldn't figure out where it was just with the map. but while we were thinking about where we needed to go, we hit a crosswalk. and there was a cute student there doing something on her phone. and so we said hi. she was so sweet and she was on her way home from somewhere. the three of us were able to talk about the book of Mormon and we offered her a copy and she took it! and sweet sister gu shared a scripture that she likes and we wrapped it up with a powerful testimony from sister arthur! (foreign missionaries have such powerful testimonies!!!) then we exchanged numbers yay!

3. so we were super excited and we kept walking and missed the turn to get to the less active member's house. so we ended up on this hill and we realized we had to turn around :P so we did and on our way down the hill, there were two cute girls walking up the hill. so we talked to them and exchanged numbers too! 

4. so it keeps getting better. we finally found the apartment complex but couldn't tell where our 동 was and as we were walking up the hill to the complex, we heard this old man's voice saying "take longer strides, it'll help you get there faster!" so i thought he was talking to us so we turned around and he was just talking to his cute little wife--such a precious sight, an older couple walking together :) and we were able to start up a conversation because we thought he was talking to us ㅎㅎ and they were such sweet people and they helped us find the 동 and we shared a message about eternal families and the restoration. they weren't interested in meeting with us but it was such a tender mercy to be talking to people all night who liked being around us and talking to us :) 

5. so we finally got to the apartment and yep. she wasn't home. 띠로리. but we left a note on her door and came back out. then there was the 경빙아저씨 outside and he was a little suspicious of us lol (they all seem to be worried that we're going to cause trouble ㅎㅎ) he asked us what we were doing, and the name of who we were looking for haha and we told him and then just explained that we're from all over and we're new missionaries in the area and we wanted to come say hello to a member. when sister arthur stated she was from australia, he was like "oh cool!!!! i went to australia before! do you know where this place is...? up the road from there there is.... and have you seen this place close to the opera house...? etc" lol it was so funny to see how excited her got :) and then we left him our card with our number on it and thanked him for being so nice :) so like 15 minutes later, after we were on our way home already, we got a call from an unknown number and it turned out to be the 경비 man and he just called to let us know that the lights in that house we went to visit just turned on, which means that she's home home now! BAHAHAHA we couldn't believe that he called to tell us that cuz usually those 아저씨s don't give info like that! so pretty much we're best friends with him now :P hahaha that phone call made us so so happy :)

So after having tested PMG again, i'm only more sure that this work is God's work. We didn't get to meet the less active member, but Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways and gives us tender mercies and blessings when we just do what we're taught to do--Alma 57:21 obey and remember what our mothers teach us and we can't go wrong! :)

hope your week is going great! love you all! :D

sister cho

pics: some 노량진ward members, look familiar mommy? :)

week 72: hi hi :D

3/4/13

Dear people i love.

Boy this week has just flown by! We are loving 봉천! and we actually cover the 노량진 area too so that should be neat! :) Our new missionary is sister 구수미 and she's from Busan and she's so cute and fearless! We are always so happy and really enjoying the work!! 

So this is what I wanted to share with you this week:

This week, I've been studying the war chapters in Alma and i'm reading the part about Amalickiah. it's really interesting to see that while Amalickiah really uses all sorts of tricks to try and reign over all the land, "Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God." It was as simple as that. It's a running theme i've seen during my mission: As we are trying our best, everything works out the way Heavenly Father wants them to work out. We had an experience on Wednesday (after transfers) coming back from meeting the new missionaries. We had all this luggage when we got on the bus (because there were lots of missionaries taking the same bus leaving back to their areas) and slowly, all the missionaries got off and we were the last ones on the bus because we figured out we can take the bus to our area instead of trying to lug our stuff through the subway. This man on the bus started talking to us about the shortest way to the area we were going and we shared a message with him and he wasn't interested but he was very nice. then it was our turn to get off. We were about to get off when we realized that one of sister Arthur's suitcases was missing! ㅠㅠ The other missionaries who got off before us must have taken it off thinking it was theirs! So we got off the bus and thought about what we should do. (It was so neat because both my companions were very calm :) The man who was on the bus with us came off with us and tried to help us. And while we were calling other missionaries to see if they had seen the suitcase, the man just stood next to us, thinking of how he could help! We thankfully got word that someone had turned the suitcase into the police station so the Assistants were able to pick it up! We were all so relieved and happy--and so was the man! We thanked him for just being there and trying to help and we were about to leave and he said "well, I'm not interested in your message or english, but my daughter might be interested; well, at least in the english part. Let me give you my number." wow!!! (it was cool because it was our new missionary sister 구수미 who brought up english class while we were on the bus! she was not afraid to talk! :) So it was so cool because we actually met his daughter last Friday and she brought a friend too! We introduced the program to them and they said they'd want to talk to their parents about it but they said they'd call us back. Regardless of what happens, I know that the Lord can work through us--through our strengths and our weaknesses! It was no coincidence. nope nope! :) We are excited to see more miracles as we try to just be faithful to our Heavenly Father this transfer! it's scary to think this transfer is so short but i'm working to make every minute count :D

love love love you!

sister cho

ps. thanks jee and leash for figuring out housing :P

pss. daddy, my drivers' license is at home ㅠㅠ can i get it to you next week? 

pictures: my mission "family pic" my two daughters: 이정빈 자매님, 구수미자매님, and my granddaughter (cuz sister이 is training too!) sister Hunsaker! :D okay just kidding, my camera just died ㅠㅠ next week!!!

week 71: Hello :D

2/24/13

Dear People I Love,

Sorry the past few emails have been so short! It's been a crazy transfer! Here's what's been going on:

1. First things first: so I thought 신당 was going to be my last area. but Heavenly Father has lots of surprises for us :) So for my last transfer, I will be whitewash training in 봉천 with a co-senior Sister Arthur, the one I went on exchanges with! (so it's a 3 some!) We have lots of good investigators here in 신당 and the members are so great so leaving an area is always sad but I'm excited to see what the Heavenly Father has in store for our three some for my last 4 weeks :D

2. Our mission President's wife (sister Christensen) and I had the opportunity to put together a mission wide sisters' exchange right before the lunar new year conference so we were busy with that and it turned out great! it's amazing what things we can learn as we learn how to best face change! We had a short sisters' meeting which closed the exchange and it was cool to see how the sisters were with people that they really needed to be with for that time and it was also neat to hear all the miracles that happened in each of the areas! One other cool thing was that at that meeting, I felt that we should ask a certain sister to bear her testimony so after praying about it, I asked her to bear her testimony at our exchange closing meeting. She agreed to do so. Like 20 minutes later, Sister Christensen came up to me and suggested that maybe it would be a good to have this sister bear her testimony in this meeting. Turns out it was the sister that was already asked to do so! It is so cool to see how the Spirit can work through all of us and confirm the things we are thinking or the impressions that we receive :) through these miracles, we then can receive strength to continue pursuing the path of discipleship that we are on. I'm so grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over all of us and plans specific tender mercies in our lives to know that we are loved :)

3. So we have this family we are meeting with and teaching English and the Gospel. Last week, we had a member and her daughter there to teach with us and they were perfect for this family! We talked about Jesus Christ and His church established on the earth during His mortal ministry and it was so cool because our commitment we had planned was to invite them to come to church. During our lesson, the 10 year old raised her hand and said, "well, i don't know how to ask this but... uh... can i come to church this sunday?" sister lee and I were so excited and so were the members with us and the 17 year old was a little hesitant but the member's daughter had already become friends with her and helped her feel comfortable and so the two of them decided to come to church! The mother said she'd come another time because she has to take care of her autistic son but she's keeping in touch with our member so they're friends too! Members really can naturally work so many miracles that we as missionaries can't (or can but with more time and effort). The two girls came to church and we went to pick them up but the dad said he'd be willing to take us by car! So we had a nice chat with him and he's supportive of them wanting to come to church! The Young Women just fellowshipped the the 17 year old so so well! and the little 10 year old had fun but thought it was a little too long :P it was a real cool experience :)

4. Our ward mission leader was on the ball about getting a new English class banner put together and this lady just saw it and came to english class! Turns out she lived in Utah for about 3 months when she went with her 2 children for them to learn english and she said that she was impressed with the lifestyle of the mormons. she said that she attended church but didn't know what was going on because it was all in really fast english but she got a good feel from it. When we met with her, she asked about why we don't drink coffee and how polygamy is related to our religion. She seems to know a little bit about everything that we believe and doesn't seem scared by what others say about our church because her experience in Utah. We asked her about baptism and she wasn't sure exactly what that entailed so we were able to teach her the difference between sprinkling and baptism and she wanted to see the baptismal font too! it was cool. when we invited her to church, she said that she's Presbyterian and there are some problems at her church; because she's been attending there for a long time, she wants to see those things get resolved and then come to church with us. We were able to ask a question which just popped in our heads (inspired question? :) to distinguish whether she wants to meet for English and out of curiosity or if she's interested in learning if this religion is really for her. And she told us it was the latter reason! yay :) we are excited for her!!

Thought for the day: the Lord's way isn't always our way. But as we align our will with His, miracles just happen. Because this is His work :) Hope your week is going well! Love you all!

-Sister Cho

pics: at 설날 conference, before the sisters' exchange, saw 할아버지 at stake conference :), a gathering at a member's house (she's so awesomeee!)

week 70: sorry!

2/18/13

so i don't have time today cuz there are some other things i have to do but i'm alive and well and loving my mission! i'm so sorry i'm not writing more but i'll write next week!

Love you all! come what may and love it! 사랑해요!

sister cho

ps. mommy president said grandma and grandpa can come to our dinner when i get released. will you ask them if they would like to come?

also, releases are done by the stake president so i think we need to let him know when i'll be back to get released. eek! weird thinking about this stuff!!!

week 69: quick email for this week!

2/12/13

Sorry I don't have much time today!

So last weekend (new years' weekend) we had a mission wide sisters' exchange! It was so so cool to see how each person was needed in each area for that weekend! I was with a sister from Australia named sister Arthur and she was so so sweet!

So while on exchanges, sister Arthur and I 전도ed together and we saw lots of miracles! we saw a group of ladies coming our way so we were going to say hi but then they just whizzed passed us and then we saw two ladies walking by so this time we didn't want to miss them so we just said hello as they walked by and one of them stopped. she looked really confused and asked us "it's really cold. like really really cold. why are you out here?" and then we talked to her for a minute and she spoke really good English too. so sister arthur had the chance to bear her beautiful testimony in English! she asked us "are you really happy?" and we explained that yes, we are really happy no matter what because of our Savior Jesus Christ. and then this sister said "well, i'm kinda lonely these days. and i feel like something is missing in my life. so i'd really like to visit your church sometime." sister Arthur and I were so so so excited! it was like a scene from "the district" dvds!! so we just met her today upon HER request through text! and she told us she's been looking for a way to gain faith for the past year and half and it was cool because we showed her the sacrament meeting room and she said "i've been to a lot of different churches for the past year and half and this feels different." wow. we are going to meet her every week on tuesday at 3:30! we are very excited! 

This week I re-read an article by elder wirthlin and he said that "those who make happiness the chief objective of life are bound to fail, for happiness is a by-product rather than an end in itself. Happiness comes from doing one's duty and knowing that his life is in harmony with God and His commandments." So it's that simple. we just do what we are supposed to do as missionaries and we're good to go! I'm slowly learning line upon line throughout my mission that this is indeed true! yay for tender mercies :)

Anyway, we took lots of pictures at New Years' Conference but i'll attach them next week! love you all! 엄마 아빠 싸랑해요~ ^^

sister cho :)

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!

week 59: happy december!! already!

12/2/12

dear people i love:

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S DECEMBER ALREADY!!!! wow, seriously time flies! so this week was really cool. both aspects of the meaning implied. we had lots of little miracles happen and it was also time to bring out the winter coats and scarves!! :D

so something really really awesome happened last Wednesday! we were on our way to a district meeting in 신촌 and so we were going to take the 110B bus that takes us from our house to 신촌 ward. the bus came and sister lee and i got on and i sat next to this girl. i said hi and she just smiled and said she was surprised how happy we were. and thus started our conversation! we talked about the weather and our families and stuff and she kept looking at my Book of Mormon. She asked if she could look at it and of course i said go for it! and she said that she hadn't been religious until some hard times hit her life and she felt like she should lean on God. So she started attending a church and has been reading the bible but she was interested in the Book of Mormon because she's never heard of it before! So we talked about how it's another testament of Jesus Christ and it also contains truth. I told her she could have my copy of the book if she wanted it and she was like "yeah, i'd really like that." and then as we got close to the next station, she pulled out her phone and was like "well, I get off at this stop but would it be okay if I got your phone number so I can contact you sometime?" you could tell she felt a little awkward in asking for someone's number that she just met on the bus but i was like REALLY??!!! DID SHE JUST ASK FOR OUR NUMBER BEFORE WE COULD ASK FOR HERS?!!! WHAT??! :D yeah. that definitely happened. so we're meeting her next thursday for 김치돈까스김밥 (my favoriteeeee at 김밥천국!) and to talk about the Book of Mormon! it was sooo cool! cuz usually we initiate most conversations and usually we bring up religion first and we talk about the book of mormon first and we ask for their numbers but SHE initiated everything! it was so so cool! this work really is true! elder dean, our AP who is going home this week, said in his departing testimony that although it's amazing to think that God can move mountains, what really amazes him is that God can move people's hearts. mountains aren't alive and they don't have agency to choose. but it's really amazing when God can move people who are alive and have agency to choose! so so true!

Thought for the week corresponds to what you said daddy about how important it is to listen to the promptings of the Spirit! it comes from president Uchtdorf from this past general conference: "Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about oursevles. He will illuminate the path ahead and open our eyes to see our unknown and perhaps unimagined talents." i know that i am a daughter of God and i can do and be better as I try to follow the Spirit :)

Have a great week!!

Love you all!

Sister Cho

jee: thanks for the pictures!! bahaha i laughed at my cutout dressed up for christmas! bahahaha! also, i don't think i need anything but if you could send lots of rolos, that'd be awesome so we can put together little candy bags for our investigators :) that's one type of chocolate i haven't found here yet! also, the office wanted me to make sure that mommy and daddy are working on my plane ticket. they just wanted to remind us that you purchase it and then get reimbursed later :)

pics:

sister lee and i started growing an onion lol so that's our plant onion :P

we went to Namsan last Pday and the haechi statue thing was there at the top :)

our last district pic because two of the elders are going home this transfer!