Missionaries serving in Asia learn to rely on the Lord

My district!
L to R: Park, Paskett, Stradling, me, Jensen, Friedmann.
This shows how perfectly awkward our district was

So earlier this week Sister Marsden told me a quote "Missionaries Serving in the States learn to preach the Gospel in English. Missionaries serving in Foreign Countries learn to preach the gospel in a foreign language. And missionaries serving in Asia learn to rely on the Lord." This week I really learned that the hard way.

This was by far the hardest week I have been out so far. Not for any reason other than the past few weeks of actually being a missionary finally are hitting me. And its hard. I had quite a few break downs this week and sometimes I thought that I didn't want to go on, and was praying that I could just go home because I hated it. Everyone always tells you that missionary work is hard but you don't really realize how hard it actually is until you have been here for a month. And I was talking to sister Marsden about it and she said that missionary work is so much harder than anything else because you never get a break. And that is so true! You're always a missionary even on PDay there is no such thing as a break. So its really taxing to your body mentally emotionally physically and spiritually. Anyways, so really hard week for no reason other than being a missionary is the most taxing thing I have ever done. So Thursday and Friday and Saturday were really bad, then, when I was talking to sister Marsden about it, she suggested I get a blessing.

The priesthood is real. And it really is God's authority. I asked our zone leader Elder Paskett to give me a blessing. He had no idea what was going on with my life besides feeling like I needed a blessing. And that blessing he gave me answered all of my prayers. I have been praying to really gain a testimony of the book of Mormon and to better recognize the spirit in my life. I also have been praying that the Lord give me the strength to endure because I have just wanted to give up a LOT. And in the blessing. Elder Paskett blessed me to gain a love for the Book of Mormon and to feel the promptings of the spirit with more clarity. He also blessed me to have the physical, mental, and emotional strength to meet the demands of a mission. EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED! I always believed in the power of the priesthood but wow, it was a humbling experience when a guy I barely knew answered every single one of my prayers in a blessing. The priesthood is real! And I don't know what I would do without it :)

Anyways onto the other things about this week. Transfers are this week! Sister Hilton is being transferred so that's depressing :( and pretty much our whole zone is being changed but hopefully it will be fun. We met with Amanda this week and she asked us to bear our testimonies to her! So that was exciting. And she talked to us about how she feels like she has been so focused on studying English that she has turned her back on God recently. Sister Stradlings response to that was " Maybe that's why we are in your life." Totally the answer! In Pres. Monson's talk, "We Never Walk Alone" from the last relief society session, he shares a poem about prayers. She said that she wanted to memorize the poem and she added a line of her own to the end. It said "And I will endure to the end." We love her she's great :)

Then there's Stella. We have been struggling with her lately because she hasn't been coming to church and she hasnt been keeping her commitments. She came to a baptisumal service on Friday with her friend but left before the baptism even happened because her friend wanted to go get dinner. So we were really discouraged. But after church yesterday she texted us and said "I regret that I didnt come to worship today. I think it purifies my mind. I shjould attend worship every Sunday. and make it a duty." So it looks like things might be looking up with her too! We attended her college graduation on Friday and met her parents. It was a really good experience and she was really touched that we came

We also met with a member of our ward this week  who teaches kids arts and crafts and she wants us to come in a teach our 30/30 program to them once a week (30 min english 30 mins gospel) and we got two refferals from members up in Seoul who want us to teach their nieces English and introduce them to the gospel! So it was a pretty good week besides the break downs but those are just minor details :)

I hope everything is going well for you and you all have a great week :)

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Posing With Confusius

Me in front of a huge tree.

This is what happens at night on a regular basis

These are from today. We went to this really famous paintings on houses this that I don't know the name of right off hand i have it written down but it was so fun! The Korean women in the pictures is our young women's president and the other white girl is Rebekah shes in our ward and just moved her to teach English. Shes the secretary in young women

 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Me Playing the Sticks Game

Happy Valentines day everyone! I hope it was great :)

 

This week was great :)

 

On Monday we visted a member and shared Alma 7:11-12 with her and I shared my testimony on it (or what I could say about my testimony on it) and when I finished she went on and on about how much she could feel the spirit as I was talking and she was almost brought to tears because the spirit was so strong. So that made me feel better about my language skills (or lack there of).

 

We had to drop one of our invetigators this week :( Kim ae ran. We saw it coming but it was still really sad to hear her say she had no interest in our church and just wanted to learn English :( it broke my heart.

 

But on a brighter note we had training up in Daejeon this week and I got to see everyone I was in the MTC with! It was good :)

 

Our elders at the ward party left to right:
Friendmann, Park, Jensen, Paskett.
Friedmann is my district leader and Paskett is our zone leader

We had a valentines day party with the ward on Friday and it was crazy! We had four investigators and potentials come so we were very busy. But it was so fun! We played this traditional Korean game where you throw sticks on a mat. I still dont know how to play it but then ladies in the ward would just give me the sticks and I would throw them and they would cheer. Apparently we ended up winning the game.

Our Winning Picture!  (The two photoboms are my favorite) :)
One is Elder Paskett and the other is just a man in our ward.

 

 

Amanda is progressing really well! She came to church yesterday! Which is huge. Granted she just came for the last 30 min of Relief Society and she was so painfully shy that she wouldn't even come into the room so Sister Stradling and I took her into another room with just us three but she came to church! We had people come one at a time after church to say hi to her then we had a lesson with a lady in our ward who is super friendly. We were kinda worried about how the lesson went because Amanda looked like she was really uncomfortable the whole time but that must have just been because she didn't know the lady because she sent us a text later that said "Hi, I am happy to meet you again on Sunday! I can receive  a lot of comfort talking to you. You sisters have very lovely hearts. See you later!" So cute! I love it when they try to speak or text in English! Anyways we meet with her pretty much every day so well see how that progress goes.

 

Our new name tag with English and Korean on it!  We got them at training.

 

 

We are really worried about Stella. She hasnt come to church for the past two weeks and shes not really answering our calls. She came to the vanentines day party and seemed fine but at church yesterday the Elders told us that Brian told them that she is rethinking her baptismal date. So if you could just pray for her that would be great.

 

I love you all and hope you had a fantastic week!

--

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Just Another Week Across the Pacific!

This is how you do the korean peace signs correctly

Nothing too exciting happened this week so this email probably wont be horribly long but I do have a few fun stories to tell.

First off I am now starting to get letters! I got a letter from dad earlier this week that he sent before I left Korea so it really is snail mail but it was exciting. :) And I got both of the packages you sent me! They are AMAZING! We love them. :) They came on Wednesday I think? So packages come super fast.

I had my first zone conference this week! We were able to get out of Jeon-Ju which was really exciting. I was able to meet the paratrooper at zone conference. He is an investigator I'm still not quite sure why he has that name but apparently he shows up at all the missionary gatherings because he some how finds out about them then gives all the sisters socks and all of the missionaries little plastic animal things that look really creepy...he gave me a lion/dog. It is a lion with a dog face and the eyes terrify me. Apparently everyone in the whole mission knows about him. He's slightly strange and is one of the people who thinks he knows English but he doesn't. He was talking to me in English but I had no idea what he was saying so I just smiled and nodded my head the whole time.

So almost all parks have exercise equipment so this is when we played on it :)

Another funny story: so on Saturday night, Sister Stradling and I were walking to the bus stop and we got stopped by this older man and he beckoned us over. He was a little bit tipsy. He walked into his shop and we saw that all of his friends were getting drunk as well. We were really scared that he was going to offer us alcohol but he came out with rice cakes and made us start to eat them in front of him. After we left we were scared to finish them (he gave us a TON) and When we talked to the elders they told us we should probably just throw it away so we did. But that is my first experience with drunk men in Korea!

More playing on the exercise equipment while waiting for an appointment with a member

I also got my first number on the bus this week! This was probably the highlight of my week because I really have trouble proselyting. Like a lot. I really don't like it at all but I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I have to do it. So at one point on the bus I started talking to the lady next to me and she was impressed that I "knew" Korean so she started talking to me super fast and I had no idea what she was saying ever but after a little bit of bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon in broken Korean I gave her my planner to write her number in and she did! then when she was getting off she told me to call her! (I had no idea that's what she said sister Stradling told me that later) so that was exciting :)

Now for the spiritual highlight of the week: Last night we met with Amanda and we talked to her about the Liahona (the Korean Ensign) and showed her the conference version. Then somehow we got on the topic of angels and she started talking about times when she had felt the help of angels in her life! So exciting! Then we gave her a talk by president Monson to read that he gave at the last relief society broadcast. She's still really dedicated to her church though but she always wants to meet with us so hopefully her heart softens.

But that was pretty much my week! I hope life at home is going well! I love you all so much and pray for you all the time :)

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It was a week full of lots of food and missionary meetings because we couldn't proselyte on Thursday through Sunday.

 

At the beginning of the week we had another lesson with Amanda and we asked her if she would be baptized but we asked her in English and at first she thought we meant she had to take a test of the material we were teaching her (#languagebarrierproblems) then when she finally realized what we were saying she said she would think about it because she was afraid of water. We said that she could have as much time as she needs. At the next lesson we taught her this week, we had our ward mission leader come (who is AMAZING!) but she showed up an hour and a half late. She always shows up late but usually it's only half an hour. That time was bad. But he waited with us the whole time said hi to her then had to leave. At that lesson we found out that she is very involved in her church and she really didn't understand why she needed to join ours when the church believes in God. It was really rusticating because we asked her what was different about our church and she named off all these good things like a prophet and the Book of Mormon and stuff but she just didn't understand why it was so important to convert to ours when she already believes in God. But we're meeting with her again this week so we'll see what happens.

 

On a happier note we are really building relationships with the members of our ward including our bishop. One step at a time to not be the flowers of the ward anymore! (that's actually what he called the sisters a few transfers back not the pretty faces but it means the same thing) We had two people come up to us during church to schedule appointments with us which hasn't happened for almost a year apparently so that was exciting. Also earlier this week we went and visited the bishop and actually got invited into his apartment which NEVER happens. And we shared a spiritual message with him and then got to see his two week old twins! So cute! And they gave us food :) another step out of being just a flower :)

 

As for the food, there was lots of it this week. Which is funny because at the beginning of the week we seriously thought that we wouldn't get invited anywhere then on Friday we ate with the Elders in our ward (there's six of us all together) at the stake relief society president's house, then on Saturday we ate at our ward mission leader's house, and his wife is a chef so we had a Korean meal that is apparently from ancient Korea so that was cool. Then on Sunday we ate at another member's house. Last night the bishop and all his kids (besides his wife and the youngest twins) came which was like six people all together. It was really fun. The member lives out in the country so it was a long bus ride but totally worth it. The bishop totally said that sister Stradling was a wonderful companion! Another step to not being the flowers anymore! After dinner, the bishop left with one of the boys that was there and like 20 mins later he came back with a ton of ice cream. The bishop totally bought us all ice cream on Sunday. We all got a kick out of that.

 

 

Me!

Me!

 

This week P-Day was Friday because of the holiday and the three sisters I live with and I had such a good time. We made a happy new years poster thing and went to a very authentic Korean place and took pictures. 

Jumping Companionship.

We were taking jumping pictures and at one point I was getting a jumping picture taken of me and none of the sisters could get it right so this older Korean man came over and took my camera from them and said "jumping?" and I said yes so he tried to take a good picture of me jumping but he didn't count for me so it didn't work very well but let me tell you the other sisters got amazing pictures of him trying to take a jumping pictures of me. Ill have to get it from them and send it to you sometime.

Sister Stradling (right) and I

 

 

Stradling, Me, Hilton, and Marsden with our Sign.

Stella is doing great. We asked her if there was anything that we could do to help her prepare for her baptism and she just asked if she had to buy a white dress. She is so ready. Her husband, Brain, is what is holding her back right now. He is meeting with the Elders and he has a lot of doctrinal concerns but hopefully his heart will be softened and he wont make her push back her date.

Anyways that was my week. I hope all is well at home and that everyone is having a great time :) I love you all! Happy New year! 
 

Sister Stradling (right) and I

--  Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)