Happy Mother's Day!

Judy and Me

Happy Mother’s day everyone! It was so great to Skype with you all this morning :)

This week things picked up a little bit. We finally met with Sister Oh! We taught her the third lesson and she took it really well. Our relief society president was there and it was great :) We asked her about her baptismal date and she said that she wanted to come to church first which was good. And she came to church on Sunday! She came in late so Sister Stradling and I were devastated at first but then half way through sacrament someone tapped my back and it was her! She said she really enjoyed church and loved everyone’s testimonies. I will keep you updated on what happens with her. We are meeting with her On Friday or Thursday this week I can’t remember.

We also met with the second oldest daughter of the family we met last week. Her name is Sister Moon but we gave her the English name Jani so I will use that. She’s so great. We taught her English, then when we said we needed to share a message she was totally welcoming to it. We talked more about the Book of Mormon and she told us she had read the first page and that it was hard but she enjoyed it. She said she wanted to come to church but she didn’t show up yesterday. Hopefully she comes next week! We are meeting with her again on Saturday.

Me and Judy in front of ice cream with beans in it and it was DELICIOUS! So Good

Then I got to see Judy this week!! It was so great. Slightly strange that even when we are around the world from out home town we get to see each other. But she’s doing great and it was so nice to just catch up and such. She went to church yesterday and the members were blown away at her Korean. She SO good. So much better than me. But that was fun :)

Anyways that’s it for this week. Sorry it’s only been a few days since my last email so I don’t have very much to update you on. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your mother’s day and your week!

I love you all! 사랑해요!

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

Holidays are hard...

It randomly started raining on night so we went
to get umbrellas and came out with these

This week was really really slow. We had one appointment that followed through. The rest of the time we just spend proselyting and finding less actives. Which means a TON of walking. Good thing I have good shoes or else I would be dying.

Our appointment was with Amanda. It went well but we don’t think she is going to want to change religions anytime soon. We talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. She takes her Toeic English tests on Sundays so we asked her how she could keep the Sabbath day holy after her test. The she went to English class after and really liked it. She said she wanted to go again this week.

This is a burger place at the university nearby.
Korea doesn't mess around with burgers

Then the other exciting thing that happened didn’t happen until Monday. Holidays are really slow here with regards to missionary work. People aren’t home and they don’t want to talk to you so it’s a bit discouraging. But on Monday morning when sister Stradling was in the shower Sister Marsden called us and told us a member of her ward had someone she wanted to refer to us and she wanted to talk to us immediately. So I called her and started talking to her in broken Korean then she asked me how long I had been here for and when I told her about 4 months she broke into perfect English. It was a huge relief. She was in Jeon Ju for the weekend because of the holiday and she wanted to meet us with her cousin and her family to refer her to us. We were SO excited. So we made an appointment for that night. We met them. They are a family of five. Mom, dad, two daughters and a son. The only one that seemed interested in the gospel message we shared was the second oldest daughter. The rest of the family just seemed interested in English but we are meeting with them again on Saturday so we’ll see what happens.

 

We ran out of oil so we tried to make a pancake
in the microwave. It worked!

That was pretty much the only exciting thing that happened this week. Holidays are really painfully slow. There are a TON more people and traffic is insane but people aren’t as willing to listen. I also got a nasty cold this week so we stayed inside one day so that I could relax. When Elder Smith found out I wasn’t feeling well he gave me a TON of natural medicine. It was hilarious. Shows what kinda dad he will be. I guess my body just doesn’t like Korea in the spring time. But I have been feeling better recently so were good :)

Here is the medication Elder Smith gave me.
I don’t know if I feel more loved or drugged

Anyways I hope you all have a great week! I’m excited to talk to you on Mother’s day!

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

I almost forgot! our relief society president went to America this week so we couldn’t meet with Sister Oh and didn’t come to church so we will most likely have to push back her baptismal date but we have an appointment with her on Friday so well know more then

Another Baptismal Date!

We found these wings as we were walking around so we took pictures.

We finally had a lesson with Sister Oh! (The one that was referred to us by our relief society president) and she has a baptismal date! We taught the plan of salvation and sister Sung (RSP) was there. And it was so good! The lesson went really well and it was hilarious because at one point sister Oh got up to get us strawberries and sister Sung leans over to us and asks where it talks about Christ’s baptism in the Book of Mormon so we gave her the reference then Sister Sung read it when sister Oh got back and asked her if she would get baptized. At first sister Oh said that she would have to think about it but Sister Sung pushed her so hard for May 18th because that is the date that sister Sung got baptized on. And sister Stradling said that we could set a date and if she didn’t feel ready we could push it back. And eventually Sister Oh agreed! So we have a baptismal date! She didn’t come to church on Sunday so to make that date she has to come the next three weeks in a row but we still have hope!

More Wings

We also got a new investigator this week! She is mainly English interest but we’ll see where it goes. Her name is Sister Park and she is planning on moving to LA wit her son so she wants to get better at English. She lived in Hawaii for a few months and apparently went to the Polynesian cultural Center where she met someone who told her about out 30/30 program (30 min English 30 min message) so she contacted us. We only met with her once and she seemed very much English interest. She kept asking us to speak in English instead of Korean during the gospel part which is something we are not supposed to be doing. So we’ll see where things go. One funny thing is we showed her a picture of Joseph Smith and she said she saw a huge picture of him in Hawaii and we got excited. Then she asked if he was single. Never thought I would have anyone ask me if Joseph Smith was single before. She was sad when we told her he wasn’t single and he was dead. We got a kick out of that.

We had a fruit party!
We don't get fruit enough so we had to document it

we got this candy from our stake president and it was kinda like skittles
but i thought you would like it mom because its called Beatles and its a band of fruit
and it reminded me of the Beatles! That's all :)

And Amanda wanted to meet with us again this week! So hopefully things get rolling with that. She had a lot of questions about why bad things happen to good people because of the boat accident so we comforted her as much as we could. We used the questions of the soul in preach my gospel and it went really well. She always talks to us about how she knows she needs to change things she does in her life but she just doesn’t want to. We’ll keep working with her and see where it goes.

kimbap

Also we called Stella on Thursday to see if there was any hope there and she told us that she didn’t want to meet with the Mormons anymore. Then Friday night the other sisters come into our room and tell us that Stella met with them. That was really hard on Sister Stradling. She took it pretty hard. She felt like she had failed as a missionary because Stella just didn’t want to meet with us anymore. As I was trying to comfort her she said something to me that took me by surprise. She asked me how I face my fears so boldly. (She was referring to proselyting because that’s the only thing I am afraid of) I didn’t even realize I was doing that. I feel like I don’t talk to enough people and that I’m not bold enough and that I’m not strong enough all that time and I kinda beat myself up about it. But when she said this to me it made me feel like maybe I am a good missionary maybe I’m not quite as slow progressing and I think I am. It gave me a little hope. And it also made me realize how much God has helped me these past few months. I know there’s no way that I would be able to open my mouth to random people without him and I am eternally grateful to him for that and other things he has given me.

Korea takes morning to a whole new level. Like it is seriously looked down upon to do anything fun or be seen having fun right now. So our ward picnic got canceled which is sad... And i guess news recently came out that religion might be connected to the boat sinking so pres warned us that our job might be a little harder for a while so that will be fun. Hopefully everything works out though.

Anyways I hope everyone back home is doing well! I love and pray for you all!

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