BAPTISIMAL DATE!



This is our Chapel! We have the best chapel in Korea :)
Literally. Its the nicest church in the country for our church. We are blessed :)

We got a baptismal date this week! But that happened on Saturday so I will get to that towards the end of the email :)

On Monday night, we visited the hospital with one of our members to visit two of our members that are there. And it was great! Sister Stradling and I both bore our testimonies on Alma 7:11-12 and so did our member. And he gave us a referral! The referral doesn't look super promising though. She is kinda more interested in learning English and not religion because she is Buddhist but that could change.

This week we really focused on building relationships with the members which is super difficult when you don't speak the language but we are making it work. They think it is so cute when we try to speak Korean and they correct us which is super helpful in trying to speak. One of the sisters in our ward even gave us a lesson on things in the kitchen! She pointed to the microwave and a kettle and stuff like that and said the Korean word for it. I don't remember any of it but it was cute.

This week I realized just how powerful missionary prayers really are. So our investigators weren't really the best ever and we were getting super discouraged because we just wanted to proselyte less and teach more so we started praying for more investigators. Prays answered! The Elders gave us THREE referrals this week which is apparently unheard of. And on a less spiritual note: we prayed for more rice and fruit because food here is ridiculously expensive and when we visited our members they gave us fruit and rice! The gospel's true.



This is our bishop's door. All of the members who live in apartments have hearts on this door.
It makes it really easy to find them

Before I talk about our new investigator I have to tell a funny story. So we have someone called a house leader in our house. Their job is to make sure the light is off at 10:30 and on at 6:30. Sister Marsden got that calling. She was so stressed that she wouldn't get up right at 6:30 the first morning she was doing it that she woke up at 12:30 and thought it was 6:30 so she turned on the light and told us to wake up then started to pray. Sister Stradling slowly got into the pray position as well, I threw the blanket over my head and Sister Hilton was the only one who thought to look at the clock. Then in her own word she said "For some reason I felt compelled to stand up and announce that it was midnight then go over and turn the light off for everyone." Sister Hilton is farthest from the door and had to climb over Sister Marsden to turn off the light. It was a bonding moment for all of us once we got over that she woke up us at midnight.

Anyways, our cute little new investigator. Her name is Choi Jeen Sun (최 진선). The Elders found her on the street and she contacted us because she had a huge English test she needed help preparing for that she took yesterday. The first day we taught her about Joseph Smith and it was kind of rough but the thing that she was most confused about was why she hadn't heard about him before because she believes in God and reads the bible and everything. she's actually really interested in what we have to say. And she contributed to why Saturday was such a good day!

Saturday! We met with all three of our investigators ( we dropped the crazy one when we picked up Jeen Sun her English name is Amanda) First we met with Kim Ae Ran (김 애란) and she didn't totally reject us when we asked her to be baptized! She didn't say yes but she was just kinda trying to wrap her mind around that we were telling her her baptism wasn't valid. So that was a huge improvement! Then we met with Stella at a members house with a member and it was so good! We finished off the commandments and we told her the next step was to get baptized when she was ready then she picked a date! March 30th! Still really far away and we are going to try and push it up if we can but she picked a date! WE HAVE A BAPTISUMAL DATE! Easily the highlight of our week. Then on top of that we met with Amanda that night and we showed her the restoration video and the spirit was so strong. After the video we asked her what she thought and she paused then said "I think this really happened." YES! IT TOTALLY DID! So exciting!  Saturday was the best day ever.

We met with Amanda again last night and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and we are meeting with her again tonight. Life is good and God is great :)

Anyways that was my week :) I hope life in the states is going well for every one! I love you all!

SOUTH KOREA!

I made it to Korea and let me tell you: jet lag is real and it sucks. But I think I'm adjusted now so were good.

 

And now for what I know you have all been wondering about: they did feed us on the plane. Three meals to be exact. And it was worse than the MTC food but I was grateful for food.

 

Anyways, we arrived at Incheon airport at around 8:00 then when we got through customs and everything we couldn't find our mission president for at least half an hour. We were just about to call the mission home when me and sister Jenson decided to make one more lap around the airport. That airport is huge by the way. anyways so were walking and were heading back because we gave up and we ran into the APs actually they had to call us because we walked right past them but we found them and we got into Daejeon at midnight then had to wake up at 6 to get ready for the day. With jet lag that was a pretty bad night's sleep but I have recovered since then. Anyways our first few days at the mission home were pretty much just president shin telling us what he expects of us. He took us to a restaurant where we sat on the floor while we ate. I have had much more of a desire to sit on the floor while I am here but I'm pretty sure that is because the floors are heated and clean because no shoes are allowed on them so its nice. Anyways President Shin has set a goal for the mission that he calls BRT 122 which means baptism: 1 per tranfer, referals: 2/week, and teaching 2/hr per day. Which is actually really hard to accomplish but hopefully we'll be getting more investigators soon. but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

 

Oh Thursday we got told who our trainers are and what area we are assigned to! My trainer is (drum roll....) Sister Stradling! Shes from Arizona and one of the first things she said to me was that she doesn't know Korean so it has been a interesting last few days but she's great :) we just struggle to understand anything anyone is saying to us. I am serving in 전주 (which i  think the romanization is Jeon-Ju) its about an hour and a half bus ride south of Daejeon. My area has been one of the least successful in the mission but president is really pressing to change that. We are trying to develop a better relationship with the members right now so that they can give us referals. Which is difficult when we both struggle with the language but we are trying our best.

 

Me and Sister Stradling

Oh and now I know that when people say the guest house is the nicest place missionaries live it is so true. We live on the 10th floor or a run down apartment building. Our lights are going out and the light in our study room flickers so every time it's on I feel like its in a scene from a horror movie. We are fixing that today though. And I'm jealous you feed the elders all the time! Apparently if we get two member meals a transfer we are lucky. But its all good. :) There's four of us all living in our little apartment and we sleep on little mattresses on the floor and its great. :) The girls I live with are way fun. We all get along really well.

 

Funny story: So we were proselyting and we ran into a girl who kept shaking my hand and saying in broken English that she was excited to meet with us and I was so confused why Sister  Stradling wasn't asking for her number or anything. Then once we left she told me she was one of our investigators but that she was crazy then proceeded to tell me a story about how this lady just wants to get married really bad and I guess at one point she told one of the Elders that she just wanted a baby and asked him if he would help her. Needless to say the Elder was scarred for a while. And that pretty much sums up one of our investigators.

 

On Saturday we taught two lessons: one with 김애련 (Kim ae raan) sorry romanization is hard, who apparently is more interested in learning English than the gospel but I thought it went over well. And another one with a girl named Stella who has said she will get baptized in March. We are trying to set an actual date but she is a little resistant. Hopefully we can set one at the next lesson. Those are all of our investigators and really only one of them (Stella) is really interested in the gospel so its hard. The bishop doesn't really help the sisters out because he thinks we are just the pretty faces in the ward but he helps out the elders all he can so that's hard too.

 

Saturday night we spent an hour looking for a members house in another part of our area and we never ended up finding it but we found a street that had a ton of night clubs on it. We call it night club row. Ironically is was the place we felt the most comfortable in that side of town because it was the most lit up.

 

Anyways, we went to church yesterday! I'm pretty sure every single member came up to me and told me I was pretty. Sister Stradling told me that pretty much happens everywhere you go. I had to introduce myself over the pulpit in Korean. Pretty much the most terrifying thing I have ever done. I pretty much just said my name where I'm from, that I'm not good at Korean but I can bear my testimony then I bore my testimony. After sacrament, a member came up to me and gave me a sticky note that said "Sister Collyer, Your Korean is perfect. Keep go on studying Korean." then told me my pronunciation was perfect! It made me feel good :) all those years of suffering though Korean in high school payed off!

 

I had my first dinner at a members house last night! They rarely happen so that was exciting. No weird foods yet though. We  taught them the first lesson just for practice and we were kinda in a rush so we hurried through it. The father of the family didn't like that. He criticized us for probably about 20 mins about how we need to explain all the terms we were using or our investigators will be really confused. Not the best note to end on but his wife was a sweetheart and he was just trying to help. His wife kinda got mad at him for being so hard on us though because we are American and we struggle with Korean anyways. It was good to get to know the members though even if I had no idea what they were saying and they had to pull out their Korean to English dictionary a ton.

 

Korea is WAY different than the states. I swear there are no traffic laws here. It is not uncommon for cars to drive and park on the sidewalks. The buses are crazy and I have never seen cars get so close together without crashing. Pedestrians don't have the right of way so you really so have to look both ways before crossing the street but I love it here. The people are so kind and I am excited to see what the next year and a half have in store for me.

 

I love you all and I hope life at home is going well :)

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

 

PS sorry about all my spelling mistakes I'm typing fast. Hopefully it all makes since. There's no spell check here.

 

LAST FEW DAYS IN THE MTC!

I cant believe my time at the MTC ends on Monday! Crazy. It has been such a hectic week but its been great.

On Friday sister Jenson and I skyped TRC with a Korean girl and it went so well! We talked about prayer and we could understand about 60% of what she was saying. So exciting.

Then on Saturday I had CMS which is like tutoring with Sister Baek who actually grew up in Pasadena and know David Corless and Mariah Moffat and such which is cool. but anyways I just wanted to practice listening and speaking with her. So she shared her conversion story then had me tell her what I understood and I understood about 50% of what she said! Big self esteem boost there. Then she had me share why I decided to go on a mission in Korean and it was very broken Korean but I got the point across. the spirit was so strong it was fantastic and the gift of tongues is so real because I didn't think I knew that much Korean.

On Sunday I got released from being sister training leader and let me tell you. I was being blessed a lot by that calling because these past few days have been rough. Monday was definitely the most trying day at the MTC. I scheduled my MRI for tomorrow because infield orientation that is mandatory was supposed to be today. Well we found out that they actually switched in field to Friday so we would be missing it because of my MRI and the health center wouldn't let me change it. Sister Jenson was not happy with me and I was stressed because she wasn't happy then I started getting even more stressed because people were telling me that I would be taking too much medication on the plane and it was just bad. So I talked to sister Bagley about it and she actually comforted me a lot. She talked to me about how many lives I've touched already and that I just had to really trust in the Lord. And I realized she was right. I mean I always knew that but it was good that she reminded me. And Now I'm totally calm about the whole situation and I know it is in the Lords hands and that everything is going to work out because he needs me in Korea :) Sister Jenson and I also got a blessings from Elder Payne in our district which was so good. That was another thing that calmed me down because he said the Lord wouldn't let anything go wrong and to stop worrying about how I'm going to get to Korea, just be excited to go. I felt like that day brought Sister Jenson and I closer than we already are because we were both in tears by the end of our blessings and we just hugged forever and it was great :)

Tuesday was a really good day :) We had an amazing devotional by Bishop Stevenson, the presiding bishop of the church, and his wife. one thing his  wife said really struck me. She said, "Be thankful everyday you get to put on that badge because the day you have to take it off will be the worst day of your life." I realized that I really haven't been magnifying my calling as much as I should and I sent goals to really make the most of this short time where I am dedicating myself to the Lord. I want to be able to say I did everything I could to serve the Lord during the short time I have to dedicate my life to him.

We had the best district devotion ever after that! It was the last one we were going to have which is sad. But the spirit was so strong and I realized how much I truly do love all the people in my district and I'm going to miss them so much. we all decided that we are the spirit doctors because we heal peoples spirits. It was a great meetings.

Well the next time I email you I am going to be all the way across the Pacific Ocean! I love you all so much and I hope your week is going amazingly!

북음은 참됩니다! (The gospel is true!)

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!

I CANT BELIEVE THERE IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS UNTIL I FLY TO KOREA! It's crazy how fast time has gone by here.

I didnt make a plan on what I was going to say this week so sorry if this is short.

Our natives came this week! The ones who are going to go with us to Korea. Sister Park is a solo sister and she is with me and Sister Jenson when shes not in her classroom. She speaks perfect English because she grew up in the states which is way nice because we are not playing charades all the time to get across what we are trying to say. She's super helpful in helping with our pronunciation and everything too.

On and New Years happened this week! We all just celebrated with New York at 10. We had lots of food and little maraca things. It was great. And we were all in bed by 10:30 which is a miracle and now the branch presidency cant get mad at us for staying up late which happens almost every week with the Elders. I was so proud of the sisters.

Today was the most hectic P-Day that I have ever experienced so far. Sister Jenson and I were pretty much running around all day. I went to the Doctor today and saw Amy and Rebecca! I did have a slight heart attack when I read the dear elder saying they would be there and there was part of me that was worried I'd get homesick from seeing them but it was fantastic!  I loved seeing them even for a short time :) and my companion enjoyed getting a hug from Rebecca because her sister wasn't there. It was good to see familiar faces :) definitely weird going off campus though. I feel like BYU should be farther away from me because I've been stuck here for so long. Then after the Doctors appointment we did laundry and while our laundry was in we ran errands like drying cleaning, telling the health clinic I needed an MRI and all the stuff we needed to do.  Then we got our laundry and lunch then we got to clean the temple! So fun :) We got a tour of it afterwords and we saw the bride's room which was GORGEOUS! So stunning I loved it.

When we got back to campus we got our TRAVEL PLANS! Were leaving at 8:31 AM on January 13th to fly to Detroit.  Then we have an hour and a half lay over in Detroit which, I'm assuming, is where I'll call you and that is from 2:10 to 3:45 pm then off to SEOUL! One question on the calling: What number do you want me to call? I'm assuming the house phone but I didn't know if you wanted me to call dads work number so he could conference call a few people in so just let me know and if it is dads work then I need that number. We land in Korea at 7:45 pm on Jan 14. I"M SO EXCITED! The jet leg will be killer but I"M SO EXCITED! WERE FINALLY LEAVING! We got our Korean name tags two days ago and  that was exciting as well. Rebecca has a picture of that that I'm sure she has shared with you already. I love it

My Korean Name Tag

Next week will be hectic too. I really hope that they can schedule the MRI earlier because right now its on my P-DAY and that's when were supposed to do the majority of our packing which is super unfortunate but I know the Lord will make it work.

Sorry this is so short but that was pretty much my week. I love you all and have a great week!

Sister Collyer

P.S. I am also the travel leader which means if there are any problems with the airplane and getting there its all one me. My name comes first in the alphabet so that's why. Hopefully nothing goes wrong.

P.P.S. we also all celebrated new years in Korea at 8 in the morning over breakfast in the cafeteria. All the other people eating were super confused why we were saying happy new year at 8 in the morning on Dec 31 but we all knew why and that's all that matters :)

Sister Jenson (Left) & Me (Right) in front of the Doctor's Office

Baby It's Cold Outside

Girls in my District in Christmas Stuff

Merry Christmas week family!

Okay so lets start at the beginning of the week. on Sunday we went on a temple walk and it was snowing pretty bad so it was way slippery and scary but then we build a snow man! It was great.

Then Christmas happened! the day started off with a missionary talent show. It was really fun. There was a Elder that did magic tricks that were so good! definitely had the whole audience involved. And this other elder played pirates of the Caribbean on the piano. I didn't realize how much I missed not church music until he started playing it and when my district broke into Be a Man from Mulan while we were back in our classroom in between events. We have fun together. But anyways, we had that show then we ate lunch then we had the general authority come. It was (drum roll......) Elder Bednar! He gave such a good and unique talk. He handed out 200 phones to the congregation and we could all anonymously text his iPad and he would answer our question. so yes now I have Elder Bednars phone number! At least for his iPad. but anyways, people asked some really good questions. One was asking if it was bad that they felt so inadequate. Bednar answered this by saying " Feeling inadequate means that you know what the Lord has asked you to do. If you felt totally confident in what you were about to do that's when I would start to worry." Then he talked about how we are inadequate but with the Lords help we can be an instrument in his hands. SO TRUE! Can't do anything without the Lord on your side. He also talked about the traits of some of the best missionaries he has known. He said the two biggest ones were "selflessness and to not get in the way." He emphasized making sure nothing you do is for yourself and never get in the way of an investigators progress. His talk was amazing. Really cool to see general authorities here so much recently :) After Bednar's talk we had a renowned jazz player come play for us. His Christmas music was beautiful and it was such a good concert. Then we watched a movie of Mo Tab preforming and they handed out popcorn to everyone. then they gave us the best Christmas present ever! they let us go back to the residence hall at 8:20 instead of 9:30! IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Sister Jenson and I had big plans to get to bed early but then we started taking pictures with everyone and the whole early thing was a lost cause. I'll send some of the wonderful pictures from that night.

There was a lot less homesickness from the girls than I expected. We all did really well. I will admit it was the hardest day in the MTC by far but the presidency did a good job at trying to keep us occupied and making sure we had fun :)

Yesterday our teacher challenged us to find three people every day and give them a short message about a different message everyday in Korean with our companion translating. He says it will help us perfect our street contacting. Our topic today is Pray. Sister Jenson and I haven't done it yet and were slightly intimidated but it will be good.

Well that was pretty much my week in a nutshell. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and it was a good day for everyone. have a happy New year has well! then I'm off to Korea! THAT'S CRAZY! I love you all!

사랑해요!

Sister Collyer

My District on Christmas

Christmas PJs!

Me in my PJs

This is what we did instead of sleeping.  We climbed up walls.
This is me and Sister Glauser

Girls from My Zone
Left to Right: Lynn, Janson, Driscoll, Anderson, Glauser, Bagley, Me

Our Stake President! President Yost

My District with the suckers you and Grandma and Grandpa Collyer sent.
Left to Right:  Maccarthy, Lamburt, Jansen, Payne, Peterson.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY!!!

 I love you all so much and I hope you are having a fantastic Christmas :)

I have a funny story that will make you guys laugh. And this pretty much explains my companion in a nutshell. So I was looking at the Great White Shark pin Amy and Kevin got me (I love it by the way. Its going on my bag) and my companion asks me what animal it was. She wasn't really looking at it at the time. So I say its a Great White Shark. Her response is "So like Shamoo??" I paused then said "...No. Shammo is a killer whale. It's like Jaws." Then she says "Dang it. I always get those two confused...." Totally made me day.

Anyways, Christmas here is great! We had David Evans, from the 70, talk to us last night. He told us that we should bear our testimony often so I decided what better day to share it with you then on Christmas! I am so grateful for this gospel. I don't know what I would do without it. I will forever be grateful for everything Christ did for me. I know that God lives and I know he loves me. 

I know the only way we can return to God is through Christ and I am so eternally grateful for Christ's sacrifice on my behalf. I am grateful for this experience he is giving me on Earth and he couldn't have blessed me with a better family. I love you all so much and I am so excited to spend eternity with you. I am grateful I have had the opportunity to go on a mission. I have felt the sprit more in the short time I have been here than I ever have before in my life. I also feel closer to God than I ever have before. I love it out here and I'm so excited to actually go to Korea and help bring others unto Christ.

David Evans also talked about learning the language of your mission. He said "You will be able to do this but only with the Lord's help." I know the Lord is helping me learn Korean and even though sometimes I get frustrated with how little I know I have to sit back and look at how much I know compared to before I came. I know the gift of tongues is real. I have already felt it in my life. I am so excited to see that blessing more in my life in the next year and a half to help me bring others unto the truth that has made me so happy in my life.

One of the 12 apostles is going to talk to us today! Ill tell you on Friday who ended up coming. They have a lot of great things planned for us today so don't worry about me having a good Christmas. It will be fantastic :) I have received all your tapes and packages and stuff and I love the tape of everyone telling me Merry Christmas. I listened to it last night. I am so excited to listen to the one of Rebecca's family tonight. And the pictures are everything I could have asked for.

I hope you all enjoy Christmas together and know that I am there in spirit. I miss you all terribly but there is no place I would rather be than serving the Lord will all my might mind and strength.  God couldn't have blessed me with a better one :) I love you all. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Sister Collyer

December 20, 2013 - It's almost Christmas!

Beautiful Christmas lights at the MTC!

Things are a bit crazy here in the MTC with the holiday season but its great :) Except for the fact I have been suffering from a nasty cold all week...I am just now being able to breath through my nose again! Which is a miracle. I just hope I didn't give it to anyone in my district since we are together for 14 hours a day.

Sister Jenson and I at the temple

As of last Sunday, my district is officially the oldest group! Which means we are next to leave! CRAZY! I don't know enough Korean to go there yet! Our native come in 11 days then a week and a half later its off to Korea for me. I cant think about it to much because it makes me nervous.

Anyways, this week was great. I met with President Snow on Sunday for the half way through interview and it was the most uplifting interview EVER! He told me that I was doing great and he was so proud of me. He said the MTC has made me blossom and that I am the most humble leader he has ever seen. He wanted to make sure my parents knew how much I've grown so I guess I've grown? I don't feel that much different, besides the fact I have Korean words floating around in my head now.

Sister Bagley and I. Yay for sister training leaders!

Sunday night the BYU mens chorus came and sang for us and let me tell you, mission life should not be mixed with real life. Its weird. I saw Kathryn's cousin and talked to him momentarily and it was just weird that he was going back into the real world and I was stuck here still. Just a weird experience.

Showing our BYU pride!
Left to right: Bagley, Glauser, me, Anderson is in front.

Brother Rasband came and talked to us on Tuesday from the 70! He talked to us about spiritual gifts. That night in our district devotional we all talked about spiritual gifts that we thought we had and others in the room had. Elder Tira said that I made everyone feel welcome and Elder Payne and Sister Jensen said that I have the gift of compassion. That was by far the best district devotional we have ever had. It was great and the spirit was ridiculously strong. Yay for the MTC!

Showing how much we hate Utah
(Are you proud of Sister Hoffmans photobomb mom?)

We got a new group on Wednesday! Our branch is still tiny compared to what it used to be though. We had 40-something missionaries leave and we only gained 7. and only one of the is a girl! Sister Bagley and I are still trying to figure out the exact rules for solo sisters. Shes a sweetheart though. shes 21 and from Carlsbad. And shes going to Busan!

My district with Brother Stanley, our first teacher who had to stop working :(

Sister Bagley and I still have our hands full with companionship and homesickness problems but I am starting to see the blessings coming in because Korean is sticking just a little bit more every day. Oh and that girl who was convinced she was going home the first day she got here just got her reassignment. Shes going to California Santa Rosa and she couldn't be happier. She got it today and might be leaving as early as tomorrow! Crazy! But its good to see her happy finally :) She's going to be a great missionary.

STL in the laundry room

Anyways that's all for today. Merry Christmas my loving family! I have gotten all the packages you have been sending and its been great! I hope you all enjoy Christmas together and don't forget about me! Have a great holiday season :) Oh and I'll be able to email you on Christmas so be on the look out for that. I love you all!

Sister Collyer

Sister Jensen and I in the Christmas hats!

I just had to send you a picture of the contents for the package Rebecca sent me.
It is pretty amazing. That is all.