Spring is in the Air

Cherry Blossoms!

Well nothing really happened this week. We literally just went proselyting and put up free English flyers pretty much all week and walked EVERYWHERE. None of our members could meet this week and we had appointments with a few of our investigators but almost all of them canceled. But we have more meetings with members this week and hopefully our investigators are freer too, so hopefully this week will be more eventful.

Cherry Blossoms

Tulip Trees!

Nothing exciting happened this week until Saturday. We had an appointment with our investigator, Ann, and her son, Michael. We had prepared the plan of salvation but instead we got there and she immediately drove us to go see the cherry blossoms (which are BEAUTIFUL!) then to a Buddhist temple nearby. So that was exciting and definitely not what we planned. Then she took us out to eat some famous tofu which was DELICIOUS. Oh I made the mistake of worrying that we wouldn’t have enough food on Saturday because we had appointments from 10:30 to 6 (the only day this week we had appointments) so I prayed that we would have enough to eat and let me tell you, missionary prayers are extremely powerful things...not only did Ann feed us a full out lunch but our other investigator, No Un Keyoung, fed us another full out lunch then our member, Sister No, took us out to dinner that day. I have never been so full in my life...I literally had to lay down on my bed when we got home because i felt like my stomach was going to explode...God has quite the sense of humor.

Anyways, when we met with No Un Keyoung (we teach English to her son and her aunt that lives up in Seoul, who is a member, called us asking us to teach English to her son) her son wasn’t there because he was at a birthday party so we just talked to her for an hour, one of the first things she asked us was where our church was. So hopefully things pick up with her. We taught her about some of the commandments and she said she would keep them.

Then yesterday at church I sat next to a woman in our ward, Sister Joe, and her daughter came in right before the sacrament (she’s around my age) with her friend. Immediately after sacrament sister Joe grabbed my arm and whispered "my daughters friend is a potential investigator talk to her!" so I did. She seems kind of scatter brained and really shy, but we had dinner at their house last night and taught about why there are so many churches on this earth and their daughters friend was hesitant to participate but we’ll see where it goes.

Lanterns for Buddah's Birthday outside the temple.

Well that’s all I have for you this week. Sorry, that nothing too exciting. But spring is coming so it is getting warmer minus the surprise cold that has been the past few days. But hopefully it goes back to being warm

 

Buddha! my favorite is the kid with his finger in Buddha's belly button.

Buddhist Monk

Anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week!

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

Spring is coming!

In front of our Appartment

It was a pretty good week over here on the other side of the Pacific! Minus the whole we didn't meet with any of our investigators. Hopefully this week will be better with that.

 

But we did get new investigators! We actually had a really cool experience this week. Our relief Society president called us and told us there was a family whose daughter had been baptized and they were curious about the church. So she set up an appointment with them then invited us. She set us THE WHOLE APPOINTMENT! THAT NEVER HAPPENS! Then we get there and it was like a dream lesson. The women we were teaching and her husband got to know us and the relief society president a little bit then asked our RS pres why there were so many churches on this earth. So our RSP(relief society pres) turns to us and says "I believe these girls can answer that question" so we went though the whole first lesson and tried to answer her questions as best we could then our RSP would expound on and clarify our answers. The whole time her husband was just soaking the whole lesson up. We gave them Book of Mormons and my copy that I had with me had been ruined because of the rain and we gave it to the husband but said that we would get him a better one when we came back but he clutched it to his chest and said it was perfect. Then our RSP set up another appointment with them for this week with her again. Seriously the best lesson ever. The spirt was so strong. And after (they live right outside a hospital where a few of our older members live) our RSP asked if we wanted to visit the members there with her. OF COURSE WE DID! That was on Wednesday. Just a really good day all together.

 

Right after Sister Marsden and i got out of the bathhouse.
It was both of our first times. I have never felt so clean in my life.

We also met with this woman named Debbie. She has been coming to English class for a few weeks now and she's a sweetheart and hilarious. Her English is fantastic. after class she wanted to give us a ride home but we told her that we didn't go home until 9 (it was 8) then she said she would wait for us so we asked her if she wanted to learn a little bit more about our church. And she said yes. So we took her into a different room and asked her how she learned about our church. Apparently when she was 10 her parents invited the missionaries into her house. She said she doesnt remember what they taught but she has always thought missionaries were kind, loving people. Then we asked her if she wanted to learn more about our church and she said yes! God is answering our prayers for new investigators!

 

And our ward is finally realizing they need to jump on the missionary work band wagon! For months our ward has though that missionary work was dead in Jeon Ju. If that was true why are there 6 missionaries here?? Anyways I guess a few transfers ago the bishop straight up told the elders that to prove missionary work isn't dead here they needed a baptism. Well that happened yesterday! Finally! it has been almost a year. And in sacrament meeting the bishop talked all about how the members of the work need to start helping the missionaries out and get missionary work moving again! So exciting! And the bishop has such a better relationship with us (the sisters) now. Yesterday we sang Joseph Smiths First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount in sacrament with the elders and it was beautiful and during the baptism Elder Smith and Elder Park sang A Childs Prayer and after the baptism everyone was commenting on how good elder smiths voice is (which it is) and the bishop said "yeah and the sisters have a really good voice too" yay for finally being more than just flowers!

 

Eel Soup!

And now for a funny story. So after the baptism the guy who got baptized wanted to take us out to eat to celebrate. We told him that we don't go places to eat where people are working on Sunday. Then he told us he already paid for the food. So all the missionaries and some of the ward members went to this restaurant on Sunday and ate ground up eel soup. Elder Bigler said "just think of it as eating after church with the members! We're just not at the church..." but the soup actually wasn't to bad. I was terrified to eat it but the more I ate the more bearable it got.

We finished it!

 

So it was a pretty good week. And spring is coming! Its getting warmer! so thats exciting

 

 I hope everything at home is going well! I love you all!
--

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

Almost a Baptism

My district.
This is what we put on our free English flyers.
Left to right: Stradling, me, Smith, Park, Jensen, Bigler

So this week we met with Stella and went over the baptismal interview questions with her. President was coming down this weekend for my stake conference so he really wanted us to push up her baptism a week (her original date was this next Sunday). So we asked her and she said yes! We were so excited! That was on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday she passed her baptismal inteview! And she read 10 Chapters in the Book of Mormon the night before. she seriously had such a light to her. It was so nice to see. And she was so excited! It was going to be the first baptism in the area in almost a year!

Then Friday came...Friday night when Sister Stradling and I were planning Stella called us. She said she didn't feel ready because the new diet she is on requires her to drink this expensive tea and she thought it didnt have green tea in it butit does and she said she couldnt give it up. so sister Stradling asked, "So you don't want to get baptised because you cant stop drinking diet tea?" then Stella went on about how she didn't know if she was ready to keep all the commandments and that tithing would be a struggle and her husband wants her to think about it and her parents think that we are the devil's church...it was devestating...She said that maybe she would get baptised in the summer. Sister Stradling and I just sat in our study room for a long time after we hung up the phone just numb to feeling. It is so sad when they dont choose to follow Christ! I hate it...

And Amanda told us she doesn't want to get baptised into our church because she was already baptised into hers. We are going to have to have an "Our purpose" talk with her soon and might have to end up dropping her just because she kinda just sees us as friends who teach her English and not missionaries...

So it wasn't the best week with our investigators.

But anyways on a brighter note. We had a lesson with a girl on the first floor of our apartment complex. We are pretty sure she has some kind of mental something that's not quite right. The first time she saw us she kept telling us how pretty we are and kept touching our hair. Kinda creepy honestly... And now we see her all the time and she just watches us when we walk to and from the apartment. She didn't really pay attention to the lesson and kept trying to talk to us about America. Which is what happens here usually. But she was cutting up fruit for us and Sister Stradling and I were joking after that we were kinda nervous about he carrying a knife so that was fun

We also had stake conference this weekend and Elder Whiting of the 70 came and spoke to us. And he spoke in English and had a translator! I almost forgot what it felt like to be able to understand what was being said at the pulpit! I miss English so much... But at the Adult session on Saturday he talked about the character of Christ and hastening the work which is good because the saints of Korea could use a little push to help out the missionaries. Then on Sunday he talked about how to avoid failure in the home. He talked about how the home should be a place that children should always feel the spirit. It was just nice to be able to understand someone finally.

This is dinner at our ward mission leaders house.
Easily the best meal i have had in Korea. It was spaghetti. And the garlic bread was FANTASTIC!
She used honey on it! Who would have thought???
Left to right: me, Stradling, Smith, Park, Jensen, Bigler

But anyways that was my week! I hope everyone back home is doing well! I love you all!

--

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

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Me in front of the Church

 

I am wearing green in honor of this holiday! But Korea does not celbrate it. They do however celebrate White day on March 14 and it is bigger than Valentine's day because that is the day when the boys buy the girls stuff. So they just celebrate Valentines day a month late.

 

Anyways onto this week. So we have been really stuggling with getting the ward involved in missionary work and our investigators and it has been stressing Sister Stradling out alot. We went over to a member of our ward's house this week and she made us feel so much better! She talked to us about how our ward has developed a bad habit of not being very including and not really hepling the missionaries at all. Apparently I am in the hardest ward in the mission with regards to missionary work. But our member told us we are doing a great job and to keep up the good work. Which  we really needed to hear.

 

We also had a really cool edxperience this week! So we were going to go visit a member but we didn't have a ton of time so we decided instead to go talk to people in a park because it's starting to get warmer so people are out more. So we see someone we met on a bus and we go and talk to her and the people around her. Sister Stradling strats teaching the plan of salvation to a guy who doesn't really seem that interested but we gave him our number anyways and walked away. Then we randomly decide to go to McDonalds for dinner which was weird because we don't really like McDonalds but Kaleb had asked me if there was a McDonalds here so we went so we could take pictrure to prove it. Anyways so we are eating and this guy we met calls us and asks us where we are because he wants to talk to us more. We tell him McDonalds and he comes and we had a 45 min conversation with him about the Book Of Mormon. It was a really cool experience. Totally lead by the spirit the whole time. Yay for missionaries!

 

Our church is HUGE!

On saturday we had a relief society activity where we had a slide show for something about the Relief Society (I dont know what because I don't speak korean) then we played games. There was an introduction game where we all sat in two cirlces facing each other and introduced ourselves to a person for about a min then switched. Most stressful time of my life. But i understood most of what people were saying to me and I could reply in broken Korean that they could understand! So that was exciting. We also played another game that I think will make you guys laugh. So there were these little pretzel like stick things that they gave out then we had to turn to the people we were sitting across from and eat it lady and the tramp style (one person eating each end) and the person who had the smallest amount of stick left wins. Yes this was a relief society thing so it was all women. Welcome to Korea. Definetly would never do an activity like that in the states.  But it was a fun activity and I felt like it got us closer to the relief society.

 

A member had us over and we played with her pets. Yes it is a mouse.

 

 

Also on Saturday we got two new investigators! They were a refferal from a less active. It's a mom, Ann, and her son (who i don't reemember the name of) Ann is just really interested in English right now but her son seemed interested in the gospel so we'll see how that goes.

 

Also at church yesterday we had a girl we had never met before come for relief society. The Elders told us a girl was coming as relief society was about to start so that was a nice surprise. We don't really know anything about her yet but we are hoping to meet with her this week.

 

Well that's my life. Hope all is well on the other side of the world! I love you all and youre in my prayers.

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

 

God Answer's Prayers!

Finally this week was better than the last two! Honestly for not  really any other reason than God finally got his point across of I need to rely on him and be patient. Because it actually wasn't that exciting of a week.

We met with Stella twice this week and the first time we met with her she told us that her and Brain have been having Problems communicating in their marriage. So sister Stradling and I asked her if she has been praying and reading the scriptures with him and she said no so we challenged her to do that and showed her the little triangle thing where it shows if you both grow closer to God you will grow closer to each other. She said she would try it. The second time we met with her not only did she not do that, but she also told us that she went out drinking with her friends. Which was devastating! We had to go through the ward of wisdom again and recommit her but she doesn't quite understand why she cant just drink a little every once and a while. And when we asked her if she knew God was there and if she knew he loved her she said "I don't know. Maybe." which is not  good because when we have asked her that before she said "Yes of course!" Then she came to church on Sunday but after the sacrament and left after Sunday school because she was tired. So lots of prayers for her. We are hoping that she will still be able to get baptized on the 30th.

Anyways on a happier note I gave out my first Book Of Mormon this week! Granted it was to a drunk old man who sat next to me on the bus but he took it! and I told him it would bring him blessings if he read it. then I got out of there because he was sitting a little to closer for comfort.

I also had my first experience of truly being an instrument in the Lords hands this week! So we were on the bus just about to get off to see a potential investigator and Sister Stradling was talking to an older man about the book of Mormon who clearly wasn't interested. But there was a women who was sitting across from her who was leaning in trying to hear what sister Stradling was saying and she kept looking at my name tag. A thought came into my head "give her your book of mormon." But I rationalized it away in my head saying we were just about to get off the bus and I wouldn't have time to explain it to her. Then I swear I heard a different voice in my head that said to me very sternly "Give her the Book of Mormon now." So I did. I only had time to tell her it was the word of God and tell her our number was inside if she had any questions about it. I tried to get her number but there wasn't time and she said she would call us. This all happened in a matter of probably 30 seconds so I didn't really have time to process what was happening until after I got off the bus. she hasn't called us yet (most people don't) but I know for some reason she needed the Book of Mormon at that point in time and I feel privileged to be able to have been a instruments in the Lords hands :) and now I for sure can't deny that missionaries are definitely called of God. Not that I ever would have before but you get the point.

To end on a pretty funny note: I got stuck in the doors of an elevator this week. Elevators here are not like ones in America. they don't really open again if something gets in the way of it closing. At least the one at the church doesn't. Sister Stradling walked into the Elevator and I went in after her but it closed on me and I screamed at Sister Stradling to open it but she just stared at me for a second not really processing what happened. So I told her to open it again and she finally did. We seriously couldn't stop laughing for so long. I now can say I have been stuck in Elevator doors.

Anyways I hope everyone is having a fantastic week at home. I love you all so much! My prayers are with you :)

--

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

A Mission is Hard

Everyone tells you that mission work is hard but you don't really realize how hard it is until you are in the middle of it. That is what I decided.

This week was transfers and it was really hard to see Sister Hilton go. I love her shes great. We havent really had time to get to know Sister King yet but she seems nice. Things are definetly going to be different in the house though.

We didn't meet with very many of our investigators this week because a nasty sickness is going around. Sister Masden caught it and had a temperature of 104 on Thursday. Shes feeling better now and the rest of us all seem healthy so hopefully it stays like that (knock on wood).

We went to a piano concert for one of the Elders investigators on Thursday. The guy being featured was Oleg Poliansky. Thats not their investigator. I forget their investigators name but he played a few songs and mainly just narrated the program. At the ward's Valentines day party he handed out a ton of tickets to the show and when Sister Stradling and I got there none of the members had shown up and he asked us if they were coming we said we thought so and he looked so sad and said "I gave them alot of tickets..." it broke out hearts! A few of them showed up thank goodness. Enough for him to feel loved but we were still disappointment more didn't come. Always go to things that the missionaries ask you to go to! Just saying.

We met with Stella this week and talked to her about temples and it went well until her crazy friend came in near the end. She''s been worrying us lately. She hasn't come to church in a long time and rarely meets with us. She still wants to be baptized but we don't think that she realizes she needs to come to church too.

We also met with an inactive this week named Marvic. She is a sweet heart. She wants to come to church but her husband isn't a people person and when she makes him go to church they always just end up fighting after so she has given up. But she reads the Liahona every month and reads her scriptures and everything. She's introducing us to some of her friends next monday. Shes great but it was so sad to hear her talk about how the church causes contention between her and her husband. She said she would try to come to church more though :)

Oh and we also met with a crazy lady from another church this week. That was an adventure. Apparently Sister Stradling met her on the bus and they exchanged numbers. Sister Stradling had no intention of contacting her though because she just wanted us to come to her church because we are white. So we got a phone call the other day and it was from her but we didn't know that because of the language barrier. The lady asked if sister stradling knew who she was and sister stradling said yes before registering what she said. So we had lunch with her still not knowing who it was and because I had never seen her before and I don't know Korean I had no idea what was going on the whole time. All I knew is that we were in a position that we didn't want to be in because Sister Stradling was using ridiculous exsuces not to meet with her. Like because of tranfers we had to show new missionaries around. Not true. But it was good food. She still tries to get us to go to her church meetings and we don't know what to do. I guess in a way that's kinda what we do to though. But we have the truth so its different.

Well thats about it. Nothing really happened other that that and tranfers and really trying to push forward to an Easier time.

I hope everything is going great at home and you all have the best week ever! I love you!

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