Monday, February 9, 2015

I have finally conquered them.....

Chopsticks. I think I have finally conquered them. My first couple of weeks here... I chased my food around the table. Koreans would laugh at me but enjoyed watching me struggle... in a very loving way of course. :) The slippery ramen noodles would fall through my metal chopsticks... the kimchi would plop onto the table, splashing me with red kimchi juice... only about half the rice would actually make the journey to my mouth.... but now... now I am winning! I have even eaten whole bowls of ramen noodle soup with only chopsticks. The fork is no longer of use to me.

Also, my companion and I are related! Haha okay so for part of my new missionary training, we got to check out FamilySearch.org. We were both determined to trace our lines back to Adam... so we clicked through reading all the crazy names from the past. We traced back my line first through the Maughan side. We made it back to Adam through Levi. Then we traced Sister Carter's back. We noticed a weird name that was in common with both of our lines. "Harald 'The Blue Tooth' de Crepon King of Denmark." Then we traced back from that guy to the closest relative we have in common. Somehow we are related to her great grandfather... though I am not exactly sure how. But that is my cool story for the week. :)

So we had a bit of a miracle with a less active this last week. Last Monday, we had a lunch appointment with this sweet lady who has been less active for a while. She was super nice, but when we first got there you could feel the awkwardness in the room. She set some food on the table but didn't really say a whole lot. She was running all over the house to get things ready... we are pretty sure she forgot about the appointment. But somehow we helped the awkwardness disappear. We talked to her for a long time, and ended up staying there for 3 hours. By the end of the appointment we were painting our nails together on the kitchen floor. :) We shared a message with her about Christ's love. The spirit was so so strong! Somehow we ended up talking about trials and she asked me if I had any trials in our home growing up. I shared about how I grew up in the church, knowing that families could be together forever, but knowing that my own family wasn't sealed. All my friends would talk about their families being sealed, but mine wasn't. I told her about our journey to the temple and how we eventually made it there and how happy we were when we were sealed. My Korean for this was so limited that my trainer translated pretty much all of it. But sharing this experience... I could feel the spirit so strong. Our less active could as well. She was the sweetest person, and invited us back for So-Lar (I have no idea how to romanize this so that is just how the holiday is pronounced) next Thursday. She also offered to give me all of her daughter's warm clothes when we go there. (Her daughter is too big for them now.) It was the most successful less active appointment we could have! :)

There are so many people out in the world who find the truth of the gospel and then fall away. That is how it is in Korea. There are so many less actives. But we are working to remind them of the truth for the second time.  You see, everyone in this world has already learned the gospel. They just don't remember it. When we convert investigators, they are reminded of the truth for the first time. But when we bring back less actives, they are reminded of the truth for the second time. It is not an easy task to break the walls people may put up when they leave the church, but that is where God comes in. :) God prepares those who need reminded of the gospel the first time. And He will help us remind those less actives of the gospel again. I have a true testimony that God plays a major part of this work, and He is always preparing people for us to bring the truth to. I love this gospel!

Sorry my email is sort of short this week! Love you all so much and miss you always! 사랑합니다! :)

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