SO BUSY!

This last week was so busy that I seriously cannot think of a name for it. But it was super good, too. :) Because we are so busy, time is legitimately flying! I feel like just yesterday I was skyping home and emailing again. But it has been a week and here I am! :)

So we met with a former investigator this week, and holy cow I adore her. She is mostly English interest, so we are teaching her English for 30 minutes, and the gospel for 30 minutes. That is our mission's English program. She has taught herself English almost entirely. Her English is pretty good, especially considering she only teaches herself. She has heard some bad things about our church, as seemingly every one in Korea has, and told us she doesn't really have much gospel interest, but is willing to listen to our message. So, we taught her for the first time on Tuesday. She told me that she wants to learn English because her daughters know English but her husband doesn't, so she thinks it would be funny to be able to talk about her husband with her daughters, in front of her husband without him understanding. So funny. ;) She is an artist and travels all around the world to display her art, which is another reason she wants to learn English. She makes a ton of money from her art. She is not afraid to be herself, either. She perms her hair and cuts it short because she loves African American hair, and she wants it. She is hilarious, too. Oh I seriously love her. When we taught her the gospel though, she seemed to have more interest than she told us. She had a lot of questions and seemed to want to understand. Though for right now, she is only an English investigator, I think she has the potential to become a gospel investigator as well. :) Miracles are just happening all over the place! :)

Also, we got to got to Seoul this week to see the BYU wind symphony orchestra. We had special permission to leave the mission and go to the Seoul mission to see it. We brought a potential investigator with us, this super cute girl that comes to our English class. It was so good! :) And I got to see my MTC district elders and sisters from the Seoul mission... we were such good friends at the MTC and it was so hard to say goodbye four months ago. Seeing them was a super pleasant surprise! :)

So today I was reading an article called "Palmyra" in the June 2015 Liahona. If you haven't read it yet... I super highly suggest it. Maybe it was just because I needed to read it today, but it was powerful. This article is about Joseph Smith's life leading up to the First Vision. And let me just say, it was all but easy. He was persecuted from the time he was young. The author of the article, Matthew S. Holland (president of Utah Valley University) said a very powerful thing at the end, and I want to share it with you. This talk was given to missionaries at the MTC, but I think it can apply to all of us. Sorry, it is kind of long. ;)

"So, if now or on some future day, you look around and see that other perhaps less devoted acquaintances are succeeding in their jobs when you just lost yours; if major illness puts you on your back just at the moment critical tasks of service seem to come calling; if a call to a prominent position goes to someone else; if a missionary companion seems to learn the language faster; if well-meaning efforts still somehow lead to disaster with a fellow ward member, a neighbor, or an investigator; if news from home brings word of financial setback or mortal tragedy you can do nothing about; or if, day after day, you simply feel like a bland and beaten back-ground player in a gospel drama that really seems made for the happiness of others, just know this: many such things were the lot of Joseph Smith himself at the very moment he was being led to the stage of the single most transcendent thing to happen on the earth since the events of Golgotha and the Garden Tomb nearly 2,000 years earlier."

...Trials are going to happen. They happen to all of us. They happened to Joseph Smith. They happened to Jesus Christ. They will happen to our friends and to our family. Sometimes there is seriously nothing we can do but endure. But that is exactly what Joseph Smith did. Despite the sicknesses he had as a kid, the constant moving as he was growing up and lack of financial stability, the hardships he endured, the devil himself trying to stop him in the Sacred Grove just before he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ... he endured. It was not easy, and I am sure he would not want to go back and endure those trials again. But, I am also sure that he appreciates those trials. I am sure that if he had the chance to go back and take away those trials in his life, he probably would not take them away. He learned and grew from them, and they sculpted him into the incredible latter-day prophet he was.

And this is how God sculpts us as well.

저는 우리의 어려움을 통해 우리가 하나님에게서  힘을 받을 수 있다 는 것을 알고있습니다.  I know that through our challenges we can receive strength from God.

Love you all and I hope your week is incredible! :)

Love, Sister Maughan :)