The Work is moving along ... and I started to do better with the Language

April 22, 2012

HEY EVERYONE!!!

How are you all doing? How was finals/work? Anything new or exciting? How is the ward doing? How is life? Anything fun happened this week? Any spiritual experiences? How has sharing the gospel been with your friends? How are the missionaries in the ward? Anything is exciting happening in the ward?

This week has been great and hard! My companion and I are SO EXHAUSTED! Plus it doesn't help that we haven't gotten good sleep this week because our neighbours around us have been very noisy! So we have tried to get as much sleep as we can. My poor companion has bags under her eyes :(. Nevertheless we still go to do the Lord’s work! We met 8 of our new investigators this week! So exciting! They are so awesome! I am excited to work with them!~ It'll be fun! ^^  We also met with some in-actives and we met some of our investigators this week! Unfortunately some of them had to cancel their appointments :( but we will see them this week! ^^ So happy! 

The Lord has really blessed us this week!! One day we met 2 of our new investigators. On our way to the appointment, we met a lady and she wanted us to meet with her, and stop by her place. She gave us her number and name! So crazy!!! ^^  The appointment was also great (there was 2 people--a mom and a son)! They were ready and excited to hear about the gospel, and they were also very opened to the 30/30 program.

On Saturday, we were supposed to meet with our 3 new investigators (mom, and 2 daughters). The two daughters brought their friends along as well!! So we got 5 new investigators!! Crazy right!? They were accepting of our message, and they were okay with the 30/30 program (30 min english/30 min gospel)!

The Lord has really blessed us this week! :) I don't know how my body could take this stress, but the Lord was truly blessing me and my companion to get through the day, and helping us find new people. I am still struggling with the language, but I am slowly learning it. I am starting to begin to understand what people are saying to me. It's a long process, but I am working at it. Everyday, I study the language. The mission has blessed us missionaries, and put a little pass off book together to help us learn the korean better! (Reading, grammar forms, and vocab). So the little book has really helped me! :) 

I am loving the food here, my favorite is Kimbap! It's a rice bowl with lots of veggies in it!! I really enjoy it, because we don't have lots of veggies as a missionary. We usually run off of cereal(expensive), rice, yogurt (if we have money), bread, EGGS (so cheap), and kim(seaweed), as well as kimchi! So anywhere I can get vegetables, I am SO happy! hahaha~ I do like other types of food too...although I haven't been able to experience a lot of their food yet, because I've only been here nearly a month. So yea~ Still excited to know more about their food! :D 

I have really learnt a lot about the Lord's work. In order for Him to bless us, and help us find people, we first must do our part and show the Lord that we are willing and wanting to share His gospel to others. We usually don't get blessed unless we do what we are suppose to do. Then the Lord can bless us! (we are continuously street contacting even though we are rejected by many. There are few of those that will stop and listen to our message which is always a positive to us. Sometimes we get those who are searching for the gospel, and we get contacts and eventually they become our new investigators :D). 

Right now, I am in Alma reading about Ammon visiting the Lamanites and how he served them. Through his service, the Lord blessed him with an opportunity to show the strength that he was blessed with from the Lord. He was able to share with King Lamoni about his beliefs in God, and was able to convert King Lamoni and many others. Just like missionary work, we serve, and people will see that we are different. If we serve with our hearts, not because we are obligated and because of that we are given opportunities to share the gospel about Heavenly Father, we can help bring others closer to Christ. 

I am enjoying reading the Book of Mormon, and definitely recommend it to everyone to read it all the way through with an opened mind and prayerfully read the book with the Spirit of discernment. To understand how it can apply to our lives. What the Lord wants us to learn from those words, etc. It really helps if you do that! ^^ You get soo much more out of the reading than just read the book without praying. Prayer and having the Spirit to be with you Is SOO important! It makes all the difference! It is essential to have the Spirit, because without the Spirit, we are lost. The spirit is the one who guides, teaches, and testifies to us. 

I am so glad to have chosen to come on a mission. Yes it is hard, and is discouraging at times, but the experiences, the closeness I feel with the spirit, the Love of God for everyone, and seeing people change their lives and turn their lives towards Christ is SO much more rewarding to me. They balance out the sadness and add even more joy in my life! ^^

 I haven't met all of our investigators yet because we have SO many and not enough time in our life, but I love them. I am So happy to know that they are trying to change their life, and follow Heavenly Father and turn their lives towards Christ. ^^ 

This Gospel is true, and everyone can find out for themselves through prayer and reading the scriptures (Book of Mormon and Bible). Together the scriptures testify of Christ, and one cannot be without the other. The Bible and Book of Mormon acts as witnesses of each other and testifies of the existence of Christ. This IS the restored gospel, and we Do have the Power of the Priesthood and the Authority on the earth today! Joseph

Smith WAS a prophet called by God! I know these things are true! I am SO happy to have known this Gospel! It has really blessed me and my

family, and still is blessing us! I have learned to really LOVE the Scriptures, and look forward to read them every morning! ^^ I know here is where I need to be, and that This REALLY is the Lord's work! He really does exist, and He REALLY does LOVE All of us and Knows All of us individually!~ I love this gospel, and I want to share this joy with everyone I can here! ^^ 

I hope all of you have an awesome week! and until next time, Stay safe! ^^ :) Can't wait to hear from you! Love you all Lots!

-Love

Sister Kwok

Learning to be a Missionary ...

April 15, 2012 (Sunday)

Hello everyone,

So I am totally all better now, healthy…as I can be. Still have a little pain in my abdomen…but not so painful that I can't do work. So I am not too worried about it. I am slowly starting to have an idea of what people are saying to me…sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes. 

So I also found out that my birth area (YuSeoung) is one of the areas my MTC teacher served in!! It's soo awesome!~ ^^ This week, was an AMAZING week! Soo great and awesome!

So Monday was P-Day, and in the evening we went to go and visit one of our investigators. We have been talking about a baptismal date with her, but she has been SO busy lately, and will definitely not be able to get baptized until next month. But she attends church, her two younger children (are kind of inactive) but she was able to get them to church. We also were able to build more 'jung' with her and her family. So we visit them regularly, and we have seen a good outcome from visiting them frequently. Her children are starting to talk with us when we visit (the two younger ones…her oldest daughter practices her english with us, and we are helping her to apply to BYU). Also we have been able to build a relationship with our investigator. :)

Tuesday was District meeting. We had a combined district meeting, and we learned about how to become better missionaries by learning how to better use time wisely, learn how to work in monsoon season, working with your companion, and a few other things. We also shared our testimonies, and yupp~ it was fun!

And then after District Meeting, my companion and I went to our weekly appointment to another investigator of ours. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and focused on Eternal Families. She seemed more interested then. :) So it made me happy. She also attended church this week with her husband! :) Big progression step! :) 

Wednesday, was Voting day in Korea, so it's basically a vacation day for them…ALL of our appointments cancelled, but we went out and street contacted people. So yup~ that was a very hard working wonderful day! :)

Thursday…VERY interesting day!

We went and visited a member and her mom, who is less active. She owns a traditional Korean Tea shop/restaurant. We went there for lunch, but because she was super busy, and it was just the member and her mom who was serving the people. So my companion and I decided to help them out. We helped with the lunch rush, and they were so glad and happy. And then, just as we were eating, they got a reservation for Friday, and 25 people were coming to eat there for lunch, plus other people that would show up on Friday. So My companion and I decided to help out again. Plus we were studying about how to serve members in the ward and inactive members. We decided this was a good tool to show her that we love her, and do care about her. I think she really appreciated our help. We are hoping to do this often for her, so she will see that we love her and care for her. And hoping that will help her to come back to church. She has great faith, but there is something that is stopping her from coming to church. So we need to help her and find out what it is. 

We also visited our investigators and the “inactives”. We taught them lessons and yupp just all that goodness! :) hehehehe~

So Friday, we went back to the tea shop, and helped serve the people. It was fun, and they really appreciated our help. And I think we are starting to build some 'jung' with her! We definitely have built 'jung' with her daughter. Plus, her english (the daughter) is like perfect, so it's easy for us to talk with her! :) And she has helped us with some member lessons! :) I am So happy!

Saturday, was another busy day as well. We were out and about :) Don't really have much to say about it! haha~ OH we also celebrated 'black day'. That is for all the single people in Korea who didn't receive any chocolate on Feb 14. So we ordered 'ja-ja-mein'. It's noodles that are covered in black sauce. hahaha~ that's what people eat on Black day, and other days, but you eat it especially on Black Day! hahah~ ;P

Sunday…AMAZING!! So two weeks ago, one of our investigators got baptized, Sunday he got the Gift of the Holy Ghost! :) It made me SO happy! and we actually had 2 investigators at church! (the one I mentioned earlier above). And then we had 2 less actives at church too, and 2 recent converts at church! :) SOO happy! ^^. 

And then we had a ward sheek-sa (meal). That was fun! :) Good food, and lots of socializing haha~. OH and before the meal, we saw a member's child get baptized! That was fun to see! :) Then after that we went out and Jun-do ed the rest of the night. (Street contacting). WE did that for about 2 hours. And by the end, we were hot, dehydrated, and ready to go home, but we needed a few more contacts in order to go home. So we kept going...AND a Miracle happened. As I was crossing the street to catch up to my companion, cause she started talking to someone, a girl called out to me saying "Jesus Christ?". I realized she was talking to me and ran back to her and said "yes! Jesus Christ…I believe in Jesus Christ". And we started talking to her. She wanted to know why we were known as heritic, and had LOTS of questions. We stood there for probably a good 15-20 minutes talking to her about our church, and trying to answer her questions. Her boyfriend came, and we started to talk to him too. She had to go, and asked for a pamphlet, we gave her one. Unfortunately we didn't get her contact information :(. So we aren't able to contact her, but We were SO blessed by the Lord! He rewarded us for the hard work we were doing!! :) It made me so happy and grateful ^^. After that we went home and did our personal and companion and language study for the rest of the night! :) 

And I never really understood how hard missionary work was, but I am ALWAYS TIRED!! But the Lord blesses us and we are able to be out about doing His work, and still be alert! :) Also, if you can, HELP THE MISSIONARIES in our ward!!! Help them with Member lessons! Feed them! and Just TRY to make their work lighter!! It's really stressful to be a missionary, and when the ward members are not helping it makes it even more difficult for them! Our ward is VERY awesome and helpful, but I just want to stress that to you. Cause we have missionaries now in the ward! Just help them as best as you can PLEASE, when you have time! That will really help them out a lot! 

Well that's the update for this week~! :) We plan on going to a university park today to see the cherry blossoms, and then going to a buffet! :) Next week we plan on going to the Korean Bath house (Moe-gyo-tahn)…I will let you know how that goes…I'm a little scared but it will be a culture experience! ^^ So yupp. That's my week for you! ^^ 

I love you all VERY VERY much, and can't wait to hear from you!! ^^

-Love Sister Kwok! ^^ S2 <--that's suppose to look like a heart >.<

PS.

I have been reading in the BOM and am now in Alma 3~! I LOVE IT! it's gotten SOo interesting…that I feel like personal study isn't enough time…haaha~ I also am

trying to read out of the Korean BOM every day! to practice on my Korean, and it has helped me. I am slowly beginning to piece together what it is trying to say in the Korean BOM…So yeah~ :) I am very very happy!! :D

Starting the work in YuSeong, Daejeon Mission...

April 8, 2012

HEY EVERYONE!!! how are you all doing? How has your week been like? Anything new or exciting happening? How was

conference? How was Easter?

Well this week...can't really say much...I got really sick with the flu :( But it's okay I am okay. I am better, and on the mend :). So I slept a lot, and just tried to get better. My poor companion, just took really great care of me! I love her! ^.^ And I feel sooo sorry for her, but we ended up being indoors for about 4 full days :(. So on Thrusday, she went on a member split with me. We had our mission mom come and watch over me while she was out. She went and visited one of our new investigators, and ended up having two new investigators. ^.^ So we set up another appointment with them this week, I get to meet them this week! sooo excited!! ^.^ hehehe~

Oh and on Tuesday, of last week (the day I got sick), on our way home for me to go to sleep, cause we made it to District meeting before I fell ill, we took a taxi and the taxi driver recognized us as missionaries, and asked if we believed in the Book of Mormon! ^.^ We said we did, and shared a little bit about what we believed, and gave him our contact information, and gave him a Book of Mormon! ^.^ So great! heheheheh~ ^.^

On Friday, I wanted to get out of the house, I was doing much better, but still in a lot of pain. We went to an appointment that we had made, but when we got there, the appointment fell through :(, and my companion could see I was not doing so well, so we decided to go back home. On our way walking home, a woman stopped us on the street and said she wanted to learn english from us! ^.^ She gave us her address and phone number and name. Sister Miller and I was SOOO amazed and shocked! We were soo excited. We just need to explain to her now that we have a 30,30 program. 30 english and 30 gospel. We'll see how that turns out, we meet her this week.

At General Conference, Saturday was EMPTY-ish! It was mainly mostly missionaries and a few members. But the sessions were AWESOME AND EXCELLENT!!! ^.^ Sunday's sessions were ALSO very VERY awesome! I was SOOO sad it was already over :(.

So what I learnt from conference....ALOT but I'll share a few things.

From Henry B. Eyring's talk I learnt these things: Welcome the challenges! You learn and grow from them. The Lord will NOT forsake you. If our foundation of our faith is not ebbed in our hearts, when temptation and adversity hits, our faith will crumble. So in order for us to build a good foundation we need to learn personal integrity.

From Jeffrey R. Holland's talk I learnt these things: DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE!! Don't covet their blessings, instead look at the blessings that Heavenly Father gave to you! Don't dwell on past, move forward and learn to be kind, generous, and have compassion. NO matter what you may have done in the past, all can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Come unto Christ. Apply the Atoning Sacrifice the Lord has given to us, and our lives will be soo much more at peace. It won't take away the trials, but it will make the burden lighter. ^.^

I learnt a lot more, but don't really have time to write it all down. Sorry >.<

Anyways, Funny Culture shock I had this week:

So on Sunday, between the Morning and Afternoon session, we had a potluck. So in America, you have tables set up with food on it, plates at the end of it, and you go along and pick your food and then leave the table and sit down and eat what your plate has. Well...NOT IN KOREA hahaha~ People stand around the table with chopsticks, and grab food with chopsticks. And you wedge your way into the table to get food. ^.^ I was TOTALLY shocked hahaha~ it's funny. I was fortunate to get some food though! :) I'm still trying to prolong my turn to go to the Korean Bathhouse...but eventually...I will be going with my companion! ^.^ hehehe~

I also visited with President this week, because I was in the mission home quite a bit this week, because I was sick. So we talked, and he said some REALLY good stuff I needed to hear! The best thing that he reminded me about was to STAY POSITIVE! think good thought and it will change your attitude. So that's what I have been doing, and my condition in my sickness has improved SO much more. Fact is, I still am sick and getting over it, but the mind can do wonders! ^.^ I am really grateful to President that He gave me such great counsel!!

Anyways, that's about my week! :)  REALLY loving it here in YuSeong! I can't wait to write next week, because I will have more to say! ^.^ hahahha~ We are going to rock it this week! I am so pumped hahaha~ ^.^ Well hope all of you are doing well, and I love you VERY very much! Take care, and Love you tons!

Love

Sister Kwok

Some Pictures in the MTC ...

2nd week in Daejeon, South Korea

April 1, 2012

HEY FAMILY/EVERYONE!!!!

   So Korea gave me a VERY warm welcoming! My second night in Korea,  woke up with 13 mosquito bites! and then got poured on with rain…and we didn't have any umbrellas! hahaha~ and then it was SUPER windy too. Hahaha~ gotta love Korea! :P Their driving…a little scary. Some people run red lights ALL the time, and you really have to watch the roads when you walk. ANYWAYS, Korea is A Great place though! :) I love it here. The people are SO awesome and cute! :) 

  This week has been SO crazy!! I love the Lord's work!! It has been a little tough on me emotionally, but I am getting on with life, and just trying my best to devote all of my time to the Lord. My Birth place is in Yuseong, Daejeon. My "mommy" is Sister Miller! :) She is awesome! The Lord has really blessed me. My first day as a 'real' missionary, we had a lesson!!! :) I extended a commitment to our investigator to be baptized; the investigator declined but we are hoping the investigator will say yes as we teach them more. (it was only our second meeting with her). Also, we did a lot of jundoing! (street contacting) my first day jundoing, was mostly my Dungpanja (companion) doing it…second time we did it, I actually tried to do my best speaking to them. I got a few street lessons in!! :) also, now I just really need to work on learning how to listen…I cannot for the life of me understand what they are saying to me! We do a lot of walking, and bussing! I am still trying to figure out how the busses work here! haha~ and then, I try to do language study on the buses all the time…we are given a little black book full of sentences we can use to teach and dano to learn…and usually people finish it in 2 transfers…I am trying to reach that goal…but am horrible at doing it. Dano is easy to memorize…it's the sentences that are killing me :(. But I am trying my best. 

  Also, yesterday, Sunday was really an emotional day for me. I was really frustrated with myself, and upset at myself. So I was really questioning if this is where I am suppose to be. I said a little prayer to Heavenly Father to help me. At first I didn't feel anything, but through out the day, Heavenly Father dropped little tender mercies along the way! :) We went to church, and I got even more frustrated, because I could not understand anything that was being said to me :( But when we were teaching Gospel Principles, when my Dungpanja asked me to bear my testimony, I felt the love of the Saviour, and Heavenly Father. I knew this is where I needed to be. 

So during sacrament, I pulled out my little notebook, and wrote down the words I could not understand, as I did that, I was blessed and started to understand a little more. And then, after sacrament meeting, We had one of Sister Miller's investigators baptized! My first baptism in the Mission! even though this is not my investigator, I was sooo happy. As he was being baptized, I had a voice come into my head saying "This is what Missionary work is about! You are bringing souls unto Christ. You are giving them Salvation! How great is your joy?!". I started to cry and so did Sister Miller :). She then also said "This is what Missionary work is All about!". I was so happy!! :) hehehe! 

  During our baptism service, Sister Miller and I did a musical number. She sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" in Korean, and I played the piano. I was messing up pretty bad, and I said a little prayer, and the next thing I knew was my playing became smooth! Goodness I love Heavenly Father! 

And then for our companionship study, Sister Miller went through PMG page 10 about successful missionaries. We read through it, and she suggested to me to NOT compare myself to anyone else! I am guilty of that already! hahah~ But I will work harder to NOT do that! So that was uplifting to me, and we were invited over to a member's house for dinner. We arrived, and their kids are sooo cute, and then our mission ward leader stopped by as well as another family in our ward, so we ended up having a mini party! :) the ward members were very patient with me. And I was starting to be able to understand them more and more when they spoke Korean to me! :) The Lord was really blessing me, and I am very thankful to him for that! I will continue work hard to learn Korean! I am very excited to be here. This week is JAMMED PACKED FULL! We are soo happy. WE are trying to set up another baptismal date for one of our investigators. Hopefully we will be able to do it early May. Because we had General Conference next week, and then two weeks after that we have Stake Conference as well, so it will be hard to get a baptism in between there (They do their baptisms on Sundays). 

  So about my companion: She is from Rexburg Idaho. She is the oldest of 4 kids. She has siblings that are triplets, two brothers and one sister. Her mom is from Colorado, and her Dad is from Idaho. Her dad is a Pharmacist! :) Her mom has an elementary school teacher degree, and she is working on a book to hopefully publish soon! :) My companion has one year left of university, and she goes to BYU-I! She wants to be a book publisher, and loves reading! She loves music, and she plays the Oboe, sings, and plays the english horn! :) She is 23, around 5ft 0'', and has brown hair, hazel eyes. She is also going to be leaving in 4 months!!! :( She is AWESOME! & a very Hard worker for sure! Loves watching movies…hahah~

 We were talking about movies yesterday, and I recommended some music and movies to her. Mostly K-pop music haahha~. We found that Kpop music is pretty clean, so yea~ and since we are in Korea, we ALWAYS hear music playing around in the streets hahaa~. And right now I am listening to music because we are in a cafe hahaha~. 

 Oh and don't worry, I haven't had any problems with the food yet. I haven't had any nuts or shell fish in my food. :) LOVE THE FOOD THOUGH! :) hehehe~ 

I don't really have much else to say! Except that I LOVE YOU ALL VERY VERY MUCH! and can't wait to call home to say HI :) (btw, when is Mother's day?). Can't wait to hear from you all!! :) LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

-Sister Kwok.^^