8th Week in MTC ....

Feb 28, 2012

Hey Everyone!!!

How are you all doing? How is life? How has your week been? What's the weather up in Canada like? What things did you learn this week? :) 

Well this week has been quite interesting. It's has its ups and downs. So in my last week's email I think I mentioned that one of our teachers had left. We got our new teacher the following Monday, and he is a great person and teacher. It is tough because he only talks Korean to us in class unless he's explaining the activity that we will be doing. It is a blessing, and really hard for me. It's a blessing because it will train my ear to be able to hear Korean a little better, but also hard because after being talked to in Korean for an hour my brain kind of just shuts off. It's bad because our class is for 3hrs straight. So Monday was a really unpleasant experience for me. 

We were reviewing Korean adjectives, and I thought I had known how to structure the sentence. Turns out that I was SO wrong! I was not understanding how to put the sentences together, and I got frustrated at myself for not being able to learn it. So it was a downward spiral. My dear companion was doing her best to help me, and I am very thankful to her for her help. :) 

I am still trying to diligently learn adjective grammar structure, and hope that by the end of this week I'll be able to form adjective grammar structures. :)

Also this week, we had a new companion join our companionship!! The new sister in our new district arrived this week along with our new district! She is Sister Chase, from Lehi! :) She is a darling sister, and I am so happy she is in our companionship! It's amazing to see her and think that I was in her shoes 7 weeks ago! But I hope that we are an encouragement to her, that she will be able to learn this language. :) 

Also this week on Saturday, we had TRC, and for the first time, my companion was able to teach a 40min lesson without our notes. And we were able to teach with unity, and with the Spirit! :) It was a big uplifter to me because this week, I was struggling a little with learning the language and memorizing all the dano (vocab). So it was such a blessing to me that my companion and I were able to teach a lesson without anything. :) 

And also our district will be teaching a real investigator! Kim Seo Eun, she is from Korea, and is here on an exchange school program. She has been meeting the 'outside' missionaries who actually proselytizes in Utah. She has been attending TRC, and two of our missionaries met her on Saturday. Sis. Judd, our teacher, got in contact with our investigator's guardian, and our teacher will continue to bring her to TRC for us to teach her! :) We also sent her little notes to encourage her, and let her know that we love her! :) I am soo happy! I find SO much joy in this gospel that I want to share it to everyone I can! :) So next week in TRC, I am looking forward to meeting her! :) 

Also today, we went through the temple with our new district. One of our new elders was going through the temple for the first time! He received his Endowments today!! :) SOOO exciting! I was soo happy for him. He's from Cambodia and will be going to Korea! :)

I don't remember if I told you, but I memorized our purpose in Korean :). I was also able to analyze it and understand how it is translated into Korean! :) It's amazing!!! I want to share our purpose with you in Korean and English :) 

(Korean)우리의 묵적:

다른 사람들이 여수 그리스도와 그분의 속죄에 대한 신앙, 회개, 침례, 성신의 은사, 및 씉가지 견딤을 통해 회복된 복음을 받아들이도록 도움으로써 그리스도에게 나아오도록 권유한다.

(Korean English)

Our's Purpose:

Other people's Jesus Christ His atonement about faith repent, baptism, spirit's gift and endure to the end through restored gospel to accept in order to help through Christ to come out in order to invite.

(English)Our Purpose:

Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

My small but simple testimony:

저는 이복음을 참되다는 것을 알고있습니다. 그리고 저는 하나님게서 우리을 사랑하는것을 알고있습니다. 저는 조겝 스미스가 하나님 과 에수 그리스도를 봤는 것을 알고있습니다. 저는 몰몬경을 참되다는 것을 알고있습니다. 에수 그리스도 이름으로 말드립니다. 아멘.

English Korean:

I this gospel truth ((는 것을)gerund is connector to two verbs in the sentence) know. And I Heavenly Father we love (gerund) know. I Joseph Smith Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ saw (gerund) know. I Book of Mormon truth (gerund) know. Jesus Christ name in speak(honourfied). Amen.

English:

I know this gospel is true. And I know Heavenly Father loves us. I know Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

I know that this is His gospel, and that God loves each and everyone of us! I know it to be true. And I hope all of you have a wonderful day today! :) I am so happy to have this opportunity to be here to serve this mission! I love you all very very much. Thanks for writing me! I really appreciate it all, and I appreciate the messages that you share with me, they are uplifting and I love it! Take care and until next week, take care! :)

Love

Sister Kwok

The 7th week in MTC ...

Feb 21, 2012

Hey everyone!!!

How are you doing!? how is your week been? What's happening?!?!

Can you believe it?! I've been out for 6 weeks, and starting my 7th!! Sooo sooo crazy cool!! hahaha~ :)

Well I am doing great! This week was a tough week for our district. As I said last week, we had our older district leave, and our native Koreans as well. We also had to say good-bye to our teacher. He had a job offer that was to do with his major. So he took the job. He didn't want to leave teaching, but because of the time commitment that job requires, he had to let teaching us go. So we were really sad to see him go, but we are happy for him.

We also had to say good-bye to one of our elders this week. He went home and we hope that he will be coming back in about 8 months or so. It was a very emotional week. It's hard to let him go, because we know that once he's out back home, Satan will do everything he can to make the elder not be able to come back on his mission. So please pray that he will have the strength to withstand the temptations that will arise. We really hope to see him in Korea! It was really hard for his companion to let him go too! so please pray for him as well.

Yesterday we had a great teaching experience, my cha-mae-nim and I. We were teaching each other in class about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we got to do it in ENGLISH!!! :) I look forward to teach in Korean, but speaking in English was GREAT! Cause I could express what I really wanted to say, and it was just great!! :)

My cha-mae-nim and I decided to talk about praying. We taught Elder Morris, who took on a role of a friend he knew. My cha-mae-nim and I wasn't prepared, because we were kinda just thrown into a teaching situation. But because we had read about teaching with unity in PMG earlier that day, and teaching by the spirit, we were able to apply that reading into our teaching yesterday. Starting was a little rough at first, but as we went on, the teaching became more smooth, and the flow was natural. In our lesson, we were actually able to feel the spirit, and the Elders (Elder Morris, and Keetch) that we taught also felt the spirit. It was amazing. And after our teaching experiences, our teacher reminded us that in order to be led by the spirit we need to remember to:

 1. be a good girl/boy

 2. keep the commandments

 3. honor our covenants

If we do these things we will be blessed:

 1. Your feet will be guided

 2. Your mouth will be filled

 3. You will be in the right place at the right time

 4. You will be doing what you are suppose to be doing

She also testified of these things, because she also experienced it when she was on her mission, and she got those from Elder Bednar's talk when she was at the MTC. :)

Well I don't really have much else to say, other than that I am loving my experience here in the MTC! :) We get a new district tomorrow, and I am excited to meet them all. I will be mean, and only speak to them in Korean and very broken English. :P In a way this will be a blessing, because it will force me to learn to talk Korean 24/7, and that will help me when I go to Korea. But how I got this idea was that our older district before us, did kind of a similar thing with us! :P and we just want to pass it on to the next district after us! :) hahaha~

Well I hope you are all doing well! Thank you for the letters you send me! they are so inspiring, and I love to hear how you are doing. Also you never know what your message will do to others. On Thursday of this past week, I needed to hear something encouraging, and my brother sent me a poem that he wrote that he found inspiring to himself. It motivated me to stop mopping around, and actually get to work. I still need to work so I am prepared to meet the people of Korea, and bring them unto Christ.

I will share his poem that he wrote:

Well I am SO glad to be on my mission right now! and I am SO glad to have made the decision to serve! This is the best thing I have done so far! and I love it! :) I Love you all very very much! and I hope your week will be great! Love you very much! and send you a new email next week! Muah~

-Love

Sister Kwok

More learning at MTC... we become the Senior Missionaries ...

February 14, 2012 

How are you all doing? How is life? How have your week been?

  

Well good news! I am doing well, I am better and I haven't gotten sick again (knock on wood :P). And this week has been a challenging week, but also a very uplifting week!

So this past week, I was struggling to feel the spirit. I was starting to only worry about myself (being selfish). My prayers were getting not so sincere, and it literally took a toll on me this week. My cha-mae-nim was able to teach with the spirit, and I wanted to do the same. It took me almost the whole week to realize that I was 'turning inward' when I should be turning outward (being selfless). 

So Saturday came, and we were teaching in TRC. I was trying to understand the investigators, my cha-mae-nim and trying to put sentences together. No matter how much I tried, I just could not understand ANYTHING and could not get anything out. I began to feel frustrated and my cha-mae-nim would turn to me to ask me to say something, and I just stared at her. I felt so angry and frustrated that I just told her I couldn't say anything. I would attempt, but she would end up helping me finish my sentence. Although I wasn't able to say what I wanted to say I did bear my simple testimony about the gospel, and our message about the Book Of Mormon. 

After TRC I was sad, and devastated. I forgot EVERYTHING! and I felt inadequate. My cha-mae-nim said that that thought is not from God. That thought is from the devil, because he wants us to believe that we cannot succeed. Also we got our feed back from our investigators, and I learnt that even though I couldn't say much, our investigators still felt the love of our message for them, and the love that we had for them. So even though we may think we are not doing much, the Spirit is working wonders in the hearts of the investigators!

Sunday was also very amazing! the messages were great! If you can, you should read Elder Bednar's talk about The Character of Christ. It has changed my life, and my purpose as a missionary! To be truly converted to the gospel is to consistently try to live like Christ did by turning outward when the natural man would turn inward. (i.e. Cookie monster from Seasame street; the Cookie monster wanted cookies only for himself and only thought about "me" not anything or anybody else...that is our natural man...selfishness. But we need to put off the natural man and turn outwards towards others and serve them even when we are going through the roughest times in our lives). A story that Elder Bednar shared with us is:

A women, who was also a Relief Society President in her ward, phoned Elder Bednar up one morning and asked him to go to the hospital to identify some young women, because they were in a car accident. There were three young women, one had died during the car accident and the other two were being transported to the hospital. She was on two phones, one with Elder Bednar, and the other with a nurse at the scene of the accident. Elder Bednar was able to hear just a little of what the other person on the other phone told this women, that her daughter was the young women that died in that car accident. Instead of turning inward, she turned outward and told Elder Bednar that they needed to contact the other sisters to let them know that their daughters were in a car accident and let them know what their situation was. (I think a week later) This women, who had an only child (the daughter who died), got a call from someone in her Relief Society. The person who called her didn't know that her only daughter had just died and that she was on her way to her daughter's funeral, and she complained to her that no one in the Relief Society brought her dinner because she was ill. So the women, whose daughter had just died, went and dropped off a meal to the lady's house before she went to her daughter funeral.

This is an example of someone who turned outward when the natural man would have turned inward.

This is only a portion of his talk that we heard, so if you could, you should read the rest of it! It was amazing!

Also this week has been a sad week for our zone. Our senior district left yesterday, Monday, and our native Koreans also! :( It kinda feels a little empty without our senior district, and the stick is now passed on to us to be the examples to the new district that will be coming in next week. We also found out that one of our senior district elders is actually NOT from New Zealand! He was speaking with an accent the whole six weeks, and the last friday, he told us that!! :P we were all shocked, because he played his part very well! Also our district found out that one of our teachers are going to leave next week, because he got a job offer that deals with what he is studying. We are very very sad to let him go, but we understand that it's better for him in the long run. So we have been very emotionally sad this past few days :P.

I feel very blessed, and I am very happy. Yesterday we were reviewing gerunds (i.e. English grammar - a noun formed from a verb ) and our teacher was saying that she was really proud of us, because we were getting it! and also, she said we can say SOO much more now. I look back on my first week here at the MTC, and I remember saying that I would have a hard time learning the language, and that I didn't think I would be able to do it. I look back now and I see that the Lord has really blessed me and my district with the gift of tongues. We have learnt SO much, and this week our goal as a district is to learn 500 dano words in korean (added up together between our district). Also we are able to teach our lessons without writing them out in Korean. I can now look at a sentence and piece it together in Korean! I am soo happy and amazed at what the Lord has taught me, and helped me to accomplish! My next goal is to learn to read faster in Korean. I can speak it alright, and write it, but my weakness is reading! Anyways, I am very very grateful that the Lord has helped me through these past 6 weeks! The Lord works in mysterious and profound ways.

This Sunday at our Relief Society meeting, we were suppose to only have all sisters in that meeting, but Sis. Cook's husband came along cause it was snowing on Sunday, and he wanted to be with his wife. It ended up being a blessing. Near the end of our meeting a sister fainted, and we were able to get medical help, but also Sister Cook's husband was able to give the sister a blessing. From what I hear, she is doing fine now though. But the Lord does work in mysterious ways, and everything happens for a reason! :)

Today I went to the temple, and it was AMAZING!!! I love going to the temple every week! it definitely does make your week/day much better, and you learn SO much! Well My time is up...and i wish I could say sooo much more. But know that I do love you, and that I pray for each and everyone of you everyday! LOVE YOU ALL! and take care! Keep pushing forward, and look on the positive side of things! It will make your day THAT much better~

I love you all, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! :) Remember, that the Lord loves you, and He will NEVER abandon you!

Love,

Kwok cha-mae-nim

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! :D Hope your day is filled with Love and Joy! :D

More Spiritual experience & Senior Sister Missionaries leave for Korea!!

Feb 7th, 2012

How are you all doing? How has your week been?

I'm kind of feeling under the weather right now, cause I apparently have Labyrinthitis...or something similar to that, and the doctor has me on Meclizine 25mg 3x a day. It's an inner-ear infection and is messing up my balance. So yesterday I went to the doctor and he gave me some medications. If it still continues tomorrow I need to go see him again. So I hope everything will be okay. I did get a blessing, and I was able to make it to the temple today! and I am very happy about.  Also, I think my body is finally getting into some shape so I can function...so yea` hahaa.

Well this week was awesome! My Cha-mae-nim and I have really really felt the spirit this past week! I think it started when we actually tried to have companionship study, cause they don't really schedule companionship study into our schedules. So yea~ we have been trying to get it in, and it has made a difference. Also we decided to focus on teaching in unity with one another and with the spirit. we also focused on Teaching by the spirit and Through the spirit. It has made a big difference in how we are teaching, because before one would dominate the lesson(mostly my cha-mae-nim), and I would just sit there and nod. The reason is I had no idea where she was going in the lesson, but after we focused to teach more in unity and with the Spirit, I was able to understand where she wanted the lesson to go, what she was saying, and how to teach our investigators or just other people.

In TRC (which is a workshop of real investigators or already member people who we teach) it was amazing!!! It was our first TRC because last week I was sick, and had to miss it. But I was able to go this week to TRC and it was AMAZING!! in our first visit, we shared the scripture Alma 32:8 and 2 Nephi 32:8-9. Anyways, we intended to teach the investigator about prayer until our investigator asked what humility was. I have to say I was a little shocked, and wasn't sure what to do at first, but that was when the Spirit started to work. I was able to quickly remember that in Preach My Gospel it had a section about Humility. I pulled it out and started to read to the investigator what humility was. My Cha-mae-nim also was also being enlightened by the Spirit to know what to say. That was the most amazing experience, and it surely is a testament that our Heavenly Father is real and that He is here wanting us all to hear His gospel! The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways!! :)

So our goal this week is to teach with the spirit as a focus, and teach in unity with each other. :D Also what was very uplifting to me this week, was going back to the goals we had set in our first week and seeing how far we have come. We, as a companionship, have been slowly accomplishing those goals. we have tried to incorporate speaking our language in everything we say and many other things that I can't remember right now. But it felt good to feel that i was progressing in my goals! :)

Anyways, I can't really tell you all much about my week, cause I'm having a really hard time focusing and trying to comprehend what is going through my head at the moment. Anyways, I just want to let you know that I love you all so so much, and pray for each and everyone of you! I truly love you, and appreciate your emails/letters! they are like my highlight of the day, and I get SO excited to get mail!! hahaha~ I love you guys soo much! and I know this is where I need to be! I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord! This is His work and His glory to proclaim the gospel to ALL His children to give them the choice to accept or not to accept His gospel! It is amazing, and it truly is Amazing to see the work move forward! 

I am so happy to be here, and cannot wait to go to Korea! I have fallen in LOVE with our native korean missionaries!! They are soo adorable and amazing! This last fast sunday was a very spiritual one! Although I couldn't understand much of what they were saying in their testimonies, I felt the spirit.

I am sooo soo happy that the Sister Missionaries will be leaving for Daejeon! I love them so much, and they made me very happy yesterday when they stopped by my apartment and offered a prayer for me so that I could feel better. They have such amazing faith, and all of the Korean Missionaries will be great missionaries!!!

Also next week, it'll be a big week! The senior missionaries in our district are leaving for Korea, and we become the senior missionaries in our district! >,< I don't feel ready for this responsibility, but I know that the Lord will help us in being a good example to the new missionaries coming in, and I want to help them as much as I can. I am excited to meet them! any ways. My time is running out, so I just want to let you all know that I truly love you all dearly! take care and be safe!!!

Love,

Kwok Cha-mae-nim

Life continues in MTC ...

Jan 31, 2012

  

Last week we got our Native Koreans missionaries!!!! :D THEY ARE SOOO AWESOME!!! they are very happy missionaries! hahaha~ and on Sunday, we had a very fun time at our temple walk! Took lots and lots of pictures with the Korean missionaries!! :D they are very funny and photogenic hahaha~ And they were SO excited to be out of the MTC!! :P we took pictures all the way up to the Temple and at the temple! ;)

Today my companion and I went to the temple, and we did Sealings. I just want to thank you Mom and Dad for being sealed in the temple and for Enduring to the End! I wish that for everyone, and it gives me the desire to find those who are ready to receive the gospel so that they can also enjoy the blessings from the gospel and from the temple! :) I truly enjoy going to the temple each week! I really feel the spirit, and am SO happy for the rest of the day! :D It really sets the tone! :D hehehe~

And I am soooo sooo excited for the devotional today! Today is the 50th anniversary of the MTC!! and I am sooo excited because some of the apostles and first presidency is coming to speak to us today!! :D YEAY!!!! I am excited to hear the message they have prepared for us missionaries!! :D

Also the language has been coming a long. I look back and see how far I have come, and I thank Heavenly Father for helping me along the way!! There still is a lot to learn, and it takes time, but I am confident that the Lord will help me to understand it better. We were challenged last night to start to teach our lessons with out notes. I'm a little scared, but I know it will be okay, because we can form simple sentences, and I know the spirit will help us.

This past week, I got sick! :( I was the last one in the district to get sick...hahaha~ so I'm not really that "tzah doaw! ;)". hehee~ But yea, so I missed TRC this week, but next saturday, I'll be able to go! :D

Also yesterday was not a very good day for me, I don't know why, but I was really down and my spirits were low. Until, my cha-mae started to cry in our last class because she was struggling with what she was trying to say in Korean. It was then that I realized that I was being very selfish and only thinking of myself. It made me sad to see her crying because she was frustrated, and stressed (because we weren't allowed to use english at all, and she didn't know the words in korean and we were not allowed to look at any notes). It also reminded me that my mission is not about myself! I am here to help others and help others grow. So I "rolled up my sleeves and got to work". I comforted my cha-mae, and tried to help her as best as I could. We then had a small girl-talk last night and had some cookies. :) And we said companionship prayer. I hope she is doing better. She did say she was feeling better today after the temple! so I am glad to hear that :).

When I was writing in my journal about yesterday's events, these phrases popped into my head (sorry I don't know which scriptures they are and I don't know if it's a correct word for word citing) but here they are:

"Lose yourself in the work and ye shall find yourself in the work"

"When ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God"

"Love one another"

"Feed my Sheep"

I realized this is my purpose, to help others come unto Christ, and to be a guide for them to strengthen their relationship with our Father in Heaven. I am only His instrument, but it is through the spirit that people can Come unto Christ. And someone said to me this week that I represent the Lord and His Voice, so I will do my best to represent Him as best as I can! :)

Oh! I forgot to tell you that I got called as a music co-ordinator in my branch ;P so I am enjoying that calling!!

Well I am over time... :P so I will go now~ :P and I will have a great week! and I look forward from hearing from you all, and I love you all very very much! I will continue to stay positive, and Love everyone around me and be patient! :D hehehe~ LOVE YOU and take care!! :D

Love,

Sister Kwok

Life began in the MTC ...

January 24, 2012

An-young-ha-sae-oh!!!! EVERyone!!!

I want to thank everyone for sending me letters through dearelder.com! :) I LOVE receiving mail!! :D hehehe ... And Sis. Bateman! Thank you so so much for the box of brownies!! :D  I really enjoyed them, and my district enjoyed them as well, and a few other random missionaries I shared it with :D. How are you all doing? How is life?

Well I have to say, this week has been different from last week. I enjoyed this week, but it was a more frustrating week for me. I was a little discouraged, and I felt like I needed to improve in areas of my life, and how I was saying my prayers and I expected more of myself with learning the language. So, I was having a hard week. It is getting harder for my  dung-pan-ja (companion) and I to prepare lessons for our investigator Kim-hyung-jae-nim. Our last lesson for him was on Wednesday, and he said he was going to go back to Korea for 3 weeks. I was happy for him, but I was also really worried that he wouldn’t continue to meet with the missionaries when he got back to Korea. So on top of the frustration I had, it piled up, and I broke down and cried. But when I felt like giving up, my dung-pan-ja and my chamenim-dur (sisters who we share a room with) said some positive words to me. I also turned to pray and asked Heavenly Father to help me and comfort me and help me to know what I need to do to be better. I did receive a comforting feeling and that everything was going to be alright.

Next day, our investigator left us; our district made a video clip on his experience while we taught him. He said that he felt our love for him, and he came to know that there is a God. He also felt a special feeling in his heart each time we met with him, and he came to know that it was the spirit. He learnt how to pray; and because he has learnt how to pray, he then prayed to know if the reading the Book of Mormon was right. He received an answer that he should read it and it made me happy. He said he would seek out the missionaries in Korea and he would tell his family about this religion. Also, he would attend church over there. It made me very happy!! :D

We now have two more investigators. I will meet with my second investigator tomorrow. But the one I did meet yesterday was definitely a neat experience. He's an atheist, and My dung-pan-ja and I didn’t really know what to say to him. But we prepared what we wanted to say, but mostly, we were led by the spirit to say the things that we said in our lesson. Because I didn’t really feel prepared for our lesson, and I didn’t have much written down on my notebook about what we would cover. Before we went to teach our lesson, my companion and I said a prayer that we will have the spirit to be with us that we will know what to say to him, and as the lesson went on, insights came, and I don’t know how my companion and I did it, we were able to put sentences together! :D

On Sunday, we had a fireside, and Elder Christensen talked to us. When he began his talk, I noticed that he was stuttering a lot. It didn’t make sense to me as to why he stuttered, because he was a well educated man. I was sure that he was also a good public speaker. After a few sentences, he mentioned that about a year ago he had had a stroke. As I heard that my heart went out to him, and I prayed to Heavenly Father that he will be able to get his message across to us, and that he will be okay. I do also believe that many other missionaries did the same thing, because as he continued to talk, not once do I remember him stuttering again; nor did I recall him having a difficult time speaking. It made me SO happy to know that our Heavenly Father was helping him to get his message across to us.

His topic was on Missionary Work, how we as missionaries should NOT assume that everyone already knows how to pray, read the scriptures, have faith, etc.

We need to make sure when we extend commitments that we teach them to know how to do it. Another thing that he said that really stuck out to me was that even though there are many members in our church that have callings, and maybe to us, some members seem like they are lazy or don’t want to fulfill their callings; it just might be because they don’t know how to do it, because they are not taught. So keep in mind that we need to teach one another how to magnify our callings, or teach others to learn to do their callings. That was the main part that I got out of Elder Christensen's talk.

Well, I have really enjoyed my life here at the MTC!! and it's just going to get better!! :D heehhe~ I am absolutely LOVING my teachers and my district, especially my dear dung-pan-ja! They are definitely a great   example to me, and we encourage each other a lot! Yes we joke a lot, and 'pick' on one another for fun, but it brings us closer with one another and I really feel like we are a family. We are SO excited and I cannot wait to go to Korea!! I will definitely prepare myself as best as I can so that I can speak with the Koreans!

Oh and today, we are getting some NATIVE Korean's in the MTC! :D I AM SOOO EXCITED TO MEET THEM!!! EeeK! :D hahha.

And also don’t worry, my whiplash has been doing great! I had a mild flare up yesterday, and it has been about 2 weeks since my last flare up! Heavenly Father has been blessing me, and I am able to concentrate in class, and do all of my studies, and participate during my gym hours. So don’t worry too much, just keep praying that it will continue to heal and let me do the things that I need to get done!! :) Thanks everyone for your love and support and the prayers!! I really appreciate it and I do feel the blessings from your prayers! :) Thank you! I love you all and Wish you all the best this week!! :) can’t wait to hear from you all! and I'll email you guys again next week!! :D

Love,

Kwok Chamenim! :D

My FIRST letter Home

Jan 17, 2012


An-young-ha-sae-yo kah-jook! :D

How are you all doing? How has your week been?? :D

Well this week has been SOOOOO amazing!!! :D My companion and I are really close! she is such a darling, her name is Johnson chamenim (chamenim for sister).

She is like half a year older than me, and she is the second oldest of 5 kids. She's the first to go on a mission, and she is doing wonderful!

Our district is AMAZING!!! we are already like a family! :) we have: Elder(s) [chong-no-dur]: Breakvoult (from Germany ;D), Morris, Keech, Brown, Jenson, Gibbons, and Andersen.

Our teacher, Chamenim Judd, is an awesome teacher. She has taught us a lot of Korean already, and she said our district has a lot of 'Jung' (Unity). So I am enjoying it here!

Man, I cannot believe how much we are learning about the Korean language. Already in a week, we know how to put sentences together, past, future, and present tense sentences,

and we know how to pray in Korean already. Now I just need to work on my Dano (vocab). But I do agree with Chame-nim Cho that Korean is easy! :D hahaha~~

Well, we've been teaching an investigator, his name is Kim-min-seung. He is from Busan, but lived in Seoul. He is now studying at BYU in the engineering program.

And also investigating in the church. The second day in the MTC, we had to teach him IN KOREAN!!! hahaha~ Let me tell you, it was HARD! because we only knew a

few phrases in Korean, and I was still having trouble to understand my sun-bae-nim (Teacher).

So Johnson Chamenim and I prepared a lesson for Kim hyung-jae-nim (brother) about how Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us, and wants us to go back to him.

And we got to know Kim hyung-jae-nim too. But before we went into the lesson, My Chamenim and I prayed for the spirit to be with us, and to help us teach Kim hyung-jae-nim.

And surprisingly, I was able to get and understanding about what Kim-hyung-jae-nim was saying to us.

And that wasn't the only time that happened to us, the second lesson that we taught Kim-hyung-jae-nim, our lesson started out with us asking him if he had any questions. And even though

we were not prepared to answer his question, the Spirit guided Chamenim Johnson and I to explain to him why our church was different from other churches. It was amazing!! and then we

were able to tie in the answer into our lesson which was about Joseph Smith and about the Restoration of the Gospel through the Book of Mormon. And then we invited him to pray.

Our last lesson, which was yesterday, we taught him about prayer, and the importance of prayer.We challenged him to pray to Heavenly Father each day, and he was excited to do it!

And we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he wants to read it!! :D I am sooo soo happy for Kim-hyung-jae-nim!! :)

This week has really built my testimony about the power of prayer, and the power of handing things over to the Lord, BUT making sure we do all we can to prepare. Also I have a testimony of His

love for His children! I am so happy when Kim-hyung-jae-nim was excited to read the Book of Mormon and pray! it made me happy, and I know it makes Heavenly Father happy as well! because he is

coming unto Christ. I also have a testimony on striving to listen to the spirit and how important it is for us to work to be worthy for the spirit to be with us, because it is the spirit who teaches the people.

We are only there to help the people make the connection and start to build the relationship with Heavenly Father and teach them to listen to the Spirit as well, so they will know for themselves that

these things that we are teaching them are true.

I am soo happy I decided to go on a mission! I truly know that this is where I need to be. I have enjoyed helping my Chung-no-dur and Cha-mae-nim (elders and sister [in my district]). I have also enjoyed

learning about not thinking about myself, and thinking of others. It truly helps me see the world differently. And I want to continue loving the people around me! :)

Well I am soo soo happy and excited to go to Korea, and serve the people of Korea!! I KNOW that this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be, and I am grateful for my decision to go on my mission!

I am learning SO much about discipline, and Cho-Aye-oh (It is good!) ;D hehehe~ Well I am running out of time! Sarang-hey-oh!!! (I love you) and I can't wait to hear from you all to see how you're doing!!

PS-> PLEASE WRITE TO ME!!! I ENJOY GETTING MAIL!!! :D hehehe~

With LOTS of Love,

Kwok Chamenim