Hello Mom, Dad, and everyone!
Today is the first day of my 3rd transfer! And I'm staying in Daegu with Sister Lee! We're excited! We have a lot we want to do this transfer...get to know the bus routes (we have the subway down), BRT with our members in Sangin and Daemyong, 3 upcoming baptisms (2 scheduled- Hae-meen and Meen-joon, hopefully Sae-un too), try to get a new investigator! I will probably leave next transfer so I have a lot of motivation for this transfer. And I'm quickly leaving greenie status! That's cool that Grandpa Plasterer is in Seoul right now. Does he know Seoul well? I didn't know that he spent time here. How long will he be in Seoul? I got Chelsea's letter a week and a half ago and am sending her a reply today (we only write letters on P-days and I didn't have much time last P-day on account of WooBang land!). I got your birthday card! Thank you everyone! I loved that everyone signed it. I won't lie- I teared up just a bit. I love you all so much! It's funny. I woke up and actually felt older! But it's not weird to say I'm 22 years old because I actually never say that. In Korea, when you're born you are one year old, and every New Year your age changes. So I've been saying I'm 23 years old for three months. That's good! Thinking 22 is old is nonsensical. I'm just getting started! It is kind of scary how time flies though. My birthday was fun. We got together with some missionaries at Mr. Pizza (a coveted missionary treat) and they surprised me with cake. Then it was back to work! We taught Hyun-ah with her brother Dae-hyun and a Sangin member, Han-nah. Wow. Thank goodness for lessons with members! They can share such powerful testimonies of the gospel. It brings a new atmosphere to the lesson! That night, we ran into an investigator Jeen Yoon Ok near her apartment. We didn't even realize we were close by where she lives! When she found out we were on our way to grab sandwiches for dinner, she insisted on treating us and we talked about the Church. Afterwards, we ran into her daughter on our way home. I told Sister Lee that we should just hang out by the apartments/subway stops of people we want to visit. We are ALWAYS running into people when we least expect it! It's funny how a big city can become so small when you're a missionary. We're in our own world, constantly traveling between Sangin and Daemyong. In fact, there's a man who is always selling something on our subway line- going up and down the train with his cart. He knew my trainer and met her and an old companion once, then met me afterwards. It's really funny. Every time I see him now, he says "Hi Reen-poh-duh! How are you doing?" in English and we exchange pleasantries. Wow. That's when you know you LIVE on the subway line. Haha. I'm just thankful we have a subway! Saturday, at the English class in Sangin, I had the opportunity to talk about our beliefs with one of the students. He had a question about the origin of our Church- why we cannot be classified as Protestant, like other churches. Because we were talking in English, I spoke simply (like it would be any different in Korean :) ) and testified of the Restoration of the gospel and Heavenly Father's plan for us with Jesus Christ as our Savior. I realized how important it is to teach simply. And really, the purpose of the gospel is simple! We all can find true happiness and live with our Heavenly Father again. As my companion and I talked with the man, I realized that everyone is searching for happiness. They just don't know where to find it. We propose that we do know where to find it, and then ask people to gain a testimony for themselves through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is so important I really like Ether 12 because it shares many examples of faith from the Book of Mormon. Thank you everyone for your scripture references! I wrote down three from Doctrine and Covenants. Random- I guess I need to study that more! There is so much opportunity for growth as a missionary. Well, I guess it's always there, we just don't see it. Now that I'm on a mission, I want to know everything I can- because, well, sometimes I really need it! Before I took the Bible for granted, but now I want to know all about it. There are so many different Christian churches in Korea, so some people know the Bible VERY well. It's like that in many other places too, but it's a little daunting when you're talking about it in Korean! I'm so thankful for scripture refs between Bible, BOM, and D&C. I think it's interesting to see how Heavenly Father uses the same words, teaches the same principles, throughout all of the scriptures. The gospel really doesn't change! This next transfer should be interesting. There is so much to do. But I'm going to take it one day at a time. Otherwise, it's just overwhelming! That's a big lesson I've learned over the past five months. You can't learn Korean grammar in a day, teach perfectly at the start, never make a mistake. Heck, I make mistakes left and right! But the important thing is that we always try to progress. I think a General Authority said your testimony can never just stay in the same place. It's always either growing or decreasing. I think that can apply in other parts of life too. If everything is just stagnate, something is up. Life can be amazing! We just have to work through the hard part to get there.I love you everyone!
Swim a lot for me!
Love,Alyssa