Hi everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving (last week)!!!Even though I was all the way over here in Korea, I still managed to celebrate Thanksgiving twice! The first time was at our combined zone conference held on Thursday in honor of the holiday. We were all excited about it because Sister Jennings and Sister Lee cooked an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner, but especially because Elder Yoon-Hwan Choi of the Quorum of the Seventy came to speak to us! It was a great conference. Elder Choi spoke at General Conference at the Priesthood session- about the "loud choir boys". He is from Seoul and is making a tour of all the Korean missions (threre are 4) with his wife. He talked about how we can strengthen our wards and branches as we focus on the future potential of the individuals and the branches, instead of any weaknesses they may now have. Referring to the story he shared at conference, he said that's what he did as a bishop when he worked with the rebellious boys in the ward. Instead of giving up hope on them, he decided to take action and get them to put their energy into becoming a singing group. Now, many of those boys have served missions, married in the temple, and are leaders of the church. Isn't that great? I also learned a lot from his wife, who spent some time counseling the sister missionaries on her own. She has an amazing testimony and we really appreciated learning from her as well as her husband. She talked about the "special role" that we have as sister missionaries, and how we need to show our support to the elders because they have the priesthood.
My other Thanksgiving dinner was on Saturday with a semi-American family in the Youngdo branch. The father, Brother Harrison, is American, and his wife is Korean. She speaks practically perfect English though, and teaches school in English for about 10 young Korean kids (including her son) at her home. So we got to have our Thanksgiving meal with them, their son, and her students. It was a great experience! I enjoyed spending time with the kids and talking to them about our traditional foods at Thanksgiving.
Yesterday, Sister Beckstead and I got to see the Primary program at the Goejeong branch. It was so cute! The kids all seemed to really enjoy singing and speaking in front of the congregation. Everyone loved the branch president's daughter, because we could only see her forehead peeking out above the podium. I thought about how Christopher was just in his last Primary program. Sad! He is growing up so fast!
I love you all so much! I hope all is well!
Love,Alyssa