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From: Alyssa Christine Linford
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:17:31 +0900
To:
Subject: Re: Happy Birthday


Hi Mom, Dad and everyone!

Thank you for the Happy birthday wishes! And yes, I will definitely gett Korean stuff for the family! It sounds like you and Chris had a great time in Lake Powell!
So I definitely had NO idea that Sheri was getting married on July 9th in the Newport Beach temple!!!! I am sad because that is just two days before I get home! Can you please call her, tell her congratulations, and tell her I'm DYING for an email from her?? I want to be able to say something to her before she gets married, for goodness sakes! That's exciting that Lauren Magleby and John Nash are getting married too. What is this? There's something going around... :) I heard about Sheri's boyfriend in a couple of letters, but need to get more updated!!

I had an awesome birthday by the way! That day, we volunteered as a district at this Iron Festival where they had booths showing the way they made things in the olden days. They wanted us, as foreign missionaries, to walk around the festival and translate for any foreigners we ran into and to just be part of the "environment." It was amazing! Honestly, we didn't run into many foreigners (I don't remember any!), but we did have wonderful experiences with the people there. Sister Alcazar and I got really close to a harmoni (grandmother) who weaved things out of straw. She was really cute! We took a picture with her and she said she wanted a copy. I asked if we could get her phone number, but since neither of us had a pen or paper on us, we had to borrow a cardboard box and pen from a booth nearby and strip off a piece to write it down! I will definitely hold onto that forever! She was impressed that we came to Korea as missionaries for a year and a half.

I am so grateful for all the experiences we're having lately and am excited for next week- Elder Micheal Ringwood, from the quorum of the 70, is going to speak to us at a Mission Tour in Daegu!

Well, I have to go explore an ancient grotto in Gyungju (close to Ulsan and the cultural base of the Shilla Dynasty!) I love you so much! Have a great week! I can't tell you how grateful I am to be serving right now with my companion, Sister Alcazar. We love the work here in Ulsan and love working with the members! They make everything worth it. I know the Lord will help us to complete His work as we work with the members- that's really the way it needs to be done! I am so thankful for our experiences with them.

I love you! Have a great week!

Oh yes, Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you SO much! Thank you so much for your example!

Love,
Alyssa

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Alyssa Linford
To: cmlinford@yahoo.com; penny linford
Sent: Sun, June 13, 2010 8:58:16 PM
Subject: Hello again!


Hi Mom and Dad!

So when on wrote on Thursday, I neglected to tell you that my mission changed P-days again...back to Monday! I hope you don't get too confused! :)

Anyway, I'll tell you about our weekend! On Friday night, Sister Alcazar and I met with Choi Yu-jin and her husband, less-active members in the Hogye branch. They were so nice to us! It was my second time meeting them, but it had been a while since we saw them last. Sister Choi shared her experience from her mission, which fit right into the conference talk we had decided to share with her from the General Conference Liahona (an overseas church magazine.) We shared testimony about Sister Cook's talk in the Young Women conference. The sisters in our mission were able to all get together to watch that a few weeks ago, and we had an amazing experience. Sister Choi said she really identified with Sister Cook's talk about never giving up, even when it gets difficult. Sister Choi's husband, a convert from last year, flipped/skimmed through much of the Liahona and said he would read a little bit! He really seemed interested in a few of the talks. And we were able to make an appointment on the spot to come back and read Book of Mormon stories with them and their (almost) 8 year old daughter!
On Saturday, we had a successful English class in Bangojin with the cute little boys that attend. At the end, when I taught a spiritual thought about prophets, Moon-hyun recalled what he had learned about Joseph Smith and said we needed to give Dong-oo a Book of Mormon! He's not even a member of the Church but he's already becoming a missionary! The boys are really smart and seem to enjoy the spiritual thoughts and praying at class. We are happy to be able to work with them, and hope their mom will become interested in learning more.
After Bangojin, we went to a new English class we started in the Hogye church to get our investigator Do Ha-yun and her brother Gyung-hoon more involved with members in the branch. They were the only ones who showed up, but it was our first class, and more kids said they could come next week! Sister Alcazar and I were excited to be able to hang out with Ha-yun and Gyung-hoon more. They're great kids!
On Sunday, we stayed after church to practice with the District choir for the district conference that's coming up in two weeks. It's getting intense! It's nice to be singing in the choir because it's the one time we can spend with several members of both Hogye and Bangojin branches. Since we're kind of the only missionaries serving in Hogye right now, it's been hard for Sister Alcazar and I to get enough facetime in Bangojin. It seems like at church, half the time when we talk to people, we have just enough time to say we have to go to the other branch!
After choir practice, we went to Bek Myong-sook's house, a sister in the Hogye branch. She is amazing! She is a kindergarten teacher who lives with her husband (he isn't a member of the Church). Her two children are grown and she was introduced to the gospel through her son, who joined 7 years ago. Sister Bek was just baptized in 2007! She decided recently to go back to school and graduated in a degree with piano, but also studied the violin and flute! Not to mention, she just got back from a trip to Vietnam. She loves children (hence being a teacher) and said she has never really grown up. At lunch after church, I had seen her eating with all the five year olds! She talked about her experience with the missionaries over the past few years, and told us all about Elder Kent, who was clearly her favorite. I remembered Elder Kent because he was the AP when I came to Korea...over a year ago!
Anyway, we had a great weekend! I am excited for this next week and am so happy to be serving in Ulsan, Korea! I love the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father has provided a way for all His children to come back and live with Him again someday. And that's why I'm here!!

Thank you for everything! Have a great week!

Love,
Alyssa

Hi Mom! And Dad!

Thanks so much for your letters this week!

Things are going well with Sister Alcazar so far. She has jumped into life as an American missionary in Korea! She has good ideas about how we can help the members in the ward, and isn't scared to try to talk to them! That is huge, because it can be really intimidating as a greenie. The members are really impressed by her attitude and can't believe she has just been here two weeks! Sister Alcazar studied Japanese before Korean, which has a similar grammar makeup and some similar words, so I think that has helped her a lot. There are also a lot of foods in Korea that are the same thing but go by another name in Japan. When Sister Alcazar lived in San Diego, she worked at a sushi restaurant so she loves trying new things. Yes, she definitely had nakgi bokkum bap (fried rice with octopus) during her first week. I went through the menu with her and was really surprised when she went for that. I've been avoiding octopus my whole mission! Although there have been some occasions when I've had to eat a tentacle or two...uh, yay!
On Sunday, we got to teach Do Ha-yun the 2nd lesson, and set a preliminary baptism date with her! Her mom (a non-member) had said she wants her to get baptized, but we still have to check the date with her and see what her husband says about it. We're grateful for Ha-yun's older brother (middle school student who's a member), who agrees to help out at Ha-yun's lessons.
On Monday, we met with Sister Shin Hee-sun, a less-active member in the Hogye branch who said she needed help making a phone call to the American embassy. We thought we were going there to help her with her English call, but when we got there, she said, "Okay, let's pray!" So we prayed and then she looked at us expectantly for a spiritual message, and we happily obliged. Luckily, we had taken a General Conference Liahona along with us and marked Sister Beck's talk for her to read. Shin Hee-sun is having trouble deciding between religions right now even though she was baptized into our church last year. It's interesting because she said every time her friend, a Buddhist nun, teaches her about Buddhism, I call her! And lately when I've called her, She talked about how she attended church diligently for 6 months, prayed and studied the scriptures for 2 hours everyday. During that time, she said she felt herself receiving personal revelation and felt close to the Lord. But having a calling in church was hard for her and she didn't like being so busy. She said she recognizes that she doesn't feel the same spiritually now that she is not going to church or studying her scriptures. Sister Alcazar and I were impressed by how straightforward Shin Hee-sun was with us. We were so grateful that we chose to share Sister Beck's talk about personal revelation with her, which we decided on before Shin Hee-sun told us about her experience with personal revelation! I am truly grateful for how the Lord can guide us, even in the seemingly small decisions we make. I know I need to recognize and allow for His guidance more in my life---especially as a missionary!
Yesterday, we had zone meeting in the Hogye branch church. We enjoyed meeting up with all the missionaries in the Ulsan area and learning from our zone leaders. Afterward, we practiced for a musical number we have coming up. Elder Michael Ringwood of the Seventy is doing a mission tour in Korea so we have to sing when he meets with two zones in our mission. Yeah, we're a little nervous....putting a musical number together with 12 missionaries who live far away from each other is no easy task! The mission tour conference is later this month in Daegu. Even the missionaries on Jeju-do get to fly to Daegu to see Elder Ringwood .
Today we went to a whale museum/small aquarium with the other sisters and the Bangojin elders. It was a lot of fun! We actually went last week, but it was closed, so we went back to downtown Ulsan and rode a big ferris wheel that lets you see much of Ulsan. So we were excited about going back this week.
So it has been a good week! Sister Alcazar and I are excited to begin another week, work hard, and help our investigator and less-active members progress. I really do love Ulsan! We want to do the best we can to serve the people here.

Oh Mom, can you check with Alyse and Chelsea about the housing situation? It's really important to get that taken care of as soon as possible because finding housing can get really difficult as it gets closer to the beginning of school. Let me know what happens!

I love you! Have a great week!

Oh yes, and happy much belated birthday Brooke! I can't believe you're 16 now! Now YOU can drive me around! haha. I love you!

I hope Dad and Chris have a fun time in southern Utah!

Love,
Alyssa

Hi Mom! (and Dad and everyone else!)

I'm sorry to hear that Sister Scott passed away. She and her husband both seemed genuinely kind and caring. Please send him my condolences.

As for this week, things are going well so far for Sister Alcazar and I in Ulsan. Unfortunately, Sister Alcazar hasn't been able to meet the people we usually meet every week, but I promised her that they do actually exist! She has been getting to know members in the ward though, so that is good. We visited Sister Kang Ji-yae on Monday (Sister Kang lives in the Hogye branch, which was her last area when she returned from the Busan mission last year!). Even though Sister Kang is just a year older than me, she seems so much more mature because she's married and is expecting a baby next month. She is always really helpful and updates us on less-active members that it would be good to visit. Her husband is really funny too. He makes fun of me because he says whenever he says a joke that I don't think is really funny, or if I don't know what to say, I kind-of half laugh. "hahahaha...ha." I realized that I do, as a matter of fact, do that. I don't know how to stop! Anway, they're a really fun couple.

On Tuesday, we met a member of the Bangojin branch that we hadn't been able to spend time with before. Sister Heo Hyo-gyung and her daughter Shin Sur-gi have been members of the Church for four years and have been close with the elders during that time. She is really kind and enthusiastic. I wish we could spend more time at the branch so we could get to know her and the other members better! It's hard because we attend one meeting of each branch each week, so some people we only see in going and passing. Sad day! There are some amazing people in our branches!

Yesterday, we had zone conference in Daegu. My companion Sister Alcalzar had to give her intro talk as a new greenie, and I had to give my farewell talk to the missionaries because it's my last transfer. Sister Hadden, my MTC companion that I now live with (!), and Elder Matsuura and Elder Voorhies also gave their last talks. I haven't served around the elders, which is funny because Elder Matsuura was my zone leader for 3 transfers when I was serving on Jeju-do, and I didn't meet him until a month and a half ago! It was a really good zone conference. I always appreciate hearing from President Jennings. He talked about how obedience and diligence bolster us in order to be able to accomplish the Lord's work in His own way.
Elder Brown, the area medical advisor, and Elder Gibson, the area mental health advisor, also spoke to us about staying physically and emotionally healthy. I especially appreciated Elder Gibson's talk because he talked about overcoming discouragement. He gave some really good insight into a problem that I think afflicts us all at one time or another (and not usually just once!). Elder Gibson talked about overcoming discouragement from a psychologist's point of view, but in the realm of the gospel. It's amazing because we can overcome anything if we follow the principles of the gospel!

I am so grateful to be serving here in Ulsan. I can't say that enough. I know this is the Lord's work. I know that Heavenly Father provided a way for us through the Atonement in order to live with Him again. He loves us SO MUCH! We can't comprehend how much that love extends. We are capable of doing anything if we try our best to live according to His will. I know that as we try to develop the same love for others that Christ has for us, we will grow so much beyond what we can imagine. It's an eternal, lifelong process. I have a long way to go! But I love the people here in Korea. I love my branches, the members we work with, our investigator, potential investigators. I know we are all beloved, divine creations of our Heavenly Father. Each one of us has great worth, and He wants to see each one of His children return to Him someday. I know that no matter what happens, He still loves us. He wants us to make righteous choices, but He has provided repentance as a way for us to overcome our human fallacies. We are all imperfect, but as we work each day, we can progress so much and come closer to the Savior! I know that it is my purpose as a missionary to invite the people of Korea unto Christ so they can partake of the same blessings that I have, well, basically been given. It's not easy by any means, but no one ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it!

I love you all! Please have a wonderful week and remember that no matter what, there is always at least one person, Heavenly Father, who loves you. Better yet, there are probably a ton of people who love you! And how can we show our appreciation for receiving all this love? By showing it right back...plus more!

Love you!

Love,
Alyssa