Dear Mom,
Thank you so much for your Christmas message, Mom. Now I will look at "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day" in a whole new light! It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas program.We were very excited to have the Christmas party for our branch on Saturday night. It went great! There were many different parts, but Elder Ryu organized the whole thing and did a fantastic job. Sister Jung and I sang "The First Noel" with the Relief Society and did the sign language along with it! One of the sisters is deaf, so she taught everyone the sign language. I thought it was beautiful! For the missionaries part, we made small video stories about Christmas through taking several pictures. It's hard to explain, but it came off very well! Elder Ryu put it all together. It was amazing!We were excited to see some of the less active members come to the activity and get involved. It was a success- especially since we saw many of them at church the next day!We visited the deaf relief society member at her apartment last night with the ward mission leader. It was a cool experience. It was a very quiet meeting! Lot's of writing and learning words in Korean sign language. She knows a little American sign language so she tauht that to me as well. She is very sweet and we are excited to meet with her more often!I am so thankful for the Christmas season and the love we can show to our families and friends. I'm so thankful for the Savior's example. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year's! I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your support.
Monday, December 21, 2009
December 14, 2009
Hi everyone! Wow, this week went by much too fast! I'm glad you had a great early Christmas dinner with everyone! It sounds like it was a lot of fun! Haha, it's crazy to think that it's already been a year since last Christmas and all the snow that came. Sounds like it will be another white Christmas! Anyway, I have to say Cheju-do is amazing! It's not as cold as Busan was when I left, but I've heard it can snow every once in a while. I just hope that once in a while doesn't come too fast! Dad, Sister Jung is actually Korean- she is from Taejeon. She is part of the second set of Korean missionaries to go to the Provo MTC since they shut down the MTC in Seoul, and we were roommates at the MTC. We came to the mission at the same time! I am really excited to be serving with her. My Korean has already started improving! (It helps that now I really DO have to speak Korean all the time!!) The elders we serve with here, Elder (Gi-Ook) Ryu (Korean) and Elder DeWaal, have been really helpful. (Side-note- Sister Jung and I were really excited to work with Elder DeWaal because he is came to the mission the same time as us too!) Anyway, Elder Ryu and Elder DeWaal are referring their female investigators to us, and are helping us to get to know members in the ward. We made it a goal to visit all the active members within the first two weeks, so by the time we went to church yesterday, we already knew half the people there! One day, we went to a sister's home to help her move from one side of the city to the other to live closer to the church. The elders and some members from the relief society were already there, and later much of the youth and brethren came to help out too! It was really cool to see everyone work together to help the single mom and her two kids. The branch has a warm family feeling which showed when we went to a ward party on Saturday night. It was so much fun! Elder Ryu had organized the whole thing and put together some really fun games and a great lesson about eternal families. The problem in the branch is that there are several families with single moms who recently divorced and their children. They need support from the missionaries, but it was a little bit awkward with just the elders here. That's where we come in! Part of the reason Sister Jung and I were sent here was to strengthen them and encourage their families to become/remain strong in the Church. Oh yes, plus I must tell you what I heard happened back on the yoochi (mainland)- Remember Hyun-a? This is going back to the sum mer. I taught her with Sister (Young-bin) Lee and had many lessons with her brother Dae-hyun, a member who was baptized in March. She got baptized in July, and I have since heard about her mom and sister (Hyun-ju) who have gotten baptized (at different times). Well, I heard that her DAD just got baptized too! That's amazing, because that means everyone in the family are now members of the Church! I was so happy to hear about it from Sister Lee, Elder Kemmerer (an elder I served with there who went back to serve in the same stake), AND President Jennings! (He called us to ask us about our new area, and told me about a special fireside they had for new members in Daegu). One time, someone asked me if I could just have one goal as a missionary, what it would be. I said that I would love to see an entire family embrace the gospel and all become members. Well, it came true! I am so grateful for the happiness the gospel can bring to our lives. I love families and am so happy that the Kim family can now all experience the blessings of the gospel. I know with all my heart that if we follow the prophet and obey Heavenly Father, we will be able to find the peace we so much desire in this life. I know that no matter what the alternative is, nothing else can bring us that deep and everlasting happiness. I know that when we follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ, it is then that we will truly be able to fulfill our purpose here on Earth. I'm especially grateful that families can be together forever and live again with Heavenly Father and our Savior.I love you all so much and am grateful for your examples of love and kindness. I appreciate the time we have to reflect on the birth of our Savior and his life during the Christmas season. I think it's interesting to read 3 Nephi 1, which talks about the sign of the Savior's birth, along with Luke 2. Both the Book of Mormon and the Bible truly do testify of our Savior!Have a great week! Love you!Alyssa
Hi everyone! Wow, this week went by much too fast! I'm glad you had a great early Christmas dinner with everyone! It sounds like it was a lot of fun! Haha, it's crazy to think that it's already been a year since last Christmas and all the snow that came. Sounds like it will be another white Christmas! Anyway, I have to say Cheju-do is amazing! It's not as cold as Busan was when I left, but I've heard it can snow every once in a while. I just hope that once in a while doesn't come too fast! Dad, Sister Jung is actually Korean- she is from Taejeon. She is part of the second set of Korean missionaries to go to the Provo MTC since they shut down the MTC in Seoul, and we were roommates at the MTC. We came to the mission at the same time! I am really excited to be serving with her. My Korean has already started improving! (It helps that now I really DO have to speak Korean all the time!!) The elders we serve with here, Elder (Gi-Ook) Ryu (Korean) and Elder DeWaal, have been really helpful. (Side-note- Sister Jung and I were really excited to work with Elder DeWaal because he is came to the mission the same time as us too!) Anyway, Elder Ryu and Elder DeWaal are referring their female investigators to us, and are helping us to get to know members in the ward. We made it a goal to visit all the active members within the first two weeks, so by the time we went to church yesterday, we already knew half the people there! One day, we went to a sister's home to help her move from one side of the city to the other to live closer to the church. The elders and some members from the relief society were already there, and later much of the youth and brethren came to help out too! It was really cool to see everyone work together to help the single mom and her two kids. The branch has a warm family feeling which showed when we went to a ward party on Saturday night. It was so much fun! Elder Ryu had organized the whole thing and put together some really fun games and a great lesson about eternal families. The problem in the branch is that there are several families with single moms who recently divorced and their children. They need support from the missionaries, but it was a little bit awkward with just the elders here. That's where we come in! Part of the reason Sister Jung and I were sent here was to strengthen them and encourage their families to become/remain strong in the Church. Oh yes, plus I must tell you what I heard happened back on the yoochi (mainland)- Remember Hyun-a? This is going back to the sum mer. I taught her with Sister (Young-bin) Lee and had many lessons with her brother Dae-hyun, a member who was baptized in March. She got baptized in July, and I have since heard about her mom and sister (Hyun-ju) who have gotten baptized (at different times). Well, I heard that her DAD just got baptized too! That's amazing, because that means everyone in the family are now members of the Church! I was so happy to hear about it from Sister Lee, Elder Kemmerer (an elder I served with there who went back to serve in the same stake), AND President Jennings! (He called us to ask us about our new area, and told me about a special fireside they had for new members in Daegu). One time, someone asked me if I could just have one goal as a missionary, what it would be. I said that I would love to see an entire family embrace the gospel and all become members. Well, it came true! I am so grateful for the happiness the gospel can bring to our lives. I love families and am so happy that the Kim family can now all experience the blessings of the gospel. I know with all my heart that if we follow the prophet and obey Heavenly Father, we will be able to find the peace we so much desire in this life. I know that no matter what the alternative is, nothing else can bring us that deep and everlasting happiness. I know that when we follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ, it is then that we will truly be able to fulfill our purpose here on Earth. I'm especially grateful that families can be together forever and live again with Heavenly Father and our Savior.I love you all so much and am grateful for your examples of love and kindness. I appreciate the time we have to reflect on the birth of our Savior and his life during the Christmas season. I think it's interesting to read 3 Nephi 1, which talks about the sign of the Savior's birth, along with Luke 2. Both the Book of Mormon and the Bible truly do testify of our Savior!Have a great week! Love you!Alyssa
Dec. 6, 2009
Hi everyone!It sounds like the Christmas season is off to a great start! That's great that Chris and Chelsea are going to see Brooke in the Nutcracker with Puujee. That will be so much fun! I got a letter from her a couple weeks ago, but haven't gotten a chance to write her back yet. Tell her I love her for me!!! She's awesome!! (Yes, I love you all too :) ) I love that you got the Christmas tree from Farmer Bennett again- it's great, you can just throw it over the fence! Isn't Christmas wonderful? I love this time of year! So Mom, you're directing the Mountainville school play? I bet with that, getting the ward choir ready for Christmas, and orchestra, you're way busy! Tell Brooke and Dad I'm proud of them for joining the choir- that's great! Anyway, you're probably wondering what my big news is. Well, it's the first day of my 7th transfer, and I am in....CHEJU DO!!!! It's craziness. I just flew here today! I thought for sure I would stay in my old area because my companion, Sister Beckstead is going home this week. But on Friday night, the APs told me that I was going to Cheju-do with Sister (Min-hee) Jung- we came into the mission at the same time! So what is Cheju-do, you ask? Good question! It's an island off the coast of Korea, and it's kind of known as "paradise" around here. It's really beautiful, and it's a popular vacation spot for people from mainland Korea and other countries. Cheju-do has a kind of mystical wonder for the missionaries in the Busan mission- the missionaries talk about "the do" like it's not in this world or something! I was really surprised to get the phone call because sister missionaries haven't served on Cheju-do for over a year. Sister Jennings, Pres. Jennings' wife, said that the members really wanted to get sisters back on the island, so President decided to send Sister Jung and me out here! We're out here on our own with two sets of elders on either side of the island. Thankfully, the elders are helping us a lot to get our footing and figure out how we get the sisters' work started up again. I heard the Relief Society sisters are really excited to meet us, and we're really excited to meet them! We're ready to get to know the branch and work hard to find people to teach. My other big news is that now I'm SENIOR! Sister Jung and I are what's called "co-senior"- which means we share responsibility and make decisions together about how we will do the work. I'm kind of nervous about being senior now, but now is as good time as ever for it to happen- there are so many new things going on! The sad part about both Sister Beckstead and I leaving the Goejeong/Daeshin/Youngdo area is that the sister missionaries won't be there for a while. The branches were sad to see us go- especially because now the Goejeong and Daeshin branches have to share a threesome of elders. They used to have us (the sisters), and a set of elders each. But unfortunately, the number of missionaries in the mission has to go down for a while. Sad day! Remember Su-hyun? She finally got permission to be baptized! It's happening this next Saturday (the week after Sis. Beckstead and I left). The whole branch was excited to hear that she can finally officially become a member. The AMAZING youth program embraced her as an unofficial member months ago, and she is doing great! I love her so much. I'm so excited for her! It was hard to say goodbye to all the amazing people that I've worked with for the past four months in Goejeong/Daeshin/Youngdo. The members there are so kind and caring. I am really going to miss them, but I know they're in good hands with the elders, and I'm excited to get to work in this new area! Oh yes, I just read the Christmas article Pres. Eyring wrote for the December Liahona on the plane ride over here. Wow. It's so inspirational! I definitely recommend it to everyone! I love the Christmas season and the opportunity we have to serve others and remember our Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season! Love you!Alyssa
Hi everyone!It sounds like the Christmas season is off to a great start! That's great that Chris and Chelsea are going to see Brooke in the Nutcracker with Puujee. That will be so much fun! I got a letter from her a couple weeks ago, but haven't gotten a chance to write her back yet. Tell her I love her for me!!! She's awesome!! (Yes, I love you all too :) ) I love that you got the Christmas tree from Farmer Bennett again- it's great, you can just throw it over the fence! Isn't Christmas wonderful? I love this time of year! So Mom, you're directing the Mountainville school play? I bet with that, getting the ward choir ready for Christmas, and orchestra, you're way busy! Tell Brooke and Dad I'm proud of them for joining the choir- that's great! Anyway, you're probably wondering what my big news is. Well, it's the first day of my 7th transfer, and I am in....CHEJU DO!!!! It's craziness. I just flew here today! I thought for sure I would stay in my old area because my companion, Sister Beckstead is going home this week. But on Friday night, the APs told me that I was going to Cheju-do with Sister (Min-hee) Jung- we came into the mission at the same time! So what is Cheju-do, you ask? Good question! It's an island off the coast of Korea, and it's kind of known as "paradise" around here. It's really beautiful, and it's a popular vacation spot for people from mainland Korea and other countries. Cheju-do has a kind of mystical wonder for the missionaries in the Busan mission- the missionaries talk about "the do" like it's not in this world or something! I was really surprised to get the phone call because sister missionaries haven't served on Cheju-do for over a year. Sister Jennings, Pres. Jennings' wife, said that the members really wanted to get sisters back on the island, so President decided to send Sister Jung and me out here! We're out here on our own with two sets of elders on either side of the island. Thankfully, the elders are helping us a lot to get our footing and figure out how we get the sisters' work started up again. I heard the Relief Society sisters are really excited to meet us, and we're really excited to meet them! We're ready to get to know the branch and work hard to find people to teach. My other big news is that now I'm SENIOR! Sister Jung and I are what's called "co-senior"- which means we share responsibility and make decisions together about how we will do the work. I'm kind of nervous about being senior now, but now is as good time as ever for it to happen- there are so many new things going on! The sad part about both Sister Beckstead and I leaving the Goejeong/Daeshin/Youngdo area is that the sister missionaries won't be there for a while. The branches were sad to see us go- especially because now the Goejeong and Daeshin branches have to share a threesome of elders. They used to have us (the sisters), and a set of elders each. But unfortunately, the number of missionaries in the mission has to go down for a while. Sad day! Remember Su-hyun? She finally got permission to be baptized! It's happening this next Saturday (the week after Sis. Beckstead and I left). The whole branch was excited to hear that she can finally officially become a member. The AMAZING youth program embraced her as an unofficial member months ago, and she is doing great! I love her so much. I'm so excited for her! It was hard to say goodbye to all the amazing people that I've worked with for the past four months in Goejeong/Daeshin/Youngdo. The members there are so kind and caring. I am really going to miss them, but I know they're in good hands with the elders, and I'm excited to get to work in this new area! Oh yes, I just read the Christmas article Pres. Eyring wrote for the December Liahona on the plane ride over here. Wow. It's so inspirational! I definitely recommend it to everyone! I love the Christmas season and the opportunity we have to serve others and remember our Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season! Love you!Alyssa
Monday, November 30, 2009
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
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
Monday, November 16, 2009
Hi Mom!
Sounds like things are going well back home. I can't believe the blizzard season has started already! Korea is starting to get really cold. I'm so glad to have my warm coat! It's still cold, but it makes it so much better! Tell Casey congrats on his new job. That's awesome! I can't believe Chris had his last Primary program. That's nuts! I'm sure Brooke will be amazing once again in the Nutcracker. And I heard you're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. That will be so much fun!
This week, once again, went by really fast! We got to visit Soon-Young Yong for the first time at her apartment and met her mom. She was really sweet! She is very old and can't leave her house very much. We were also excited to introduce Soon-Young to two single members her age in Youngdo, our other branch, and a new investigator. We all ate dinner together with the elders. It was great! Soon-Young discovered she was the same age as Mi-Young Go, one of the members. That means they're "chingu" (friends). Finding out someone is a chingu is very big and they hit it off great! Soon-Young also came to church yesterday. We hope she will be able to come to a special stake conference next Sunday. The Church put together a special broadcast for members in Asia. We hope they'll have an English room for the missionaries!
We also had dinner this week with a less active member in Youngdo, Sis. Harrison. She is Korean but her husband is American. I was on splits at the time- Sister So-Young Lee came with me. We had a wonderful experience talking to Sister Harrison and hope that she will decide to come out to church soon.
Yesterday we had two shiksas (meal invitations)! We had lunch with a counselor in the Daeshin branch and his family. I didn't think I could eat any more food... but we had to eat more that night at a shiksa of a Youngdo branch member's house! She served...get this...bosheentong. That probably means nothing to you, but to me that means DOG SOUP! Seriously. Fortunately, I avoid eating meat, so I didn't have to eat it. But my companion and the elders did! When I told the member that I couldn't eat the dogmeat, she said okay. Then she came out with a bowl of the broth! So I had some dogmeat soup broth. Didn't think I would ever say that!
We are going to have a big zone conference on Thanksgiving Day and a member of the seventy, Elder Choi (he's Korean) is going to speak to us! We're really excited, especially because Sister Jennings, our mission president's wife, is going to make Thanksgiving dinner! It'll be great.It's starting to get pretty cold in Korea but the work is still going well! We love our branches and the people we teach.
Love you! Hope you have a great week! Thank you for everything!
P.S. Dad, do you know someone named Blake Young? He served in the Busan mission in 1979-81 (maybe) and is the bishop (in Ogden) of an elder I serve with (Elder Mikkelsen). Let me know!
Love,Alyssa
Sounds like things are going well back home. I can't believe the blizzard season has started already! Korea is starting to get really cold. I'm so glad to have my warm coat! It's still cold, but it makes it so much better! Tell Casey congrats on his new job. That's awesome! I can't believe Chris had his last Primary program. That's nuts! I'm sure Brooke will be amazing once again in the Nutcracker. And I heard you're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. That will be so much fun!
This week, once again, went by really fast! We got to visit Soon-Young Yong for the first time at her apartment and met her mom. She was really sweet! She is very old and can't leave her house very much. We were also excited to introduce Soon-Young to two single members her age in Youngdo, our other branch, and a new investigator. We all ate dinner together with the elders. It was great! Soon-Young discovered she was the same age as Mi-Young Go, one of the members. That means they're "chingu" (friends). Finding out someone is a chingu is very big and they hit it off great! Soon-Young also came to church yesterday. We hope she will be able to come to a special stake conference next Sunday. The Church put together a special broadcast for members in Asia. We hope they'll have an English room for the missionaries!
We also had dinner this week with a less active member in Youngdo, Sis. Harrison. She is Korean but her husband is American. I was on splits at the time- Sister So-Young Lee came with me. We had a wonderful experience talking to Sister Harrison and hope that she will decide to come out to church soon.
Yesterday we had two shiksas (meal invitations)! We had lunch with a counselor in the Daeshin branch and his family. I didn't think I could eat any more food... but we had to eat more that night at a shiksa of a Youngdo branch member's house! She served...get this...bosheentong. That probably means nothing to you, but to me that means DOG SOUP! Seriously. Fortunately, I avoid eating meat, so I didn't have to eat it. But my companion and the elders did! When I told the member that I couldn't eat the dogmeat, she said okay. Then she came out with a bowl of the broth! So I had some dogmeat soup broth. Didn't think I would ever say that!
We are going to have a big zone conference on Thanksgiving Day and a member of the seventy, Elder Choi (he's Korean) is going to speak to us! We're really excited, especially because Sister Jennings, our mission president's wife, is going to make Thanksgiving dinner! It'll be great.It's starting to get pretty cold in Korea but the work is still going well! We love our branches and the people we teach.
Love you! Hope you have a great week! Thank you for everything!
P.S. Dad, do you know someone named Blake Young? He served in the Busan mission in 1979-81 (maybe) and is the bishop (in Ogden) of an elder I serve with (Elder Mikkelsen). Let me know!
Love,Alyssa
Monday, November 9, 2009
Hi Mom, Dad, and everyone!
That's so cool that the whole family could see and talk to Grandma through Oovoo for her birthday! I don't think I can use Oovoo to call you for Mother's day (or Christmas for that matter!) because we don't write on our own computers. I write either at the post office or a picture developing place. So sorry! I'll ask someone about it though.
I got your package. Thank you SO much! I really appreciate it. You're the best! I understand how you feel about packages, but I really love when the packages come from you, because it feels like home. But whatever you do for Christmas will be great!
The Halloween party was great! We had a blast hitting the pinata with the singles (six girls). Then we played pin the wart on the witch! Sister Beckstead got Halloween candy from her mom, so we got to hand that out as prizes. The singles loved it!
This week, we were able to find two new investigators! They are both referrals. One is not really interested in the church right now, but her sister referred her. She wants to meet with us again, though, so we want to teach her what we can! The other seems to be interested in the church, and we were able to teach her with two member friends. It was great! We're really excited about both of them.
Sue-hyun wasn't able to get baptized this Sunday because her parents suddenly withdrew their permission. We were so sad! She is a trooper though, and sang at the baptismal service for twin investigators of the elders in Goejong branch. She can still come to church and all the activities, and we're just continuing to pray that someday her parents' hearts will be softened.
On Saturday, the Goejong branch had a party outside the church. It was a lot of fun! We sat on the ground and had sahm-gyop-sahr (a really popular pork/bacon dish)- you eat it with lettuce. I didn't have it (because of the meat), but everyone else loved it! Then, the elders in our district (Goejong/Youngdo/Daeshin) did the upside-down hokey pokey dance....AGAIN! Goejong branch hadn't seen the dance yet, though. Sister Beckstead and I sat out that time. We decided it would be best if we just helped. :) It was cool because the brother of a man in the branch came from America. He is Korean but lives in America now with his American wife and family. He came back to Korea to visit with his 9 year old son Josh who doesn't know any English. Sister Beckstead took him under her wing and he hung out with the missionaries during the party so he could speak English to someone! He was really smart and told us a ton about Greek mythology! He reminded me a lot of Chris.
I have to go now, but I love you all!
Have a great week! Thank you for your prayers. It means a lot!
Alyssa
That's so cool that the whole family could see and talk to Grandma through Oovoo for her birthday! I don't think I can use Oovoo to call you for Mother's day (or Christmas for that matter!) because we don't write on our own computers. I write either at the post office or a picture developing place. So sorry! I'll ask someone about it though.
I got your package. Thank you SO much! I really appreciate it. You're the best! I understand how you feel about packages, but I really love when the packages come from you, because it feels like home. But whatever you do for Christmas will be great!
The Halloween party was great! We had a blast hitting the pinata with the singles (six girls). Then we played pin the wart on the witch! Sister Beckstead got Halloween candy from her mom, so we got to hand that out as prizes. The singles loved it!
This week, we were able to find two new investigators! They are both referrals. One is not really interested in the church right now, but her sister referred her. She wants to meet with us again, though, so we want to teach her what we can! The other seems to be interested in the church, and we were able to teach her with two member friends. It was great! We're really excited about both of them.
Sue-hyun wasn't able to get baptized this Sunday because her parents suddenly withdrew their permission. We were so sad! She is a trooper though, and sang at the baptismal service for twin investigators of the elders in Goejong branch. She can still come to church and all the activities, and we're just continuing to pray that someday her parents' hearts will be softened.
On Saturday, the Goejong branch had a party outside the church. It was a lot of fun! We sat on the ground and had sahm-gyop-sahr (a really popular pork/bacon dish)- you eat it with lettuce. I didn't have it (because of the meat), but everyone else loved it! Then, the elders in our district (Goejong/Youngdo/Daeshin) did the upside-down hokey pokey dance....AGAIN! Goejong branch hadn't seen the dance yet, though. Sister Beckstead and I sat out that time. We decided it would be best if we just helped. :) It was cool because the brother of a man in the branch came from America. He is Korean but lives in America now with his American wife and family. He came back to Korea to visit with his 9 year old son Josh who doesn't know any English. Sister Beckstead took him under her wing and he hung out with the missionaries during the party so he could speak English to someone! He was really smart and told us a ton about Greek mythology! He reminded me a lot of Chris.
I have to go now, but I love you all!
Have a great week! Thank you for your prayers. It means a lot!
Alyssa
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, No, 2, 2009
Hi everyone!
I'm SO excited to meet Puujee's cousin when she comes in January. Do you know her name? I knew that two sister missionaries were coming in January but I thought they were American. They don't have Halloween in Korea, but because of English academies, some children at least get some exposure to the idea of it. A member in the Youngdo branch runs an academy, so we helped her students trick or treat at some stores one night last week. It was really cute to see all the kids dressed up! On October 31, the Youngdo branch had a party, but it was just a coincidence that it happened to be the same day. It was a lot of fun! They wanted us, the missionaries, to prepare a really fun activity to show everyone. We got an idea from Elder (June-Woo) Jung to dress up like we were doing headstands and dance to the hokey-pokey. So we wore pants over our heads and sweatshirts on our legs with shoes on our hands and toe socks on our feet. We blew up balloons to stick in the hoods and be our "heads". Sounds confusing, right? It definitely was! With pants over our heads, we couldn't really tell what we were doing, and the members didn't understand the English in "hokey-pokey", so I'm sure they were bewildered by us. But it was fun because now we're just those crazy American missionaries (plus Elder Chun-Joon Lee)!! We're having a Halloween party in the Goejong branch tonight for their Family Home Evening group they have, so we're excited about that. The elders tried to make a pinata for the random candy we got, so I'm a little worried that the members are really going to get confused about Halloween! One of the Korean elders asked if they needed to buy Halloween presents for the party! We told them no, but just imagine. We could make it whatever want!
Anyway, I have to go, but I'm excited about this week! Sister Beckstead and I have lined up some appointments with less active members and potential investigators. And hopefully Su-hyun can get baptized on Sunday! It'll be a good week.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Alyssa
Hi everyone!
I'm SO excited to meet Puujee's cousin when she comes in January. Do you know her name? I knew that two sister missionaries were coming in January but I thought they were American. They don't have Halloween in Korea, but because of English academies, some children at least get some exposure to the idea of it. A member in the Youngdo branch runs an academy, so we helped her students trick or treat at some stores one night last week. It was really cute to see all the kids dressed up! On October 31, the Youngdo branch had a party, but it was just a coincidence that it happened to be the same day. It was a lot of fun! They wanted us, the missionaries, to prepare a really fun activity to show everyone. We got an idea from Elder (June-Woo) Jung to dress up like we were doing headstands and dance to the hokey-pokey. So we wore pants over our heads and sweatshirts on our legs with shoes on our hands and toe socks on our feet. We blew up balloons to stick in the hoods and be our "heads". Sounds confusing, right? It definitely was! With pants over our heads, we couldn't really tell what we were doing, and the members didn't understand the English in "hokey-pokey", so I'm sure they were bewildered by us. But it was fun because now we're just those crazy American missionaries (plus Elder Chun-Joon Lee)!! We're having a Halloween party in the Goejong branch tonight for their Family Home Evening group they have, so we're excited about that. The elders tried to make a pinata for the random candy we got, so I'm a little worried that the members are really going to get confused about Halloween! One of the Korean elders asked if they needed to buy Halloween presents for the party! We told them no, but just imagine. We could make it whatever want!
Anyway, I have to go, but I'm excited about this week! Sister Beckstead and I have lined up some appointments with less active members and potential investigators. And hopefully Su-hyun can get baptized on Sunday! It'll be a good week.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Alyssa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
