Week 31

Hello Family!!

 

It was so great to see you all this week. So glad that we skyped!! It was way fun!! And it was priceless to be fed lettuce wraps while skyping with you...haha. good times. Glad you all had a merry christmas and I'm glad that my letters got there...sorry they were a little late. I really loved reading all of your letters. thank you!!! Glad you made it to NY safely and I hope you have a great time ringing in the new year. Sister Park and I decided that at 10:29 we will have a little celebration and then go to bed at 10:30 haha :)

 

Exciting news...BETH GOT BAPTIZED!!!! Sunday was Beth's baptism and it was so great! The baptismal service turned out really well and the ward was so great. Since she doesn't understand korean they did everything in Korean and English for her. It was sweet to hear all of these ward members speaking in English. It's probably what it sounds like when I speak korean to them. The missionaries all sang the I Like to Look for Rainbows song and it was really sweet. She really liked the song. Also her husband baptized her!!! he was able to attend the baptism and she decided that she did want him to baptize her so it was really tender! Super happy for her and her family!!!! I'm excited to teach her about the temple and help to prepare her family to go to the temple to be sealed eventually. I will attach some pics from the baptism.

 

Yesterday was a super great sunday because all of the talks and classes were super inspired and exactly what our investigators needed to hear. Jo un jeong (the artist) came to church and the talks were perfect for her! she was able to meet with the bishop after sacrament meeting and it went really well. We also met with her and her daughter on Saturday. She was telling her daughter that she should investigate our church because it has helped her life so much...so cool!!! She really wants her whole family to learn about our church because she loves that our church focuses on the family. I think jo en jeon is going to get baptized soon...I can feel it! i'm very excited for her!!

 

Also on Saturday night there was an awesome stake activity. It included dances, singing and different performances. It was so much fun and jo un jeong came to that as well and she was so happy. She loved it! We are seeing a lot of progress in her in just this past week so that is awesome! The Lord really answers our prayers!

 

We also had a lesson with shin dong hyeon (she is 20 years old) on friday night and it was super great. we taught about how the bom is the key to know if this church is true and whether or not you should be baptized. We had amember come to the lesson (one of the youth) and she told about her conversion and it was perfect! she said that she will think about baptism, so we are excited about that!

 

Life is great here...we are hard at work and loving it :) It's the best to see people start to change and realize that this message is really true and how God loves them. We had dinner at a member's house last night and it was fun. We shared a message about our baptismal covenants and how everytime we take the sacrament we can feel that same joy and love that we felt when we are baptized, so I'd encourage all of you to think about the covenants you made when you were baptized when you partake of the sacrament this week.

 

I love you all!!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 30

Hello dear family!!

 

Can you believe Christmas is on Wednesday?! I am very excited to call you all and talk to you then!! This morning we opened our christmas presents because we won't have time on actual christmas to do so. I was overwhelmed with all of your love. Thank you so much!!!! I love you all so dearly! I sent off my christmas letters last week, so hopefully they get to you in time. I am excited to open the christmas letters on christmas eve :)

 

This past week we were really really busy! we had appointments all over the place! It was fun. We have 12 people that we are meeting with right now...most of them have maily english interest right now but we have 4 people that are progressing so that is exciting!! We met with Beth a lot this week to help her prepare for baptism on next sunday. She is doing well. She is a sweetie and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to teach her. She called us and asked for our help this week when she needed to go to the doctor but she doesn't really understand korean so she asked for our help to translate. It was sweet to have her ask for help because it shows that she trusts us and appreciates us teaching her. She asked us to come take pictures of her and her son in the snow next time it snows...cute! She is doing well and preparing for her baptism on sunday. We have a few more commandments to teach her about and we are going to review the baptismal interview questions before she gets interviewd this week. I hope that everything goes well :)

 

This week we jo un jeong (the artist) came to church again, which is exciting! she used to come a lot, but she hasn't been in a while but she came this week! And we are planning to have a lesson and get lunch together on christmas so I am excited for that! she has been having a really hard time in her personal life lately and it has been sweet to share our testimonies about how she can receive peace, hope and comfort through the atonement of Christ and exercising her faith in Him. I really pray that she will be able to commit to baptism sometime soon! pray for her :)

 

I don't remember if i have talked about lee so young or not, but she is a young mom that we meet with. we practice english with her 8 year old son for 30 minutes and teach about our church for 30 minutes. She is a sweetie. She has been reading the bom and really likes it!!! she is from china so she has no religious background at all. We have been teaching her about the plan of salvation and it has gone well so far. She is going to come to our ward christmas party tonight so we are excited about that! she said she will be able to come to church in january and we are planning to invite her to be baptized this week. Pray that goes well for us :) 

 

We had the missionary christmas party on friday and it was so fun to see all of the missionaries! there were about 150 missionareis there...it was a party! we got to watch home alone, which was fun. WE had a white elephant gift exchange and a huge lunch. I got to see Sister wadsworth and jacklin (mtc comps) and sister bell!!! I love them all so much and it was so great to reunite! I got to see a member from my old area too because the party was in my old area. we also had a music and the spoken word part, which was really good. lots of people are very talented :) 

 

I have a bunch of pictures to send, but the normal place we email at only had one computer today and the computers we are using don't have a usb thing to plug in for my camera so I will have to send them next week. 

 

Sister Park and I are keeping busy and are feeling a little overwhelmed with all that we have to do, but the good news is that we can do it!!!! One of my favorite memories of the week was when we were walking to an appointment and it started to snow hard core. Of course, it was the day that we were the least prepared for snow, but we just kept going and were singing christmas carols together. So tender :) when we got to the appointment we were covered in snow, but happy :) I have a picture I'll send next week haha We also went caroling with some ward members to less actives and it was fun! Christmas is the best! I'm excited for the party tonight!

 

Love you all! I am so thankful for you and for our Savior this Christmas season. I know that He lives and that through Him we can do all things! thank you for all of your love and examples!!! can't wait to talk to you all in 2 days!!! 

 

Love

Sister Livingston 

Week 29

Hello Family!!!

 

I seriously can't believe that Christmas is next week!! Im so excited!! I love the Christmas season. Christmas is not a very big deal here like in America, but there is still that Christmas spirit in the air. Our ward has a cute christmas tree that they youth decorated and we all wrote our Christmas wishes on. It's cute. We get to have our mission Christmas party on friday and I am soooo pumped!! I just can't wait to see me old companions and hear about their experiences :) it will be a sweet time. We also are having a ward christmas party on the 23rd and we are hoping that a lot of our investigators will be able to come to that. It should be a good time.  

 

This past week we were super busy!! we met with new investigators and had a lot of appointments. It was exciting to almost always have an appointment to be going to! It's also super nice because that means we don't have to be outside in the cold all day :) I bought some boots last week and it was just in time becaue it snowed again this week! I'm very grateful for my new boots :) and a kind woman in my ward is lending me one of her extra winter coats because she said that my coat wasn't warm enough. I thought I was fine, but she brought the coat to church and gave it to me to use during the winter season. So that was really nice :)

 

My favorite experiences this week:

On Saturday we met with jo un jeon (the artist) and we were talking about her experiences in reading the book of mormon. we asked her to read 3 Nephi and so she has been reading it for the past few weeks. This week she had a really spiritual experiences when reading ch16 v2-3 about how Christ will appear to his lost sheep. it really touched her and she received comfort from it. It was really sweet to hear about her gaining a testimony about the book of mormon. That is something that I have really gained a testimony of while on my mission. I have seen over and over again that those people that read the BOM see progression and change in their lives while those that don't, don't progress. I've seen it in my life too. The bom seriously has power to change your life!!! so make sure you are studying it every day ;)

 

yesterday we met with Beth (she is from the philippines). She is married to a korean man in our ward and they have one little boy. She comes to church everyweek, so we started teaching her the discussions and she has a baptism date for the 29th!!! She is super kind and has so much faith! she grew up catholic so it was kind of hard for her to think about joining a different religion at first, but she always feels really good when she reads the bom and prays so she believes that it is true. We had a sweet lesson yesterday about the plan of salvation. she recently had a hard tim with something and we were able to share our testimonies that this life is not the only life and how god takes care of His children. I teach the lessons in English and my companion added her testimony in korean and I translated for her at the end and it was a really sweet experience. we were all crying. But I am so thankful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation that we have. It is such a blessing and gives us such a different perspectiv eon life. grateful :)

 

On Monday night we visited our relief society president to share a message with her and I shared about how the atonement has such power and gives us hope in this life. It was one of those lessons that the spirit was there and everyone felt what they needed to feel. It was a great way to start out the week.

 

We had a lot of different experiences and lessons this week, but those were some of my favorites :)

 

I'm excited to talk to you all next week! I'm planning to call home at around 9:00 am on my Christmas morning, so it will be your Christmas eve. I will miss you all, but I really do know that  I am where I need to be. It's a privilege to get to spend Christmas with my Korean family this year :) And I get to be teaching people about Christ during Chirstmas time...I can't think of a better way to spend the holidays. Love you all!!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

 

p.s. where in Korea is the korean family from? people in my ward were curious :)

Week 28

all ready to teach some english and the gospel!!!

my reaction to the snow at 6:30 am haha

we made soup with the young women one day last week

thanksgiving food!

some lovely sista missionaries :)

Hi family!!

 

This was another great week here in Korea! It wasn't as cold this week, which was nice :) This past transfer I had a lot of personal growth and learned a lot and I am feeling really good and happy and grateful right now. I just want to say thank you for all of your love and support! I love you all and I want you all to know that I know that the atonement is so real. It really is an enabling power that allows us to progress and overcome hard things. Through the atonement we really can change and become the person that Heavenly Father wants us to be. I'm feeling really grateful for that this past week.

 

This week we unfortunately had some investigators drop, but we also met some new investigators, so that's good. We had a combined district meeting this week and it was so good!!! We finished a 40 day relay fast as a mission on that day and there were a lot of miracles experienced be the missionaries in our mission from that 40 day fast. We met with sister Shin dong hyeon (she is 20 years old) this week and she is awesome! She really likes our church and agrees with what we teach. We can always feel the spirit really strong in our lessons with her. I asked her if she would be baptized when she comes to know thses things for herself and she said of course! But the main issue is that she works on sunday. So we don't know exactly what to do about that. All we can do for now is help to build up her faith so that she will have the desire to come to church and she can pray to find out a way for her to come to church.

 

Other things that happened this week are that we went to a member's choir concert on friday night with our investigator and it was so much fun! All of the songs were about mothers and they had some dancing and these really really cute korean kids sang and danced and it was just so cute!! It was really fun to support the members and help our investigator to meet members as well.

 

We also had a fun English activity on Saturday night with all of the missionaries in our ward and all of our english interest investigators. It was a success and we met 1 new investogator there and another potential investigator. We also got to each american brownies, which is always a treat :)

 

We are also teaching this woman who has no religious background, but we taught her the first lesson this week and I am really excited to see what happens. For some reason I really believe that she and her family are going to get baptized...maybe not really soon, but I think it's going to happen.

 

Our ward is kind of struggling righ now so we as missionaries are focusing on our members right now and how we can help them to regain some hope and light through the atonement. We have been delivering a lot of message cards to members homes with our testimonies on them to try to help them feel happy during this hard time.

 

I am excited for Christmas! Can't believe it is so soon! So apparently I can call home either on the 24th, 25th, or 26th based off of when it works best for you guys. So when should I call you?!  Love you all!!! I hope you have a great week! Keep up all of the great work and always remember that through living the gospel we can be happy :) Thank you for all of your love and support!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

 

p.s. the philippino woman has a baptsim date for the 22nd!! woohoo!! hopefully all goes well for her!! Pray for Beth!!!

Week 27

Hello family!!!

Another transfer has come and gone here in Korea. Sister Park and I are staying together in our area, so no big transfer news here. This past transfer was filled with a lot of new and learning experiences for me since we were co-senior together and we both just finished being greenies, so we're excited to start a new transfer together and to have more confidence in what we are doing. 

BIG NEWS......it snowed!!!!! Wednesday was the first snow of the season. It has been pretty chilly here haha. But we are still doing well and trying to work hard. We have been continuing to teach our investigators and some people are finally starting to progress, which is great news! We had 3 investigators come to church yesterday, which is always the best. That's usually the hardest thing is to get people to come to church because a lot of people work on sundays. 

This week on Tuesday we met these two girls (Shin dong hyeon and kim na yeon) that are both 20 years old. They wanted to practice english with me but they ended up being super interested the gospel so we have met with them about 3 times now. This past week though was super good. The spirit was super strong in our lesson and they were like "wow, you guys are so happy and happiness is like radiating from you when you talk about this." It was so nice to hear! It's so true that this gospel really makes me so happy!!! The main issue with them though is that they work on sunday....but I'm hoping that as we continue to meet they will continue to feel the spirit and have the desire to feel that spirit all the time by being baptized and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. 

On wednesday we met jo un jeong (artist) and it was a super good lesson. We were all crying by the end of it haha. But I think it was just what she needed at that time, which is always the best. We talked a lot about how the atonement can relieve her of heavy burdens that she feels and that it is an enabling power to help us accomplish things we wouldn't be able to do on our own. 

This week on Thanksgiving some "mid singles" in the ward invited us over for dinner and we ate japanese food :) it was delicious. and they are so nice. I really like them. They were showing us pictures from their traveling. 

Last night a member gave us some left over thanksgiving food that she made so I got to eat turkey and and potatoes and stuffing last night!! woo hoo!! 

Sorry this is kind of shorter than normal but I'm running out of time, but I love you all so much!!! I hope you all have great weeks and know that I love you all dearly!! 

Love

Sister Livingston