Week 80

Hey there family!!

We had another good and busy week!! This week was filled with quite a few surprises...

First of all, turns out that Korea is FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It snowed literally everyday this week. But we still just bundled up and went to work. Luckily we had a lot of appointments on most days so we could be inside and avoid the cold and snow.

Second of all, Hayree was supposed to get baptized yesterday, but she actually didn't end up getting baptized :( We finished the interview and everything was all set last sunday, but she contacted us again on tuesday night saying that she wanted to meet with us and her dad and aunt to talk about baptism again. Her grandmother is a hard core buddhist and she talked to Hayree about her baptism in a way that made her start to doubt whether she was really ready or not to be baptized yet. So She told us that she wanted some more time to prepare to be baptized. I don't think anyone will quite understand what Sister Ha and I felt that night when we got home...we were pretty sad. But we still have faith that she will be baptized in her right time and she will be even more prepared and willing to make that covenant when she does. It will be a happy day when she really comes to know this is true for herself. She is still planning to come to church and meet with the missionaries, so her baptismal date has been delayed for now. That was definitely unexpected this week, but usually when something likek that happens in missionary work, it means that another miracle is on its way...so that's how we decided to look at it.

The next day, on Wednesday we were able to meet with Sister Bae (investigator) who we haven't been able to meet in a really long time. But we met her with a member in the ward and it ended up being such an awesome experience!! We were sharing a message with her about the temple because she has expressed interest in going to the temple. She wants to be able to have a place to really worship Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...when she told us that, we immediately thought of the temple and how we needed to not only help her to prepare for baptism, but to prepare to go to the temple. So we were sharing a message about how covenants prepare us to go to the temple. We taught about the baptismal covenant and how it is the first step toward going to the temple. It was really good. Then the member looked at me and mouthed the word 침례 (which means baptism) to me while my companion was talking. So then when I started talking I asked her "in order to prepare to go to the temple will you be baptized?" And she said yes!!! We were all so happy!! She is such a wonderful woman...feels like family whenever we visit her. (she is 64 years old). She doesn't have a baptismal date yet, but we have a goal to prepare for baptism together. I'm really excited for her. Then the really fun part was after we left the appointment and were walking to the bus stop with the member we all talked about how we were connected by the spirit to know what to say...we call ourselves a threesome because this member helps us out  A TON!!! she is amazing. SO thankful for Sister Kim. There is no happiness that quite compares with the joy you feel when you participate in the work of the Lord. It's the best.

Yesterday I bore my testimony at church because it was my last fast sunday...you could say some tears were shed. I actually haven't thought that much about the fact that I'm going home...it hasn't really hit me yet. I feel like I'm just going to keep doing this forever so I think it's going to be a bit of a shock when this ends all of the sudden. I'm excited to see you all, but I'm also pretty devestated about having to leave. Luckily I have this last week to give it my all.

I love this gospel and our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that they love us too. I am so thankful!!!

Love you all!!

Sister Livingston  

Week 79

Hey there family!!

Happy Thanksgiving last week! Sounds like you all had a great time. I had a good day...didn't eat any turkey, but I sure felt the spirit of gratitude...and I at some other delicious korean food instead :)

We had another great week here in Korea^^

On Sunday the people that got baptized last week received the gift of the Holy Ghost, so they are official members of the church now...yay for them! And our investigator Hayree had her baptismal interview and is all set to be baptized on Sunday! I am excited for her! This will probably be the last baptism that I attend as a missionary, so I think it will be an especially tender experience.

This past week we were busy meeting with investigators and we spent a lot of time with members as well. This is the season in Korea where everyone makes enough kimchee to last them for the whole year...it's a lot of kimchee ^^ This event is called kimjang. So we were invited over to one Sister's house for kimjang and she fed us the traditional food you eat with fresh kimchee. It was DELICIOUS!! They eat it with boiled pork meat and it is oh, so good. Also this week on Saturday a family invited us over for lunch and we at some more really delicious food then as well. I will definitely be missing all of the yummy food here in Korea.

On Saturday night we had a really fun ward activity...it was a Fall Musical Festival. Koreans are all musically talented and they all love to sing!! So it was awesome. All of the missionaries serving in our ward did a little musical skit that the members loved (we won first place, but none of us were there to receive it because the activity went past 9:00 haha) One elder serving with me is really good at the drums, so he played the drums in our skit and it was the best thing. He was loving life haha. Lots of investigators and members participated so it ended up being a really great activity.

Last week one of our investigators was really starting to progress, so we are really excited for her. Her name is Sister Chang and we are teaching her, while the Elders are teaching her husband. The lived in America for a while and now moved back to Korea, but they wanted to keep practicing English so that's why they first started meeting with us. She didn't really have any gospel interest at first, but this past week when we met she told us that she now really likes learning about God and has interest!!!! We were so excited!! When I met her for the first time I felt like she was already a member of our church. I would call her my Korean mother right now...she is wonderful. We've been reading the Book of Mormon together and she is reading it herself as well. She especially has a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation, like why are we here in this life and what is our purpose...I think she is starting to find some answers in the Book of Mormon, which is so exciting!! One of our goals is to set a baptismal date with her before I leave...we'll see how she keeps progressing. We are hoping that she will come to the baptismal service on Sunday. You can keep Sister Chang and her husband Brother Park in your prayers :)

ALSO, I received some other really exciting news this week...Do you all remember the artist investigator in my last area that I would always talk about? Sister Jo?? GUESS WHAT?!?!? She is getting baptized TODAY!!!!!! She and her daughter finally made the commitment and decision to be baptized. I AM SO HAPPY FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is someone that I would meet  almost every week for the 9 months that I was in gwangju. She definitely has a tender spot in my heart. She is probably one of the people that I have prayed the most for on my mission...one of those people I came to Korea to meet. So I am so happy for her and know that there are a lot of blessing waiting for her as she makes that covenant with the Lord.

Everyone keeps saying that there will be lots of miracles before I go home...and it is true!!! There are lots of miracles that I wasn't expecting, but I am so glad that I could witness and be a part of. This gospel is true and I love it!!

I love all of you!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 78

Hello!!!

We had another fantastic week this week. We are staying supere busy meeting with a lot of people and lots of people are progressing, so it is exciting!!

Yesterday was Brother Kim and Sister Jeong's baptism and it was probably the best baptismal service I have ever been to. It was one of the most spiritual experiences and we just all felt so happy. There were a lot of prayers answered yesterday that helped to make it a special day. I would say that the thing I felt the strongest yesterday was that families really are forever. This is what I wrote in my journal yesterday:

"Today was 김정주형제님 (84yrs old) and 정금랑자매님's (83 yrs old) baptism. IT was the BEST baptism I have been to yet. The spirit was so strong and there was such a strong feeling of love in the room-love for one another and love for God and this gospel. I think it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. 정금랑자매님 (Sister Jeong) just started bawling when the baptismal service started. She just hunched over and was crying as we sang the opening hymn. She was so overcome with the spirit and I think so filled with the love of God, she couldn't contain it. 조광진형제님 (Brother Jo) Came from Busan to baptize them (He was an elder that served here and taught them before he went home). 김담윤형제님 (their son) bore his testimony and it was really tender. He got emotional and he said that he is happy because now that his parents know this church is true, when they pass on they will be able to let their other ancestors know this is true. This family will get to be sealed in the temple and go to the Celestial Kingdom together. I know that's true and it was beautiful to get to participate in. Sister Ha and I sang the song "I Need Thee Every Hour" for a special musical number. After the baptism the Bishop spoke and talked about how Brother Kim will receive the priesthood and pass and bless the sacrament and then he will go to the temple with his wife and the will be sealed together for eternity. What a beautiful day that will be! The closing song was "Nearer My God to Thee" and I could hardly sing it, I was too emotional. I was so happy for them and I was reminded that THIS is why I came on a mission. And I felt a feeling of approval from the Lord and Heavenly Father for the work that I've dong here on my mission. I know that I will continue to be blessed because of the service that I have given. Such a happy day!"

Yesterday was a great day. We were talking with the other sisters that live in our house and we all thought that everyone was probably dancing in the spirit world because they are soooo happy. That's what this work and this life is all about. Finding that happiness and sharing it with others. We receive that fulness of joy when we participate in the work of the Lord because we are becoming a little bit more like Him.

I love you all and am so thankful for you!!!!!! I hope you have a very happy thanksgiving!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 77

Hey all!!

This has been an interesting week. It was filled with lots of good news and also some sad news...

We had our zone conference this week and I did a training on becoming one. Talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the perfect example of being one because of their love and the Savior's sacrifice to follow the will of the Father. We applied it to our lives as missionaries and invited the missionaries to make a list of things that they want to do with their companion this transfer in order to become one with each other. It ended up going well and I appreciated the opportunity to bear my testimony to the missionaries in my zone before I go home.

We had the first snow this week!!!!! It wasn't very much snow and didn't stick at all, but we could see it falling!! And one day we were walking outside and it started to rain, so we took a bus and when we got out of the bus it started to hail on us!!!! My companion and I were so surprised and we ran to the nearest store to hide under this tent that was outside and then ran to the church...definitely wasn't expecting to get hailed on this week haha. The temperature drastically dropped this week...winter has officially begun!

Friday morning ended up being a really sad start to our day. We woke up to having some texts on our phone from our investigators...3 of our progressing investigators dropped us that morning....so sad!! one of them got busy with a part time job and the other two were the kids that have been coming to church and progressing so well! The girl texted us that they couldn't meet anymore and she was really sad about it. We tried to contact their mother again, but she isn't answering our calls...we are assuming that the mother didn't want them to attend church anymore. It was just so all of the sudden and caught both my companion and I really off guard. We'll just say that some tears were shed that morning, but since then we have been blessed with some other miracles.

On Saturday we were able to meet with Hayree, who is 16 years old and her aunt is a memebr of our ward and we could set a new baptismal date with her. She is planning to be baptized on December 7th. And The grandparent investigators that we are teaching are ready to be baptized on Sunday, the 23rd!! We also were able to meet some new investigators this week as well, so the Lord has been blessing us a lot.

I am very thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord here in Korea!! I'm really excited for Brother Kim and Sister Jeong to be baptized on Sunday. I'm excited for waht it means for their family. Yesterday we finished the last lesson and their son was teaching it. He taught about eternal marriage and the temple and the priesthood and it was so good! The grandma especially doesn't remember everything, but she said that she has always prayed that she would be able to live eternally with Heavenly Father, so she was really glad to hear that the purpose of our life is to be sealed in the temple in order to live with God and continue to progress as a family. She said that she was really grateful to come to know the Mormon Church so that she can prepare to do that. It was really sweet!!

I love you all!! And I'm excited to see you in a month!!!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 76

Hello dear family!!

We had another great week here in Cheonan Korea! We have been busy and are excited to be starting another transfer today...there is so much potential and lots of good things happening right now, so we are feeling really happy and grateful!

Let me just say that I LOVE my companion. She is the best. Last week on Thursday when we did our weekly planning for the next week and set goals for the transfer we decided on a motto for our last transfer together. Out motto is "All is well, all is well!" or in Korean, "모든 것 잘 되리!" We are working really hard to become one and just give everything we can this transfer. We have already seen a lot of miracles and are expecting to see more. It's hard for me to put into words how I am feeling right now. If you read Alma 26 that's probably as close as I can get to expressing it. Missionary work is the best!

Yesterday we were able to set a baptismal date for two of our investigators. They are the parents of a member in our ward (so they are probably in their 80s I would guess). They have been coming to church with their son and his family for quite some time now and we the son has been teaching the lessons to his parents with us during Sunday School at church. They are almost done with the lessons and they agreed to be baptized on November 23rd!! It's so exciting to think of their family all becoming one in the gospel! I'm really happy for their family and that in a year from now they will be able to go to the temple together to be sealed!!!! Families are just the best! I know that their family has been praying for the grandparents to accept the gospel for a long time, so it is a miracle for all of them :)

This week we had MLC, so all of the missionary leaders met with President Shin and received training and talked about our goals. We especially talked about becoming one as a mission, so we will do some more training on that on Tuesday at our combined district metting. (Pray for me that I will do well on my training on tuesday:))

Our other investigators are doing well. Lots of people are busy and can't meet, but the 13 and 11 year old kids are doing really well. They came to church again yesterday and liked it. The 11 year old girl is going to participate in the Primary Program next week, so that's exciting! We taught them about baptism and they said that they wanted to be baptized! We just need to meet with their parents and get their permission for them to receive baptism. They are both great kids who love coming to church and have a belief in God and want to follow Jesus Christ. So I pray that they will be a good example for their family and their family will also have the desire to learn more about our church someday. (Their parents are Buddhist).

Everything is going really well! I'm excited to see what's in store for this last transfer. I know that I have been so blessed to meet and come to love so many people here in Korea. I LOVE the scriptures and I am so thankful for them. I know that through reading the Book of Mormon we become happier and we will feel God's love. I think one of the things I will miss the most from my mission is having the time already set aside for me to study the scriptures for an hour everyday. Something that I definitely want to keep up is having a daily personal study. I hope that you all take the time as well to study the scriptures everyday. It's the best!!

I love you all and am so thankful for you!! God  be with you till we meet again!!

Love,

Sister Livingston

p.s. last pday we went to this awesome old school korean village and had a blast taking pictures ane we also ate delicious hand made noodle soup. best pday ever!!

Week 75

Hey all!!

Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write this email today...lots to do, but we had another great and crazy week here. We were really busy preparing for the Halloween party this week and meeting with investigators and I got sick, but I'm feeling a lot better now! Today is transfer calls so that means that next week is the start of my last transfer!!!! We just got transfer calls and I am staying with my companion Sister Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST NEWS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are going to rock this last transfer together! We have a lot of people that are progressing and we hope to be able to help get baptized :) That means that I think there is only 6 more times to email you all before I get home...crazy!!

This week on Monday we went to Daejeon to the mission office for my companion to take an english test so I got to see President and Sister Shin and the senior couple missionaries...yay!!

This week a lot of people progressed, so that was exciting! Two kids that we are teaching came to church yesterday! We picked them up and they really liked it so hopefully they will keep coming!

Our Halloween party was a major success!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there were a lot or people that came and really enjoyed it. We worked really hard to make it fun and to have a lot of investigators attend. I was a cat (actually a pink leopard but...I'll send you some pics).

 Yesterday while I was at church I was overcome with the feeling of just love and gratitude. I felt and overwhelming feeling of just love for the people that I am serving here. I feel like I don't know the people in this ward as well as I did in my last ward, so sometimes that's been hard, but the Lord blessed me with the ability to just love them, so I was grateful for that. I hope you all have a great week and I love you all so much!!!

Sorry this email is so short!! But I hope you can feel my love!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 74

Hey there!!

Happy Halloween!!!! They don't celebrate halloween here in korea, but the foriegn missionaries usually throw a halloween party at the church, so we are having a party on the day after halloween...should be fun :)

This week we had another great busy week. We met some new investigators and our investigators are progressing!! We all fasted as a mission last monday because our mission was kind of in a slump...there hadn't been any baptisms in a few weeks in a row, so we all decided to fast together and this week there ended up being 6 baptisms...so it was a week of miracles all across the Daejeon mission!

One of the miracles for us this week is that our investigator accepted a baptismal date for November 23rd!! She is the neice of a member in our ward and she used to meet the missionaries when she was in elementary school, but then her aunt moved to america and I guess they lost contact with the missionaries, but now she is in middle school she is 15 years old and she has been coming out to church with her aunt for the past month. So we are really excited for her!! Her name is Hayree so you can pray for her :)

Also we met 2 new investigators through our English advertisements. They are 13 and 11 years old (brother and sister) and their mom wants them to study English and thinks it is good for them to learn about church. The mom herself is Buddhist, but she thinks that her children should choose for themselves and the kids really like going to church. We asked the kids if they thought that their mom would let them come to our church on Sunday and they said probably not, but then we got a call from their mom that night that said she was kind of worried about having her kids go to church, but she liked us so much that she thinks it will be good and gave permission for them to come to church!! So if they come next week and have a good experience, it could work out really well for them!! Our goal is to help them make a happy family at home. They are really cute. Their names are Minsung (boy) and Reeyoon (girl). So you can pray for them and their family as well :)

We had another investigator come to church this week and had a really great lesson with her during the sunday school time with a member so that was exciting! We are going to try to invite her to be baptized this week. Pray for Sister Bay!!!

I feel like there are a lot of prepared people being sent into our path and I am so grateful to know them and to share my testimony with them. I love this gospel because it fills me with hope. I know it is true. I love you all and hope you have a great week!! See you in a few weeks!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 73

Hello all!!

Another week has flown by...seriously can't believe how fast time is going! But we had a good week here. We were busy with meeting new investigators and ones we've been meeting with for a while. Yesterday 4 investigators came to church so that was exciting!! One of the people that came to church is from Mongolia. She called us because she wanted to learn English, but she was also excited to come to church. We haven't been able to meet her recently because of work, but kept inviting her to church and she came yesterday!! She could only stay for Relief Society, but she said that she wants to keep coming. (She is really good at Korean btw).

We also witnessed a miracle this week...so last monday my companion and I were fasting for our investigators and to know how to help them because there are lots of people that are so close...just not quite there yet and we want to help them! so we were fasting and going to break our fast at 5 on monday evening. We had 2 appointments set up for monday night, but they both canceled throughout the day, so we were going home to break our fast and we weren't sure what to do for the rest of the night when we got a call from our English adverisement. It was a 15 year old girl who said that she wanted to meet and she happened to have time that night. So we met her at 7:00 at the church on Monday night and she is awesome!!! Literally an answer to our prayers. She loves America and wants to learn all that she can about it because she wants to work in touristry later. We met her 3 times this past week and taught her about the restoration and the plan of salvation and she accepted everything really well. She will hopefully be able to attend church next week. Her name is Hanur, it means Sky in Korean. It was a blessing from Heavenly Father to be able to meet her. I hope that she will continue to be able to progress!!

This week I've been thinking a lot about family history because we heard a lot about that in General Conference and we were teaching some investigators about family history work. So it got me thinking about our family and I reread the family history stories about Myrtle Amelia Thorpe Malstrom and Marie Malstrom Weilenmann and LOVED it! :) It's so cool to think of family members that have already passed away and we are all working together to do this missionary work. I felt a little more connected to them this week. I loved reading about how Great Grandma Malstrom went on a mission in the Western States. This is how she described her mission, "My mission was one of the very most interesting chapters in my life. Next to bearing my children, it was my happiest experience." I haven't had any children yet haha, but I would have to agree. This has been a very interesting chapter of my life and probably will continue to be one of the happiest experiences. Super grateful.

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts and help for getting me set up for school! I love you all and am so thankful for you!!

Love,

Sister Livingston

pics

we went on the roof of these little girls' house and took pictures...they are cuties:)

picture with 2 girls that we are teaching, the one by my companion is the one that wants to get baptized, but we don't have her mom's permission yet.

Week 72

Hello all!

We had a great week here!! The highlight was definitely General Conference!! I love getting to hear from our dear Prophet and apostles. I know that they are called of God and share inspired messages. I felt like everyone was super straightforward in their talks and I just felt the need for each of us to individally prepare for the future...especially spiritually. We need to make sure that our testimonies are firm in the gospel and that we go to the source of all truth, our Heavenly Father, if we are to ever have any doubts or questions. I especially loved Elder Eyring and Elder Bednar's talks. Elder Bednar's talk is what I want to tell all of our investigaors. We honestly are just trying to share what has made us happy and what we believe will make us all happy and better people. Thankful to take part of it as a full time missionary and also a member missionary when I get back home.

Our investigators are doing well...there are about 5 people that really have a lot of potential to continue to progress and be baptized...they just need some time I think. There is the 13 year old girl who we are teaching and this past week we asked her mom for permission for her to be baptized and she didn't say no...but she definitely didn't say yes either. We are praying and fasting for Sister Hawm's heart to be softened. But it's exciting to see the potential and see people progressing. There is a 16 year old girl who's aunt is a member and she came to one session of conference on saturday. She is awesome!! And then the parents of a member in our ward and a referral from another lady in our ward. So we are trying to work a lot with members to make this happen :)

We had to send out testimony to the APs this week because they are making a Christmas present with all of the missionarie's testimonies...here is the testimony that I sent. I figured you would enjoy reading it as well:

Over the course of my life and especially my mission I have learned many precious truths. Most of the time they are hard to explain with words because these truths come only through the Holy Ghost "which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy" (D&C 11:13). These are things that I have come to learn and feel through experience and study. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us with witnesses from the Holy Ghost so that we can come to know these precious truths for ourselves. One precious truth that I have gained a witness of on my mission is about love. I have come to know that love is sacrifice. Our Heavenly Father loves all of His children so much that He wants us to become like Him--but it would take sacrifice on all of our parts. Heavenly Father sacrificed His Son for us to return back to Him (John 3:16). Jesus Christ sacrificed His life--He sacrificed His will by not only dying for us, but by living a perfect life for us (Romans 5:10-11). The atonement is the greatest of all sacrifices--the greatest expression of love. We in turn have been commanded to love, which means we must sacrifice. I have come to know that sacrifice is painful and hard, but it's worth it. God requires that we sacrifice our will to follow His because He loves us enough to see our potential and what we can become, if we will follow Him. "[God] hath filled me with his love even unto the consuming of my flesh" (2 Nephi 4:21). I have felt God's love to the extent that it makes me want to be a better person--to overcome my "natural man" tendencies. I know that we can do that through the atonement of Jesus Christ. His atonement is an enabling power that allows us to turn our weaknesses into strengths (Ether 12:27). I know that because of Christ's sacrifice and love, I too can sacrifice, repent and love. I am so thankful! I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and He knows us individually. He will require us to do hard things because that sacrifice will in return exalt us. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His church and it was restored through Joseph Smith. I know the Book of  Mormon is true. It fills me with hope! (Romans 15:4) Christ's love and sacrifice is real. I love Him and I share these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all!!! thank you for your love and support!! see you in like 9 weeks :)

Love

Sister Livingston

pics with our recent convert sister Song and my old companion sister lee came back to visit us :)

Week 71

Hello!!!

We had a good week here...it was busy...filled with lots of travel, but good nonetheless^^

I had MLC this week and it was in Gwangju this time, so I got to go back to gwangju again this week, but first we went to Cheongju so we could meet up with some other sister missionaries to travel together and our companions stayed in the area, so the sister leaders just went down for the meeting...it takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to gwangju from where we were, so we took a bus down there and then went to the MLC meeting where we talked about how to help missionaries and make our mission even better and able to reach our goals. It was a good meeting. Always love getting to see President and Sister Shin. We went back to meet our companions and then Sister Ha and I made it back to our house at like 10:30 Tuesday night. On wednesday and thursday we did our normal missionary work...met with members and investigators. We have some awesome members in our ward that have been so good at helping with referrals and lessons and things like that...so grateful for them!! Just like I'm sure the members in your wards are super grateful for you all :)

Then On Friday we had combined zone meeting, so two zones met together in Cheong ju (about an hour west of where I am serving) and it was a really good meeting. There were 2 doctors that are serving in the asian area with their wives that came and spoke to us about staying healthy physically and mentally as missionaries. I love senior couples...they are always the sweetest and so kind. They always make sure to come up and give us a big hug, which is sometimes just what a missionary needs :) President Shin also spoke about the importance of our companionship unity and loving our companion. It was really good. I'm sure grateful for all of the companions that I have had and that I have now. Sister Ha is the BEST!! We love serving together.

Then after the zone meeting I went on  a split to Seosan area with one of the sisters there and her companion came to cheonan with my companion. It was really fun. I always enjoy getting to see another area and to learn from other missionaries. So I got back to cheonan on saturday night. It was lots of travel this week, but good.

We had an investigator come to church yesterday that I feel really good about. She is 16 years old and her aunt is a member in our ward. We plan to meet her on saturdays to help her with english and to teach her the lessons. Her name is Hayree, so you can pray for her.

We also visit this less active woman in our ward that has 2 daughters and they are sooo cute!! they are 6 and 8 years old. Their mom isn't really in a state that she is capable of taking care of them by herself, so we will often visit  and help them study and play with them and sing hymns with them. We want to help the older one prepare to be baptized when her birthday passes. But they are such sweet girls. Whenever they pray at the end of our visit I can just feel their tender love for their family and us. It is a blessing to get to help them. I will try to send somepics of them because they are sooo cute :) Their names are dajeong and dahee.

I'm excited to watch general conference this week!!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 70

With Sister Park at baskin robbins...so much icecream!!

the baptism!!

With Shin donghyeon

With Sister Cha and her daughter

Hey there!!!

This week was another great week! So many exciting things happened. It was so much fun to go back to gwangju to my old area with Sister Mathieson. It feels like a dream now, but it really happened :) Sister Mathieson and I went on a split down to gwangju because her old investigator was getting baptized that night as well, but we didn't tell anyone that we were going, so we got to the apartment of the sister missionaries there at like 10am and we knocked on the door, pretending to be one of the neighbors that always knocked on their door, and they opened it and were sooooooo surprised to see us there. It was the best!!! Sister Wadsworth and Sister Mathieson's old companion were serving together there, so it was a really happy reunion. Then we went with them to meet the other sisters in the zone to eat lunch together and guess who was there?! my favorite member, Sister Park, who is leaving to serve a mission at temple square in november. We were so excited to see each other!! Then that night I got to surprise Shin donghyeon, the girl getting baptized, at the church. She was soooo surprised and happy! It was a great baptism and she bore her testimony at the end and it was amazing to hear. blew me away. She wanted to get baptized on 9/22 because that's the day that the angel moroni appeared and gave the plates to Joseph Smith...so cool right?! So happy for her!! And while I was there, Cha hyangee and her daughter came so I got to see them again! (she is the beta fish artist and her daughter that got baptized in may) Super happy to see them as well. Overall just a really happy experience!

Then this week we also set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. She is 12 years old and she said that she wants to get baptized! We've been teaching her english and the gospel. Her mom has been there for most of the lessons, but recently because of work she hasn't been able to attend, so we need to talk to the mom more about baptism before it's really official, but she will hopfully be able to be baptized in October.

Last night we had an FHE activity that a member hosted for the missionaries and their investigators. It was really fun! This member is Sister Kim and she is AMAZING!!! Seriously the best member missionary I think I've ever seen. She is always willing to help us, always praying for us and asking us for help and she is preparing people to meet with us....I want to be more like her. But we made sandwiches together before fhe and then one of our investigators came with her daughter and they had a great time.

I am feeling happy and grateful that the Lord is so mindful of each one of us. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are so great and kind. I love them!! And I love all of you!! Hope you have a great week!! Happy October!! This week starts another transfer...today I start my last 2 transfers...crazy!!! thanks for all of your love and support!! I love you all!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 69

Hey so I have like zero time to email today, but I just wanted to just send you an email to let you know that I am doing so great!!! I received the best news this week!!!

An investigator that I taught in my last area called me this week to tell me that she is getting baptized TODAY!!! She is an investigator named shin donghyeon that we met in november last year and we taught through february, but then she had to go to seoul for a few months and then I got transferred, but I guess she got back in contact with the missionaries and is now getting baptized today......so I got permission to come back to Gwangju to see her baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!! So sister Mathieson and I took a train at 7:00 this morning and arrived in gwangju at 9:30 and we surprised the sister missionaries here and are going to surprise our investigators tonight at the baptism...I'm so excited!!!!! It's so fun to be back in this area!!!!!!! but we have to go because we are meeting some people today. Feeling super grateful and happy!!! So many tender mercies to tell you about next week when we have some more time. 

Love you all!! Thanks for your emails. Glad that you are all doing well!!! Happy birthday to Liss!!!

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 68

Hey there!!

We had another great week here! This week was stake conference so we traveled to Cheongjoo (about a 40 minute drive) with a member from our ward. Stake conference was super good. They talked all about missionary work, but it was just the normal talk of "do missionary work!" It was all about the how and why. Lots of people think that missionary work is hard, but it's easy! It all starts with prayer, and that's something that we can all do. One member talked about the blessings of just memorizing the names of the missionaries serving in her ward and praying for them and for their investigators by name. Through doing that, she has been able to see miracles. That's something that literally every member can do. It was a really great stake conference. We sang in the choir...it was fun :)

This week we met with some investigators, but not everyone could meet because of the holiday season. We had a special experience...it was a tender mercy. Maybe not the kind you would expect, but to me it was a miracle. I'll type what I wrote in my journal that day:

"We had a special experience today. On Tuesday we got an English interest referral from and English advertisement. We set up an appointment to meet today (Thursday). So we met her at 3 outside the hospital by our church and walked to the church together. When I first saw her I could tell that she was "down." She just had this sad aura around her. While walking she asked some about our church and said that she doesn't think that she can listen to our message because she already goes to a different church and it would just confuse her. But we got inside and introduced the program a little more, but she said that she would have to think about it. Somehow the topic got changed and she asked us if we had ever experienced losing a family member. She told us that her 21 year old son died a month ago. He was serving in army and I think committed suicide. She was just crying and weeping as she talked about him. We were crying too. We taught some of the Plan of Salvation, assuring her that this life is not the end--she will be with her son again. Even though it hurts so much and no one else knows how this feels Jesus Christ knows and experiences it with her. We tried to share hope and comfort with her. We told her that the reason she called us was so she could hear this message, but she still said that she needed to think about it. We said a prayer together, she thanked us and said she would call us again and then she left. I just watched her walk away. If anyone ever needed the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was her--in that moment. I honestly don't know if we will ever see her again but we are praying to meet again because the atonement of Jesus Christ is the only thing that's going to heal her and make her happy again.

It was a miracle.

Not the kind of miracle you might expect with a miraculous happy outcome, but we were able to meet and deliver a little message of hope at a time in neeed. That's what standing as a witness of Christ means. "Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in" (Mosiah 18:9).

That's what this gospel and keeping our covenants is all about. The Lord is super aware of all of us individuall. He bleses us with opportunities to strengthen one another. I'm thankful for this experience to remind me of that. I'm praying that we'll be able to meet her again and help her to gain hope through the atonement. But I'm thankful the Lord blessed Sister Ha, that woman and I with this moment where we could share a little bit of hope and mourn together and comfort together."

Sorry that was really long, but this was one of those moments where I was reminded that God is aware of everyone's circumstances individually. He knew that that woman needed to hear some words of comfort at that time. I don't know if right now there will be any big outcomes, but I know that we did our best to help her in a time of need. I just felt like I wanted to share that experience with you all.

So thankful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that through it we can receive hope. This week I continuously studied about hope. I loved it. I love this gospel because it gives me something firm to hold on to and it leads me to do good works (Ether 12:4).

I love you all!! I hope you can feel that.

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 67

Hey family!!!

Surprise! I ended up being able to get on a computer today :)

This week was full of celebrations...super fun!!

First of all, on friday it was Sister Mathieson's birthday (she is one of the sisters living in my same house right now) so we planned a few surprise parties for her...it was awesome. On Thursday night we surprised her at an investigators house with a little birthday party and our recent convert came as well. We at cake together and it was delicious. Then we pretended like that was all, but little did she know that we had been preparing another surprise for her on Friday night at our apartment with just us sister missionaries. She loves cats, so we threw her a cat birthday party which included cat masks...it was great. On friday night there was a baptism at the church for a little boy who's parents are less active in our ward. So we all attended that and then got home at 9 and surprise! she loved it. I attached a pic of us in the cat masks :)

Also this today is Chooseok (Korean Thanksgiving)!! So in honor of chooseok we decided to wear hanboke (the korean traditional dress) to English class on Saturday night and to church on Sunday. People LOVED it!! the members loved that the sister missionaries work hanbokes. I attached some pics of that as well. (Sister Mathieson did our hair...she rocks!) There was also a miracle at church yesterday! So while we were walking to church we saw a woman and introduced ourselves to her and she happened to be coming to our church as well. She is a member and has been living in utah for the past 20 years, but just moved back to Korea this week to live with her mother. Her kids are all grown and married so she decided to come back to korea. (her kids live in Arlington and Maryland :) ) So I sat next to her during relief society and was getting to know her, then someone told her that there was someone waiting for her downstairs, so she left to see who it was. A few minutes later she came back into the room and grabbed me and my companion to come meet her neice downstairs, who she wants to refer to us! yay!!! so we briefly met her neice who is 15 years old and super cute and she told us that she would come to church with her neice from now on. A new investigator with some real potential!!!! yay!!!!!! Sister Ha and I were way excited! So we are excited to meet her again and hopefully all will go well with her :)

This morning we went to our relief society president's house for a huge delicious meal. So Chooseok entails an ancestor memorial service and a huge meal. So usually families will meet together (families always go to the father's side of the family) and the set a beautiful table in front of their ancestor's names and they bow and honor their ancestors and then they eat the meal together. They will also visit the graves of the ancestors sometimes. I haven't seen the ancestor memorial service because it's usually just families that attend, but I got to eat the delicious meal :) and then they took us up to the mountain to see a huge buddhist temple and one of the biggest buddah statues...it was awesome!!!

This week was super fun learning more about the korean people and their culture. I feel super blessed to be serving in this country! I love korea :) I know that these experiences on my mission will affect the rest of my life forever. So thankful to get to serve the Lord here. I know He is helping us in this work.

Love

Sis Liv

Week 66

Hi family!

 

Before I forget, let me just tell you that next week I might not be able to email because next monday is Chooseok (Korean Thanksgiving) so there might not be any computers available to email and they aren't giving us a different time to email. So if you don't get any responses from me next week it's not because I'm dead...it's just because of thanksgiving :)

 

This week was one of the busiest weeks of my mission. We had appointment after appointment. We counted the number of people we are meeting while we were doing our stats last night and it's around 18 people that we are meeting right now....so many people!!!! They are mostly all English interest, but we get to share our gospel message with them as well. So we are praying that they will gain interest in the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as improve their English skills. Almost everynight I would come home and feel like I was losing my voice because we were talking the whole day. It was exhausting, but felt good. I love being busy as a missionary!

 

I'll tell you about a few of our investigators:

 

We are meeting with 2 women together, they are Siser Bay and Sister Jang. They are around 60 years old, but they look like they are in their 40s, and I love them! Sister Bay was a referral from a member, so we went and visited her one day and found out that she had some English interest, so we told her that we could help to teach her english and share a message about our church. She liked the idea so she told her friend and so we are meeting them together. They always call us their angels and they have loved learning English and are starting to open up about our gospel message as well. They love that our church focuses on the family and are so impressed that people at our age would stop their normal life to serve other people around the world. So we are praying for them hard core right now that they will continue to open up and accept the message. They are starting to read the Book of Mormon and like it so far :)

 

We also met two new investigators yesterday who are actually from Mongolia and they want to learn English, and they liked learning about our church as well. It was cool because it was 4 of us there, one american, 2 mongolians and 1 korean and we were all communicating in korean together. languages are so cool! sometimes I think about the fact that I am speaking korean and it still blows my mind. but we found all of the pamphlets in mongolian about our church and we are ordering mongolian book of mormon so they can read it in their native language. I'm excited to see what happens with them.

 

Our recent convert Sister Song is still doing amazing!! she started doing FHE with her family at home and it's been really good for them so that's awesome! we met with her youngest sister after church yesterday and are trying to set up another appointment to meet again. She is such an amazing example for her family!! love her!!

 

Feeling good, happy and grateful! Grateful for the knowledge of this gospel and the opportunity to live it with the saints of korea and people all over the world. I know that the Lord blesses us to be able to do whatever we need to. He raises us to the tasks set before us. I never could imagine myself doing the things I'm doing now before, but now I can't imagine my life without these experiences. I've grown a lot.

 

Love you all so much!! hope you have a great next 2 weeks!!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 65

Hey there!!

 

We had another good week here. We were busy with meetings and traveling and had a lot of appointments, so it was good!!!

 

On Tuesday my comp and I went down to daejeon for MLC meeting. We mainly just talked about our zone's goals for the transfer and how we can improve some things in our mission. It was good.

 

On Wednesday we went to Seosan, which is about 2 hours away, for our zone meeting and interviews with President Shin. I had to do a training in Korean and I was sooooo nervous before doing it. I just kept praying that I would be able to feel calm while I was giving the training and when I got up to teach, I felt calm and could think of what I wanted to say. Then when I sat down afterward, I just felt good and calm. It was a miracle! haha. I think it went well. I talked about why we are here on missions. We are here serving missions because we love God and one way to show our love to God is to take advantage of our personal study in the morning. as we take advantage of that time we can really come to know the Savior. Then I shared what I have learned through my personal study about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how through making covenants with God we gain access to the atonement. It was a good meeting :)

 

This week we have been meeting with some new investigators and visiting members. Sister Song is still doing so great! We are starting to meet with her sister, so I pray it will go well for her as well.

 

We had a miracle this week! there is an english meeting that a member of our ward participates in that we went to this week. It's a group of women that meet and practice english together and the missionaries participate and then share a message at the end. This week was my first time going, but it was really fun! There were only 3 women there this week, but when we shared the message they all had a lot of interest in our church and said that they wanted to meet again to find our more. So we set up a time to meet again separatedly and we gave them all a Book of Mormon. It was exciting to see their interest!! I hope that it will go well for meeting with them!

 

I was emailing mom this earlier, but I am just so thankful to know that this life is not the end. I am so thankful to know that we have a life after this where we can continue to progress and we get to keep the relationships we've made in this life. Life is so interesting. I am thankful for it.

 

Love you all!! hope you have another great week!!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 64

With Sister Park

New companion Sister Ha

Housemates together on Korean independence day (august 15th)

last pic with Sister Lee

My other companion Sister Lee (sooooo happy to see her again!)

Sister Wadsworth

Hey there!!

 

Another transfer has started today!! I have a feeling it's going to be a good one :)

 

Thursday was transfer day so we went down to Daejeon to meet my new companion and send my old companion home. There were 15 missionaries going home this transfer and 13 new missionaries coming in, so the mission changed quite a bit. It got a lot younger :) There were lots of transfers going on because lots of people were training. It was the best because that meant that I got to see all of my old companions!!! Happy reunion :) And I met my new companion, Sister Ha (full name is yeojeong ha) and she is the best!! love her so much already. We have pretty similar personalites and she is just a sweetie. She is starting her 4th transfer so she hasn't been out in the field for too long yet. I'm excited to be serving with her.

 

As far as the week goes, we've just been busy visiting investigators and members to introduce Sister Ha and trying to figure out what our focus should be for this transfer. We are going to try to especially focus on Sister Song's youngest sister, who has been coming to church with her lately. We have an appointment to meet with them together every sunday after church now, so it will be good. Praying that she will feel and recognize the holy ghost. It will be awesome to have Sister Song there to help teach the lessons and share her experiences.

 

I still don't really know what a sister leader does, but we have a leadership missionary meeting tomorrow in daejeon that we have to go to and on wednesday we have a zone meeting that I will have to do some training at. (30 minutes in korean) I'm a little nervous, but it will be good :)

 

Continuing to just feel good and grateful :) Grateful to have the gospel in my life for so many different reasons, but especially for the opportunities it gives us to know and make relationships with so many different people all around the world. We visited a member last night and were talking about how cool the church is just because it is the same everywhere around the world and because of it we get to know so many amazing people.

 

Love you all!! hope you have another great week!! good luck to matt going to college and Greg and liss moving in and starting new school and Jessie and Mark moving to VA and emmy getting ready for middle school and mom and dad for keeping track of the family ;)

 

Love

Sister Livingston