Week 48

Hey hey family!!

 

Before I forget, let me tell you that next day our pday will be on wednesday so I will email you next wednesday. There is a holiday on Monday next week and our leaders think that we'll be able to find more people to teach on the holiday so they switched pday for next week. So I'll email you then :)

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Jessie for walking!!! you were a very beautiful byu graduate!! I'm really happy that you wore the cougar belt in honor of graduation. cougars for life!!!

 

I'm glad that you all had a fun time together!! Such a fun family! thankful to be a part of the fam :)

 

Probably my favorite thing that happened this week was that the General Relief Society President, Linda K. Burton, came to our stake here in gwangju and gave a training. It was so awesome! Her husband served his mission here in korea and later they both served as Mission President and Wife in Seoul, so they were both super grateful for the opportunity to come back to Korea. The husband bore his testimony in korean and it was so cool to see that he could still speak korea!!! I hope that I never forget korean! But it was a really great training about 1. preparing ourselves spiritually to receive revelation 2. participating in councils 3. ministering 4. teaching like the Savior did. It was supposed to be a training for just the leaders, but they opened it up so that everyone could come so we brought our investigator (the artist) to come and she loved it!! She was also talking about helping to prepare our kids and the people around us to serve missions. We watched a little video made by the church about missionary work and I don't think there was a dry eyed missionary in the room haha. It was just really tender to think about they things in our lives that have prepared us to be where we are right now. I am super thankful especially to my family and friends for helping me to prepare for my mission. This has been an important life experience for me. But Sister Burton focused on how we need to focus on people one by one. We need to be approachable like the Savior was. No pride-all humility. Her training was definitely a pick me up for me personally.

 

Our investigators are doing well...no one is progressing super great right now. But we're trying to help them. Our recent convert, Sister im hyeon sook brought her daughter to church with her (22 years old) and we had family home evening with her and some members last night!

 

We are doing a 40 day relay fast in our mission to prepare for Elder Christofferson coming at the end of May. It has been great so far. We are asking members to pray and fast with us in order to find someone to refer to us by that time so we can all attend Elder Christofferson's meeting with a referral. It's exciting!

 

I love you all!! So thankful for the Savior that helps make up for the things that we lack. We can do it!!!!!!!!! 화이팅!!!

 

Love always,

Sister Livingston

Week 47

Hello dear family!!

 

It sounds like you all had really great weeks filled with fun trips and celebrating easter! yay!

 

Easter wasn't a really big deal here in Korea...in fact, I probably would have forgotten it was easter if not for the easter package that I got in the mail from the family. But yesterday morning in order to celebrate it for myself personally, I studied about the Savior's resurrection in all of the gospels. I love reading about the Savior's resurrection. My favorite part is always when the angels say that "He is not here, for He is risen." Is there a more hopeful phrase?! Jesus Christ rose from the dead so that we too can rise from the dead and return to our Heavenly Father's presence and see our dearly loved ones again. Not only can we rise from the dead, but we can also rise from hardships, pains, trials and disappointments. Christ suffered and overcame everything so that we could do it too. This week in Korea there was a really sad disaster. A huge ferry baot sunk and there was a big group of highschool students on it to go on a spring break trip. A lot of people died and it has been all over the news here. We went to lunch and saw the news when it happened and it was so so sad to see and hear about. It makes me sad to think that lots of people don't have the hope of Jesus Christ to comfort them at times like this. I just want them all to hear about the plan of salvation and the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the knowledge of the atonement and plan of salvation and the opportunity to share it with others so they can have hope as well.

 

This week we had a miracle!! So last monday I got a call from the stake president and he had a referral for us. I called the woman and we set up an appointment on Saturday to meet. We met her and her family at her house on Saturday night. So this woman, Sister Cha, has a friend who is a member of our church and also her younger sister lives in Utah and married a member of our church and joined as well. So Sister Cha sent her oldest daughter to Utah to live with her sister and the daughter is going to start going to church with her aunt and family. sister Cha, decided that if her daughter was going to start to go to church she should start as well with her younger daughter. So she was referred to us because she lives in our area. We also met the husband and he was super awesome, he is just super busy so he doesn't have time to come to church right now but will when he has time. So they came to church for the first time yesterday and it was good! They seem so golden that after meeting them for the first time my companion and I were both a little scared because we don't want to mess this one up! But they seem like they should progress really well because they are very interested and very family oriented. I'm excited to keep teaching them and hopefully their whole family and progress to receive baptism and become members of our church!!!

 

Also our ward combined with another ward this week, so this sunday was exciting with a lot of people there! we got a new bishop and there will be calling new leaders this week. There are a ton of missionaries serving in one ward now beause it covers 2 areas. but I'm excited to get to know more members! they are building a beautiful new stake center that we will move into at the end of may!! I'm excited!!!  

 

Life is great! I love and miss you all! Hope you have a great week spending time together! Congrats on graduating to Liss and Jess!! way to go!!! Keep up the good work!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 46

My district last transfer-only one person changed this transfer

hanboke!!!

with Sister yujin and my com Sister Lee

Hey hey family!!

 

Another great week come and gone! I can hardly remember exactly what I did this week...This week we didn't have as many appointments as usual, so we spent a lot of time outside talking to people on the street or putting up flyers advertising free english and meeting with us. The highlight was definitely general conference! woohoo! love those prophets and apostles. They always know what we need to hear. I'm just so excited for the conference issue ensign to come out so I can read them more. (And try to find greg and liss in the pictures ^^) My favorite talks would probably be Elder Richard G. Scott's talk about love, President Uchtdorf about gratitude and Elder Bednar about the atonement of Jesus Christ. During all of the talks I just kept thinking about investigators that needed to hear that talk haha. It was awesome. But we had 2 investigators come to conference! One of the girls was not very interested in it apparently though. I think it was a little too long for her. But another investigator, Sister Kim, came and brought her mom and sister with her. She said that she really liked it.

 

We set a baptismal date with Sister Kim this week. We set it for May 18th as a goal for her. She is currently attending a different church and the idea of changing religions doesn't sound super appealing to her, but she really likes our message and she wants to get baptized like Christ did. She just is kind of hesitant about becoming a member a new church. I pray that as she continues to meet with us, she will come to a better understanding of the restoration of the priesthood and how her desire to be baptized like Christ did is great! and Her family will be so blessed as they live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Another highlight of the week was that I got to wear a hanboke!!! (the traditional korean dress). There is a 20 year old girl, yujin, in the ward I'm serving in that I've become good friends with. She helps with our lessons and stuff. She is awesome! but I told her one sunday that I really want to try wearing a hanboke sometime while in Korea. She told me that I could come over and try on hers and last night that dream came true :) Her mom is a less active member and  yujin is currently preparing her paperwork to go on a mission so we went over last night and visited them and her mom let me try on her hanboke. So cool! She was telling me that every part of the hanboke has a different name. There were several layers to put on. I loved it! I'll attach some pictures. People wear the hanboke for weddings and certain holidays here in korea. They are super beautiful! It's been fun to help yujin get excited for missionary work though. We are both hoping that she gets called to the DC south mission ;)

 

Sister Lee and I are excited for a new transfer together and to see some more miracles! We have a bunch of new appointments lined up for next week and pray that these people will be prepared to accept the message of the gospel as well has help them to learn english.

 

I love you all!! thank you for your prayers, support and emails! I love to hear all of the updates. I love and miss you all! Thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here in Korea!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 45

celebrating Sister kim sor bin's birthday!!!! She is a recent convert. She just turned 17 in american age i think...

more cherry blossoms!!

eating with Sister Lee and kim ju eon (recent convert) at lotteria!!!

ok so the elder that took pictures at the baptism kind of failed haha. This is the best one that I have. Sister Lee and Sister im heron sook

Annyeonghasaeyo family!!!

 

Sounds like conference was really great from all of your emails! I can't wait to watch it this weekend!!!!!! I am also hoping that lots of investigators will be able to come as well. So another transfer has already come and gone.....CRAZY!!! this transfer went by soooo quickly. We got our transfer calls this morning and I'M STAYING!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! I was super nervous that I was going to have to transfer again, but I get to stay another transfer here with Sister Lee :) I'm very happy about that. I'm not ready to say goodbye to the people here in nongseong ward. I'll be starting my 7th transfer and this will be my 5th transfer here in nongseong. I love it here!

 

Exciting things that happened this week:

 

Sister hyeon sook got baptized yesterday!!!! yayayayay!!! It was a really happy day. She came to church early and was super cute and happy. She kept smiling and holding my hand and saying that she feels like she is receiving a huge blessing. Everyone in the ward has done a great job in welcoming her. After church we had her baptism at about 1:00. Her friend that referred her to us baptized her. It was great. After the baptism all of the missionaries in our ward sang Lead Kindly Light for a special musical number and she cried...it was really tender. I would have to say that this was one of my favorite baptism experiences because I honestly wasn't expecting her to get baptized anytime soon. I don't think she was either. But this past transfer something changed and she just had the desire all of the sudden to be baptized and become a member of this church. It was a witness to me that the Holy Ghost is real and He is busy at work helping people to accept Jesus Christ's gospel. I feel blessed to take a part in this process.

 

This week we got to visit more members, which is one of my favorite things because I love hearing their conversion stories. They are all such awesome examples of faith. And they are all just such fun people that it's fun to get to know them better. One of my favorite visits this wee was to Sister Kim me sook. She and her husband live in the country part of our area, so that was fun to go to the country area. She showed us pictures of her family. One of her sons will finish his mission next month. She is very proud of him. She made us kimbap (looks kind of like sushi). And She told us that since joining the church 16 years ago she has never missed sacrament meeting....awesome! i love that!

 

I had a tender moment this week with one of our investigator. It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll do my best. We've been trying really hard to set a baptism date with her because all of the lessons are finished and she's been meeting with the missionaries for forever. I think that she has been feeling a lot of pressure from us and members though and it is making her turn off. We had a heart to heart with her and she told us about how she is feeling on saturday and it was good to hear. Yesterday I turned around after sacrament meeting and I saw her. She came up to me and she looked like she was about to cry and she said "Sister, I came!" I gave her a hug and told her that I loved her and thanked her for coming because I know that it took a lot of humility for her to decide to come to church yesterday. It's hard to explain, but it really was a miracle and tender mercy that she came to church yesterday. This weekend I've been feeling a lot of love for her. That's my favorite thing about being a missionary. I get to have a lot of opportunities to be the instrument that God uses to share is love with His children. It seriously is the best feeling.

 

I know Heavenly Father loves us so much!!! That's what His plan is all about...love. I just feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude to the Lord for lettimg me love all of these people. I love you all as well!!!! I hope you feel his love a little more this week :)

 

Love always,

Sister Livingston