Week 61

Hi family!

 

I can't believe it's already going to be August this week!!! Sounds like you all are having great summers though. Congrats to Matthew for being ordained to an Elder!!! Before we all know it Matthew will be the one on a mission...can't wait to see where he will serve :) Jessie and Mark's new hedgehog is soooo cute!!! haha And I'm excited to hear about the trip to Europe and also Greg and Liss moving to Wisconsin...I hope all goes well!

 

We had a good week here. Staying busy. I feel like it's starting to hit me a little more about how much I miss my old area and the people there. It was like family. But the people here are great too! There are a lot of people in the cheonan ward, so it's been a little harder to try to get to know everyone and build a relationship because we are busy meeting with investigators and we are also trying to cover the onyang branch as well...so it's taking a little while to figure out who is who and how we can help them. But it's good :)

 

This week was Sister Song's baptismal interview and it went really well! She is super ready for baptism. We finished teaching her everything this week so she could be interviewed and feel really prepared before she gets baptized on the 3rd. She has such a strong testimony about prayer. It's really cool to see. She told us about an experience that she had where she was trying to get in contact with a friend who has some depression problems, but she couldn't get in contact and she was worried. So she started to pray (this was at 5 AM) and when she finished praying she looked down at her phone, which was on silent, to see that it was that friend calling her and the first thing that friend said was "don't worry about me, I am okay." Sister Song knew that it was an answer to her prayer. Also the night before her baptism interview she had a dream that she was studying the scriptures with my companion and I and that she really liked the verse that we were reading. Then when she woke up she was trying to remember what verse it was and at first she though Mosiah and then she was like, no it was Moroni. So she turned to Moroni 6:2 and read it and it was about preparing for baptism. We all thought it was the coolest thing!!! The Lord has been blessing her with lots of experiences like this. I think she is going to really help her family to eventually accept the gospel as well through her example. So the Lord is preparing her to be His witness. So cool to be a part of :)

 

Funny story from the week: 

So last night we went with the other sisters serving in our ward to visit a grandma and grandpa that are investigating the church (their son and his family is a member of the church). They have been having a hard time since the Korean elder that had been teaching them went home last transfer and another american missionary came to replace him and the grandparents have a hard time with foreigners, so we went to visit them since my comp is korean and one of the other sisters is korean as well. We were just talking and then at about 8:00 they said that they wanted to order us food. We said no, that's okay, but they really insisted and we couldn't stop them. So they ordered us chinese food that got to their house at about 8:30 PM. Let me just say that I literally LOVE all of the korean food that I've eaten here, but the one thing that I can't eat is the chinese food.................you all know how I feel about eating under pressure haha! let me just say that my meal was this really spicy seafood soup with these thick noodles in it........not something I would normally choose to eat at that time of the day...or really ever haha. But they were watching us eat it and we were all dying because we had obviously eaten dinner already before coming, but they made sure that we ate the whole thing haha. It was hilarious. We were all just laughing so hard after we left their house so full and we had to hurry to get home on time.

 

This week as I've been studying the Book of Mormon I've been finding so many great things. I love the Book of Mormon. I'm in Alma right now about the stripling warriors. One phrase that stuck out to me was how they were willing to lose their lives in order to save their souls. It made me think about whether I am willing to lose my life figuratively in order to save my soul. Throughout my mission I've learned so much about the importance of sacrificing our natural tendencies and desires in order to align our will to God's. Like Chirst said, if we lose our life we shall find it. That's what missionary work is all about. Losing our life in order to find our real life and potential.

 

I love you all!!!!! safe travels to all who are traveling and I hope that you all have a great week!!! I am so thankful for your thoughts and prayers and emails and love!!! I think of you all and pray for you often!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 60

in front of a memorial

in the field of korean flags!!

museum building

 love korea!!

jumping pic!

With Sister Song ^^ she got me a birthday present

pics from my birthday!!!

Hey hey hey!!

 

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!!! It was a great day! I got a package from the family just in time to open it on my birthday and my companion/roommates made it a special day for me :) They surprised me in the morning after I got out of the shower with a birthday sign, walnut pie, icecream and some presents that they made for me. I will include some pictures. But it was the best!!! They are so sweet and it was a great day! Also I loved the package that you sent me! The shoes are sooo cute and comfy...just what I needed. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I also ate the traditional seaweed soup for breakfast that people always eat on their birthday in Korea. It's delicious. Also at English class that night everyone sang happy birthday to me so that was fun ^^... good day!

 

This week was kind of a crazy week...we got permission from our mission president to change our pday to wednesday so that we could go to the Korea Independence Hall that's in our area and it was soooo fun!! I will attach some more pictures from that as well. It was a really cool place with memorials and museums full of Korean history. It was really cool to learn about korean history, which helped me to understand the culture and people better. Korea was always kind of surpressed or in distress until they finally became independent in 1945 and then they had to advance in such a short amount of time to catch up with the rest of the world. So that's one reason why Koreans are always in such a hurry! So that was definitely the hightlight of the week!!

 

Other than that, we were busy meeting with investigators and members. Sister Song is still doing sooooo well! She brought her cousin to church yesterday so that was awesome! She's already a missionary! Her baptism is scheduled for August 3rd. She is probably one of the most prepared people to receive baptism that I've met/taught. Super amazing. She honestly didn't have any belief in God before meeting the missionaries, but after meeting with us she has come to believe in God and says that it's scarier to imagine not believing in God now. So excited for her to progress and hopefully lead the way for her family to receive the blessings of the gospel as well.

 

This week I've really felt the importance of just taking a moment to show kindness or love to someone. Sometimes I think as missionaries or just people, we get caught up in all that we have to do and sometimes we forget the small things that could really make a difference for someone else. Most of the time people just need someone to listen to them and give them a little hug or words of encouragement. Just like the quote that mom sent in my package...No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted. I know that Heavenly Father is pleased with every effort that we make to love or serve His children. And when we do that, everything else seems to work out. So I was thankful for that reminder this week.

 

Thank you all for all of your love and kindness!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston

Week 59

Hello family!!

 

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I'm sure it will be a great day :)

 

I can hardly believe that it's already the middle of July!!! Hope you all are having a great summer!

 

It's been a good week here! It has definitely felt longer than a week. We have been super busy. I feel like I've been in this new area for a lot longer than a week by now. So as of right now in our mission a lot of missionaries are finishing their missions, but not that many new missionaries are coming, especially sister missionaries. So what might happen next transfer is that 2 sisters in our ward will leave and there will only  be 2 sister missionaries left...we'll see. But right now my companion and I are kind of covering 2 areas. We are serving in the Cheonan ward and also the Onyang branch. So if the sister missionaries go down to only 2 next transfer we will be extra extra busy haha. It will be good though, whatever happens.

 

We spent a lot of time visiting members this week so I could introduce myself and get to know them so we can help them do missionary work and also strengthen them. It's always fun to visit members and learn about them and their families. We also met with investigators, especially Sister Song, who is getting baptized on August 3rd! We had a lesson with her and a member and reviewd half of the commandments. She is doing really well with the word of wisdom now. She stopped drinking so that's a miracle!!! And she brought her younger sister to church yesterday so hopefully we can start to teach her as well :) We also started to teach the wife of one of the elder's investigators and she is from the Philippines. We are going to have a lesson with her tonight and we are praying that it will go well. Her husband already has a baptismal date but is kind of waiting to see what his wife will do before he gets baptized. So if she will come to want to join the church then He will follow.

 

Yesterday we went on splits with the other sisters in our ward so that Icould go to the onyang branch and introduce myself there while Sister Lee was with our investigators in Cheonan ward. I LOVE the onyang branch. There are only about 30 people that come, but they are all so loving and strong. They love the missionaries too, so it was fun to be there.

 

The area that I'm serving in now is super big and there are lots of country parts in it so it's fun! But there are also really city parts as well. Korea country is super super pretty! there are lots of rice fields and mountains. I like it a lot.

 

We had zone conference this week and President Shin asked all of the missionaries leaving before January to meet with him and sign saying that we will continue to work hard until the end of our mission. IT was super weird to realize that this will be over before I know it! So thankful for this experience. It's definitely not easy by any means, but it's worth it. Feeling blessed :)

 

I love you all!! Hope you have a great week! Thanks for being the best family ever for the past 22 years of my life :)

 

Love

sister Livingston

Week 58

our district!!

we came to korea at the same time and were in the mtc together

saying goodby to Sister Eem and Brother Choi (he was the old ward mission leader who introduced his friend, Sis Eem, to the church and we taught her and she got baptized in April!)

Last lunch with Sister Jo

In front of our church

With Sister Park and her mission call!!

My new companion, Sister Lee!!! and a delicious bing soo dessert :)

Hey family!!

 

This week has felt crazy long! It seems like it was forever ago that I was in nongseong ward. Time is a weird thing. But this week was busy with lots of packing, saying goodbyes, traveling and saying hellos! it's been really fun :)

Lets' see...

We had our last district meeting on tuesday and I all of the missionaries transferring had to bear their testimony before leaving (I was a mess!!) but it was good :) Then we went to visit members to for me to say goodbye and thank you before leaving. And we took some time for me to pack as well. After being there for 9 months, it took a little time for me to pack haha but it was good. I got it all to fit in my suitcases and just one little box extra.

Then on Wednesday also we visited a lot of people and had some last lessons with investigators before leaving. We met with Sister Jo (the artist) and it was an emotional goodbye with her. She is a very special person to me. We made plans to see each other again though, so it was a see you later rather than a goodbye :) We also went to visit Sister Park (20 year old girl in the ward that I always talked about and have been helpin gher prepare for her mission) and she had just received her mission call in the mail that day and hadn't opened it yet when we got there. We were soooo excited!! she wanted to wait to open it that night at the church with some friends, but her mom was so anxious to see where she was going that Sister Park went into her room, while her mom opened the letter and read where she was going and we got to see it too. We just had to promise not to say anything to her. Guess where she got called to?!?! Salt Lake City Temple Visitors Center!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so so so happy!!! can't even describe it. Seriously an answer to prayers that I didn't even know I was praying. It means that I can still see her after my mission is over!!! I will defnintely be visiting the SLC temple often when I get back to visit her. We had some other appointments with investigators and members that night and then went home and finished cleaning everything up for the new sister to come.

Thursday we met some other sisters at the bust terminal, did some exchanges and I headed up to Daejeon to the mission home to meet my new companion!! My new Compainion Sister Lee is AMAZING!!!! I am so excited for this transfer!! it is going to be so good!! we spent a couple of days at the mission home because of meetings and such, but we headed to the new area, Cheonan, on Friday evening. The area is a lot bigger than my old one. There are super city parts and super country parts. Everything has gone really great so far. Love all of the people that I've met. One of our investigators has a baptismal date for August 3rd and she is absolutely amazing!! She is 25 and her name is Sister Song. She is so excited to be baptized and we planned with her at church yesterday all that needs to happen before her baptism. She loved to drink alcohol, but recently she has lost the desire to drink and she wants to make sure she is done drinking at least 2 weeks before her baptism. She also wants her family to come to her baptism and she prays and reads the book of Mormon diligently. I've never taught anyone like her before. She is a miracle!! so excited to help her on her path to baptism.

 

Everything is great here!!! I'm living in a 4 man house now, so it's pretty much a party all of the time! We are kind of covering 2 areas, Cheonan and Onyang, so it will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Thankful for this opportunity to serve in this new area and I have a really good feeling about this transfer. We are ready for some more miracles! I love you all!!!

 

Love

Sister Livingston