Hey!!!
This week has been so great! It has been an awesome proselyting week. We have been working on some new proselyting boards with our Elders, and they are pretty cool. There are three of them that we use together. One is to grab people's attention, and says "Who are Mormons?" in Korean. The next one talks about who Mormon was and who we are. It is a really good information board. The last one is the one that we use the most. It is the activity board and has the question "Have you ever thought..." with several questions of the soul listed. They are about things like what happens after death, what life's purpose is, how to strengthen our families, etc. It is a sticker board, so people come up and stick a sticker, and then we talk to them about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul. We tried them out on Wednesday for the first time with our district. It went SUPER well. We had about twenty Books of Mormon and many other pamphlets and cards, and completely ran out. We gave them ALL away. It was awesome. We used the board again on Saturday doing proselyting with the Elders, and gave away all our copies again, in about 30 minutes. Proselyting still isn't easy, but it is getting better and better as I can really talk to the people, and I am starting to just really love it.
On Thursday we were invited to go to a senior missionary couple's house in a nearby area, just the Sisters, to watch the General Women's Session of conference. It was SO comforting to be in a semi-American home. Sister Dustin, the senior Sister, has pure white hair, doesn't speak a word of Korean, and is one of the kindest, sweetest people I have ever met. She is like our mission grandma. She made Italian chicken on rice, breadsticks, salad, and the most divine apple cobbler. I've forgotten how much I just miss home-ish American food. I almost cried over it. And I definitely cried during conference. The Spirit was so strong. One thing that I really felt from that was about happiness. While I have been doing missionary work, each day I feel more and more pure happiness. However, it can still be hard and difficult to keep the right perspective sometimes. I loved what Elder Uchtdorf said about this. "The happiest people are those that focus on the beauty and wonders of life." One of the things that has given me the most peace sometimes is taking a moment to walk over to the window and look out at the tree covered mountains of Korea, at the old grandma working in the garden beside our building, sitting and smiling at my family in pictures above my desk, smelling the fresh scent of the new copies of the Book of Mormon, and baking something homey and sweet. While I don't have much time as a missionary, I can still take moments to appreciate the beautiful things, and feel my Heavenly Father's love for me and my brothers and sisters that I am serving.
I also am just so happy doing the Lord's work! When we are walking around proselyting, sticker boarding, teaching, or just serving, I feel SO good. While I may be tired and may not really want to talk to people sometimes, as I just work, I feel just a simple happiness. Of course, I often have HUGE happy moments too. Missions are pretty much the best.
One of our young women in our branch brought a friend to church! We talked to her quite a bit, got her number, and are meeting with her next week. This is the BEST situation. We are in dire need of investigators with member friends to support them. She should be able to come to church next week too!
We might have to drop NKL, at least for a little bit. She is not progressing, and really only cares about learning English right now. I just love her SO much and I know she has felt the Spirit. However, she should still be able to come to English class and hopefully after some time she will be ready for the gospel.
We have about 5 or 6 investigators total, although that number seems to change all the time. There is a boy we are teaching who has come to church and the branch picnic, but is just pretty young and doesn't really understand, however, we feel it is important to keep teaching him for now and giving him a strong basis in the gospel. We are also hoping to connect with his mom too. Also have a family we are teaching, although the mom is not really interested in the gospel, and only cares about religion for her childrens' sake. Then we have a few middle school (or closer to high school in American years) girls that we are pretty excited for.
Gosh. Missions are the best. I love you all so much!!!
Sister Stapley
This week has been so great! It has been an awesome proselyting week. We have been working on some new proselyting boards with our Elders, and they are pretty cool. There are three of them that we use together. One is to grab people's attention, and says "Who are Mormons?" in Korean. The next one talks about who Mormon was and who we are. It is a really good information board. The last one is the one that we use the most. It is the activity board and has the question "Have you ever thought..." with several questions of the soul listed. They are about things like what happens after death, what life's purpose is, how to strengthen our families, etc. It is a sticker board, so people come up and stick a sticker, and then we talk to them about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul. We tried them out on Wednesday for the first time with our district. It went SUPER well. We had about twenty Books of Mormon and many other pamphlets and cards, and completely ran out. We gave them ALL away. It was awesome. We used the board again on Saturday doing proselyting with the Elders, and gave away all our copies again, in about 30 minutes. Proselyting still isn't easy, but it is getting better and better as I can really talk to the people, and I am starting to just really love it.
On Thursday we were invited to go to a senior missionary couple's house in a nearby area, just the Sisters, to watch the General Women's Session of conference. It was SO comforting to be in a semi-American home. Sister Dustin, the senior Sister, has pure white hair, doesn't speak a word of Korean, and is one of the kindest, sweetest people I have ever met. She is like our mission grandma. She made Italian chicken on rice, breadsticks, salad, and the most divine apple cobbler. I've forgotten how much I just miss home-ish American food. I almost cried over it. And I definitely cried during conference. The Spirit was so strong. One thing that I really felt from that was about happiness. While I have been doing missionary work, each day I feel more and more pure happiness. However, it can still be hard and difficult to keep the right perspective sometimes. I loved what Elder Uchtdorf said about this. "The happiest people are those that focus on the beauty and wonders of life." One of the things that has given me the most peace sometimes is taking a moment to walk over to the window and look out at the tree covered mountains of Korea, at the old grandma working in the garden beside our building, sitting and smiling at my family in pictures above my desk, smelling the fresh scent of the new copies of the Book of Mormon, and baking something homey and sweet. While I don't have much time as a missionary, I can still take moments to appreciate the beautiful things, and feel my Heavenly Father's love for me and my brothers and sisters that I am serving.
I also am just so happy doing the Lord's work! When we are walking around proselyting, sticker boarding, teaching, or just serving, I feel SO good. While I may be tired and may not really want to talk to people sometimes, as I just work, I feel just a simple happiness. Of course, I often have HUGE happy moments too. Missions are pretty much the best.
One of our young women in our branch brought a friend to church! We talked to her quite a bit, got her number, and are meeting with her next week. This is the BEST situation. We are in dire need of investigators with member friends to support them. She should be able to come to church next week too!
We might have to drop NKL, at least for a little bit. She is not progressing, and really only cares about learning English right now. I just love her SO much and I know she has felt the Spirit. However, she should still be able to come to English class and hopefully after some time she will be ready for the gospel.
We have about 5 or 6 investigators total, although that number seems to change all the time. There is a boy we are teaching who has come to church and the branch picnic, but is just pretty young and doesn't really understand, however, we feel it is important to keep teaching him for now and giving him a strong basis in the gospel. We are also hoping to connect with his mom too. Also have a family we are teaching, although the mom is not really interested in the gospel, and only cares about religion for her childrens' sake. Then we have a few middle school (or closer to high school in American years) girls that we are pretty excited for.
Gosh. Missions are the best. I love you all so much!!!
Sister Stapley