HEY!
We've had some interesting stuff happen this week, but not a lot that sounds interesting when I write about it. Other than the fact that I'm losing my English. I just wrote "right" instead of "write".
Sister Park Ohn Yoo, my new companion, is wonderful. She is so sweet. She has a little quiet voice and a cute, loving way of doing everything. We have a lot of fun and I love teaching with her.
This week we've met with some new people and some we haven't met in a long time. It was good, but no one yet that has a ton of interest. Hopefully this next week we will be able to start meeting some more really gospel interested people.
I think one of the highlights of the week was just meeting with "GYM", the recent convert we started meeting with again. She is incredible. We studied 1 Nephi 13 together. In itself it can be a hard chapter, much less for someone with just a little gospel knowledge. But she wanted to go through verse and verse and understand it all. And she did. As we talked about it she brought up other principles of the gospel that connected everything together and shared experiences with us. It felt like an institute class, with us all just studying and discussing together. SO FUN.
One of the things that she brought up was in verse 37 of 1 Nephi 13. "And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost..." She was wondering was Zion was. We turned to Moses 7:18, "And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." I've been thinking a lot about that this week. As I was reading in "Our Heritage" before Personal Study one morning, it talked about the Saints in Nauvoo and how they helped and cared for each other. They served and looked out for those in need, and especially after the Relief Society was organized, did much for the poor. I was struck by this as I remembered the recent push for church members to participate in the "I Was a Stranger" program in helping refugees. Elder Patrick Kearon in the last conference talked about how "The Lord has instructed us that the stakes of Zion are to be "a defense" and "a refuge from the storm.""
Throughout my mission I have seen people in poverty, but not as much as there would be in many other countries. I have met refugees from North Korea, and have heard some of their stories. However, most of them were in a more stable situation. Last night, while Sister Park and I were proselyting, we sat down and started tallying up our stats to send to our district leader. A woman came over and sat down next to us and started talking. She told us that she is homeless and has no way to make money or find food. She studied a lot to try to get an education to make money, but I guess things just didn't work out and she has been living on the streets for a long time. It was sad to talk to her. We told her that because we are missionaries, we can't give her money, but we prayed with her and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I also had a little bag of a cooked rice snack in my bag that we gave her. I wanted so badly to do more for her. While it can be hard to trust people like that these days, I thought a lot about what I want to do after my mission to help people like that. I want to help them as the Lord would. Especially as I am serving as a missionary to build up Zion, I think about how we can make Zion into the place the Lord needs it to be.
Anyway, that was a long one, but I am so grateful for all that the Lord has given us. I hope that I will always remember and do my best, though, to share that with others.
I love you all so much!!!
Sister Stapley
We've had some interesting stuff happen this week, but not a lot that sounds interesting when I write about it. Other than the fact that I'm losing my English. I just wrote "right" instead of "write".
Sister Park Ohn Yoo, my new companion, is wonderful. She is so sweet. She has a little quiet voice and a cute, loving way of doing everything. We have a lot of fun and I love teaching with her.
This week we've met with some new people and some we haven't met in a long time. It was good, but no one yet that has a ton of interest. Hopefully this next week we will be able to start meeting some more really gospel interested people.
I think one of the highlights of the week was just meeting with "GYM", the recent convert we started meeting with again. She is incredible. We studied 1 Nephi 13 together. In itself it can be a hard chapter, much less for someone with just a little gospel knowledge. But she wanted to go through verse and verse and understand it all. And she did. As we talked about it she brought up other principles of the gospel that connected everything together and shared experiences with us. It felt like an institute class, with us all just studying and discussing together. SO FUN.
One of the things that she brought up was in verse 37 of 1 Nephi 13. "And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost..." She was wondering was Zion was. We turned to Moses 7:18, "And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." I've been thinking a lot about that this week. As I was reading in "Our Heritage" before Personal Study one morning, it talked about the Saints in Nauvoo and how they helped and cared for each other. They served and looked out for those in need, and especially after the Relief Society was organized, did much for the poor. I was struck by this as I remembered the recent push for church members to participate in the "I Was a Stranger" program in helping refugees. Elder Patrick Kearon in the last conference talked about how "The Lord has instructed us that the stakes of Zion are to be "a defense" and "a refuge from the storm.""
Throughout my mission I have seen people in poverty, but not as much as there would be in many other countries. I have met refugees from North Korea, and have heard some of their stories. However, most of them were in a more stable situation. Last night, while Sister Park and I were proselyting, we sat down and started tallying up our stats to send to our district leader. A woman came over and sat down next to us and started talking. She told us that she is homeless and has no way to make money or find food. She studied a lot to try to get an education to make money, but I guess things just didn't work out and she has been living on the streets for a long time. It was sad to talk to her. We told her that because we are missionaries, we can't give her money, but we prayed with her and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I also had a little bag of a cooked rice snack in my bag that we gave her. I wanted so badly to do more for her. While it can be hard to trust people like that these days, I thought a lot about what I want to do after my mission to help people like that. I want to help them as the Lord would. Especially as I am serving as a missionary to build up Zion, I think about how we can make Zion into the place the Lord needs it to be.
Anyway, that was a long one, but I am so grateful for all that the Lord has given us. I hope that I will always remember and do my best, though, to share that with others.
I love you all so much!!!
Sister Stapley