Week 63

Dear family and friends,

This past week was one of the best on my mission so far. Such a wonderful Christmas. Our whole district worked hard to make Christmas special for our branch. We had the funnest party on Christmas day. It was a huge success. Lots of investigators came and some of our English class members. We all had so much fun together. We watched the First presidency christmas devotional as a district Christmas night and it was so inspired and wonderful. Talking to my family the next day was so wonderful. Man I feel so blessed.. and I felt the light of Christ in my heart stronger than ever before this Christmas.

One of my favorite things we did this week was Christmas street boarding on Christmas Eve! ! And it was such a huge success! We set up a table in this pond/park area called Hwangi Pond, which is right in the center of the town. We set up a table, wrapped book of mormons as presents and had the "He is the gift" video playing. We had a board that had the question "What does Christmas mean to you?" on it, with the options of a. Santa Clause, b. Jesus Christ's birth, c. day off, and d. couple day. Most people knew it was about Christ's birth.. but lots of people just chose Satan Clause haha. We got a lot of contacts that day and met some great potential investigators. It felt so great to be able to share the Christmas spirit like that! It was awesome. At the Christmas party the next day, Sung-u, our branch president's youngest son saw our board sitting in the corner and was reading it to himself. I went over to talk to him to ask him what he was doing and he said to me "Sister Holmes! I know the right answer!" I said "What is it Sung-u?" He said "Santa Claus.. is Jesus Christ's son!" I laughed at the cutness of what he said.. but the very next day I read the scripture in Mosiah 5 that talks about how we all become children of Christ through faith on his name. So Sung-u knew what he was talking about haha. It made me so happy :)

We had a cool miracle this week! One of our old investigators, or as I like to call them, 'less active investigators', Jeong Sung Kyong came to our Christmas party this week. She's also been coming to English class every week as of late. We felt like we needed to visit her the day after Christmas. She was one of our most progressing investigators, and the way it ended with her was so random.. It happened around the time when Sister Lykins left. We never really got the chance to talk with her about why she stopped meeting with us. She loved the book of mormon, and said she knew it was true. She was working hard on overcoming her addiction to alcohol and cigarettes.. and she had made a lot of improvement.. The she kind of just gave up. It was really hard for me, and I felt there was never much closure. So because she's been coming to english class and what not, I felt it was a good time to talk to her about it. We went and visited her at her house and had one of the best lessons ever with her. She expressed her concerns to us. She says she feels that she doesn't even understand the bible enough, so she wanted to understand it more before she tries to do anything else. She also says she has a hard time believing in any prophets after the apostle Paul. She said she still believes the book of mormon, she just doesn't 'believe' Joseph Smith. We really focused on the book of mormon and the feelings she felt when she read it. We talked about what it means if the book of mormon is true. If it is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet. We have to trust God. We talked about how the book of mormon and the bible go together, and one without the other is incomplete. We promised her that if she reads the book of mormon, she would understand the bible more. The spirit was so strong in this lesson. We invited her again to start meeting with us, to give it another chance. She accepted. We are so happy and so grateful for this opportunity the Lord has provided us with to teach her again. I pray that this time her heart and mind will be opened and she will be able to act upon the truths we teach her.

Well.. its hard to believe I'm finishing up 5 transfers in Taebaek. I can't describe in words how much I love it here. I love our  branch. They have become my family. I love our district and our zone. I feel confident when I say that every single missionary in our zone out here has such a strong desire to be the missionary the Lord wants them to be. We've seen so many great things happen this transfer. I feel so blessed to be serving here, and to have served here for as long as I have. I don't know what will happen with transfer calls this Saturday... it may be time for me to go.. I don't have too many transfers left.. but we'll see what happens. Whatever happens will be amazing, I just know it. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! Love you all and wish you a wonderful new year.

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매

Christmas at our little home :)

Christmas party fun!

Week 62

Dearest fam, friends and loved ones.....

This past week was insane!! Between being in Seoul for our Christmas conference and service projects, I didn't even have time to think it feels like. It zoomed past! Just like the week before, and the week before.. and all the weeks before.. and before you know it I'm in Korea for my second Christmas in the mission field. I can hardly believe it. I am so happy. I feel the spirit of Christmas burning in my heart more than ever before! I have never felt so happy. There is no where else I'd rather be this Christmas season than here with the people in Korea that I love so much.

Like I said, we did a lot of service this past week! We volunteer at a place here called "lunch boxes of love", helping prepare food and wash dishes (for the elderly). We always have such a wonderful time doing it, and the people there love us missionaries and appreciate the service we give so much, especially because recently everyone has stopped working there, so they've really needed the help. It makes me happy to see how much they appreciate it, and to know that we can help out an hour or so each week, and make a big difference to them. Also we were able to volunteer at a home school place making Christmas cards with a bunch of students, and that was loads of fun. The kids had a great time and really connected with us! One of the girls there was actually one of our old investigator's daughters so that was neat!

We're looking hard for new investigators. We don't have very many right now. We're still working with Rose, understanding her more and more each week. She definitely needs time. She's been reading the book of mormon a little bit and she feels strongly that it is good.. but nothing past that yet. She needs self confidence. really the biggest thing that is holding her back from accepting our message is that she cares too much about what others think. As soon as she lets go of that, she will really be able to connect with us, the gospel, our members, everything. As she continues to come to english class and activities, I think she will recognize more and more that these are good people, and this is where she needs to be. It might just take some time! We're sharing the gift with everyone we can! A few nights ago we were knocking doors in an apartment building feeling cold, and tired, and a bit frustrated because no one was letting us in or accepting us. The last door was the cutest girl who opened the door for us and watched the video with us. She really liked it and said "My family goes to church, but I don't. But that video made me realize that maybe I need to!" 

Christmas conference was wonderful! Things took an unexpected turn when poor Sister Butterfield got sick. We went in for pday on thursday and spent it in seoul shopping and what night. That night she got sick and was throwing up all night :( So I stayed with her and we went to the conference a little late on Friday.  but I was just happy to offer the bit of help that I was able to. She was such a trooper! We also stayed an extra day because riding back on the bus for 4 hours was out of the question. On our way back home on Saturday she said "This experience taught me that really with God I can do anything. I thought there was no way I would make it to 중랑 from the temple.. but God gave me the strength to get there!" It's so true! God gives us whatever strength we need, whether it be spiritual, emotional or physical. He is always there for us. It really was a great experience to be able to help her out. It strengthened the spirit of Christmas I've been feeling so strongly. I loved everything that was said at the conference and it just added to that feeling.

This week will be so great! We're planning a great Christmas party that we'll have with our branch on Christmas day. We'll be decorating the church today! I'm so excited. I am so happy. That's all that I can say. I love Christmas and I love being a missionary, so I am content with my life in every way. May your Christmas be the merriest as you think about the babe who was born in Bethlehem on Christmas day.. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, our best friend. 

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매

Beautiful snowy Taebaek!

Christmas P-day in Seoul with the Kangneungnam Zone Sisters :)

Christmas conference!

Sister Zundel!! My sister/common friend with the Quinn family haha!

making snowflakes for our Christmas party with our members <3

Week 61

Dear everyone,

I can't believe I'm here emailing again. That week zoomed by! This transfer is basically almost over!! My time training Sister Stancliffe is already almost gone! What happened? We've got a busy week ahead! We have our Christmas conference in Seoul this friday, I'm stoked! We get to go in on Thursday to have p-day there and attend a temple session. I haven't been to the temple (besides sleeping there for our mlc a few weeks ago) for about 4 months. I say that and I realize some missionaries don't get to go at all their whole missions... so I am so blessed! It will be great! :)

It was a great week! Started out awesome with a great exchange with the Donghae sisters on Tuesday. I had Sister Butterfield come to Taebaek and work with me this time. It was so fun to be able to serve with her (we came to Korea at the same time, we were buds in the mtc). We just kept saying how weird it was.. All of the sudden we're at our year in country mark.. and it feels like not much time has passed! It was fun to see how much we've changed since the beginning of our missions. She is such an awesome missionary and she has so much desire to do good. We really focused on following the spirit and set some goals so take time to say more meaningful prayers, whenever the opportunity presents itself. We had a pretty busy day but saw some really awesome miracles! A new investigator came to english class! She contacted the Elders the day before! Such a cool miracle. Her name is Kim JiHye! She is such a sweetheart. We've started meeting her twice a week. She has mainly english interest but our lessons with her are solid! She attends another church so she's not quite open to the idea of accepting ours yet but she has a great desire to learn about and understand the Book of Mormon. So we can work with that! We also had a great lesson with Rose this week (our hard to understand investigator). We've been meeting with her for quite some time, and she hasn't taken any action because of her fears about what other people say about our church. But we kind of had an ultimatum with her! We challenged her to read the book of mormon everyday for one week, and see if things change for her. It not, then she can take a break from meeting with us until she feels ready again. After a little bit of complaining, she finally agreed to it! I just want her to discover the book. It is the thing that has brought me the most happiness in my life and I just want her to know that for herself! The only way she can do that is if she just READS it haha.

How did you all like the "He is the gift video" that I shared last week?? I hope it all touched you! And if you haven't watched it yet, GO DO IT NOW. This week we saw some great things come because of it. We were able to meet with old investigators and investigators we haven't met for a while. One lady, Pak Kyeongmin (and investigator we've only been able to meet with once), we met with and shared the video with told us that it reminded her that she needed to start praying and reading the scriptures. She said although she's so busy she wanted to make time for  the savior more in her life. Because He is the gift. I think that's pretty neat. We've had lots of people say similar things to that when seeing the video! It inspires us all to be better and remember the savior. Especially during this holiday season where its so easy to get focused on things that don't matter. Christmas isn't as big of a deal in Korea, but its been so cool to share with people that Christ is the reason for Christmas. Some of them don't even know that!!

This morning I came across a scripture in Jacob that rocked my world! Jacob 4:3 "Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we do labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents." This is the hope that the prophets had when writing the record of the book of mormon. They had a hope that we would receive it with a thankful heart and learn with joy! It was a reminder to never take the precious scriptures that we have for granted. Never cease to testify of their truthfulness to others, never forget to thank the Lord for them. Take advantage of the book of mormon!

Love you all!! Have a great week! Happy holidays and be happy. Because its the most wonderful time of the year!

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매

Week 60

Dear friends and fam

What a great week it was! It was such a wonderful opportunity to be able to attend Missionary Leadership council for the first time. It was such a spiritually enriching experience. I feel so blessed to be able to have the opportunity and privilege to be a sister training leader right now. We have such a great zone and I feel so blessed. I will definitely be learning more than I'll be helping! Our Zone meeting the next day was great. The zone leaders gave a wonderful training on planning and how to better use our area books. The commitment they gave us was to prepare an area book that we could give to Jesus for Christmas. How genius is that? During my training I focused on accountability to the Lord I talked about how we can let Christ into our hearts more fully by using time wisely, and being exactly obedient. My commitment was to pray for opportunities to let Christ more fully into your heart, to pray to recognize those opportunities, and when you do, to tell them to the Lord. One thing I realized during my training.. The spirit can speak through me not only to help others, but to help myself too!


At our leadership meeting we were introduced to this video. Everyone watch it right now. If you've seen it watch it again. It will change your life.


http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529  #sharethegift


We have been asked to show this video as much as we can this Christmas season! I can't even begin to express the effect it has had on me personally. It has made this past week of missionary work so much for meaningful to me. Everytime we show it, I feel the spirit so strongly (which is evidence that the people we're showing it to are feeling it too!) It is a reminder to me of why I'm here. It has given me a new found drive in purpose in my everyday interactions with the people here. We are sharing the gift with everyone!!! We've started to bring our mini dvd player with us everywhere haha! We have showed it to people on the streets, knocking doors, receiving lots of phone numbers that way, we are showing it to our members, our investigators, everyone. One experience that comes to mind was when we showed out investigator Juliet. We haven't been able to meet her for a few weeks, she was starting to drift off the radar. We called her about meeting and she was about to cancel on us again, but I asked her if we could visit her for 15 minutes and show her a new christmas video our church came out with. She agreed that it would be fine! So we visited her and shared it with her and she loved it. We asked her if we could come back next week and share it with her whole family, and she said yes. This is a huge breakthrough for her, because she never lets us meet her husband because he doesn't like religion! Such an awesome miracle.  Each day we are trying to think of more ways to better utilize the video and share it with more and more people. This week we're going to be visiting lots of old investigators and less actives to #sharethegift! (yes that's right I just hashtagged)


Yesterday after church I had a moment of frustration. Feeling like so little was in my control. Our investigator Rose, as I have said before, is a really hard one for us to understand. She wants to meet with us, she wants to learn about our church and the Book of Mormon, but she doesn't want accept help from us. She doesn't want to act. She doesn't come to church, but she shows up after church and kind of just wants to hang out with everyone. She is so hard for me to understand. I have been praying for ways to know how to help her and understand her, and this morning during personal study I think I finally found my answer. 2 Nephi 28:30. It's the scripture that talks about how God works among his children. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little... It's going to take time with her. But that's okay. My time table is not the Lord's time table. I need to have patience and understand that it won't come all at once for her. That being said, it is important to help her to understand also that in order for her to receive that knowledge even line upon line, she does need to act. She needs to show her faith. And as she does, like the scripture says, she will receive more knowledge. This is something that I might need to work on understanding more myself before I expect her or anyone else to. TRUST THE LORD!


Jesus is the Christ. He is the gift. He is the reason for the season, the reason for every season, the reason for everything. He has changed my life. Discover the gift. My commitment to all of you is to share the gift this week!!!! 


Love you all so much!


Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

Week 59

Dearest loved ones,

This week was a great one! I am so thankful to be where I am right now. It was a great thanksgiving. We had a district feast. Of pizza and chicken. and we even found some little apple pie pastries haha. It was wonderful! 


 We're out of our area right now, we're in Gangneung (another area here in Kangwando). Sister Mosby (the other Sister training leader out here) and I will be going into Seoul together around 4,  Thanksgiving was awesome. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to be serving at this time. I am thankful to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Even though during these holidays we miss our families sometimes, there is no where else that I'd rather be. These are memories that I only get to have once and I will cherish forever!


We were able to finally meet with our investigator Juliet, she hasn't been able to meet for a few weeks. During this lesson (which was the last one for family english program with her) she really opened up to us about a lot of the trials and concerns in her life right now concerning her family. We testified of the peace that our message brings and the guidance and happiness it brings to families.. and although we finished the family english program, she agreed to keep meeting with us. Such a tender mercy! I pray that this desire she has (she really does) can work in her and grow more.

As for Rose (김정선).. We have realized that she doesn't want to accept our help. We met her a couple times this week, and during both lessons I felt like we were stuck at a wall. We've taught her what she needs to do, hugely emphasizing prayer and reading the scriptures, and we continue to invite her and commit her to do those things, but she doesn't have the will or desire to just do it. She doens't want to feel like she's being helped. She tries to act like she has no need for the gospel in her life, and that she is the one that need to help us. Yesterday one of our members said they'd be able to help us out in a lesson this week, so hopefully that will help us understand her more. 


We're working hard to find new investigators. We're seeing small miracles everyday as we strive to talk to everyone! Like last night! we were out knocking doors and we were headed back home. It was raining and freezing so we were trying to get home fast, but still talk to people on the way. We had tried to stop a few people and all had rejected us. The thought came to my mind that there was no use in trying. Everyone had their umbrella pointed to the ground and was walking with a purpose so we should do the same. But we passed a girl (she even had her headphones in) and the spirit told me to get over myself and talk to her. So I did. And we had a wonderful conversation with this girl, who really wants to meet again.  It was a reminder to me that it doesnt matter what I think is practical or ideal.. I am a missionary and I must open my mouth to everyone. Despite the weather, despite the situation. When we do that, God puts those people in our paths that we wouldn't have met if we had decided that it was more 'reasonable' to just get home, not stopping to talk to those going the other way.


"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18


I am so thankful to be a missionary.
I am thankful for the talk "Grateful in Any Circumstances" By Pres. Uchtdorf, because it has changed my mission and my life forever.
I'm thankful for my family and for the knowledge I have that I will be able to be with them forever.
I'm thankful for kimchi (which I got to make this week!! woohoo!!!) and chocolate. 
I am so thankful for chocolate. I'm thankful for the book of mormon. It has changed me.
I'm thankful to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.


I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and has a wonderful christmas season coming up here! First day of December and its snowing! So magical! Have a wonderful week!


Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

My beloved branch and district!

MAKING KIMCHI!!

Week 58

Dearest friends and fam!

I feel like I always start out my emails the exact same way, by saying something like, "wow its already monday again?" or "oh my goodness times is so fast!" And basically that is just the thought that comes to my mind every single week! Time is flying. My first transfer with Sister Stancliffe is already over! I can't believe how fast it was. I was talking about how fast it was with Sister Stancliffe and she said "well I guess that means we're working hard and having fun right?" She couldn't have said it better. I have learned a lot this past transfer training, and despite all the hard times, we really did have a lot of fun and work really hard. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Taebaek with Sister Stancliffe for another transfer! I've been asked to be the new sister training leader out here... So I'm pretty humbled and excited for the opportunity to work with other missionaries more! I'll be conducting exchanges with other sisters, giving trainings at zone meetings and what not, and going into Seoul for missionary leadership council meetings. I'm stoked! When I got the transfer call, afterwards Sister Stancliffe said to me "Well I guess you gotta start being inspirational now or something" Well shoot. 


We had a crazy week last week, being in Seoul for 12 week follow-up was great. Its a meeting that all the new missionaries and trainers attend half way through their training. It was such a wonderful meeting. We watched a video that was made by return missionaries called "my mission was a success because.." It was basically just a slide show of pictures with RMs holding up signs that said why their mission was a success, I loved it. Some of them were as simple as "I smiled all the time". It was a reminder to me of the small miracles in my everyday life as a missionary that are making the biggest difference. I can't explain my love for the Savior and his gospel. That love is something that has grown naturally every day as I study about Him and testify of Him to others. Something that simple has made all the difference in becoming the missionary and the person that the Lord wants me to become. 


We had a cool miracle yesterday afternoon! We were knocking doors and a man opened the door and immediately said "no interest". We kept a smile on and went on to explain a little bit more about how our message strengthens families, and how we also teach free english. Then in very good english he said "Oh, that's interesting. Maybe I will call you about that sometime!" We were happy that his attitude changed! Anyways, about 15 minutes later we get a call from a random number and we answered it, it was that man we had just met! He wanted us to come back to his house to meet his wife and kids, and introduce ourselves a little bit more. So we went back and were able to have a great discussion with him. His family wasn't participating in our conversation but they were there. We talked a little more about our purpose as missionaries, and focused on the happiness that can come to families because of it. He said normally he wouldn't have invited 선교사 in, but he was impressed by our ability to speak korean, and wanted to know why we were so happy! It was awesome. He and his family don't have a religion, but he seemed very open to learning about our message. We are going to visit them again this week and hopefully be able to start teaching this family regularly!


Also I ate a fish eyeball last night at my branch presidents house. His wife made us fish head soup (a delicacy here in Korea). I couldn't bring myself to eat the head but I compromised and ate they eyeball. It kinda just tasted like a bean. So there you have it.


Sorry the email was kinda short this week! I love this work! I am so thankful for this time I have serving as a missionary here in Korea. Happy thanksgiving everyone!! Eat lots for me. I'll be eating fish eyeballs or something.


Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

Week 57

Dearest fam, friends and loved ones..

I have an announcement to make.. I have overcome a fear that I have had my whole mission here in Korea... I experienced a mokyoktang for the first time today. Yes, that does infact mean public bathhouse. And my life is changed! Literally it was awesome. I feel like I can conquer the world now haha!! I LOVE KOREA!!!!


Anyways, hat a great week it as been! We saw a lot of awesome miracles and worked really hard!  We went on exchanges with the Donghae Sisters, and this time I was with Sister Ju Hyeyon in Taebaek. We had so much fun together.. we came to the conclusion that there was only one way to describe our exchange, and that is "extreme adventure" haha. It was the coldest day that day (thursday). Literally I have never been so cold in my life! We did a lot of jundo because all of our appointments canceled.. and it was deathly cold! So that was quite an adventure. It was so much fun. Working with a korean was so great.. it reminded me of my happy  times with Sister Lee Hyewon (I miss her so much.. she goes home this transfer, I can't believe it!). It is quite a different experience serving with another foreigner than it is serving with a korean. At times I felt like a greenie again, not going to lie, but it has helped me see how far I've come in the korean language and missionary work, but also how much I still need to improve and learn. It was so much fun.I love our zone out here so much! Today we are in Donghae spending p-day with Sister Jackson for the last  time. She has been such a great stl and I am so grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve with her!


Miracles this week: One big one. Sister Ju and I decided to go visit and old investigator on wed. night, and we ended up having such a wonderful lesson with her. She's been really hard to contact and meet but she wants us to start doing family english with her son! We did yesterday for the first time and it was great. We had an awesome lesson and I think expectations were established really well. I really feel like this family has a lot of potential. They say that they are technically Buddhist, but I don't think they are very strong in their beliefs, and they are very open to learning. 

Teaching english to her son Hyon-u was the funnest thing ever. He is really smart and knows a lot, but he doesn't really understand what we're saying a lot of the time. We were teaching him the expression "social butterfly" and this is how he responded. "Well, I'm not a butterfly.. or a bee.. I'm a freedom alien." .... I have no idea, but it gave us the best laugh ever!

We also had a lot of really cool experiences talking to people on the street this week. Sister Stancliffe is starting to get more bold. Just some cool experiences that we wouldn't have had if we didn't follow the spirit. I'm learning a lot about listening to the voice of the spirit as I've been applying my zone commitments. It is really cool to see the spirit work through you. I truly can testify that if you have the spirit, you don't need to worry about anything else! Isn't that so great or what?


I love the book of mormon more and more the more I read it. This week we were meeting with Rose, one of our investigators that we've been having a bit of a hard time understanding, and we were talking about the book of mormon with her. I was talking to her about how much I love it. I told her it was my favorite thing in the world.. and she said "Really? Like more than icecream??".. and I felt confident as I said "Yes. I love the book of mormon more than icecream!" It was such a great feeling. I love icecream a whole lot. But I love the book of mormon 20 times more. The change I hoped my mission would bring has happened! I love the book of mormon more than icecream.. miracle. (that and I went to a bathhouse ahhhh)


This week I read Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from conference that he gave at the womens conference, and this quote brought me loads of happiness. So I want to share it:


"Yes, God loves you this very day and always. He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of you r struggles... He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And He still loves you. And God knows of your successes; though they may seems small to you, He acknowledges them and cherishes each on of them. He loves you for extending yourself to others. He loves you for reaching out and helping others bear their heavy burdens- even when you are struggling with your own. He knows everything about you. He sees you clearly- He knows you as you really are. And He loves you- today and always!" 


This quote really helped to pick me up from the lows I felt last week. It was a reminder to me of how involved Heavenly Father is in this work. He is so aware of me, my investigators, my efforts, and He is proud of me. As long as I'm doing my best and trusting in Him, I have nothing to fear. "All things have been done in the widsom of Him who knoweth all things." 2 Ne. 2:24. When we feel we lack understanding about why things are (or aren't) happening, remember this. God may know a thing or two that we don't. We can trust in Him. He loves us today and always.


I hope you all have a wonderful week of conquering trials, struggles and fears, just like I conquered my bathhouse fear. (sorry, but it is such a big deal you have no idea!)


Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

Happy pepero day! It's a delicious snack here in Korea. 11/11 is pepero day. We ate a lot.

Exchanges with Sister Ju!!

Outside the bathhouse...before

and after. #newwomen

Week 56

Dearest loved ones...

Wow. Winter is basically here in Taebaek!! No snow yet.. but we've got the winter coats out for the most part! I'M GONNA FREEZE TO DEATH. At least I'll die in the service of the Lord right? Just kidding. Kind of!


This past week a doozy. Recently we've lost a lot of our investigators. And this past week we weren't able to meet with the few that we do have. It was kind of a rough week. But it was a good week. I'm learning so much. Whenever I have these kind of weeks, even though they are hard in the moment, I can always look back and feel grateful that I had the opportunity to go through it, and become stronger because of it. I had a day last week where I was feeling pretty defeated. I just felt like everything we have worked so hard for the past 3 transfers I've been in Taebaek had come crashing down, that we were having to restart from the bottom. Sister Stancliffe could definitely tell I was having a hard day.. During our comp prayer after planning I kind of broke down into tears. Later that night when I went to bed I heard her sniffling and I asked her why she was crying... She said she didn't know why! I knew that I was the reason why she was crying haha. It was my fault. I was sad.. so naturally she was sad. I realized I need to be a better example to her.. I need to have hope and enthusiasm despite defeats, so she will do the same! Training is so fun, but also really hard. But I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. Its so much fun and I learn so much everyday about myself, my companion and how the Lord is helping us here in Taebaek. My prayers have become so much more meaningful lately as I pray for the spirit to guide us to those prepared people, and I have seen miracles come because of it. This week we started doing a miracle jar. At the end of each day we write down a miracle we saw that day and put it in our miracle jar. It has helped me recognize how much the spirit is guiding us, despite the success I may feel is lacking sometimes. 


Zone training was this week, and man it was so amazing. The focus goes right along with what I've been personally trying to focus on lately, the role of the spirit in conversion. Something that has made this week so great has been the commitments they gave us. They committed us to write down one way the spirit prompted us that day (and what we did), which kind of goes along with the miracle jar we started. Also they asked us to have 'family' scripture reading and prayer each night starting at 10:20. It has been so amazing to end each day on that same spiritual note that we start it with studies. I have loved it so much. 


We love service!!!! This week we had the opportunity to go do some farm work for an old woman who needed to clear her soy bean fields. It feels so good to be able to serve people like that! Even when they don't accept our message, if they see that our sincere desire is to just help them in anyway we can, I think that they will be more open to accepting the gospel! Afterwards I felt like an old woman too though.. shoot my back! I've turned into a grandma here! Missionary work has put some years on me haha! 


Miracle this week! We went to visit one of our less actives. She actually wasn't home but on our way to her house we met one of her friends who invited us to come to her hair shop and eat some fruit after we visited our less active. Well she wasn't home, so we just dropped cookies off at her door, and then we visited her friend! We ended up having a lesson with her! It was super awesome! She says she kind of isn't sure about wanting to meet us again, but we told her that we'd visit her and bring her cookies, and she said "well if you bring me cookies then for sure I'll meet with you!" haha.. We'll see what happens there! Another small miracle.. I was making some calls last night, going through our call records and I saw the name of a referal the elders had given us several months ago that had never answered our calls, so I guess we just kind of forgot about her. I felt like I needed to try to call her one more time. She answered the phone, was so nice and happy, has interest AND time. 2 things that don't usually go hand in hand here with these koreans! We set an appointment to meet this wednesday! I am so excited. Such a tender mercy!


I can't think of much else to say.. so I guess that's about it for my week. I love this gospel, I love the Lord.
And I love you all!


Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

Me and Sister Stancliffe after church! I'm playing the piano for our branch's primary program in about a month so that's me practicing the piano in the background there :) haha

Week 55

Dearest everyone!

It was a great week! I love training Sister Stancliffe. We are having so much fun learning and growing together, despite how hard it is sometimes. She has such a great attitude about everything, which I am so grateful for. She's been an example to me on days when it feels to hard to move on. She finished her first pass off lesson this week!! She's progressing so awesomely. Being a trainer is great.. you get to accept the credit for how awesome your trainee is.. even when you didn't do anything at all. Sweet :)
We went on exchanges with the DongHae sisters this past week! Sister Jackson came to Taebaek and worked with me this time! It was so wonderful. She always is so good at making, setting and accomplishing exchange goals. Something I asked her to help me with before the exchange was how to know how to better follow the spirit, how to know that I'm working effectively and efficiently... especially since I became a trainer, I am worried about this all the time. She helped me see that as long as I'm praying to follow the spirit, trying my best to listen, and going about doing good things, I don't need to worry. During our exchange, we prayed a lot. Everytime we had some jundo time, we stopped and prayed first to ask the Lord to guide us where we needed to go. We didn't see any 'crazy awesome' miracles.. but a huge miracle happened inside of me! Every person we passed I recognized more clearly as a child of God. I prayed with all of my heart while talking to every person that they would accept our message and be a prepared to receive the gospel. Even though I didn't see those results, the work became so real to me. I realized that sometimes I focus too much on the stats. I need to focus more on the person.. I need to focus on finding that prepared person, and the only ways I'm going to be able to do that is if I assume that everyone will be. Sometimes I find myself assuming that we'll be rejected before it even happens! The exchange helped me remember that it doesn't matter.. because we're just looking for the people who will accept it. I need to exercise my faith by assuming that everyone will, instead of everyone won't!

 
Well like I said last week.. we're still on the look out for new investigators. We dropped Leann and 김귀영 this week. It was hard, but it was what needed to be done. We'd been teaching them for a really long time and neither of them have had that desire to change that they need to.. so we're putting them back in God's hands and praying that someday they will be ready to accept the gospel because of the experience they had with us, with the spirit when we met them. Juliet is progressing! She reads the book of mormon and really likes it. She doesn't want to come to our church yet (or her own for that matter) but she has been reading the scriptures and praying with her children! It has been so cool to see her coming closer to her Savior. She tells us often that since she started meeting with us she's had a greater desire to pray, to turn to God. Next week is our last week of family english with her, we're praying that she will have the desire to keep meeting to strengthen that relationship with God and Jesus Christ!

I told you about Rose, our investigator that comes to english class, she lived in America for a while so she's basically fluent. Anyways, we gave her a baptismal date a few weeks ago, but she's not progressing towards it at all. She doesn't want to meet us often and she doesn't want to really understand or answer any of our questions.. so that's been a little hard. We feel very strongly that she really just like the missionaries and needs to be needed. Which is wonderful because we sure need her here in our church!! But she doesn't have the desire to really accept and apply what we're teaching her for herself. She's very hard to understand.. I'm kind of really at a loss with her! Hopefully she'll get over it and as we meet her we'll be able to understand her more and teach more to her needs!

Halloween! My second one as a missionary.. how crazy is that?? It was a good day! We got baskin robbins as a district to celebrate and you know that I wore black and orange. That's about as festive as it got.. also it was weekly planning day so we made sure to eat lots of candy as we planned haha. That's about it! Hope you all had a fantastic halloween and ate lots of american candy for me.

 
This morning I came across a scripture that I love so much in 1 Nephi 10. Verses 18-19. "For He is the same yesterday, today and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.. for he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well as in these times as in times of old... wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." This scripture brought me extra happiness and comfort today, I'm not sure why. We can trust our loving father in Heaven because He is unchangeable. He has power unto the fulfilling of all His words. He will never withhold blessing from us when we do our part. He will never leave us comfortless. Because he is truly our father and He loves us. I love knowing this. Simple but the truth. I love this gospel.

사랑으로,

Sister Holmes
홈스 자매

Halloween :)

Taebaek!

Our church!

Week 54

Dear fam, friends, loved ones..

The best thing about being a trainer is that it forces you to be positive, even when things are less than happy. I love it. There were some disappointing things this week.. but I am so happy!

Sister Stancliffe is so awesome! She has such a passion for learning korean and a love for the korean people. This week she had her first little 'break down' moment during our 12 week study while we were doing a teaching roleplay. When I asked her what was wrong she looked up with me with tear filled eyes and said "This is hard." In that moment I wanted to cry with her. I knew why she was crying. She wasn't crying because she felt sorry for herself because she couldn't say what she wanted to.. she was crying because of how badly she wants to be able to communicate her feelings and her testimony to these people, because of her love for them and for the gospel. I remember having those same feelings at the beginning of my mission especially, and even still throughout my whole mission.  All I could do in that moment was hug her and tell her how great she's doing, and also let her know that those feelings are natural, and that with time she will be able to say things naturally, and that she needn't worry. It was only a small moment of discouragement and she was right back in the game with a can do attitude and a smile on her face! Something I wish I would've done more of when I was a new missionary! She is such a wonderful example to me and serving with her so far has been the best thing ever. My daughter ;)

Well, this week we met a new investigator named Seo Uee Ryeong (holy cow translating these names into english is impossible haha), we'll be doing family english with her. We are excited. Rose, our investigator with a baptismal date isn't progressing very well.. and she doesn't seem to understand the significance and importance of baptism yet. She kind of sees it as a "i'll get baptized because I like the missionaries and it is fine for the time being" kind of a thing.. so we'll probably be delaying it. She doesn't have much desire yet. But we do know that she wants a better relationship with God. So we'll help her see how to do that.. through baptism! We just need to be able to meet with her more! As for our other investigators.. we'll be dropping a few this week. I'm not thinking about is as dropping, but as my mission president says, putting them back in God's hands for a little while. It is needed. That was made very clear to me yesterday during church. Its always hard, but I know it's what's right. Jeong Sung Kyong dropped us this week. She's been making excuses for a while, saying she's so busy with work, not feeling well, excuses to get out of meeting with us. I called her and talked to her about it on Saturday night and she was honest in saying she didn't want to meet anymore. She still loves us and she says someday she 'wants the faith that we have'.. but she doesn't want to right now. I was pretty heart broken. We've worked so hard with her and made so much progress.. but what can you do! Keep praying and hoping that someday she will be ready.  We're looking hard for new investigators right now! I love teaching Sister Stancliffe how to jundo. She's so good at talking to everyone and being sincere! I'm a proud momma, seriously.

A couple days ago we helped a 할머니 (harmony- a grandma) carry her groceries to her apartment. That's the first time a 할머니 has actually let us do that! They usually don't let us help, they're quite independent. I don't know why but as we were helping her my  heart felt extra happy. Even though we tried to start a gospel discussion and got shut down, I was still so happy. The fact that we got to carry her groceries was a privilege. Even if people don't want to accept or hear our message, at least they see that we really love them and have a desire to serve and help them above anything else. This morning I read Elder Bednar's talk from conference, "Come and See". Such a killer talk. I just want to hand out copies of it on the street to everyone we meet haha! It really emphasizes that the reason we share the gospel is because of our sincere desire to help others. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want people to know how much it has changed and helped me!

Love you all! Everyone have a happy halloween! Me and Sister Stancliffe are thinking about being canadians.

Sister Holmes 홈스 자매

Literally this describes my companion! I love her so much!

Taebaek in the fall is quite lovely

Week 53

Dearest everyone...

This week I hit my year mark. It has been a year since I entered the mtc. It has been a year since I've seen my family. It doesn't feel real to me!!!! Seriously I can't believe it!! I didn't ever believe time could be this fast. I'm so scared I feel like these last 6 months are just gonna FLY by. Its crazy. Its been the best year of my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)

Welp. this week was an emotional roller coaster to say the least! BEING A TRAINER IS CRAZY HARD. We went into Seoul on tuesday, got there at night and had trainer's training at President's house on wednesday! That's where I got my greenie! Thursday (which was also my year mark) was probably the most draining day of my mission, my first full day of being a trainer. It is so exhausting to be with a brand new missionary because they are SO reliant on you. Everything they know about being a missionary is what they learned in the mtc and what they are seeing you do. It is hard. But it is awesome. I got blessed to have the coolest greenie ever. Her name is Sister Stancliffe. She's had a smile on her face since the moment I met her last wednesday! She is so happy and positive. She isn't afraid to talk to people and try new things. She seriously is great. She's from Washington! She studied at BYU Idaho for 2 and a half years before her mission.. yeah she's older than me! But guess what I'm the mom so HA. :)

Update on our investies! Jeong Sung Kyong has been in Seoul this week.. so we weren't able to see her very much. We met her right before Sister Lykins left on tuesday and had a short lesson with her about hope and faith. We talked to her on the phone the night before and she said she felt like she had "no hope". She's kinda really been slipping away from us. not meeting with her as much is really taking a toll on her progression. She doesn't really read the book of mormon very much any more.. she's kind of at a loss of motivation. :( So obviously that's a downer. But hopefully when she gets back to Taebaek this week we'll be able to meet with her and help her get back on track! Pray for her!!

Our investigator Rose came to church yesterday, so that was awesome! We taught her the restoration after church and she accepted it all really well! We gave her a baptismal date for November 15th! WE ARE SO EXCITED :) 

Cool miracle! We were eating dinner out at a resturant and the woman sitting next to us introduced herself to us, she had met with missionaries a few years ago, she learned english from them and she thinks highly of our church! She wants to meet again. I love little miracles that are evidence that God really is placing people in our paths, wherever we are.

Becoming a trainer has been hard. I have been struggling with feelings of inadequacy a lot. But I found a talk that my mtc teacher gave me while I was in the mtc called "Notwithstanding My Weaknesses" by Elder Neil A. Maxwell, and it really helped me out. It reminded me that I need to take a step back and recognize that the feelings of inadequacy are normal. Some things I really loved from his talk.. 

- there is a difference between 'divine discontent' and the 'devil's dissonance'. Divine discontent is good for us. it pushes us to be something more than we are, we need it to progress in this life. it lifts us up. The devil's dissonance is disdain for one's self, the feelings of discouragement that satan wants us to feel. it tears us down

- accept help from others and gladly give it.

- write down and act upon the feelings that prompt self improvement.

- God is more concerned with growth than geography.

- Remember this truth. God can lift us from dispair amidst any care. He is always, always there.

This is a gospel of grand expectations. But His grace is sufficient.

Love you all! until next week.

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매

Autumn selfie.

We went to our branch president's kids' piano recital for family night! :) don't mind my scary face

Goodbye dinner for Sister Lykins with our members Kim Kye Sook and Park Kyong Mi :)

MY CHILD! Sister Stancliffe and I! :) also the random elder who tried to slip out of the picture.

In the background, our depressed investigator Rose...but she's not depressed any more because she's getting baptized woohoo!!

Another autumn selfie.

Week 52

Dear friends and family,

BIG NEWS! Saturday night we got our transfer calls. The aps told Sister Lykins that she'd be transferring to a new area... and then they he said "Sister Holmes! You better bundle up because you'll be staying in Taebaek this winter! And your new companion is.... well, actually we don't know yet. Because you'll be training!!!" I can't believe it! I have a million different emotions running through my mind. I feel so excited, and honored to have this opportunity. At the same time I feel inadequate and scared haha! The anticipation is always the worst part! I know it will be such an awesome experience. Everyone says training is the best and hardest thing. We'll go into Seoul tomorrow and I'll pick up my greenie on Wednesday! I'M GONNA BE A MOM!!

Well besides that big crazy news, this week was also a crazy one. We had exchanges with the Donghae sisters, which felt like it almost took up the whole week. We met them after district meeting on Wednesday and because of lessons, we weren't able to exchange back until friday morning! It was such a wonderful exchange though. This time I went to Donghae with Sister Jackson, my sister training leader. It was awesome, I learned so much from her in the short time we had together. Loved it. She was super awesome about setting goals, applying them during our exchange and evaluating. Some of the things I asked her to help me with was to make conversations (on the street, with members, with investigators) more meaningful. We decided to focus on using short, powerful statements of truth. So we applied it in our lessons and jundos together.. and I really felt a huge difference, it felt so much more meaningful to me. Often I find myself going through the notions, saying the same things over and over again.. and if I'm not really focusin on it, those things just start feeling like empty words. This exchange with Sister Jackson helped me be a lot more conscious of what I am saying and more importantly WHY I am saying it. 

Jong Sung Kyong was sick this week so we weren't able to meet. But she did come to a couple conference sessions! We talked to her about what she liked from it last night on the phone, and she really loved the idea that if she wants to know something she can ask God. We're over here like WELL ASK HIM THEN ALREADY! Hopefully we're able to see her a lot this next week and help her really apply what she learned. As for our other new investigators.. Sister Lykins met most of them while I was on exchanges in Donghae, and a lot of people cancelled. Hopefully this week we'll be able to see a lot of miracles! Hopefully my new companion brings some greenie miracles out here to Taebaek!!

Conference was amazing. Being a missionary has made me so much more appreciative of general conference. Every single talk is packed with gold. I get so much more out of it. Hopefully I can do so for the rest of my life. I am so grateful for a living prophet who guides our church today. Something that was interesting to me was how many talks were about prophets, their role, and the importance of sustaining them. It must be important or something.. in an increasingly evil world!

 One question I had for conference was how can I love others more like Christ does? I feel like there was such a huge emphasis on Christlike love this conference. Elder Holland's talk hit it right on the head. I also loved Elder Bednar's talk. It helped me focus again on that WHY.. why I am a  missionary, why I am a member of this church.. and how to love others enough to share the knowledge that has brought me so much help, happiness, and comfort. Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from women's conference was also wonderful. Through all these talks, I felt a strong sense of God's love for me personally.. and  through that I felt his love for the Korean people. I want to share this love! :) And seeing all my babies (the korean primary girls) sing I love to see the temple brought tears to my eyes... I am so blessed to be serving among God's children here in Korea. 

This week I literally got to thrust in my sickle with my might.. Yep, we helped harvest a buckwheat field this week!! This is why I love being in Taebaek. Only in Taebaek to I get to do things like this! And let me tell you it wasn't easy! Metaphor for missionary work? OH yeah. But was it worth it? Oh yeah. I love this work. It's God's work. So it's the best.

This new transfer brings some awesome new experiences and adventures.. stay tuned for next week! AHHHH GOODBYE LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매