Week 46

Dear everybody!

And another transfer starts! I honestly feel like I just wrote that sentence in an email last week. Oh time. Its so crazy. Well here's the big news.. I'm staying in Taebaek with Sister Lykins! Our 3rd transfer together! I guess we're just too awesome to separate. Or president was just lazy and forgot to do anything. One or the other haha. I'm happy. I love it here and have had a good experience with her. We've learned a lot from eachother! I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve with her again. Well this means for sure change will happen next transfer! Which will be before I know it.. next month I hit my year mark.. I just can't fathom that at all.. 

Wow this week was long and crazy! I can hardly remember everything that happened. We had a branch conference (not stake, because out in Kangwando there are no wards, just branches) in Gangneung, a 2 hour trip from us. We went to the saturday and sunday sessions so we stayed the night with the DongHae sisters. It was such a blast. I love conferences.. They give me so much strength and happiness. Always a reminder to me of why I'm here. I love it. And this weekend we'll be going to Seoul for the Chuseok conference! WOOHOOO!! Also summer is officially gone. Taebaek is cold. I slept in my sweats and fuzzy socks last night! Its not too cold during the day but its freezing at night. 

Investigators! We're still a bit stuck with Jong Sung Kyong. We had some awesome lessons with her this week. She loves the book of mormon. She loves meeting with us. She loves everything that we are teaching her.. She has even told us that she believes all of it is true. But she can't see why she needs to come to our church. We are doing our best to explain clearly the importance of proper authority, but she doesn't have the desire to change yet. She knows that she needs to. This week our lessons with her were really great and she seemed so great. She seemed like she was really going to take action with things. She commited to come to 지방부 대회, we had a ride set up for her with our members, she even called us Saturday night to tell us that she was coming and she was happy and excited! But we got a text from her early Sunday morning saying that she didn't think there was any way that she could miss her church. She is so attached to the people there. So just like preach my gospel says, her issues are more social than spiritual. She is too afraid to make that change. All we can do is to continue to invite her and testify that she can know if she will just come. She can know for herself by just coming once. Hopefully we can get her at church this sunday! Oh yeah, if the holiday doesn't get in the way. Well we're meeting with her today. We're going to be teaching her about the word of wisdom. I think it will be really good for her and will give her a chance to see change and exercise her faith, even though she's not quite ready to come to our church yet. We're praying this will help her see that change for good!

Leann! Oh dear Leann. Last week we met with her to help her move, she is moving to the apartment below the one where she is right now, so we helped clean and paint her new apartment. It was fun and she really appreciated our help. We love her so much. We had a great lesson with her, still focusing on that faith unto action. We are trying to help her take action. Right now the thing that really is holding her back is her husband. She can't even make the decision to act or change until she feels like she has his permission. She told us her husband saw her reading the book of mormon, and he got upset and asked her if she was going to become a christian? He really doesn't want that. So right now we're trying to find out a way to get her husband involved. We really want to be able to meet him so that he can see we're not trying to tear her from the family.. but that we're trying to strengthen the whole family! We invited her to our FHE tonight, and she is planning on coming. But not with her husband, just her sons. It will still be good for her to see the church and meet our members, even if its without him. I pray it will be just what she needs to spark the desire to act! :)

Miracle of the week. This week Brother Park, a man in our ward who is a taxi driver met Sister Mei, a Philipino woman in his taxi. Being the awesome member missionary that he is, the topic of religion came up and he came to found out that she was a member! He gave us her phone number and we talked on the phone with her for a while. Such a sweet nice person and she wanted to come to church. She couldn't come to the conference with us so we made an appointment to meet for church next week! Well yesterday we get a call from Brother Park telling us to call Sister Mei right away. We call her and she is crying out of control, telling us that her husband had kicked her out and she had no where to go. We told her to meet us at the church and we would figure something out for her with our branch president and ward members. Well she didn't show up at the church when she said she would so we called her again and she told us that she was staying with her sister in law. We asked her if she would like to come to the church to receive a blessing and she said yes. She showed up shortly after with her 2 year old son in arms, her face red and cheeks stained with tears. I have never seen someone so heart broken, my heart was so broken. She then told us all about her situation. Her husband goes out every night with his friends and gets drunk. He doesn't take care of his wife and son. She wants to go to church, she needs to help her family back in the Philippines and he doesn't care or support it at all. He tries to hurt her but she always keeps her son close so he doesn't. It is not a good situation at all. Well she got a blessing from the branch president and the elders. It was such a spiritual experience. I'm not sure what will happen with her, really all we can do is continue to check up on her and give her our love. She hopes to be able to go back to the phillipines, only if she can keep her son with her. She is worried that her husband will try and make him stay here. It was amazing to see how she changed in character after she received the blessing. She knew that her Heavenly Father was aware of her and loved her, and would help her. I couldn't help but feel it to. This experience was a manifestation to me that God is mindful if His children, wherever they are in the world. How grateful I am to my loving Heavenly Father to know this.

Sorry if this email was just crazy and didn't make sense, I wrote it so fast haha. Gotta go! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sincerely, 

Sister Holmes

홈스 자매

AWKWARD CAVE PIC 2! Yup we went to another cave for p-day last week. It was a blast. Elder Jarrett was our tour guide...I've never laughed so hard!

Planners I made for Elder Jarrett and Elder Garff. Yes I'm the cool sister here. #sorrysisterlykins

Sister Jacobson and I are soul mates, seriously.

Pictures from branch conference! Sister Jacobson and Sister Ness

Sister Young is going home :( She was such an amazing sister training leader I will miss her so much!

Sister Haynie and Sister An! All the sisters in Kangwando. I love them so much. I am so blessed to serve out here.