tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51426538273079511902024-03-13T06:25:03.575-07:00The Worth of SeoulUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-80448596667473018682015-05-04T09:33:00.002-07:002015-05-04T09:33:36.861-07:00Week 80<div dir="ltr">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dear Everyone</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sorry this email will be short today. Such an awesome week... so dramatic. So crazy. So, Kim Su Youn didn't get baptized last Saturday.. She disappeared about a week ago. She didn't come to church last week and hasn't answered our calls or texts since then. We've tried to contact her several times each day but we haven't heard from her all week. It was really really hard at first. I went to the temple on tuesday with a heavy heart. but there I felt peace that everything would work out, and that we would see a miracle this transfer. It wasn't the miracle that I expected though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kim Seo Youn is getting baptized this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I can't describe adequately in words the emotions I felt this week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This last week her older sister got very very sick, with a severe kind of blood poisoning that was quite life threatening. We honestly didn't know if her sister would live. Kim Seo Youn said she prayed harder than she ever has that she would do anything so her sister could live. She said that's when she got her answer that she needed to be baptized. It was such an amazing experience that I'll never forget. We called her and cried and cried on the phone together. I didn't know these feelings were possible. I've never felt so happy. I know that through our trials and afflictions God humbles us and helps us see clearly, because that's what He did for her. Luckily her sister is okay. She is out of the emergency room and should be able to go home within this week. Kim Seo Youn already had her baptismal interview on Saturday. Everything is set. I can't believe it. I feel like its a dream. All the frustration we felt, the countless lessons, inviting, testifying.. everything makes sense now. Everything came together. Everything prepared her and now her faith is strong. She is set. I am so happy. Miracles are real. God answers prayers. I feel so blessed to be ending my mission with this feeling burning in my heart stronger than ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Love you all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-78214805850931433652015-04-29T09:53:00.001-07:002015-04-29T09:53:14.128-07:00Week 79<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All is well. I'm having a bit of a panic attack as I'm realizing I'm starting to experience the "last time" for a lot of things. Its starting to set in a little bit that I'm leaving soon and I'm experiencing a crazy roller coaster of emotions. But its all good. It was another great week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We had a 'mission tour' this week. Which means one of the area seventy over our mission came and spoke to us. President Ringwood!! I was super stoked about seeing him after the killer talk he gave at general conference.. and yes he gave us another killer talk this week. Wow. What a spiritual feast. I honestly feel like everything that was said was everything that I needed to hear. He talked a lot about the influence the mission will have on you for the rest of your life if you let it.. He talked about how important the habits we develop on our mission are and to never 'adjust' back to the old ways. It really helped me cope with some of the crazy emotions I've been feeling this transfer. But most of all I loved hearing him bear testimony of the Savior at the very end. There's a special spirit that can't be described when you're in the same room as a general authority and they bear divine witness of Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Things are good with Kim Su Yeoun. We're preparing for her baptism this Saturday! Pray that everything goes through with this girl! She is so prepared! She is still concerned about her family and boyfriend situation. Pray that it won't hold her back from taking the step of being baptized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kim Seo Yeon!!! This week she actually made a comment that brought us a lot of excitement. She said she really does want to get baptized before we leave. She's praying and fasting about it. I can't even imagine how amazing that would be. Such an answer to our prayers. But that being said, whatever happens will be okay. Because she will be baptized someday. So it doesn't really matter if I get to see it or not, right? That would just be a bonus. But whatever happens will happen! She says that everything as of late especially general conference has helped her faith so much and just assured her that she really is where she needs to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Other exciting things this week.. we had a really awesome stake music night. All of the missionaries in our stake performed special musical numbers. It was SO much fun. We performed a special arrangement of 'Abide with me 'Tis eventide'. Some of the other districts were more fun than us and sang things like 'Somewhere over the rainbow' but hey can't go wrong with spiritual haha. It was great a lot of our investigators came and really enjoyed it. Also the Elders had a baptism yesterday and me and 3 other Elders sang "My Kindness shall not depart from thee"! Yes mom, it was so pretty! It was just a really singy week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This week should be great.. temple day tomorrow and I get to see some of my converts from Sinchon!! I'm going to lunch with Kim Dong Hee tomorrow, I'm so excited.. I'll actually be able to understand her now!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Welp gotta split! Love you all have a great week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">홈스 자매</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-81313659395131649162015-04-26T11:12:00.000-07:002015-04-26T11:12:29.250-07:00Week 78<div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dear fam and friends and all you loved ones out there</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I'll have to be honest. I'm really starting to dislike emailing. Only because it means another week has come and gone and its already time to email you again... Time is going faster than I wish it would. Anyways, it was a great week though! For lots of reasons... The Piano Guys! They came to Korea and we had a devotional with them last night!! it was amazing. We brought our investigators and they LOVED it. The music was incredible, and they bore powerful testimonies of the gospel.. It was so amazing. They cello guy, Steven Sharp Nelson, served his mission in Korea! So did one of the other producer guys. So they were so happy to be in Korea and see the Korean people again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kim Seo Youn is still progressing really well and preparing for baptism. We had a really great lesson with her last week when I was on exchanges with Sister Neidhardt. We talked more about the role of prayer (that's what we focused on with her a lot this week) and how essential it is to her conversion. We asked her if she'd really prayed to know if what we were teaching her was true.. she admitted that she hadn't actually prayed to know for herself! She said she just believed it and thought it was good so she didn't see the need to question it! We talked about the importance of personal conversion. We said a kneeling prayer together and she offered the prayer. It was such a special experience. She's really excited to be baptized. She even started making her own baptismal clothes haha she didn't know we had some for her to use already.. whoops. What a sweetheart. She is so prepared. Her biggest worry/trial right now is just that her dad, brothers, and boyfriend don't want to accept the gospel. She wants so badly to live the gospel faithfully for the rest of her life. Her family doesn't mind that she's getting baptized and becoming a member of our church, but they don't want anything to do with it for themselves.. and to be honest they're kind of bad influences on her. They don't live commandment keeping lives in any way.. so she just keeps saying how hard it is when she goes home after church or after meeting with us and all the light she felt with us seems to go away when she's with them. She says its really hard for her, and I can totally understand that! I just hope she keeps pushing through and when she receives the holy ghost she'll get that strength and help beyond her own to stand strong always. PRAY FOR THIS GIRL!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We watched "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" with Kim <b>SOO</b> Youn this week. I realized that watching this with investigators is hard for me because every time I watch it I cry for a good 15 minutes straight after, and there's nothing I can do to control it haha. She was almost crying with me. To cheer ourselves up we decided to watch Elder Holland's testimony of the book of mormon (mormon message). It reminded me why Joseph Smith died the way he died, suffered what he suffered, did what he did. Because the book of mormon is true!!! I think it helped her a lot, I know for sure she felt the power and testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith when she watched it. She continues to progress. Slowly. But progress none the less!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> We continue to see lots of miracles every day. Haven't had any luck finding less actives yet.. But but my district leader said something encouraging in our district meeting this week. He reminded us that even if we don't find these less actives and the only thing we do is confirm that they have moved addresses, we are still doing something that needs to be done sooner or later! We are still doing the Lord's work! It's a cool feeling. Also it gives more direction in our missionary work. Instead of just going out to jundo for 2 hours, we are going to find the lost sheep and God puts people for us to talk to in our path along the way. It's great.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I've been studying a lot about prayer lately and yesterday at the devotional John Schmit said some great things about prayer that I needed to hear. "PRAYER IS REAL" and "The Lord doesn't say cry unto me for some of your support, or most of your support, but ALL of your support". Prayer is something that I easily take for granted. I forget how important it is sometimes, and especially how important praying with real faith and intent is (you'd think I'd know these things by now, how long have I been on my mission? Sheesh) Specific prayer brings specific blessings! Its so true! I love the Bible definition of prayer. It says something like "as soon as we understand the relationship in which we stand with our Father in Heaven, prayer becomes natural, almost instinctive on our part". God is our Father. We are his children. He wants to talk to us. All the time, every day, no matter what. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Love you, have a great week and don't forget to pray.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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P-Day at a cute fancy restaurant.</div>
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last night…Sister Lee (from Sinchon) came to the piano guys concert!!!! :) It was so good to see her</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-69305130567763914012015-04-26T10:43:00.002-07:002015-04-26T10:43:54.851-07:00Week 77<div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dear everyone I love!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Another monday is here and I'm sitting down emailing again, its unbelievable. This week was super busy and zoomed by in a blink. Mission leadership council was great and so was our Zone meeting. The focus for our mission this month is still the book of mormon, but we have an extra focus on less active work! We gave our zone the commitment this month to visit every member, active and less active, in their ward this transfer, and to share the power of the book of mormon with them. I'm excited, there's gonna be lots of cool miracles, I can feel it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kim Soo Yeon is progressing amazingly. She loves everything we teach her and accepts it all so well. Still preparing and excited for baptism on May 2nd. She's given up coffee completely and hasn't slipped once! I am so proud She would definitely be ready to be baptized before then.. She has already come to church 3 times if you include general conference and we meet with her 2 to 3 times a week.. But that's the day she wants to be baptized. because May is the 5th month and there are 5 people in her family, its special or something like that! Anyways she is doing so well. I feel so blessed that God put her in our path.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kim Seo (so) Yeon (yes I promise our investigators aren't the same person mom haha). She came to all 4 sessions of conference and loved it! So that's great. She said she really came to understand a lot of things better. Before conference we had her write down any questions she had about our church or doctrine.. Her questions seemed to all be really specific and kind of weird.. Me and Sister Yoon were thinking "great she won't get answers to those" but the craziest thing happened.. for almost every one of her questions there was a talk that answered it! I'm serious! For example she asked that if among missionaries/leaders in our church if its some sort of "power game" or competition. President Ringwood's talk answered that one spot on! (which by the way was one of my favorites). It was such a cool experience and a manifestations to me that God knows her heart and He knew that this general conference specifically would answer her concerns. So cool. She continues to meet with us, read and pray and come to church. So yes she is progressing. To say she's excited for her trip to Utah would be an understatement.. literally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So General conference was amazing right? I hate myself I forgot to bring my notes. but some of my favorite talks from the top of my head were Elder Ringwood, Elder Redlund(? the one about becoming true latter-day saints) and Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf. I feel like the 2 main topics hit were FAMILY, and the importance of personal conversion. Must be important or something. This general conference felt different to me than ones before. Everything just felt like it had more of an urgency to me than they ever have before. The general authorities seemed to be more direct and specific in their speaking than ever before. Especially with what happened on Saturday during the confirming and sustaining of the church leaders, when someone shouted out "Opposed". My heart shattered into a million pieces.. but in that moment I felt my own testimony grow inside of my heart that I know these men and women are called of God, and I will sustain and defend them forever! It just makes me sad to think those people went there just to do that. I feel bad for them. No hand (or voice) can stop the Lord's work. The call to be a valiant member of the church is stronger than ever before! We cannot be passive! We cannot be apathetic! We must defend and share our beliefs. We must live according to what we believe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!!! Love you all. Peace out till next week!</span></div>
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<span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">벚꽃 :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">안녕하세요 :) Hi.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I hope you all had a wonderful easter and conference weekend!! Easter was a special day. Its not really a big deal at all hear in Korea but there were some lovely testimonies shared about the Savior during fast and testimony meeting that filled my heart with the easter spirit. Also a ward member that served in Utah when she was young brough hard boiled eggs for everyone (not decorated but hey I'll take it). It was a wonderful day. I can't wait for conference this weekend! Every week is flying by faster and faster I can hardly believe it.. Its still unreal. I have so little time left but there is still so much work to be done! It doesn't feel like my last transfer at all. Thinking about leaving brings me to tears every time so the less I think about it the better. Anyways, all is well! So well. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">I told you about our Kim Soo Yeon last week right? Well she is continuously an amazing miracle and she's progressing so well.. I have been so blessed to meet so many prepared people here in Sanggye. Everything we taught her this week she accepted right away and has such a desire to change. We taught her the restoration and plan of salvation last week, and also the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. She has a pretty bad addiction to coffee. Usually drinks about 10 cups a day... and after we taught her, she quit cold turkey!! Taught her about it on Thursday and when she came to church on Sunday she hadn't drank one cup! She showed up to church a little late because she had such a horrible headache from not drinking coffee... but I just can't believe she even came! She was so sick! She is so devoted to this gospel already. She knows the change will be hard but she's not afraid of it. She wants to have an eternal family. She even found the mormon channel on her own and started watching the I am a Mormon videos.. and loves them so much. Something else I was really impressed by was when we taught the law of chastity and she said she wanted to start dressing more modestly, before we even addressed it. Normally she wears low shirts and high skirts, and she wants to change. And the best part is she is SO happy and so excited about all of it. As we teach her we ask her if there is anything she doesn't understand or is wondering about, and her answer is always "No... because I believe it all!" I have never met anyone quite like her.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Our other main 'progressing' investigator right now is Kim Seo Yeon. We're in the same boat we've been in with her for the past few months. She comes to church every week, prays and reads the book of mormon every day, and knows its all true. She's coming to Utah in July!! and they've already planned everything out, to visit missionaries, temple square.. she is so excited. She knows its all true. But she's not ready to take that step towards baptism. It has been a frustrating time with her, but at the same time I feel at peace right now. We know she will be baptized someday. Her biggest fear is getting baptized and becoming less active. She says she will not let that happen. So if that's her biggest fear I'd say things are okay. As long as she truly is doing her part in exercising her faith, everything is okay. Maybe this is the Lord's plan and for some reason she needs to wait a little bit longer. I'm not sure but I'll continue to trust in Him and pray for her continual progression.</span><br style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px; outline: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">This morning in my personal study I started the book of Ether again. While I was reading about the brother of Jared I realized why he is so cool! Because he built trust in the relationship! He was a faithful servant who kept the commandments and went to the Lord in prayer every day.. so when the time came that he asked for help to guide his family his friends and his people, the Lord willingly gave help... "and thus I will do unto thee because of this long time ye have cried unto me". Just like my investigators and the people I meet on the street here in Korea, the Lord respond when He knows he can trust us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This week should be a great one! Its already time for another missionary leadership council and zone training this week! And general conference!! Yes spiritual feast week! Should be a great one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Love you all, have a great spring break fam.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">District photo before the Elders transfer. Sushi with Nam Sung Won :) Yes. I paid too much for a few tiny pieces of raw fish. Okay</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-63207804553358746302015-04-26T10:24:00.003-07:002015-04-26T10:24:43.799-07:00Week 75<div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Well the new transfer starts this week. My last transfer starts this week. I can keep saying it and saying it and it just isn't real.... Sister Yoon and I are killing eachother! We'll be staying together for our last transfer and we're going home together.. I am so excited. I have heard its an awesome experience to be companions with someone that is going home with you your last transfer. We've set some goals to 'die strong' and to keep eachother going hard till the end. SO EXCITED. Also we are getting a new district leader who is parkour so that's sweet. I'm not kidding. Jeremy Carpenter everyone, look him up on youtube. MY DISTRICT LEADER!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">HUGE Miracle this week!!! I would say we found a prepared person this week but that would be lying.. she found us! Her name is Kim SooYoun. She showed up at our english class on saturday, she found out about it through the internet. I talked with her after english class wanting to introduce the family english program to her, and she was all ears. Before I could even invite her, she asked if she could attend our church service the next day. She said that she has a lot of interest in our church. Well she came to church the next day, stayed for all 3 hours and really liked it. We had a great lesson with her after church where we found out more about her, and her desire concerning our church. She wants a new start.. she has had a LOT of really hard things in her life. She needs this gospel more than anything and she is ready and willing to accept it. Were able to give her a baptismal date for May 2nd. I feel so blessed to be serving here in 상계 right now and seeing the miracles we are. I feel like I do nothing but then God hands us these miracles, these people to teach and nourish in the gospel. Its amazing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We went on exchanges with Sister Butterfield and Sister Neidhardt this week (the other sisters in our house). It was really good for both of them. I went over to their team with Sister Butterfield. She's been struggling feeling like she's a bad missionary and a bad trainer. I remember feeling the exact same way when I was training Sister Stancliffe. I didn't know what to say except to tell her how wonderful of a job she is doing, how much she really is helping Sister Neidhardt... She can't see it but Sister Yoon and I can see it clearly. She is doing a great job. I kept reminding her that Sister Neidhardt is her number one investigator right now. They're doing great. We had an awesome exchange together.. We were able to meet some great people and set up lots of return appointments.. one lady we met that day randomly called them the next day, wanted to meet, and has become their new investigator. Exchange miracles are the best! Wow such a week of miracles! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Our amazing Lee Bom shared her testimony about prayer during our combined relief society and priesthood meeting yesterday at church. Just about everybody in the ward came up to her after and told her how much they loved and appreciated her testimony. It was so excited to see the conficence in her smile and her eyes as they thanked her. Her faith is growing every day.. She's been doing great as always, but she does feel like now that she's baptized there have been more temptations to break the commandments than ever before. Well of course!! Satan is working even harder than ever right? But she's doing a great job not yielding to them. She is so awesome..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I'm out of things to say. Everyone have a wonderful Easter and general conference weekend!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_">http://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#BecauseHeLives</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Everyone watch this video. I love my Savior. I'm so glad that He lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A day in the life. Great food makes things great.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-90887540166273485052015-04-26T10:20:00.004-07:002015-04-26T10:20:55.274-07:00Week 74<div style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dear everyone</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Another week has passed and I can't believe its already p-day again... Time is getting shorter and shorter and faster and faster every day.. Transfer calls are already this Saturday? Its unreal! This was definitely my fastest transfer yet. I hope my last one doesn't go by as fast.. I'm not ready yet. This week I received a letter from my mission president that he sends out to the missionaries who are about to start their last transfer. It was such a great 'pump up letter' and a reminder to stay working strong until the very end. "Don't send your spirit home before your body" I am so excited to dedicate the time I have left to the Lord and leave nothing behind. I love this work and Korea more and more every day. The idea of leaving soon still hasn't hit me, and I feel like it won't be possible for me to leave this place.. I'm not kidding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Our sweet Lee Bom received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday in sacrament meeting. It was such a special experience. Like I said last week, I've never met someone as prepared and ready to feast upon the gospel as she is. She loves everything she learns and intently listens during all 3 hours of church. We're going to start the new member lessons with her this week. She wrote us the sweetest letters this week thanking us for helping her to make that special covenant with God. Although I wasn't involved in her teaching process for too long, she thanked me specifically for the principles that I did teach her, specifically the plan of salvation and about the temple. She is amazing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Drama with our investigator Kim So Yeon.. She thought that seeing Lee Bom get baptized would be a good turning point for her, but instead she felt like it was so commercialized, it was something that wasn't sacred or special. We can understand why she would feel that way, Lee Bom's baptism happened really fast, it was kind of a crazy and stressful experience with lots of people.. but it was perfect for Lee bom. Kim So Yeon didn't think so.. She says her desire to be baptized went away for right now... but she will someday. I feel very strongly that she's going to for sure be baptized someday. Yesterday we got permission to go to the temple with her. She's been once with the sisters before, but asked if we could go again. Our recently reactivated member Sister Pak (who is basically best friends with our investigator) came with us, and we had a lesson outside on grass. Sister Pak is really struggling right now. She was baptized in 2002 and went less active right after but the Elders met her husband on the street last November and she's been coming back to church ever since. Anyways, she is having a hard time right now because she wants to have strong faith and be a faithful member of this church, but because of a lot of things (mainly family not approving) she feels like her life doesn't "match" our church. Before we could even say anything, Kim So Yeon bore her testimony to her and told her not to give up. Keep coming, keep praying. She said "I'm doing the same thing too right now you know, and I know that God will give us an answer." Instead of having a member present lesson, we had an investigator present lesson to our member haha. Pray for these 2 wonderful ladies please. I love them both so much and I don't know how to help them, but I know that God does.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Found some new favorite verses in 2 Corinthians this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">".. He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: <b>for God loveth a cheerful giver</b>."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I hope this week we can all think a little less about ourselves and a little more about those who need our help. I hope we can all serve each other cheerfully and feel happy knowing that God sure loves us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Love you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-9581051421711664782015-04-26T10:19:00.001-07:002015-04-26T10:19:48.326-07:00Week 73<span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dearest loved ones</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Miracles happen! And one happened yesterday. Our Lovely Lee Bom was baptized yesterday. At the beginning of the week we weren't sure that everything would work out. She still wasn't quite all the way committed, there were some fears about her family not letting her and what not.. so we were a little bit stressed (and when I say we I mean we. Sister Yoon is as cool as a cucumber, I'm so lucky she's my comp haha) but EVERYTHING WORKED OUT. Lots of prayers and fasting and everything came together. She commited to it on friday, had her baptismal interview on Saturday, and was baptized on Sunday. It was such a beautiful service and she bore the sweetest and purest testimony ever.. She is probably one of the most prepared people I've met on my mission.. if not the most. She accepted everything so well, and understands perfectly why obedience to God's commandments is so important.. Something that SO many of my investigators on my mission have had a hard time understanding. She has such a strong desire to choose the right and to be the person God wants her to be. Her faith has been such a testimony booster to me, and also a reminder to me of how small my role as the missionary really is. I get so down on myself sometimes because I feel like I'm not doing all I can, or that I can never be a good enough teacher or presenter of the message.. Teaching Lee Bom reminded me that all we have to do is find those prepared people. She was ready. All we had to do was find her. I'm so grateful to Sister Lee and Sister Yoon for finding her last transfer, and for the short amount of time I was able to teach her before she got baptized! I didn't do anything but I got to witness the miracle and to see the fruits. Wow I'm so blessed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Along with being spiritually blessed I was also blessed with the temporal blessing this week of being stuffed (literally i've never been so full in my life) with delicious food wherever I went. We visited less actives and had great lessons with investigators.. just a great week. SO BLESSED.. that's all I can say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Well I've been on my mission 17 months today and I can't believe it at all. Time flies when you're having fun. Oh and you know preaching the gospel and what not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." (3 nephi 5:13)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I love being a disciple of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary. I know I say this in almost every email but I can't say it enough.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I actually have to go now, sorry this was such a short email today! Love you all and wish you a wonderful happy and lucky week (happy st. patty's day tomorrow I guess)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-82120387804109255232015-03-09T17:25:00.003-07:002015-03-09T17:25:41.947-07:00Week 72<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear family and friends and those reading this letter!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">EXCITING EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!! We might be having a baptism this week! Our investigator Lee Bom had her baptismal date set for next Saturday, the 21st but out ward mission leader asked us if it was possible for her to get baptized this week at our stake conference! We had an awesome member present lesson with her after church yesterday, and we finished teaching all of the commandments. She accepted it all really well... I've never met someone as prepared as her.. She understands the gospel so well and has such a desire to live her life according to the principles of the gospel we've taught her. She is amazing. We talked to her about having her baptism on the 15th and she has no problem with it. The only thing we're worried about now is the fact that she hasn't told her parents about it yet. She's not a high school student anymore, she graduated last year, so she doesn't need their permission to be baptized.. but she says she doesn't know how they'll take it so she doesn't want to tell them yet. We talked to her about it on the phone this morning and told her to think about it and pray about it a lot. Hopefully she tells them soon.. Pray for her to have the courage to tell her parents, and for them to accept it well, and for her to be baptized this sunday!!! Her name is Bom, which is korean for spring! SPRING IS HERE!! And also the weather really is warming up!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for other investigators. Kim So Yeon. Oh.. we love her so much.. and she is so frustrating. She knows its all true. But she's still holding back. We met with her several times with her this week, had a great member present lesson with her and our relief society president.. She knows its true. She says she knows she'll get baptized within the year. There's not much we can do but pray that she decides that's sooner than later. Sister Yoon and I want to see her get baptized so bad.. But really whatever happens, even if we don't get to see it, it will be okay. We went hiking with her this morning. she is the sweetest nicest and most prepared person I've ever met. She will get baptized someday. Nam Sungwon has been really sick lately.. She started school and her rigorous new schedule has been hard for her to bear. she didn't come to church this week we were able to meet with her this week once.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had an awesome zone training and mission leadership council this week!! It was so spiritual and amazing, as always. Our mission's focus this month is revelation through the Book of Mormon. Best focus ever. We did something special this zone training, we had some time at the end for a testimony meeting, and it was amazing. I felt my own personal testimony of the book of mormon strengthen as I listened to the personal testimonies of the missionaries if our zone. I hope all the missionaries in our zone felt the same special spirit I did. It was wonderful. One of the commitments President gave us at our MLC was to pray for guidance on how we can more effectively use the book of mormon in our mission. Last night we had dinner at the bishop's house and we shared with them the mormon message of Elder Holland's testimony of the book of mormon (watch it right now. ), and our personal testimonies. The bishop loved it, and asked us if we would share it with all the members we visit. We also invited them to help us and pray for us to know how to apply the bom in our mission. They willingly accepted. I really hope we can unite our ward together and see some miracles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The book of mormon is true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon-2">http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon-2</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Things are great here. I'm so happy. I'm so grateful. That's all I can really say!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love you all and I'm so grateful for the love and prayers you all give on my behalf.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Fun p-day pics! Bowling last p-day (yes I got a triple strike this week and I'm humble about it)</div>
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Sor bing su with Nam Sungwon! MOST DELICIOUS THING EVER. Shaved ice, cocoa powder, sweetened condensed milk. It will change ya.</div>
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Hiking this morning!</div>
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Our investigator thought we were freezing to death so she bundled us up before we could do anything about it.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-89898728098290496002015-03-09T17:16:00.003-07:002015-03-09T17:16:40.941-07:00Week 71<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear Fam</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week was just one of those weeks where you look back and think, wow how did I survive all the crazy that happened? We had a lot of weird experiences this week.. But great ones too! I can't believe its already March.. Time is getting faster and faster with every passing week, its almost unbelievable. Everyday my heart is getting fuller and fuller with gratitude for the opportunity I have to be a missionary right now.. I don't have too much time left.. so I want to give my all to the Lord every day!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Right now one of our investigators has a baptismal date, Lee Bom. She is progressing and accepting everything so well. Her date is set for the 21st of this month. She came to church this week. She's so awesome.. Our other investigator that had a date has some issues that we have to figure out before can give her another date, but we're still working with her! As for our other investigators.. This week we had dinner and a lesson with one of our members and our investigator Kim So Yeon. We talked about a lot of things.. eternal marraige, living prophets, and obedience.. but somehow it all tied together and we brought it back to baptism. She still has a lot of fears and concerns about baptism but we're not really sure what they are.. We're having a hard time understanding her as of late. She knows its all true. She feels great when she reads the book of mormon and comes to church.. but she feels like she needs to know every single detail of the gospel perfectly before she commits to baptism. She's taking her time. As long as she's moving forward, no matter how slow it is, that's a good thing, right? We invited her to fast with us on Sunday, to try and get an answer about baptism. We need to talk to her about it more, but I pray that she had a good experience and that the Lord helped to soften her heart as she fasted.. As for Nam Sung Won.. She's been so busy and sick this last week. She canceled on us several times, we were only able to see her once, we visited her at her parent's cafe. She starts school this week and she's really nervous. She has been living at home doing nothing for the past 2 years so she's so scared to start this new busy life... and its kind of affected her desire to meet with us and progress in the gospel. She didn't come to church this week. She sent us a really long apology text last night expressing all of her stress and concern and told us that she's still praying all the time and trying to strengthen her faith, so she told us not to worry too much. So I decided to do that. I've been so stressed and discouraged about her lately.. but really, all we can do is invite and continue to express our love to her. So there's no need to be discouraged!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miracle this week!!! Kim Ji Aey, a recent convert here in Sanggye finally came to church yesterday!! The first time since I've been here! She hasn't answered any of our texts our calls.. but she came to church with her 2 daughters Hye li (haha I guess its just Haley in english..) and Hye lyon! She's been going through a rough divorce, and I think things are finally finalized. She is so sweet, and she seems to have such strong faith. She is still in contact with Sister White, the sister that baptized her, yes my same sister white from Sinchon. I love her.. and I'm so grateful in her dilligence in staying in contact with her recent converts and people she taught here in Korea even though she's home. Such an inspiration to me! Anyways, we're going to her house for family night tonight with her and her daughters. I'm so excited :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Found a new favorite scripture this week in Romans. Verses 35 and 37: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?.... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Nothing can overcome the love that Christ has for each on of us. No matter what we may be going through.. tribulation, heartbreak, pain- physical or emotional.. whatever it may be, we can conquer anything through Him that loves us.. because He loves us, He suffered every pain we've ever felt. So He knows us better than anyone. We can be more than conquerors... We can become like him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love you all and wish a great week upon you all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매 </span></div>
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Temple day! I love my comp. And I love long-ffles (a long waffle on a stick that will change your life) I HADN'T HAD ONE IN 6 TRANSFERS...it was a glorious reunion.</div>
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Skill.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-5471633460097960142015-03-09T17:02:00.001-07:002015-03-09T17:02:47.404-07:00Week 70<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear loved ones of mine...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week was so great.. this transfer is off to such a wonderful start. I am having so much fun with my new companion Sister Yoon... we're basically soul mates. At the end of last week I was like geez my face is sore! I realized it is because of the amount I've been smiling and laughing haha. She is such a wonderful and hard working missionary! Sister Butterfield got her new trainee! Sister Neidhart from Germany!! Yep that's right, we've got such a diverse house.. a Korean, a German and... 2 sisters from Utah.. Why are we so lame? Anyways, our house is so much fun and we're all just so happy together!! I just feel so blessed to be where I am right now! I LOVE IT!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week was the Korean holiday, Solnar. So we had a combined zone conference that was SO awesome. We got to watch the movie "Meet the Mormons"!!! It was sooo good. Everyone who hasn't see it, go watch it right now because its so amazing and life changing. It has given me a stronger drive in my missionary work this past week. Also it was just so fun to be able to 'watch a movie' haha I forgot what it felt like. Also I got to wear Hanbok!! Korean traditional clothing!! Pics to come....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On saturday we had a baptismal service, on of the Elder's investigators got baptized. 2 of our investigators attended, Kim Soyun and Nam Sungwon. They are both progressing very well.. but at the same time they're also stuck at a spot in their progression. They are kind of very similar in their thinking. And it doesn't help that they are really close so we think that they get together a lot and discuss things about our church, which can be dangerous, you know. But they both really liked the baptism service and have good feelings towards baptism.. but neither of them are ready or willing to commit to a date quite yet. They were so shocked when they heard that this young kid that got baptized had only been taking lessons for about 3 to 4 weeks.. they asked us "How could he do that? There is know way that he knows everything already!" We explained to them that he didn't get baptized because he knew everything.. but he knew enough. He knew that it was what he needed to do, and he wanted to do it. We have explained to them so much about baptism being the gate, not the final destination.. They know they are prepared, they know they know enough.. But to be honest they both still have a lot of doubts and questions.. But they are praying every day, reading the scriptures, coming to church (mostly.. Sungwon didn't come this week because she was sick), so they are moving forward.. even if it is little itty bitty baby steps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We actually have 2 other baptismal dates right now, 2 of the investigators Sister Yoon was working with that we brought over to our companionship, Pak Jongyoon and Lee Bom! They are both about 20 years old and they are so sweet. Their dates are actually set for sooner than they'll be ready because we haven't been able to meet with them enough to teach them everything that needs to be taught, so we'll be postponing them this week when we meet them. We are teaching some pretty wonderful people right now! I love them all. We had a fun Solnar party this week with all of our investigators that our ward mission leader planned (he is the BEST ever). We got together and played some korean traditional games. Our investigators all had such a fun time and it was just so dandy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Shortly another cool miracle this week: we got a referral from some Elders in another area, they met a woman who had lots of interest in our church, her name is Yoon Eh Ryong.. she said she wanted to come to our church service on sunday! We called her the night we got the referral and she said she would come! To be honest, we forgot to follow up with her again before church, we completely forgot. But she came to church!! and stayed for the whole 3 hours! It was such a cool miracle! She is a very religious person and has a lot of knowledge.. but because of bad things she saw going on in her church she stopped attending for the past year or so, so she wants to find out more about our church. Teaching her won't be easy, because she is kind of set in her knowledge and she comes off a bit prideful.. but she keeps saying that she has a very open mind! We are gonna meet with her again this week and I pray that the message of the restoration rings true to her when she hears it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week I got a special letter in the mail from my mtc teacher. It was a letter I wrote myself in the mtc.. My teacher kept it and told us she would send it the last few months of our mission.. Reading it was so surreal because I remember exactly how I felt when I wrote it, the hope I had to become a true disciple of Christ. To be honest I was nervous to read it because I was worried I would feel disappointed if I didn't meet the standard I had set for myself as a young missionary. Well I'm not perfect, but luckily I didn't expect myself to be perfect. I just expected progression. And if there is one thing I've learned about on my mission, it is about progression.. A continual striving to become more like the Savior every day, that's what matters most. We don't have to be perfect. God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does expect our perfect effort. When we humble ourselves and accept that, He can do wonders among us. Something my companion said this week to one of our investigators (I think the spirit prompted her to say it because it helped me more than in probably helped our investigator) "Humility is Spiritual confidence."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love you all. Have a wonderful week and talk to you soooooon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-42205157090147569122015-03-09T17:00:00.001-07:002015-03-09T17:00:07.864-07:00Week 69<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear family and friends and everyone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't have too much time to email today so I'll keep it short! Its been a crazy day! Today was transfers!! I sent of Sister Jeon and picked up my new companion! Sister Yoon Jung in! She and I have actually been living together for the past transfer, so I already know her really well! I LOVE HER! She is so chill and so fun. Right now I'm actually in a temporary threesome! with Sister Yoon and Sister Butterfield! She is gonna be training here in Sangye, and the new missionaries don't come in until wednesday.. so we get to have a 3 man team for a few days here!! I love Sister Butterfield, we were in the mtc together and we'll leave together, so I'm so excited to be living with her. It will be so much fun. Because Sister Yoon was in the other companionship and they had a lot of progressing investigators, she just moved to my companionship with her investigators. So we have a lot of wonderful people we're teaching right now, and I'm so excited for this new transfer!!! We are gonna see miracles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wow my mind is kind of drawing a blank right now on this past week.. It was so crazy! Sister Jeon's last week so we had a lot going on, we taught a lot of lessons and worked really hard! One of the hlghlights was going to a meat buffet with one of our members and investigators.. I still smell like meat but it was glorious. That, and Nam Sungwon is progressing so well.. She came to church on Sunday again, and we had some awesome lessons with her this week! Valentines day was fun! We had english class that day so we made cookies and valentines for all of our english class members, and they loved it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay.. Well this was a lame short email and I apologize.. But you know, no time and all!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">LOVE YOU ALL! Talk to you next week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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exchange with Sister Lee Sungmi this week. we ate ice-cream.</div>
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Last Sunday! District pic! (4 elders are missing)</div>
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Reunited with Taebaek fam at transfers!</div>
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Goodbye old comp, hello new comp(s)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-83134247290593596582015-03-09T16:41:00.003-07:002015-03-09T16:41:33.703-07:00Week 68<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear family and friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Holy cow, its the last week of the transfer, and as usual with time, I can't believe it. Where is my time?? Its nonexistent. Next monday is transfers and I'll be getting a new companion! Sister Jeon is going home, its official. We sent all her luggage out this morning! Our time together was short! I feel so inadequate and not ready to take over the area, but luckily I don't have to do it alone! God's always on my side, and I'll have a great new companion! Sweet I'm set.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyways! Zone training!! It was awesome! We decided to try something new! We talked about 4 different parts of Christ-like teaching: 1. using scriptures, unity with companion, listening, and personalizing the message. We split up into 'stations', each zone leader and sister training leader taking one. I was personalize the message. I talked sharing personal experiences, using parables/analogies, and testifying. Wow it was awesome. Because our zone is so big, its really hard to get that one on one connection with the missionaries, but this experiment allowed us to do that! Almost everybody had the opportunity to share their experiences and feelings, and the spirit was so strong. In each station we had each missionary write down one way they could improve that teaching skill. At the end of the training, we had everyone pick one and specify it. We asked everyone to focus on that one thing this month, and to keep themselves responsible every day, by writing down every night how they applied it specifically that day.Also, we did a zone fast this last friday to saturday. After thinking and praying about it, we decided that we should do a fast for eachother. As missionaries we fast a lot for others, for our investigators, recent converts.. but I've never really thought about fasting for other missionaries! We fasted together that we would all be able to become more christlike teachers, a more christlike zone. It was such an awesome experience. Every time I felt my stomach rumble while I was fasting, (on any other fast sunday I feel the urge to complain and say I'm hungry) I thought, wow it is such a privilege that I get to suffer this small amount of hunger for the missionaries in our zone. I felt the spirit so strongly that day. It was an amazing experience!!!! Such a great zone meeting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I went on exchanges with the Sisters the sisters in our zone who serve on the military base, so they're in the english speaking branch... So I was basically in America for a day. It was the biggest culture shock of my life. We were invited to dinner with a member family, and I couldn't believe it, we had nachos! Yes, real nachos with real cheese sause. I though that was just a make believe thing! It still exists and its real! Real cheese exists!! Afterward we were knocking doors in their apartment building and almost everyone that lived there was from america. I didn't know how to respond when they answered the door. I don't know how to be an english speaking missionary haha. Sister Ellis (the sister I was with) said that I was ridiculously awkward and I kept bowing to them haha.. Oh great. I've got a few months to try and de-awkward myself.. but I don't see that happening. It was so much fun.. but SO surreal!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had so many appointments cancel this. Which is always a bummer, but it was almost hilarious how everything fell through! Sometimes you have days, weeks, and sometimes even TRANSFERS where everything seems to fall apart, but the only thing you can do is to get out there and work! And that's exactly what we did this week, and it felt really good. We talked to A LOT of people. Our only progressing investigator right now, Nam Sungwon came to church yesterday!! That's the first investigator we've had at church this whole transfer! It was such a tender mercy and a miracle. She is progressing so much. This week she finally got accepted to a college, and she attributes that to her prayers and our prayers.. that is huge for her. She told us on saturday after english class! We said, well you better come to church tomorrow to show God that you're thankful to him then, right? She said "Yeah I think so!" she promised she would come if she could wake up... she doesn't have a phone, but we found out her house phone a few weeks ago so we called it in the morning, she woke up, and she came right on time. She stayed for the whole 3 hours. During relief society I leaned over and asked her if she believes in God yet. She says that when she prays, she truly feels that He is there and listening, but other than that she still has a hard time believing there is a God with all the bad stuff that goes on in the world. I didn't know what to tell her except to draw on the feelings she has when she prays, to remember them always, especially when she feels doubt. We're meeting her almost every day this next week before Sister Jeon leaves.. hopefully her progression will be speeding up even more. She leaves in march for school, so we're hoping and praying we can baptize her before she leaves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a great quote I want to share with you all:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where can I find hope?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Everyone of us has times when we need to know things will get better. My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need. There is help. There is happiness.. Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying.. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come... Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." Jeffery R. Holland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am so grateful for this knowledge. I hope this valentines day that we can all love others enough to share something greater than any amount of flowers or chocolates, even the gospel of Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love you all, happy valentines day this week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-77616886191732398292015-03-09T16:40:00.001-07:002015-03-09T16:40:57.507-07:00Week 67<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest fam and friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Every week it seems crazy that I'm sitting at the computer emailing again.. another week has passed. I can't believe how fast this transfer has zoomed by, its basically over. Its been a great one and I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot about myself.. about how I want to be a better missionary.. about how I want to improve, about how I need to improve. Today we had such a wonderful missionary leadership council meeting, and we talked about teaching like the Savior. The focus for this new month will be "Teach people, not lessons". We have zone training (again, already??) this Wednesday.. I hope we can prepare an inspired training to pump up our zone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, we haven't had a single investigator at church this whole transfer. To be honest its been quite discouraging. 2 of our investigators specifically promise they'll come to church every week, and then they don't show up. This past week I was feeling so discouraged at church. I was filled with disappointment that for a 3rd week in a row when neither of them showed up. My heart was broken as sacrament meeting started. I didn't want to feel this way, but the thought kept coming to my mind "Am I helping anyone?" Why haven't our investigators come to church? We continuously invite, follow up, testify.. I felt that I really was doing my part... I'm fasting, I'm praying.. why can't they come? After the sacrament, our district got up and performed a special musical number to start out fast and testimony meeting. We sang a Child's prayer mixed with Joseph Smith's first prayer.. and as I was singing I felt the spirit so strong and the confirmation in my heart that I had done enough, I had done my part, and I was helping this ward. Afterwards every member that got up and shared their testimony shared about how strongly they felt the spirit during our musical number, and how grateful they were to us. That simple expression of gratitude changed my day around. Even though I was so sad our investigators weren't there to partake of the special spirit that I felt, Heavenly Father helped me know that I am helping, despite what I feel sometimes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had a few investigators drop this week, but we found a few new ones so the Lord is taking good care of us. Our most progressing investigator right now is Nam Sungwon. Its been amazing to see the transformation that has taken place in her these past few weeks. Really when we started meeting with her she had no belief in God or desire to believe. Her faith is growing every day as she continues to pray. Prayer has taken a huge role in her change.. she prays and feels lots of peace. Every time we meet with her she says her faith is growing stronger. She loves prayer. And reading the scriptures. Now we just gotta help her feel that way about coming to church!! She doesn't quite want to yet. Obviously, because she's not coming. She says its just too hard to get up. And she doesn't have a phone so we can't call her to get her up. She's accepting our message so well, she's just not sure if she wants to come to church until she knows its true, or until her faith is stronger. We talked to her about how we come to know slowly as we exercise our faith, using light as an analogy. She said it was a beautiful analogy that really touched her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Something that I love that President said in our training today: "This is God's work, Elders and Sisters. He can do it without us, but he doesn't want to. He don't want to do this work without us." It is such a privilege to be a servant in the Lord's vineyard. He wants me here. He needs me here. I am so grateful for that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">사랑해요!! Have a wonderful week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Bowling last P-Day!</div>
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Temple day</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-86233218148908112702015-03-09T16:33:00.002-07:002015-03-09T16:33:38.994-07:00Week 66<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear family</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And this transfer is over half-way done. Say it ain't so. Time keeps getting faster and faster and its freaking me out. But I gotta just keep making the most of it! This past week was absolutely crazy!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week we went on exchanges with some Sisters in our zone who have been having a really hard time getting along and working together.. One felt like she's been pulling all the weight even though she's a much younger missionary. The other felt like she couldn't do anything right and that her companion was always mad at her. We went into the exchange having been informed of the problem by their district leader. We prayed hard to know how to help them and what to say. Originally we had planned that I would stay in our area and one of them would come here, but last minute we felt prompted to change plans.. so I ended up going to the other area and working with the sister who is younger. Anyways, it was an awesome exchange where we were actually able to help them resolve their differences. My companion Sister Jeon challenged the sister she was with to bear her testimony to her companion. They texted us the day after the exchange thanking us for how much we helped them and that their relationship had improved so much over the course of one day.. it was such a cool experience!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We're seeing some awesome things happen here with a few of our investigators. One of our investigators in particular is progressing so much. Heer name is Nam Sung Won. Right before I got here she started meeting with the sisters. She started out with absolutely only english interest. No belief in God whatsoever, and no desire to believe. Well its been really cool to see the change that has taken place in her as she has realized this is where she needs to be. She is so prepared.. its just a matter of time now. This past week she has been praying every single day and she loves the way it feels. She says she feels a peace in her life that she's never felt before. She says she's not just praying at night, but she prays in her heart as she's walking down the street, or whatever she may be doing. She is reading the book of mormon.. and she's really getting into it. We gave her the commitment of reading Alma 5 .. and to be honest I wasn't quite sure why we assigned it to her but it felt right. She read it and told us that she felt that God was speaking to her through it in verse 60 when it says that the Good shepard is calling you and you aren't listening... she said, I know that's me! "And look in the last verse it's telling me to be baptized!" I didn't know about those verses when I committed her to read it, but God sure did. She's so prepared. She's not quite ready to accept that fact yet. She didn't come to church yet because she feels that she wants to learn more about our doctrine before she starts doing that. Hopefully after we meet with her this week she will be ready. :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had interviews with president this last friday.. might be my last before my exit interview. Now that's crazy. It was great.. its always wonderful to talk to president and see how much i've changed. He challenged me to make some goals for the rest of the time I have left. It freaked me out a bit but I'm excited to keep working hard and hopefully keep becoming who the Lord needs me to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week Sister Jeon finally decided when she wanted to go home! She's leaving in 3 weeks. So that was a good thing to decide soon. My time serving with her has been so short! I'm a little stressed that I won't know enough to take over the area by the time she leaves haha, but with God all things are possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry this email was kind of short! Tomorrow is temple day so our pday is tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Have a great happy wonderful week everyone. Love ya.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-7275045142972889742015-01-12T15:25:00.002-08:002015-01-12T15:25:48.073-08:00Week 65<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear fam, friends and erebody..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wow this past week has been absolutely crazy! Transferring to a new area is always a big adjustment and a lot of change, so of course its crazy. But I am so grateful to be here in Sangye for so many reasons. Our ward is AWESOME.. they have such a strong desire to do missionary work.. One really amazing thing, all of our members have an alarm on their phone that goes off at 9pm every night, and it doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing, they pray for the missionaries. How amazing is that? It just blows my mind. That, and the fact that we do yoga stretches to start out relief society lets me know that this is the ideal place to be. :) I still miss Taebaek with a burning fiery passion.. but I know that as I get to know and love and serve the people here it will go away! Sangye is pretty neat. I feel blessed. That's all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We have a lot of investigators right now with a lot of potential here! I haven't met too many of them yet, but we've had great lessons with the ones I have met. One lady in particular is named Anna Kim. She is very good at english and she started meeting with the sisters here several weeks ago. We're doing family english program with her but it usually just turns into 30 min. of the gospel in english and 30 min. in Korean, so that's great! She has had a hard time with people from other churches in the past being backstabbers and mean people so she's skeptical to commit to a church. But she says so far she really likes what she's seen of our church and she's so impressed by all the young missionaries that give our church a good image. She has the desire to read the book of mormon and find out if what we're teaching her is true. She wasn't able to come to church this last sunday but she wants to come next week! I pray good things happen there! We also met a few new investigators this week since I've been here! Seriously I've been here less than a week and I've already seen so many miracles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wow its such a party living with 3 koreans!! I thought adjusting to hearing basically only Korean 24/7 would be a lot harder than it has been! That means I've learned a think or two right?? Its a lot of fun. My companion Sister Jeon is so sweet! We get along well. In our first few days together she already opened up to me and told me all of her deep dark secrets haha. We're tight! I'm excited to work hard with her as Sister training leaders together. Some of the sisters in our zone are having a hard time finding right now so hopefully at our zone training this week and in our exchanges to come, we'll be able to speak through the spirit and help them out. Being an sister training leader is great because I receive so much more than I give! Tomorrow is our missionary leadership training at president's house.. it should be great. I'm stoked!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning I was studying John 11, about when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. I found so much comfort in the simple verse 35, "Jesus wept". He wept because he loved Lazarus, He was his good friend. He wept because it hurt Him to see his dear family and sisters in so much pain. I think He also wept because in that moment He recognized the undeniable task of the atonement that he was to fulfill for the world.. and He realized that he would be taking upon Himself not only the sins of the world, but the sickness, the death, the heart breaks of each on of us individually. I love my Savior.. and I am so glad He loves me enough to do that for me. I feel confident in saying that He weeps for me too. As He does for all of us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well basically this is life for me right now! I feel grateful to have this new start in a new area (will be my last... AHHHH) Time is just zipping, so I gotta make the most of every second! I love being a missionary. Love this gospel, love you all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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transfers...saying goodbye :(</div>
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Jeon Abin Chamenim!</div>
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Sangye!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-11048497115828776182015-01-05T13:09:00.000-08:002015-01-05T13:09:16.985-08:00Week 64<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear fam</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember having an interview with my mission president 5 transfers ago before I came out to Taebaek. I was talking about how hard it was for me to be leaving Sinchon, and all of the people there that meant so much to me. Well, at that time he made a promise to me that when the time comes for me to leave Taebaek, it would be even harder. Well, his promise has been fulfilled. Yep, after 7 wonderful months here in Taebaek, as John would say "my time has come". I'm leaving Taebaek! We got our transfer calls Saturday night. Headed back to the city... I'm going to an area called Sangye! Saying goodbye has been one of the hardest things I've done on my mission, no joke! The members here in Taebaek have become a part of my life that I can never forget. Each of them means so much to me.. I feel so unbelievably blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in Taebaek. It has changed my life. Even though it is so hard.. Its bittersweet. Because I really am so excited to go to my new area, Sangye. It is one of the most amazing areas in our mission... I know it will be amazing. I feel so blessed and really so excited to be able to serve there for my last three transfers! My new companion's name is Jeon Ah Bin! She's korean and I'll be living with 2 other korean sisters as well.. I am STOKED! Its crazy, I'm going from the smallest zone in the mission to the biggest.. Total opposites. Sister Jeon and I will be the sister training leaders out there. It will be a grand new adventure. Although leaving Taebaek is the hardest thing ever.. I know that great things are instore. I trust Heavenly Father. He sent me to Taebaek and it was better than anything I could've imagined.. so I imagine I'll leave Sangye feeling that same way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I can't believe how fast this last transfer flew by, I hardly had any time to process it at all. It was probably the fastest transfer of my whole mission (and they just keep getting faster). With MLC, exchanges, Christmas and New years, every week seemed to be so packed. It was a transfer filled with happiness, the spirit, and Christ's love. We have had a hard time finding people to teach these past 2 transfers but I wouldn't have traded the experience we had for anything. Sister Stancliffe and I grew closer to our Savior as we dedicated ourselves to finding.We feel strongly that maintaining relationships with old investigators is really important. I told you about Jeong Sung Kyong last week, how we visited her and actually have started meeting with her again. It was a cool miracle. Also this week we've started teaching one of our long time english class comer's kids with their cousins and grandma during their winter vacation. It might be a short teaching time, but it just goes back to developing those relationships so that we prepare them for accepting the gospel in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week I conquered the world.. Hiked Taebaek San (mountain) on New Years day with our branch at -14 degrees c. We ate ramen with monks at the top. It was awesome. Haha definitely a new years that I will never forget!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Stancliffe.. Oh how I love her. Leaving her will be hard! I feel like a momma bird that has to let my baby spread her wings and fly haha, I'm not kidding. I know she'll do great things here in Taebaek with Sister Schillemat. She has learned how to work really hard!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't have much else to say this week and I don't have much time! Gotta get ready to go.. We leave to Seoul tomorrow. We're having a family home evening/leaving party at the church tonight and a lot of our english class members and investigators are coming so it should be awesome. I love Taebaek. I'm gonna miss it so much I can't even explain. I am coming back here someday.. I already promised all of our members haha so its gonna happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love this gospel! I love this work. More and more every day. Can't wait to fill you all in next week about the awesome new experiences I'll be having in Sangye!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">HAPPY NEW YEAR! LOVE YOU ALL!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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Hiking!</div>
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The Korean traditional New Year's meal of "dok-kuk" (rice cake) soup! You have to eat it to get a year older :) I'M 22!</div>
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Goodbyes...</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-87355492181558531422014-12-29T14:48:00.000-08:002014-12-29T14:48:06.225-08:00Week 63<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear family and friends,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! Love you all and wish you a wonderful new year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Christmas at our little home :)</span></div>
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Christmas party fun!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-31304603339331077662014-12-22T21:41:00.001-08:002014-12-22T21:41:16.417-08:00Week 62<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest fam, friends and loved ones.....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Beautiful snowy Taebaek!</span></div>
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Christmas P-day in Seoul with the Kangneungnam Zone Sisters :)</div>
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Christmas conference!</div>
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Sister Zundel!! My sister/common friend with the Quinn family haha!</div>
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making snowflakes for our Christmas party with our members <3</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-43679116161168219612014-12-15T00:09:00.002-08:002014-12-15T00:09:16.781-08:00Week 61<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear everyone,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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! :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love you all!! Have a great week! Happy holidays and be happy. Because its the most wonderful time of the year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-66006318609555162972014-12-08T09:14:00.003-08:002014-12-08T09:14:37.851-08:00Week 60<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear friends and fam</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529" target="_blank">http://www.mormon.org/<wbr></wbr><span style="color: #1155cc;">christmas?cid=HPFR112814529</span></a> #sharethegift</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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)</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!!!! </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love you all so much!</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-86326149345816516472014-12-01T13:41:00.000-08:002014-12-01T13:41:25.514-08:00Week 59<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest loved ones,</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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! </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 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!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you." 1 Thessalonians <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_358793282" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5:18</span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am so thankful to be a missionary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am thankful for the talk "Grateful in Any Circumstances" By Pres. Uchtdorf, because it has changed my mission and my life forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm thankful for my family and for the knowledge I have that I will be able to be with them forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm thankful for kimchi (which I got to make this week!! woohoo!!!)</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and chocolate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am so thankful for chocolate.</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm thankful for the book of mormon. It has changed me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm thankful to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My beloved branch and district!</span></div>
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MAKING KIMCHI!!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-28667365831716221422014-11-24T10:18:00.000-08:002014-11-24T10:18:25.608-08:00Week 58<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest friends and fam!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I feel like I always start out my emails the exact same way, by saying something like, "wow its already <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_353162686" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">monday</span></span> 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. </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry the email was kinda short this week!</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-8685763977761528712014-11-17T10:06:00.000-08:002014-11-17T10:06:56.044-08:00Week 57<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest fam, friends and loved ones..</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!!!!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 (<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1578764965" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">thursday</span></span>). 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!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miracles this week: One big one. Sister Ju and I decided to go visit and old investigator <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1578764966" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on wed</span></span>. 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. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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?</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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)</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">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:</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"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!" </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1578764967" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">2:24</span></span>. 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.</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!)</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span>
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Happy pepero day! It's a delicious snack here in Korea. 11/11 is pepero day. We ate a lot.</div>
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Exchanges with Sister Ju!!</div>
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Outside the bathhouse...before</div>
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and after. #newwomen</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5142653827307951190.post-32725599968623254612014-11-10T10:34:00.002-08:002014-11-10T10:34:52.885-08:00Week 56<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dearest loved ones...</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_833413401" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:20</span></span>. 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. </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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! </span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_833413402" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">this wednesday</span></span>! I am so excited. Such a tender mercy!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And I love you all!</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Holmes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">홈스 자매</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0