First Month in Seoul

 Thanksgiving at an army base with an LDS Chaplain and family, the Degn's.

 Elder's Chisholm and Hatch, a yummy Thanksgiving dinner!

 We think this is an ice sculpture turkey!

 The view outside Elder Chizzy's apartment!

 Halloween tie, pillowcase and Batman! Apparently, Halloween isn't a big deal in Korea!!!


Elder Chizzy is doing great! He is enjoying cold, snowy, wet Seoul. He is learning little by little to understand and talk and is positive, happy and healthy! We love hearing from him and look forward to his emails every week! We love hime and are super proud of him! Here are a few excerpts from his recent letters.

"Thanksgiving was a great day! The Degn's were a very nice family and I was grateful for them. They lived on an Army base so we got to visit that and see a lot of other American's which was nice. 

We also taught a couple other lessons that went really well:) Heavenly Father really blessed me this week and made me see that I really can make a difference in these peoples lives. For that, I am definitely grateful."

"Church this week was really cool! It was the primary presentation and the kids were so dang cute:) HAha asian kids just in general are so dang cute and awesome! I was touched by the primary music and I was grateful for that experience. The other cool thing about Church was just that there was a sense of just love and everything. Haha it was super cool and the spirit was just super strong at church! It was a good day for sure:"

"This week was full of very cool experiences. It started off with the Bathhouse... HAHA it was way sick and super relaxing! Like, it wasn't near as weird as it sounds. There really weren't tons of people there and it was actually big and it was nice. It didn't remind me of anything in particular because it was like nothing I've ever been in... But there was like a sauna and like four or five big hot tubs basically. Then a wet room and then a cold pool. The cold pool was absolutely freezing but fun. I am pretty sure this is one of the only missions in the world that you can go swimming! Haha it was sick:) Anyways, then we went to Costco and got food and stuff which was fun. Then Tuesday was Temple day!! We got to go to the temple which is about a 30 minute subway ride away... It was super relaxing and a great experience. The temple is aboslutely puny. I am pretty sure there are two endowment rooms and initiatory and the baptismal font and thats it. It is smaller than the Oquirhh Mountain temple and yeah. It is so small. But it is very pretty and very spiritual. It was cool because when you go in, it is noisy and you can hear the city and it is right in the middle of the city, but when you enter the temple, it is quiet and just spiritual. I really liked that part and just being able to feel the spirit was great."

"This week was a better all around week with teaching people and things as well. WE actually had some lessons and one of them in particular was insanely cool. This kids name is 경민 (gyeong meen) He is 21 years old and I actually contacted him like the first week or two I was here. I speaks english super well so that was nice

I actually had some good conversations with people on the street! In our mission, since teaching lessons is really hard, they also set a goal for how many people you talk with on the street every week. the standard is 140 but me and Elder Hatch wanted to get 200 this last week and we did it! It was hard work but way fun. I learned a lot and the time absolutely flew by. We had some really good lessons too. We are meeting with 경민 (gyeong meen:)) today again.. We will see how it goes! We are just doing the same thing as last time so hopefully it goes well. We also met with a guy named 권혁태 (gwon hyeok tae) and he was a really nice guy."

"Luckily, last Monday, we found a super cheap
Christmas tree and ornaments at this place and we were able to buy it
so we have a Christmas tree in our house! Haha and we found a Michael
Buble c.d. and we have been listening to it:) It has made this week
feel a little bit more like christmas:) And then on Wednesday, we went
to another area and it was snowing so hard! But us and the
missionaries in our zone proselyted and handed out Books of Mormon for
presents and stuff:) It was fun and freezing! It has snowed quite a
bit.. Which has really made it feel like christmas.
We haven't been able to meet with a lot of people which has been pretty
frustrating... That is one thing about Koreans... They are always
busy! ALWAYS! Whether it is a test, or something else, they are always
busy with something. So they always say that they can meet next week
and that ends up being the end of the month and then they just never
meet. It is pretty frustrating... We haven't taught a normal lesson
since the 2nd week I was here. But even though that is the case,
missionary work is still good. 
Oh cool story, we got to carol last night!! It
was way fun:) We went to a big subway station and just stood in a
really busy area and sang christmas carols in both english and korean.
It was way fun! It was us, another zone, and a companionship from our
zone. It was awesome to just spread the happiness of christmas and
stuff:) But yeah, life is good... Hard and freezing... But good!"

May the Force be With you!!!!

 Elder Chisholm and Sister McKay....good friends in the MTC, and neighbors at home!!!

 Josh and his branch President, and wife, native Koreans.

 District!

 We think this is right before a lot of the native Koreans left for Korea about 4 weeks ago. Josh talked a lot about them and how helpful they were in teaching the language to those missionaries preparing to go to Korea. Josh loved them and said he couldn't wait to go and teach!!

 Last MTC pkg was a Star Wars box! Josh loves Star Wars and we have lots of fun family memories watching it. We figured it was fitting to send our little Korean Jedi Missionary off with some things that remind him of home. We also sent a coloring book, play dough, ADVIL  and treats for the 16 1/2 hr long plane ride!!!

Everyone was anxiously awaiting the airport phone call! It was so great to hear our missionaries voice!! Everyone got to talk to him for quite awhile and he sounded great. He bore his testimony in Korean and said lots of other cool things in Korean too. The best part about it was that he is SO excited to go, so happy, so ready and so anxious. It was fun to talk to him and to hear how good he is doing and how ready he is to GET ON WITH IT! He loved the MTC and learned so much, the Spirit was so strong there and I can tell he grew a lot in the last 11 1/2 weeks.

I, of course, did not sleep well, or do anything well, until I got this picture at 9:00 Tuesday morning. The email said " Missionary Arrival: Your missionary arrived safe, healthy and is in good hands."

Deep sigh of relief for mom!!!!

Now the real fun starts......we can't wait to hear how Korea is and how he's doing!!

"Well, there are a lot of things going through my head right now. It is crazy that in a few days I will be talking to people IN KOREA. It blows my mind that I can actually speak it! I feel so blessed that way. I have come to have a very firm testimony about a missionary calling. The Lord qualifies who He chooses. The biggest thing for me is that I just need to push myself to be better every single day. Something I have thought a lot about today is just finishing. Finishing this awesome MTC experience, finishing some of the relationships with people I may never see again.I look at it this way, if I finish this experience well, I will finish all my mission well. I am really excited to finish out strong and I am doing my best."

"We have sung Called to Serve EVERY SINGLE Tuesday... it is so old now Ha!Ha! But today was the last day of singing it and it really made me think of how great an experience this really has been. My testimony and closeness to the Savior has grown more than anything else. The Korean has been great but I just feel that Heavenly Father is shaping me to be what HE wants me to be and that is one of the greatest feelings in the world! I feel so blessed!"

Love

Elder Chisholm

He's almost there!!!!

Josh is plugging away at the MTC. This week marks 8 weeks of him being there. I really can't believe it. In some ways it's gone fast, and in some, I'm sure, especially to him, it's been forever. He has loved it and learned so much, but he is very excited to get to Korea. In his written letters these past few weeks he's told us about Korean missionaries that have been in the district with him and how much he's learned from them. He already loves them and is excited when he can communicate with them. His goal is to have learned 1000 words in Korean before he leaves on Oct 22. He sent us the alphabet and told us to try to study it. Well, we tried, but, we failed!!!!! We are glad he has the gift of tongues, because without it, we can see how truly difficult this language really is. We are proud of him for working so hard!!!! I try to send him interesting care pkgs each week, some of them are a Rise and Shine pkg, with cereal, pop tarts, muffins, drinks, fruit. A General Conference pkg, a BYU Rise and Shout pkg, lots and lots of cookies and rolls, and a cupcake a week that I promised him before he left! Of course,he  always gets letters and pictures from his siblings, he always writes them back and is so sweet in how he talks to them! Jon gives him a weekly "sports minute" and he is up to date and thrilled with BYU's new black football jerseys!!!! He says mail and pkgs make his week and break up the constant studying and monotony. Way to go Elder Chizzy!!!


" A mission isn't easy though and I knew it wouldn't be so this has been a great test for me. Heavenly Father definitely strengthens our weaknesses and I have no doubt that is what he is doing right now. One scripture that really helped me this week was Alma 37:37. It talks about prayer and how we should always counsel with the Lord. More than anything, here at the MTC, I have learned how to talk with Heavenly Father and that has been an amazing blessing! at times I just feel alone. But with that, I have learned a lot about the importance of prayer and everything like that which I am super grateful for. I have also learned a ton about patience and just not complaining and just going with the flow. Haha it allows me to avoid a lot of conflict and all of that stuff so its good. It's pretty cool that I am where I am at though, I wouldn't trade it for the world even if it is getting harder and harder to stay patient here:) only 3 weeks and 6 days and it is going to fly by:) 
I am happy with how I am doing and how I am progressing. The sacrament prayer on Sunday went so well and everyone said I did a really good job which made me happy:) I have gotten a lot closer to some of the Elder's in the other districts and the new districts just because for the most part, I actually like being around them a lot more. I played two of them in basketball so I have talked to them a lot about those games and stuff like that. It has been pretty fun getting to know them. I also really really like our new districts. They are way nice and they really want to work hard which makes me happy. Its cool to see where they are at now because 7 weeks ago, that is where I was at. I know that the Lord helps us everyday and allows us to learn more than we think we can learn. I can't wait to get there and to start teaching the Korean people. The language is insanely hard but ya know, I know the Lord is going to provide as long as I work hard. The gift of tongues is real as long as you work for it. I wish I could read the Book of Mormon in Korean. Haha it is so confusing. I can read it, I just have no idea what is going on
The Temple dedication was super good. I really really enjoyed it. When I went to the temple this morning, I thought about it and it was just a really neat experience. Elder Packer looked pretty beat up but he seemed to be in really good spirits and that was good to see. I can't wait for the Payson temple to be done either. That will be way cool to be able to come home and go to that temple! I can't wait for General conference for sure! Love you lots and miss you lots and I'll talk to you next week! 
Love,
Elder Chisholm "

Life in the MTC!!!!

Our cute Elder Chizzy is doing great in the MTC. He and his Companion Elder Frazier (from Georgia) are doing well together and seem to be good friends. He is also loving his other roommates, from Canada (YAY!!!) and Hawaii!!! He says his goal is to have 1500 Korean vocab words memorized by the time he leaves. (His estimated departure date is October 22). He is happy to be able to say quite a few phrases in Korean now and can bear his testimony easily! I am amazed at the progress he has made in 4 short weeks.  I asked him how the food was in the MTC. He says, "The food is......well, it's food. The best part is that I mash up 4 chocolate chip cookies in a bowl and put milk with it, yea, it's really really good." WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I guess that says a lot for the MTC food!! Ha! 

We miss him and think of him every day, but we know he is doing a great job and are so proud of him.

He missed the BYU home game opener last week. He actually had outside gym time during the opening kick off and he said that he was a little sad, but "I know I'm in the right place!" This coming from a serious DIE HARD cougar football fan, who hasn't missed a BYU game since he was 2 I think. Wow, my little boy is really growing up!!! 

Go Elder Chizzy!

"Prayers are answered everyday here. I have definitely never ever prayed harder in my life. The feeling I get from prayer is like no other feeling because I feel like Heavenly Father helps me so much everyday. For instance, The other day we were teaching a lesson to our investigator (teacher) and we invited him to come to church. It was like the 5th lesson so we decided that that would be a good commitment for him. When we extended the invitation to him though, he seemed very hesitant and what he said was, was that he was scared. So with my very limited Korean, I didn't know how to answer. So I said a really quick prayer and just started flipping open the scriptures. (The english ones:) ) and I opened to 2 Nephi 22:2 which talks about if we trust in the Lord, and he is our salvation, we don't need to be afraid. So I shared it with him, ( In Korean:)) and he seemed much less afraid. So I think he committed to coming to church next Sunday which is super cool! But yeah, that was a way cool experience and I know Heavenly Father answers prayers, even small ones."

"Mail is definitely the best part of the day because it is the only part of the day that you get a quick little escape from the MTC. The same routine everyday gets so old but I still like it a lot. The spirit is strong and its amazing how close to the spirit I feel. In last weeks devotional, Neil A. Anderson came and talked to us and that was so cool! He talked a lot about stories the prophet told and some of the interactions he has with the prophet on a daily basis. It was a super cool talk and we sang a way cool song that was called Behold the Nails in Jesus' Hands. It was a great song about the atonment and I really enjoyed it. This week we are singing Jesus once of Humble birth, which is also a great song!

 But I am doing great! My throat has been all the way better for the whole week which is such a huge blessing! The Korean is hard, but I just feel so blessed by the Lord with learning it. It is coming easily and I understand what I am learning and my memory is amazing. I know that the Lord has helped me a ton and that is such a cool feeling. I feel like I am learning how to study considering we study the BOM for an hour a day and every time I am just sitting around, I am just studying vocab like crazy. I try to memorize at least 20 words a day so that by time I leave here, I will know at least 1500 korean words. The grammar forms are the hardest part but those are coming too and I feel like I understand the general base of Korean. So It is coming and it will continue to get better!

 One of my new teachers, Brother Wade, just got off of his mission 2 months ago and he is so sick! He is an amazing teacher and we taught him a lesson in Korean last night and it actually went really well! I just made some sentences up in my head which really helped me realize how far I have come already. The fact that I can make up sentences in my head is amazing."

"Absolutely everyone I talk to says that Korea is just the most amazing place ever. My one teacher, Bro Hatfield, talked about how he played basketball almost everyday there which made me happy and they also play a lot of soccer over there. They say the people are so incredibly nice and I totally believe it! This week, we had 8 native Korean missionaries come and they all are just so insanely nice. They help us with our Korean all the time because we kind of just look foolish around them! They are all going Korean speaking so they will only be here for 3 weeks but it is a really cool experience to have them here."

 "I am amazed by the Book of Mormon. I have taken things out of it this time that I have never taken out of it before. The gospel is so simple, yet it is so amazingly powerful. I feel so grateful for it and for Heavenly Father and Jesus for blessing us with it. "

 Elder Chisholm and Elder Frazier

 Roommates!

 Yes, if you know Josh, you know he's just gotta play ball!!!

 Some Korean!

 All day, every day....just do it!!! (learning "his" language!)

 Ugly tie day with Sister McKay!! (Our next door neighbor!)

Every Wednesday Josh and Elder Miller go try to shake hands with and welcome as many new missionaries as they can! You can tell they're new by they're little orange sticker. Here they are with a brand new, straight from Seoul Elder!!! Elder Chizzy is so excited to teach these people!

Greenie package and latest letter!

 

We were excited to get a real written letter last Thursday. Josh even wrote in Korean!! He says he can say a short prayer and enjoyed singing in the MTC choir last week. He also enjoyed hearing from Elder Evans and his wife and told us  that he is grateful that he shares the same title as the General Authorities. He sounds very happy!

Today we got a new email. I love that he is doing well, and is happy and feeling better!

My throat is feeling so much better! I got a blessing for it and the medicine really started working. I am super happy it is feeling better cuz I am able to do more of the things that I want to do now! Like I was telling dad, the routine here is basically the same every day! We are in class for 6 hours which is kind of freaking forever to be in class but it's all good! I have given 7 lessons to mock investigators in Korean which has been really hard but has helped me learn a lot faster. The Korean is slowly starting to make more and more sense but it is just a crazy hard language! A lot of things just don't make sense but I feel blessed cuz a lot of things that don't make sense to other people, make sense to me.

I am already in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon! I started when we got here and I have just been reading a lot everyday. King Benjamin's council is what I was just reading and it made a big impact on me! It's amazing how really, we as people are just nothing without the Lord. If we become prideful or if we thing we are better than what we are, the Lord no longer will help us. It's amazing that even though we are just dust basically, we have so many capabilities. And it's amazing that in the large scheme of things, the Lord is so willing to help us. One thing that we have learned is that if we are experiencing success, we should be thanking and praising the Lord, and if we are experiencing some hardship, we can pray for help, but we should also be looking inside ourselves and find out what we are doing wrong.

 

Well, like I said, the routine here is pretty much the same so we have to make our own fun! Haha so me and Elder Miller set up the trash can on top of two suitcases and play a game called rubbish ball everynight basically! Haha its just basketball basically but using the trash can. It is actually surprisingly fun and we have a good time with it. We also try and take pictures with as many new elder's every Wednesday as possible! Haha they all get little orange stickers on their name tags so we know which Elder's are new. It is pretty funny and I think they like it two. It is kind of a competition between me and Elder miller so i have a lot of those pictures! So my memory card will be full of people I don't even know! Haha funny.. But We also get up every morning at about 5:45 and go run! I hate getting up early but I feel so much better after. Like I said, I am pretty sure I have lost some weight which feels really nice. We also do ab-ripper every tuesday thursday and saturday. We play basketball Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we play beach volleyball on Thursday and Saturday with our district. I surprisingly really like it, especially cuz we have gym in the evening so it feels nice getting outside and just seeing the sunset and everything.

 GREENIE PACKAGE!!!!

New Missionaries are called Greenies. So, of course, we had to send a greenie pkg. I hope he enjoyed it!

I love these letters. I am so happy that Josh has a balance of spiritual and still fun! His cute personality comes through in his letters and I can totally picture him saying the things he says. We also sent him a peach/pear pie with pictures of Jen's accident and pictures and letters this week. I'm sure with his running and all his sporting activities he seems to be doing, it won't be too much!!! 

We are so proud of Elder Chizzy. He's positive, happy and upbeat. We miss him and pray for him every day, way to go Josh!

 

 Josh and his little "future missionary" brother

 Setting apart

 First Care Package!!!

F

 Last "meal in the outside world!!!!"

 All 7 of our Chisholm kids right before Josh went into the MTC

 Stay strong sweet boy. I love you. I will miss you with all my heart but I know you are about to do the best thing ever so far in your life.

 Love you buddy.

 The two cute little hosts at the MTC that came and escorted Josh.

We are the Chisholm's. We have seven beautiful kids. Our oldest, Joshua, has chosen to serve a mission for our church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will serve for two years in the Korea Seoul Mission where he will teach the Korean people about Jesus Christ. Both the Bible and The Book of Mormon are sacred books of scripture that testify to the divinity and teachings of our Savior. He will teach about Eternal families and how we can return to a loving Heavenly Father by living the Lord's teachings, serving others, making and keeping covenants and sacrificing our own will to the will of God. We are excited and happy for him to serve. We will miss him, but we have faith that our Heavenly Father will watch over him and all the thousands of missionaries serving in the world for our church at this time.
We will post letters that he sends and pictures of his experiences. His first letter said,

"I'm doing well, My companion is Elder Frazier from Georgia. I actually slept good in the MTC on the first night!! The Spirit is so strong here. I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I love you!!!"

Then, yesterday we received our first "real" letter.

I love the MTC! It is an amazing place with an amazing spirtit and a ton of amazing people! I love my companion and I love my two other roommates! Elder Payne and Elder Miller are two awesome Elder's and I feel like I totally lucked out on my companion and roommates.  Elder Payne was almost an olympic gymnast for Canada in this last olympics! He is soooo good at gymnastics and he is so insanely ripped! It is kind of ridiculous really how big he actually is. We always tease him about being Canadian and saying eh and stuff like that! haha it reminds me of you mom everytime he talks about Canada and stuff. Elder Miller is in the Air Force and is a really sarcastic, funny guy. He is originally from Hawaii and just loves making jokes and stuff like that. It just makes the day go by faster when you can laugh sometimes and he provides that all the time. Me and him probably get a long the best out of everyone. Elder Frazier is from just north of Atlanta and he is just a really nice kid that has a strong testimony and just loves life. We get along and work really well with each other I feel like which is good. He is the District Leader too so I get my mail first! Woohoo!

The Korean is seriously insane! Haha what everyone said about learning it is totally true in everyway. It is kind of insane because it just does not translate to English. Which makes it frustrating but yesterday especially was a really good day with it. I can say a short prayer that thanks heavenly father for my family, my companion, my teacher, and that says help the spirit to be with us and to help us recieve the gift of tongues. So that is really cool that I was able to memorize that with a limited amount of speaking ability because of my ulcer. But I really like learning the language and I feel like I am learning it at a fairly rapid pace which is a blessing that I am seriously grateful for.

My branch president's name is President Shin and he was born and raised in Korea so he knows a lot about the country which is really cool. He seems like a really neat person and he has taught us a lot already.

The food here is alright, haha I haven't been able to eat much because of my ulcer (He has an ulcer in his throat, but is being treated and it will hopefully heal soon) but from what I have eaten, it is totally fine. I am eating my fruit and veggies mom;) and I am trying to stay eating healthy. I think I am actually lost a little bit of weight since I haven't been able to eat much! The gym time is good and I love playing basketball. I am one of the better players so it is really fun:) Me and Elder Frazier and Elder Miller and Elder Payne all joined the choir because it is awesome!:) haha I couldn't even sing because of my ulcer but we might be able to sing for the General Authority that is coming tonight! Woot! And the song is Redeemer of Israel which reminded me of you mom and made me happy:) 

He is doing so well. We are so happy for him. I am thrilled he can already speak some of the language and most of all, that he can PRAY in Korean. What a blessing!

I am doing ok too. I can't say it's not hard on a missionary mom. It is. My heart aches for him, to see him, talk to him and laugh with him. This has been a hard week. There have been a few times where I just lay on his bed and cry. My sweet aunt told me that instead of counting down the days till he gets home, count the blessings up until he returns. I feel very  blessed to have a sweet missionary boy, 6 kids at home still who are safe, happy and good, a wonderful husband, and a testimony of our Savior.  We are blessed. Way to go Elder!!!!!!!!