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!!!!!!!!