Pictures...finally!

 We were so excited to get a package last week with the looong awaited memory card inside it with pictures of Elder Chizzy and  some fun Christmas presents from Korea! He is doing great!

Chewing pleasure at its finest!

 In one of his letters, Elder Chiz said he dunked the basketball while playing with his Korean friend and investigator, Gyeong Meen.  I can't imagine my boy liking basketball or anything.....ha ha ha! I love the B of M in one hand!! Maybe that's how he dunked it!!! (some spiritual power!)

 Seoul looks like a really big, really beautiful city!

The church.

 Snowy Seoul. Look at that cute smile! I am so happy he got his Christmas packages!

 His little tree and the 12 days of Christmas we sent him and his companion.

 Elder Chisholm, and Elder Hatch. They and the rest of their district went singing Christmas Carols in the subway stations often during the holidays, Josh said he loved it!

 I LOVE THIS! He was Santa at their ward party and handed out gifts to all the kids. He often refers to how much he loves the Korean children and how fun they are.

 These are the other Elders Josh was in the MTC with, he got to see them at their mission Christmas party and was a fun reunion for them.

I am amazed that this boy, who I taught to spell his name, who I taught to speak, who I taught to pray and sing...can now write, speak, pray and sing in Korean. He is doing well and so happy. He has been called as a trainer, and he was quite overwhelmed with that, this week he was amazed at how the Lord has helped him and how he has grown in such a short time. Missionaries are the best!!!

 

"I am great. This last week has been kind of absolutely insane. Haha I am training an American Missionary!!! He came straight from the MTC like I did and yeah... Fun stuff.  Haha he went to BYU for 2 years before coming on a mission and lets just say that he wants to work hard and talk to absolutely everyone. He has a huge heart and loves everyone. He is very bold and very loud and loving!!This last week may have been the craziest week I have ever have. Haha but honestly, it has been awesome. We have had some super cool experiences and I can't believe how much the Lord is helping me right now. I honestly, am understanding so much right now. I can understand maybe 80 to 90 percent of what people say and The Lord is also just totally opening up my mouth. We taught a lesson yesterday and it was to a guy that Elder Hatch said I better have a member come to because he is super hard to understand. Well, I tried all day sunday to get a member to help but none of them could so we ended up teaching alone. Well, it went AWESOME! I could understand every single thing he said and I opened my mouth and words came out. It was crazy. I don't really know how to explain how it feels besides the fact that I know its not because of anything I did. I mean I study hard and stuff, but even when I was with Elder Hatch 6 days ago, I wasn't understanding this much. It has been awesome and all I can say is that I feel very undeserving of the blessings I have received. It has been awesome. I feel like yesterday, after we taught that lesson, I had it hit me like "Wow, I am doing what the Lord wants me to do and I am the one that is portraying the gospel in a language that 5 months ago, I didn't even know how to say hi." Haha that is how I felt. It was one of the strongest spiritual experiences I have ever had. I just felt Heavenly Father's love and I was able to feel like I was doing what he wanted me to do. We also taught the second half of the plan of salvation on Saturday to 임진영  And we extended a baptismal invitation and she was praying and fasting about February 9th yesterday and church so we are hoping we will have a baptism that day! It would be so dang cool if it happened:) I am pumped. Anyways, it has been an awesome week and I have seen a ton of miracles. I feel like I am a miracle! Haha Heavenly Father his working through me and it is an amazing feeling!

 It is definitely where the Lord wants me to be! The Scripture that says "The Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." took on a whole different meaning for me this week!   He is lifting me up to where I could not go by myself. It has been a great experience and I am looking forward to continue to have cool experiences and keep progressing.
Oh, I made korean food the other day! It didn't turn out to bad!!  I thought you would like that. I just made this soup stuff that has tons of random stuff thrown in it!  It's called budae chigae! I like it a lot."

Love you all,
Elder Chizzy

Christmas as a missionary!

Elder Chizzy spent his first Christmas in Seoul and he's doing great. He said he enjoyed caroling in the subway stations with his zone, decorating a ward Christmas tree with some kids in the ward, eating a Christmas Eve dinner at a Korean grill (kind of like Golden Corral only you grill your own food) and having a party with the rest of the missionaries with his mission President and wife. He is happy, cold, grateful for heated floors and warm quilts and hand warmers and learning more and more Korean every day. When we talked to him on the phone he told us the first vision in Korean and we were all blown away by how great he sounds. We miss him, we are proud of him and the struggles and accomplishments he is having as a missionary. He is growing so much and loves his mission so far! He would love letters!!! We are excitedly awaiting his SD card which he says has over 500 pictures on it....he said he sent it last week and I can't wait to see his face!!!


"Well first off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! THANK GOODNESS WE AREN'T ALL DEAD!! Haha that whole end of the world thing came and went didn't it?? HAha pretty funny stuff. Anyways, Talking to you guys was so good and it made me so happy. It wasn't long enough but at the same time, it made it so I didn't miss you guys to much and that made it so I could focus on the work still which was good:) Haha but I do miss you guys tons and I am grateful we got to talk! It made me so happy. Anyways, it sounds like this last week has been crazy busy like normal! Haha I miss being around the craziness but oh well... I am glad everyone had such a good week. It sounds like it was so much fun and just being around family is an amazing blessing. That is one thing that I really came to feel during Christmas was even though I did some of the things we always do, and I was around people I wanted to be around and was where I was supposed to be, there was one thing missing and that was you guys! I came to realize that those traditions would be absolutely nothing without the family and I am so grateful for our family and for the traditions we have. They are so much fun and everything but, it is the time we spend together that really is so much fun! 

Well this week, we got back to work which was a relief! And we were able to meet a lot of cool people which was good. Actually on thursday,  we knocked on this door and this lady actually let us in. She lived in NEw York for 15 years and spoke good English and she believed a lot of things we believed. The great thing was that she is just searching for truth and not judging by just the church name or whatever. What a great situation! She took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it and I felt the spirit as a testified to her about the truthfulness of it. It was a really good experience! We also had a great sunday which was really good .) On Saturday, I  had president interviews with President Christensen which was awesome! He is such a good man and I respect him a ton.  He definitely is called of God and I am so glad he is my Mission President. That day, I was also able to pass off with the A.P's which was awesome. I memorized D&C 4 in Korean and the Korean A.P said it was awesome. So that made me really happy. Now all I need to do is teach him and I will be certified basically to be a trainer and stuff. Pretty cool. I have worked hard on that so it was good to finish that and get it off my back so I can work on some other things!

Anyways, now I will answer some questions you had::) Me and Elder Hatch are doing great. We are nothing alike and he doesn't like sports and we don't have the same personalities, but we get along and he is great. He helps me a lot and I have learned a ton from him which is really good. I was blessed with a great trainer. Transfers are in two weeks. One of us will be transfered and I will have a new companion more than likely. I want to stay in 개봉 but I will do whatever the mission President asks for sure:) Change will be good and it will push me to work hard! Whatever happens it will be for the best. Koreans celebrate the Lunar New year. It is called 설날(Solar) And it is the second biggest holiday in Korea next to their thanksgiving. Everything shuts down and we can't do missionary work for a bit and we just study and what not! So they party hard then:) Haha pretty funny! They like to party for sure. Answering your other questions, this mission is so much different than what I thought a mission would be. We contact all the time and we don't teach that much which is really hard sometimes. But at the same time, it has given me the opportunity to really rely on my Savior and learn so much about myself and about the gospel. It has been a great blessing! The work is hard but very rewarding, fun, and it is just changing me and I can feel it which is awesome! I am definitely grateful for the blessings of being on a mission. I know me being out here will also bless you guys so much and I am grateful for those blessings as well:) 
Well I gotta go soon but I really hope you have a great week. Sounds like it has been crazy at home... But what is new right? Haha I hope Eisley is doing ok. Like you said, she does have a plan. All of us do and Heavenly Father knows our weaknesses and our strengths and he tests both of them.  I was reading in the  War chapters this morning and I think it is in Ch 50 that Moroni is strengthening the weak cities in the region. When he did that, the lamanites could not even fight back. So just let the Lord strengthen those weaknesses and trust him. "