Elder Chizzy is having a great summer in Seoul. He is ready for the heat and humidity to be gone and is enjoying being with 4 elders in his apartment. His companion is from Guam and he speaks fluent Japanese as well as English and they're working on his Korean! Josh is still a zone leader and loves his calling to lead 24 missionaries. We feel like a big part of his mission is to help lead and train the other missionaries as he trained so early in his mission and has been a zone leader now for a good portion of it too. He has had some hard times with many investigators that he's loved not be able to be baptized for one reason or another and he's learned that even though he wasn't able to "finish" the conversion process for them, he is still so glad he was able to teach them and plant that seed. We are so proud of our boy and love hearing all his experiences! I can't say that I miss him any less, but I can say that his growth and maturity is nothing I could have taught him. He has learned so much and his testimony has grown in so many ways. I love being a missionary mom, the blessings to him and to our family are too numerous to mention and I wouldn't trade it for the world!
Josh loves these boys!
I went to this meeting and it was exactly what I needed. We talked about how we have to have the spirit with us always and how it will be the deciding factor in our missionary work. So I thought a lot about that. President Christensen talked a lot about removing distractions and just focusing on the important things and working our hardest. And then he said something that I really really liked. He said, " Believe. Trust. Know. Don't doubt. Don't fear." I loved that so much. Belief is belief in the Spirit. Belief that if we are called to go into a hospital room with an old lady in it that is dying that we can give her a blessing and that the Lord's will will be implented. Belief that we will, if we have the spirit, work those miracles as we do his work. I thought about that a lot. And then trust. Trust in the Spirit that even though at times, it may tell us things that are uncomfortable or hard, but that is will be the right thing. And then Know. Something I have learned a lot on my mission is the importance of knowledge. The importance of understanding. President Christensen talks about it constantly, how we must understand. Whether it is a principle or doctrine, or in this case, the spirit. We have to understand how it works in our life. And then the last two. Don't doubt. Don't fear. It made me think of Isaiah 41:10 and how much that scripture means to you, but also how much it means to me. It is an amazing scripture and it helps me remember and understand how much Heavenly Father wants to help us and push us forward. So that was a great lesson I learned. Then on Wednesday, I was able to give a training to my zone. A very big zone!! 24 people now with 10 of them being sisters!! It's crazy stuff and I felt very blessed to be able to be giving a training in front of all of those great missionaries. Being a zone leader and training at the same time is hard, but I love being a zone leader. I love working with the missionaries in my zone and seeing their hard work and dedication. It pushes me to be better and I just love all of my missionaries tons!! Anyways, thursday was really the first day that I was able to do missionary work and I really implemented some of the things I learned from the training, and also, I did things the way I wanted to do them. We worked sooo, dang, hard. Haha for 4 days we were talking to every person we saw, asking for numbers, getting numbers, setting up appointments. We have no investigators so we have to start from scratch and I love it. I love the fact that I am with a young missionary that will work hard!
We had a really big zone service activity on Tuesday and it was super sweet! Haha way fun:) I told Dad about it a little bit, but we just went and hiked up a mountain and cleaned up trash as we did that... It was super fun. My zone is super awesome with a lot of way cool people. It has been fun to get to know each one of them and to just serve around them. I am glad I have them to watch over and stuff cuz the investigators have been a little bit slow the past little while.... Haha except for one guy... So get this, I went on exchanges out to an area in my zone that is super far away. About a 2 hour total trip and while I was there, my companion had a guy walk up to him and the missionary he was with and he said he wanted to learn english... Anyways, they taught him and they said he almost accepted a baptismal date and stuff.... Well, the next day when I got back, we had an appointment with him.... Turns out, this guy is on parole!! Haha lanta.... Not only that, (and just so you know, I was not planning on telling you all this cuz I think it might make you worry, but I trust you to trust me and to not worry!! It is a crazy story though so I wanted to tell you:)) but he was in jail for 8 years cuz he hit a policeman in the head with a hatchet... I still am not totally sure if the policeman died or not... I didn't want to ask, but it really surprised me cuz this guy is really so dang nice!! Haha he wants to follow Christ and stuff... He came to church on Sunday an brought us apples and is just way nice... Haha totally crazy... I leave for a day, and I come back and to put it simply, "So I am teaching an ax murder..." Hahahaha:) I don't know if that is true but I think it is hilarious...l Elder C' companion absolutely loves that... I think it is funny too..
I feel like my Korean has progressed a lot since I got Elder A... Having to talk all the time really helps and just being pushed to be better has helped a lot... So that is a good thing. Another good thing... I have done p90x for the last week! Getting up 30 minutes earlier and working out hard... It has felt really good quite honestly!! I feel like I am getting in better shape and that it will really help a lot:) Another good thing/ spiritual experience is that I feel my prayers getting a lot better/ way more specific and it has made a big difference in my day to day things. I feel like I am being a lot more sensitive to the spirit because of it and it has been super good. Like I have really recieved answers for investigators which is really cool. I've found that when I am more specific, I get very specific answers. I have also listened a lot more during lessons... The ones that we have had anways, to what questions I should ask and stuff and that has helped a lot... Just searching for questions that would help them think and to feel the spirit... That takes a lot of effort and I am always tired after those lessons, but they are always so good. We had some good lessons this week that didn't have good results, but I learned a lot from them and so they were good in that sense... I feel bad, cuz a lot of times, I feel like my mission has been so much for my own personal growth and that I haven't influenced that many people here in korea... But because I am trying my best and going out and doing everything I can, I know that even though I don't have the stats to show it, I have been successful... I guess that realization was a great thing and a spiritual experience as well:) Another cool thing that we are going to do is that we are going to have a musical fireside for all of our stake/zone!! It is going to be really cool and it is going to follow the order of the first lesson in pmg... It will be really cool and I am really looking forward to that... It will be in September on the 29th hopefully!! Oh and about the temple, we get to go next week to the temple so I am really looking forward to that:) I love the temple.. I had never thought of that symbolism that you had told me either and that is really cool... Christ is the living water and if we come unto him, we will never spiritually thirst again... That is a great lesson and I love the symbolism that goes into the temples... I love the temple so much:)
Korean fall is actually pretty short compared to summer and winter... Same with spring... But it is an exciting time that is for sure! This is the only time that I have to experience the crazy heat here though... Next year, I will be here for the rainy season and come home right around the time it gets ridiculously hot:) so that will be nice!! Haha and my meetings have been for various things. I went on exchanges on tuesday, we had district meeting on wednesday but we combined as a zone and talked about some of the activities coming up, and then I had to do pass off with two people... Do you remember the pass off thing? Haha I am on the other end now. I am the one testing the new missionaries with their korean and teaching skills. It is a good training opportunity and helps me see how far I've come. (Lets see how far we've come, lets see how far we've come. hahah I love that song! Matchbox20:) Listen to it for me!!) Anyways, then the next day, we had a mission wide leadership training meeting for DLs and ZLs and it was alright! Haha it was a long day but it was good hearing from President. And then yesterday, I had a stake meeting that just the ZLs go to and we talked about what we need to do for missionary work in our zone.. (We just need you to come here... Your missionary efforts are sweet mom!! But for reals though:) Super awesome:)) Our zone is struggling all around with us working with members so they are really pushing for the members to do more and refer more and all that jazz... We will see what happens!! I hope it gets better. It turns out we aren't doing that music thing as missionaries cuz the stake is already doing one in november so we are just going to do a joint thing... still should be good though right!?! I think so:) I don't know if I have told you this, but I sing in the choir in our ward! Haha it is kind of a joke, but it is fun. There are like 10 or 15 people in it and me and Elder C are 2 of the 3 guys that can actually sing. It is a weird situation but it is kinda fun. The choir director is somewhat out of her mind... But that makes it pretty interesting:) I thought you would like that!! Also, we had our axe murderer friend come to church again yesterday and he scared everybody there I think. It was cool cuz the sisters in our ward had a baptism... (The cutest most innocent little 14 year old girl. Haha it was really cool:)) But he just kind of followed us around all day as we were preparing for the baptism and what not. He really is a super nice guy and really just needs friends, Christ dealed with a lot of very interesting people during his ministery and it makes me think about how sometimes it is very easy to judge what a person has done in the past. We obviously have to be careful with this guy, but we do have to trust that he is sincerely looking for the truth and for comfort. Anyways, for other things this week, it was kind of just one of those busy with a lot of other things kinda week! I am still trying to help my companion out and that takes a lot of time, and on top of that, dealing with some issues within the zone takes a ton of time too. But we finally found a good new investigator last night and I taught what I thought to be a really good lesson to this guy that just got back from the army 3 months ago. It was the first time I had taught a lesson like that since I had studied a lot about the spirit and it was a lot different than ones in the past. My korean felt better, my questions were way better, and he ended up teaching himself a good majority of the lesson. He is a super money investigator that I am really excited about cuz he already has that christian background cuz he attends the presbyterian church.. But he has very similar questions that Joseph Smith had so in a cool way, we were able to relate Joseph Smith's story to him and he really accepted it well. The spirit was super strong and I felt very satisfied with how it went. I love when those things happen and we are able to feel the joy and satisfaction that comes from following the spirit and knowing that we were teaching exactly what that person needed to hear:) Good stuff!! I have also been working out hard in the morning and I feel super good:)
Haha bring on winter for heavens sakes!!!
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