May 12, 2014
Dear everyone!
I hope you suffered this week! Actually, I don't. BUT that's a common expression in Korean. "Go suffer!" "You suffered well!" "We really suffered this week.." The feeling is "work hard", but the closest translation in English is..."to suffer". Koreans use it all the time! So, I hope you suffered this week! Not really, but you know what I mean... :)
I honestly can't believe it's already P-Day. The weeks just get faster and faster. Don't get distracted or your mission will be over before you know it!
A few miracles from this week!
On Sunday night, we visited a less active couple an hour outside of Gumi. They're American military, and they've had a hard time with the church for various reasons. I love them a lot. They're very funny and loving, but they're definitely pineapples - kind of rough and tough on the outside, but if you look a little deeper, they're pretty sweet after all. Anyway, for some reason on Sunday, it was a rough visit. They didn't want to talk to us and when we tried to share our message, it was... hard. They really didn't want to think about the gospel at all that night, and they just really didn't want to talk to us. We left, and I was kind of disheartened. A few days later, the elders visited them. Miraculously, without any of us discussing it, the elders shared almost the exact same message we had shared on Sunday, and this couple's hearts were changed. They were able to make some big spiritual progress through the Spirit, and they sent us a text later inviting us back again soon.
Do you remember Brother Choi? He was baptized back in January with his daughter, and he's now our ward missionary! His wife is now interested in the gospel. We were able to meet with her and her family yesterday, and we were able to share about who Heavenly Father is and a little about the Plan of Salvation. We weren't really sure how she'd accept it, but she was so happy to hear our message and talked about how impressed she was at how the gospel had changed her husband - He quit smoking and drinking in two weeks, and she said he rarely gets angry anymore. She only has time with her family on Sundays because of her schedule, but she said we could come back whenever we had time to teach her. We're planning to invite her to baptism this week.
We also met with a new investigator named Jin. She only speaks to us in English, but she said her interests were in the gospel. We started teaching her about the gospel, but it was really hard to focus on one subject with her because she wanted to talk about EVERYTHING. The news, culture, food, her hometown, missionary work, why we wear skirts everyday, her baby's new haircut, her mother-in-law, EVERYTHING. We weren't quite sure how to guide the conversation, and this last lesson, we had planned to invite her a little more specifically to have the missionary lessons. But when we met, she had recently had a lot of problems in her family. She wasn't sure what to do and she wanted our advice, but we didn't know what to say either, so we tried to help her find her own answers. As we shared a Book of Mormon story and tried to help her relate to it, she did find her answers. Ideas came to her mind that were from the Spirit and we were able to help her realize that those ideas were an answer from Heavenly Father. She was so happy!!! "You mean I can ask Heavenly Father about my problems and questions and He'll answer me?" She was so excited and grateful to have a relationship with Heavenly Father.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to have the opportunity to see how much Heavenly Father is caring for His children. Every single one of these miracles is a testimony to Heavenly Father's love for those people and there are so many more that we've seen. I know Heavenly Father lives and loves us so very dearly. And because He loves us, we can ask Him anything. And He will always answer us.
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Bonney
Here's a picture from P-Day last week! We climbed Geumosan and this beautiful Buddhist shrine was decorated for Buddha's birthday. :)
