Saturday, August 16, 2014

Summer's coming... Parisol anyone?

June 2, 2014

Dear everyone!!!

Summer is on it's way, and it's getting hot! Fortunately, Busan has wind, and to combat the sun, we have...wait for it... parisols. I'm not kidding. You know, the pretty lacy umbrellas that women used to use a hundred years ago to keep themselves from getting sunburned? Yeah, well, Koreans parisols like nobody's business. If it's sunny, every single woman on the street's got a parisol. My American part was too strong to get one, but this week when we were visiting a member in our ward (in the picture with me and Sister Yoon), she asked me, "Your companion has one! Why don't you? You're going to get dark skin and freckles!" So she gave me a parisol. So now I have a parisol. And I use it too.... So much for my American pride. haha

This week has FLOWN by. I know things happened and I don't we worked, but this week is a blur. Geez. Sister Yoon and I are working hard, and we've been really busy with appointments almost everyday. It's great! As a missionary, there's nothing better than being busy. We've had appointments with less actives, investigators, and members, and we've been able to experience a lot of miracles this week that Heavenly Father did and IS DOING for the people here. It's amazing and really humbling to know that Heavenly Father didn't just give us this area and say, "Work!" He came with us. Actually, He was always here, blessing His children and doing everything to bless them.

Something I learned this week that I wanted to share: There's a hymn that says something along the lines of 'place my burden at His feet and carry a song away.' It's talking about how Christ can take our burdens, not just our sin, but our sadness, our anger, our frustration, our discouragement, temptation, and despair, and leave us free in the love of Christ. I thought I understood that until this week. This week, I heard (from a missionary? mission president? don't remember....)  that we truly can shift our burdens onto the Savior and be free through the Atonement of Christ. A few days ago, I had an opportunity to apply that. To test it and see if it was true. And it's so incredibly freeing. We can! Because Christ suffered the Atonement for us, He can take our burdens and because He already carried them, they can be no more. That's the part of the Atonement that I don't think we will ever understand in this life, but it's real. I testify that it is. I know that if we trust Him and place our burden at His feet, we can carry a song away. I love my Savior so much. I know He lives, and I know that He is my best friend. And I'm so grateful.

I love you all so much!

Love,
Sister Bonney