June 30, 2014 Look Ahead and Believe - Transfers!!

June 30, 2014

Look Ahead and Believe
Transfers!!!
 

Hey Family!!

The letter is going to be short today because I don't have too many stories this week...alot of our appointments punked but thank heavens I live with good sisters who make the hard moments fun^^  transfers are this week and I will be sad to have all the change.  I have lived with sister cho for six months now so it will be weird not having her around.

Yesterday our investigator, Yang Jee-in, was Baptized.  She is 11 years old and the daughter of a recently re-activated member.  This member has 2 daughters and 1 son and they are my favorite family in Cheonan!!  We have had so much fun teaching them and have spent lots of time with them while teaching Jee-In.  It was such a special day because she was so ready to be Baptized and her Mom was so happy the whole day!!  One of my favorite moments was her Mom sharing her Testimony at the Baptism, it was so heartfelt and sincere.

The other amazing part of the day was that our investigator came to church!!  She took the whole day off of work so she could come to church and the Baptism!!  She is such a sweetheart and I think she had a really good experience.  It is so cool to be able to teach someone who is genuinely searching for the truth.  And as people attend our church they can immediately tell the difference between our church and others.  There are so many churches in Korea it can be confusing but the minute you step into our building you can feel the difference.

Yesterday all eight of us Missionaries spoke in sacrament meeting so I would like to share with you some of what I said.  Our topic was hope and when I thought about this I realized that our biggest hope is Jesus Christ's Atonement.  We are not perfect people but through His Atonement we can overcome our sins and weaknesses and continue on.  I found this quote from general conference last year, Edward Dube, Look Ahead and Believe: "the past is to be learned from not lived in.  We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes.  And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future."  Learn from the past and move on with faith to become a better person.  Christ's Atonement is always there to help us no matter our problems.  Christ understands our struggles perfectly.

Moroni 7:41

"And what is that ye shall hope for?  Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the Atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in Him according to the promise."

 

Love you all and hope you have a great week:)

Love,

Sister Jacklin

Pictures!!

-Baptism
-Some of our awesome English class:)

 We got the transfer call about 20 minutes after getting off email.  Are you all ready?....I am transferring areas!!

I am headed to 목포, mokpo!!!!  This has been my dream area to go ever since I started my mission!!  I guess god (and President Shin) were listening to me!!  It is in the southwest of Korea right by the sea so I am in for some beautiful sights and lots of seafood!  Not sure how I feel about the seafood.  Mokpo is famous for its raw fish.  

My companion is Sister 윤미영, Yoon Mee-young.  She will be starting her third transfer and I have only heard good things about her.  Everyone laughed that I am with a Korean again.  Honestly I don't expect to get an American companion anymore and that is okay cause I love being with Koreans:)  We live in a two man house which will be a new experience for me and I may be able to get things done at night now!!

Sad to leave Cheonan and Sister Lee, it will be a busy sad week but I am excited for the adventures to come!!  

Love you tons!!

 

June 15, 2014 I'm Korean^^

June 15, 2014

I’m Korean^^

Hey Family!!

 

It has been another good week and I just can't believe how fast the time is flying by!!  Sometimes I forget what normal "non-missionary" life is like but now it is kind of scary because I feel like it is right around the corner...

 

We have a recently re-activated member who we spend quite a bit of time with because we are teaching her daughter.  Her youngest son is six years old, super cute but pretty much a tornado of energy!  This week both sets of Elders went out to their school so the Mom could introduce the Elders to some potential investigators.  Afterwards the little boy asked if the other Missionaries were going to come too, he wanted to see the Missionary with blonde curly hair cause he wanted to ask her how she spoke English so well...When the Mom told him it is because I am American he was surprised and said, "I thought she was Korean!"  ㅎㅎㅎㅎ, this gave me a really good laugh since my blue eyes and blonde hair make me look just like a Korean^^ (Not).

My favorite lesson this week was also with this same family.  They were coming early to English class so we wanted to find a way to teach them the Plan of Salvation in a fun way, so we decided to make a life size Plan of Salvation game!! Coming on a mission has forced me to become creative!!  I think it was the funnest lesson I have ever done and made it much easier for the kids to learn.

There was also a Baptism in 온양 (Onyang Branch) yesterday, Brother 이준무 (Lee) was baptized.  He has been attending church since December but the Elders weren't able to teach him for a long time and then finally with some member help he set a Baptismal date and is officially a member of the Branch now.  It was a very special and important Baptism for the Branch.  Having one more strong Priesthood leader will really help the Branch.  We had a complete celebration after the Baptism with cake and all!!  He is a really fun guy, we went out to dinner with him, the Elders, and Sister Kim last week and it was literally the funniest dinner of my whole mission.  Brother Lee loves to give the Elders a hard time so we had lots of laughs at the Elders expense but the best was when he made the Elders eat mango pizza (pizza with mangos on top).  By the looks on the Elder's faces I don't think I am going to ever try it!!

Things are really moving along in our area.  Our investigators are really beginning to progress more and a lot of our English interest investigators are Gospel interest now.  Right now our District is focusing on how to make member missionary work happen cause it is the key.  (so everyone give lots of referrals to the missionaries:))  We have an awesome ward with strong members so if we can get member-missionary work moving we can see so many miracles.

I want to share a verse we read this week at District Meeting:

D&C 128:19

"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received?  A voice of gladness!  A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy.  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth!  As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge  of God descend upon them."

This gospel really is a message of glad tidings that has already blessed our lives and because we have a knowledge of the gospel we have a duty to share it with others.  We can do missionary work through sharing it with our friends and family and also as we do temple work.  I know that God is watching over us and that he will bless us as we participate in His work.  I know I am receiving so many blessings from sharing the Gospel and have experienced a whole new and very special kind of happiness the past year.

Love you and hope you have a great week:)

Love,

 

Sister Jacklin

사진:
-making clay friends with our investigator's son:)

-Onyang branch at the Baptism yesterday!!

 

 

June 8, 2014 A Week Through Pictures

June 8, 2014
A Week Through Pictures

Hey everyone:) I slacked of this week and didn't write a big email so I wil tell the highlights quickly and you can see a little bit of the week through pictures:)

 

These pictures are from us making the creation out of clay with our two 9 and 11 year old investigators:)

 

 

A delicious bing-su dessert to get us through a hot day here in Cheonan.  bing-su is super shaved ice or shaved milk with all kinds of different toppings, it is AMAZING!!

 

 The insanely big cotton candy I found this week!!  My companion and our investigator got really entertained at how excited I was!!  I think everyone was staring at the blonde foreigner with the huge cotton candy:)

At the lake this morning:)  my companion dominated on the swings:)

The four sisters:) please don't judge by our looks because we ran out of the house this morning with no time to get ready, haha!!

June 2, 2014 Elder Christofferson's Visit

June 2, 2014

Elder Christofferson’s Visit
 

안녕하세요^^

 

We had a very busy but spiritually uplifting week.  On Saturday Elder Christofferson visited our mission and we were able to have a Mission conference with him in the morning.  He opened the time up for us missionaries to ask questions to him; One Elder asked a question about overcoming our trials and Elder Christofferson said sometimes there is nothing else to help us besides having faith in Christ which is something I have learned so much on my mission. He also said how when we pray for help with our problems God does not always solve them overnight but he helps us step by step until we find our solution.  This really hit me and taught me a lot about enduring our trials with faith and we will come out stronger and learn so much from them.  We also were able to prepare and sing a special musical number for the conference.  We sang two Korean songs and We'll Bring the World his Truth. I felt the spirit so strong during the song and it made me feel so grateful for this opportunity to be serving in Korea.

One of my favorite funny moments of the week was from our lesson with our 9 and 11 year old little boy investigators.  We taught them how to pray and then asked them to try.  The first took about five minutes to finally start and then he prayed that the earth and the sun will crash...and the atmosphere....  Me, Sister Lee, and the mom were trying to hold in our laughter but it was just too funny.  And then the second prays and says, " it has been really hot so thank you for air-conditioning." These may have been some of my favorite prayers during my whole mission.

So this week I had one of those regretful moments of forgetting practically all the Chinese I learned.  We have a new investigator who is Chinese.  She has lived in Korea for eight years but still speaks hardly any Korean. And when she does speak Korean we can understand about two words because she speaks it like a Chinese person with tones and all!!  Ahh!!  I guess we will communicate with love!!  I called an Elder in our mission who speaks Chinese and he gave me a bunch of words so Mom will be happy to know I am once again studying Chinese:)

 One thing I learned a lot about this week is sharing the nature of God and the message of the Restoration because they are the key factors to conversion.  This was something that was highly emphasized in our combined District meeting and then again in the mission tour.  If someone learns of these things there is no way to doubt as long as we keep our faith strong.  It was a good reminder for me of the basics of my testimony and what is most important to teach our investigators.                

 Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!  Happy Birthday to  Seth this week!!  I can't believe how big my little brothers are getting!!

 

Love,

Sister Jacklin

Pictures:  we made some kind of watermelon punch one night this week. You eat it in the watermelon!! just watermelon, sprite and, and ice!! delicious!!

May 26, 2014 Start of Transfer 8!!!

May 26, 2014

Start of Transfer 8!!

Hey Family!!

 

Happy Birthday to Luke!!  You are a teenager now, I can hardly believe it!!  You have grown so much while I have been gone last night we were looking at pictures and one of the other sisters saw your picture when I went to the MTC and then your picture now and could hardly believe you are the same person!!

 

Today I officially started my eighth transfer and my fourth here in Cheonan!! Our district didn't have much change, two Elders left and two Elders came.  It is really nice cause we can just keep going the same as last transfer. 

 

We finally colored Easter eggs this week, a little late but we did it^^  They worked out pretty well besides the fact that white eggs don't exist in Korea so our eggs turned out to be a lot more brown and natural looking colors, haha!!

 

We have 3 invetigators who are all friends that we meet together, Sunny, Crystal, and Yon.  Yon has been trying to get her Canadian citizenship for a long time and it miraculously came through this week.  We were on the phone with Sunny and when she was telling us about Yon's citizenship she said,"I think it is because she is learning about your Mormon God!!" hahaha, that was the most hysterical thing coming from a Buddhist!!

 

Friday my companion had a meeting in Daejeon so I was able to go to Daejeon and go on splits with some of the other Sisters for the day.  It is always so fun to talk with other Sisters and hear about what is happening in other parts of the mission.  I was with Sister Pappa most of the day and somehow we were able to weave our way through the city and find the famous tie lady and during that we realized that summer has most definitely come!! ahh!!  That morning when Sister Lee and I were walking to the Mission office from the bus terminal a lady approached us and was saying how bad my back and body are, my body is super messed up and the mission has only added, well she walked down the street with us massaging my shoulders for about five minutes it was quite funny.  She wanted to do some crazy oriental medicine treatment on me but we had no time.  It is so funny to me when I think of all the random things that happen to us as Missionaries.

 

Yesterday after church we met up with a new investigator, she is English interest but also interested in hearing about our church.  We talked about the book of Mormon, our church organization, and a lot of other things.  It was so interesting to me because she is not a member of our church but she said everything made so much sense.  She wants her church to start doing tithing like us^^  It really shows that our church is guided by God not by man.

 

I hit my year mark this week so it has really hit me how short this time is.  I am trying to soak up all the time I have left and give my all to this work.  Love you all and hope you have a great week!!

 

Love,

 

Sister Jacklin

Picture #1:  EDIYA, our favorite place to get a cold drink in the summer:)

Picture #2:  We went out to girl's camp this week so my companion could teach them how to make rings!!