Letter #9

an young hah say yo!

 

THE NATIVES ARE HERE!!! The Korean Natives came this last week and that means we are about to leave! I can't believe it! Time is flying too fast and I will be in Korean in less than two weeks! :) I am so excited for this adventure!

 

Having the Natives here is so much fun! The three sisters are in my room with my two companions and I. They are so extremely kind (as expected) and they help us so much on our Korean - and it has helped so much! This week my Korean has improved so quickly! I had fasted on Sunday for my companions because they are both really struggling with being home sick and scared to leave, and I think that by doing that Heavenly Father has blessed me more than them. I feel so blessed and so grateful! On Sunday I was asked to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting for the branch. At the end of the meeting, Sister Shin, the branch president's wife, came up to me and told me that she had to open her eyes during the prayer because she couldn't recognize who was speaking. She said she was shocked to see me standing there - she thought for sure it was one of the Native Korean speakers. She said that I had no American accent when I spoke. I was so surprized by this! I had struggled so much with my pronunciation! Fasting and prayer does work! And I am so extremely grateful for all of your prayers for me too!

 

The Native Koreans have had a blast trying to pick up on the English while being here, which is an advantage for me because I ask them to give me a sentence in English and then I say it (actually I attempt to say it) in Korean. Then we correct each other on our grammar and pronunciation! It is a great trade off. One of the highlights of my week was when I curled my hair and Sister Seo (one of the Korean sisters) came up and touched it. She gasped and said "Oh my! You have barbie hair!" Ha ha! My companions and I laughed and laughed!

 

This morning I had a wonderful experience! The Mongolian Elder from the younger district brought a stack of names from Mongolia with him to do temple work on. He is a first generation convert and so he had many, many family names. He received permission from our branch president to do baptisms and confirmations for these names so that we could do the other work for them in the next few weeks. They were short on sisters and ask my companions and I to join them. So this morning I was able to do baptisms and confirmations. It was wonderful! It felt like forever since I did those last! It was a wonderful experience to see Elder Hem doing the ordinances for his ancestors. He was beaming the whole time. It was such a struggle for him because his English is very limited, but the temple workers and his district were so patient with him and let him take his time. The spirit was so extremely strong and I could feel the love that he had for his ancestors and his testimony of the work that was being done! It was a sweet moment and I will never forget the look on his face of gratitude for all of us to join with him in that experience! It made me think of how grateful I am for the temples so close to all of us! We are so blessed to be able to go and do this work for our ancestors any time that we want.

 

I am so grateful for all of you! Brother and Sister Rasmussen I cannot express to you my gratitude for your sweet letters! I am so thankful that we can relate to one another on our love for the Asian people! They are absolutely wonderful, and I am so excited that I will be able to be with them and immersed in their culture!

 

I love you all!

 

Sister Kersey