Letter #21

안녕하새요!

Happy Father's Day Daddy, Grandpa, and Pop! I hope you had a wonderful day! I love you all and am so happy to have such wonderful examples of good, dedicated men in my life! I hope you know how much I think of you and look up to you. Thank you for your love and endless support!

This last few days have been crazy! We got transfer calls on Thursday, and to my surprise, both my trainer and I were being transfered to new areas. I was so sad to hear the news because I thought for sure I would be staying in 통영 for one more transfer. Saying good-bye to our ward members was so hard and I felt like I was leaving my family. I am so grateful for them and their love towards me.

Last night, my companions and I put on a fireside for the ward and the community. It was a Music and the Spoken Word fireside (thank you so much dad for this idea!!!!!). A member from our ward read a narration from the Restoration pamphlet and my companions, some elders from our district, and others in our ward did musical numbers following the narration. It was so beautiful and the spirit was so strong. We had one of our investigators come and a previous investigator and his friend. I sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace" accapella after talking about the apostacy. Everyone in the ward was so moved by the program and there was not a dry eye in the audience through the whole fireside. I was so touched by how powerful music can be and is to our spirits. I truly believe that it helps us remember who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. I am so grateful for you dad in giving us this idea! Because of how successful it was, I want to try it again in my new area! It not only helped others not of our faith learn what we believe, but it strengthened the members and my own testimony!

I just arrived in my new area. It is called 얀산. I am working with Sister Brady and am so excited for the potential of this new area and the work that she did last transfer. Her and I both feel that there are going to be many miracles here and I cannot wait to start seeing them unfold!

I know that this work that I am doing is run by the hand of the Lord. I know that it is powerful and I feel so priviledged to be doing it everyday! Each day I wake up with a new drive to be used as the Lord's instrument to find and bring His children back to Him. I know that He loves us and that we are His children. I know that this gospel, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, is true and I am so thankful for it each day of my life.

I love you all! Keep smiling and know that you are loved!

사랑합니다!

커시 자매

Sister Kersey

Letter #20

안영하새요!

First of all, I am sorry about no e-mail last week. For P-day we went
to 외도, a small tourist island!
It was an absolute blast! We got to ride on a boat and look at all the
beautiful gardens on the island and take
TONS of pictures! I attached a few for you to enjoy! We got back late
and had no time to e-mail...sorry!
Not much has happened these last two weeks...the work is really slow
right now. My companions and I have been focusing
most of our attention on trying to get less-actives to church. We have
a whole family coming now and another active family's
father. It has been wonderful to see them back and our ward loves
having them there! Every person really does make a
difference and is needed in every ward!
Last Saturday, my companions and I were at a bus stop and a young girl
was holding a cage with hampsters. This caught
our attention and we started talking to her. The girl was about eleven
years old and was thrilled to be talking to
three Americans. She was talking really slow and pronouncing
everything perfectly for us...which was really nice for
me (haha!). We started talking to her about our church and invited her
to attend church and Primary with us the next
day. To our surprise, she came!!! We talked with her after church
about the Restored gospel and introduced her to
the Book of Mormon. We invited her to read and pray about the Book of
Mormon and about our church. Within just a few
days, she had read twenty chapters of the Book of Mormon. She came to
church again yesterday and fits in perfectly
with our ward and the children in Primary! It is so fun to have her
there and the ward members have been so sweet to
give her rides to and from church, without even asking us if she
needed one! The ward members here in 통영 are absolutely
amazing and are so ready and willing to do missionary work and open
their arms to others. They are such wonderful
examples to me. I love them all so much.
Here in 통영, I have really been able to see the power of the Book of
Mormon in my life and in missionary work. The
Book of Mormon truly is the key-stone of our religion, along with
modern-day revelation. It is such a powerful book
and can answer any question that you have about yourself, life,
challenges, and God. It truly testifies of the Savior,
Jesus Christ and His reality and divinity, and the Atonement. It truly
is the most correct book and is God's words to
us on the Earth today. I have seen the Book of Mormon change lives,
and have seen how it has changed my own life. I
am and will be forever grateful for this priceless treasure. While
reading from this last General Conference, something
that Elder L. Tom Perry said really stood out to me. He said, "This
year in our Sunday school classes, we are studying
the Book of Mormon. As we prepare and participate, may we be motivated
to...share our love of this special scripture
with others not of our faith." I challenge each one of you that have
read the Book of Mormon to read it again. I challenge
those of you who have never read the Book of Mormon to read it. And I
challenge each one of you to share this priceless
treasure with someone in your life that you know that could benefit
from its message and find peace and answers to their
questions from it. I know that this book is true. I know that it is
for each one of us and will bring more peace and
direction in your life than you ever knew was possible. I know that
the Savior lives and that He loves each one of us!
I am so grateful for this gospel and for the happiness that it brings
to my life!
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

사랑합니다!
커시 자매
Sister Kersey

Letter #19

Hello!

Sorry my email is a bit late. Yesterday was Buddah's birthday and
everything was shut down for the day. We were given permission to
email today instead!

This week the Busan mission had the priviledge to be visited by Elder
Aoyagi of the seventy and his wife for Mission Tour. We all met in
Busan at were taught for the day. They are from Japan and knew very
little English and no Korean, so it was a fun meeting having
everything translated from Japanese to English to Korean, and back
again for interpretations of missionaries' responses. It was so
entertaining and such a wonderful experience. I learned so much from
him and was so inspired! My district had the opportunity to sing for
one of the musical numbers. We chose a hard song and it reminded me of
jazz choir all over again! SO FUN! It turned out really beautiful!

On Sunday I had to speak in church! Talk about intimidating...but I
made it! I tried to keep it as simple as possible. My ward is so
supportive and I love them all to pieces. They just smiled at me the
whole time and I could tell that they were proud of me! Ah I love them
so much! My companions and I did a musical number in church as well,
which was a HUGE hit! The ward could not stop talking about it and
asked us right after sacrament meeting to do another one in a few
weeks!

Yesterday for P-day, there was a stake activity in 마선. We went with
our ward and spent the day with them playing games (especially jump
rope!!!) and eating lots of food! It was so fun and I loved being with
our ward members doing activities with them. I love them all so much
and feel such a connection with them! We had a less-active family come
to the activity and another less-active with his wife and children! It
was such a miracle and our ward was so happy to see them all again!
When I was helping the women clean up, one of the women told me that
she hopes that I stay in 통영 for my whole mission (or for at least a
long time! )! That totally made my day! I love them all so much and I
would love to spend my whole mission here with them!

The work is pretty slow right now. We met with one of our
investigators today, but she is not progressing and seems to be
loosing interest. Our focus is to just keep trying to find. We are
pretty much back at square one again, but that makes me excited
because I know that someone is waiting for us to find them!

I am so grateful to be here and I am so humbled by the miracles I see
everyday! I can see the Lord's hand in this work and I know that He is
right by my side!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

사랑합니다!

커시 자매
Sister Kersey