안녕하세요!
WOW, I have to say that Jeju Island is just as pretty as everyone says that it is! It is gorgeous! So different than the mainland. I absolutely love it here!!!! And I am so lucky to be here for the best time of year....right now it is still winter, but once spring comes, that will surely be a sight to see!
Happy birthday to Ashley and Colin this week! :) I feel like I was just e-mailing each of you for your birthdays....but that was a year ago in the MTC. Time really truly flies by! Crazy!
So Monday night, I took a 40 minute plane ride with another Elder coming to the Island. When we arrived, we were greeted with a welcome sign by the Elders and Sisters on the Island! I felt like I was starting my mission all over again! ha-ha! Jeju is seriously such a special place, and has such a different feeling! The people are so kind and I just feel right at home here!
My companion is 최예인 자매님 Sister Choi, Sister Baker's trainee. She is a doll and we are already like best friends! She loves the work, and is so sweet to everyone! I am so blessed to be her companion!
This transfer is only four weeks long, due to the huge changes in the mission and the HUGE amount of new Elders and Sisters coming in. I am so excited to get more missionaries here!!! So I have about three moreweeks to learn this area and get ready for my companion to leave....which makes me so sad....I love her so much!
To start off the week, my companion and I visited a potential investigator at her home. She is a grandmother and very religious. She goes to her church weekly, but to our surprise, she was willing and open to listen to our messages. We asked her to come to our church on Sunday,and she said not this week but sometime in the future. I am thankful that she is willing to at least try to learn about what we have to offer.
We also went with our Branch President's wife to visit another investigator. This woman has made a lot of mistakes in her life and has a lot of guilt. She refuses to go to church because of the sins that she has made. I was able to share with her how we can all be completely clean and come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ by using His atonement in our lives. She told us that she wants to be clean and feel this way, and that maybe later in the future, when she feels forgiven, she will be baptized! I am excited for that day! And I am so excited to help her learn how to use the Savior's atonement in her own life to overcome all things and find peace and joy in her life!
We also did a lot of proselyting which Jeju is known for. I guess that work here in this area is one of the hardest in the whole mission....I am excited to get the work going and to prove everyone wrong!!! ha-ha! :)
Yesterday, I was able to meet the Branch members for the first time! I feel like they are all my old-time friends! They are so kind and welcomed me with the warmest welcome that I have received in my whole mission! I love them all so much! There are about 50 to 60 members of the branch that attend each week. Yesterday, Elder Riser, a missionary from our mission that just ended his mission, came with his parents to visit the branch. I was able to translate for his mom during the classes which was a blast! And because of a Philopeano woman in our branch, I will probably be translating again every week in Sacrament meeting!
One of our less-actives that we met with this week is putting together a Festival for all of Jeju, and asked me if I would translate her scripts into English for the announcements. I worked on it with my companion and the other Elders in our area....it was probably one of the most difficult things we have done! I again realized that Korean and English are completely opposite of each other and seems nearly impossible to completely translate word for word. I have also noticed that since being here, I am completely losing my English. I thought that this would never happen to me, but it is, and it is a very scary feeling ha-ha! At times I feel more comfortable speaking in Korean more than English ha-ha! Weird!
Anyway, I feel so very blessed to be here in this beautiful new area, and know that there is a lot of work ahead of me!
I know that this gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, has been restored through a living day prophet, and that the priesthood keys of God are here on the Earth today! I know that through the priesthood and this gospel, we can receive ordinances that can and will lead us back to our Heavenly Father to live with Him again! What a huge blessing to know these truths, and especially to have the confidence that comes from knowing who I truly am...a daughter of God! We truly are His children, and He knows and loves each one of us!
I love you all!
사랑합니다!
커시 자매
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