April 28, 2014

WOW. What a week! This has been an awesome week. SO much happened. I don't even know where to start. New investigator, Mission Tour with Elder Whiting, Fireside with Seoul South Mission and Sister Burton and Sister Oscarson, transfer calls and so many miracles!

 

1. Investigators- we have a new investigator! Her name is 최 (Choi) For some reason she only tells us that part of her name.... which is actually her last name.. so we call her sister Choi. whatevs. she does what she wants. haha anyways, we met her last week while we were out on the streets talking to people. She was super nice and really interested in what we were sharing. We told her a little bit about our message and she said she would like to meet with us. We actually met with her twice this week. The first time we met with her was interesting. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. Somehow she started asking us all these questions about the parables and the meanings of all of them and she wanted us to explain the meaning of all of them. She had tons of questions about random things in the Bible and was bothered that we are missionaries and didn't know the answers to all of them. We tried to steer it back to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and told her that we are only 20 years old and we don't know the answers to all of your questions, but we were called by a prophet of God and we know that our message is true. The spirit was strong as we bore testimony of the restored gospel and of the Book of Mormon. I asked her if she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and her response was straight up NO. So that was frustrating. BUT she wanted to meet with us again. So we met with her a few days later. This time we brought our ward mission leader with us. (HE IS AWESOME) and he helped us with the lesson. He helped us teach the Apostasy a little more clear and she understood everything. She said it all makes sense. She wants to meet again with us, so that's a miracle. She still isn't willing to read or pray yet, but she is starting to be more open  to everything we are teaching her because the need for a restoragion is beginning to make sense to her. YAY. love her. she's awesome!

 

Remember 이버영 (Ee Bo)??? She actually texted us back this week. MIRACLE. She hasn't responded to our texts in like a month and a half. She told us she has been super busy and that she would like to meet with us after her tests are done this week. PLEASE.

 

Today 김학연 ( Kim, one of our former investigators) texted us and asked us if she could meet today. At 5. It's P-Day for us, but we are super happy that she said that so of course we are meeting with her! yea!!

 

2. Last week Elder Whiting and His wife came for a mission tour. On friday my zone combined with 2 or 3 other zones had a zone conference type thing. It was SO good. I learned SO much. I realize that there are so many ways I can improve. He talked about how Nehpi was "highly favored of the Lord" and how we can be highly favored of the Lord through righteousness. We talked about ways Nephi was righteous and how we can be like him. President talked to us about receiving the Holy Ghost and things we can do DAILY to receive the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the POWER that accompanies the authority we are given as missionaries. It was awesome.

 

3. On Saturday night we were able to attend a fireside in the Seoul South mission. The general relief society and general YW presidents came. Sister Burton and Sister Oscarson, along with President Ringwood who is over our area. It was so good! They talked about the things we can do in our families to be strong. Sister Burton talked about the song "one more day" and about the ship accident that happened here in Korea. So many lives were lost. She talked about spending each day with our families as if it were our last. What are the things we would do if it were our last day together? She talked about those things and the most important things like scripture and prayer... etc. She said those things are the things that will prepare us for tragedies and give us strength. It was awesome. President Ringwood talked about Member-missionary work and he said to the people Member missionary work is so important to HF. I can show you how important it is to HF." He had all the missionaries stand and sing called to serve and then he said that is how important it is to HF. he called every one of these missionaries to Korea to help you. it was an awesome talk. The whole meeting was awesome. It was SO fun seeing all of my friends from Seoul South mision!!!! I love them. Afterwards, Sister Burton's husband came up and talked to me. I told him I think he knows my uncle, Mark Millburn and he was like oh my gosh! yes! Sister Burton came up and gave me a huge hug. They said they would tell Mark and Maylene Hi from me! We talked to them for a few minutes and they were super nice :)

 

4. Transfer calls!! Transfer calls were the same night as the fireside, so sister Koo and I walked up to talk to president and sister christensen and he told us right then where we were going. Sister Koo is being transferred to a new area :'( and I am staying. I guess I will have to hold the fort up in WonDang! I think I know my way around by now though. By new comp is full Korean but she is from Highland Utah. She didn't know Korean before her mission because she grew up in America. She has been out for like 8 months or something. I'm excited to meet her. Sad that Sis Koo is leaving though! :(

 

5. SO many small miracles this week! So President told the missionaries to invite any people we could to the fireside and to try to bring someone with us, but if we couldn't find anyone, we could still come. So we made a list of about 18 people on it. Less active members, investigators, potential investigators, etc. And we called every single one of them. None of them said they could or would come. After we called the last person, I said is there ANYONE else that we could invite? And Sister Koo remembered one less active who has been having some issues and won't come to church and is struggling a bit. She wasn't sure if we should call her or not, becasue things can be a little tricky with her sometime. But i thought we should. So we called her and she said YES! She would come. She was really happy that we invited her and i think she really needed it. She came with us and I think she really enjoyed the fireside. Miracle!

 

Another miracle. Yesterday I was out street contacting and I was talking to this lady. She was catholic and she didn't really want to hear my message. I was about to offer her a Book of Mormon, but then i felt like i should wait a second to give it to her. ( we were walking down the street while talking) a few minutes later I testified of the BoM, offered it to her and then she left. Right after that, I turned around to head back and Someone called me over to them. It was a guy who had been standing close by right when I offered this lady the BOM. He said "Hey!  I want that book!!" So we went over and told him about our message. He told us he had seen us and that he wanted to know what we are sharing. We gave him the BoM and our card and he said he would read it. We are going to go back to his little store he works at and follow up with that. There are so many small miracles that happen each day. It's incredible.

 

Well, I better run. I am so thankful to be here in Korea! I love this gospel so much. This week I have been thinking a lot about the resurrection and how thankful I am for Christ. I have been studying Jesus The Christ and I've learned so much about the Savior after he was resurrected. I am so thankful for the chance to share the gospel. I love it more than anything. Have a great week!!! Love you!

 

Love Sister Tara Anderson 

 

April 21, 2014

Happy Easter! It sounds like you had a great day! Thanks for the cute package you sent. I put out the cute easter baskets for sister koo and I. It was so fun! On Easter, the sun was shining and it was a blue sky. It was a miracle! I was so happy! We had a great day. Sister Koo had to play the piano for primary, so i went and sat in the middle of all the kids and learned a primary song in Korean. I don't know what it's called. Something about families. It was so fun to sit there and sing with all the cute kids! I loved it.

I loved hearing about all of the track meets! You all are awesome! Send me pics! I wish i could be there to see you run! Keep working hard!

 

investigators:

So there is this lady that Sister Koo and I see all the time. Her name is 죄정하 (Choi Jong Ha). She came up and talked to us like 2 months ago and she was nice. She said she had met with missionaries in the past, but she wasn't intersted in meeting with us. We ran into her again 2 more times and she still wouldn't meet with us. So finally the other day we saw her for the 4th time and she's like ok can you come to my house tomorrow? So we were like yeah! We came to her house and she is suuuper Catholic. She was super nice though. We taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon and did some How to Begin Teaching. We showed her a mormon message and she really liked it. She was actually pretty accepting of it. The bummer is that she's leaving for America this week to visit her son for 2 months! :( She said she is actually interested in our message and that she wants to meet with us when she is home. Pleassseee!!

 

This week 김차영 (kim cha young) wouldn't answer any of our calls or texts. So we couldn't meet with her. :( I called her on Saturday night to invite her to church, but she said she was going to her church. ahhh. I was pretty bummed. We are continuing to pray for her to know how we can help her.

 

Yesterday we went and visited a lady that the other sisters referred us to. Her name is 한서희(Han So Hee) She is this cute little old lady they met. She told them she is sick and needs help. So we went to see her and she was so sweet. She is Budhist and she is really old and sick and she wants to go to the hospital, but she is really poor so she can't. She said her son owns a chinese resturant, but that it doesn't bring in much money. She is so sad. She told us that she just wants to die. We talked to her about Heavenly Father and how he loves us and knows us. I felt like I should tell her that Heavenly Father loves her and He has not forgotten about her. She didn't seem too interested in our message though. She is just so old and sick. We talked to her about prayer and told her we would pray for her. She isn't interested in meeting again, but she was super sweet. I wish there was something we could do to help her. :(

 

So the other day, Sister Koo and I were street contacting and it was the very end of the night. We were talking to this little grandma who was on her way to her church. We were standign there talking to her for a while. We were telling us about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and asking us some questions. As we are testifying of the Book of Mormon and our message, this other lady walks up to to the grandma and says, "Grandma, (In korean you call all old people Grandma) "these people are not really from a church. Don't listen to them. They are a cult. You can't fight against a cult. Just go. They're a cult." The little old lady looked so concerned and then started to walk away. My blood started boiling when she said that. I calmly testified that our message is true and then the rude lady walked off. I ran over to the little grandma who we were talking to and testified again to her that our message is true. I offered her our card, but she wouldn't take it. I was so upset. I just walked away and thought "president holland's talk" over and over in my mind. I wanted so bad to freak out at the rude lady, but I couldn't. I walked away and burst into tears. It hurt me so bad. I told sister koo (through tears) that it hurt me so bad to hear someone tell someone else that we aren't telling the truth and that we are a cult. While we were in the middle of testifying. I have heard a lot of people say rude things to me, but I know that our message is true and I don't let it get to me. But to hear her say it to another person, and for that lady to believe her killed me. I KNOW our message is true. That night we went home and watched a few mormon messages after planning to cheer us up. We are praying for that lady that someday she will learn about the gospel and KNOW that it is TRUE.

 

This week I was studying in Mosiah Chapter 2. As I was reading about King Benjamin, I realized how humble he was. Even though he was the king, he was so humble. He taught the people about serving one another and that when we serve others, we are serving God. He talked a lot about how indebted we are to the Lord. He knows that we are nothing without the Lord. He created us, he gives us each breath and supports us each day. In Chapter 3 it says the natural man in an enemy to God. We must put off the natural man and becoming a saint THROUGH the Atonement of Christ. King Benjamin truly understands that we are nothing and cannot be anythign without Christ. He also knows that we must be willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us. He knows that the Lord knows what is best for us. I love King Benjamin! He has taught me a lot about HUMILITY. I was also studying in PMG under "The Book of Mormon answers questions of the Soul" and I was reading about how to have more happiness and unity in our homes and families. It referred to Mosiah Chapter 2 again. I re-read it, this time thinking about what King Benjamin taught, in that perspective. I learned that in order to have more unity and love, we have to SERVE, and rely completely on CHRIST and keeping the commandmants. I love this Chapter. It's loaded with so much good stuff.

 

Well. This week was great. I learned a lot. I love being a missionary! I am so thankful for the chance I have to teach people about the Restoration and the good news of the gospel everyday! I learn so much. I love the gospel. I love Korea!

 

Rach- I loved your updates on everything. Way to go with your track times! Keep killing it in the 100 and 400! Soak up your last month of senior year!! love you!

D-man, i can't believe there might be a new S-bob movie coming out next year. That's awesome. haha we will totally go see it. That's so sweet you are doing hurdles!! Keep workign hard in basketball! love you!

Ellie- good job with personal progress! I will tell you some of the things I learned while studying as well. Way to go in the 400! You are seriously so fast!!

Jane- i loved hearing about your races! Good job in the 400 relay!! You guys are superstars!! Keep up the good work! I love that you are going to the temple so much! love you!

Addie- you got Frozen for Easter? That's awesome! I heard it's sooo good. Send me a picture of your super cute hair!! love you!

Isaac- The easter bunny came to our house?! That's so cool. Did you have fun with the cousins at the easter egg hunt? And at Baba and Grandma's easter party? I love you!

Mom and Dad- Thanks for everything. You are the best. You are my idols.  I LOVE YOU!!!

 

HAVE A GOOD WEEK!!!!! I love you all!!!

Love Sister Anderson

"This adorable little girl in our ward."

"Sister Jackson and I on exchanges."

 

April 14, 2014

Hi everyone! Loved the emails as usual!! This week was good! Conference was SO fantastic. I loved it. Learned so much and got so many answers. I can't wait til we can study the talks more in the Liahona.

 

First  I will tell you about our investigators and lessons and then the other stuff we did this week.

김자영 (Kim Cha Young) - (I finally figured out how to work the keyboard in korean. haha) she could't meet with us this week. She wouldn't answer any of our calls or texts and we were so bummed. We were supposed to meet with her on thursday so we thought she dropped us... but thankfully she called us and told us she just couldn't meet that day. So we told her about conference and invited her, but she told us that our church is the same every week. We told her it's actually not, and this week would be really different. We called her on saturday night to invite her again but she didn't answer. The next day, she randomly showed up to church while we were watching conference. She was there for the last few minutes of President Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session. She said she really liked it. She had some issues with her family so she ended up not being able to stay. She said she was going to try and come at 10, but she couldn't make it because of family issues. She really liked hearing from President Monson though. We are going to (hopefully) meet with her this week. She is really sweet.

 

We met with another girl for the first time this week. Her name is 김해영(Kim Hay Young) and she is so sweet! She is a high school student and we met her on the subway on our way to Zone training meeting. We met with her on saturday and got to know her and found out a little about what she believes. She goes to church so she felt a little guilty for meeting with us. We talked a lot about how God is our father and we are his daughters and how much he loves us. We shared some scriptures with her and told her about the BOM. We also showed her the mormon message, "our true identity" and she really liked it. We told her about he gospel and gave her the "how to begin teaching" introduction type things in PMG. We invited her to be baptized on May 31 and she said that she thinks this is good and she said yes. So that was actually really cool. Our goal was just to try to get her to meet with us again because she told us she would only meet once. She has english interest so we might do the 30/30 program.Yesterday she told us that she doesn't have time to meet with us again. :( she said she was sorry. We will keep trying to get her to meet with us. She is super sweet and I love her!

 

On our way to email (like an hour ago) we randomly ran into 조해리 (Cho Hay Dee) the Lady who read the whole BOM and goes to another church now. She told us that she goes to "the good church" now (that's the name) and she really likes it. She'll figure things out someday and come back. She is kind of lost. :( She is really sweet though!

 

We met a few people last week that said they would come to church. None of them showed up. But one girl is really nice and always texts us and she said she really does want to come to church this sunday. So hopefully she really comes!!

 

So a few random highlights of the week:

On P-day last week my district went to this trampoline place that is right by our church. The elders have been dying to go and so we finally told them we would go with them. We (the sisters) thought it would be this bizarre hole in the wall place, but it was actually way nice! It was originally just for kids but they let us come. haha it was a blast! We had so much fun. Then we went back to the church and ordered pizza. It was the most normal pizza i have had while i was here! made me so happy. And the elders played ping pong (that's all they ever do on pday. haha) it was a lot of fun

I finally passed off Lesson 1. Yayyy. took me forever. the Vocab is insane! We have to teach the first lesson in korean by ourselves with 5 scriptures and memorize 230 vocab words. But last night i finally passed it off. I put stick notes all over our house that say things in korean (like on the fridge i put fridge in korean" so there are sticky notes all over our house. haha Now working on lesson 2.

On thursday President and Sister Christensen came to our area to interview one of the elder's investigators. Sis. Christensen called us to see if we were around and so we told her we would hurry over! We booked it to the bus and got there as fast as we could. I was so excited to see her. I love her! Like a second mom. We talked to her and she had all of the mail for our district. She invited Sis. Koo and I to come to dinner with her and President and 2 of the elders. Of course we went and had a great time. Love them. listen to how cute this is: Sister Christensen said that when she gets the pictures of missionaries that are coming in, it's like an ultra sound. She said she sees the pictures and already loves the missionaries so much. Even though she has never even seen them. And then loves them even more when they come. She said she loves the missionaries like they are her own children. How cute is that about the ultra sound? :) Love them!!!

 

OK can we just say that CONFERENCE WAS INCREDIBLE? I loved it so much. Some of my favorite things:

Elder Holland's talk about standing for what we believe. Loved it. It seemed so much more real since I have to stand for what I believe every day. SO great.

Elder Scott- Love him. He is so tender about his wife Jeanine. I loved the story about his wife telling him to go on a mission and examples of serving the Lord first.

President Eyring in the womens meeting saying "you were tutored by Him before you came... You learned that there were trials and things that you would go through that were designed just for you" how cool is that? we were tutored by Him.

President Uchtdorf: probably one of my favorite talks! I loved how he talked about expressing gratitude even when things are hard. I loved how he talked about endings... "there seems to be something inside of us that hates endings" then he explains that it's because we are made of the stuff of eternity. That totally makes sense. I love that! "In this plan there are no true endings, only true beginnings" LOVED HIS TALK

Elder Stevensen- ok another FAVORITE. I loved how he talked about the olympics and training for your 4 minutes. This life is our 4 minutes that will determine our destiny. Are we on track? love it.

Elder Bednar- loved his talk about the load and how it helps us move forward. so good.

President Monson's talk about love was so good. It made me think a lot about how we treat the ones we love the most...

What were your favorite things about conference? Tell me the things you learned! I learned a lot about LOVE, GRATITUDE, Keeping our covenants and staying on the covenant path, and standing for what we know is true, even if it's not popular.

 

Rach: loved the prom pics! You look beautiful!! Glad everything was so fun!! Classic story about barb. hahaha loved it!!

D-man- sorry your bracket got totally messed up. hahah how was the 50 mile bike ride? that sounds way fun! Love you!

Ellie- good job in track! you should TOTALLY DO THE 400!! You will love it! jk maybe not love it, but do it! Tell me how everything is in track! Love you!

Jane- good job in track too!! You won your heat!? that's awesome! your thing you are making in sewing sounds cute! Send pics. Love you!!

Addie- way to be a soccer star beaut! I heard that you are dominating! keep working hard. love you tons! send pics of soccer!

Isaac- i heard you and d-man are army guys and go shoot bugs with air soft guns. that sounds really cool and fun. send me a picture of the picture dman drew. i love you!

Mom and Dad- Thanks for the story about Steve Young. I loved that. I love you so much. Thanks for all of the support. You help me so much. Thanks for the letters and easter package! They made my whole day! I love you! Send more pictures of everyone! I love pictures so much!!! love you!

 

OK I better run. I love being a missionary! I love the gospel. I love the plan of salvation. I love sharing the best news in the world. I love the Book of Mormon. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Tara Anderson

 

"These flowers are everywhere on bushes. They look like little miniature hibiscus Hawaiian flowers."

"My new zone as of a few weeks ago."

"They are putting lanterns up everywhere because it's Buddah's birthday in a few weeks."

"The way fun trampoline place Sister Koo and I went to."

 

 

 

April 7, 2014

Thanks for the emails! This week was good. I loved hearing about conference!! It sounds like it was so good. I can't wait to watch it this weekend!!!

Ok I will answer your questions first:

1. The weather in Korea- ok the weather here is JUST like Utah. Seriously. There is like an inversion type thing. it's super hazy and so we never really see the sun. The skies are always just white. Super dreary and kind of depressing. But it's not always like this. At least I hope! But it started to warm up and then it got really cold again. It goes from being way warm to freezing the next day. The other day I sat at a bus stop in the freezing cold and pouring rain and suddenly I felt like I was at a track meet and I needed to go warm up or something. Track meet weather. haha Hopefully we start seeing the sun and the sky soon!

2. Yes, Sister Koo and I run every morning. There is a park near our house with a big walking track around it, so sometimes we go there. Sometimes we just go around the town. It feels good. I have been bad at doing abs and wall sits lately. I will start back up again.

3. The food is getting a little easier to eat. It's not super great, but most things are alright. We have been eating at members houses a lot lately. They feed us lots of noodles, this meat stuff, kimchi, tofu, rice, etc. a lot of the stuff I don't even know how to explain what it is. haha It's not too bad though. I usually just try to eat the stuff and then find out what it is later. haha at home I have been eating chicken and veggies and rice a lot. I make salads, and have curry sometimes. We eat out a ton. Which I really don't like. I don't like spending money on food that I don't love, but we are constantly on the go. We try not to as much as possible. The cookies are pretty similar to the cookies we make. The ingredients are pretty much the same. Maybe slightly different because they are Korean but they are pretty good. Just maybe one tick off. hahah

4. The language..... hmmmm. it depends on the day you ask. Sometimes I feel like I am doing good, and other days I feel like I know nothing. It's hard to really gage where you're at. I still have a hard time understanding most things. Sometimes I have an idea of what they are saying, and the other times I have no clue. haha I am working on the pass off things. I am beginning to be able to say a lot more than I used to. Yesterday after church, I sat and talked to an elderly couple in our ward. They are so sweet The little lady and her husband remind me of Grandma Marva and Grandpa LeGrande. He is blind and she helps him get around. They are so tender. Anyways, I LOVE them (you know how much I love elderly people) and so I was able to have a conversation with them in very simple korean. There were a few things here and there  that I didn't understand, but I was able to talk to them for a good 20 minutes. I told them all about our family and what I did before the mission. Anyways, the language is seriously so hard. But I learn new things each day. So it's coming slowly.

OK I will quickly tell you about our investigators. We are struggling right now with investigators.

 Ee Bo Young completely ignores us now. So sad. I sent her a text the other day and then called to invite her to church but she never answers or responds :(

 

This week we called Ee Hyeng Gee and Ee sung Hoon's mom (the 8 and 13 year old) and she told us that her kids were in the hospital so they couldn't meet with them. Then later that day the elders saw the 13 year old girl walking home from school and they said hi to her and she was nice and acted like nothing is wrong. hmmmm. so we aren't really sure why the mom told us that. I think she is trying to drop us. Super sad becasue her kids want to be baptized. :(

 

So the lady that came to church last week, Kim Cha Young called us unexpectedly on thursday and asked us to come to her house right then to meet with her. So we ran home and grabbed our stuff and went to her house. She was there with her daughter. She was way nice. Started making us coffee when we got there, then we told her we don't drink coffee. So she started making us tea. then we told her we don't dring that either. Slightly awk but whatever. haha. We ended up teaching her the whole first lesson and she liked it. We talked to her daughter a lot too. Her daughter's name is Chang Chee Ung and she is nice. She mostly has english interest, but while we were there, she was freaking out that I was American and taking pictures with me and stuff. haha I asked her what she likes to do and she said play the piano and run. She really liked us and we are supposed to meet with her tonight to do the 30 minutes of English and 20 minutes of gospel with her. Anyways, back to Kim Cha Young, she liked the fact that we have a living prophet on the earth today and that he helps us know how we can prepare to meet Christ. We had zone training meeting this week and they focused a lot on inviting our investigators to be baptized in the first lesson, or no later than the second lesson. That is kind of uncomfortable, but we are supposed to do that. So I practiced inviting her to be baptized ("Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by an authorized priesthood holder")  earlier that week so that I could ask her when we taught. I was freaking out! I was so nervous to ask her. I kept saying no, I can't ask. She will freak out. I can't do it. But also, the Sprit kept prompting me to do it. So i asked her. She said it will be very hard for her to switch religions, but if she receives a testimony that the gospel is true, then she will. So that is good! She came to church on Sunday and Sis. Koo played the piano so it was just me and her sitting there with another ward member. I was freaking out the whole time because it was fast and testimony meeting and I had no idea what she was thinking. Afterwards, she said she really liked it and she can tell that everyone is really grateful to have the gospel in their lives and everyone feels really loved in the church. We are planning on meeting her again on thursday!

Kim Hooee moved this week!! :( :( we called the Daejon missionaries where she lives and gave them her info. THey contacted her and another ward member called us to ask more about here. Apparently that ward is an awesome ward, so she is in good hands. She said it will be hard, but she is going to go to church. Yesterday she told us she was fasting. She said it's hard because she is with her fam and they are doing stuff, but she was trying hard to fast. Love her!!! She is awesome.

Ok i need to go. running out of time. I love you all! I loved hearing about conference. Can't wait to watch it. I am thankful to be a missionary!! I am so thankful for the gospel in my life. We are seriously so blessed to have it. I love you!! Have a great week!! xoxox

Sis Tara Anderson

March 31, 2014

HI. I was going to try to write hello in Korean, but let's be honest, it would have taken me like 10 minutes to try and figure out the little character things. hahhaa. Anyways, thanks for the emails! I love all of them.

 

Kim Hoo Eee is doing great! I seriously love her so much. We met up with her in Seoul on friday. We went to dinner at this Indian resturant (way good by the way) and we talked to her about conference and stuff. She is excited and hopefully will come next week. Sad news though! She is moving back home with her family, and they live like 4 hours south :( we are sooo bummed! She wont be coming to our ward or anything. I think she is moving back in the next two weeks. Sooo sad! But we taught her a recent convert lesson on Sunday and she loved it. We asked her to bring a friend to church and she said she would bring two. She also said she has been telling her mom about our church and her mom is a little interested. Hopefully her good example will have an influence on her friends and family!! I love her so much and i'm so sad she is moving! :(

 

Ee Bo Young is super busy lately and wont really talk to us. :( We were supposed to meet up with her and two other sisters (sister atwater- from kaysville, and sister tally) becasue sister tally was sister koo's last comp and knows Ee Bo Young, but she ended up saying she couldn't go becasue she had no time. We text her every few days and she doesn't text us back. We invited her to church and got no responce. I think she might be done with us. Which I am super bummed about. But we will continue to be her friend and love her. Eventually she will know that she needs the gospel in her life.

 

We haven't been able to meet with Ee sung Hoon and Ee Hueng jee this week because their mom won't answer when we call. We want to meet with them, but we wonder if the whole baptism thing is making their mom afraid of us. She claims she doesn't care if they have a religion, but I think she mainly just wants us to help them with their English and doesn't want them to be baptized. :( It's sad because they both want to be baptized. Hopefully this week we can visit them and get them to church.

 

Cho Hay dee (the lady that was super nice that knows the Bible way well) texted us this week and dropped us :( :( she told us that she is going to another church now and she really likes it. I am super sad. She was so sweet. At least she has read the Book of Mormon. She knows about the gospel. Someday she will know it's true.

 

We had some good street lessons this week with some different people. Sadly we set up return appointments with 3 of them and we got "fanged" on all of them. haha (no body showed up) So we were sad about that. But, we were able to talk to a lot of really great people.

 

We had a huge miracle this week! On sunday, we were sitting in sunday school and somebody came to get Sister Koo and I. They said that a random person showed up to church. So we went and found this lady standing at the door. She looked really nervous, but we welcomed her in. She said she was from Hwajeong (the next city over) and she already goes to church, but she was visiting her friend in Neunggok (our town) and wanted to go to church. So she just showed up. She was super overwhelmed at first. Said she felt soo out of place. But she came to Sacrament meeting. She said she really liked it. She felt like everyone was so clean and pure at our church. She was really intrigued. She said sacrament meeting was a little boring, but she still liked it. She was super friendly and warmed up to sis. koo and I. We got her information and we are meeting with her again on thursday!!!

 

On tuesday we got to go to the temple! It was sooo good. It's always so peaceful to get out of the busy city feel peaceful. I loved it. After the temple, the Bishop of the ward we are serving in took us all out to lunch at this American buffet. It was super expensive and so generous of him to take all 10 missionaries! We had a really good time though. After, sister Koo, sister jackson and I went shopping around seoul. We went to this tiny little thrift shop that has tons of great finds. I loved it!

 

This week I studied a lot about LIGHT. By studying this topic, I learned so much about how Chirst is our light, and how light, whenever it is mentioned, is related to Christ, the holy ghost, truth, goodness, etc. I thought a lot about light and how through bits and peices of light, we learn and receive revelation. We are "quickened" by the Holy Ghost. President Lindahl taught me a while ago that It rejuivinates us. In D&C 88 it talks a lot about this. It says "If your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light.... that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." I love this! I seriously learned so much this week.

Another thing i learned this week was about knowledge and how important it is to study the scriptures. What effect has Joseph Smith's decision to study and seek had in your life? (PMG) Everything that happened to Joseph Smith happened because he studied the scriptures....

 

Well, I need to run. Glad you are having a lot of fun in Arizona!!

Rach, good job in track! You are awesome!!! Way to go! Keep working hard these last few weeks of school. Can't believe you are graduating next month!! I love you so much!

Dman- how's ASU? Is it fun to be on campus? How's march madness? oh, remember the childhood gem, the OREO cereal? Yeah i found it here! Remember how it's only in Korea? Sadly it's not near as good as it was when we were little. hahah :( love you!

Ellie- How is personal progress going? I got a book the other day because I want to work on some of those experiences again. Tell me what one you are working on and i will try to do some of them too :) Are you doing that basketball team? I love you!!

Jane- how is personal progress for you? I will work on some with you like i told ellie. Thanks for telling me about everything that is happening with your friends! I love it. I love you!

Addie- remember how i would always say " YOU LOOK ADORABLE?" i miss saying that to you! hahaha! In korea lots of people have dogs and they always dress their dogs in clothes and some have shoes. they even do their hair in pony tails with bows and clips. classic huh? I love you!!

Isaac- that's so cool you are at dad's school. I can't believe you ate two waffles. You will be very strong and tall. I am so proud that you went to primary by yourself in arizone. i love you!

Mom and dad- thanks for the emails. I love you so much! Have fun in Arizona! send pics!!! love love love you!!!!

 

Love, Sister Tara Anderson

At the restaurant after the temple.

When Tara sent this picture she said, "the trees are beautiful here! They all have massive flowers on them!!! and cherry blossoms. (they don't like us to call them japanese cherrry blossoms. haha)"

 

 

March 24, 2014

Well... this week has been a little bit harder. I guess missions are just filled with ups and downs! This week our zone split, so we were combined with another zone. We are so sad because our zone is way close! :( So on monday for pday we all went to lunch and hung out and talked forever. It was a lot of fun though!

On tuesday we were street contacting and we met this super girl at a bus stop. We sat down and started talking to her. She's in 8th grade and was interested in learning about our chuch. We told her about our message and she said her parents were buddhist but she wanted to find out more about our church. We got her number and we were super excited! We set an appointment to meet with her the next day. We text her that night and told her "hey this is the missionaries you met today...." to follow up on the appointment and so she had our number. A little bit later, our phone rang and it was her calling. We answered, and it was her dad saying he read our text and to never call his daughter again. We were so sad. :( So we had no appointment the next day. :( We had a couple of different appointments planned and they didn't show up, or blocked our number. Bummer. ha :(

 

We didn't get to meet with any of our investigators this week but we were texting Cho Hay dee (the way nice lady who read the BOM in 6 days) and she told us that she was attending this seminar thing for another chuch and that she loves it and it's answering a lot of her questions. She told us she would probably go to that chuch for a little while. We text her back and asked her if she wanted to come to our church and she said oh I should! So we'll hopefully get her to church this week. She said she bought tickets to this event thing on saturday and invited sister koo and I (but obviously we can't go) plus we had english class so we told her we couldn't make it. Super nice and thoughtful. We'll keep working with her and hopefully get her to church.

 

This week Ee Sung Hoon and Ee hung chee's dad was really sick and their mom had surgery, so we weren't able to meet with them. :( We wanted them to come to stake conference with us, but they couldn't. Hopefully we can meet with them this week. We text them scriptures every few days and are praying that they are doing ok.

 

This week Ee Bo Young was out of town for part of the week. We plan to meet with her tomorrow night, but she hasn't answered our calls or responded to us at all in the past few days. :( We are

just trying to be her friend now. I think she feels too much pressure to be baptized and really doesn't care about the gospel. So sad! :( We will keep working with her.

 

So the other day, we were walking to one of our appointments (one of the ones that didn't show up) and we saw this girl and started talking to her. She was super nice and we asked her for her number and if she could meet again, but she said no. So we kept walking to our appointment. About 10 minutes later of walking, I heard someone yelling hello! hello! So I turned back, and it was the same girl. She ran up and told us that we were really pretty. We asked her again if we could meet again with her, but she said no again. Then went back. (we are not sure if she's slightly slow or not. Can't really tell for sure) We were super confused becasue she ran all the way after us just to tell us that. The next day, we happened to run into her again on the streets. She asked us if we could come to her house right then. So we did. We went into her house and she lives in her house with her sister. (they are both in their 30's) so we sat down on the ground around her little table and she went into the kitchen to get some food for us. Her sister was in the other room sleeping and she woke up and came in and saw us and freaked out. She started yelling at us and telling us to get out of her house. She started pushing us out of the room. Her sister, the one who let us in kept telling us to stay, and telling her that she invited us over, but her sister was pushing us out. It was so sad. The girl who invited us in was so sad and her sister was being way rude. She pushed us out the door and locked the door and we just stood outside the door while the rude sister yelled at the girl who invited us in and told her how we are a cult and that we are bad and blah blah... the girl who invited us was like, they're my friends! I can have them over if I want. Anyways, it was super sad. We were so bummed. She is so sweet. We are praying that we will run into her again on the streets around the same time so we can talk to her.

 

This week, I studied a lot about receiving revelation and inspiration. I read Elder Scott's talk "How to obtain Revelation and Inspiration for your personal life" from april 2012 conference. It's so good. It makes me realize just how sensitive the spirit is. We have to do every little thing we can to be able to receive the quiet whisperings of the spirit.

I also have been studying being "meek and lowly of heart."  Today I was reading in Moroni 7, and it says in order to have faith and hope, we must be meek and lowly of heart. I want to be more meek. I have been studying Elder Soares' talk "Be meek and Lowly of Heart" Being patient and kind and submissive...etc. He talks about how the Savior was the supreme example of meekness in the last moments of His mortal life. Read the talk. It's sooo good. I love it! I am thankful for the chance to be able to try each day to be more like the Savior. I know through the Atonement, we have the chance to try over and over to be more like the Savior. I want to be like Him!

 

Classic thing of the week: Yesterday we had lunch at a members house and we ate a bowl of soup that had: Mussels in it, Sea Shells, Shrimp with faces still on, red claws (thje claws of crabs and stuff), ocean rocks and random antennas from some sea animals. It straight up looked like we were eating a bowl of the tide pools at the ocean. hahah so freaky. Oh and we ate sea weed with it too. I guess my roomate that ate mussels at BYU was preparing me for times like this. classic.

 

Rach- love the Prom dress!!! Super cute! Good job in your track meet! love you!

Dman- that's a bummer about BYU. Classic about Marv's new nickname! love you!

Ellie- your choir thing sounds way fun! Have fun with your term project!! love you!

Jane- I love the talk from elder scott about filling your life with service. Thank you for that! love you!

Addie- The bill nye video souinds way cool! Thanks for telling me about it! I loved those videos! love you!

Isaac- i'm sorry you are sick! I think the magic tree house books are so cool. I am excited for conference too. love you!

Mom and Dad- thanks for all of the prayers and for praying for my investigators! I love you! You are the best!!

Have a great week. THANK YOU FOR THE LETTERS!!!! I LOVE YOU! xoxoxox

sister tara anderson

March 17, 2014

Hello everyone! Thanks for the emails. Mom and Dad, I can't believe you're just chilling in the Carribbean right now. Sounds SO fun! Rach, glad things are going good while you're being mom for a little bit :)

 

Things are great in Korea!! This week was very eventful!

 

The highlight of the week was Kim Hooee's baptism!!!! Everything turned out great. I sat next to her during the meeting before and Sister Koo was playing the piano. She was so nervous. She sat there and held my hand so tight while the talks were being given before the baptism. The spirit was really strong. There was something really special about it. She didn't have any family or friends there. Just the ward members and misisonaries. Her professor spoke about baptism and Sister Koo gave a talk as well. After she was baptized one of the sisters sang the musical number and the bishop talked about the Holy Ghost. It was awesome. The food did end up working out. The professor's mom and dad are in the temple presidency and they are in our ward, so they offered to help us with the food. So they brought a bunch of sandwiches. Sister Koo and I bought lots of juice and made a whole bunch of cookies. Some ward members offered to bring a few other things so it worked out fine. She was confirmed yesterday in church as well. It turned out really awesome. I love Kim hoo ee and I'm so happy for her!! She is awesome!!!

 

As far as other investigators go,

 

Ee Bo Young is having a hard time. :( We taught her this week with a member present. We teach her English for the first 45 minutes, then we do gospel for the last 45 minutes. She was super nice and friendly when we were doing English. She seems like one of our good friends while we teach her English. Then when we started teaching her the gospel, she just kind of switches off and doesn't seem to care very much. She used to seem like she cared more. But now, she doesn't have much of an interest. Sister Koo talked a lot about baptism and Ee Bo Young just seemed like she didn't want to hear it. So we are sad about that. We are trying so hard to find her needs. We tried to emphasize the fact that she is a daughter of God and that there is a purpose to life on earth, but she seems not to really care anymore. Keep praying for her. I love her so much and I know this gospel can help her and change her life!

 

We didn't get to meet with Ee Hyen Gee this week, but we met with her little brother, Ee sung Hoon. He is seriously the cutest kid. We taught him about the prophet and prayer and he loved it. He loved learning about President Monson. We showed him a quote by President Monson about prayer out of the Liahona and I think he really liked it. We showed him the Liahona and the talks by the prophet and other church leaders. We decided that it would be good to talk directly to his mom about letting him come to church. She said she's fine with it as long as they want to. We also gave her a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and asked her to read it. We explained that those are the standards we live by in our church. She is actually really nice. The hardest thing is actually getting them to come to church. We keep offering to pick them up, but they are always studying so it's kind of tricky. They always want to come when we teach them, but when sunday rolls around, they want to sleep in. We'll keep trying though! At the end of our lesson, we asked him to pray and he prayed specifically for "Thomas S. Monson, the Liahona, and for the Plan of Salvation." So sweet. :) We love him and his sister!!

 

So last week, we met with the lady that knew the Bible super well. Her name is Cho Hay Dee. She is super nice, but very firm in the things that she believes. Last week we gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read it. So this week, we met (6 days later) and she had read the entire thing. She said she loved it and that it was super exciting and a great story. Kind of like reading those stories of people who have died and seen Christ and come back.  She had a lot of questions and thought it was a really cool story. She's missing the part that it's God's word and that the story is true. We taught her more about the restoration and about Joseph Smith. She doesn't understand why the Bible doesn't talk about Lehi and all of the people in the BOM.  So we are working on that. She said if Joseph Smith is the prophet who fulfills all of the prophecies in the Book of Revelations, she'll believe the book is true. We asked her to pray about it. We are inviting her to come with us to stake conference this sunday so we'll see how that goes.

 

We went to visit our friend in the hair salon again this week. We wanted to go visit her but we didn't have an excuse so sister Koo decided to cut her hair. (all in the name of a PI haha) So we went in and the lady and her friend were there just talking. We gave them both copies of the Proclamation to the World and explained it. They were both super nice and they both love sister Koo and I, so that's good. Working on building trust here. haha also the lady was trying to convince me to get this hair manicure or something for like 70 dollars but she would do it for 50. hahaha ehhh not happening. But she still loves us. She told us to keep coming and visiting her whenever we are around. Perfect! That's exactly what we wanted. We're going to stop by and see her again this week.

 

I feel like there were so many little miracles this week. People we met and talked to and just little things here and there. On saturday, I got on the bus and sat down next to a random girl and started talking to her. She didn't seem interested at all, but I continued to tell her about our church and ask her questions. After a few minutes, a lady sitting in front of me turned around and said something to me. I told her that I am a missionary for our church and told her a little bit about our church. She asked me some questions about our church and stuff. She was sitting there with her little girl and so i started talking to the little girl as well. I asked her if she speaks english and told her I teach english. She was super cute and nice and the mom seemed interested in learning more. She asked me if she could get my number. So i got her number and asked her for hers. We got off at the same bus stop and then sister koo asked her if she wanted to come to church. She told us she would. So yesterday she called us right before church and told us she was going to try and come. She ended up not being able to come but hopefully next week or the following week. Hopefully we can meet with her and her daughter. She is super nice!

 

CLASSIC story of the week: So Sister Koo and I were out street contacting on tuesday night. It was about 8:30 and we were in this area where there are a lot of big stores and a lot of people. This guy walked past and then turned around and came back and asked if i speak english. i said yes and then he started saying how pretty we were and blah blah... so then he starts telling us that he has a lot of money and he comes really close to me and touches my arm and so sister Koo and i start getting a little freaked out so we said bye! and turned around and walked away. We look back and he starts following us and so we walked faster and he started running yelling "I have a lot of money!! take my money!!" and so we started running and he starts booking it (he's crazy and drunk) and he chased us for a while. So sister koo turns right and i keep going straight and she yells to come to her, so i turn and see him still chasing us and then we ran in that direction for a while and he was still chasing us. hahahaha i  was laughing so hard/ almost crying thinking i was going to die. Then we turned some corners quick and ran down to an underground store and hid for a while. We called the elders and they said they would come catch a taxi to come, but we told them it was ok. So we waited a while and then came out and didn't see him. we hopped on the bus and ran home. Slightly Terrifying and classic at the same time. Getting chased by a drunk man was definitely a highlight of the week. hahaahahah

 

This week I read a talk that Rach sent me a while ago. It's called the Power of the Word by Ezra Taft Benson. It talks about how the word of God is so powerful and how crucial it is in fighting off the temptations of the adversary. I thought a lot about how important scripture reading is and how we need the spiritual enrichment. I thought a lot about the people in the scriptures and how we can apply the scriptures to us. I know if we read the scriptures, we will have the spirit with us and they will help us do what we need to be doing each day. You should read the talk. It's really awesome.

 

Rach- love you so much! good luck with babysitting everyone this week. Tell me more about how track is going! I love you!

Dman- sup. hahah how is basketball? you should write me and tell me what's up. i love you!! keep looking for good sbobs

Ellie- thanks for the email! The b-day party sounds super fun. No korea doesn't celebrate st. patricks day. and yes it's starting to warm up. yay!! i love you so much!

Jane-You, ellie and your friends are miniture versions of me and kar. by the way, i forgot about all of those videos of me. hahah so weird. haha i love you!

Addie- i can't believe the buns have the bfg!!!! that's so cool. the hike sounds super fun! I am so glad you are doing good! how is school? I love you?

Isaac- I love the picture of you in the fire truck! That's so cool. How are your basketball games with dman? I heard you have a pretty good shot now. That's awesome. i love you!

Mom and Dad- have so much fun on your trip! Have fun Scuba Diving tomorrow! That sounds like a blast. I love you so much!!!

 

Have a great week!!! I love you all so much! I am thankful to be serving here in Korea!!! XOXOX

 

Love, Sister Tara Anderson

Sister Koo, Kim Hooee and Sister Anderson!

 

All the people at Kim Hooee's baptism.