June 23, 2014

FAM. thanks for the emails!! I love hearing everything that is happening. Life's good here in Korea. This week was pretty good. It started off a little slow, but picked up towards the end. 

 I have been a little bit stressed about my investigators lately.  Some of them aren't progressing the way I would like them to. I am trying to be patient and help them the best  I can. I am also praying a lot for them to have the desire to want to learn and progress. 

This week when we met with 김경애, (kim gyeng aye) she taught us the Bible for a while, and then we taught her about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible support each other. We talked about the law of 2 and 3 witnesses in Corinthians and how the Bible and the Book of Mormon each testify of Christ. We also shared some scriptures from 2 Nephi 29 and testified that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the word of God.  We bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how it contains the fullness of the Gospel. She doesn't feel like she needs the Book of Mormon. She always says that she has the Bible and that's all she needs. She always keeps the commitment to read the Book of Mormon, but when I asked her if she wants a testimony, she said she doesn't want one. She doesn't care to get one. We asked her why she wants to meet with us (felt like we were DTRing... determining the relationship...awkward)  and she said it's just because she wants to teach us the Bible. I didn't realize how much I love her and care about her until she said this. I was/am so so bummed. I thought somewhere inside her was an interest to find out if the Book of Mormon is true.  We have testified and promised her that she can pray and find out if the BOM is true, but she doesn't really care. I don't really know what we should do. I feel like it's a good opportunity to teach her about the Book of Mormon and about our church, but I don't know what to do.  At least she is reading a little bit of the BOM each week...For now, we'll continue to teach her.

박인영 (park een young) is doing pretty good. So a few weeks ago, we tried to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we first started teaching about faith in Christ, she was not understanding why we need faith in Christ, and she said she didn't want to follow Christ. It wasn't applying to her at all, so we decided to stop there and figure out how we can apply this to her life better. I prayed a lot to know what she needed and I felt like we should ask her what questions she had. She said she didn't have any, so we pulled out the "questions of the soul" part in PMG and asked her which of those questions sparked her interest. She chose "how do I avoid sin." We studied and taught her from Helaman 5 and then wrote on a piece of paper: our purpose on earth: to find happiness and return to God. Obstacles: sin and death  Solution: Jesus Christ's Atonement- and What we have to do: Jesus Christ's Gospel. When we showed her this, she was able to understand a lot better why she needs Christ and why we need to follow and obey Him. Through finding out what HER questions were and what she was ready to learn, rather than what WE were ready to teach, we were able to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This time she was a lot more interested and asked a lot of questions. She had a lot of questions about the Holy Ghost. We were really happy. We are starting to find her needs and teach according to her needs. I feel like that was a little miracle that happened this week. I have been praying that we could teach according to her needs.

Anna Kim: our schedules didn't match up this week so we weren't able to teach her. We are still in contact with her and continue to follow up on commitments. Hopefully this week we can meet.

명훈 (Sean) is the guy that met missionaries in Australia. We were supposed to meet with him and two of the elders on Saturday so we can 소개 (refer) him, but he didn't show up. Fanged us. He called later and said he would come to church, but he never came to church. :( Fanged us again. Hopefully we can get him to meet with the elders this week.

원당 (won dang) ward is great! We have our ward conference next week and so we are really trying to get our less active members to come. The less active member that came with Sis. Koo and I to the Sister Burton fireside has come to church ever since, and it active and involved again. :) I am really happy about that! We are working particularly with a less active member in the ward and trying to get her grandchildren to church. Her son is a member, but married to a non member lady. So we visit them quite a bit. All in all, the ward is doing well. We are meeting with a few more families to encourage them to set a date to find someone to share the gospel with. 

RANDOM:

so korea is way into Soccer, so the world cup is HUGE here. the other morning we were studying and we had our windows open. It was quiet outside, but suddenly we heard way loud cheering. It sounded like there was a stadium of people cheering outside our window, but it was just people cheering for Korea in the world cup. haha apparently the kids watch it in school and everyone was watching Korea play. We heard they tied Russia and then lost this morning to Algeria. 

In korea, fruit is dessert. So we eat tons of fruit when we visit people, and always after meals. Annnddd koreans eat tomatoes like they eat apples, so I get served tomatoes ALL THE TIME. i have to eat them like apples. i think that's been the hardest thing to eat while i've been here. hahaha

The other day, a member took us out to dinner. The main dish was: Octopus, Squid, and this other sea creature that i don't know the name of. This time the WHOLE octopus body was there. head and legs or whatever they're called. Sister jackson and i were looking at each other dying. hahahaha the taste wasn't too bad, but the texture was a little hard to eat. hahaha i think i just swallowed the thing whole. hahahah

So i have embarassing moments with korean all the time. haha this week I was at a member's house and she showed us a whole bunch of pictures of her family, and then her non member husband walked in and i said to him: "you have a very beautiful husband" he just kind of looked at me weird and then i realized i said that. hahaha i meant to say you have a beautiful family. hahaha so embarassing. I say wrong things on the street all the time to people. haha it's one embarassing moment after the other. :)

I just have to say I LOVE THE KIDS IN KOREA. Every few weeks I play the piano for primary singing time and it's my FAVORITE. i love being in primary with the kids, hearing them sing the sweet songs in korean. I can always feel the spirit there. i love love love the korean kids. I taught some of the little girls "i love you" in sign language, so whenever they see me they do it. randomly during primary they would look over and do it. and then during sacrament meeting too. i love it. they are adorable!!!

ok well i better wrap this up so i can answer some of your questions individually. I love you all! I love being here in Korea. Yes of course sometimes I wonder where in the world I am and what language I am speaking, but I love it. It feels like home. I'm used to everything now and I love it. I wish i could just capture where i am and what i do and show it to you. I love teaching people the gospel and sharing our happy message. I love being able to focus on the only important thing in the world.

Ratch: your week sounds so fun! I love the hot chocolate in the pool while teaching swimming lessons. so fun! i love that you went to the aquarium with beaut and jacob and his sister! sounds way fun!

Dman: hope byu basketball camp is fun this week! say hi to all my friends! weeeee. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! i will send you a letter so watch out for that this week. love you!

Ell: hope you are and jane are having fun down at Baba and Grandmas's house! how's piano going? Are you and jane running at all? I hope you have a good week! love you!

Jane girl: hope you're having fun down in Orem. I'm sure you're having a blast everyday! How is violin going? I heard you are doing a craft class. tell me how it goes! i love you! 

Beaut: your ballet costume is ADORABLE!!! i love the pic!!! how were your performances? remember last year when i took you to your dress rehersal and watched you!? swimming at jacob's house sounds fun! love you!

Marv: it is starting to rain a lot in korea. I would rather see a wolf because cougars are very scary. the other day a rat ran onto the sidewalk out of the bushes and started running around me. i screamed! I was scared. it was big. hahaha. i love you!

Mom and Dad- i love you! I hope you have a good week! thanks for all you do for me. I will probably get all of your letters in the next few weeks. thanks for all of them that you send! i love you!!!!

Sister Tara Anderson

June 16, 2014

Happy Father's Day Dad!!! And since it's June 16th in Korea, happy anniversary mom and dad! Are you doing anything fun for the day? <3 I love you! Hope you guys have a great day!!

This week was pretty good. Our investigators are doing ok. They are progressing very slowly, but at least they're progressing a little bit. We're still working hard with our families to work towards a date to find someone to learn about the gospel. I'll tell you about how that's going later in the letter.

박인영 (park een young) is doing pretty good. We are still teaching her English, but should probably start wrapping up the 6 week program pretty soon here. She is so sweet and barely progressing. She has actually been reading the BOM assignments we give her so that's good. She really seems to have no interest in the gospel so I've been thinking and praying a lot for her lately. We felt like it would be good to talk about how the BOM answers our questions, and had her choose a question she has off of the list of "questions of the soul" in PMG and we are going to talk about it next time. So this week we are going to teach her about "how to avoid sin." It makes me sad that she doesn't have gospel interest. We talked about having faith in Christ and becoming like him and she said she doesn't even want that. :( She really is so sweet and I know the gospel can change her life if she would let it. I'll keep praying to know how to help her.

We met with 김경애 this week and she also brought her friend. She taught us her 30 minutes of Bible first. Because we taught her the Plan of Salvation last time, she talked all about how the fall is not part of HF's plan. We showed her tons of scriptures in the BOM talking about how it's part of the plan and stuff. Because she doesn't believe the BOM, she doesn't believe anything we show her from the BOM. Her friend was getting all into it and starting trying to Bible bash, but we didn't let it happen. We just bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and talked about how important it is and how it has changed our lives. She is actually keeping her commitment and usually reads the BOM so that's good. Her friend isn't coming this week though.

Anna Kim was too busy to meet last week so we didn't get to see her. We are planning on meeting her this week though. I am interested to follow up on the temple and what she thought while we were there. We are going to focus more on Joseph Smith and the BOM before we go on. That is the one thing she is struggling with. I really want her to get a testimony of Joseph Smith and the BOM.

We met two new investigators this week. We met their dad in our elevator of our apartment. They live like 4 floors above us. One of them is a high school student and the other is a jr high student. They are really nice. We are doing the family english program with them. We shared a message about who we are and showed them the Mormon message "Our true identity" It was good. their mom was there and listened to our message too so that was good.

We saw a cool miracle this week. After we walked out of 김경애's lesson, we were going to street contact, and this guy walks up to us and he's like hey! is your church around here? and we were like yeah! He said "becaus of your church, i quit smoking. I am trying to stop drinking but it's so hard. I know that if i want to be baptized it's a covenent with God so I have to stop drinking" We were like whaaatttt? Where did he come from??! He told us that he went to Australia for 1 year and studied English. While he was there he met with missionaries and they taught him quite a bit. He told us that he still reads the BOM and tries to pray. When we saw him, he had been home for 4 days. We were so excited to meet him! he told us that he's really into our church. We talked to him for a while and he said he would come to church on sunday. He told us that some elders in the Sydney Australia mission taught him. Sister Ahn had some Elders in her district in the MTC that went to Sydney, Korean speaking, so she asked him if he knew any of them. She showed him a picture and he knew one of them. He said hey! he taught me 2 lessons! How crazy is that?! We were way excited. He is so nice. His name is 명훈 (or his English name is Sean) he is awesome! He told us that he woudl come to church with us and meet us at the subway station sunday morning. So on sunday we went to the station and he didn't come. He didn't answer his phone or anything. So we went to church by ourselves. He called during relief society and told us he was at the station. He came and went to priesthood with the Elders, but then had to leave. :( he said he would stay for the whole thing next week though. He is awesome! really a miracle!!

Ok i have to run. Yesterday we visited one of the families we are working with to find someone to share the gospel with. it went really well. They are going to set a date. I'll tell you more next week about that.

Sorry i have no time to write something to everyone! I know this email is lame and kind of scattered. sorry! I love you all! Happy father's day dad!!! you are the best dad! thank you all for your emails to me!!! I love you!

Sis. Tar Anderson

June 9, 2014

Hi! This week was great. time really is flying by. I cannot believe we're already into a week in june. crazy. So apparently monsoon season is about to start. then typhoon season will start. then it gets super hot after that. in july and august. Everyone is telling us to brace ourselves. haha it will be crazy! I got my "fancy crocs" the other day, so i'm readyy. bring it on.

This week went by really fast. We got our transfer calls on friday night. Our district leader is going home, but everyone else is staying. We screamed when we found out!! We are so happy. Our district is super close and we have so much fun together. We are going to have a district party today since our district leader is going home.

We had zone training meeting and our focus for this month is being a disciple of Christ. It's the same as it was last month. So this month we are focusing on helping our investigators become disciples of Christ. We are trying hard this month to improve our teaching. Someone said "treat teaching like it's your olympic sport" constantly try and improve your teaching.We studied Alma 22 about Aaron and his "lesson plan" when he taught. It was a really good training.

I went on exchanges with Sister Evans (one of the sis training leaders in our zone) and went to Nokbeon where she serves. It was really good. I learned a ton from her. We talked a lot about feeling successful as a missionary. Sometimes I struggle feeling successful because my investigators arent' progressing the way I want them to, or I wonder if Heavenly Father is pleased with me or if i'm doing enough...etc. So we talked a lot about that. We also talked about not letting Satan affect our confidence and tear us down. I feel like I have had a lot of that. Not feeling capable, or inadequate... etc. She reminded me of what Elder Cook said when he came to our mission conference. At the end of conference, he left us with an Apostolic blessing. He said "I bless your hearts to be full of joy and love... you will have the assurance that as you build the kingdom here, you will be filled with peace that you have success in the Lord's eyes. You won't let statistics affect the way you feel successful." I loved that. She helped me a lot. She is great. We were able to teach a few different lessons to her investigators. We were supposed to go teach a lesson with one of her investigators, but she cancelled, so we were walking around and then we ran into another one of her investigators. She is in the hospital, but walked outside to get fresh air... so we went up and talked to her in her room. She was super nice. Then the patient that was on the other side of the room got up and started talking to us too. She is a Jehovah's witness, but was nice. We had a really good time and I learned a ton from Sis Evans.

This week we met with 김경애 (Kim gyoung aye) and taught her the plan of salvation. She really believes in the plan of salvation, but she doesn't believe that the Fall was part of God's plan. So we are trying to help her understand that better. She is actually reading the Book of Mormon, which is cool. She is keeping commitments, so she is progressing slowly. She loves meeting with us for some reason. We still discuss the Bible first for a little bit, and then teach her our lesson.

On friday, we went to Anna Kim's academy place where she teaches, and she fed us lunch. She is so sweet. Then we got in the car and drove to Seoul. We went and visited the temple with her and she loved it. She is so fascinated by it. We walked around the grounds and then we went inside the waiting room (entrance part) and taught her a lesson. You can feel the Spirit so strong when you walk into the temple. I love going from the busy streets of Seoul and drive up one block to the temple and stepping onto the grounds. Somehow it's quiet on the temple grounds. I love it. Anyways, we taught her a little bit about the temple and family history... etc. talked about the importance of Baptisms for the dead and stuff like that. We also talked about We saw a lady in our ward, who is a temple matron and she came and talked to us for a minute. We invited her to come to church, and so did the temple matron, but Anna Kim said no, i like to be with my family on sunday and they're not interested in religion. So we are going to try and figure out a way to get her to come. She loves our church! I just want her to come to church one day. I asked her how she felt in the temple and she said it's the same as she felt when she visited the nun's convent in Italy. (not really the response i was expecting... haha) anyways, it was overall a really good time. She is really intrigued and it was good for her to see the temple and learn more about it. When we were getting ready to leave she said "oh i don't want to leave" we talked about how peaceful the temple is and the spirit that we feel there. it was great.

We are still meeting with 박인영 (park een young) , but we are probably going to be done teaching her soon. We are doing the 6 week 30/30 english gospel program with her and she's not really progressing. :( She never reads the BOM. she always listens to our message though. I love her and I wish she was more interested in the gospel. We'll teach her this week and then have to decide what we will do.

So our ward is doing a plan where the missionaries are meeting with each of the families in the ward. This month my comp and I are assigned to 4 different families. We are meeting with them and we are going to try and set a date for them to invite someone to meet with the missionaries. It doesn't have to be anytime soon. It can be months down the road, but we want them to start praying about a date, and praying for the Lord to help them find someone who is ready to hear the gospel. It can be a family member, friend, or just any person. I have been studying for this a lot and thinking about member missionary work. I dont' want the members to think we are doing this for us. We might not even be in this area to receive the referral, but we want them to have this experience. I have been studying PMG and 'The Power of Everyday Missionaries" book and here are a few of my ideas of how we can help them. I am sharing them with you, because I think it would be a good idea for our family to do the same thing. 

-Set a date to work towards

-study the restoration. When you study the restoration, it gets you excited about the gospel and more interested in sharing it!

-fast and pray for the opportunity to find someone to refer to the missionaries. Ask Heavenly Father to help you be aware of opportunities, and to prepare people

-be prepared with items- BOMs, pamphlets, etc. Things that you can share with the people you talk to

-look for opportunities to serve others- people will be more receptive if you show love and serve them

-practice what you will say so it's not awkward. We do this all the time. We role-play our lessons. It helps a ton. 

-remember that sharing the gospel is SO important. No matter what the result is!

-read "set goals and deadlines" chapter of 'The Power of Everyday Missionaries" it's great

As I was reading The Power of Everyday Missionaries this week, there was a line that stuck out to me. It said "Every calling in one way or another, can be transformed into a missionary calling." It's true! 

Mom- i'm so proud of all of your missionary experiences in New York! You are the best missionary! I can totally picture the awkwardness of talking to people on a subway when nobody is talking (story of my life) and then you strike up a conversation and everyone looks at you because it's quiet. At least more people get to hear our message! I am so glad you placed Book of Mormons. You are awesome!

Dad- you sound like you have a busy week of basketball games and coaching down at the UVU camp. Are you coaching all 15 of d-man's games next week? I loved hearing about Family night at Baba and Grandmas house and learning about Baba's grandpa who was a convert from Sweden. Will you send me stories of how each of our ancestors joined the church? I want to know more about the people who joined the church in our families. 

Rach- New York sounds like a blast! I can totally picture everything. Cafe Lalo, yes the "you've got mail" cafe. We (the girls) have to go! We will someday. I LOVE THAT YOU ATE KOREAN FOOD. how was the kimchi??? hahahah and the tofu. I actually don't mind tofu that much. It's kind of the "lesser of the evils" sometimes at dinner. Who knows though. The American version may have been more strange. I have never had Korean bbq. sounds good though! love you!

Dman- good luck with all 15 games this week! have fun eating at golden corral for every meal though. Haha and have fun with Savior of the World! take it seriously! It was a really incredible experience. I think about it all the time. love you phee!

Ellie- i love hearing about the fun things you do with your friends. I feel like you and jane girl are mini versions of me. :) Riding to harmons sounds so fun! And going to farmington pool sounds like it was really fun. I love the "double mint" picture of you and jane both doing backflips looking exactly the same! ;) love you!

Jane- Your water party sounds like it was really fun! And farmington pool sounds way fun too. Have fun at your sleepover! I think it's really cool that you learned about bees and beehive in young womens. How is violin? Are you still doing it? i love you!!

Addie- i got your emails! it sounds like you had a lot of fun helping Baba and Grandma this weekend. You got a ballerina necklace from New York? That's so cool! Send me a picture! Are you still doing soccer? How is ballet? do you have a recital soon? love you!

Isaac- you were so brave at the pool! I heard you were doing wild tricks and jumping off the high dive. you are so cool. you got a policeman New York shirt? that's awesome. I would rather fall off a house than a mountain because mountains are very high. would you rather see a cougar or see a bear in the forest? i love you!

I love you all!!! have a great week!!!! xoxoxoxoxo

sis tara anderson

"After mission conference. My MTC best friends! Sister Bagley, a korean sister in Seoul south, Sister Driscoll, Sister Glauser, me, and Sister Hoffman! LOVE THEM!"

"Lunch with Anna Kim and one of her little students."

"Elder Kaufusi - the AP that goes home on Wednesday. :( "

June 2, 2014

Oh my gosh I seriously have so much to tell you all about. This week was AWESOME. So many great things happened. Mission conference, new investigators, fireside with Elder Cook.. etc.

First of all, Mission Conference was incredible!!! Elder Quentin L. Cook and his wife came and spoke to us. President Ringwood, our area president also spoke too. We traveled on saturday morning to the Seoul South mission. As soon as we crossed the river to Seoul South, I was searching for Emily. haha. We went to the church and I saw so many familiar people from my MTC group. It was so fun to see everyone!! I saved a spot for Em hoping that I would see her come it. Finally I saw her and freaked out!!! I couldn't believe i was seeing one of my best friends in Korea... as missionaries! so unreal. She came with her companions and sat with us, so we got to sit together. We were able to catch up before the meeting started so it was so good. It was like a dream sitting next to Emily VanWeezep in South Korea singing in Korean and listening to an apostle. We got to shake Elder Cook's hand and it was awesome!!!! Such a miracle. Divine intervention there. I found
out that she is only 30 minutes away from me. Our areas are super close, just divided by the river. crazy!!!! I learned so much from Elder Cook. Probably the biggest thing I learned from his talk was LOVE. loving the people, comp, president, Love the Lord. He also talked a ton about how we are exactly where we are supposed to be at this time. I loved hearing that because he was a huge answer to my prayer when I was struggling in the MTC and came and spoke and said that exact same thing. Mission conference was so amazing!!!

Ok back up to earlier in the week. Our investigators are doing pretty good. We didn't meet with Anna Kim this week because she didn't have time, but we are meeting with her on friday. I think we might go to see the temple.

we met with 김경애 this week. we did the 30/30 bible/Book of Mormon thing again. We talked about God she doesnt believe that God has a body, because it says God is a spirit in the Bible. We are trying to explalin to her that God really does have a body, and do it in a way that we aren't Bible bashing. We taught her the Restoration and taught her more about the Book of Mormon. She is slowly opening up more to the BOM. at first she thought it was bad, now she is actually reading about it and I think she is pretty curous. She accepted a soft baptismal committment, which means if she comes to know that our message is true, she will be baptized. So we will keep working with her.

After her lesson, we were supposed to meet with this lady, but she cancelled, so we went with our back up plan and went street contacting. We decided to go into the subway station and talk to people. We went down and actually found some really cool people. We found these two girls named Theresa and Maria. They are from America (Maryland) and are staying with their grandma here in Korea for 1 month. They are Korean, but born and raised in the US. One of the girls said she watches this guy's channel on youtube who is Mormon and sometimes he talks about our church, his mission, etc. So Theresa had a lot of questions and actually knew quite a bit about our church. She is actually pretty interested. They were super nice and gave them our number and said to call us so we could meet up again. Then they left and after they left, I realized that we didn't set up an exact return appointment, so I was so mad at myself. (they don't have phones since they're just
visiting) so we had no way of contacting them. A little while later while we were walking home, we ran into them again! It was a miracle! this time we set up an exact appointment to meet with them again. We ended up meeting with them again and it went really well. we learned a lot more about them and told them about the Restoration a little bit and about the Book of Mormon. I testified that the Book of Mormon is true and that it has brought me a lot of guidance in my life. Theresa said "I feel like we met you for a reason because I have been looking for guidance in my life." Anyways, it went really well and Theresa was especially interested. We invited them to the fireside with Elder Cook on saturday night  and they said they would come!! Before the fireside, we were talking and I asked Theresa if she believes that we will see our loved ones again after we die. She told me that her mom died when she was 6 (I had no idea) and that she doesn't really
know, but that she has felt her mom's presence at times and feels like she can't be gone. I testified that we will see our loved ones again and told her a little bit about the plan of salvation. Elder Cook talked all about temple work and doing work for our loved ones who have passed away. He talked about some experiences where the people who have passed away have assisted in getting the work done. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens pretty often. I tried to explain everything to her and she thought it was really cool. She listened so intently and asked a lot of questions. What a miracle!! Theresa is really fascinated by our church. She thought it was so cool. When i told her about the restoration she said "that totally makes sense." I am so thankful to meet them! I know they are being prepared by HF. They are going home in 2ish weeks but hopefully we will be able to refer them to missionaries in DC and Maryland where they live. They are
awesome!

So this week Sister Ahn and I got followed by a drunk man again. hahahaha. We were walking home and this guy comes up and yells friends! friends! (in korean) and we turn and he comes up to us and tells sister ahn to talk to his friend on his phone. Then we just started walking away and he followed us. He kept telling us that he wanted to take us to get coffee but we said no we don't drink coffee.... and after he said it a million times, he told us he wanted us to come meet his friend with him. He was begging us but we were sayign no...blah blah. hahaha so we just kept walking and he just kept following us. We were heading home, but i didn't want him to follow us to our house. We were pretty close to the elder's apartment and i knew they were at home for dinner, so I called them and asked them to meet us on the street outside their apartment complex. The drunk guy just kept following us all the way to the elder's place and we eventually met up with the
elders. Haha so the elders started talking to him and then after a few minutes they distracted him and we took off. haha they kept him there for a while so we could escape from him far enough that he wouldn't find us. hahaah so funny.

We visited a few of the elderly people in the ward this week. I love the elderly people. They are my favorite. I am seriously best friends with all the grandmas in the ward. One of them gave me a bracelet this week. Another one gave us a skirt and shirt to have. so sweet. They are the cutest. I love them. I love visiting and serving them.

Well i better run!!! this week was awesome! I love being here and serving in Korea!!! I am so thankful for the chance I have to be here. Being a missionary is amazing. So many miracles we see each week.

Rach- can't believe you are graduated! loved hearing all about the parties. "south end beach" sounds classic. and sleeping on the football field. Have a ton of fun in NYC!!! sounds so fun! love you!

D-man- let me know what happens in the playoffs. Send me a pic of you and marv in your heat shirts. Hopefully you don't get too fired up with dad cheering for the spurs and you and marv cheering for the heat. I know marv can get pretty into it. ha ha. Have fun with all your basketball camps!

Ellie- your last week of school sounds so fun! Pool parties and hanging out with friends. Such a blast! can't believe you are done with 7th grade!! yay!! so exciting. Thanks for the letters! I'm sorry you burned your hand at the end of school party! :( love you!

Jane- i loved the story about going to the movies and hearing my heart will go on! classic. hahah your last week of school sounds so fun too! I love going to granny annies! I did that with my friends in jr. high too!! so fun. thanks for the spiritual thought! love you!

Addie- heyyy beaut!!!!! haha i heard you scored a goal in your soccer game! you are sooo cool. I got your letter the other day! Thank you! you are all done with second grade! crazy!!! i love you!!!

Isaac- sup marv?. Are you going to watch lebron play in the finals? You are all done with kindergarten! That's so cool. you are so big. have fun playing basketball with dman!!  love you rid!

Mom and Dad- mom, have fun in New York! tell beck and don and their fam hi from me! you sound like you are having a ton of fun.

Dad, good luck with everything at home. Thanks for your email. No, i haven't found American version of chi yet. I heard you can only find it on the military base. maybe one of these days i'll go find some.

haha thanks for your letters and emails. I love you!!!!
have a great week! i love you all!!!!! xoxoxoxo

sis tara anderson <3

"After the fireside with Theresa, Maria, and my comp"

"A cute grandma in the ward"

May 26, 2014

Hey everyone!!!!! I loved all of your emails!!! Thank you for all of your hand written letters too! I got a few this week and I was really excited! I got a letter from Grandma Anderson on tuesday and then a few from you on sunday! I also got the package you sent me. THANK YOU!!! I love you!

 

This week was great. This transfer is flying by! Next week is transfers calls and the following week is transfers. Crazy. This week we got to go to Seoul to go to the temple. As always, it felt SO good to be in the temple. It's so cool to be in crazy busy Seoul and to step onto the temple grounds and go inside and feel so peaceful and away from the world. After the temple we went to 이대 (this place in Seoul) where there are tons of stores and way cheap shopping. I got a few new things. It was fun.

So this week 츼(sister Chay) told our ward mission leader that she wasn't really interested in our church and the only reason she wanted to meet with sister koo and i (when she first met us) was because she wanted to teach us about her church. I'm actually kind of confused now. We were making progress with her, but now she wants our ward mission leader to meet with her pastor or somethign weird. So he told us not worry about her anymore. We have set up like 5 appointments in the past 2 weeks and she has cancelled all of them. We were supposed to meet with her last monday with our RS president, but she no-showed. :( I'm bummed about her. She was really sweet. We might keep working on her though.

We met with Anna Kim on friday and it went really well. We were finally able to teach her the Restoration and she is very interested in it. She is having the hardest time believing Joseph Smith and the first vision though. We read part of Joseph Smith History with her and testified that JS is a true prophet and that Heavanly Father and Jesus Christ really did appear to Him and through him, restored the gospel. She said that the part about Christ appearing to Joseph Smith sounds cartoonish. We talked about times where HF and Christ appear to people in the Bible and she said well that's the Bible... So we are working on getting her to sincerely read the BOM and pray about it. She is super interested in the orginazation of our church. We have been explaining to her that we have prophets and apostles just like there were when Christ came and established His church. It's the SAME CHURCH. anyways, we were showing her a picture out of the Ensign of the prophet and apostles and she saw the picture of the SLC temple on the back and she was so excited that we have temples. We told her a little bit about all of the temples we have throughout the world. We told her we have to be worthy to go in and she understands that. But now she is dying to go see the temple in Seoul. So next week we are going to go see the temple next week. She really is super sweet and wants to believe the gospel so bad. We are praying to know how we can help her gain a testimony of the Restoration. She's awesome. I love her.

This week we met with a lady named Christina (her english name) who we ran into twice now. She was born in Korean, then grew up in Fullerton California and then married a Korean and moved back to Korea when she was 20. She is now divorced and has two kids who are in their 20's. She is so sweet. She has had a really hard life. Her family doesn't talk to her anymore. Just her son, and she wants to go back to America, but she doesn't know what she would do. She has searched some religions, but hasn't found anything that helps her. She said she has suffered so much throughout her life and has been hurt by a lot of different friends. She doesn't really have friends. She said she has prayed to God in the past, but she never got an answer so she gave up on Him. :( I testified to her that God knows and loves her and that he really did hear her prayers. He knows her perfectly. I asked her if she would try praying to God again. We talked about Jesus Christ and how His Atonement can heal us from hurt, or anything we have gone through. She believes that is true. We shared 3 Nephi 17 and asked her to read it. I really hope she will. I KNOW the gospel can change her life and bring her true happiness.

Last week we met with a lady named 김경애and taught her about the BOM. She is the one who was very skeptical about it and didn't think it was good. Well this week she randomly called us and asked if we could meet in an hour. Of course we said yeah! We met her and she said she read part of the BOM. That was a miracle. I didnt' think she would at all. She wants to teach us the Bible for 30 minutes and us teach her the BOM for 30 minutes. We'll see how that goes. We are meeting with her again tomorrow.

We had a ward "Bazaar" on Saturday night and it turned out to be a big succes! Our potential (almost) investigator, Isabella came and brought her son. Another guy, Bob (the elder's investigator),  who we met at hte same time as Isabella came too. He brought an electric piano to donate to the church. He loves the church. haha He really wanted me to have the piano becsue he knows I play the piano and was convinced that I was going to take it. haha super nice of him, but i can't really have a piano with me in korea. hahah It was really good that Isabella came though because her son who is 10 loved it! He had a blast. he was hanging out with the Elders and didn't want to leave. I am trying so hard to get her to come to church with her family. She is always so busy. She is so sweet though. I love her!

The less active member that came with sis koo and i to the sis burton fireside has been coming to church ever since we invited her! she came to the Bazaar and brought tons of stuff. She was so into it. We also invited her to go with us to the fireside when Elder Cook is speaking and she said yes! We asked her to invite her less active daughter to come too and she said she would ask her. crossing our fingers! She is doing great though!!!

Yesterday President and Sister Christensen came to our ward. They spoke in church. Sister Christensen talked about miracles and all of the big and small miracles the misisonaires are seeing each day. She said "when we do all that we can, and then a little bit more, we see miracles." I have really found that to be true. When we give just a little more, we see miracles. I have also realized that the more I look for little miracles, the more I see them. We see so many little miracles each day. it's amazing. president talked about member missionary work and shared some of the stories about members and missionaries working together and the success that comes from it. He talked about the book "The Power of Everyday missionaries" by Clayton Christensen. You should read it. It's awesome. He gave us permission to read it so i got a copy and i've been reading it. Makes me want to be a better misisonary when I get home and help the Elders and Sisters serving in our area more. Anyways, it was awesome. I always love hearing from them. President speaks perfect Korean so i had to try really hard to understand what he was saying. I'm understanding a ton more than i used to though!! :)

Well I better go. This week I was reading about Moroni and how awesome he was. I want to be like him. So firm and steadfast. His faith was so strong. He was incredible!! Anyways, I am so thankful to be a missionary and to defend the faith like Moroni did. I love sharing the gospel and teaching people about the only thing that matters in the world, the gospel. I am so thankful to be here in Korea. I love the people here. Have a great week! I love you all!

 

Rach- you're graduating this week! I can't believe it! have so much fun. LIVE IT UP. when are you and mom heading to New York? I will be thinking about you!!!! send me tons of pics! love you!!

D-man- "the mooooore we get together..." hahahah remember that? I randomly thought of that the other day. Lake Powell sounds like it was fun. Hopefully you don't have to get that teacher 3 years in a row. haha oh well don't worry about that til next fall. it's almost summer!!!!! have fun with Savior of the World!

Ellie- i loved hearing about all of the lizards you found at Lake Powell. haha it sounds like you had a lot of fun. I can picture doing the upstairs canvas on the house boat. It feels like just barely we were on the house boat and that was already 10 months ago! crazy!!! have a fun last week of school!

Jane- your week sounds fun! I hope you have a lot of fun with your friends this last week of school!! I can't believe it's the end of the year! Riding bikes to school sounds way fun. And Alice in Wonderland souinds like it was really fun! Are you going to run any races this summer? you and ellie should run the half marathon this summer! Or next summer with me!

Addie- i loved the letter that i got in the mail from you. I loved the picture of you and me picking flowers. and then i loved that you put, love bute at the end! The "someone special lunch" sounds so fun with dad! and your antelope island fieldtrip sounds so fun too. have a fun last day of school!

Isaac- i can't believe you lost a tooth at lake powell!!! that's so cool. I would rather see a poisonous lizard because i hate snakes. I can't believe you saw a snake. were you scared? i would probably scream. i love you more than all the stars in the sky!

Mom and Dad- I love you! Thanks for the letters and packages! mom have fun in New York! I love you so much. Thanks for your letters. I love hearing about everyting. The lake powell ticaboo ward sounds fun! i can picture it perfectly!! I love you! Have a great week!!!! <3

 

Love, Sister Tara Anderson :)

Sister Christensen (mission President's wife) and Tara

May 19, 2014

Hi! This week was good!

 

Investigators are doing good:

 

We are meeting with 츼순자 later today. We are teaching her the Plan of Salvation. We havent met with her since last week when we taught her the rest of the Restoration. Our ward mission leader (who has been helping us) said that he called to try and set up an appointment to meet. she did tell him that she would be meeting with us on monday. (today). And he thinks it's a litle weird so he told her he couldn't. We are teachign her today with the RS president. She is great and it will be good to have her there so she can help us answer some of her questions. We're going to ask her to be baptized today. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

We met with Anna Kim again this week. We went to her academy where she works and she was super nice. We planned to teach her the Restoration in more detail since we didn't get to teach her as much last time. She ended up asking a lot of questions about our church and about missionaries. She is so fascinated with our church and with the orginazation of it, with all of the missionaries that are out serving and what makes us different. So we talked a lot about that with her. She is super nice and said she would start reading the Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her again on friday.

 

We continue to meet with 박인영 (Park Een Young) and do 30/30 program with her. She only has english interest, but she always is very acceptive and willing to listen to our lessons. She wants to get a job working for Korean Air as a flight attendant, but needs to be able to speak english. We taught her the Restoration last week and she thought it was good and stuff. She just needs to feel something. She said she would read the Book of Mormon, but she hasn't been. So we are tryign to work on that.

 

So remember how i told you about the less active member that we invited to come with us to the fireside with sister burton? The one that we called at the very end after calling like 18 people? Well ever since the fireside, she has been coming to church again!!! Sister Koo told me that she is not in a good relationship with her daughters (who are also members) and that our ward leaders told us not to contact her daugters (who are in their late 20's) So we never did. But, yesterday the less active member came to church with one of her daughters!!!! The ward members were SO welcoming to her. Gave her huge hugs. I went up and introduced myself and she was super nice. it was a miracle!!!! yayyy!!!

 

Last night i was out street contacting at the very end of the night. We were walking back home and this random guy comes up to me out of nowhere and he points to my Book of Mormon and says "책!" which means book- so i hold up the book and he puts his hand out like he wants it. so i stuck my card in real quick and started telling him a little about it. He walked off and started looking through it and then crossed the street and was gone. it was so crazy but cool!!! i hope he reads it.

 

Funny experiences this week: Sister Ahn and I had to make invitations to this ward thing we are having, so we got permission to go to the library to type it up and print it. I wish you could have seen us sitting there tryign to figure out microsoft word in korean. first of all, we haven't been on microsoft word in like 7 months and second, it's all in korean. it was so funny. hahahaha

 

I got on the bus the other day and as i was walking up the stairs, I completely BIFFED it. face planted it. hahaahhah everyone on hte bus started making all these noises and saying things in korean and i was dying i was laughing so hard. i just got up and said "it's fine" in korean and sat down. what a classic foreigner.

 

This week as I was studying Alma 19, I was learning about Ammon teachign King Lamoni and how King Lamoni fell to the earth like he was dead. The queen had complete faith that Ammon was called of God and that her husband really would rise again the next day. The queen said she has no witness of his word, but she believed. Ammon compliments her for her exceeding faith and tells her that There has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites. It made me realize that everyone has potential in them. Even the rudest people we talk to on the street has potential and may have more faith than we expect. i thought that was really cool.

 

I love you! I am so thankful to be a missionary and to serve in Korea. I love it here. I love you! Thanks for everything. prayers and letters and love and support you give me!!!!

 

Rach- good job at state!!!!! You are awesome!!! I thought about you!!! Have fun this last week or so of high school!! I love you!

D-man- i can't believe you are almost out of school! last sunday night of the year! your UVU camp will be way fun! make a list of s-bobs. haha love you!

Ellie- great job in school! You are awesome! The state meet sounds so fun! thanks for writing me letters this week!

Jane- the bunny you made in sewing is so cute!!! young womens sounds so fun. are you all done with track? i love you!

Addie- good job on your talk about Samuel the Lamanite! he was so cool. we are always blessed when we follow the prophet. how is soccer? are you still reading little house on the prarie? i love you!

Isaac- fathers and sons sounds soooo fun!!! i'm glad you had so much fun. i'm so proud of you for being reverent in primary!! the zoo sounds so cool. i love you!!

Mom and Dad- i love you!!! Thanks for all you do. you are the best. have a great week!!!! love you!

 

Sis Tara Anderson