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"