July 21, 2014

This week we got transfer calls and I'm transferring to Nokebon. I am so sad to be leaving WonDang, but thankful for every day that I got to serve here. I learned so much from the ward members and from being in this area. I am excited to serve in Nokebon and look forward to meeting new people there. Nokebon is actually in the same zone and same stake so I will be close. I am sad to leave my district and the girls in my house too! We have had so much fun together. I hope i grow to love my new area as much as i love WonDang!

We met with park een young this week and talked to her about the commandments. We specifically talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy since she works everyday and can't come to church. We promised the blessings that come from keeping keeping the Sabbath day holy, and talked about trying to switch her schedule so she could come to church but she can't and doesn't really want to. We talked a lot about being obedient and the blessings that always come when we obey God. We found out that she isn't interested in the gospel enough to keep meeting with her without doing English. This week will be the last lesson we (or Sis. Ahn) will have with her. 

We got a referral from our ward mission leader!! It was a lady who visited the 일산 ilsan ward. Her name is 김애실 (kim aye sheer). She walked in and asked if it was the Mormon church and stayed for Sacrament meeting. She actually lives in our area and really close to our church, so they sent her information over to our Bishop. Anyways, we met with her and with the relief society president in our ward. I don't know how much interest she has in our church, but she had some questions about the Book of Mormon and about our church. We answered her questions and showed her around our church. We invited her to church and she said she would come. We tried calling her on Saturday to remind her and again on sunday, but she never came.

We met with a lady named Christina as well. We met with her about 2 months ago. (she is the one from Fullerton CA) She is gradually opening her heart up to coming to church and believing in God. She used to believe in God, but when she was newly married she had some hard things happen in her life and kind of gave God the blame. She stopped praying to Him and stopped believing that he was there. She said now days she feels lonely and wants to believe in God. She is being very cautious though and is slowly opening back up. She is starting to look for the truth. She actually said she would come to church in a few weeks. (she just started a job and can't come for a few weeks). She is so sweet. I really think someday she will come to know that this church is true. Right now, it is just taking a little bit of time.

김휘, Kim hooee (my recent convert) came to church again this week. We taught her part of the 5th lesson during Sunday School. We had a member (who is about her same age) come and help us. The lesson went well. We talked about eternal marriage and temples and family history. She had some questions and we are hoping to get her to the temple to do baptisms soon. She is doing great though. I am sad to leave now that she is coming back, but I think the ward will take good care of her. They all love her so much.

This week I was thinking a lot about feeling close to Heavenly Father and the times when I have felt the closest to Him. As I look back, I have always felt close to Him, but I realize that some of the times that I have felt the very closest to Heavenly Father are the hardest times in my life. I was thinking about my experience in the MTC and how my prayers were the most sincere prayers I have probably ever given in my life. I poured my heart out constantly, pleading for help. I felt so alone and Heavenly Father was the only one I could always turn to. I realize that Heavenly Father was and is right by my side every step of the way. I also realize the power of our personal prayers and that the more sincere our prayers are, the closer we will feel to Him. I am also thankful for these experiences that humble me and make me rely on Christ more than ever in my life. The power of the Atonement has carried me throughout my mission. I am so thankful for every day I have to serve. 

Yesterday was probably one of the most stressful days. I had to speak in church since I am leaving, and then they decided to do a missionary fireside and had me and 2 elders speak at it. Also, all of the missionaries sang Armies of Helaman and I played the piano. It actually turned out good. I was so nervous to speak because I had zero time to prepare, so I was writing my talk as we were in the car driving to the fireside after a dinner appointment. ahh. Everyone was so sweet though. I was so sad sayign goobye to all of the cute kids. Some of them made me cute cards that said sister anderson! we love you! always think about us... and tons of cute little pictures. I took a picture with some of them and gave the kids that were at the fireside Korean CTR rings. We all took pictures together. I hate saying goobye. they are adorable! I am so sad to leave this area, but I am SO thankful for the chance I have had to serve here. 

Thanks for all of your emails! I love hearing about all of the fun things that happened last week! 

Rach: your life is one party after the next. :) Everythigns sounds so fun. hiiiiii looonnniee

D-man: how are the braces? i can't believe LeBron is going back to the Cavs! s-bob every night. classic

Ellie: I love that you are making a quilt! Tiff is the cutest to teach you! Lagoon and Cherry Hill sounds fun!!

Jane: the picture of your afhgan is so cool! I'm so impressed! keep sending pics. did you have fun boating?

Addie: Good luck at school tomorow!! think of the fun breaks you will have when everyone else is in school :) i bet your teacher is really nice! 

Isaac: good luck at school tomorrow too!! you will have so much fun with all of your friends. And you get to eat lunch at school! i would rather get eaten by a whale too. a shark would be scarier i think.

Mom and Dad: i love you! Thanks for helping me and praying for me! :) You are the best parents. I l love you!

Love, Sis Tara Anderson

July 14, 2014

Hiii! This week was really interesting. Kind of a bummer as far as investigators go, but had some good times as well!
First of all, shout out to Baba and Grandma Anderson for their birthdays! I hope you both have happy days! I love you!
Thanks for all the emails! I love reading everyone's emails and hearing about life :)


On thursday we met with our investigator, 김경애. This time she brought her friend, who is another member of her church. Her friend was really nice and they taught us some stuff from the Bible. Then we started to share our message and talked about prophets and how there were prophets in the Bible, prophets in the BOM and a prophet who is on the earth today. For some reason 김경애 wasn't as nice as she usually is and quickly brought up the BOM and said that it is not the word of God, only the Bible is, and she kept trying to Bible bash. She was getting really worked up about the fact that we have another testament of  Jesus Christ for some reason that day. We just calmly testified that we know that it is true and that they can find out for themselves if it is true or not. Even though she kept saying really mean things about the Book of Mormon, I didn't let it get to me and we just testified. I felt the Spirit as we were testifying that it is true. At the end of the lesson she told us that there is no need to teach her about the BOM anymore. She is not interested and doesn't believe it. We ended on good terms and we thanked her for the chance to meet with her and share our message and for her to share some things from the Bible. Even after her telling us every reason why she thought the BOM isn't true, I left that lesson with a stronger testimony than I ever have had in my life that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is the word of God. I am thankful that we had the chance to teach her. I learned a lot from her and I hope someday she will gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon for herself.

We met with 박인영 twice this week. In the first lesson, we showed her the Restoration film and reviewed about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. She kept her commitment and read the scriptures we asked her to in the Book of Mormon, so that is good. In the other lesson we taught her how to study and apply the Book of Mormon and to receive answers when she reads. Earlier that morning, before I began reading my scriptures, I asked a specific question when I prayed and asked that I would be able to find an answer in my reading. I received a clear answer to my question while I was reading, and told her about that and how the Book of Mormon can apply to us personally. She has a lot of questions about our church, but I think we are going to have to be done teaching her next week because I think she is mainly English interested and we are done teaching her.

When we met with Anna Kim this week, she had a lot of questions. Last time we talked about baptism and she was pretty open to the idea, so  this time we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and mainly focused on baptism. She always asks tons of questions about our church, the members, history of the church... etc. So we tried to answer some of those questions. She loves our church, but she is lacking a testimony of the Restoration. She is Catholic and has been her whole life. When we were meeting, she wrote on the white board: Catholic: believe  LDS: understand. We testified that in order to believe or to KNOW that our church is true, she has to read the Book of Mormon with an open heart and she has to pray about the message of the Restoration. She can't meet for 2 weeks, but we are planning on meeting at the beginning of August.

The highlight of my week was yesterday when 김휘 Kim Hooee (my investigator who was baptized in March) came to our ward!! I haven't seen her in a few months, but of course have kept in contact. She moved back to Seoul and is living in Schinchon right now. Because she is brand new, she wants to go to our ward until she feels a little more comfortable and then she will go to the Schinchon ward. She is doing great. There was something different about her. She has more of a glow about her now. She seems happier than she was when I first met her. She said that she read the whole Book of Mormon and that it was hard to understand, but she wrote down scriptures and things she liked in a journal that Sis. Koo and I gave her at her baptism. The ward was SO sweet to her and automatically welcomed her back. It was so great! I am SO happy to see that she is doing so well.

This week Zone training was really good. Side note, on the way to zone training, our district was on the subway heading to Nokebon in Seoul. Our train stopped for like 45 minutes and half of the train was underground and the front part was out. We thought it was broken down, but found out that our train had hit and killed someone. :( :( How terrible is that? We had to switch trains so the police could come investigate. We ended up being pretty late to training. So sad :(

One thing that really stuck out to me in Zone training was when Sis. Evans 9a sister training leader) said this: "If you want to teach by the Spirit, you have to have the courage to say something you don't know how to say." This month we are focusing on How to Begin Teaching and being examples that our investigators can follow.

Random thing: the other day we were about to start studies and I got up to go shut the door and I saw a massive cockroach or something like that on the floor. I freaked out! It was right by our beds. (which are also on the ground.) yes alarming. Sis Sung had to kill it for us because all 3 of us were freaking out. That night when I went to bed I was so afraid i was going to see another one. ehhh so gross. hahaha

On P-Day last monday we went to a way cool Buddhist temple. I took a lot of pictures. It was BLAZING hot and humid, but still fun. In a really pretty place by famous mountains so it felt good to be away from the city and kind of in the mountains. We also drank this Buddhist water that came out of the ground through this dragon mouth. ha ha. Everythign is SO Mulan. i felt like i was on Mulan when we were there. So fun!

ok i better go.
rach: your week sounds like a party. thanks for the updates on everything. pray for lex! haha
dman: how are the braces? hope you are doing good. "Save ferris!" (with the pop can collecting money)
ell: your classes sound like they are going well! I'm so proud of you for making hot water cake!
jane: yw sounds like it will be so fun. you have a really fun week planned. i love you!
add: the parade sounds so fun! You are doing so many fun things! What was your favorite thing in the parade?
kiddy: the other day i was walking down the street and i saw 2 baby sharks in a tank at a resturant. the people eat the sharks. crazy huh? i thought of you. have fun at cherry hill
mom and dad: love you! i love your emails. thanks for always helping me.
have a good week!!! xoxoxox

Sister Tara Anderson
ps sis Koo gave me a Korean name!
구민슬 Koo Meen sir

July 7, 2014

HI! 

This week was pretty good. I went on exchanges, had president interviews and met with each of our investigators so it went by pretty quick. 

 We met with 김경애 on tuesday and taught her the first part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so mainly just faith and repentance. She agreed with everything we were saying and liked the lesson. She kept throwing in "amens" throughout the lesson. We are planning on finishing teaching her lesson 3 this week. She agrees with everything we teach and thinks it's all important, but she just really thinks that knowing the Bible inside and out is THE most important thing. I'm not really sure how to switch her mindset. She didn't read the BOM last week, which I was really sad about. :( I'll keep praying for her though.

We finished teaching 박인영 the gospel of Jesus Christ this week as well. She always has lots of questions, which is really good. She has a lot more interest than she did in the first place, which means she is heading in the right direction. We showed her that the principles of the gospel are like steps that lead us to live with Heavenly Father again. She understands and thinks it's good, but right now, that's not really her biggest interest. She mainly just cares about work and her social life. I wish she had more of a desire and could see the importance of religion. She is usually pretty good about reading the Book of Mormon chapters we assign though, which is good. I think we are going to really focus on the importance of the BOM as we teach her this week.

We were finally able to meet with Anna Kim this week! The lesson actually went really well. We brought a member with us, and she LOVED the member. They totally hit it off, which was perfect. We showed the Restoration film and talked about how we gained our personal testimonies of Joseph Smith, since that's what she is having a hard time with. She was actually a lot more open and accepting this time. The member we invited did a great job and shared her testimony of how she joined the church and came to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Anna Kim had a lot of questions and the member was able to help us answer some of them, so it was really good. At one point, Anna left to go to the restroom, and when she was out of the room, Sis Ahn asked me if we should still invite her to be baptized. (We had picked a date, and were planning on asking). The member said she thought maybe Anna should read the BOM, and then see, so maybe we should wait. Then, Anna Kim came back in and so we finished the lesson. While we were finishing, I kept thinking about what we should do. I was worried that the member would feel bad if we completely went against what she said, but I kept feeling like we should. So we did. She accepted the soft baptismal commitment, but said she doesn't know if she will be ready by the date. We continued to talk about baptism and she had some questions about it. She seemed more comfortable with the idea after we talked about it more. I am really glad we asked her and we will continue to help her work towards baptism.

We met with Sean this week as well, and finally referred him the elders. They came with us to the lesson and we taught him the Restoration, since it had been a while since he learned it in Australia. He said he isn't really sure about baptism right now. He can't decide if he wants to or not. The elders are going to start meeting with him now.

Random things:

- This week while street contacting, we were walking around and saw this lady sitting in the back of her little restaurant making kimchi so we went and talked to her. She was super nice and then fed us some of her kimchi. She told us it was spicy, but we didn't think it would be too bad so we ate it. I should have known, if a Korean person tells you it's spicy, then it's SPICY. hahah Sis Ahn and I were dying. hahahah our eyes were watering and I felt like a fire breathing dragon. ha ha ha. 

- We met this old grandpa named Sam. He was so nice. he's 82 years old and lived in America for 40 years. Speaks great english and told us he loves mormons. He was giving us all this advice on converting people. ha ha. he kept saying it's so hard to convert koreans. but you just get them to come to church and tell them about the word of wisdom. He was saying all of this as if he was a member himself. haha he kept saying you just gotta work hard honey. he was so sweet. he said he would be a member himself, if he didn't have a word of wisdom prob. Basically "grandpa sam" (he told us to call him that) was so great and i hope someday he uses some of his own tactics to convert himself. ha ha.

-A guy full on asked me on a date yesterday. A 50 or 60 year old man. I told him that i can't because i'm a missionary and he told me he would take me to dinner and drink water because I don't drink alcohol, but i kept telling him no and then i left. ha ha. no not happening. 

-4th of July was pretty much a normal day. We ate at KFC to celebrate. And the korean version of kfc is not the same. it was still fun though :) 

At interviews with Presient this week, one of the things we talked about was pondering and receiving answers to our ponders. After interviews this week, I thought a lot about pondering and I have been trying harder to ponder during each personal study. I was reading in D&C 138 this week and read about President Joseph F. Smith's experience he had when he saw Christ preaching the gospel to those who had died. I noticed that it said it all started with him pondering on the scriptures and thinking and reflecting on Christ's sacrifice for us. It also said later on in the section that as he wondered, his eyes of understanding were opened and the spirit of the Lord rested upon him. I think it's really cool that he was able to have such a cool experience and it all started with pondering.

I loved hearing about everything you did at Lake Powell! Sounds so fun! I'm so proud of the bunnies for slalom skiing and beaut and marv doing the ski skimmer! Ratch, i'm glad you skiied with one leg just for me. and D-man, i saw you got some sweet air on the wakeboard. Mom and Dad you are the best. I love you so much! thanks for sending me a letter from LP! i love you so so much.

have a good week!! xoxoxooxox 

Sister Tara Anderson

June 30, 2014

Hi everyone! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY D-MAN!!!! I hope you have had a good day!!! I love you and I'm so thankful you're my brother!!! Thanks for the emails. I love hearing about everything! Things are good in Korea. This week was filled with a few ups and downs. We were able to have a few lessons, but we had quite a few planned lessons that were cancelled. Overall, it was a good week. Thank you for all of your prayers for my investigators!!!! <3

On tuesday we got a text saying that we were going to have a Combined Zone Conference on thursday. It was a really good conference. A guy named PJ Rogers came and spoke to us. He served as a missionary here in Korea about 25 years ago. He came back and lived here for 15 years, mastered korean, and graduated with his PhD from a Korean University. He is now a professor at BYU-Hawaii. He taught us a ton about the Korean culture and things he has learned to help us adapt to Korean culture better. I learned a ton from him. It was so interesting. He had a good perspective on missionary work and ways to build trust with the people we work with. I am really thankful for the chance we had to hear from him. It was awesome. I could have listened to him all day. President spoke a little too and talked about being happy. He shared a few scriptures about happiness and spoke about the happiness that comes from keeping the commandments. It was great.

 

We were able to meet with 김경애this week though. We taught about the Holy Ghost and how it testifies of truth. We showed her some scriptures in the BOM and the Bible about the Holy Ghost. We talked about gaining a testimony of the BOM through the Holy Ghost. We asked her to read at least 5 minutes a day from the BOM. I really hope she will do this. She seemed hesitant at first, but it seemed like maybe she will. She told us that she believes that if we don't read the Bible and know everything in it, we aren't children of God and we won't be saved. She said the opening prayer to the lesson and as soon as she finished the prayer she said "angel". "there's an angel here" so we're not really sure what that was all about, but ok. haha. She always keeps the commitments of reading certain chapters of the Book of Mormon, so that's good. I was reading over her progress record this week and I realized that she really is progressing since our first lesson. In the first lesson with her, we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and she straight up said no. So we asked her to pray and ask God if she should read, and now she is. We will continue to meet with her. She told us she always prays for us and we told her we do the same.  She is so sweet and I really love her so much.

We also met with 박인영 this week and taught her about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and a little bit about the light of Christ and the difference. (She had some questions about that last week). We shared experiences and told how the Holy Ghost has blessed our lives. She seemed really interested. She also asked a lot of questions about the Priesthood, what it is, where we get it...etc.  We told her we can all receive blessings from the Priesthood. She was really interested in it. She also had some questions about baptism, so we taught her a little bit about that as well. We are planning on focusing on that more this week. She prayed at the end of the lesson and asked to have the Holy Ghost with her! She is starting to open up more and more. I am so thankful! 

We set up an appointment with 명훈(Sean) this week for Saturday. We also called to confirm it the night before, and he told us that he was out drinking with friends, but was still planning on meeting with us. (I don't think he was drunk though) Saturday morning we called again to follow up but he didn't answer. He never showed up when we went to meet with him. I don't really know what to do with him. We wanted to meet one time with him and with the Elders before we 소개 refer him, but he can't even make it to appointments. Whenever we call him, he is all for it and wants to meet and then he just no-shows. He didn't come to church yesterday either. I don't want to let him go because he is already on the path to being baptized, but he just needs help. I am a little unsure what we should do about him.

We had an appointment with Anna Kim this week, but she cancelled the night before because she had a family thing. I am really hoping for this week. As far as the two students we are doing the family english program with, they are testing these next few weeks, so we called their mom and set a date to meet with them in about 3ish weeks. 

I have been noticing many small miracles lately. This week when we were supposed to meet with Sean, we went to the 역 (subway station) where we were supposed to meet him, just in case he would show up... even though he didn't answer his phone. While we were there, we started talking to some people and met 3 really nice ladies. We got 2 of their numbers and are hoping to meet with one of them this week. After we were finished talking to them, we saw an elderly man fall down some stairs. He was laying on the ground and nobody would help him up. We ran over to help him and he had hit his head and was a little confused. We asked some people to help, but they sat him up and then left. We called 2 of the elders because they were at the church (really close) and they came and were able to help him up. Even though Sean no-showed on us, we met some cool people and were able to help somebody out. 

Another thing I have noticed is seeing cool things happen when we use ALL of our time wisely. Even the last few minutes before 9, or a few extra minutes we have between different appointments. On saturday we were at the church after the ward cleaning and we had about 10 minutes before MCM was going to start. We decided we would go out and 전도 (street contact) for a few minutes before it started. While we were out, we met 5 Cambodians in the market. We called Sister Sung (the cambodian sister) and they came over and met them, got their number...etc. It seems like we always meet really cool people when we give those extra few minutes. 

Yesterday our ward had ward conference. It was really good. We had a great turn-out. One of the less active members that we regularly visit came and brought her grandkids, and non-member daughter-in-law. I think they really enjoyed it. Her husband really wants us to teach her, so we are working on that. I went and asked her if she needed help with her grandkids, and she told us to take them to sit with us. So sacrament meeting was quite the adventure. They aren't members, so they're not used to Sacrament meeting, plus they're 6 and 4. They were super restless and were were trying to keep them entertained. We were sitting next to another lady (less active lady, who is starting to come back) who kept shhhing them the whole time and asking where their mom was. uhhhhhh. haha i was so bugged. haha. We ended up taking them out half way through. At least the cute less active grandma and daughter in law got to hear the meeting though!

This week I finished the Book of  Mormon, so  I started it again. I was reading in 1 Nephi and thinking a lot about the person Nephi was. I love that Nephi valiantly keeps the commandments and NEVER complains. Nephi's attitude is amazing! He always acknowledges the blessings they receive, even when their situation is less than ideal.  

Rach- your week sounds fun! Lehi rodeo sounds way fun. I can't believe you're taking a kayaking class at Utah State in the fall! How fun! teach me when i'm home. then we can go to jackson hole or something :)

D-man- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I LOVE YOU! I sent you a card in the mail. hopefully you get it soon. byu basketball camp sounds way fun! I can't believe you saw elder kaufusi!! We all miss him here. Sounds like it was a blast though! good job on winning your basketball tournament!

Ellie- your craft and cooking class sounds so fun!!!! You will have to send me pictures. I love hearing about all your friends and the fun things you do together. i love you!!

Jane- how was the pool party? when are you doing your next session of craft class? the king james phone cover you gave dman sounds sweet! i love you!

Addie- i would rather eat cheese for the rest of my life. Are you excited to have a break from ballet for the month? or do you miss it? dad's phone sounds really cool. yes i remember when you would rub my temples when i had a headache. you were the best. i love you!

Isaac- i can't believe there was a real cougar in sandy! That made me sad that it died because we are byu fans. I would rather see 2 cougars than 3. Would you rather swim in a pool of lemonade or a pool of root beard? (hahah) i love you rid! 

Mom and Dad- I can picture all of the birthday festivities. I am glad grandpa and Baba and grandma could come. I love you. thank you for the letters. I got a lot this week and it made my week! I love the pictures you send. Everyone thinks you are the most beautiful people in the world when i show them pics of our fam. I tell them you are and you are the best. :) I love you!

Have a fun week in Powell. Find some wild cliffs to jump off of. and maybe get marv to do a back flip off the top of the houseboat. ha ha. :)  send me pics! I love you! have a good week!!! xoxoxox

Sis. Tara Anderson