November 17, 2014

one year ago today was my farewell. so weird!!!!

anyways, this week was a little bit better. I think sometimes i get things worked up in my mind and everything stresses me out and it makes it hard for me to enjoy life.

Monday was fun! we hiked a part of Bukhansan to this way high peak and it was super fun! It was hard though! just like straight up and you just climb up rocks so it feels like your'e hiking stairs. so fun and exhausting! But the leaves were so beautiful and the top was so pretty. We flew paper airplanes off the top and it was so fun. haha at the top we met this lady who was from Singapore and she told us that her neice and nephew are serving missions right now. one in taiwan and the other in the US. kind of cool! Anyways, p-day was really fun.

tuesday we went and visited a former inverstiagtor whose record we found in the books. aparently the missionaries haven't visited her in like 5 years or something so we stopped by. She answered the door and was wearing a BYU alumni shirt which was interesting. She invited us in and immediately started cutting fruit for us to eat. We found out that her daughter and son had been foreign exchange students in Utah and her daughter graduated from BYU and is now working and living in utah. We didn't know this at the time, but her daughter is actually a member, but when i asked her if her son or daughter go to church she said no and so i don't know if that means she is less active or what. But anyways, we talked to her for a while and she was so so nice. She told us that usually when people come to her house she doesnt answer the door especially because the Jehovahs witnesses always come but for some reason she decided to open up and let us in before she even knew it was us. so that was kind of a mircacle. She loves that our church is centered on the family and she loves to spend time with her family. She spends time with her fam on sunday so she can't come to chruch, but she told us that she loves our church and that if she ever decides to go to church she will come to our church. so that was cool. she told us to come and visit her whenever we have time.

I also went on exchanges with sister harper on tuesday. She was super nice. She was acaually supposed to train sister lynn but then sis. lynn went home after 3 weeks. Anyways, she is going home next week and it was good to talk to her about her mission and the things she has learned. We talked about feeling successful even when you feel like you're not doing that much good. She has had 1 baptism in her mission so we talked about how we can be happy even when we don't have lots of big results that other missions or other missionaries have. She helped me a lot. It was fun.

Wednesday we had district meeting which was good. Our focus for the month is becoming converted through the holy ghost so we are focusing a lot on having the holy ghost and following the promptings of the holy ghost. i love learning about the holy ghost and being more in tune and all that stuff. We taught 정주윤 (jeong joo yoon) and she is doing pretty good. We taught her about tithing and fast offerings. she is super sweet and always keeps commitments. We were supposed to meet with her yesterday after church but she had to go home right after church because they had people at her house. We are teaching her on wednesday and we are going to talk about testimonies. She said she will share her testimony with us. :)

We visited another former investigator on wednesday as well and she was super nice. asked us to come to her choir concert the next day. (she's like 60 something) anyways she asked us to come becasue her kids and grandkids couldn't come. So president said we could go and it was a whole bunch of older ladies in prom ball gowns singing with like 6 grandpas in tuxes. hahaha so classic. i took videos of them. it was fun. haha she appreciated us coming. we are going to hopefully meet again with her this week.

I saw a lot of small miracles in street contacting this week. A random person asked us about our english program and stuff and we were able to talk to some other nice people. We got "fanged" on 2 appointments this week so that was kind of a bummer, but also met some people that could become new investigators. In English class we shared the spiritual message after. It was on the Atonement and we focused on 3 things. How it allows us to overcome death, sin, and to be able to endure hard things. We showed a little video mormon message thing and the Spirit was really strong there. After, the family that attends our class came up and asked if they can do the family english program with us. So I was really excited about that. They are going to contact us about that.

Saturday we went to the hospital and visited an older lady who is in our ward. She is having surgery because she has cancer. :( She was so sweet and thankful that we visited her. In typical korean style she started cutting up fruit for us as she's laying in her bed. (koreans always serve you food when you visit them) so sweet. we shared some scriptures with her and she appreciated it. It was fun :)

This week i studied a lot about having a "contrite spirit" I looked up a lot of scriptures about a broken heart and a "contrite spirit"  I have learned a lot about the necessity of having a broken heard and contrite spirit in order to repent and to have the spirit with us. I also learned that when we have a contrite spirit we are humble and willing to accept Heavenly Father's will and do anything that he asks of us. I love praying to Heavenly Father and asking him for help and finding ways that I can improve through the scriptures. I always get answers to questions when I ask him first and then read the scriptures. I love the Book of Mormon. Also I just finished Helaman today and loved reading about Samuel the Lamanite preachign about Christ's birth. I'm excited to get to 3 Nephi 11! my favorite. Anyways, hopefully you are still doing the Book of Mormon challenge before the end of the year. :)

R: i want to see that video of us the night before i went to the mtc! so weird that it's been a year. we had lots of great videos and pics that i can't wait to see.

D: good luck with basketball this week! be nice to FJH. that's my school! and say hi to coach downs for me (dad or mom) and tell him thanks for comign to my farewell a year ago. i never got to tell him thanks.

E: i love hearing about your fun week! yes korea got super cold last week! like sooooo freeeezing!!! i'm already wearing my big coat! but yeah it gets super cold like utah so its nothing different. haha thanks for praying for me! lvoe you

J: i can't believe it snowed this week! sounds like the weather is similar. I bet you played America the beautiful so good! i am excited to hear you pray when i am home!! lvoe you!!

A: i'm glad you feel better. your late night sounds so fun!!! livi told me that hyou and issy played and you were missionary companions sister anderson and sister oldroyd! that is sooo cute! i love you!

I: I am so happy BYU won. I can't believe you are so good at basketball. you are so cool! i love egg nog too. i would rather hike up 100 miles on a mountain but i would be too afraid to jump into the ocean. would you rather go sledding off a huge cliff into the snow or go tubing in a lake with crocodiles? i love you more than all of the pineapples in the world

love you! love tar 

November 10, 2014

This week we met with 정주윤 twice. (jeong joo yoon) We taught her the Word of Wisdom on wednesday and she said that sometimes she drinks coffee and alcohol on occasion with her friends. She said that she doesn't drink it very often and she was fine about giving it up. We moved her baptism date back a little bit in order for her to have time to show that she can keep the word of wisdom. We talked to her more about repentance so she is working on that. When we met with her on sunday she said that her mom wants to come to her baptismal service but she can't come until January. So she wants to be baptized in January. We told her that's fine, especially because her mom has been LA for her whole life and it is good that she wants to come. She might be helping her mom back. Also, I don't really know what to do now that it's delayed for 2 months. Her new baptismal date is Jan 3. 

I think we are going to finish the Family English program with sister Oh this week. We meet her every week with the Bishop's wife and she is doing pretty good. Last week we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and really emphasized baptism and the need for the proper Priesthood Authority. She really looked like things were sinking in a little more. She is Catholic and goes to her church each week so she never comes to ours. She does read the Book of Mormon each week which is good. This week we are going to talk to her about just meeting and teaching the gospel. If she is interested in that then we will teach her. if not, we will be finished with the family English program.

Yesterday we were supposed to meet with the chinese girl that the Elders referred to us, Sister Jeong,- the girl who is like an orphan but she texted us and told us that she couldnt' make it because she was going to her baptismal service in the Catholic church. :( :( But she still wants to meet with us another time so hopefully that will happen.

 We have also been trying to contact some less active members and help them. We visited the less active member that came to stake conference and she fed us dinner. She is super nice and we are working on getting her to come to church more.

I studied prayer a lot this week and I'm feeling a lot better about my prayers. I am continuing to pray vocally and pray with gratitude more. One thing i have learned from praying vocally is that sometimes as I am praying out loud, I learn things from what I am saying. It sounds weird, but little things come to mind, or I get answers to my own questions from hearing myself say them out loud. I think i notice this more because i can hear it with my own voice and i put more thought into what I say before I say it. Praying out loud is helping a lot. I also studied the way Christ taught us to pray and was reminded of what a privilege it is that we can pray to our Heavenly Father any time and anywhere and He will always listen. 

Love you all!

Love Sis Tara Anderson

November 3, 2014

hi!!! Can you believe it's november 3 already? where is time going? 

This week we met with 정주윤 (jong joo yoon) and she also came to stake conference. She is keeping commitments and wants to be baptized on the 15th. We actually had the opportunity to teach her with her brother-in-law who is a member. He was able to share his testimony of the temple and the blessings that we receive if we keep the commandments and are worthy. It was good. She also saw her cousin, Elder Lee at conference and it was good!

Each friday we meet with the bishop's wife and her friend and do the family english program together. She is keeping commitments and reading the Book of Mormon, but doesn't seem to be super interested in it. When we teach her it is a little bit hard because she has her son with her who is a big distraction but she tries to listen. We gave her a soft baptismal commitment and she said yes, but she kind of seems to just be going through the motions. I need to find out how she can become more converted.

We got a referral from the Bishop of Nokebeon ward last week! (did i tell you this already? can't remember?) We went with him and visited an older lady who he knows in our area. She is about 88 years old and has no belief. We talked a lot about the plan of Salvation and that we will see our families again after this life. She doesn't want to keep meeting, but we might try and help her here and there.

I went on exchanges with 홍선혜 this week and it was good! I was a little nervous because she speaks no English and the other 3 girls she lives with are Korean and one speaks english. But it worked out and I was able to speak Korean to her the whole time. We communicated totally fine. it was a miracle! We did lots of street contacting and I learned new things from her.!

I had interviews with President Christensen this week. I asked him some questions of how I can improve my prayers and he encouraged me to try to pray vocally and thank Him for 10 minutes. So yesterday and today I have been doing it. At first when I knelt down I wondered if I could fill up the time with just things I am thankful for, but I thought and then began praying. As I prayed I thought of so many things that I am thankful for. The more I thanked Him, the more I realized I have. I have been blessed with so much!! I felt so peaceful and happy. I found an appreciation for things I wouldn't normally appreciate or thank Him for. Praying out loud also helped me to understand and remember that He really is listening to me right when I say my prayers. It was a really cool opportunity to express my faith to Heavenly Father through my gratitude. After I finished my prayer I felt so light weight and happy. I realized I had prayed and thanked Him for 25 minutes and I was so shocked because i didn't realize that much time had gone by. It was a special experience. I think this is really good for me because I think the reason my prayers seemed to feel different was because I was 1. showing less gratitude and 2. not always aligning my will with  His will. Nothing changed on His part. It is my own fault for showing less faith through my prayers. I am going to continue to  improve my prayers. I have been studying prayer a lot this and I have already learned a lot.

love you all! thanks for all the emails!

your halloween costumes are so cute! you got so much candy!!! Korea doesn't really celebrate haloween so us 4 sisters made brownies and had ice cream on halloween night! it was fun! The jazz game looks like a blast! I love the pic of the jazz bear holding marv and trev! so cute! D-man i'm happy to hear ASU won! and that BYU actually ended their losing streak. haha :/ I love you all so much! have a good week!

Sis Tara Anderson