Week #1 April 16, 2017

Some of our ward at a little girl in the wards 1st birthday party

Stage fun

Our biggest fans ;)

Singing at the service activity at the hospital! These are the Elders we spend a lot of time with that are in our same city

The group that we helped at the service activity

Korea is like a little slice of Heaven. I am loving it here!  By the time my year and a half is up I'm pretty sure I'll be a professional surfer after all of the bus surfing we do here! It truly is an art being able to keep your balance, holding all of your stuff while you hold onto a little pole and these buses are driving like mad men! It's quite the adventure! 

We were able to do a service project this week with one of our investigators. She goes to a hospital each week and puts on this big show. She sings and they make it fun for the people in the hospital. She invited us to pick some songs and come perform then with her at the hospital. It was the funnest thing I've ever done!! All of these people had been through so much, there were a lot that were Elderly and were there because they were sick. The rules for when we do these things are a bit different and so we sang Marry Me by Bruno Mars and Party in the USA by good old Miley Cyrus. We danced and karaoked! Sister Brady and I belted it out and danced, the Elders were a little more skittish, but it was the greatest experience ever! 

We have seen so many amazing miracles this week. It has been unreal. Now that the Cherry Blossom festival is over we have been able to meet with our investigators again because it isn't so busy.I started out this week really sick. I think it is just a mix of exhaustion and stress so my immune system was really low. I was really dragging and just going along one step at a time. It seemed like nothing was progressing and I was just exhausted and sick. We had planned on watching Conference that night, but for some reason our conference wouldn't play. It was the only thing on the drive that seemed to be broken. After messing with it for a while we decided maybe that wasn't the way we were supposed to spend our night. We headed out onto the streets to proselyte. We didn't have much luck, we were heading back home and bumped into one of our investigators that we hadn't been able to get a hold of for almost two weeks. She was with her mother in law and so we didn't get to talk much. The next day we got a phone call from her and she explained to us everything that had been going on. In Korea your mother in law dictates a lot of what you are able to do. When a girl gets married, they automatically have to take the religion of their mother in law. It's just the way the culture is and it is super frustrating as missionaries. This girl we've been teaching loves the gospel and loves meeting with the missionaries, but her mother in law hates the church. She had been sneaking out to meet with us behind her mother in laws back. The last appointment with her, before I got here, the missionaries had given her an Ensign. Her mother in law caught her with the ensign and freaked out. They got into a huge fight and her mother in law started hitting her and kicked her out of the house. It was a huge deal. After about 2 weeks things started to calm down and our investigator didn't know what to do. She had been praying for a sign of what she should do and that was when she ran into us on the street. We were able to meet with her again this week, behind her mother in laws back, and talked to her about the whole situation. It's really sad how little freedom they are able to have. It also makes you realize how lucky you are to have the gospel without having to sacrifice really anything for it. There are people here that are sacrificing so much to have the gospel in their lives because they can taste the blessings that comes from it. It really is amazing. I feel so thankful for the opportunity I have to be able to share the gospel with the amazing people in Korea. I've been able to see  first hand that God's work will go on and there truly is nothing that can stand in the way of the work progressing.

I love and miss you all!

XOXO

Sister Stout