hi lovely family that i love with all my heart and will never stop loving ever!!

okay so i love love love the liahona and the ensign and can't wait for general conference. i can't believe i never wanted to read stuff like that when i was back home! gosh how stupid i was. the prophets and apostles are sooo inspired and they teach the best doctrine ever it's just amazing! so this week i think the greatest thing I studied about was seeking counsel from the Lord. A great talk to read is called Leaving Adversity Behind by David S. Baxter from the Dec 2012 Liahona if you want to look it up it. Anyway yesterday I read a talk given by Elder Holland that was talking about why missionary work is so hard. Why aren't people just running to get baptized? We have the truth! Why aren't we having more success why don't people accept it right away? And his answer was that "salvation is not a cheap experience" Think about what Christ endured so that we might have salvation. He said if it wasn't easy for our Lord and Savior why would be easy for us? So then I wanted to study more about Christ's suffering in Gethsemane and I read in Matthew the prayers that he offers. And his first prayer is a little bit different from the second and third prayer. In the first prayer, he states his desires but then adds thy will be done. in the second and third prayers when he prayes he states the Lord's will and accepts it. His desire isn't even in the picture anymore. Heavenly Father knows us perfectly. He already knows what we want. But we don't know what He wants. So we must seek it. And when we find it, we must accept it even when it goes against our desire. That is what the Christ did because His purpose was to fulfill the God's will.

Then I read in Jacob 4 particularly vs. 7-11and it basically says hello!! God created the Earth and man so why wouldn't he be able to command it according to His will?? Heavenly Father's hand is in everything we do. He is our Creator and our Master. We must seek His counsel because He knows everything. We must trust his counsel because He knows everything. Also read in Jacob 5-the most awesome allegory in the whole world. And when it was talking about poor and good ground I got the impression that it doesn't matter where we are, the Lord will always nourish us.The Lord knows what He's doing. He directs all things. He can bring forth fruit whenever and wherever He wants. But because we have agency, we cannot let our pride get in the way of His will and His work. Be willing to seek His counsel and be willing to be molded by Him. Don't seek to counsel the Lord because we know nothing. Seek to know what the Lord would have you do and he will help you do great things for yourself, your family, and for others. Keep loving the Lord in all things!!

 

Love you tons.

Sister Blick

Me and compy being super cute with Korean face masks

Us in our traditional han boks for chu sok.  I borrowed the dress from a member and it was soooo pretty

 We are eating man du which is soooo delicious

 Tell me this picture is not awesome. Typical Blickenstaff picture. Tthe guy actually woke up and looked at us taking the picture so it was super awkward but I'll never see him again in my life so it's all good

 Cool random fish

 This Korean kid showing us how to use num-chucks? nun-chucks? anyways it was crazy and made me laugh

The gymnast I talked about, he's legit

WHAT THE FURBIES HAHAHHAHAH making a comeback and for 80 bucks what theeeee

Hi fam baaaaam.

this week was fun and i have a lot of stories. gonna make it short so listen up. haha don't know why i said that but listen. so last night i woke up randomly laughing. my dream was funny apparently. i remember knowing what i was laughing about at the time but i have no recollection now. but it was weird i was laughing and then i started laughing because i was laughing and this was all while i was like half awake. anyway that was random.

another thing so because they don't have the f sound in Korean everytime someone says California. It sounds like Calipornia and I die laughing I'm like I know California is going downhill okay the Koreans have foresight haha.

Which reminds me. I have to get a foreigner card that says I can live in Korea for a year yada yada so in the picture we weren't allowed to smile and then for the card they change the picture to black and white and make it look all scary so literally I look like a serial killer on my card. Like if I saw that, I would be like, deport this girl I think she's planning on massacring the Korean nation!

Oh yesterday we had a baptism for some of the eight year olds in our ward and they filled the baptismal font with boiling hot water so that was a big fiasco. The baptisms here are super weird because the font has serious issues with the water and there always ends up being a problem and it's super awkward at the baptism. Anyways besides that it went good. 

We met with a potential investigator yesterday that turned out to be not an investigator. But it was a girl I met on the bus and she wants to practice English and she's super nice. But she basically said she wanted to meet again because she met me and I was so nice and pretty and young. And then we were walking down the hall of the church and she said to my compy she's so pretty! hahaha and I was like yeah this is awkward...and then I was depressed because she was like yeah I'm really busy so I don't have a lot of time but if I have time I'll call you. But thanks for meeting with me you're really pretty!

Oh read The Fourth Missionary talk it's way good.

Yeah so we have an elder who is serving and simultaneously training for the Olympics. It's kind of ridiculously awesome. He's from Canada and is a gymnast and his lower body is tiny but his upper body is riiiipped. it's kind of impressive. Anyway we got together as a mission on Thursday because it was a holiday and we're not allowed to proselyte because people get way offended. It's kind of the same as Christmas in America. and we had a talent show and he was doing some stuff and it was siiiick. you'll get some pictures later. this way funny sister was sitting behind me--seriously love her--and he was doing like a handstand on mini parallel bars and his shirt fell down and she was like wow haven't seen that in a while. HAHAHAHA I DIED LAUGHING. and she was like that stays here! But of course I have to tell you all.

This weekend we're having an open house in our ward where we asked each of the members to invite a friend and we're going to have dinner, a game, and then the missionaries (we have six in our ward) are putting on a skit of the first lesson. It's way fun and we made some of the cheezy decorations because i am super creative and awesome. anyway we're acting out Noah and I made the sickest eagle wings and elephant ears and also i made the ten commandments. member missionary work is really hard in Korean because they have this thing called 何淬 which is basically like "pressure". if they feel 何淬, investigators will stop meeting with you and stuff like that. so it's really hard to get members involved in missionary work but we're trying. and hopefully the open house will be a success.

Anyways this morning i was studying in Romans 8 and Alma 17 and 26. They contain some great verses about being patient through our afflictions. In Romans it says that our sufferings at this time won't even be comparable to the glory that we can partake of IF we are faithful and endure to the end. It also says that everything good will come to those that serve the Lord and work according to His purposes. How often are you seeking to do what the Lord wants you do? How often do you ask yourself if this is what the Lord wants you to do? Remember that as we follow Him we will be blessed whether now or later we don't know but we have to have faith. (that's the hard part and what really sets us apart--do we endure with faith?) In Alma it talks about being patient because God has all power and is everything. Trust in Him. The last verse I think in Alma 36 talks about how the Lord was mindful of Aaron and his brothers and he calls them wanderers in a strange land. If that isn't me that what is? I'm always striving to be more patient and striving to remember that the Lord is mindful of me. Know that He loves you and if you endure your trials you will blessed with what you need. 

love you tons,

sister blick

Making our failed Rootbeer

Sister Oh playing with the dry ice

Yummy squid i loooove love love with rice and eggs and soy sauce. Typical lunch

 

 Me being eaten alive. I HATE THE MOSQUITOES HERE THEY LOVE MY BLOOD. I HATE THEM! 

I get massive welts each time I get bitten and the Elders make fun of me. 

 

Us in front of a massive tiger

 

Cutest red panda everrrrr

 Me being cute at the zoo. There were crazy animals there! Rhino, zebra, ostrich, hippo and other things I can't remember. I felt like I was in Africa

Hi family!!! I love you super a lot and I miss you!! This week was fun and I learned a lot in personal study and through zone training.

First some funny/good things that happened this week:

So a lot of times in Korea they have these guys that get on microphones and like advertise for store and yell out things and stuff. Well he attacked my compy and grabbed onto her backpack and it was kind of funny kind of scary but I had no idea what the heck he was saying obviously because it was in Korean but she was laughing and I think it was kind of inappropriate but I'm not really sure...anyway later she told me that he said that I looked like Audrey Hepburn HAHAHA greatest compliment/lie ever. I don't understand how people think I look good because I look scary at the end of each day. So so far I've been said to look like Haylie Duff and Audrey Hepburn...hmmm...confusion....

Whenever people talk to me it's super funny because they freak out sometimes and start laughing like they're embarrassed that I'm talking to them and then I figure out that it's because they want to speak english to me but they're nervous or something.

Also one of our investigators is funny and asks questions like why did Jesus choose water to get baptized in? And we explained that it was a symbol of cleanliness and stuff and she was like yeah but why water? Why not light or sand? First of all why would you rather get baptized in sand than in water? So she was asking why Jesus chose water and we were like because he did and she was like yeah but why? Also what's frustrating is when investigators ask questions and I ask my companion to explain it and she can't because she says it's too hard in english...

Also I had the coolest experience so at our zone conference I was simultaneously blessed/stressed. haha they talked about sharing the gospel with faith and that's hard! especially when you struggle with the language. But faith is a choice and when we have faith we have a hope that the Lord will fulfill his promises and a desire to do his work. So I prayed for courage that I would be able to choose faith and not be scared to talk to people. After our meeting we had to go somewhere I don't remember but there was a girl that I started talking to on the subway. And she went to college I think she was my age and she was super cute. Anyway I started talking to her about why I was in Korea and that I was a missionary and (oh side note so I'm working on this thing called pass-off where it helps you teach the lessons in the language and you have to pass off with your DLs and ZLs and stuff and last week I was working on the second lesson which is Plan of Salvation) so I talked about how we teach about Christ and God and she said that she didn't have a religion and I was talking about how God loves us and we are his children and that we lived with him before this life and we can return to Him again. And I taught like a mini Plan of Salvation lesson and it was so awesome! And I don't know if anything will come of it because I was scooted off the subway super quick by my companion so all I could give her was our card but it was just a cool experience to be able to teach someone about that and I feel like it was a tender mercy that I happened to be studying the Plan of Salvation for pass-off!! It was really cool.

spiritual thought for the week: ps i love d&c it's filled with ridiculously good revelation so thank you Joseph Smith. But anyways I was reading Moroni 10 and I came to an important realization about Charity. Charity is really seeing someone as the Lord does. We have faith in them and hope for them. Sometimes when I think about an investigator I don't even want to teach them because they come up with weird questions and they won't accept what we're teaching right away with their whole heart like I do. And that is so uncharitable!! We need to have faith in other people just as the Lord has faith in us. We need to see them for their potential to become like Jesus Christ. Have faith that someday, somehow they will accept the Lord's gospel and be able to enjoy all the blessings that we do now. So my challenge for you is to be patient with the people around you and try to see them as Christ would. Treat them as Christ would and strive to develop more charity and love for those you come in contact with.

Love you tons and tons forever and ever. Grateful we are a family forever. Hugs and kisses.

Sister Blick

Sister Blickenstaff with President and Sister Morrise

The new transfers!

Me and my compy at our first meal

 My swollen feet. Plus I got a nasty bite on the left one. Seriously they are soooo bad. Elephantous

The view from our apartment

My awesome bed

  This basically is the epitome of where we live. JK, it's a little better than this

Nice little friendly surprise. I was like what is that doing here???

Peace from my compy in our cute little apartment

HIIIII FAMILY surprisingly I'm alive and I survived my first week in hanguuuuk. Which is Korea. In Korean.  Okay run down. The food is way good and before I came I made a commitment to myself that I would eat everything even if it freaked me out. Had a bomb bulgogi pizza. I know, so Korean. But there were huge mushrooms and olives on it AND I ATE THEM what whaaat I was so proud of myself.  Okay everyone is Korean. It's kind of scary. Also no one wants to talk to us. AHH this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. First of all my compy is straight Korean. which is awesome because she helps me sooooo much with the language. She tells me I speak really well like a million times a day but I think she's lying sometimes. Literally the only way I know how to start a conversation with someone is are you waiting for the bus? what bus are you waiting for? where are you going? which I realized is totally creepy!!! Oh well you gotta do what you gotta do. Basically I feel super inadequate because I can't understand like anything because the people talk so freaking fast but I'm trying not to get discouraged. Haven't cried yet sort of so that's a plus. Also we're opening a new area which is really hard because we have like el-zippo invesigators. Which I guess doesn't really matter, but oh wait it does. This week we did a lot of cleaning because our apartment was straight up gross. I got bitten like a million times and pretty sure I got a spider bite on my hand because it swelled up way huge and was super nasty. Like when I clenched my hand in a fist you couldn't see my knuckles....yeah it was bad. The weather is ridic hot. Like I'm sweating now more than I ever have in my entire life. Plus we don't have ac in our apartment so I sleep with a fan on full blast in my face. It's actually starting to cool off now so it's not to bad at night but during the day it suuuucks. My feet are supes swollen and gross I'll provide pics. Anywayyy. Spiritual moment of the day--I started reading the BoM from the beginning and Nephi is pretty much amazing. Like he has so much faith. it's really hard doing this work because they teach you to have faith to find people. And I always feel like I don't have enough faith, but anyway Nephi is such an amazing example of faith. When his brothers are dimwits and are like lets go back he's like yeah no I'm not leaving until this work is done. Nevermind that he had no clue how he was going to do it, but he was faithful. We have to remember that the Lord is mightier than all the earth so wherefore can we doubt? Also in Matthew when Christ calls his apostles he says Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. "I will make you." The Lord makes us who we are. It's a process. So especially when things are hard remember that everything that we do a) require faith and b) is a process of becoming more like Christ. We are learning every day. I am learning every day. I wish I could recount every thing that has happened but I don't have all the time in the world. yesterday some creepy Indian guys kept looking at me on the subway. So I gave them a mormon.org card. It was great. The first day as soon as we got off the plane we had to ride the subway back to the mission office and preach the gospel. Yeah hard core rejection at it's finest it was great. I started talking to this daughter and her mom and the daughter was like what do you teach? and then the mom was like don't talk to her. I was angry. Also Korean's are really funny because if they don't want to talk to you it's literally like you don't exist. Also I don't understand everything. pray for me. I love you tons

Sister Blick