hello loving family! I Korean grammar in to write try want to. this week I miracles saw! Sister Burton the missionaries to spoke! I a lot of things learned.

OOkay that is way to hard. but that's a little taste of Korean for you!

anyway this week was awesome! We got to listen to Sister Burton and Sister Oscarson speak! They are great and I was just thinking of what it must like to be in their position. I can't even imagine. I would feel a lot of pressure...

Anyway I have like no time. But I just want to tell you one of my favorite things as a missionary. I love when investigators pray for the first time. I absolutely love it. It's always so sincere and so simple. We met with our investigator last night in the rain in the park and sat under a little covered porch thing ( they have a lot of those in Korea) and taught him about prophets and Jesus Christ and about prayer. And at the end I invited Him to pray and it's just the greatest thing to hear. To know that someone is taking an important step to communicate with Heavenly Father and to know truth.

Missionary work is great. And the members in Korean are so excited to have so many missionaries coming out, but some people might get the idea that because there are so many missionaries, they don't have to participate. Please don't ever think that! The missionaries need the member's help more than ever. Member's can open so many more doors than missionaries can. And sometimes we're scared because sharing the gospel is hard and we might not know how. (I never even thought about it before my mission really) But ask the missionaries for help! I promise they will help you and I promise if you engage in this work you will see SO many blessings in your life you will not even be able to count them.

I love you all so much and I hope you know and feel that even though I am far away in distance. You are all in my heart wherever I am. Love you to pieces!!

 

Sister Blickenstaff

hi lovey dovies!!!! love you all and happy easter!! we had MIRACLES left and right yesterday and i know that the Lord was looking out for us. Some special news: we have a mission conference this week where Sister Linda Burton is speaking to us!!! cool right?? i'm excited. also i get to go to the temple this week finally. seriously i haven't gone for the last two months and it feels like a spitirual drought! going to the temple is the best! so take advantage of it you endowed people!!

okay miracle of miracles that taught me again that the Lord works in seriously mysterious ways. so last sunday we went to go visit a less active. in korea a lot of the less actives are "unknown" less-actives aka we don't know if they actually live there so we were the pioneers and went to search her out! so we went and sure enough she was home. her husband is not a member by the way. so the whole visit was the weirdest experience ever. from the very beginning we weren't welcomed it and it was just kind of awkward the whole thing. she knew nothing about the church, thought we were jehovah's witness or catholic and was just very confused. remembered that she got baptised but didn't any doctrine whatsoever. so i asked her literally like 30 times if we could come and teach her lessons/invited her husband to take the lessons. they would not answer me it was so frustrating! they would say something that didn't answer my question and then just stare at me and i was like i am not afraid of silence people!! i asked them so directly to it wasn't even beating around the bush! the husband kept saying he wanted to learn english but didn't have religion interest. and he wanted his wife to learn english but she was being weird and i could tell she was a little off. anyway in the end the husband told us to come back every week and teach english/ share a message about the church. win!

so tuesday last week she calls and she's like yeah my husband told you to come, but don't come. and i was like why? and she was the whole thing is weird and i don't want you to come. so i was like okay i won't. respect agency right? that night we reported the visit to my bishop and he told me that she has a mental problem and not to visit her.

so yesterday her husband calls and is like are you coming? and i was like yeah your wife told me not to come....and he was like well can you still come? and i was like sure....

so we were stressing about whether or not to go but i thought it would be a good thing because her husband wasn't a member. so we go to the apartment and he's waiting outside for us and he's like we have to go to the park and i was like okay....so we follow him to this park and we sit on a bench and he brought crackers and soda and chocolate for us to eat. i was seriously weirded out the whole time. this was the guy that said he had no interest in religion!! so i just kind of made small talk with him about his family and i think he said his wife is bipolar and he found it amusing that she told us not to come. and then we started talking about church and he was like I don't know if God exists. does He?? and I was like YES!! so we taught him about God and prayer and prophets and things like that and it was so awesome! and he's interested about learning more! He can't tell his wife that we're meeting though or else she'll get super angry soooo not sure what to do about that but it was a miracle of miracles! His name is brother kim so pray for him!

 

our other investigator Sister chway is very frustrating! She knows that what we're teaching is good and a good way for her to live, but she doesn't want to change and give up her old ways and lifestyle. Pray for her please!

 

also read the book of mormon because it's awesome. Nephi is the greatest man who ever leeeeved!!

hello family!! love you so much! this week was great! I love my ward, they are so nice to me and think that i am good at this crazy language that i am trying so desperately to speak. PS fun fact of the week I have recently

I think i told you last week that I restarted the book of Mormon. I seriously love Nephi. He's the greatest!! I love studying about his acts of faith. what was particularly amazing to me this time as I studied about their trip back to jerusalem to get the plates was that they failed twice (three times?) and still nephi didn't doubt that the Lord would provide a way for them. Have we ever received confirmation that something will work out and then we try and it seems like we fail and we question if they Lord will really help us? because i'm pretty sure I have. And I love what Nephi says "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down...until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord has commanded us" He knew they had a purpose and he knew that the Lord would provide a way for them despite the fact that they had failed the first couple times--just emphasizes the fact that also we have to do things the Lord's way. We have to seek the Lord's way because our way is sometimes not the best even though we think that it is.

Another thing that i learned this week is the influence of happiness. one night we spent most of the night with one of our investigators through a series of events that were unexpected and afterwards i was just physically, spiritually, and mentally drained and exhausted. I flung myself (yes I am dramatic) on my chair when we got home and just looked at my companion and her just being her just said something I don't even remember what it was and started laughing and first i wanted to punch because i was so frustrated but i just took a deep breath and laughed with her. and i felt so much better! My companion is seriously such a blessing to me right now because she helps me be happy and smile when i really really don't want to. Life is so much better when we're happy. and the great thing is we can be happy even through our most difficult trials. seems impossible right? but that's the hope that the gospel gives us. Our investigator asked me the other day why I was always happy and what I do to overcome my problems. and the only answer I could give her was 1. prayer 2. scriptures 3. family aka everything about the gospel. Only through the gospel can we feel true happiness even in the darkest of times. I truly believe that. We are so blessed to have the gospel a part of our family. it can help us forgive people like when they put something on my blog that i told them not to!!!! and it can help us develop greater love for each other, the way that Christ would love everyone.

I got to watch conference this weekend and it was awesome! can't wait when i can go back to the conference center and be in the presence of the prophet and apostles (dad provide the tickets thanks)

love you all and i pray that all of you know that every day!!

 

Sister Blickenstaff

hello family! hope you are doing well and you all watched general conference like you're supposed to! i haven't watched it yet because we get it a week later here in the asian side of the universe. so i am very much looking forward to it this week!

 

this week i finished the Book of Mormon! and started it again! seriously the greatest book ever. I was just thinking about the first verse of the Book of Mormon and how Nephi says that he has seen many afflictions in his day NEVERTHELESS, he was highly favored of the Lord. okay caps lock was a bit excessive for that...irregardless! okay haha i'll stop i'll stop....so. I think that that is so amazing (by the way Nephi is like my favorite prophet ever he's awesome and has the greatest faith and willingness ever) that he still knows that the Lord loves him enough to say he's highly favored of the Lord despite seeing many afflictions throughout his life. Just reminds me that Heavenly Father sends us trials to bless us. He sends us trials because He loves us. Now to the logical mind that makes no sense. But good thing that's what the Spirit is for! I hope that despite the different trials we face whatever they may be that you will always be confident that the Lord loves you and that you are highly favored of the Lord.

 

My ward is awesome and I love them to death. Our bishop is hilarious and he loves to play the violin and my comp plays the violin so this past sunday we did a trio! it was during fast and testimony meeting so that was a little odd but it was a testimony through music! over my mission i've really come to appreciate the spirit that music can bring into our lives. I found that when I'm stressed out when I put on music and not only just listen but focus on the words (of course all my music focuses on the Savior and such right now) I am able to feel more at peace. Especially you sisters with kids church music is such a good way to make sure the Spirit is in your home and even though your kids are little, they can still feel the influence of the Spirit and that will have an influence on them for their whole lives.

 

keep looking for the miracles in your week and remember that small miracles are still miracles! love you too much!

 

Sister Blick