hello hello helloooooo!!!! (jim car ref) i love you all as usual. this week was a rollercoaster. every week is a rollercoaster. every day is a rollercoaster but it's good! and being a missionary is great because like a million and one people pray for you and I get to be doing the greatest work ever. Seriously missionary work is the best. And I hope you are all being good member missionaries!! Seriously when I get back I'm going to be the freaking best member missionary in the world. Because I know what it's like to be a missionary! It's hard! They need help, people!! So share the gospel!!

Anyway funny stories of the week:

So it rained this week. Seriously it randomly rains every week and there's like huge thunderstorms and I think there are bombs going off all the time and it's really confusing. Anyway it was raining so we had our umbrellas and we were waiting outside this apartment building because we had an appointment but we were early so we sat down on some benches and i noticed this dark spot on my umbrella and i was like what the...so i looked at the top of it and there was a massive bird poop on it!!! and sister oh died laughing and i was like what the ewwwww!! and she's like hey if you didn't have the umbrella it would be on your head. and it was disgusting and it wouldn't come off i had to get a stick and scrape it off. nasty.  also everyone thinks i'm like 25 -___- okay i'm not ancient! But really so many times there are girls that look 12 and they're like i'm 23 what the?!? i think Koreans have the fountain of youth pill and aren't telling anyone about it....

oh also we got these business cards to advertise our english class and they are legit. when i get the chance i will send one home and if jacky is interested she can come hahahha jkkkk ah that was funny.

oh the other day we were hardcore proselyting and i went up to this girl (i love talking to high school students because they freak out when i talk to them) and started talking to her and she was acting all nervous and shy and i was like are you scared? and she like shyly giggled and was like no this is wonderful! hahahah sometimes i love being a foreigner. then i started talking to this other lady who completely ignored me so i just kept talking to her about how i was learning korean and so i want to talk to everyone and she's like i don't want to talk to you. and i was like have a nice day! yeah love conversations like that too. my favorite are the old grandmas who grab my face and pat me on the arm and tell me my Korean is good and that I'm pretty. Good times. 

So this is kind of cool. The first day that I was here coming to anyang on the subway I was like all gungho I'm a missionary right? So i was like i have to talk to someone! So I looked at the lady next to me and noticed that she was sort of looking at me and she took out her headphone so i said hello and then we sort of talked and she was all excited because she had met the missionaries before i think. (i don't really remember) anyway sister oh got her number and i was like yeah investigator! well we finally met after 8 weeks of us calling her and her being busy and yada yada yada and her family is so awesome! They really just want to learn English I think but seriously there family is so awesome and the dad is amazing and they are just so perfect for the gospel and I want them to get baptized. While I was practicing English with them they asked about tithing (yeah it was random and Sister Oh was like explain tithing so I stuttered through that in Korean yeah it was scary I hadn't taught it since the MTC) and baptism and Joseph Smith. So I taught them about the restoration in Korean/English and recited the first vision and it was so cool! Not really sure if they have real interest but it was a cool experience and I hope that we can bring them closer to Christ. They don't believe in anything. Actually sister oh told me they believe in science hahahaha so that was awesome. But I just know that they are awesome and I want them to be baptized. So pray for me that I can teach through the Spirit!!

I'll just share something quick this week:

I read this morning about Virtue from the PMG attributes assessment and it talks about being dependable and doing the things that we say we will. It had a scripture reference in Alma 53:20 where it talks about the stripling warriors. So i started reading about the stripling warriors and it said something that i had never noticed before and was interesting. It said that before they made the decision to fight they had never been a disadvantage to the people, but now that they were taking up arms they were becoming a great support. What an interesting way to say that. They had never been a disadvantage, but now they were a great support. Last night during our lesson the mom asked us a question that i was kind of ashamed to answer. She was like before your mission did you talk to your friends about the gospel a lot? And the truth is I didn't. I mean everyone knew I was a member of the church and I tried to be a good example of living up to my standards, but I didn't really actively try and share the gospel. Aka I wasn't a disadvantage to the people. I was just there. and I know that this special experience of being a missionary will change me so that I can be a great support. We are all in the Lord's army. We take His name upon us when we are baptized. Are we simply "not a disadvantage" or are we a great support to the Lord? I hope that all of you strive to be of great support to the Lord in these days. It's becoming easier to share the gospel and especially now everyone needs it. So remember your covenants and stand up for the Lord. He needs us to bring His children back to Him!!

Love you tons. Peeeeace

Sister Blick

hiiii!!! i love you all tons and tons and this week was super great. just some quicky stories

this morning actually my companion was just casually like ah it's going to be cold today. there's going to be a typhoon tomorrow. and i was like WHAT. A TYPHOON?? and she's like yeah...like totally normal!! what the heck typhoons are not normal!! so hopefully I survive that.

HAHA okay so the less-actives here are awesome. okay well not in that they're less-active but in that they LOVE the missionaries. it's super weird because they're super nice to the missionaries and treat them like family but they won't come to church. Sister Oh said it has to do something with the way that the church is in Korea but said I wouldn't understand it so I don't really know. But we went to visit a less-active yesterday after church and she gave us two bags of food and she gave me two winter coats. my compy was like oh tomorrow is p-day and we might have to go shopping because sister blick needs a winter coat. and the member was like what size are you what color do you like? and brought out these coats and was like i've only worn them like twice so here you can have them. and i was like uhh....they were expensive!! one of them is SUPER cute and i was way stoked to get it. the other one wasn't that cute but i'm still grateful hahah.

so i went on exchanges this week with another korean sister missionary who came out the same time as me. not going to lie i was super scared because a) i don't know where anything is and b) i don't speak Korean. but turns out we didn't get lost and I can kind of speak Korean! yay!! But the day ended up being super fun and we talked to a lot of people. While we were proselyting we were walking past a bus station and I here this girl say 외 국 인! which means foreigner. first i laughed and then i turned around and i was like hi! yeah I'm a foreigner. to which she freaked out semi because she was embarrassed that i understood her and also because i was speaking Korean. It was awesome. Talked to her and turns out she's Korean but lives in China and she was just on a trip to Korea with her mom and aunt for a couple days. She speaks perfect English, Korean, and Chinese. Yeah she's a genius. She was super nice I wish I could've talked to her more about the gospel. I told her I was a missionary and then she was like oh my bus is here gotta go! It was sad. But maybe if she sees another missionary she'll remember me.

This morning my companion was like hey! you're wearing my ribbon. (which i was wearing a hair tie of hers that has a bow on it) but when she said it it sounded like nipple and i was like what??? love her konglish.

 

this week was super awesome. me and compy have grown closer and had a lot of fun and worked really hard. in that way i have been super blessed. we don't have any investigators still so the work is hard but we love it! i love personal study time because i love the scriptures and i'm obsessed with the gospel because it's the greatest thing in the whole world.

my message to you this week is about charity. A really really good talk that i'm making all of you look up and read is Let Us Raise Our Voice of Warning but Pres. Eyring from the 2009 Liahona. It talks all about member missionary work and how it's really important. He specifically talked about three things that we can do to be better missionaries every day. He said we can love others (charity), be a good example to others (let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the Father) and to share testimony (invite people to act). this morning i specifically studied about charity. in the BD it sayds that charity is the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love. in Corinthians it says that charity edifieth, which means builds up, strengthens, establishes, and repairs. The word repairs struck me. Charity repairs. When we have charity towards other people we have the ability to repair their hearts, their testimonies, whatever they may need. Charity has healing power. Both for the person who has it and the person who receives it. Why? Because pure love has healing power. Christ had such strong love for us that He sacrificed Himself so that we might be healed-from sin, sorrow, pain, weakness, you name it. When we love others, everything becomes easier for us. We're not so focused on ourselves and what we want or don't want what we have or don't have. We focus on others and everything else falls into place. One of my favorite scriptures is Moroni 7:48. We must pray with ALL ENERGY OF HEART to be filled with the pure love of Christ that he bestows upon his TRUE FOLLOWERS. If we really are a true follower of Christ, we will desire charity. We will want to love others because that is what Christ would do (and does). And when we have that love, we become his true children. And as we become His true children, we appear to be like Him. That when we meet Him, He will see us as His child. He will recognize us as one of His sheep because we have kept the greatest commandment. To love one another. Here it's hard because I can't speak the language very well so I can't express my feelings very well. But I still love the people. And I pray that through my smiles and through the small conversations that I am able to have, that they can at least feel Heavenly Father's love for them through me. One of my favorite members of the ward I'm in always tells me that she has a special feeling about me because she says I'm so nice and she can tell that I care. Sometimes that's all people need! They don't need you to be perfect and say the perfect thing they just need you to be there and to show through actions that you care. Actions speak louder than words right? Because actions shows that we've thought about it enough to do it. So show people that you love them! Smile more and seek for opportunities to let people feel God's love for them through you.

Also studied in Luke 22:31-32 Christ is talking to Simon and He says Satan wants to sift you but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. Christ prayed for His disciple. Don't you think He still does that? If we are disciples of Christ, He prays for us! That our faith fails not. I love that. Our Lord and Savior prays for us weak beings that we may have faith. So work extra hard to strengthen your faith! Each day ask yourself if how you have increase your faith in Christ. And if you don't know how. Read PMG. Seriously it's a great book to read from. And you're all member missionaries so it applies to you.

Also during companionship study this week we were focusing on introducing the Book of Mormon to other people and how we can use the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so essential to our gospel! I hope you all are reading from it at least a little bit everyday. I love the words of the prophets and I wish I could study it for hours on end. But PMG says to not forget that even though we are members, Moroni's promise still applies to us. When was the last time you asked Heavenly Father if they Book of Mormon was true? So challenge of the week/month is to ask for a reconfirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. Read Moroni's promise and ask, with a sincere heart and real intent if the Book of Mormon contains God's word. And I want to here about your experience!! But not over email. So write me a letter :)))) Love you all. I know that the Book of the Mormon is the word of God. I asked Heavenly Father and then I read Moroni 7 verse 16 (I think) where it talks about the the Spirit of Christ leading to do good and how everything that leads to Christ is good and of God. and I knew that was my answer. Because they Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. Look to Christ and you won't fall. Love you so much everyone. Can't wait for your letters!! Jake tell Jackie she has to write one too :))

 

love you!!

 

Sister BBBBBBlickenstaff

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