Members from Caitlin's last ward

hi family!! get. this. this wednesday is my six month mark in country. how crazy is that!!! aka i've been living in south korea for half a year. what the. unbelievable. also another crazy thing. they eat this stuff called 떡 and it's like rice cake stuff. anyways the other day i realized uh i grew up eating this. what is it?? STICKIES!!! hahah they just eat it in like soup and different stuff too so i never thought about it before. i was dying.

 

so i'm pretty much obsessed with the Book of Mormon. it's literally the greatest thing in the whole world and I wish I could just read it forever and ever.

oh just remembered that i have to email my investigators that are in russiaaa!!!

 

okay well we have an investigator that's getting baptized this saturday! her english name is gloria and she's 14 i think. maybe 15. she's super cute and it's like a miracle because at first her mom said no because she said she thought she was too young to make that decision but she finally gave her permission!

we have another investigator who's 11 and her name is en ji. she is hilarious. i love her and she's supposed to get baptized in about a month. she came to church for the first time yesterday and asked what the sacrament was so i explained it to her and she's like ooooh. so when the water came around she drank it and then says the equivalent of mm that water was delicious. hahah i was dying inside.

we have another investigator that has a date for april but i'm kind of worried about her because the reason she started investigating the church is because her boyfriend is a member and he won't get married outside of the temple...she didn't have a religion growing up so she doesn't really know anything about God or Christ. But hopefully her desire to learn will deepen and she'll want to learn for herself not just to get married. her name is sister chway. okay i am horrible at romanizing korean so sorry.

anyway Heavenly Father sent some miracles my way this week He was very nice to me.

 

read the book of mormon people. and be converted unto the Lord. Love you!!

 

Sister Blick

hi hi hiiii!!! new area new comp new news!!

 

okay last week was an interesting progression. first i was way sad because i was leaving my old area and all my investigators. but seriously the best miracles happened. so i wanted to meet lee before i left plus she was going to Russia for a month and we needed to meet with her before she left. So I called her to see if we could meet and it turned out she was packing to leave super early the next morning for a boat to China and she couldn't meet again. BUT she was like yeah so I decided to read the Book of Mormon while I'm in Russia. I was like WHAT???? she's like at first I wasn't sure and I didn't really want to, but now I want to so I'm going to read it while I'm gone and then I can meet when I get back. Oh my gosh first best news of the week!!!

Then the next day we went to go meet with Will (the guy that's like a hippy) but he doesn't have a phone so we couldn't set up an appointment, but I remembered where the lab was that he worked out. I was super nervous to go there because I thought it would be awkward walking on the university campus and just going into the lab like hey is will here? not knowing if he would actually be there. but he was!! and during our lesson he ALSO said yeah so I'm going to read the Book of Mormon while I'm in Russia (he's going with Lee, they work in the same lab at school). And me Sister Gap were like WHAAAT??? yeah it was awesome.

then i moved to my new area and they have two investigators with baptismal dates okay what? and other investigators with lots and lots of potential. it's kind of sad because i feel like they're not really my investigators because i didn't teach them really but it's still exciting!

 

So I've been studying out of the Book of Mormon lately (my new comp is pretty quiet so I have a lot of time to myself) and I love it. Alma is the best seriously. I've been reading out of the war chapters and sometimes it's hard to see how those are really relevant, but I have learned SO much from them. I don't really have time to explain all of it now, but it just goes to show that when we ask Heavenly Father to open our minds and teach us, He will. Through scripture study, and through feasting on the words, we can learn so much through the spirit. Our minds can be enlightened! It's amazing. So read the scriptures. But don't just read. Ask questions. Ponder. Pray. Feast! Love you all

 

Sister Blick

Hi family! I wasn't going to write you because I have like zero time but I felt bad because so many cool things happened this week!

 

So our investigator that was supposed to get baptized, but didn't because her parents said no, we were trying to contact her to see if we could just meet not to teach her anything but talk to her about how she felt and what happened and just keep a relationship up. But she didn't answer our calls or texts so we thought maybe her parents wouldn't let her. well she randomly came to english class on saturday it was the happiest day of my life and we were jumping up and down hugging for like three minutes straight. and then the next day SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!! it was seriously a miracle and we were so grateful. It was amazing. we're meeting her tonight to get some hot chocolate and we're so excited that she's able to keep contact with the church. Hopefully the Lord softened the heart of the parents and everything will work out the way the Lord wants to.

Another thing so we went to meet with Lee on Seoul National University campus--that was weird I felt like I was back at BYU but anyway--so after an awesome lesson with her. She's super changing we can tell. The Lord is working on her! We were super nervous because she's leaving in about two weeks to go to Russia for a month to study tigers (yeah she's super cool) and we didn't know if her conviction to learn about the church was solid yet. every time we taught her it was great but she was just kind of like yeah that sounds good, okay that makes sense, yeah sounds good, with no real umph or light. Turns out she had some concerns and questions that we were able to answer and resolve. I was on exchanges when we taught and Lee was like yeah I want to read the Book of Mormon but I want to know like the history and background and so we explained to her about it and the sister I was teaching with was like the history is important, but if I gave you Harry Potter and told you it was a really good book you wouldn't go and research it to figure out if it was good, you would read it! She's like it's the same with the Book of Mormon, you can't know that it's a good book or that's it's true by researching about it, you have to actually read it! And she was like okay I'll read it! So that was a breakthrough and we think that even when she leaves, if she can keep reading the Book of Mormon while she's in Russia, she'll be golden when she comes back.

So we met another guy while we were there. Lee asked us if we wanted to see the lab she works in she we went there and she introduced us to this American that works there and we talked to him for a while about religion and it was an awesome conversation. Sister Florence (the sister i was on exchanges with she's awesome i love her) was enlightened while we were teaching and I thought I would share what she learned. So this guy is kind of a hippy, very into conservation, and was talking about becoming one with nature kind of and Sister F was like they always say that become one with nature, and she's like I never understood it, but as he was talking she thought of the scripture that talks about how we are made of the dust of the earth and how we are lower than the dust of the earth because we are disobedient. She said I finally get it! You become one with nature by being obedient to God. When God says to the mountains move, they move--they are so obedient. But we being humans, even though we are made up of the dust of the earth, are still disobedient. But by being obedient, we can become one with nature and be more in tune with our Heavenly Father. It was a cool experience. Love the Spirit.

 

Okay well I love you!! Kaari I took some sweet selfies for you but I have no time to send them. sorry!! till next week ;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o

 

Love you!!!

 

Sister Blick

hi fam bam. love you lots!

just wanted to remind you how important the words of the prophets are and how much they can bless our lives. I love studying talks from conference and it is reconfirmed to me all the time that we are led by men who are called of God. I've thought a lot this week about potential. In the april conference last year elder Ballard I think gave a talk called "this is my work and my glory." amazing. He talks about the priesthood power and I think sometimes members don't realize how amazing the priesthood is. Do you realize that the men in our family hold the same priesthood that Christ used to create the heavens,to heal the sick and perform all the miracles He did, and to endure the sufferings in Gethsemane for all mankind. That is why it is so sacred and important to be worthy of the preisthood. in his talk he relate a story about a little girl who was growing a tomato plant. she was amazed that from one seed you grow some tomatoes which has so many seeds which if they are planted grow more tomatoes--she said pretty soon you'll have a million tomatoes! then she said "i almost killed my plant" she left it in a dark room and didn't nourish it and when she went to look at it it was all withered. she was sad that she ruined it but her mother said she could nourish it back to life, so she gave it water and sunlight and sure enough the tomato plant came back to life. we have so much potential as Heavenly Father's children. but sometimes we forget it. and sometimes we can get a little withered. we get stressed out with life and feel like the world is on our shoulders and how could i possibly get through this and how could I possible feel love and peace through this experience? but thinking that is like putting our plant in a dark room and forgetting about it. but when we water it and give it sunlight by reading our scriptures, praying, studying the words of the prophets, being positive, recognizing our blessings, we are no longer withered and we are reminded of our potential. aka don't be a withered tomato plant.

we went to a less actives house this week and during our message she walked into the other room and stood on a chair and pulled out her scriptures from the top shelf of this tall bookcase. she proceeded to dust off her scriptures and then opened them and searched them. later my companion said if your scriptures are dusty, your testimony is dusty. don't ever let your scriptures get dusty! they will lead us to Christ no matter where the heck we are in life.

 

also we met a man named Igor last night and we just couldn't get over the fact that his name was Igor.

also holy moly how could I forget I ATE A WHOLE CHICKEN BY MYSELF. it was stuffed with rice and peanuts. yes peanuts. and it was a whole chicken that i had to tear apart limb by limb to eat it. it was the worst experience of my life. when koreans feed you, they feed you. until you never want to eat ever again. but i have to say i have gotten exceptionally good at stuffing myself full of food that i do not want to eat. it's a talent. but really that was the worst thing. and they didn't give us water so we were like dying of thirst. fun times. there will be pictures to follow. okay i can't think of anything else to write so i'm gonna go!

love you love youu

 

Sister Blick

Hi familyyyy! Love you but totally being honest emails are so stressful to write. but because i love you i will write it.

This week was awesome. New year what the heck?? my new years eve was pretty uneventful and i was in denial of the new year all day i told my comp that it was december 32. but i got over it and was excited for a new year and new starting. in the Liahona and probs in the Ensign President Uchtdorf talks about new beginnings and setting goals. He mentions a proverbs that says "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now." Now is the time to progress towards the person we want to be and the person the Lord wants us to be. He says that sometimes the fear of failure or something keeps us from doing the things we know we need to but he says to keep in mind that most likely we will fail at some point. Now that seems kind of unmotivational but he says that accepting the fact that failure will come helps us keep going when we face it. And even though we know we will fail as long as we keep going, we're still progressing. We're still better than we started even if we fall short of our goal. So make some new beginnings and I challenge all of you to make some missionary goals especially. As members it is our duty and privilege to spread this glorious gospel. Now is the time to engage!! Is that from the incredibles? I'm not sure.

 

Anyway our investigator is supposed to be getting baptized on Sunday. She has to get permission from her parents this week so we're fasting and praying for her that her dad's heart will be soft and allow her to join the church. She is the cutest thing ever. This week when we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ we were asking her like why is important to have faith and to repent and get baptized? And she just kept answering to get to the celestial kingdom! And we were like you really want to go to the celestial kingdom don't you? And she's like yes!! It just reminds me that she doesn't know everything yet, but he has that desire to go to the celestial kingdom and be with God and have eternal life. What do we hope for? What is our focus? How much to we wish to go to the celestial kingdom? How do we express that desire to the Lord? After we finished our lesson we were talking to her about going to buy a dress for church and she got way excited and keep in mind this 16 year old Korean girl is pretty bad at English and she says in English I love shopping! And we just crack up and then she says I love 침례! which is the Korean word for baptism. Me and Sister Gap were seriously dying laughing. It was the greatest thing ever.

 

We got a new investigator this week that is absolutely the best. He's kind of crazy. A massive black guy from Texas that is going to the university here and we met him randomly on the street one day. He said he had a friend that was Mormon (turns out he was actually Amish) but that he didn't know about our church so now we're teaching him. He's hilarious. His name is Royale. He'll get baptized. After we tell him to stop partying all night long....he was going to come to church with us this week and he texted us at 8 in the morning and was like sorry I can't come I just got home from last night....yeah he's a work in progress. So pray for him!! Wish I could tell you everything but there's not enough time in the world.

 

I studied about the Atonement this morning. Particularly out of 2 Nephi 9. Everything in heavenly Father's plan comes back to the Atonement. How perfect His plan is and how grateful I am for it.

 

Love you all

have a good week

Sister Blick

 

 oh yeah also we went to costco and spent a million dollars on delicious american food. and sister gap wanted some chips and salsa so we're in line and she puts the two massive things of salsa (the were connected) on the conveyor belt thing and they were slanted and they slipped off, fell, and broke and salsa was everywhere. we were mortified because all the koreans were staring at us like you foreign idiots. we were like hey we're missionaries want to learn about the gospel???? anyone??? jk but it was hilarious and Sister gap was way embarrassed. and i made fun of her a lot. also the bulgogi bake is delicious here and they have a kiwi smoothie at this costco that is literally the greatest thing everrrrr.