okay what the heck i'm waiting here to hear about this supposedly newborn baby that i'm missing out on???

the weeks fly past seriously i don't even understand.

okay cool things this week.

i went to the temple. to the korean session. what? yeah i know. it was crazy.

 

it was soooo awesome though. i had a translator obviously so that i could understand the covenants i was making, but for the most part i just listened to the korean and i could understand a lot of it! it was awesome and I paid attention super well haha. going to the temple as a missionary is like the best but it's so hard because you are literally exhausted so it's super easy to accidentally fall asleep in the middle of the session. anwyay when i get up to the veil apparently the thought i could speak korean or something because they put me with a host that didn't speak english i was like uhhh...she was like can you speak korean? and i was like uh not for this....and she was like fussing around and i noticed she had a card thing with what to say on it so i was like i can read the korean and i know what it means in english and she's like okay. so i start doing it and turns out it's President Morrise behind the veil and he realized that I was an American missionary so he just started speaking English, but then I forgot the last part and she couldn't help me and he couldn't say anything so i was like freaking out. and i just ended up reading it off the sheet in Korean. it was crazy. kind of stressful and I'll definitely never forget that experience.

anyway the temple is always so special. i just sit in the celestial room and i know that that is what it will be like in the celestial kingdom. except i was thinking about it later and the only thing that will be different is that we won't have to feel like we never want to leave because we won't have to!! can't wait for the day where we can live together forever in paradise! that goal keeps me going in life!

second cool thing. we had a baptism!!! (excuse my fatness and horrible hair in the pic) it was so good. it was kind of weird because i didn't actually teach her any of the actual lessons so she wasn't really "my investigator" but it was still an amazing experience obviously. and for sure i'm baptizing all my friends when i get home because the church is literally the best thing in the whole world and why would anyone reject it???? for real though. the church is true and the book of mormon is the single greatest book in the world. i think i told you i'm a little obsessed with it. well that still goes for this week. also i love general conference. can you believe it's almost time for another general conference?? what the heck weird.

oh my gosh third cool thing.

so we were riding the subway (i went to gangnam and had mexican food on our pday after the temple but that's a different story) and i noticed this lady was reading the bible. aka perfect in to talk to her. so i was like heeeeyyy are you perhaps reading the bible?? and she's like yeah...and i was like well cool i'm a missionary!! and then we started talking about the book of mormon and she took it and looked at it and read part of the intro and was asking questions about it and gave it back and i was like oh well if you want to read it you can have it and she was like ah i'm okay i don't know that much about it (koreans use that excuse for everything. seriously if you don't know much about it then read it people!!) so i was like okay well can i have your number so we can teach you more about it and she was like mmm....no it's okay. but i didn't stop there!! i pulled out a pamphlet and she was looking through it and i taught to her about how prophets are important and how that's our message today that we have a prophet that restored Christ's original church! (how great of a message is that seriously) and I talked to her about Joseph Smith and the priesthood and then how we can know if it's true by praying of course! And then it was our stop and i was like NO i have to get her number! but she already rejected me once...but i didn't care haha so i was like well can i have your number so we can talk about questions you have? and she like moves around and reaches in her pocket and gives me her business card!! i was like cool thanks see you later since i had to get off. but it was so awesome such a miracle!! Heavenly Father blessed me on that one. Okay well he blesses me on a lot of things. for real though. Serving with a Korean makes me wonder how I did any missionary work with an American. yeah it's called this is the Lord's work and He does everything and I do nothing. Crazy crazy blessings.

Okay that was super long. well love you!!

have a good week!!

 

Sister BLick

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