July 12, 2013 - Hello! Here are some pictures

July 12, 2013

Hello! Here are some pictures:

a lot of the sisters in the branch (did I mention that we have the largest branch in the MTC? We've been up to 112 missionaries, right now we're at 94 I think, and on Monday we'll have about 103, if all goes according to plan - because our Korean missionaries come on Monday! The ones who are leaving with OUR group! HOORAH!) And I can't remember the other pictures I attached.

One of me and sister Florence,

and then the Koreans who just left (One sister is going to Seoul! We've decided we're going to be companions, so I sure hope that the mission President and the Lord are on our side :) )
Pictures only work on the computers in the laundry room, so I attached them a while ago. Email is crazy here. Laundry is crazy here. 아마딘. (anyway.)

I'm really not sure what to write about. This week has been...an adventure. Sister Florence left, which was super hard. She's so fantastic, and even though we were only sort of companions for 3 weeks, we were pretty close. That's been both rough and weird. Also included in the adventure is a total loss of confidence. Korean, myself, etc. It's been rough, and included lots of tears. I'm doing betterrrrrr now, mostly. Too high of expectations for myself. Something Cecil O. Samuelson said, along the lines of: "The Lord has expectations for us, and it's not our place to either raise or lower those expectations." I'd look that up, because he said it way better than that. Maybe if I find it again, I'll send it next week. Anyway, I've been trying to figure that out, because it's just not fair to beat myself up when I'm giving it all I've got. 아마딘.  Happy thing - teaching really does pull me out of a bad day. We taught our progressing investigator (our teacher pretends to be an investigator, a real person they taught while they were on their mission - even though it's not really real, amazing experiences still come of it), Brother 김, about the plan of salvation, about how God is our Heavenly Father, and we are His children. I felt like I should ask him what made him happy. He talked about how he feels good when he does well on tests, and that, even though his family situation isn't the best, his family does make him happy. I started explaining to him that first, families can be together forever, and so have that happiness forever; and that this life is a test that God wants us to and will help us to pass. It's hard to explain, especially in Korean, but I feel like I gained as much peace from the lesson as he did, and that the Spirit and peace don't require perfect language and explanation to be felt. One of many experiences this week. It's been a rough go, but I only pray that the Lord is building me though this. He can make so much more out of me than I can. Proverbs 3:4-5.

A couple extra notes, things that aren't worth a whole story, but are exciting:

We get our travel plans next week! We're actually going to Korea. Crazy.

And next P-day, we get to clean the temple! It's closed right now, so we can't go through a session or anything, but I'm actually just about as excited about that as I am about travel plans :)

We had a new group of missionaries come in this week, 20 Korean speakers.

Other questions exist if, me to send please. (isn't Korean syntax fun? :))

Yep! Love you!