I Gave a 갑자기 Talk in Sacrament Meeting :)

안녕하세요!! 

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This Week

We taught a lot of really cool, really amazing lessons. When I was with Sister Partridge a girl came to our English class. We found out her mother was a less active and that she had not been baptized. We started meeting with her and now she has a baptism date!!!! It's next month and we are really excited. 

When we first invited her to be baptized she said she had already received baptism. We were a bit shocked but we believed her. We looked and looked and looked for a baptism record but we couldn't find one. So we got permission and then invited her again to be baptized - explaining that she has a very special opportunity. She readily accepted and we asked "How do you feel about getting baptized again?" And she said, "It's like I can start my 3rd life. One when I was born. One when I was baptized, and now one when I'm baptized again." 

We also taught another lesson to some investigators after English class. We taught them about repentance. One of our investigators is 12 so we wanted to show her an example. We talked about how we are all imperfect and sometimes we make mistakes and sin. As we talked about that we started piling books in her arms and they got heavier and heavier and heavier until she couldn't hold them anymore. 

Later, we then talked about the steps to repentance and we slowly took each book off until they were all gone. We then read Alma 36 about Alma's conversion experience. We then asked her how she felt before and after she was holding the books. She said very simply: "When the books were heavy I was sad but when the books were off of me I was happier than I have ever been!" 

THERE WE GO. That's why we teach the happy message of repentance. Repentance is not scary or something to be afraid of. It's a very relieving experience and we can truly feel "happier than [we] have ever been!" 

​We did Tim Tam Slams! (please ignore our messy sink) 

So Sundays are usually the most stressful day of the week. Mostly because it's straight up using, listening and translating Korean for 3+ hours. It's super fun and I love our ward and our members! But it can be a bit stressful sometimes. ~~ Especially this last Sunday.  

On Sunday we arrived early to church to greet people as they come in. The first counselor of the bishopric came in and told everyone that this member couldn't come today so they would have to find someone else to give a talk in sacrament meeting. And everyone's eyes looked at me . . . So for the next hour and a half I prepared a sacrament talk . . . all in Korean . . . and gave it during sacrament meeting. It was pretty fun and I did better than I thought I would.  Anyway - it was a good experience and I will forever never be afraid to give a last minute talk in English ever again. 

This morning we went to Nam Han San Seong or Nam Han Castle. I've been there a few times but it's always so fun to go back. ​

​​Sister Sweetnam and I are having fun and working hard here!

Have I mentioned lately that I love being a missionary!?!? 

Love you all! 

- Sister Holdaway 

Training and a Symphony

So I guess the biggest news this week is that . . .

1) We said goodbye to Sister Moyer! She will be missed ㅠㅠ

  

2) On Wednesday - I went to the mission office and we had lunch with the 3 new sisters. They had just come to country the day before.

We had training for "how to train" and then our new companions were announced. ^^Sister Sweetnam from Washington State. She loves to dance and swim. Her mom is Korean and her dad is American. They met on their mission in Korea.

Hmm . . .

Who does that also sound like . . . ?

That's right. All 4 of our parents met in Korea in the same mission!

It was definitely meant to be ~~

I love her so much already. She has definitely had a couple of crazy first days in country.

On Thursday we went across the river to a BYU Symphony. We saw basically the ENTIRE Seoul mission there. It was so cool to see my friends from the MTC and my MD buds Elder Rosenberg and Elder Olsen. Of course, we will see each other again in a few weeks so no worries!

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Columbia Maryland Stake and Annapolis Maryland Stake Represent!

​Why do I have such beautiful companions!!! Wahh.

Anyway - I know it's a little short today but it's been quite the crazy week. This Thursday we go to the Temple. It's so fun getting to show a new missionary around Korea. Sister Sweetnam has been here once before and knows a lot but it's still so fun to experience missionary work with her! We have plans to go to the 목욕탕 in the future ^^

Until next time,

사랑해요!

- Sister Holdaway

"Remember to Eat Your Fruit and Veggies!"

I spent Monday morning skyping my parents! It was such a treat - only 40 minutes but so great :) The next time I see my family will be at the end of my mission! Crazy!

I hope everyone is having a great Mother’s Day :) Mother's Day is not an actual holiday in Korea. They have a Parent’s Day - and a Children's Day but I like splitting the parents up with their own holiday because you celebrate each parent for a different reason.

Anyway, at Mission Leadership Council last week we had a special sisters meeting with Sister Morrise. The subject was about fear and how we can overcome our fears through Christ. Which is an awesome topic but . . . it turned into "How We Can Overcome Fears Through Our Mothers"

We all started talking about our moms and how much we missed them and . . . yeah. I don't know if anyone misses their moms more than missionaries in a foreign country who have to face scary things every day. I'm so grateful for my amazing mother, her bright example in my life and everything she has ever taught me.

I'm finally taking her suggestion to eat healthier:

Sister Moyer and I were wondering why we have no energy and are tired all the time and we knew it was our food choices. So we spruced up a bit^^ Granted, I think being tired is just a part of missionary work but I think this will help a lot.

We really needed this nutritious boost because Sister Moyer and I had to give another training session on Thursday . . . in Korean . . . 0_0 It's always super terrifying but we wanted to make it fun and not boring. We decided since we aren't great at training to teach through song - so we wrote a song about being diligent missionaries! Yay! I think it woke everyone up ^^

On Sunday we got transfer calls - Sister Moyer is leaving and I'm staying and training! We transfer on Wednesday. I will miss Sister Moyer so much. She's been such an amazing example to me and a good friend! She is now my only companion in the mission field so I'm glad I can still talk with her and see her :)

You all can meet my new missionary next week! I'll tell you all about her!

Remember to love your mothers!! Every day.

I love you all -

- Sister Holdaway

My favorite lady on the street!

#GospelArtBookRepresent

Miracles on Exchanges

안녕하세요~~~

This week has been a blast with two exchanges and lots of miracles.

We need to conduct four exchanges a transfer with all the sisters in our zone and every time we have an exchange I always learn so much and there's always a miracle.

We also taught a lot of amazing lessons this week. It's just one of those weeks where I feel like I've learned so much!

One of the lessons we taught was with a lady who is atheist. Obviously, you can see how it can be kind of hard to teach someone about our gospel if they don't believe in God. So that's why the very first thing we ever talk about is God, our Loving Heavenly Father. Inspired by C.S. Lewis we started by looking out the window and asking her what she can see (e.g., the buildings, the trees) then we asked if she could see the sun - at that time, she couldn't.

We then went on to say "We know that God lives. Even though we can't see him, we know that he lives because through him we can see everything else . . . all the blessings and miracles and happiness in our lives."

She seemed really impressed and we ended our lesson with her saying "I have never met young ladies like you. Very impressed."

The next day, we went on an exchange. I was with a new Korean Sister who started her mission a few weeks ago. We decided to go visit a less active member whose daughter used to be our investigator but she stopped answering our texts and calls a few weeks ago. We were very sad and worried about her so we decided to stop by. We ended up meeting the mom and talking a bit, then we sang "Families can be together forever" for her. Her daughter wasn't there - she said she was out exercising - so we went out to try to find her!  We went to a nearby school and walked around the track until we found her - we hadn't seen her in a month and it was so nice to see her again. She told us her phone was broken so she couldn't answer us when we called. It was such a relief and such a miracle!

That night we were calling to invite them to English Class the next day. We called a girl we met on the street and she said that she didn't know if she could make it on Saturday :(  BUT - she then asked us what time our church started. We happily told her when it started and invited her to come. The next day she came to sacrament meeting with us. After church we taught her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. She accepted it well and said she will come next week too! We see bright things ahead with her.

To end - we had Zone Conference a few weeks ago and President said something I will never forget: "Sometimes our members think that missionaries are amazing because they are perfect. But I say- You're wrong! Our missionaries are much more amazing than you think because they AREN'T perfect . . . but they still do the things they do."

It made me realize that God doesn't call perfect people to do His work. He calls very imperfect people like you and me. I have never learned to rely more on Christ than I have on my mission because I know that if it weren't for Him I would never ever be able to do any of this.

God gives us weaknesses to humble us - and through our weaknesses we can be closer to Him than we ever have before.

I love it!!

It's hard but so worth it :)

I love you all and you're in my prayers <3

화이팅!

- Sister Holdaway

Rollerblading and Translating 0.0

안녕하세요!

What a week!

We have had a lot of our investigators drop us, or stop meeting with us over the last few weeks but we have had a lot of success with finding new, prepared people.

On Wednesday, after district meeting, our district decided to sticker board for English. We have a board that asks "What is the hardest part about learning English?" and then there are boxes that say "Words, Grammar, and Pronunciation." We stand at a street corner and invite everyone to choose a category and put a sticker on the board. We then talk about our free English program and see who's interested.

It was VERY successful! Yay!  Sister Moyer and I got 9 numbers and we look forward to seeing them all come out to our English class!

On Thursday we had TEMPLE DAY!!! Woot! So we got to go across the river ~

The river divides our mission from the Seoul Mission so it's a big treat if we get to go there. We just aren't allowed to shop or buy food there :(

For P-Day we went bike riding with our zone! Except, we kinda got lost trying to find the bikeriding place so we ended up just walking around and taking selfies.

Those faces though....

We finally made it, but instead of biking I decided to go roller blading? Worst decision ever! I think I assumed it would be much easier than it actually was. I  started going but then I realized that everyone on bikes was way far ahead of me ㅠ ㅠ  so I tried to go faster and faster.

"It is not requisite for a man to [rollerblade] faster than he has strength."

I ended up falling and sprung my wrist – It wasn't that bad but I ended up taking my roller blades off and just walking the rest of the day.

We were so sore the next day, which made it hard the next couple of days. But today, this P-day, we are resting!

Last Sunday we had a new family move in. They are Polynesian and the husband is working on the American Base close by. They really wanted to delve into Korean culture so they decided to attend a Korean ward for the two years they will be here. They are so awesome!

However, that means that we missionaries can be a really big help to them by translating. I translated for the mother in Relief Society. That was the first time I have ever had to translate and it was so hard! Ahhh!

I can understand basically what everyone is saying in my head but translating that into English that makes sense was a lot more difficult than I had originally anticipated. But it'll definitely help me improve in English speaking skills and Korean listening skills!

After Relief Society, Sister Moyer and I went to help the 8 year old girl in primary. We will be co-teaching primary from now on. The Primary president says something in Korean and we say the same thing in English. It's actually really fun! And Primary Korean is a LOT easier to understand than . . . anything else. It's really refreshing ^^

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve in Korea.

They say that 10 years of experience is shoved into 18 months or 2 years and that is 100% true.

I love you all! <3

Have a wonderful week ~~~

- Sister Holdaway

Spring!

안녕하세요! 

Spring is here!

Spring in Korea is like . . . the best time of the year.

It kept us sane while we were busy trying to plan Zone Conference. We only had a week to plan and we were in charge

of the venue and a fun activity. So last Sunday we decided to check out Olympic park where they hosted the Olympics in 1988 ~

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​Note: That tall tower in the back? About to be the tallest building in Asia. 123 stories tall!

While Olympic Park was cool we decided on another park.

Zone Conference was an all-day activity with lots of training and being able to talk with other missionaries in our zone.

A few months ago our mission adopted what we call "The 7 Minute Workout" which is basically a full-body, cardio and strength workout that you only need to do for 7 minutes in the morning. So a part of Zone Conference, President Morrise challenged everyone to do the workout and see who has the most score. So, me being the competitive person I am, decided to do it. I didn't beat president but I did beat my scores in the past but I definitely paid for it . . . it's been about 5 days and I'm still sore. It was really fun though!

After Zone Conference was over the next thing we had to prep for was a ward music night, which was very successful! Most of our ward showed up to support it and a lot of non-members came as well! Very fun ~~

Lastly, even though I'm in Seongnam I also cover Songpa (where the mission office is) because they don't have sister missionaries. Just last week we received 2 new investigators in that area so we will be doing a lot of traveling there and back in the near future.

It's always hard work but it's always worth it <3

I love all of you!  Have a wonderful week!

 - Sister Holdaway

Tender Mercies

Hello everyone!

Sorry this will have to be a short one today ~~

This week was full of meetings and trainings.

Sister Moyer and I had to give 3 trainings on Thursday. One to District Leaders titled: "What is a Sister Missionary? What are her needs? And how can I appropriately address those needs as a District Leader?"

The next was to all the Sisters - it was just a getting to know you activity and going over good ol' modesty and cleaning the house.

Then - we had to give training in both Korean and English to the whole zone on following the spirit and the importance of the spirit in missionary work.

The rest of our week was watching CONFERENCE!

For those of you who don't know - Korea gets conference a week later than everyone. It's hard to wait a whole week but it was so amazing and came at exactly the right time.

On Thursday I hit my year mark on a mission!!! Wow! Time really flies.

A few days ago Sister Moyer and I were talking about “tender mercies” that we have seen on our missions. Tender mercies aren't big things to everyone else- but they're big to us.

It reminded me of a time in the MTC (a year ago 0-0) when I was feeling especially homesick. Specifically I was missing my mother’s smoothies. It was something so small and insignificant but that morning I turned to my companion and said "Man, what I would give to have my mom's smoothies again." That very same day for dinner - what happens to appear? None other than SMOOTHIES! The MTC NEVER serves smoothies. But that day someone decided "Why not serve smoothies to the missionaries?" little knowing how much it would mean to me.

Little things like that make me know that God is watching out for us and cares about the littlest tiniest things.

Sometimes we are so focused on seeing the big displays of miracles and the big answers to our prayers that we miss the answers to the little whisperings in our heart that no one but God can know.

I'm so grateful for this gospel. And I'm especially grateful to be able to hear the words of the living prophet and apostles. So uplifting!

Have a wonderful week! Enjoy spring!!

Love,

Sister Holdaway