The Return of the Crocs

This has been a good week! The weather's warmed up quite a bit so we've been able to switch from long coats and boots to short coats and crocs!

Shoutout to the Hawkins for the pink winter crocs!

This last week we started to clean out the contacts on our phone. The biggest way to get a new investigator here is to get their phone number and, as a result, we have hundreds of potential investigator numbers on our phone. Also, with the recent switch to smartphones, any form of organization got lost so we've been contacting people and seeing which numbers are no longer in use and finding some more people with interest.

Zone Conference

We were able to meet our investigator, 수현s. She's super cute and asked a lot of questions. We began to teach her the plan of salvation but veered into the restoration and even taught a bit of the law of chastity. She's got a lot of potential so this week when we meet her again, we're going to try and keep the lesson a little bit more focused because I think she can really progress.

Singing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives"

We also had zone conference which was super fun and we were able to go stickerboarding as a zone. I also went on exchanges with Sister Peterson and it was a party! She's only been in Korea for 2 weeks so she didn't know a lot about her area so we decided to just ride some buses and talk to people. It was a little bit nerve wracking though because we were right next to the mission boundary so we kept checking to make sure we didn't leave.

When it rains...and you're not prepared for it.

Sunday was super busy! We originally planned to start lessons with a potential investigator that's been attending church for a few weeks. But the person that randomly contacted us also showed up at church! It turns out she's actually a less active member that wants to come back to church so that's super great! And another former investigator came to church, which happened to be the same week one of the missionaries that taught her was visiting!

Zone Conference

This week I've especially been thinking about joy and choosing to be joyful. I've been reading lately in the scriptures about the downfall of the Nephites and it truly is in the small choices, especially choosing to find joy in every circumstance can change the outcome.

사랑해요!

토블러 자매

The Special Power in Sharing

This week has been good and I'm super excited for all the things happening in our ward! Last week we met our investigator and a new time/place and it was really interesting because as we headed to our next appointment, we ran in 허미화s, the Sister from Bucheon that wanted to get baptized but her husband was opposed! It was a cool miracle that we were able to say hi.

We also were able to visit a member that's been sick recently and help her out with getting some rice and other various things. She is adorable! She asked us to call her mom and we're going to visit probably every week to help her out. We also were able to visit Amber! She moved hospitals a month ago to outside of Bucheon area and because I moved, I can visit her now!

We met one of our investigators who they've been doing the English program with and I've got to say, it was probably one of the hardest lessons I've ever taught. She really just has English interest because she strongly believes in her church and when we talk to her about religion, she thinks she's there to educate us. It was kind of rough but we're finishing the English program really soon.

We also had someone send us a text out of nowhere and she asked us to invite her to church! She's been pretty busy but we're going to try and meet her this week-- we're excited to see what could happen. We also had one other person look up our church on the internet, called another set of Sisters in a different area, and then was referred to us! We've been contacting her too and will hopefully be meeting her this week too.

Also yesterday after church the YSA ward planned a 전도 activity! So we brought a suitcase full of Books of Mormon (Book of Mormons? 몰몬경들)  and they just went out on the street and started talking to people like missionaries! It was super cool because despite not having a name tag or anything else, they were just sharing their testimonies. It made me think about how often we're willing to share our testimonies with random people we don't know or even those we know. 100% of the time I share my testimony during a lesson, on the street, or with a member, I can feel the Spirit. There is a special power in sharing what you know!

사랑해요!

토블러 자매

Transfers and Lunar New Year

Sorry, sorry! This week's gonna be short! We had transfers and Lunar New Year so missionary work was a little slower. I'm also adjusting to being in a new area and figuring out what's going on. We don't have a lot of investigators right now, but we have one that was able to come to a party we had for New Year's and she really liked it! We weren't able to teach her then but we're meeting her tonight and I'll let you know how it goes next week!

Lunar New Year

One of the perks of coming back to the same building is that I get to see all of the Gangnam members, even if they're not in the same ward. We were able to meet with some of our ward leaders, members, and less active members this week and I can tell it's gonna be great!

I don't have a lot this week but I do know that the church is true and through prayer, we can receive guidance and answers to our prayers! The scriptures invite us to study things out in our mind but the next step is to pray about it, which can sometimes be easy to forget. If you do though, I promise that God will give you specific guidance to your situation.

사랑해요!

토블러 자매

A little love from home--more than 2 months after it was sent.

Goodbye, Bucheon!

It's been a great week and we're a little bit stressed out because transfers are tomorrow and we're packing like crazy because it's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate when you spend 6 months in an area.

P-Day Activity to an Escape House

We had a fun experience this week where we met these really nice ladies on the street and they even gave us some money to go buy a warm drink because it was too cold. We talked with them for a bit, gave them our contact info and went off to continue talking to people. About 20 minutes later, we decided to jump on a bus and they were the only people on there! We got to talk to them again and it was a little miracle that they really needed to meet missionaries that day.

After Exchanges Dinner

We finished teaching our two little girls this week and we're going to miss them! Despite just wanting to learn English, they really did like learning about the gospel too and as a goodbye gift we gave them one more copy of The Book of Mormon marked so that they could find answers to their questions a little later down the road when they think about religion again.

We were also able to meet with 정선영s for the last time and we were able to share the Plan of Salvation with her! She asked us how she could know that it was true and we shared that the way to know is through The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon really is the only proof or evidence we have of anything and the way to know anything is through The Book of Mormon. Even doctrine that may not seem connected at all, it all goes back to whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet, which we can know through The Book of Mormon.

이유진

In other news, I'm going back to Gangnam and getting a Korean companion and I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!

사랑해요

토블러 자매

참 뜻 (Real Intent)

This was a great week! We had some cool miracles so sorry if this is long.

One of our new investigators we met this week and she lived in America for 10 years as a student! Her English is super good and she told us that lately she's been looking at all the different churches in Korea and has noticed that not all of them have all the same doctrine and it all is claimed to come from the Bible. We were able to share with her about the Restoration and she's been reading The Book of Mormon. She's also especially interested in living prophets, something that's been pretty hard for a lot of the people I've taught on my mission. She knew of President Hinckley and President Monson and asked what kind of people they were, which was really cool to explain!

We continue to teach the two little girls and we're finishing up the English program with them this week. Even though they're not able to come to church or continue meeting, we've had a good time teaching them and we know they've learned and progressed as we've met with them. Hopefully later when they're able to go to church by themselves, they'll remember what we taught and find missionaries then.

Probably the coolest miracle of the week was Abbie. Elder Moffit, who's serving in our ward, actually has a friend from back home that is currently living in Korea. In Bucheon. This week he reached out to her and asked if she would be interested in learning about our church and she was interested! We met her together, explained the restoration to her and invited her to church. And she came! She's actually learning Korean so she was able to understand a lot of church and was even taught the Plan of Salvation in Korean. She really wants to learn and it was such a cool experience because what are the odds that she is living in the exact area where Elder Moffit is assigned? There are no coincidences in the Lord's work.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats :D

I'm having a great time and we're seeing the Lord's hand in all that we do! This really is the Lord's work!

사랑해요!

토블러 자매

Cancelled appointments, Technology, and Exchanges

I had the super great opportunity to go on 3 exchanges this week!  On Tuesday I was with Sister 정다은 where we attempted to 전도 and were able to heart attack a member that just recently had surgery. We also had a 전도 activity where I was with Sister 김현정-- who I actually lived with the whole time I was in Gangnam. We had a super great time despite the cold and we were even able to get some numbers. My last exchange was with Sister Munk-Erdene up in Yeongdeungpo and we got to have a service opportunity where we delivered food to old people that can't leave their houses.

Toward the end of the week, we had a lot of appointments but most of them ended up cancelling including 정선영s, the two girls that we teach, and even Jenny. We got a text message the day before we were supposed to meet Jenny that said she'd looked us up on the internet and realized that we didn't believe all of the same things so she couldn't meet with us in case it might have an effect on her belief. We were really sad but shared with her that we were just sharing what we do because we'd come to know it was true and experienced happiness through it.

Once we got Facebook, we started having out of control friend requests, so much to the point where we don't accept a lot of them anymore because there's just so many. However, among the people that requested to be our friends is someone that actually lives in Indonesia and we were able to video chat with her yesterday! She's super cute and was so excited when we let her know that there are even missionaries in Indonesia so we're hoping to get her set up with the missionaries there.

With our new changes in technology, we've really tried to embrace it and use it as effectively as possible. When I first heard we were getting smart phones I was a little reluctant because I'd already served 1 year of my mission a specific way, but as we've been able to see the blessings that can come from them, I've thought a lot about change. The Lord wants us to change and become like Him. There have been a lot of changes with the missionary schedule, key indicators, and other things while I've been serving but the reason the Lord asks us to change is to do His work!

사랑해요

토블러 자매

몰몬경, 구도자, 소셜 미디어

We had a great week full of miracles! Technology was introduced to all of the mission this past week and we've seen the work being hastened! We were able to start teaching 2 new people and they're so great. One of them is the Vietnamese person we met a few months ago but weren't able to meet again because her schedule's too busy. However, because we can now teach over Facebook chatting, we can teach her while she works! We were able to use google translate and we're teaching her a little bit of English and Korean as well as using the pamphlets to teach her the lessons.

Our other new investigator is super great. She has 2 kids and wants to attend church because she realized that she had a belief in God from attending while she was young and wants to give that same belief to her children. She actually attended for a bit a few years ago and knows some members so we were able to meet her with those members and teach her the Restoration. The spirit was really strong and we're excited to keep teaching her and her children in the future too.

This past week I've really been reflecting on the importance of The Book of Mormon with a new prophet being called, I've reread his last Conference Talk and been able to ponder about what my life would be like without it. The problem is, I can't imagine what it would be like without it.The Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion and if you read it, I know your life will be better, happier, and have a purpose to it.

사랑해요!

토블러 자매