I start blubbering like a fool in made up Korean

So this week was a roller coaster ride! Lots of hi's and low's. All of them were wonderful experiences though. First off, we taught our wonderful Kim sisters, who are accepting the message so wonderfully. Baptism may be a big step for them right now, but we love them and we want the best for them and hopefully they will see how much of a blessing baptism is in the future! They are reading the book of Mormon and we are enjoying the blessings of teaching in their home and teaching with the spirit. For example, sharing an analogy with them about applying what we learn. We mentioned how just like when we learn math from our teacher and apply what we learn we read the Book of Mormon and apply its teachings. It is simple but that thought popped up into my head and I shared it with them. I firmly believe that was the spirit because I had never thought of that before! I have a testimony of the Spirit and when we open our mouths, they WILL be filled. It has happened in my time here too many times to deny it.

One of our downhill falls on this week’s roller coaster is a certain experience we had at church. We had prepped a special musical number. My companion and I were singing with a recent new member playing the piano who is about 18. She was late to the meeting, which got us worried, so we asked a member to help us just in case she didn’t show up. We get into sacrament meeting, our friend came to church right on time, she was stressed too, and then our bishop announces that we will be singing right at the beginning! So we go up there and we are all a bit frazzled and she starts playing the music. FYI, our mission president and his wife are sitting behind us. We sing the first page, (it's a medley of English and Korean) and right as I turn the page, I notice that the page is wrong and I don’t have the words to sing and I start blubbering like a fool in made up Korean....I start looking over at Sister Holdaway's music and start singing the wrong line and I’m trying to sort out my papers but there is noooo luck and I sing random English lines and Korean lines. It was a complete nightmare. I’m dying on the inside and I’m shaking like crazy. We can’t hit our notes, trying to smile at the congregation, and not laughing/crying at our complete failure. It was a 9 page song... I managed to find the last page of the music, so 2 pages of the song were correct. The beginning and the end... 7 pages of pureness. I wish I could erase that memory out of my memory. Whenever I think about it I go into shutdown mode and start laughing but looking like I’m about to cry. I want to cry on the inside, but it’s just too funny to cry about! But as I said in my letter to my mission president, it helped us bond with the members and they were able to feel for us. The elders didn’t even notice there was a problem, so I guess that is good? Ha-ha I’m glad our Heavenly Father can use me as his tool in any way! (p.s. fun fact, this adds to Sister Holdaway's experiences, she threw up in a children’s choir in Carnegie hall and it’s on video, and the little boy sitting next to her started to cry because she was throwing up in her sock right next to him!!) Hey but our investigator came to church right on time to hear us sing! Ha-ha that was great!

This is a week to remember!! Have a good week!

Sister Wright

Trash Clean up

cheesecake bingsu!!!!

Hellloo,

We had some fun experiences this week. Temple was Thursday and that was very nice to relax, and feel peace. We held a fun youth activity to get the youth out to seminary which started before the activity and afterwards, we played ping pong and white board golf and ate snacks that we found in the huge food market in our area. We went into the backstreets and found all the vendors that sell everything for cheap. I felt like I was back in LA with you mom! We got big bags of buttered popcorn and candy and everything you could imagine for cheap! I’m growing up! Ha-ha well at the activity, we got some of the youth there and it was fun. The seminary teacher stayed and made things fun for them as well. It was a hit! Then we taught the same girl that came to seminary (a recent convert form a part member family) a lesson about the commandments. We taught with her comfortably on the floor, (which seems perfectly normal because in Korea we always sit on the ground) and shared with her the PMG and taught some lessons out of it directly from the PMG. She got to see what we use and learn what we learn when we study from it. It made things feel normal, comfortable and real. She wants to serve a mission just like her mom and we are preparing her. It’s not a weird missionary-member relationship. We are friends and we help each other. I love this work. Last night a sister called me for some advice on an experience that I went through myself. She was saying that in lessons she would just draw blanks and wouldn’t know what to say, and just let the other companion teach because we'd have nothing to say. That was a hard moment, but now that I look back on it, I realize, it is the same thing that many people go through. It’s like writers block, or when an artist has no idea of what to create next and they’re in a funk, drawing a blank. I related to the sister all that I had done to get out of the funk, but really it takes time patience, and effort. I didn’t give up because I knew I couldn’t and kept pushing and over time I overcame the challenge. And after that challenge, we become better than before!

Those are a few of my experiences this week!

Love

Sister Wright

"Walk With Me"

So we had Chuseok conference this Tuesday! It was filled with training, 

skits, a talent show and spending time with our friends. And we went on a proselyting activity in a beautiful park. The weather was beautiful and so many people enjoying their holiday. Monday was the start of the holiday and there was absolutely no one out on the street and the shops were closed... Ghost Town for sure. We had to eat lunch so we bought ramen at a convenient store and ate at a park. Crazy miracle that happened, we were just sitting on a bench in our missionary clothes and a less active comes up to us that we’ve never met and he says "hi sisters" and talks about how he’s been less active for 10 years and he was a really cool guy. He told us to come to his shop and visit. If we had not been at that park and in our missionary clothes he wouldn’t have known who we were! It testified to me the truth that our Heavenly Father will provide a way for us to come in contact with the people we need to be in contact with, which in this case it was eating ramen in a park!! One thing I learned in Language study this week when I was studying Moses 6 was verse 34. It says "Walk With Me" This can be turned into a lot of different meanings, but one thing I turned it to was that when we endure hard times, we cannot think that our Heavenly Father and savior have forgotten us, but that he is right there to lift us up, and we must hold his hand, stand up and walk with him. Even if things aren’t going our way, we must follow his example, and spend our time with him. He has not forgotten.  He is here! This is how we endure challenges well. Another way I applied it is simply, we need to follow Gods command and walk with him!! Simple but so strong!!!

I hope you have a good week! Love you

Sister Wright

"Fear came upon all them that heard him, for he walked with God"

Hi family! Today is Korean thanksgiving!! Chuseok! Its harvest season and they go to the graves of their ancestors to remember them! Yesterday we went streetboarding and talked to people about genealogy. I talked to a nice man and gave him a pamphlet to do history work, but besides that, not many were interested. If all else failed, we wished everyone a happy Chuseok!! It’s a 3 day holiday and the women all make food for the in laws and it’s a stressful time. Everyone is at the market buying food and working to make family members happy. They make tons of food. Including ddok! Traditional rice cakes! Tomorrow we have a conference and we will celebrate the holiday. And people wear traditional hanboks (dresses and outfits) kind of like kimonos.

Can I just tell you I love my companion Sister Holdaway!! I have never felt so comfortable! This week we taught our new investigators that came from a member referral. After we met with them the member relayed back to us that the girls thought of us as angels!!! It’s all the spirit I tell you! I have never felt so at peace teaching those girls the restoration of the gospel. Companionship relationships really affect teaching. Sister Holdaway and I are just on the same wavelength and know what each other will say. Sister Holdaway and I were talking about the Holy Spirit and what it does. In PMG it says "the spirit always edifies" Then we wondered what does edify mean?? We broke it down to that it brings knowledge, inspiration, change, it fills! The spirit fills us with inspiration, knowledge, love, happiness, joy, questions, answers, etc. So whenever we feel these types of things, we are filled, edified by the spirit. As we taught, I felt edified and I knew that it was the spirit. I’m so grateful for all my many blessings. I know that this is the work of the Lord and I am doing what he wants me to do!

Have a happy Chuseok!

Sister Wright

We had Indian food in remembrance of you!!!! I loved it!

Not sure if my companion did

View from our investigators apartment

Answers to questions:

How is training going? 

I love greenie breaking! I see all these people getting these big leadership opportunities Sister training leader and trainers and such but I really enjoy where I am right now because most of what I have to worry about are the investigators and focus on their needs :)

How is the language?  Do you feel you can communicate fairly easily now?

The language is better, I see that I can teach very well, but actually conversing with people can be difficult at times. Especially moms and members in the ward. But that’s ok, I’m called to preach the gospel and speak doctrine so that’s what I’m going to do and am trying to be good at.

What are your challenges?

I have had challenges of discerning the spirit. I felt it before but I got stuck in a rut a while back so I’m trying to focus on that more. I know that while teaching I am being guided and things come to mind what to say and I am filled, but I need to learn how to go out in the day and have the faith to know where to go and what to say to certain people. It’s also hard being in a house of good people, but not perfectly obedient. Sometimes it makes me feel alone and sometimes it makes me feel like I can be relaxed on the rules. Do you have any advice??

Are you getting regular exercise?

We exercise and we go running, or I do cardio in the house or do exercise videos or stretching :) sometimes I’m the only one who works out in the house so I have to go out running or walking to get our energy up with my comp.

Are you exhausted at the end of the day?

The end of the day is hard, my eyes are heavy and irritated and my feet hurt. We walk a lot every day.

What are you studying currently?

I just finished the book of Mormon and D&C! I am a slow reader, but I study very intently so I feel like I get so much more out of the scriptures than if I read 10 chapters in one sitting. I studied the last chapter of D&C today and how missionary work on earth is preparing us for doing missionary work in the afterlife. We are spreading his light here and in the afterlife!

Are you being a good girl? (most important question)

I’m being a good girl!!!!