We can choose happiness

Yesterday I gave a talk! For some reason I was a bit more nervous than usual.. I’ve given talks before but maybe I was a bit more anxious was because I was talking about a topic that i really thought was inspired to talk about for this ward. I talked about agency and focused it on choosing happiness. I was happy I could talk about this subject because i had taken notes on an institute lesson given back home before I left about this same thing and brought them with me on the mission! It talked about how we can choose happiness and how we have the agency to choose eternal life. Agency is a holy power; it is the power to choose. It is up to us, and one of those things that can help us be happier is by choosing to be happy. Through choosing joy, we are choosing Gods plan over Satan’s. I really enjoyed sharing this message and grateful for Brother Hobbins who gave this special lecture! I think it’s crazy to think about how every moment we are using our agency. It’s all in our mind whether we are happy or not because we can change our attitude, we can change our circumstances. We just have to be willing to change. In true to the faith on agency it talks about we can be happy no matter our circumstances, and it is so true! It can be hard to change, but once we continually try, we can overcome Satan and be more of what God wants us to be. :)

The ward here in 산본 (sanbon) is amazing. It is small but slowly growing and the members are so loving and love us visiting and sharing our message. This past week we visited a reactivated less active and she shared her conversion story with us and how she has received answers through her dreams and personal revelation. Her stories were crazy and we were in shock of what she was telling us. As she shared her stories, her light was so bright and I could see how amazing and pure she was. That was when we invited her to share her testimony with others, committed her to share her light, and as she does that, her testimony will grow even stronger. It was a tender moment and we could feel the love in that room. Such special moments! This lady is so amazing.  After church she plopped down in the bushes like she was bear Grills(?? spelling?) and telling me all the weeds and plants that you can eat. She’s like, "you can eat this.." She is so wonderful and funny! Actually I’ve seen a few people do that along the streets where we live. Pickin the crop of the day! wow Korea is so great! haha

Love you!!!! Have a good week!

Sister Wright 

exchange with the sister trainging leader! 

lotus flower tea at the members house

cookies with ginger flavor!!! weird but not bad! i call them korean ginger snaps

I loved this activity so much!!

Family!!

Hello again!  This week zoomed by... super busy and super great. This Friday for zone training we had an activity which entailed climbing a mountain!!! Super fun and super spiritual. I was able to learn and remember things that are super important for this work.  One of them being LOVE. We get so caught up in the busy-ness of things and forget to take a step back and ask ourselves why we are doing this.  I have felt Gods love enough to sacrifice my time and energy to help others feel that same love I’ve felt.  Because of that love I am happy and I am positive because I know I have someone who loves me and is looking out for me. We did an activity where we had to fill in the blank to this question. "I have felt Gods love when..." I pondered a bit and then I thought of a positive time when a teacher helped me during a hard time in high school and cared enough about me to ask me how I was doing because he could tell I was struggling and I was willing to share my thoughts with him because I trusted him because he expressed that care and I felt that love. Because of that love I knew someone was looking out for me and working through others to help me.  Remembering that experience helped me to think of how to answer the next question. "I can  help others feel Gods love by..." I loved this activity so much!!  So much.  WE made it to the top where we sang a song together High on a Mountain Top.  So beautiful.  And then we had a testimony meeting.  It was a wonderful zone training filled with the spirit and spiritually uplifting.  Just what I thought was needed to help me keep going with this work and stay focused on the important things of this missionary service.  I want to help others feel the love I have felt in my life and be that tool in God’s hands to help others feel His love. That is why I’m here!  I love it so much.  Feeling that love during hard times has really influenced me and given me hope and now it is my turn to do the same for others!  I hope you have a good week and try to be that tool that God needs you to be for those that need you. 

Love

Sister Wright

I was stressed so i bought a plant to take care of. His name is wall-e 

 I did a good packing job with my backpack! haha it was so heavy.

The top of the mountain looking over Seoul (seems kind of smoggy)

Fortress

All the sisters in the zone

The District

 Fortresses!!!

Buddha’s birthday

Hello lovely family!!!

I talked to you this morning and that was awesome!! Love you all!!  kind of weird  though, it felt like  I  was home  but not really...because I was laying a very uncomfortable bed ... haha anyways this  week  it was  Buddha’s birthday and for p day we went to  Gangnam where  one  of the temples is. The statue is over 50 feet!! Super cool. The volunteers were super kind to us and talked to us a little about what we believe and they were just so happy.  I really appreciated them and their kindness, especially when we have different beliefs.

Our investigator is the one closest to me

This week we were busy with appointments and our investigator came to church!! We were waiting for a while because she came a bit late, but the only thing that matters is that she came and was able to learn and enjoy herself. The members were amazing and because we told them that our investigator was coming, they lovingly welcomed her and her adorable son!  It was awesome. We taught during the week and she expressed to us she believes she’s received many answers to her prayers and she thinks she’s ready for baptism. WOW. We have been working with her for a while now but we have been patient and she is ready!  So amazing that she is ready to start to make that big step in coming even closer to Christ.  Miracle!

We have some interesting new "seekers of truth" (investigator translated from Korean) and they wanted to know what we believe and compare it to what they believe.. There were flying bibles and pamphlets and Books of Mormon everywhere! haha we weren’t arguing and we just wanted to share  our message of  the Restoration.. but they weren’t very patient with what we had to say, but they were super kind to us and loving and they want to meet again. Sharing the restoration with them was amazing and it made everything so simple instead of having to prove every question they asked. Interesting experience. They bought me lemonade though!! Hahaa.

My companion and I are  working hard and we have been able to get the ward to trust us and see that we are  working hard.  It makes things so much easier for us. Getting the trust of the members that we are hard working missionaries is a blessing. They are willing to help and work with us. We are seeing miracles every dayyy! We are trying to be more consecrated missionaries and I really see the difference in this work!!

Love youu!!!

Sister Wright 

we got to make Buddha's feet! super cool

san bon square where we go to  everyday!!

 castle home in korea??

She is great at understanding, I’m good at writing

Soooooooo...... transfers!!  crazyyy this  week has been absolutely crazy with appointments and  appointments  being  cancelled  and talking to everyone in our path! It’s so amazing and we have seen sooo many miracles. I have the Lovely sister Rose as my companion, she’s from Utah and we are having a crazy time.  We have been out the same amount of time here and we are relying on each other’s skills to get us through the language and lessons. She is great at understanding which is amazing for me because I am still working on that... and I’m good at writing and making sentences so we are a tag team!  I’m assigned pretty much to send texts to our investigators and people we need to contact and she’s able to talk to them on the phone and communicate with them.. Weird how that works.  I feel like I’m a mute! haha but its ok! I love this work.  Sister Rose is so spiritual and we were able to teach our investigator that hasn’t been able to recognize an answer to her prayers.  We talked a lot about it and we all shed a few tears.  It was a really special moment.  We had other lessons and some cancelled on us but it felt like it was meant to be that way because on the way we ran into someone that is interested in our church and went to the church before but it was locked. We got her contact info and we will meet with her soon!  Then we met a foreigner from Canada that was travelling here on our way back to our house and we talked to him about the church, our beliefs and simply had a conversation with him, introduced the BOM and I was able to share Joseph Smith’s first vision with him in English. That was a very special moment and I felt the spirit so strongly.  He is going to meet with the missionaries when he goes back to Canada! ahh I  just love this  work! We have been working hard and being bold and inviting others to come unto Christ. This message is so special and it brings me so much happiness.  That is why I am here!  I am so happy and I want others to feel what I feel!  This work is real!  My purpose is to do the will of my father. I am learning and growing so that I can do that effectively and great things are coming to pass!  Love you!!! Talk to you next week 

Sister Wright

Investigator we cried with

foreigner from Canada