open your mouth

Hello!

We are here right in front of the Hyundai factory at the post office emailing. It's a really pretty sunny day, which is a nice change from the glum weather the past week or so. It's starting to warm up which makes missionary work a little easier outside. People aren't as excited to talk to you when they have to focus all of their energy on not freezing.

It was an interesting week. Our investigator whom we weren't sure was all that interested in the gospel confirmed that she is not interested. She brought her copy of The Book of Mormon to English class and mentioned that she and her husband had had a big fight about our lessons--he thought we only taught English and she mentioned that she wasn't ready for anything else. It was disappointing, but she seemed so surprised that we were still kind to her and wanted her to stay for English class. I think she was really afraid she would offend us. Of course we're disappointed and explained that if she ever has interest again we would love to teach her. She bought us bread at a nearby shop after the class. It's hard not to wonder if we could have done more somehow, but at the end of the day it's about agency, ours and that of others.

So, we really don't have investigators right now. We have spent most of our time at bus stops proselyting. It seems like the best place in this busy culture. People are slowed down and stopped because they have to be, even if it's just for a few minutes. It has been interesting. This area isn't all that big, so naturally we have begun to see people more than once at our favorite bus stops. One lady (who wears a giant Buddhist ring) wasn't too interested in our message the first time. I recognized her the second time we saw her because of the Buddhist ring. I debated whether to say anything to her this time. She started the conversation and proceeded to ask if we ever sleep or eat because she had seen us before there and also this week saw us at the bus stop downtown. Ha. It is a valid question. Right after we spoke with her we got on the bus to head downtown. Sister Foy ended up sitting right next to someone she had spoken with at a bus stop a few days before. This time the lady asked for a pamphlet and was very friendly with Sister Foy. Although people aren't exactly jumping in the baptismal font it's interesting that they're taking note and ever gradually warming up to us--at least enough to talk to us.

In other news other people are warming up a little too much. This week a Hyundai employed middle aged man came and talked to us in English. We told him about our English class a little bit and asked if we could get his number to tell him more about it. As soon as those words were out of our mouths he was suddenly a little possessive. He "joked" around a little bit and tried to hold Sister Foy's hand--indefinitely. Ok....time to go. He was trying to tell us it was okay, but obviously it wasn't. We were out of there. Honestly, I am grateful I can count the number of experiences like this on one hand. Generally the Korean people are so good to us and kind, so it was a surprising and harsh reality to have someone act this way toward us. It was funny anyway. Luckily we probably won't see him ever again.

It is still a struggle every day to open my mouth, but every time I do I am happy regardless of the result. It takes practice like anything I've done in my life. The best part is I have God on my team. Nothing can really go wrong with Him. Setting goals about how many people we want to talk with and practicing how these conversations might go has proven to be helpful.

In conference Elder Holland told us, especially prospective missionaries that he didn't need people who would voluntarily bind their tongues, but he needed missionaries to open their mouths and speak miracles. I have wondered about this. In watching the Finding Faith in Christ DVD our district leader mentioned that every time Jesus Christ performs a miracle he says something also. I'm also reminded of Revelations 12:11 which talks about the premortal life and how we overcame Satan: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." We came to this Earth to get a body and to prove our obedience in preparation to return to God. It is obvious that our words are also powerful. This morning I read in Jacob 4 about how God spoke and the world was created. Opening our mouths seems to be a pattern we followed from before our births here and will continue to use as we progress in this life and the next. I feel so blessed to have this time to learn how to do it here and prepare me for the future.

Every morning as I study it is reconfirmed to me that this is true. When I share it with others the spirit rushes in and confirms at least to me that I am about God's work. Thank you for your examples, prayers, letters and notes. Love you all! Have a good week! I'll just be faking out bus drivers and preaching the good word.

Love,

Julia

Holy Hyundai!

Nice to meet you!

This is what many Koreans will just yell as you walk by on the street. Ha. It is fun and definitely breaks up the routine a little bit. It was great to hear from many of you this week. Laura and Robert, loved the pictures!! So cute. Sounds like it was a really good deal to do the pictures that way. Megan, the adoption profile looks great and I hope  you get some promising hits this next little while.

This week was a little rough, but it was interesting. The first week in a new area is often pretty interesting and surprising. Bangeojin is really unique. I've never spent that  much time in a factory town, but from about 6 AM to 7 AM the two main streets are swarming with men on scooters in blue Hyundai coats going to work. The same thing happens about 6 PM to 7 PM, but everyone heads home the opposite way. It seems like a lot of people have had a hard life here and are a little more closed off, but a couple of Americans slaughtering Korean is sometimes just enough to get a smile out of them.

Currently we have two investigators. One is a lady who originally came to English class and mainly has English interest, but is also curious about God. She and all of her family is Buddhist and she is a little nervous about her family's response to any Christian interest, so her progress has been slow. We are not quite sure what her exact motivations are, whether it is mainly an opportunity to speak English she wants or the gospel, but we taught her on Saturday. The lesson was a little rough, but I tried to explain how our church is not just another church, but the pattern of prophets and dispensations, how The Book of Mormon came to be and how she can receive an answer for herself. I think she was nervous her husband was going to come home at any time, so she was really fidgety and distracted...we will keep trying with her though.

The other investigator is a lady who owns a restaurant in the market and is the friend of a member. This member has a really strong testimony and works hard, but we are working to help her have a less overbearing approach. It's a challenge. Regardless, the lady at the restaurant has learned to pray and has started reading The Book of Mormon this week. She has never had any religion before. I feel badly that I can't understand everything she says, but I am grateful for her open heart.

Yesterday we went to church.  The Ulsan area is still a district, so we attend a branch of about 70 people. Charlotte and Matt, a man from your old Shin Jeong ward was the high councilor speaker. He speaks English pretty well because on his mission he had zero Korean companions. He also has 3 kids now? I can't remember his name, but he was really nice and said he was buddies with Matt. We also went to Shin Jeong ward for district meeting--so odd to have my world, literally, come full circle in the span of a year and a half.

The other day this lady got really mad at me after she asked if we believed that our church was the only true church. I told her that yes, that is what we believe, and had tried to explain why, but after I confirmed that that was our belief she went bezerk. She asked how old I was and how dare I try and teach someone her age etc. etc. It was actually probably the most I've been yelled at so far, and it was interesting to see that if I felt any sort of anger my tongue was literally bound. I just told her if she didn't want to learn more about our message it was okay, but we were just inviting her to learn more and would love to talk to her later if she wanted. It is interesting that still, at the end of the day, I am literally unfazed by such a thing. The next day I'm back at it because I know this is true. It even surprises me sometimes how resilient our spirits can be if we let them.

We also met with a recent convert named Katrina who was baptized about 4 months ago in the Hogae ward. She is in her late twenties and teaches English here. She has actually met you, Charlotte! She said you attended one of the lessons the missionaries taught her. Crazy. Anyway, I don't know how she was doing when you knew her, but she is doing really really well and knows this church is true and her testimony is growing. Apparently she hated teaching in Korean when she first got here. She couldn't understand anything and was really just frustrated. One day she was walking down this street trying to find a bowling alley. She was going to go bowling by herself to try to have some fun--ha, but she got lost and probably looked very frustrated. Some sister missionaries were walking down the same street and stopped her and tried to help her. That was the beginning of her introduction to the church. You never know. Ever.

Well, it will be a week of finding, but we are hopeful. Sister Foy is good natured and has such good desires to do God's work. I am excited to keep working with her. We are both slaughtering Korean, but she is so happy about it that she is really easy to draw inspiration from. I am grateful for her and the opportunity God has given me to serve here with her.

I love all of you and hope you are doing well!

Love,

Julia

Ulsan (Bangeojin)

So much email love this week. Thank you!

As you may gather from the subject of this email, I have indeed been
transferred to Bangeojin, which is in the Ulsan area and the Shilla
Zone. Charlotte and Matt, which ward were you in when you lived in
Ulsan? Bangeojin is where the Hyundai factory is, I believe, and it
has all the fun of a factory town. I am excited to learn about it and
do my best to turn things around there. They haven't really had any
progressing investigators for the past two transfers, but I'm excited
for a new opportunity to find people and plant seeds, as hard as it
may be.

My companion is Sister Foy. She grew up in Utah, but then moved to
Tennessee when she was 14 or 15. She was studying Elementary Education
at BYU and has about a year left there. She is really happy and fun.
I'm looking forward to serving with her. She just finished receiving
training, so this is her third transfer. I will really have to take
the Korean reins this time around, as I'm without a Korean counterpart
to help me, but it's a good thing Heavenly Father knows every
language.

We are currently at the bus station near Busan waiting to take the
hour and a half bus ride to Bangeojin.

Leaving Jinhae was both good and bad. I really hadn't felt all that
sentimental about leaving. Unfortunately as hard as I try to overcome
it my personality still normally dwells in two extreme spheres:
anxiety or denial. Ha. So I chose denial for the past few days, but
yesterday at church I really realized I was leaving and that I might
not see any of these wonderful people and places ever again, or if I
do, it will be a long time from now. I was able to give a short
farewell talk, as were the Elders who were being transferred. I really
have come to love some of these members a lot and will miss their
spiritual presence and general happiness. I'm sure there are more like
them in Bangeojin.

Both of our investigators who are currently progressing came to
church, which I was really grateful for. Brother B. and Sister
O....they are both a little overwhelmed, as I mentioned before, but
persevering quite well in their faith.

Korea is a gift giving country. It is their love language here. It is
really not my love language at all, but because it is so much a part
of the culture, I recognize it as a great sign of their appreciation
and I too am grateful. Sister O gave me a scarf and a few of the
other members gave me cards and things. It was really sweet.

This week was really really interesting as far as investigators go.
While I've been serving with Sister Yeon we rarely had the opportunity
to meet with more than maybe one or two investigators per week. This
week we were able to go visit a man who we talked to outside his
restaurant and we talked with him about the gospel. He called
learning about the gospel "fun" and accepted a copy of The Book of
Mormon. We went back and visited him later this week and he again
invited us back. When we went back on Saturday someone else was at the
restaurant and told us to not come back...that no one there was
interested. It was a heartbreaker, but I think Sister Yeon will
continue to go back. She put her foot literally in the door to prevent
them from closing it. I appreciated the uncharacteristic boldness
behind that gesture. It showed her sincerity in wanting to help people
accept this gospel.

We went back to the church and prepared to teach English class. One of
the members brought her friend who is in her late 20s. It was their
second time at English class. After class the member sister told us
her friend was interested in learning about the gospel!! Wha?? So, we
were able to teach her the first lesson after English class. She
really does seem prepared to receive our message and we are really
hopeful about her. It was a really incredible opportunity.

On Sunday we also were able to teach Brother Bak again. This is really
only the second "official" lesson he has had with us, so we planned to
teach about The Plan of Salvation. As we sat down with him we followed
up on how he was feeling about everything and if he had been keeping
his commitments. He has been busy so he hasn't been reading The Book
of Mormon much, but he has been praying every night and has come to
church for the past three weeks. He said he still doesn't know exactly
how he feels, but he feels like God is guiding him. Suddenly Sister
Yeon started teaching about the commandments, specifically The Word of
Wisdom. In my heart I was kind of panicking. I thought to myself that
if he doesn't have a personal witness that this is the spiritual path
he needs to take these new commandments are definitely going to seem
like ridiculous rules that are impossible to keep and he will leave!
Without the plan of salvation and a personal witness it seemed to me
his motivation for keeping these rules would be wanting. He actually
does almost all of the things the Word of Wisdom commands us not to
do--drinks alcohol, smokes, drinks green and black tea. He mentioned
he has thought about quitting smoking and drinking, but that it would
be hard. He seemed once again, overwhelmed. I felt the lesson was
taking a turn, but was hoping Sister Yeon was following the spirit. I
then tried to ask him if he had received a personal witness about our
church being true. He said he hadn't, or if he had he wasn't really
sure. We had a member of the bishopric in the lesson with us. He
explained his conversion story and how he recognizes the spirit.
Sister Yeon also explained about baptism and committed him to, if he
felt he had received an answer by that time, be prepared to be
baptized on March 10th. He said he would, although he didn't know if
he could receive an answer. He also committed to live the word of
wisdom. We asked him to close the lesson with a prayer. I wasn't sure
how the lesson had gone, but as he prayed with honestly all the
sincerity of his heart, the spirit seemed to boil over in my heart. I
too was praying to Heavenly Father to please answer this good man's
prayer. He just kept saying "I know I'm not really worthy to talk to
you, but I need to receive an answer if this is the right path for
me." He began to weep and had a hard time finishing his prayer, but
eventually did so. He is really logical so he was shocked by his own
emotional response to prayer. We tried to help him see that it was
part of Heavenly Father's answer to him and he was really grateful to
us and for the experience. It was incredible. Later that night he text
messaged us to ask what he was supposed to read in The Book of Mormon.
He had begun reading Moroni 7 and told us that he thought what he had
experienced while he was praying was repentance and he was really
excited about it. It really is a great opportunity to teach him and I
hope if he gets baptized that I will be able to come back to Jinhae
and see it.

Really cool. We had plans in Jinhae to teach 6 people: two member
referrals, one person we found on the street, one English class
referral, one person we found knocking on doors and one person who
keeps coming in contact with the missionaries "coincidentally"...etc.
I am learning that there are many many ways to find people and it
doesn't matter how we find them as long as we find them.

It is kind of hard to leave right when all these people have interest
in the gospel and it has been seemingly dry for the last 12 weeks, but
I am so grateful to see the diversity of finding techniques. I am
grateful to see that people's hearts are prepared and as I live
worthily, I too can see and recognize miracles. It was a good week,
but it's on to different things. I'm excited about this new
opportunity too.

Love you all!

Nick and Meg, will you send me your address?

Love,
Julia

transfer call is on the way

Good morning or whatever time it is when you read this!

Thanks for your letters! I received a birthday package from Laura and Robert this week. Thank you! I neglected to mention the name of the one CD I already had...it happens to be the same one you bought, but it was a burned copy, so now I own it legally. Thank you for helping me keep the laws of the land. I'm sure those we're teaching and I will be blessed for it. Ha! But really, it was great to hear from you and so nice of you to send something. Grandma and Grandpa, I also received your Christmas and Birthday cards and something will be coming your way soon! Thank you.

This week was a little bit rough around the edges. Nothing ever goes as planned, but we still have to plan. Ha. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us for carrying out our plans in faith and changing them according to the sometimes very subtle and small promptings of the spirit.

This very well may be my last week with Sister Yeon. This is my third transfer in this area and President is setting people up to train the next transfer after this one, in which there will be 5 new sisters coming to the Busan mission. I wouldn't be surprised if Sister Yeon ends up training here in Jinhae, but we'll see. We find out next transfer's fate on Thursday night. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I want to stay, but I want to go. Ha, in case you didn't understand the meaning of mixed emotions I have now defined it for you. There are a lot of good members and people here in this area, but I have been here since before Halloween, so a change of scenery wouldn't be bad either.

I would be most sad about leaving those we're teaching. On Saturday we were able to teach Brother B. again. He came to the church for the lesson, so it was a much more toned down experience than the drunken men flipping over tables episode. We had a member come teach with us, which was nice. She is a less active woman who is about 27 and went on a mission. I think she felt a little inadequate, but we were really grateful for her. Brother B. listened well and seemed to be relatively receptive. The Joseph Smith story is understandably hard to believe, but when we told him there was a way he could know for himself whether or not what we were saying is true, he seemed relieved. We challenged him to start reading The Book of Mormon and to pray about it. He said he sometimes has hopes that he expresses in his head, but that act is the closest he's ever been to praying before. We taught him how to pray and recognize answers to his prayer and then invited him to say the prayer at the end of the lesson. He did so willingly and offered a really sincere prayer. As soon as he finished he laughed and mentioned how hard it was. We were impressed. He is a deep thinker, but stays open to his feelings and seems quite intuitive. He came to sacrament meeting yesterday, and, contrary to anything we've seen of him so far, he seemed a little overwhelmed. He left immediately afterward and sent us a text message while he was walking by the ocean...I can only imagine how overwhelming it might be to be thrown into this unfamiliar culture, but we will contact him today and see how he's doing.

Once again, as I let Him, Heavenly Father proved my incorrect judgments wrong. Talking to people is still hard, but we have to give them a choice, and they don't have one if we don't say something. The immediacy of mercy and peace that fills my heart when we do what we're supposed to still shocks me. It shouldn't, because I've been watching it happen again and again my whole life, but I know God hears and answers every prayer and rewards every faithful effort. It's really true.

 I love all of you!

Thank you for your prayers, letters and support.

Love,

Julia