Saturday, July 4, 2015

Dear fam and friends,

     Hey everyone I hope you all are ready for the fireworks on the 4th because I sure won't be seeing those.:)  So on to the good stuff……….I want to share an experience that happened yesterday.  Usually on Sunday we don't have time to do our studies so we have to do it after church.  This time we stayed at the church afterwards in a small room preparing our lesson for an investigator that we are teaching.  We were cut off short in preparing, because the investigator's friend who is a member of the church stepped in to talk to us.  After talking to her for awhile, soon the investigator showed up, and honestly we were not prepared.  My companion and I were quite nervous because we weren't ready for this lesson.  As we began to talk, suddenly the investigator told us out of the blue that she has NEVER liked who she is, but since she had met us her feelings have been changing, and she has been appreciative of herself.  We talked to this woman about faith and repentance, and it was then that she started to show much more interest.  She started asking us more and more questions, and began to just beam as we taught her the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I was praying the whole time in my heart for God to PLEASE guide me to know what to say, and I feel my simple prayers were answered. The spirit was there in the room, and it was so strong that I cannot describe the intensity of it.   This woman started to ask all about prayer, and we ended up having a very deep conversation about it.  Towards the end I suddenly told her that EVERY SINGLE night I pray for her and think about her every day.  I told her how much I want to help her and how much God loves her as well.  I couldn't help but begin to cry a little, because as I was telling her how much we care about her and how much we pray for her, this thought came in to my head and a feeling into my heart. The thought that I had was that EVERYTHING we do as a missionaries is for her and for our other investigators, and if only these people knew how much our life here in Korea is spent praying, studying, and toiling just to serve and help them.  We pray every single day, as well as study to prepare for them.  I then asked her if she would come to church with us next week.  She has ALWAYS said no to us in the past, but this time she looked at me and said, "YES. I WILL!"   Oh that was our little miracle for this week.  Thanks to the spirit being with us, our lesson went extremely well!

     This church is true!! This gospel is true, and Jesus Christ lives!!  I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and I will NEVER EVER deny it!!

     This is a scary little thought but I will hit my year mark next month, and that means almost in 6 months I will get to see all of you again.  Time is going so fast!:)

     So for p day today we are going to get some lunch, and then go shopping for some fun things at the nearby market.  We are then going to go to the church with the elders in our district and play some board games.  I am soooo excited!!!  Our district usually always goes sticker boarding every week together and then we all go and get dinner afterwards, but today we are playing board games instead of sticker boarding.   We have two Koreans in our district now and we feel we have the BEST district, well at least WE claim it to be the best!  If it wasn't for sleeping, singing, or shopping on a p day, I would love to go hiking, or to see historical sites, or museums, or zoos, but we are usually aways SO EXHAUSTED after we do those things that we are not ready for the week.

     We are in the process of planning the Big MUSIC NIGHT where some members will sing and we will perform and sing, and then there will be testimony bearing.  I designed these music nights to be JUST like the music nights at Clyde Bawden's house that I helped out at on Monday nights.   Soon I will start performing again in the subways with my guitar and singing. My companion will help too.  I actually forgot about doing that and realize I need to start that up again.

     I have to tell you all that there was one day awhile ago, I confess, that was EXTREMELY hard for me.  I was so stressed and I wasn't happy in my companionship when I first came to this area.  I remember just laying down in my bed and just quietly crying and crying.  I thought about you mother, and dad, and memories of laying in your big king size bed next to you just talking.  I thought about how you guys just always comforted me.  I haven't had very many moments like that, but I have learned from those hard times, to pick myself back up and just keep going and change my attitude.  I do miss you all though!!!

     In Korea there is SO MUCH air pollution, and it's everywhere! It is very congested here with people, and especially in the middle of Seoul.  Our mission president told us that it is twice as compacted with people as Times Square in New York City. Many people walk around with masks on just because of the pollution. YIKES!!  Since I am in a little wealthier of an area, the people are noticeably different than the last areas that I served in. Even though I love the Koreans I have to say the people here are a lot more rude and reject our message, and more than half the people I say hi to every day frown at me when I smile at them. I STILL LOVE THE KOREANS!!


      The mission president calls me quite often, and it's still rather scary sometimes getting a phone call from him when I hear, "Hello……this is President Morrise."  I always freak out inside every time!  I just love him and his wife so much though!  I see Matt Lant sometimes, and saw him a lot when he was in my last area, and hope he comes to my zone sometime.  He was a good friend to Justin.

     Well…..I gotta go but I want you all to know how much I love you and miss everyone!!  I can't wait for next week.:)



                             LOTS OF LOVE, Michelle

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