The One Where Miracles Happened

This week was a miracle-filled one!! God just opened the windows of heaven and poured out blessings on us. I have seriously no idea what I did to deserve it!!

It all started on Monday when we got the call from Borahm's teacher. Borahm had testing this week (which is a huge deal in Korea) so she wasn't able to come to church/we couldn't teach her again, but she contacted us and said that she will be a church again starting next week. We will commit her to be baptized on the 23rd then! Pray that it all works out! Also, tonight we are meeting with her mom and explaining what baptism is and figuring out all of the details for Skype. We are also going to invite her to start meeting with us so we can teach her. Pray that it all goes well!!

On Tuesday with met with Lee Hyo-sun, a less active member that we have been visiting every week since I came to Coomi. Every week we invite her to pray or keep some small commitment, but she doesn't. So for this entire transfer we have persistently been teaching her about prayer. Last week I may or may not have called her to repentance and told her that Satan tells us not to pray, so she's listening to him...#oops. BUT my boldness worked because she prayed this week for the first time in 3 transfers!! Yay!!

On Wednesday, we met with Nam Gyung-hoei and she has been praying and she said that she is taking good care of her faith plant!! She also said that meeting with us is like healing! Pray that she'll come to church this week!! 

The next big miracle happened on Thursday when we had interviews with President. Honestly, I have never seen so much success or taught so many investigators on my entire mission as I have right now! We are teaching two families, and four other investigators! It is sooo amazing, but sooo draining on me considering that all of this is happening while we are training here in Coomi. Sister Workman is amazing. I love her to death and she literally does everything she can to do her part and I am so thankful for that, but as a trainee you can only do so much because of the language barrier. So I have to lead every lesson and teach almost all of it all by myself. I also have to help my companion learn how to be a good missionary, how to be obedient, etc. and on top of it all I have to teach her Korean. And then when it comes to lessons, I am in charge of all most all of the talking and 100% of the understanding. Anyone who served outside of Korea, Japan, China, Finland, and maybe Russia will probably never understand. It is soooo draining!! Korea and English are so different!!! And I don't want my companion to see how stressed I am because that will stress her out and make it seem like it's her fault when it's not at all!! Anyway, I have been so stressed that it is effecting me physically. My hair comes out in little clumps sometimes when I shower, it is impossible for me to lose weight even though I try so hard because I have to come home soon!!! (ahhhhhh), and I have been sleeping terrible. I hardly even have the energy to run in the morning, which is usually the thing that gets me through the day. So I talked with President during interviews and he gave me amazing advice and really talked me through everything. It was a great interview!! At the end I was planning on asking President for a blessing, but we were already over on time and there were other missionaries waiting so I decided I could go without it. President bowed his head to say the closing prayer for our interview, but before he said anything he stopped and said. "Sister Johns, I feel like I need to give you a special blessing. Would that be okay?" We both just started crying and he gave me a blessing that has gotten me through so much this week!! It didn't make all of the stress go away, but I have been able to manage everything a lot better! Being a missionary sure is exhausting, but it's possible through Christ's atonement and through the guidance and help of others like President. Priesthood holders: Never be afraid to give someone a blessing or offer to give someone a blessing. If you feel like you should offer to give blessing to someone, chances are, they need it and that is the spirit telling you to help them. Always follow the prompting!!

Saturday was AMAZING! It all started out in the morning when I was stressed out of my mind because we teach 2 family investigators in a period of a few hours on Saturdays and before all of that we have our 2 hour service activity teaching kids English with the Elders, and we also have English class at the church. But here's the catch: an Elder in our mission had a concussion and had to go home so there was an emergency transfer and now we don't have Elders in our area (they are only here on Sundays for church). So Sister Workman and I are the only missionaries in Coomi, there aren't any elders with the priesthood, and honestly, all of the pressure is on me. I was really feeling that pressure on Saturday morning when we got a random call from Elder and Sister Dustin, the senior couple in our Zone. They said they were coming with a surprise. They showed up at our door with bags and bags of American food any everything to make tacos!!! They even brought raspberry jam!! And cheese!! (you can only find stuff like this on the American military base!!) They woke up that morning and prayed to know who to help that day and felt like they needed to bring us a pick-me up! It was so amazing! They just came dressed in white like angels with everything we needed to be boosted up. All of y'all back at home, please follow their example. Get down on your knees and pray, ask who needs help, then don't waste a second, get out and get to work! You will see blessings!!!!!!!

Anyway, that first miracle kick-started a day packed full of miracles!

After the service project. We taught Park Hoeigyung and her family and they expressed that they have a little bit of interest in the gospel and lots of questions about our church right after I prayed that they would have interest so I wouldn't have to drop them (we were planning on dropping them that day). A little isn't much, but it's enough!! I told Heavenly Father that I wouldn't give up on my investigators! I want to bring as many people along with me to the Celestial Kingdom as I can! And when I told Heavenly Father that I was bringing Park Hoeigyung and her family even if I had to drag them, we a saw a little miracle!

After teaching the Park family, we had to rush back to the church for English class. This woman showed up for the English class. She had met the Elders on the street a while back so she decided to come to the church for English class. We didn't even end up teaching English because she just randomly opened up to us and a member about her crazy life (it literally sounds like a soap opera!!). She just cried and cried and we had to rush to our next appointment, but before we left, I took her by the hands and shared my testimony that God loves her and Christ died for her and understands her. The spirit in the room was so strong and every single person there was crying...there was not a dry eye in the house. It was one of the most intense spiritual experiences of my life. My words were not mine and I could feel that as I said them. I could literally feel God's love for her. She just folded in half and cried for a few minutes. She said that she wants to meet so we can teach her to pray and be happy. She drove us to our next appointment and gave us like $100 worth of insane skincare products because she runs a skincare center. She also came to sacrament meeting on Sunday and brought us each a bouquet of flowers!! That just shows how thankful she is to hear about the gospel! I really think she would literally give all that she has to be happy and know God! Pray for her!!! She needs to be baptized!

After English class we rushed to our next appointment with the other family we teach. They made us food and we did 30/30 and they really liked the message. We taught about family prayer and they said that they would pray together this week. The only problem is that they're Buddhist (not that it's bad to be Buddhist!!! All religions are beautiful and point to the fact that we have a Heavenly Father and that it is a part of humanity's divine nature to want to be close to God and have religion). I just hope that we are able to touch their hearts somehow so we don't have to drop them. But the mom really loved the message and she seemed really opened minded! I really hope we can teach them about Jesus Christ!!

Well, I'm out of time this week! I just have a quick assignment for everyone reading! This week I want you to look for the little miracles you see and report to me! It's your homework!!! Sister Workman had this idea for our families and friends!!! Do it and email me!! :)

사랑해용!!

I you love

여한들 자매

Sister Yo han-der