Week 4 In Korea!

We do cover the whole 'city' of SunCheon, as well as all the little
and big cities inside it. There are 300,000 people in our area-The
streets in one place we Jundo are always packed with people (check out
pictures on the internet of a K'n Shinea or big mall type area.), so
we can talk to a lot in a short amount of time. They are often busy,
so we go different places where we can slow down and get a stronger
relationship built before introducing who we are and our message. I
love those times the most- we can be more friendly together :)

There are two other companionships in our discrict. Gwanyang and YeoSu
Elders! They are super funny-We talk to our district leader, Elder
Stanger, every night to report on the work, and he's hillarious :)
Yes, I have an MTC Dongi with me! His names Elder Walker, and he's
Elder Stanger's companion. people think that Elder Walker is
quiet-like Trey-but he's really random and funny (what would you do if
a spider dropped on your face? "I would eat it") And I'm really glad i
have him.

Food is awesome! I love kimchee, and everything! Sometimes our
district wants to go have american food-I generally perfer Korean. I
have a funny story to tell you next week about Sister Won's mother's
spicy sauce, but I'll save it, unless i have enough time. Lemme tell
you, it's really hot stuff... ^^
Sister Won is from Incheon! She was born inn Austrailia though, I just
found out last week! Pure KOrean through and through though :)
P-Days we either have time to shop here, or go somewhere like the
beach as a district, our last p day we spent as a Zone playing sports.
Lots of fun!

I'll write mroe later, love you!

Kay I'm back for just a few more minutes!

I wanted to tell you about a really neat experience. Sister Won and I
were out Thurdsay night, just finished eating with the XXXXX family
(one daughter, 13 years old and never lets me takes pictures of
her-she's SO cute!!! And she loves playing with my hair :). We saw
some adventures going on (singing, lots of people,) and wanted to
explore, but we decided to Jundo (tract) instead. I'm so thankful we
did!!

We went to our normal small shinae, close to our apartment but still
lots of stores and people. We were just walking around, looking for
someone to talk with. I saw three moms sitting and talking as two of
their kids played around the front of the stores. I wanted to go talk
to them, though it seemed like they were busy talking. So I looked to
Sister Won. "Go ahead," she said "It's okay."

So I approached one of the mothers. I talked about how cute her kids
were, and told her we had a message about families. She was busy and
attended another church, so I gave her a pamplet and said bye for now.

Feeling a bit down, we continued to keep looking. While we were
looking to cross the street, all of the sudden a man caught my eye,
and he was walking toward us, starting intently. I'm sure I looked a
little surprised.
He approached us and began speaking in fast Korean. I was a goner, but
Sister Won had us covered. It seemed like he had seen missionaries
like us before, in Canada. They talked. She shared what we believe. I
felt the Spirit, and I know he did too, because he was listening
closely.
They talked (mostly he shared his story,) and we listened and nodded.
At one point, he was talking about hard things for him, and we could
tell that this was a tender subject. We testified that he could be
forgiven! That through Jesus Christ, he could find peace and be a
better person.
I need to run, but we ended up talking for 20-30 minutes there on that
sidewalk, his eyes watered up at one point. He said he wanted to ask
us (he's seen lots of missionaries before), because of the light he
saw in our eyes. He gestured to us and talked about our eyes.
We left him with bread and a book of Mormon. He gave us the bread he'd
just bought. I felt such a good/sad feeling as he walked away. Both of
us were quietly standing there for a few mintues after he left, tears
streaming down our face. We both wondered if he was an angel.
As we were walking quietly home, Sister Won pointed at something and
started to laugh. I looked up quickly-it was that man!! There he was,
in front of a mini stor, reading the Book of MOrmon!!
Was he for real? We laughed all the way home :)

I love you all! Have a great week, this work is true and changes lives!

Sisister Brooksby

Exciting Week!

Everyone I'm so happy I get to email you!

I just found out that I can print your emails from where we are, so I can spend more time writing you this time and in the future :) So happy!

How are you all? I want to tell you thank you so much for the letters and support-they mean the world to me :D

Uncle Wayne-I didn't start getting your letters until I got to Korea, but they've been a blast! I love reading your fun thoughts and hearing about your family. Thank you for sending them weekly-I look forward to them.

Joseph, I just got your two letters in one! Thanks for writing back! There's just a few hours each week (sometimes less) for letter writing, so I'll reply just as soon as I can. It takes about 2 weeks to get a letter there and to get one here. Can't wait to write back :)

Elizabeth! Your letter should be there in a week-Same thing, I may only be able to write every other or other other week. I love you so much-keep me updated via email too (mom can forward them) :) I'm so excited for you-are you stoked for your mission? It's coming up so quickly! Life's really fun too, I totally am with you.

I have to tell you, cutie, there's a power in missionary work-You never feel Heavenly Father's hand more near than you do when you are His missionary. It's a really special feeling. I know you will love it-It really is just serving, heart attacking, (seriously, we do so much here! And delivering banana bread, visiting, singing hymns and sharing spiritual thoughts) building the kingdom of God just like Ammon did. You're already so wonderful at being a good friend-Missionary work really is just like that :) Serving His children, being there when they need you, finding out what their needs are and helping to fill them. And He helps you the whole way. You know!! I love you! Fighting!!

Ok, so with the program I'm using to upload pictures, I can't tell what pictures I'm uploading. I'm hoping that the one I've uploaded for you is the one with Sister Won, I and the Jo family at Chu Seok. We're all standing in their home, they have two daughters and one son, and their spouse + two grandsons here in Korea, with their other daughter married and in Los Angelos.

Not the right Pictures Haley!!!! Lol

This is one of our branch member families-Sister Won and I weren't sure if we'd be able to attend Chu Seok with a family this year (Chu Seok is Korean's Thanksgiving), but as Church was ending, Brother Jo Jung Hyun (he's the oldest one in the picture, the grandpa of the family :)) came up to us and asked us if we had an appointment. Then he took us home and we met him and his family later that evening to spend Chu Seok together! It was super super fun! You don't always need to know the language to understand the love in that home. I laughed a lot-their two grandsons are adorable! They reminded me so much of Denver and Elias-just being little boys with big noises ^^

So remember how I told you we had only one investigator that we were meeting with? We love Hong Jamaenim, and we've been praying to find the other investigators prepared in our area. Two Saturdays ago, we did a brownie Jundo (where all of our district from our three areas meet after making lots of brownies) and talk to people about fere english and pass out lots of flyers and surveys for them to fill out. Because nrealy all of us are Americans, we use English to get passer-by's attention (Elder Stanger, our District Leader, says "Hey, How are you? Want to learn English?" and "Free Brownies! I made these brownies myself, come learn free English!" He's really great :) And then Sister Won gives out pamplets and I ask if they'll fill out a survey so we can contact them later.

It's really fun, I took picutures for you! I'll try and find the numbers and send them next week.

From that event, we got over 80 phone numbers, met over 210 people, and we had a family and a sister call us about English! We've met with both, and they are awesome! The Sister, Choi Su Ji, is married but not living with her husband, and has had bad experiences with churches in the past. She's really sincere, and wants good friends, and she's willing to try. We're really excited for her.

Our family has a father and daugther that are super good at golfing. She's been on TV before :) He's a really loving father, and because she's going to Florida to compete (i think), he's interested in the English part of our 30/30 program (30 minutes English, 30 Minutes gospel message.) After meeting them last Monday, they listened ask Sister Won taught them about the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and we found out that they attend a church they are highly committed to already. But the father really likes the sound of our faith, and he says he feels peaceful about it.

I want to do my best for this family-I've been thinking about what things she'll need to know first off when she gets to America, how to manuver in the airport, order a taxi, meet new people. It's really neat, because I just had the experience (and am currently experiencing) of learning another language in the MTC. So as I think about the things she'll need, I can remember what really worked for me too. We're in the same boat. She's 13, (12 in American age), and really responsible. Plus, it's awesome that she already likes to study English. :D

4 new inevestigators in 2 days. That was our first miracle!

Our many others happened on Wednesday of this week.

Our plan for the day was to visit three people. A member family, Sister Kim Mi Kyul, our less active, Sister Park, and our investigator with almost a baptizimal date (her husband is slow to give permission). (Choi Family) that evening. We had prepared cookies and paper hearts to heart attack, then a message to come in and share.

We walked for a while. It was hot :) We got to our first apartment-Sister Je. To our surprise, the hearts we'd placed there a few weeks ago on her door were gone, and she didn't seem to be home. So we left cookies and a note and our love. Our next was our less active, a mom with a non member husband and two daughters, Sister Park. Sister Won's been here for 3 transfers and she's never been able to get a hold of her. We knocked and rang, but she wasnt there, so Sister Won sat down to write a note. We taped up the cookies on the door (no one steals things here!), and started for Sister Kim's house. On the way, we noticed our cell phone was missing! But Sister Won said we could go back for it after we visited the Kim family.

Sister Kim has a cute autistic son who doesn't speak, but has a lot of energy. I really respect her so much-she's so kind (helping me with how to write Korean, looking at our family pictures, and telling me about her sons) and she and her husband have a bit responsibility with their son. Sung Hyun is his name. He's maybe..13 and more low functioning.

We talked with her, found out she was really busy (I told her her hous rememinded me of our own-laundry, books, toys out ^^) but she stilll went to get us grapes to eat. And Sister Je was there! They were friends, so it made sense, but it was a miracle to me! We talked about our families and how we found out about autism (mom, I think you two would be great friends), and I told her again and again how much I respected her. (as much as I could tell her). After hearing how busy she was, and seeing how stressed she was, I felt sad. I wanted to do so much for her, but I couldn't teach her Institute class or watch her son for her. (we can't babysit). But sister Won and I had prepared a message and a song. As we opened our hymn books and sang "Love One Another", I could feel the Spirit come immediately into the room. What I could not do, what we could not offer, we all knew He could. And it was so neat-the power of feeling the Spirit can communicate so much more to the soul than we ever could through words. I felt really glad that we could do at least that. Maybe that's just what she needed!

Back on the streets we went, searching for the phone. It wasn't on the stairs. And the cookies we'd left on Sister Parks door were gone. We didn't have her number so we borrowed a phone and tried to call both. No answer. We walked home and went to the apartment office there to borrow their phone. She answered, but said to wait. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes we sat (the people there were really kind and gave us chairs to wait while their business went on.) She called, and said she was really busy but could meet up with us close to where we were. It was both our first times ever getting to talk to her!

She met us in the parking lot, carrying our phone! I expected her, because of the nature of who we were and that she was busy running from job to job, to give us the phone and run off- but she didn't. She stayed in the parking lot and talked with Sister Won, and me a little. She told us about where she was spiritually-that she remembered her conversion with good feelings, but she didnt' feel like she had enough faith to keep going to church. And it was hard. She was still interested in our English program, and we offered our help for anything she needed. Both of us really wanted to help her-shes so needed!

As they were talking, I realized-This was our third miracle. Had we not lost the phone, we never would have got to meet Park Jamaenim, hear her feelings, and offer her our love and support. It really was Heavenly Father's hand. Who knew, losing something could lead to a miracle?

(Speaking of! I have to tell you-last night I did something a bit blonde. We were at the bank checking our balance. The card insert place was all in Korean, but I'd done it before. I put my card in and had to cancel a transaction, then went to grab my card and pushed it in further. It got stuck. Then, after Sister Won and I tried to get it out, the bank machine ate my card entirely....hahha! It's gone! We're going to try and go back today. I had a little cash for travelling today fortunately, but I'm still a blonde :)

We aren't alone in this work-I know it! And I know that everything we do is lead by Him.

Mosiah 4:12 talks about the blessings we can be assured of as we give our all and reach out to serve others. I know that as we do, angels will be around not only us, but around those we are serving and our families. I am so humbled every day to be a part of it. It's a life-changing opportunity to serve.

All my love from Korea!

Sister Brooksby