12/5/10 Email

Dearest family,

I can't believe it's already December. I am so excited for the next couple weeks. We have some exciting baptisms scheduled and exciting events coming up. But thank you for sharing about your visit to Israel, yes, I would love to go visit someday and see those things, but I love how you mentioned that you felt the spirit strongest during church. That is so true! You don't have to go far away to remember Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. We can hold church anywhere and can meet together and worship Him and work to become more like Him. Everyone has the same opportunities to feel the spirit at church. I love church, and I love being there with the members and feeling their love. It's a different type of feeling at church and it's something that I took advantage of a lot before, it really is the time to spiritually recharge and feel of the spirit, and to do so around members and families. I love letting our investigators come and see the families and the people at church. Let's them see what the church really does for people and how it can help families. I did a horrible job at getting people to church this week, but I am repenting our leaders also had some great suggestions that we will try this week.

Do you remember that Guo xiu rong I told you about last week? We had some really emotional lessons with her this week. At the begining of the week she said she couldn't meet with us at all because she was too busy, but we got to sit with her on wednesday and then set up baptismal interviews during the rest of the week. She easily passed and just needs to tell her husband she wants to get baptized. Since she is over 20 she doesn't need permission but she needs to let him know. They have a really sad relationship. He is a bum, I don't know how else to put it, but she is the most beautiful, hard-working mom I've ever seen and her husband stays at home all day and drinks and chews binglan. When she lets him know she can get baptized. He is still in Taibei at the moment so she hasn't asked told him about her decision to be baptized, but the best part is that she now has realized her desire to be baptized. 2 weeks ago she said she didn't need to be baptized because she could keep coming to church and reading the scriptures and that would be good enough. This week when we called her and found out she hadn't told her husband yet, she said, don't worry, this is my heart's desire to get baptized, it will happen. She is great.

We also have a 20 year-old, jing yi, who is progressing so well, reads, prays, and has a lot of friends at church. Asks really good quesitons and is really curious about everything. Came to the baptism on Sat. Is learning a lot and progressing really well. Sometimes I worry that she is excited about us being her friend and is not as interested in the gospel. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but we are making sure that she is making good friends with the members and she loves to pray everyday and read so she should be ok. She knows our job is to help her prepare for baptism.

And, another, we are working with is a mom of 2 who loves reading the Book of Mormon and loves learning. We gave her a couple sections to read when we first met with her but last week on wednesday told her to start from the beginning. By friday she was almost into 2 Nephi :) But, we shared word of wisdom and because she works at a binglan shop, smokes, and drinks tea, coffee, and alcohol we think she doesn't feel worthy to come to church. She was confirmed for church and then when we called her yesterday morning she said she had plans and wouldn't set up with us for later. But we went to visit her at work yesterday night and she said she missed us and still loves the Book of Mormon. She was very willing to keep meeting with us, but also pulled out some other christian material and said, I also like reading these, and they don't tell me I can't do things(smoke, drink tea...) We love her though and will keep working with her. At first I used to think she was a really simple person, but she's just quiet because she really thinks a lot and ponders on things, especially scriptures. She said that since she has met with us she has noticed she has been a lot happier. We helped her realize that was the influence of Heavenly Father in her life, since she has started praying daily, and because she reads the Book of Mormon.

I love having investigators who love reading the Book of Mormon. These people will be a lot harder to be pulled away by Satan because they have developed habits that will keep their testimony strong. I have realized one of my favorite moments as a missionary. So, we have what we call; tracts. They are brown small pamplet/paper things we hand out on the street when we contact people and it pretty much explains the first lesson. The last page has how to pray and so we use it to teach and help people when they are praying for the first time. My favorite moments are when we are working with investigators for a couple lessons and when we ask them to pray and they don't reach for that paper because they know how to pray, they pray everyday so you know it has become a habit in their life. :) Those moments are one of my favorites.
Ok, so I sent a whole bunch of pictures and you can see my companion! I love my companion. She is practically everything I could ask for. She is pretty much the most patient companion I have ever had. I was looking over the Christ-like attributes the other day and when I read patience...that's my companion. I wasn't so much like this before, but lately I've been a lot more anxious about things and just nervous about a lot of things, but my companion patiently bears the day's happenings and helps so willingly. I love her attitude and her patience with me also learning this area. Sometimes I'll get anxious because we need to go to a new area and I'll look at her and say, I don't know where that is. And she will reply, "don't worry, I do." And, we'll get their quickly and safely :) She is so willing and happy to serve me and others. I am very grateful for her.

Well family, I love you all, have fabulous weeks!

Sister Ko