Week 49

This past week has passed so quickly! I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22!

I'm feeling 22!!

This past week was my 22nd birthday. The sisters that I live with are so cute :) They locked me in my room to exercise by myself while they decorated our apartment and made breakfast. They made homemade pancakes and bacon and had bought a bunch of birthday hats, balloons, and birthday banners to put up around our apartment. We had a great time dancing around as we ate breakfast before getting ready for the day.

Later that morning our recent convert Lee NamHaeng texted us and asked if we wanted to get 설빙 (Korean version of shaved ice) later that day with her. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. We hadn't told her that it was my birthday, but she just randomly wanted to go out with us. The Elders also tagged along with us as we ate together. She is so awesome! She has been progressing a lot the past week after getting baptized! She feels like an old member already.

Later that day we did some street contacting and had dinner together with the other team of elders that is serving in our ward. We got Shabu Shabu before heading to an appointment with a potential investigator. The lesson was a little funky, but it turned out okay. We haven't been able to set up a return appointment with her, but hopefully this week we'll be able to meet again.

We got to see more tender mercies this week also. Sister SohUoo (9 years old) and SohYoon (13 years old) got baptized! They are the sweetest things on the planet. Teaching them has been a great learning experience. It has been fun to teach them from the beginning and see their light grow as they learned about the gospel.

Another tender mercy was being able to visit the temple! It has been such a long time since we last went since the policy changed on how often we go. I think it is down to 2 times a year, which is a real bummer. It was so awesome to go through again and feel the spirit of the temple.

After visiting the temple we went with our zone and played basketball, volleyball, ping-pong, while others played board games and ate pizza together. It was so much fun! My companion injured her hand playing volleyball and now has a gigantic bruise the size of the entire back of her hand. Sister Turner got upset when she saw it a few days ago and had strict orders for her to rest it. She hasn't been able to do that very well because she played for a bunch of the musical numbers at the fireside yesterday. That was also super awesome! They were so many musical talents that were shared. The spirit was amazing and a few people from our English class came. They also had a couple recent converts bear their testimonies. It was great!

Missionary work is amazing. Seeing the Lord's tender mercies everyday has been the best for the past year almost. I can't imagine life without this wonderful gospel. I hope that you can all see the Lord's love you each of you. I love you all. Have a great week!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Week 48

Oh what a wonderful time to be a missionary! This week was so awesome. Mostly because our investigator Sister Lee NamHeng was able to get baptized! She is such sweet spirit and it has been such a blessing to teach her over the past couple weeks. She was such a golden investigator and was so ready to receive the gospel. During her baptismal service she was so calm and was glowing with light. I love her so much! Our ward is so amazing and has made her one of their own. I was a little worried in the beginning because she is a pretty shy person, but everyone in the Relief Society is her new best friend :)

Another highlight of this week was our Kid's English class. We haven't been able to teach it for the past couple weeks which has been really sad. We had a lot of new people come with their kids so it was a party of 15 kids vs. 4 foreign missionaries trying to keep their attention. It was so much fun to play games with them and help them to learn English.

We also had a lot of music practices. This past week was our ward conference so all missionaries were asked to participate in the choir. It is such a fun experience to have older Korean ladies yelling at you in Korean using no vocabulary that you know because it is all related to music. I felt bad for Elder Partridge a little because most of the yelling was directed at him because he was playing a violin solo. In the end all of the musical numbers turned our really well. The coming Sunday we also have a special musical night with our stake that a bunch of missionaries are putting together musical pieces for. Although I have no musical talent my companion is amazing at the piano so she was asked to play for a lot of them. It's great for me because I get to go to all the practices and hear all the musical talent of our mission ;)

This coming week will be just as busy as this past week as we meet with a few potential investigators and our recent convert while also having all our music practices. We also have another baptismal service for this Saturday to prepare for. The two little girls that we have been teaching both passed their interviews on Sunday so they can get baptized! They are so precious. This past week in our lesson we talked about missionary work and gave them little missionary tags that we made. The younger girl who is just turning 8 was so excited to get a missionary tag that she wore it to church yesterday and refused to answer to anything besides 서우 선교사 (SoUoo Missionary) :) It was so cute! I love them so much!

I can't believe that I am coming up on my year mark already. Time just doesn't seem real anymore. I absolutely love Korean and the people here. It is such a blessing to be serving among them. I hope that you are all doing well. Have a great week! Love ya :)

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Our recent convert Lee NamHeng

Our recent convert Lee NamHeng

The craziness of nights in a four man house

My companion likes my birthday box more than I do (she is obsessed with trail mix)

Week 47

Happy Mother's Day!!!

The weather lately has been pretty gloomy with only a few sunny moments. We have gotten a lot of rain the past week. On the bright side it cleared away most of the yellow dust that I mentioned last week. The weather seems to reflect our missionary work lately. Lots of appointment cancellations and people just not showing up, but we've been able to get a lot of other work done.

Exchanges with Sister Canete were a blast. We were in the MTC together for 3 weeks before I came to Korea. I literally thought she hated me, but she is so loving now. We had a good time talking about being a consecrated missionary. I learned a lot of good things from her :)

These next coming week are going to be pretty busy. We are preparing for a baptism this Saturday and another one next Saturday. This Saturday 이남행 자매님 (Sister NamHeng Lee) is getting baptized. I can't remember if I've mentioned her, but she is so prepared. I absolutely love teaching her and being able to feel her sweet spirit. She is always so open to everything and wants to know how she can follow to her Father in Heaven.

This morning we were also blessed to be able to Skype with our parents. It was fun to talk with them and catch up on things. It is weird to think that I haven't seen any of them in person for almost a year. Time is going by crazy fast! It was also fun to watch Sister Earnshaw do it for her first time. Her family was so happy :)

The weeks have started to blur together and time doesn't feel real. I am so grateful to be here in Korea serving my Father in Heaven. I have received so many blessings in life and have found so much happiness through the gospel. I love this gospel more than anything and am so blessed to be able to share it with those that I teach. They are all so different in every way, but the gospel brings everyone together. This week in Relief Society during the lesson the teacher had us pass around a ball of yarn and say something that we had a testimony in. At the end we looked at the string and saw how our testimonies of the gospel linked us together. It was a really powerful moment for me. Even though I have so many cultural differences and not to mention the language barrier with the Korea people I feel a weird connection to them. Each day I feel the Lord's love for them more and more. Well I hope you have a great week! Love ya!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

The instructions to a handheld fan we got from a member (make sure you read all of it!

Face masks with the housemates

 Chocolate covered potato chips (they taste better then they sound)

Mother's Day Skype :)

Mother's Day Skype 

Our adventures last week #haircuts

Week 46

Another week has flown by! This week was super busy with mission tour, a zone proselyting activity, less-active visits, and member visits. 

The past week in Korea was a holiday so most of our investigators didn't have time to meet. It was Buddha's birthday and parents day so most people left to go visit families. We were only able to teach one lesson with one of our new investigators. Our first meeting with her was pretty rough because she just kept trying to convince  us that we could teach her English and didn't need to teach the gospel at all. Our next meeting with her went a lot better. She was really open to the gospel portion of the lesson and had a lot of good questions.

Another thing that happened this week was yellow dust. It supposedly comes from China and IT IS EVERYWHERE! All of the windows in our apartment were open all week and literally everything had a layer of yellow stuff on it. We spent Saturday morning furiously cleaning everything, but it is still everywhere. We have thus closed all of our windows and now die from the lack of air circulation.

Mission tour was also amazing. Elder Yamashita is so funny. He is such a bundle of happiness. It was such a blessing to spend a few hours learning from him. His wife is the sweetest thing on the planet. She talked about opening our mouths and sharing the gospel with everyone. Afterwards she taught us how to make origami lips (featured in attached videos). 

One quote that I really liked from Mission Tour was shared by Sister Turner. "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest that is when God will endow us with power" -Ezra Taft Benson. I know that obedience to God's commandments will only bring us blessings and exact obedience is what brings miracles. We also talked a lot about being focused on Christ because being focused IN and ON Jesus Christ always leads to action. The action that we take is what changes our lives and the lives of the people that we share the gospel with. I am so grateful to be here in Korea. It is so amazing seeing the Lord's hand in changing so many lives.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

P.S. Enjoy our music videos ^^​

The dang yellow dust from China

Our usual morning situation

Morning excercise

Morning exercise

Mission Tour with Elder YAmashita

Week 45

How is it already May?! Time is flying by!

Sister Earnshaw and Sister Rindlisbacher

Last week for p-day we had big a mission activity. We played kickball, had lunch together, and ran a 5K. It was a blast! Also Sister Earnshaw and I were the best dressed ;) 

Sister Clarke and Eversole :) Our housemates!

This week we have seen a lot of miracles. In our mission we will be getting new phones this month so we have started a "phone purge". Every team of missionaries is contacting every single number in their phone to see if people have interest in our English program or would like to learn more about the gospel. There have been so many miracles that have come from the phone purge. In our weekly email from President Turner he talks about the different miracles that missionaries are seeing as a result of the phone purge. Lately I was feeling left out because we aren't doing a phone purge due to us opening the area. The other night we got a panicked call from our Elders telling us to come to the church. A person that they had set up an appointment with turned out to be a woman. We ended up explaining our English program and setting up appointments to meet her twice a week! The same thing also happened yesterday after church. We were just about to leave to go home when another women came to the church to meet the Elders. We were able to find two new investigators through the phone purge!

Our other investigators still haven't been able to meet for a while so we've been spending a lot of time out on the streets.This week we will have mission tour on Friday with Elder Yamashita. I'm really excited to be able to learn from him!

I hope you are all doing well.

-Sister Rindlisbacher