Week 66

What a wonderful week!!! I love being a missionary!!!

Last p-day was a blast. We went to 여의도 island and rode tandem bikes. That was an experience! It felt more like balancing than riding a bike, but it was great! Pictures to come :) I also accomplished my dream of climbing on the "I Seoul U". Every time I've gone in the past I was wearing a dress so climbing was a no go, but this time I went prepared. I was so pumped to climb it and then once I started I realized I had no idea how to get to the top. I took some time, but I finally did it. Sister Hill got some pretty funny candids of me trying to work my way up.

Me when I realized I didn't know how to get up onto the 'O' ㅋㅋㅋ

Tandem bikes :D

This past week was also SYL (speak your language ) week for our zone. It has been really silent in our house for the past few days. At first we were really good, but Sister Hill got a bit discouraged and kind of just stopped talking. It takes a lot of patience to try and communicate everything through Korean, but we made it out alive. I notices after we stopped my English was super bad. I couldn't form a proper sentence haha That made my weekly calls to the sisters fun >.<

Interviews were last Tuesday and let me tell you I am so grateful for President Turner. It is always a pleasure to talk with him one on one. Lately a lot of things have been weighing on my mind, but the short 20 minutes that I had with him seemed to make them all disappear.  I was able to gain a lot of comfort from his words. He is truly called of God to serve as my mission president!

I was blessed to go on exchanges with Sister Legaspie again. This time we aren't both greenies ㅎㅎ She is such an amazing and dedicated missionary. Lately she has had some health problems, but that never stops her from giving 100% all the time with the brightest smile on her face. It was so awesome to serve with her. We had some good laughs about our greenie days and that exchange when we literally had no idea what we were doing. We were able to visit a less-active sister that Sister Legaspie grew up with in the Philippines. They got to catch up and I got to try some Filipino food called "caldereta".  It was delicious!

We had some good lessons with two of our investigators and we were able to pick up another woman to do the English program. Last week she punked us and didn't show up to our appointment, but this time we were able to meet. She is super cute and I think she has a lot of potential to open up to the gospel. Her name is Jeoung SeoungMi, please pray for her!

Sunday was the best day out of the week. We had a member present lesson during church and our investigator HaNeul opened up a lot about the curiosities that she has about religion. It was an amazing lesson. One of our less actives also came to church. He is the man that Sister Cuary and I found last transfer. The day that we first met him I felt Heavenly Father's love so strongly. I knew that Heavenly Father was reaching out to him through us. He had a great time at church.

I've been reading in Teaching of the Prophets from Gordon B. Hinckley lately and wanted to share something that I found. Chapter 3 is GOLD if you ever get a chance to read it! It talks about keeping a positive and optimistic mind through the storms that come with life. He said "The gospel is a thing of joy. It provides us with a reason for gladness". I know that our faith can shine through all sorrows or darkness. That through the Gospel of Jesus Christ any storm can be weathered and we can find happiness. Life is never easy, but life is wonderful! 

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." - Joshua 1:9 

Heavenly Father had commanded that we move forward with faith and happiness. He has given us every tool that we need to make it through this life successfully. I have felt so much of his divine help throughout the past year as a missionary. Life is crazy hard, but it is the biggest blessing. 

Love you guys! Have a great week!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Still trying to climb the sign ㅋㅋㅋ

I did it!!!

Trying to figure our how to get down

Sister Legaspie

Week 65

Wow... I can't believe that we are already half way through September. The weather had been throwing me off lately because it has gotten cold. Everyday it starts at about 65 degrees and then warms up to the mid 80s. The nights are even colder so the other day Sister Hill was talking in her sleep and asked for another blanket. I responded that they are in the bottom draw of the dresser and that she could get it. That actually woke up her up and she was super confused so she just went back to sleep. I eventually got up and got the blanket for her. She was even more confused in the morning when she found another blanket on her.

Last week I started my adventure as a gardener. Lately I have be re-doing Personal Progress to give me a little extra direction during my studies and free time so I decided for my Faith project that I was going to build a garden. It has been a bit challenging trying to do everything while also still handle all the normal responsibilities as a missionary, but I have found so much inspiration as I've been doing Personal Progress. We spent last p-day getting supplies and trying to figure out how to put everything together. Needless to say I learned some really good gardening vocabulary including the verb 'to make moist'. Honestly, I didn't have the faith that those little seeds would grow. They were just so tiny and I have never planted a garden before. It has been so thrilling to watch them pop out of the dirt and grow. I now have faith that if you plant a seed IT WILL GROW!

Planting my garden

We've got growth people!!!  #faith

We also had zone conference. It is always a pleasure to be with President and Sister Turner. They are my favorite! I also was able to make it through my training :D I don't know if anyone else felt as inspired as I did while I was preparing. I wanted to share just a few things that I learned. First, a scripture of course :) Doctrine and Covenants 88: 67 & 68

67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there  shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will  come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and  in his own way, and according to his own will.

 

I know that the light we gain from sanctifying ourselves will help us to shine through any darkness the world throws at us. That light we gain little by little is just preparing us for the light we will receive in the Celestial Kingdom when we return to live with our Father in Heaven. 

Another thing is something that a sister who is going home soon said in her last talk. She talked about how she came on a mission thinking that she was going to be sharing the love OF God, but has come to realize as she is sharing that she is also sharing her love FOR God. It really touched my heart because it is so true. For the past year or so I have been sharing my love For God and for this gospel. I have been so extremely blessed to see a glimpse of heaven everyday as I serve here in Korea.

We were also able to do some role plays with the APs and President Turner. It was pretty daunting for Sister Hill, but she did great. It also helped her see that she really can speak Korean and is able to be a missionary all on her own. Afterwards we headed to dinner and then to a 전도 활동 (proselyting activity) that was with another zone. We played 'Are you better than a 외국인?' (Are you better than a foreigner?) It was great to have some fun with people. We did different activities like arm wrestling, tic-tac-toe, juggling a soccer ball, using chopsticks to move grains of rice from one bowl to the next, etc. President and Sister Turner were also able to join us. It was a blast.

I also finished my two week exchange and was back with Sister Cuary for the night hehe jk, we just went on our normal exchange. It was so weird to be back with her. It felt like she never left. It was fun to work with her again here. We were able to do some practice lessons with members and man were they confused because she was back. One member didn't even realize that she had left and thought everything was normal haha.

Sister Hill and I also made the adventure to get her 외국인 card. We got to the place a little early so that we could grab lunch. We ended up meeting a woman named Peppy. She teaches English and we were able to get her number. Although she wanted us to stop by for some tea we had to refuse so that we could get back to our area. I hope that she'll meet the missionaries again someday.

Our investigators and potential investigator appointments all fell through this week. It has been rough, but we're smiling our ways through it. Luckily we had some good practice lessons with members. They really saved our week!

Sunday was lovely. I had to give a last minute talk in sacrament meeting so Saturday night was spent trying to figure out how to speak in Korea. They also didn't give me a topic to speak on so I just kind of winged it and spoke about Hope. Lately it is the only thing that gets me through the days. The hope that Heavenly Father has something planned for us in the area. The work has been really slow, but it has allowed me to really reflect on how blessed I have been throughout my mission. Being a missionary always has it's challenges, but it is the best! I absolutely love serving the Lord here in Korea! I hope that you all have a great week. Love ya!

In case anyone is curious what a last minute talk in Korean looks like

-Sister Rindlisbacher

The first time I 배달ed (home delivery) by myself... I always made someone else with better Korean do it, but now it's up to me >.<

Yummy foods

A past investigator from another area stalked me on Facebook the other day and sent me this picture ㅋㅋㅋ

Week 64

Hello! Another week here in the wonderful country of Korea :D

Things are going good. The work is slowly moving forward and Sister Hill and I are having a blast serving here together. This past week we made the journey to 안양 (Anyang) for MLC. It takes about 2 hours by train, but that includes 3 transfers to different subway lines. It is always so exhausting having to travel all day. We went down for MLC and had to come right back to our area for English class, grabbing dinner on the way in one of the subway stations. 

English class is great as always. I love all the students that I teach. They just crack me up. I teach basic class with Elder Cleto and they say the funniest things! Most the time we are just laughing together at something someone said. One of the students from another class came up to me and asked how many people were in our class (we only have 4) because it always sounded like we were having so much fun. We do get pretty loud because there is one man who is 72 years-old and really hard at hearing. Most of the time I am half yelling at him so he can understand what is going on. Another member of the class always yells at him in Korean because she get frustrated that he asks questions about things we had just finished explaining. It is hilarious!

This week we were blessed to meet with one of our investigators. We met with the family that the father is less-active. It has been about a month since we met with them last. We had a good lesson about missionary work and service. It was a little rough to focus them, but we had a great time. They committed to coming to church, but didn't end up going. We were supper bummed out yesterday.

We were also able to find some good potential investigators this week as we went sticker boarding with our elders. We decided to try somewhere new and went to a different part of our area. There weren't as many people as some of the other places we normally do it at, but it was nice to find people that had never seen missionaries before. Last night we were able to set up an appointment with one PI for Saturday and we are super pumped!

Last p-day was killer... literally. We hiked up 계양상 (GyeyangSan) which is just a hill/mountain that we can see in our area. From the ground it doesn't look that big, but man we were hurting afterwards. We climbed roughly 2000 stairs to the top (Sister Hill kept count haha) and had a picnic on the top with our district. It was really sunny and hot all the way to the top, but then the weather had mercy on us and it got a little cooler. The clouds covered the sun and we enjoyed our hike back down. All of our legs were a little shaky going down >.< We got smoothies together and then went on our way. I introduced Sister Hill to DAISO (the best store in all of Korea!) and we had dinner before going out to be missionaries :)

Us at the beginning (I was already dying)

Lunch time

Our fearless district leader

Made it to the top

The view from the top

Next week is going to be super busy and will probably fly by. We have zone conference, exchanges, lots of member appointments, and hopefully some appointments with our investigators. Please pray for me! I have to give training by myself tomorrow at zone conference D:

Another highlight was that Brother 나광수 (a less-active that we have been working with) went to church. Granted he went to a different ward and everything, but none the less HE WENT! I was only slightly bitter when I heard from my past companion Sister Cuary that he went to a ward in their building. Hopefully in the future he will come to our ward in 청라 (Cheongra).

Before I go I wanted to share one scripture that I found during my prep for zone conference. This time around we are talking about sanctification.

 "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." - Doctrine & Covenants 88:67

I've been thinking a lot about the reason that we have to sanctify ourselves. One thing that I though of is as we sanctify ourselves we are able to show people the Light of Christ that is in us. Through that light others can receive the confirmation of the truths that we are teaching as missionaries.  I know that the heavens will open and we will see miracles are we sanctify ourselves through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Love you guys!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Our less-actives keep sending us inspirational quotes :)

Sister Eversole ㅋㅋ man I love her

Week 63

Ah yeah! We are seeing the greenie miracles here in 청라 (Cheongra)! 

My new companion is Sister Hill from Sandy, Utah. She is just a little ball of sunshine so we are doing great. She is such a trooper. Her first night here in Korea after getting back from the mission home was teaching a new investigator that we found last week. We got home and settled for about 10 minutes before leaving again to go to our appointment. We got a little lost because I had never been to her house before so we wandered a bit, but eventually found it after she ran out to get us. In my defense her directions weren't the best so we walked the wrong way for about 5 minutes. That appointment went really well and her oldest daughter was home so we were able to pick her up as an investigator too! We'll be going to their house every Wednesday to do our 30/30 English program. We're super stoked!

The weather this past week has been beautiful! It was been in the 60s at the beginning of the week and has slowly gotten a little warmer. It freaked us out at first because when we went out in the morning it was colder outside than in our apartment. It took a few minutes to adjust. I also had to break out my cardigans so I wouldn't freeze. Sister Cuary wrapped herself up in her blanket like a burrito one day because it was so cold.

Also our water heater stopped working... that was a fun morning of ice cold showers. It was Sister Hill's first day in our area. I felt super bad. I tried to figure out how to fix it, but the instructions were super confusing. We ended up calling our landlord and he fixed it for us. Such a nice cute old man :)

We had a few visits with some members. We have definitely felt a lot of their love over the past week. They have really reached out to help Sister Hill feel welcome. We met with one to teach her daughter who will get baptized next month and had lunch together. We met with another at her home for dinner. I absolutely love this ward!

Last p-day was a bit crazy. Sister Cuary just moved an area over so we just took all her bags to the new house. The other sisters weren't home so we ate all their chocolate hehe Just kidding... of course we got their permission first. Sister Davis had some really good homemade cookies that her grandma sent her so we swiped some of those :D Korean sweets just aren't very good.

Our biggest miracles was meeting with Brother Na GwangSu. He is the less-active that I found with Sister Cuary last transfer when we randomly went to visit his house with the wrong name and number, but found him. We keep in contact with him, but over the past weeks we were to busy to go and visit. His daughter is in the hospital right now because she had surgery. Yesterday we were able to go with our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader to visit. It was such a last minute miracle! We were able to get her phone number and will hopefully meet her in the next few weeks once she is healed. She has English interest, but her dad really wants her to get baptized. We'll see what she thinks though.

Life is crazy wonderful. I'm trying to soak in this dream that is being a missionary in Korea. I can't believe that the time that I have left is so short. I don't know where time has gone! I absolutely love life right now! I hope that you are all loving it as well. Don't forget to count your blessings :)

"Whatever the world throws at your throw back a smile" -Elder Lam (our new AZL)

Love you guys!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Our entire mission for last weeks emergency drill

The trainers and new missionaries

I'm trainer her right :)

First district meeting of the transfer. Yay for the 31st and Baskin Robbins

Picking Sister Hill up from the mission home

Tender moments hehe

Burrito Cuary

Week 62

Dang... The past week was just a blur. So much happened! But the most exciting/terrifying news... TRANSFER CALLS! 

Drum roll please........... I'm staying in Cheongra (no surprise there) and my companion will be..... I actually don't know yet because I'M TRAINING AGAIN! I was not expecting that one at all. I may or may not have yelled at President Turner over the phone when he said that I was training again. But the biggest twist it that because I am staying in my area I will still be an STL. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to pull that off, but I know the Lord knows what to do so I'll be asking him lots of questions and for lots of help.  I'm sure I'll also receive a lot of help from the other missionaries that I am serving with. Here is a quote from my district leader after I told him I was going to die hehe

"You might die, but it's in the service of your God so it's the best time to die" -Fearless District Leader 

In other news we had a special MLC this past Tuesday. It was so amazing! We talked about being Christlike leaders and helping other missionaries to do the same. We were asked to read the talk "The Greatest Leaders are the Greatest Followers" by Spephen W. Owen 

(https://www.lds.org/liahona/2016/05/general-priesthood-session/the-greatest-leaders-are-the-greatest-followers?lang=eng)

It is an amazing talk so I highly recommend it :) It is always such a pleasure to receive training from President and Sister Turner as well as the APs. They are all such amazing missionaries and leaders. It was also nice to see Sister Clarke off before she went home last week. She was an amazing missionary and we all miss her a lot.

We also had a 전도 (proselyting) activity this week with our zone. We woke up to pouring rain and thought we might have to cancel it. We called the zone leaders and asked what they thought as they said "....그녕 해요" which basically means "ehhhh.... just do it" We decided to move forward in faith and continue to have the activity. We said a prayer and just went on with our day. It poured for almost the entire day. Getting to our district meeting was a little tricky because of the rain, but we managed. After district meeting the heavens cleared up and the rain stopped. We were able to have a great activity together. We played "Amazing Pace" which was something that I had done in a previous zone. The basic concept is that you have a bunch of things that you have to do (in order) and you set the pace. I was with Sister Munhk-Erende and we had a great time. She is still a young missionary so it was fun to try and help her open up more on the streets.

Amazing Pace

Another fun thing that happened was the mystery mission activity. A few weeks ago we were told to hold our schedules for Friday, August 25th but that was all. We heard no other news from President Turner or the APs even though we would ask him about it. Going to bed on Thursday was a little nerve wracking because for the first time in over a year I had no idea what I was going to do the next day. We woke up the next morning to a text from the AP saying we had to get to the mission home by 10am. We quickly got ready and headed out the door. Since we live on the opposite side of the mission we got there right in time. 

We had a meeting with the ENTIRE mission and talked about the emergency plans that are set in case anything happens. I don't know of anything that is happening in the world, but I have been getting the question "Aren't your parents worried that you are in Korea" a lot lately. Everything is just fine here. No one seems to be worried about anything much. 

We saw a lot of miracles as we were out on the streets proselyting. On the way to MLC I was able to sit by a woman and talk with her a bit. I didn't have much time to explain why I was in Korea before we had to transfer so I ended up just giving her a pass-along card. After we transferred and got onto the next train I noticed that she was in the same cart with us. She waved me down and told me to sit by her. She asked me a few questions of why I was in Korea and I was able to bear a simple testimony of the Plan of Salvation. She didn't have much interest and pulled out her phone instead, but it was a cool experience for me.

We were also blessed with two new investigators this week. One is a referral from a member. Her name is 선하늘 (Son HaNul) 하늘=heaven/sky. She is 24 and super cute. She also came to church on Sunday! It was awesome to sit with her and get to know her more. She is super open to learning and has a lot of potential. We are excited to be working with her. 

The other investigator we met on the street on Friday. It was crazy! We were sticker boarding with our Elders and everyone was ready to go home, but I wanted to stay another 30 minutes. It took a little convincing, but I got them to stay. We met a lot of people with potential and were able to get a few phone numbers. One woman wanted her son to learn English with us so I talked to her for a good 10 minutes about our English program. She had to go so we exchanged phone numbers. About 10 minutes later she randomly popped up again and gave us yogurt drinks. Right before we were going to end she called and said that she wanted to talk with us more so we stayed a little longer and were able to talk with her while the elders talked with her husband. They ended up taking us out to eat lunch at a 고가 (meat) buffet, which made my companion and the elders happy. He husband said a prayer before we started eating in 방언 (the closest translation I can think of is dialect) which was SUPER WEIRD. Basically there are some people that believe that they can communicate with God through the "perfect language" but it sounds like straight gibberish... We have a return appointment so we'll see how that goes. 

I hope that you all have a fantastic week. I love you all!

-Sister Rindlisbacher

Our last district meeting (a member randomly came to the church and saw us having our meeting so she bought us 탕수육 [some kind of fried meat that is super yummy!] so we got to enjoy that together)

Dinner with the zone after our proselyting activity

Lunch with the sisters after the mystery mission activity