Monday Pics!!

The Unexpected

Hello everybody!

It sounds like everyone had a really good week this week which makes me happy :) I still pray for y'all every morning and night! This week was really amazing. Sister Kim Hayun is probably the sweetest person on the planet and she loves Beyoncé so we get along great ;D I'm soooooo excited to stay in Onyang and be able to work alongside her. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of miracles.

Yesterday we went to visit Ahn Young-Ah,  the woman I told y'all about last week who owns her own art gallery. When we arrived, she asked why it had taken me so long to return and I felt super bad!! She had bought all of us ice cream in expectation of our return and it was ready for us when we got there :) She had also had a present wrapped for me. It was the picture that I had told her was my favorite last time we visited. I couldn't believe it. This is how generous people are and it amazes me every day. She also had bought Sister Park and I shoes, and she made us journals. 

All I could give to her in return was a small drawing that I had made the day we met. I knew that she would continue to be someone very special and close to me heart and I wanted her to have that memory, even if it's just a small thing. And I shared with her Doctrine and Covenants 121:9 and tried to express how thankful I am for her friendship and the love and generosity she has shown to us even though it feels as though we don't have much to give her. I think perhaps she has found new hope since we began to visit. And I know she has felt God's love. She begins to cry every time we talk about it. At the end of it all, I had left to say was that she was our miracle. And we both started crying. We are going to try to visit her again this Tuesday. 

I wish I had time to tell you about every single amazing person I've met since I've been here, because there are so many. But I hope from this one special person you can have an idea of how kind the Korean people are and how much they want to give. All I have is myself to give them but they always accept that as enough.

I love it here and I know God is teaching me so much and I try to share all the blessings he has given me. The small, unexpected things that happen everyday always prove to be the biggest blessings to me. I think if I were to count them all I'd be counting forever. 

 

Always remember how much I love all of you! Your support means more to me than I'll ever be able to explain and it's because of y'all that I'm able to do this. 

I know that if you pray, God will hear you. Never forget He is there.

All my love,

Sister Weston

P.S. this little boy, Hyunu, found us as we were walking on the street, haha. We were able to come over to his house and teach his family a little bit and they accepted a Book of Mormon. I'm telling you, the unexpecteds are the best. 

New Pics!!!

TBH

Hey everybody!

To be honest, I'm not even sure what to write this week. In the words of Sister Park "lots of happen was going on." 

This was her last week :( And my new companion is a girl I knew in the MTC who is AMAZING! Her name is Sister Kim Hayun. We meet sooo many people this week and had sooo many goodbye parties for Sister Park. It was tons of fun. But there's just one story I really want to share.

We were walking to dinner after visiting our favorite little person, HwanHee. There's a small art gallery we walk by every day but on this day we stopped. We were looking at the pictures through the window when we noticed someone was inside. We waved at her and motioned for her to maybe opened the door. She stood and with shaking hands unlocked the door. She's young, maybe about 30 or 40, but seemed to be very weak.

We told her how beautiful her paintings were and starting asking about what made her want to start painting and such. She stood strong and hid her hands and told us about herself. She's super spunky and her gallery is called "Funny Girl." She invited us to sit down so we sat with her and she started asking about us. We told her we were missionaries and she completely opened up to us about how she was diagnosed with this illness, and usually she is fine but when she needs medicine she starts to shake. The whole time she was hiding her hands and just began to cry. 

You could tell this wasn't something she likes to talk about, but somehow she found comfort in us. After talking to her for a while we just shared a simple scripture with her and bore our testimonies. She gave Sister Park the first picture she had ever made, and she told me that she is making a new picture especially for me so that we will return next week and have ice cream with her (I'm secretly drawing something for her too... ;))

This is missionary work. And I am so happy. Moroni 7:22 is so true, I meet angels every day. 

I love all of you so very much and will always be praying for you!

love,

Sister Weston

Some things stay with you.

Hello Everyone!

I wish all of you could be here in Korea experiencing everything with me! It's crazy how much little things here and there will remind me of each one of you. I hope one day you all get the chance to visit this country, I know you wouldn't regret it. 

This week has been super super good! Sister Park came back on Friday :) She ended up not getting surgery which is good. She's still a little bit sick but she's a total fighter and wants to keep being a missionary all the way through! She will go home in three weeks and she thinks she can give it everything she has until then. What a gal, right?!

The coolest thing, for me, that happened this week is that sometimes I actually understand what people are saying to me now! IT'S SO EXCITING! The language really comes little by little but every time I understand a new word in a sentence it's like a Christmas present. no lie. 

Still, the things that stay with you are never the words people say. Especially for me. I may understand someone in one moment and then the next I don't and I've forgotten what I've understood. But that's not what's important. I'm learning that you can understand how people feel without understanding anything that they are saying. 

Last night, for Easter (which they don't really celebrate in Korea but they know American's do) a member invited us over to her house for a big dinner feast. We had all the missionaries in our branch, a return missionary from America and her family, the member family, another member, and a recent convert man who is just the sweetest person alive. As we were all sitting on her living room floor, eating the food she had prepared for us all day, and talking and sharing experiences with each other in two different languages there was just a feeling of love and commonness that I can't really explain. We smiled and laughed and played music and sometimes even shed a tear or two. And now, I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what we talked about. But I know I'll cherish that feeling of love and belonging forever. 

It's a feeling I've had countless times, every day, since I've been here. And I really think, no matter what other crazy things I experience, it is those moments that will stay with me.

I love you all so much. You'll be happy to know I eat sushi on the regular now.

God is watching over you, I know that because I pray for you every day and I see it in the emails you send me. You are so loved and I'm thankful for all of you!

Talk to you again next week!

Daeo mae bae yo!

Sister Weston

Spring Pictures

It Has Been A Week Indeed!!

Hey y'all!

This week has been nuts! Seriously, nuts! Full of some amazing things and also some things that are just downright crazy. Get excited for this one...

So, Sister Park, my amazing trainer, has been feeling pretty sick all week. But because she is so amazing she has still been working super hard every day. But on Saturday when she woke up she could hardly move and just felt really, really not good. We had a member take her to the hospital while I went with another member to teach an English lesson to someone we were meeting for the first time. Turns out, she didn't speak enlgish superrr well and I kindof had to teach her by myself in broken korean and simple english. It was crazy but it worked and she wants to keep meeting with us, haha. God is real. 

Sister Park stayed at the hospital from about 10:30 in the morning until 5:00 at night. I just had to wait at the church with some people until she came back. Turns out, they think she needs to have her appendix removed and that's why she has been in so much pain. So on Saturday night her mom came to pick her up from our apartment. She is now resting at home in Seoul and we are waiting to see whether or not she actually needs surgery. We won't know until tomorrow, so please pray for her if you can! She's awesome and I miss her a lot!

For now, I am in a three person companionship with the Sister missionaries we live with in our apartment. They serve in the area next to us, and until Sister Park returns the three of us will be covering both areas. One of the Sisters had been here for 1 transfer and the other Sister has been here for 2. They are leading their area, obviously, but I now also have to lead them in my area. It sounds super nuts, because I've only been here two weeks, and it is a little bit. But it's also amazing to see all the miracles that are happening. We still had two people come to church yesterday (even thought Sister Park and I both weren't there) and we had another people come to a baptismal service and she told me that she wants to be a missionary! We've only known here for a little over a week! 

Seriously, great things are happening. The people get more and more amazing every day. I still can't believe I'm in Korea sharing meals and stories with people I never would have otherwise met. I never thought I could receive so much love from or feel so much love for people. I could sit on the floor with them and eat Kimchi all day.

That's it for now! The cherry tree's are blooming and the weather is getting really beautiful here! Keep praying for Sister Park if you can :) We are praying for each one of you every day! I love you so much and I know God watches over us. Miracles happen every day if you look for them. 

Talk to you again next week!

BYEEEEEE!

Love,

Sister Weston