Last week of 2013

                                                                                                                                December 29, 2013

Family and Friends!!!

Limited time on the computer is really hard lol. So I am copying and pasting my letter to my mission president, well part of it. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year! I'll be partying it up in my dreams lol. Tis the season to be happy... always.

My week has been great, the church is true! And Heavenly Father answers prayers and cares. I have two neat experiences to share. The first was earlier in the week during my personal study, my goal for the week was to finish Preach my gospel chapter 1 and I did. Well as I was finishing the last activity of the chapter I feel like Heavenly Father gave me a little gift. This is what I wrote in my journal...

"I am studying preach my gospel working on an exercise on pg. 11 I was about to start reading Alma 8:14-15 but I had the thought to start with Ether 12:13-15 instead of Alma, both were listed in the same activity but Alma is listed first. Either talked all about faith and that it is through faith that miralces are brought to pass. then I started to cry a little because I thought, "Have I been a good missionary? Am I doing all I can? Do I have that faith?" then I turned to Alma and my Heavenly Father responded with Alma 8:15, "Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that adelivered it unto you." I personalized the scripture and changed his name for mine. The Lord is more aware of us than we know. yes He will let hard times happen but He has to because He loves us. When we listen and let Him , He will show us He is here. -Tender mercy from the Lord"

Another really nice experience happened yesterday. A member pulled me aside and told me something she had learned from her time as a missionary. What she said was what I needed to hear. She is moving and last Sunday was her last but I was grateful for her listening to the spirit prompting her to talk with me. She gave me a hug and told me all would be okay. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and the knowledge that I, that we are never alone. This week I have felt His love so strongly and I'm very grateful for that. That is one of the many things I want to share with the world that we do have a Savior and a Heavenly Father that they love us so much that we don't have to do anything alone. I know we all have struggles but that is what we are here to experience and it's during the difficult times that we become strong, the refiners fire, not water. Ether 12:6 is in my thoughts more strongly today.

Sister Sloan and I also saw more miracles as we pushed ourselves to meet our goals for the week. We talked to more than 50 people in the last two days to meet our goal and becuase of the dilligence we should Heavenly Father opened doors. We received numbers and even had someone tell us he would be coming to church on Sunday, and two people say they would come to English class. We taught street lessons which are starting to scare me less. My testimony on stretching ourselves has really grown.

These are the most important experiences from the past week. The more I really let myself and try to see the Lords hand in my life the more  I see it. Sometimes I have experiences like the ones above where it is obvious but other times its more subtle. I know Heavenly Father loves each one of you and know that I love you and I am grateful that you are in my life. Let's make some goals this coming year not only to improve our own lives but to help others. I know missionary work is hard, it's hard going up to complete strangers and trying to talk to them about the gospel but this is the greatest thing in my life and the biggest blessing I want others to also have this opportunity. Good luck this coming year I'm sure it will be filled with great adventures! :)

Love Always,

Sister Tovar

Third week

Family and Friends!

 

So another week has gone by, or should I say flown by? They really do go quickly! So this week we had a few miracles and I'm so excited to share them with you!

 

Wednesday so this week started off with Zone Meeting and Pizza School. Their pizza is actually pretty good :) I decided to not be brave and get regular old cheese :( lol It's okay I didn't regret my choice becuase it was really good.  During our meeting I learned that we must be happy missionaries because we are messengers of joy. If we aren't happy how are people going to believe we have a message of joy right? After our meeting we went to a poetry reading of sorts for a less active in our ward, so cool!!! There was traditional music and everything!! Loved it! Sorry I probably overuse the ! it's okay though. After the poetry reading we went to dinner at a members house and it was so much fun.  She told us about her conversion story, how her father in law set her up with her husband, and her proposal! Such cute stories all of them! I wish I could type them all super fast but I don't think there is time :(. I'll say this about her conversion story her mom is amazing!! Her mom wanted her to meet the missionaries because she thought they were cute and wanted her daughter to practice her English so the member met with the missionaries and then left for school. Two months after she gets a call from her mom and her mom tells her she has been baptized and that she has to meet with the missionaries! How awesome is that!! I love it! The member has a brother and there mom offered to buy him a car if gets baptized, so funny. Well he did but he is no longer active :( sad day but funny story.  Anyway so that was a great way to end the day :).

 

Something I forgot to mention  Wednesday we met this guy on the street and he starts talking to us in English and then he says I want to go to church and we were both a bit stunned and taken aback. I got so excited, imagine the dorky guy from the best two years, yes this is how I felt lol. So we give him our information and the English class info by the time we think to get his number he's gone :(. But Friday\Sun he calls us! Thankfully we had a dinner appointment for later that night with a member and the elders. We refer him to the elders because that is what we typically try to do if they are male. Well the appointment ends up taking a good three to four hours! I was so nervous that it took too long, but it ended up being great. He got taught the first discussion with the help of members and extra missionaries! And he ended up coming to church on Sunday!!! So exciting.

 

Saturday we ended up going to a relief society luncheon at 11:30. The lunch was orginally supposed to be at the church but then got moved to a really nice restauarant instead and I later found out the Bishop paid! So kind right?! It was cool the food was well, Korean of course :). We got done with the lunceon at about 2:30, yes typical Relief Society :).

 

Sunday was awesome!! Okay I sang in church, no so great but the whole thing wasn't so bad. We sang Silent Night, the first verse in German (german elder sang it with his companion), the next in English and the last verse in Korean of course :). After church we had the usual dinner my ward puts on every Sunday. Super spicy!! I was sweating and my fingers tingled, and I got a bit dizzy because of how spicy it was but I am happy to say I finished all of it! :) Yay! After the dinner we met up with an old investigator who contacted us after three weeks of silence. So exciting because he has a friend with him. We met them both and the guy gave his friend his copy of the Book of Mormon and we gave him a hard cover he had requested. They are both now are new investigators!! So exciting. We are helping them both with English and with the gospel! And one of them set a baptismal goal for one month from yesterday! So exciting and they were both so cool and super nice!

 

I love the message from zone meeting because it's true we have so much in our lives to be grateful for and so much to smile about. I'm so grateful I get to share this message of joy with the world. Yesterday I was asked why I came on a mission and I was able to testify that I know this gospel is true and that I've seen the happiness it's brought me and my family and I want to share it with the world. I was also able to testify that I know that my call comes from Heavenly Father and I know I'm here for a reason, probably many. I'm learning so much and no missions aren't easy but every minute is worth it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else or doing anything else. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful family and such incredible friends thank you so much!

 

Love Always,

Sister Tovar

Happy Thanksgiving

December 2, 2013

Hello family and friends!!

I think I actually prefer hand writing this letter lol so maybe I'll
go back to that. Anyway, my second week in Korea has been crazy of
course!! Sorry no pictures this week either, hopefully next week:).

Thanksgiving was this past week!! Hope you all had a wonderful
Thanksgiving! We have an army base in my mission and the incredible
members of that branch hosted all of the missionaries in my mission!!
So crazy but so nice. The apartment I went to was really nice and they
had all of the Thanksgiving favorites, including my ham! Yay! They
also had every pie you could think of! And they let us take tons of
food home. I was so grateful that these wonderful members let us into
their home and let us share the holidays with them.

That night I also went on my first exchange and it was great! I
learned a lot, I learned that being a senior companion is not easy.
Sorry during the exchange the other sister came to my area so I was
senior companion and that meant I took the lead in everything. Not
fun!  I don't know the language or the routes so I had to learn
somethings fast. At least now I know how to get home :).

Have I mentioned how much I love my ward?? The members are all so
kind! and we had dinner at the bishops house Sunday and it was
amazing! His wife is an incredible cook! He also used the opportunity
to teach us all some Korean, thankfully!

Things have been great and although I feel like I'm regressing in the
language I know I'm progressing, but it's hard. I've decided to take
on on Christlike attribute a month and really study it and apply it.
This month the attribute I've been working on is diligence. It's
interesting because as I was trying to decide which to do that one
felt right. Well a couple of days after I choose it I was rereading a
blessing I was given in the MTC and in the blessing it talked a lot
about diligence and how much I need to have it lol funny right?
Definitely not a coincidence :). Anyway, I've learned so much about it
and I keep learning more everyday. Diligence is working even when you
are too tired to work, it means not giving up. And it means enduring
EVERYTHING that gets thrown your way in the best way possible. It
means giving everyone and everything your best. I'm trying so hard to
do that because that is what everyone and every situation deserve. It
is hard and I am also trying to remember to be patient with myself but
it's doable. Of course I won't always be great at diligence but as
long as I'm trying and I am giving my all that's all that matters. So
when things get tough I just try to smile and remember all the
blessings I have and that things are great and I can do anything with
my Heavenly Father.

Hope that wasn't preachy but that's just one of the many things I've
been learning.  You know I think even after my mission I want to say
hello to random people and smile at them they seem to like it even if
it is a bit weird. :) Anyway I hope to hear from you and I hope
everyone is doing great! I love you all so much and I am so grateful
to have you in my life. I love being on a mission and am grateful to
have the gospel in my life and my families life.

Love Always,
Sister Tovar