July 6, 2014; Happy 4th of July!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a little crazy a little not so crazy... 

It started with Monday going to FHE and having pizza hut and it was so good. Then it lead into Tuesday when we taught Elly who told us she doesn't believe in everything we are teaching her right now. She asked if that was okay and we said of course it is. I told her one of my favorite things about this church and something that proves it's true to me is that we are never asked to blindly believe instead we are constantly reminded and asked to pray and to find out for ourselves about everything. I told her about my family and I and how long it took us to convert. It is sad she doesn't believe right now but it makes me feel good that she trusted us enough to tell us. Later that night we did not have Yen as we usually do because she had the flu this week :( so sad. But she is doing much better. 

Thursday we went to Zone training and that was fun, President Morrise was there. Then Friday we met with someone we met on the Subway on Thursday. She is super nice and great. She is not super interested in the gospel and is actually Buddhist. But she is only Buddhist because her family is Buddhist. So we met her and her name is Claire. We'll be meeting every week :) So exciting. Many members including our stake president started off as English interest only. Then later that night was interviews with President. He and Sister Morrise came to our home and it was great. We had spent all week cleaning thinking they were going to do our cleaning inspection but they ended up not doing it :), but at least it was clean for them. Oh HAPPY 4th of JULY!!! 

Then Saturday well that was an adventure. All I will say is Sister Van Weezep had to go to the OBGYN for the first time in her life. She was super scared and it ended up being not so great. She is okay now and will be fine. 

Then Sunday we ended up giving a member a card and a choco pie because our district leader told us it was her birthday and it ended up not being her birthday. We were a little embarrassed but everything turned out fine lol she laughed at it and thanked us anyways :).

So that was my week not too eventful... but it was great. And guess what... it has been exactly a year and 4 days since I got my mission call to Korea. Back then I had no idea was to expect. I still don't know :). But the slight difference is I do know how much I love this country and these people. I know that I could not imagine my life without Korea and without having served a mission. I am so grateful for this opportunity Heavenly Father and my family have given me. I'm so happy to have this time. I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support. Hope all is well back in the states or wherever you are :).

Love,

Sister Tovar

June 29, 2014

Family and Friends,

This week well... it wasn't as busy as we thought it was going to be, but that's okay :)

Monday- We went to a subway stations (super cheap shopping) and I finally was able to buy my watch which I super love!!! I'm so excited and Sister Van Weezep bought a way cute backpack and I'm kind of jealous. But it was for her sister not for her. Then we got to go to the airport (yes my area has an airport in it the gimpo airport)  and meet up with one of my old investigators because she was having an interview there and asked if we could meet up. I loved seeing her again. She said she prayed about the interview. I hope someday she'll come to know the truth. 

Sorry no time to go through the whole week. Summary we ended up having most of our appointments cancel on us including our members lol. Except the weekend appointments, those were kept for the most part. It was so much fun. We also met someone from Nigria Ben sister van weezep met him and he is so golden!!! he is awesome. then one of our previous investigators the one that is very shy well she is no longer our investigator but it is for the best right now. She doesn't really have a desire to know the truth. It was hard but for the best. Sister Van Weezep was super nice and bought us pizza school lunch on Wednesday. We met with chwaeuna and her husband she is the forever english student. I lover her I had been craving a smoothie but couldn't justify buying it and that night she made us an awesome smoothie! And then they again drove us home! So sweet!!! Then her husband asked an awesome question how is our church different. Love it. Then funny story we got super lost getting to a members house but we were okay lol. Then Saturday had an awesome feast with about half the ward-weren't expecting that. And sad news Yen has the flu... I hope she will get better but with the baby she can't take anything :(. That is the week. I'm excited for this coming week though!!

Huge lessons I'm learning: humility and to not compare yourself to others, and if you aren't being nice to yourself chances are you aren't being kind to others. Things are hard but we always have Heavenly Father with us to help us. 

Love you all so much!

Love Always,

Sister Tovar

June 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

This week has been full of adventures and craziness.... Okay let's start:

Monday was Pday and we had a list of things to get done including writing letters.... well I'm sad to report that as usual we ran out of time... but we did the most important thing, clean our apartment. It's something we are supposed to dedicate an hour to every pday (President's request). And really it needed it! We are both clean freaks so that's good... Then we had a lesson and went to our new weekly FHE night at our ward building.

Tuesday we were finally able to meet with a referral our elders had given us about 3-4 weeks ago. Her phone hadn't been working and she wasn't at home when we checked.  Then finally last week we well long story short through a series of small promptings we went to her house last week and left a note and she finally called us! So we were able to meet finally on Tuesday. It went really well because we had a member with us. It was awesome! Which is funny because everyone thought it was weird to have a member at the first lesson but it just felt right and it was great! Even when something is out of the normal if it is right it is right :). Then we got to meet with Yen and that was awesome. She looks lighter and you can tell she is happier. It's really neat to have the opportunity to see the difference. 

Wednesday we had our district meeting and then Sister Van Weezep and I decided to go to the island. As always adventures with a small twist of a miracle :). Again long story short we ended up riding on three buses in a period of 4 maybe 5 hours... not the most fun thing we have ever done. But we ended up talking to a woman on the bus and she was super sweet and nice. We gave her our phone number and we'll see what comes of it. 

Thursday we met with a potential investigator at Starbucks with a member. The PI was about 1.5 hr late so we felt so bad for the member. And we got to introduce the member to Starbucks because she had never been in one before lol After that we had another lesson with Elly and that went great. And then we got to meet with the forever English student and her husband. We will now meet with them every Thursday. I'm so excited and hope all goes well with it! Praying for a miracle. She was so funny. Right after our appointment Elly we had some time we were just going to talk to people and hadn't had time for dinner. She calls us and asks us if we had dinner then says okay come over then and I will make you kimpop and naymyeong (cold noodles). SO GOOD!!! Heavenly Father really is aware of all of us, He even knew Sister Van Weezep and I didn't have time for dinner that day, how sweet and kind of both Heavenly Father and Lucy (is her English name). 

Friday we finally got through all of weekly planning in, well a shorter amount of time than before. After that oh, I forgot. Thursday while we were at starbucks waiting we got a phone call apparently from our upstairs neighbor who we haven been trying to meet with. A few weeks ago she gave us some watermelon and tomatoes (so sweet). Then we got a whole watermelon from our ward and, don't judge us, gave it to our upstairs neighbor as a thank you with a note and the family English program pamphlet. She then called Thursday and set up an appointment for Friday. So cool!!! So we met with her and I couldn't understand very much lol it's okay we got through it well. We made another appointment for the next day to start the program. She asks great questions about the gospel and church but she isn't too interested since she is looking into another church too. but she is interested in English. It's okay Heavenly Father can help change that (of course within her agency :) ). Then we had another appointment set up with a member but were stood up by our investigator :( i was so sad and disappointed because the member was there. It's one thing to stand us up- that stinks but it's okay, but a member... it was so sad. The member so sweet and had gotten us Mcdonals, ice cream, and pop. I love Koreans! They are so amazing! I love poeple! So then we decided to heart attack a girl in our ward leaving for her mission in a month (oops we thought it was yesterday, nope) 

Saturday was great. English class went super well and I completely forgot what I was going to say for our thought that day... So Sister Van Weezep sounded like she had been out longer than me lol what a great trainer I am. It's okay I'll just have to try harder next time. Then we had our lesson with the member and our neighbor. It went super well!! She asked a friend to come who knew better English and we asked a member who knew Korean... how funny. We found out after the lesson, about her interest level I mentioned on Friday. But the member didn't say it was a lost cause so... she said keep trying. We will :) Then we went to heart attack a member but got caught... lol we aren't so good at being sneaky. Well they had us come in and eat dinner with them. So sweet! She said she had had revelation because she had made more food than usual and didn't know why. So sweet again Heavenly Father and the member. 

Oh btw one of the ladies in my ward served her mission in Busan, Korea and had a companion Sister Henderson.... she wants to try to contact her again but doesn't know where to start. She doesn't have her first name or her new married name. The Sister was from UT at the time. If you have any leads let me know please!!! 

Sunday church was great was great! A new family moved into our ward and they a big family well kind of (2 boys, one dad, one mom, and a grandma and grandpa). I love the grandma! She has a son in Florida and another in Provo :). Super sweet. And then later that night we went out to try to talk to people and got kind of yelled at by a women lol it's okay she wasn't that scary. Before that we met a couple who had known Mormons and one that had learned English with them... maybe something will come of it. She didn't seem interested but she also did not seem 100% opposed :) We'll take our chances with the .5% chance there is interest that can grow :).

Wow what a week and this next one won't be any exception :). I love you all so much. Thank you for your emails and your love and support. I love hearing from all of you!

Love Always,

Sister Tovar