General Conference

Family and Friends,

So today will be a short email but I think that's good every now and then. Not much happened this week... which no news is good news sometimes. 

General Conference!! I finally got to hear this past weekend. I was so excited. So because of having to wait for translation Korea watches General Conference a week after the United States, and although I do get to watch it in English we wait to watch it until the rest of the country watches it. It was awesome! My favorite talk was Elder Scott's talk! So good. They are all truly men called of God and women called of God. Our investigators actually went to watch conference and it was super cool because they both got something different and Sister Fudge I also got something different. The cool part is that we all heard what we needed to hear. 

Two things that I will mention. The first is that I loved that they talked about member missionary work. As a member maybe it gets tiring and draining to hear, but as a missionary we pray for those talks. More than that we pray that people will act on them. The best investigators come from member referrals because they have an automatic fellow shipper who is truly invested in the future. Or for members to come to activities so that they can meet the investigators and bring them in. As a missionary you understand you will leave, but members stay and so that is they are the best people for investigators to attach to. Okay sorry that was my shpeal but I really did love that they mentioned it, it was great. 

The second message I will mention is the common running theme, well one of them. We need to be kind and loving to everyone even those that do not believe as we do. Even those who are unkind to us we must always be kind. As a missionary you have a name tag so like the story in general conference regardless of what people do or say we must always be kind and and polite, and smile. But as members we always where an imaginary name tag too. Anyway, I really loved that they mentioned that. 

I hope you are all doing well. Hopefully I'll have some cool adventure to tell you about next week. 

Love,

Sister Tovar

Week 30

Dear Family and Friends,

This week had a lot less adventures but was still a lot of fun and so good! The week started with us not having pday last Monday because we were able to go the temple this past Thursday. 

Tuesday was what we call our miracle day. We went to the island, which is usually where we have our many adventures take place. We were asked to go to the island because our Mission President and the Stake President were thinking about opening up a group there but wanted all the information we could gather before making a decision. So all six of us in our district went. Our day started with us trying to find a building to have English Class and guess what?? We not only found a place but they had been trying to figure out how to start get an English Class started w/ native English teachers and then we showed up! How cool is that? Then the women we were setting things up with asked about the church and my companion gave her a Restoration pamphlet and explained a bit about it. By the end she asked if she could keep the pamphlet, she said she has no religion but she was curious about it.

Then we were walking around trying to talk to people and we passed this college age guy on the street. We didn't think anything of it but then we passed him again and this time he stopped us. He had bought two strawberry milks and said do you have? We of course said of course of we have time. But can we maybe bring our friends with us to chat? He asked why and we tried to explain to him about the rules with sisters and boys and he said no I like girls lol. Either way I sent a quick text to the elders telling them where to casually run into us just in case. But it turns out he is an awesome guy and he wants to learn more about our gospel. Also, I guess the elders had run into him before but hadn't gotten his number or given them theirs and so Elder Robinson had been praying to run into again so that he could give him their information. And we did! Prayers are answered! 

Lastly, we went to meet up with a less active the elders had found on the island to see if she was interested in going to sacrament if it was closer to her. She said yes and to let her know details when we had them. That was the answer we needed for president to want to start a group, so he did and we are now starting a group on the island! So exciting

Then we had a barbecue with the ward which we found out about at the last minute on Saturday. There was a good turn out which was great, what was even better was that there were almost the same number of investigators and members there :). I felt like a real missionary it was so cool. And the members did a great job at fellowshiping. And the guy setting everything up went all out. It was raining so he essentially with a tent, and fabric built and additional room connected to the building by a door. Then because it was so windy he had to tie strings to cars and then he drilled into the cement to keep it from flying away. He also brought out his massive sound system and started playing cool music like macho man macho man... Then he brought a screen projector and a sound system to play a movie for the kids, which movie did choose? Of course Frozen so yes no I have a seen a total of 15 minutes of Frozen and know pretty much what it is about and how it ends. But I LOVE THE SNOWMAN!!! I want a snowman stuffed animal, but not just any I want that snowman stuffed animal. 

Oh and Avengers 2 is being filmed in Korea! In my mission! How cool is that??

Okay lastly Temple day! It was awesome. We got to see the new movie (I saw at the MTC) but my companion was super excited about it. And then it rained :( so the hike we had planned had to be cancelled. Instead we went to the church building and played games.

One of my investigators is from Singapore and she is awesome! Her husband is Korean and that is why she is here. She is five months pregnant :). She is so awesome! and so nice and laid back. She is an example to me. Her name is Yen and I learn so much from her answers it's great. 

Okay I think that's it :). I miss you all so much and love you so much! Thank you for the birthday wishes and the cards and letters I really appreciate it!  

Love always,

Sister Tovar

Week 29- A week full of adventures!

Family and friends!

The past two weeks have been crazy! It has felt like a month has gone by but I guess it hasn't lol. Anyway, good time, bad times, funny times, rule breaking times, risky times, and all the in between. 

Okay so recap of the first week in my new area. I have a new companion, Sister Fudge, and she is from Florida. She is my first companion that is older than me lol. At home I felt young still on the mission I feel old lol, but I'm not I promise. Anyway, so transfers day was awesome! Because I got my new companion and we had a lesson to teach that night. The next day (Thursday) we traveled to the island that is in my area, yes my area covers an island. But it doesn't just cover one island it covers around six islands and I can go on all of them! So cool!!! However, I can really only justify going on three of them. I'm so excited. So that day we just explored because she hadn't been on the island either and we ended running into an grandma that was awesome! She is very lonely because her husband recently died. So we left a plan of salvation pamphlet with her and told her we would come back. Mind you exploring and island and finding a miracle person all happened on the first day. 

Okay that was the most exciting part of last week, now this past week yay!

Monday- we decided that for pday we would explore one the smaller island and boy was that an adventure. Only one set of elders came with us and no one else really wanted to travel that far that day so the four of us started our adventure after email that day. We took a bus to the first island (it has a bridge connecting it), and then a ferry to the next island (a bridge should be built soon) and the ferry ride was only about 15 min. Well in that hour and half we ended up playing three games of bang -on the bus and while waiting for the ferry. So much fun! After that we got the island and lets just say it was very deserted and we decided to be adventurous and explore the more deserted part of it. While my companion thought it would be a great idea to explore rice fields lol. Well we ended up meeting people and seeing the area is worth exploring more. These people have never seen missionaries before in their lives! How cool is that! Anyway, on our way back to the ferry we were walking along this small cement road, both sides had water with dirt and bushes. I was of course on edge from the beginning but then out of nowhere this fezent popped out of the bush and of course me being me, I grabbed on to the first thing I could, which in this case happened to be one of the elder, Elder McLean. He finally brought me back to after a minute when he said, "Can you please let go of me." I apologized a lot and was super embarrassed but then the older elder, Elder Robinson, decided of course to mock me for the rest of the walk back. Where was my companion the whole time, two feet ahead on the phone with our district leader. Yes, hilarious pday. No worries after breaking the rules with Elder McLean I decided repent and held on to my companion the rest of the way back instead. 

And Monday was the birthday of the best nephew ever, Erick!!!

Tuesday- I'll make this short, I discovered my new English class has a couple of creepy men in it. So Elder Robinson will now be teaching the class with me thank heavens. And we visited a less active who after three years wants to come back to church and decided to ask for help.

Wednesday- Well now I know what it's like to be a pop star, and the elders in my district need some humbling. We went to do service at a high school with low income students. We obviously went to help teach the only thing we could-English. Well as we are walking to and into the classroom all the students eyes are on us. They all were saying hi and getting super excited. We walked into the classroom and immediately the excitements heightens and the teenage girls start going crazy over the elders and well us in general. The teacher starts the class and asks us to introduce ourselves, my companion is first. She says her name and then come screams - all that was missing were the flashing camera lights- then again they have phone cameras. Then wow, Elder Heglewall starts to introduce himself-he is blonde, blue eyed, tall, and bit muscular- need I say more? And Koreans LOVE Americans- especially blonde and blue eyed Americans. This continues for the rest of the introductions but two of the elders got the most screams. It was awesome to be able to help and I loved the girls I was with they were awesome. We even talked about families and I told them how much I love my family and that my best friends are my family. They also wanted to get our phone number, I didn't know if it was allowed so I told them next week. 

Well one of them ended up coming to our English Class on Saturday and brought two friends- so exciting!

Thursday- we went back to the island and rode a bus to try to get information about the other island we want to explore. On the bus we found the perfect person. He was a kind, service oriented older man. The elders will be meeting with him :). We were at the bus terminal on the island and we decided to go on a bus that had many grandmas and students lining up to go on it. It was great because we know where to go now but on the way back we decided to get off the bus and explore a bit. Well it turns out not many buses drive on that road... so we ended having to hitch hike our way back to the terminal so we could get back to the mainland in time for our dinner appointment. We are only allowed  to go in a car with a female in it so we had to make sure she was a female driver. My companion ended up teaching the first lesson to her :). So cool! I'm glad she stopped because if she hadn't it would have been about an hour or two walking distance. Oops, at least now we will be better prepared. Then our dinner appointment/back to being pop star we went to eat dinner at our investigators house with the elders because they will be teaching her husband while we teach her. Well on the way there my companion was stopped by a man which isn't unusual we are stopped often to say hello. She does a little hair flip I tease her about all the time, she flipped her hair out of her badge. Then he shows her pictures of us teaching at the high school, apparently they are online??? Then he wants a picture with us! Crazy right!!! Turns out he knows someone from the high school and that is why he knew about the picture, but so cool!

Friday- We had interviews with President Morrise (best mission president ever!) And later that night we were supposed to host a game night to help the ward and our investigators meet all the new missionaries and each other but we only had our investigators turn out and only two of them. No ward members :( (Please go to ward activities) I was devastated because it was perfect time for our investigator to meet the ward and no one showed up :(. Well the other elders wanted to have more people so they went to find them and we had 6 more random boys come to the activity. It was a fun a night all in all. 

Saturday- My birthday!!!!! The Relief Society just so happened to be going to lunch and a movie that day so we were invited to the lunch. So I got free lunch! Then had an awesome English class turn out!  Afterwards my awesome district took me out to Baskin Robbins were we all shared a bucket of ice cream! So much fun!!! The day before at interviews I was also able to get letters, cards, and a package from great people back home! Thank you so much!! I didn't expect to get anything since my birthday package from my family had come early but it was an awesome surprise!!!

Okay that was my week, yes the expectation is pretty high for this week! We will go to the temple and hike one of the biggest mountains in Korea!

Love Always,

Sister Tovar

My week

Family and Friends!!!

So I think it was last week that I said no news is good news sometimes, well it's true :). This week has been very eventful but not all of it is good news :( It's okay because I have some miracles to report and somehow those make everything else okay. 

So my week started off on Monday, although I will go back to last Sunday. I went on an exchange to a different area in my zone. Sister Goines and I were eating a sushi roll (korean style) like a taco, so cool! So I wanted to take a picture. So I took it and then thought I put my camera back in my pocket, well turns out it either slid out or well who knows. The point is I lost my camera on the bus. I realized it 10 minutes too late. No one has turned in to the bus company and we have tried posting flyers but nothing so far. I was really sad but honestly probably not as sad as I would have been had I not been on my mission. Heavenly Father comforted me and knew it would be okay.

Then back to last Sunday so one of the less active members we have been working with said she wants to know if the church is true and is going to really try and will learn about it and everything! I was excited huge miracle! She hasn't been to church in over 15 years. Her family is less active too except her dad, I think I told you about her coming to church last week but forgot to mention this other part lol. Well she came again Sunday and will be coming and praying, and reading, and doing her part. This past Sunday her dad thanked me for reactivating his daughter I told him it wasn't me and thank you for introducing me to her. We are great friends now. I'm so grateful to have been able to be Heavenly Fathers tool on this Earth to help that happen. Things like this make everything worth it. 

Also, on the exchange I found out Noble, someone I wrote about about a month ago. Sister Goines (everything seems to happen with her and i on exchange lol) and I found him on the subway and he asked a million questions etc. I told the story before but now the continuation. Sister Goines and her companion were teaching him but had to refer him elsewhere because he moved and he is male. Well it turns out he got BAPTIZED!!! about 2 weeks ago I believe. I was excited to hear that. It is one of those miracle stories you hear at conference, it's true they happen. Not only that Heavenly Father let me be part of one. So cool!!! Now he can go back to Africa and tell everyone in his village about the church and convert them all! Yes, he is that type of person. I'm so grateful to have been able to know him. 

Okay lastly,  transfer calls came!!! Drum roll...... I am moving to cangso zone kimpo ward/area! My new companion is Sister Fudge and she is American. I'm so excited. I'm so sad to leave my first/greeny area but suwon will always be my home in Korea. Saying bye to the members was hard but I know I will keep in touch and I know I have made life long friendships. 

I'm so grateful for this wonderful opportunity I have be here in Korea and serve the people here. I am so grateful for all of you and your examples to me. Thank you for being in my life. I love you all so much! Oh and next week is my birthday.... can you believe it!!!!! the 29th!!!! So excited!!!

Love Always,

Sister Tovar

First week of my favorite month

Family and Friends,

Wow it's March! I can't believe it. In a week I will have been on my mission for six months! That's crazy. Anyway, so this week...

Well this week hasn't been too eventful which is good :). Sometimes no news is good news. We did have our English party which was great! There are two students who this week we might be putting some pressure on to let us teach them lol in other words we will try to convince them. One of them is a cute mom with her little (he is about 4 or 5 maybe) he is super loud and has tons of energy but he is also super smart! He knows the whole English alphabet. Sometimes I look at the little kids we teach and think how much Korean they know and how I wish they could transfer their knowledge to me lol. Little by little though.

This week I think one of the biggest things I've learned is to appreciate where I am serving. I am serving in Suwon, shinpung (수원 신풍 ward). Every single day I get to walk by the Suwon wall, which looks like a small version of what I imagine the great wall would look like :). And it's long and huge! And I get to walk by ancient gates. It is truly the coolest thing ever. This past week there was a national holiday of sorts in Korea and so tons of people were out and about. Especially in a square (parkish area) across the street from the church. It is called hweasong hangun (sorry I'm not good at translating sounds lol) anyway there is a folk village there (old authentic building and people with old authentic clothes) so cool! Anyway, they perform old school sword fights and stuff so cool. And there is this creek in my area that runs perpendicular to the wall and where they cross is such a beautiful place. That is part of what I learned this week. To appreciate how lucky I am to be serving in this area. 

My companion actually is teaching me something, never apologize for sharing the gospel. I feel bad sometimes because we interupt people on their walks or take up their time and she has been telling me not to. We are sharing with them the most important news in the world. Our message is such a joyous and grand message everyone does need to hear it. So why apologize for sharing this. I remember hearing once in a fireside or talk, "Would you feel bad for giving someone $100, probably not so why do you feel bad for giving someone something that is worth so much more than that?" This is the best message we can share with people. I'm am so grateful for my brother in law who decided to share this with my family, because it is the most important thing in our lives. I am so grateful to be so fortunate as to have this opportunity to have this gospel and to share it. 

I hope you are all doing well. And I hope wherever you are the sun is shinning and you can feel it's warmth :). I love you all so much and am grateful to have you in my life. 

Love Always,

Sister Tovar (토바 자매)