Week #17

Another eventful week here in Issaquah!! Sort of. haha.

 

On Friday, it was the funeral of the missionary in Mexico who died. His mom is in our ward and one of my favoritest ladies ever. She is a single mom and Peter was her only son so it was tragic really. But the funeral was absolutely beautiful. Elder Martino from the seventy came and spoke and there was just such a feeling of peace there. It was awesome. We go and see Mary pretty often and she is such an amazing lady! She is one tough cookie that's for sure. 

On Wednesday we had a meeting with President Choi and he told us that he was speaking at a fireside with Korean members only and asked if the sisters in our zone would sing I am a Child of God in Korean. Yeah that came as a shock. We had like 3 days to learn it! Good thing my companion is Korean. He wanted it memorized too so that was all I was singing last week. But, it turned out great and I still find myself singing it haha. It was a cool experience to be there at the fireside! I didn't understand a word but it made me realize that the gospel is the same no matter what language. I'm so grateful for that. 

What else... Nothing I guess. It has been raining so hard since basically last Friday. It hasn't stopped yet! Tracting in it is a blast. I am always wet and cold. I guess I should get used to it. Thank heavens for my rain boots!

That about wraps up my week... Thank you for all the love and support! Love you all!!! 

Week #16

Hello! This week was about the same as last. Not much has changed. We still tract all the time and still haven't had much success. I'm still struggling so my mission president and his wife have decided to have me meet with a counselor. I'm meeting with her on Wednesday so we'll see how that goes.

The rain is starting to come now. It pretty much poors at night and is on and off throughout the rest of the day. It's pretty gloomy here now. It gets dark at like 5 and the rest of the day is just a really bright gray.

The funeral of the missionary from our ward who died is going to be on Friday and a general authority is going to come speak. It should be a beautiful service and we're lucky we get to go.

That about wraps things up around here. Thinking of you lots! Love you so much!!

 

Sister Brian

Week #15

Wow. Honestly I have no report for this week. It was probably the most boring week EVER. We did nothing. Except tract. and Tract. and TRACT. With no success. HA. 

So Sister Lee is nice. But our house always stinks like Kimchi. and rice. She only eats Korean food haha. 

What else... I think that about wraps it up. Oh, I wore my crocs. For those who don't know what they look like... They are actually pretty cute. Not like the normal crocs. But they are super comfortable. I just had to laugh at myself when I wore them because I feel like such a missionary. Ahh well, I suppose I am so whatever. haha I can't even think of anything else to say... so on that note.... Love you all!!

Week #14

Wow.. Transfers! I made it another one so I am still staying in Issaquah!! It's a blessing and a curse. I love this place and I truly hate it sometimes haha. It's just great. But my new companion is Hyunah Lee from our home ward!! Haha hilarious. It's been alright for the 2 hours I've been with her so far so we'll see how the next 6 weeks goes....

 

So this week we did a ton of service! It's a miracle since no one will ever let us do service! But an awesome lady in our ward works at a place called House of Hope. It's a place where women can go and live for free with their children if they have an abuser have been abandoned... Things like that. It's like a women's shelter but they live in million dollar houses. It's insane. But they have people donate clothes so we got to go and organize the clothes! It was awesome. And I got to wear pants!! That barely fit. It's proof I'm getting fat! GAHHHH. But whatever...

Also we helped Brandy with some service. She has a huge garden and she cans EVERYTHING. Seriuosly everything. So we got to go and help her can! It was awesome. Then she sent us home with so much stuff! So much squash and zucchini! (by the way mom, I made bread and everyone loved it!!!)

What else... I hit my 3 month mark!! I can't believe it! As I always say, it's a miracle I made it this far. And that about wraps up my week. Haha pretty slow week. But it's all good. Hopefully I'll have some more cool things to say next week. My emails are getting pretty boring. Anyway. Love you all!!!!

Kathryn's Baptism

Sister Brian, Sister Monks, Kathryn and Scott Denninghoff (Kathryn's work friend who baptized her)

Dave and Terri Young (ward members who helped fellowship Kathryn.

Turning on the water to fill up the font!

Putting in the plug!

After-baptism celebration. Ice cream with a fork!

It was amazing! So many ward members and missionaries came. Like standing room only! The talks were beautiful, given by the ward members who fellowshipped her--Dave and Terri Young. They are the cutest! Terri (Sister Young....oops!) reminds me of Grandma Brian. Ah, it makes me miss her! We also had a lady in the ward play the harp. She played Nearer my God to Thee and it was incredible. I was tearing up! (Thanks, Mom!) Sister Monks and I walked around the temple after (our stake center is right behind it). That was the moment I thought, man I'm doing something right! It was the best feeling and I'm so lucky I got to experience it.

On a funnier note....We had to be at the Stake Center 2 hours early to start filling the font but you can't leave it. It was right during our dinner time so we just decided to eat there. Sister Monks brought a little thing of easy-mac and I brought pancakes! Yes, pancakes! They sounded soooo good so I brought my pan, PAM, my Kodiak cakes, peanut butter, all the works! It was hilarious. I was still flippin' away when people started to show up! Ha ha! The whole room smelled like pancakes because of me. Ooops! Anyway, it was awesome.

Week #13

Kathryn got baptized this week!!! It was incredible!! There were a million people there! Okay, maybe not but there were a ton of missionaries and so many people from our ward! It was packed. Like standing room only. Everything went perfectly and we had someone in our ward play the harp. It was so perfect! After, Sister Monks and I got a chance to just walk around the temple. That was so nice. And peaceful!! She was confirmed on Sunday and everything went according to plan. She is awesome and we love her!!

That reminds me.. The temple last week was so awesome!!! The Seattle temple is so cool! It has escalators in it haha it was hilarious. But it was beautiful. I honestly wish we could go more! I'd go every week if it were possible. 

What else... Transfers are next Tuesday! I have a hunch I'm going to stay here and that Sister Monks is leaving? It's so weird! I like don't know a mission without her! Hahaha. I guess we'll see what happens? 

We got a referral from a new convert in our ward to teach her friend. So we went over for dinner and taught Ariane the Restoration and part of the Plan of Salvation. We gave her a book of mormon too! It was cool but I'm not sure she's super interested. So we'll see! We also taught another lesson to a kid in our ward's girlfriend. Her name is Melissa. She was so cute! She was just rollin with everything we taught and she is already like half way through the Book of Mormon. Crazy!! Hopefully we'll get to teach her again!!

I think that's all.. Super short but our time is way short today. I love you all!!!!