The Time Continues to Fly

Yeah, so about yesterday, it was so fun!! Our whole mission got together for a big mission activity. What was this missionary activity, you may ask? You'll probably never guess. Our mission president and his wife called us all together to Busan to run a 5k! That's right, we spent our P-day doing exercise. Haha Many missionaries were not too pleased with this, but I thought it was way fun. And yes, you will be proud to hear that I did indeed run the whole thing! Remember the last time I did that was in the MTC! So I'm pretty proud of myself :D

Our mission president's wife actually studied Physical Education and such, so she is super into being healthy and all her family likes doing marathons and such, so I guess they are going to get all of the mission to be just as excited about it as they are. :) And also, we all got tshirts, and were wearing the same shirt. It was very exciting. lol

As for LAST week, it was pretty busy. We had a Zone P-day last Monday, then Zone Conference on Thursday, and also we did exchanges and the Elders did exchanges so we have been seeing other missionaries all throughout the week. I've been really happy about it. One of my favorite things is gathering together and seeing other missionaries. It's just so fun, and we are like a big huge family. 

I actually caught a cold that has been going around our zone, so I've had an interesting week trying to get my health back to par. I got sick right before exchanges, with a cold where your throat hurts too bad to talk. Our Sister Training Leader was so nice and just kept talking and encouraged me not to (she had the same cold just the week before). I was really really worried because I had to sing for the musical number in our Zone Conference the next day. When Zone Conference came around my throat was so rough and I could barely hit the top notes, but I figured I'd just do it anyway. But THEN, during the morning meeting, my voice just all of the sudden DISAPPEARED. Like really, I couldn't get more than a whisper out. So I had to ask another sister to sing the song in my place. It was an interesting experience. My voice is back now, so don't worry!

Our investigators are all doing well! The two students that are our age are really fun to meet with, and have become comfortable with asking their questions about the Book of Mormon (they are reading when we ask them to! :D) so we are so happy. I love seeing them progress! It's amazing. I just want them to accept this gospel so bad! I know that it can help them with anything in their life! But one of them is studying for a super important test so she may start being too busy to meet :( Pray for them to realize how important this is to continue studying!

I think that's all for now; everything is going great! Say hello to Mariah for me, as she gets home this week! Tell her I love her lots :) And I love you lots too, Mom and Dad! Have a wonderful week <3

Sister Christina Segovia

Interesting Fact: 

Students have to study all the time, literally. When we talk about studying in the US, we usually can say "yeah I studied all day yesterday" but actually mean we may have studied for an hour, taken a break, studied for another two hours, break, etc. But in Korea, when they say they are studying, they are actually studying, like nonstop. And if they don't study, they feel this kind of regret/guilty feeling because they think that they are getting passed up by all the other students who are studying when they aren't. It's kind of not-great circumstances.

Spiritual Insight:

In zone conference, our mission president showed us a clip from the movie Walk With Giants. In the clip, a football player was told by his coach to carry a 160-pound teammate on his back and bear-walk down the field. The normal amount to do was 20 yards, but the coach asked this player to promise his very best and try to go to the 50-yard mark. The player promised to do his best, and then in order to not give up before he really had done his best, the coach blind-folded him. The player then started down the field, the coach staying right by his side the whole time. The coach didn't help with the burden, but he continued non-stop encouragement, not letting him give up. The coach's words to his player helped the player continue. With all the passion he could, the coach yelled, "Don't you give up! You promised my to give your best! I know it hurts, but don't you stop! Let it burn! Don't give up!"

This player was able to keep going because he knew what he had promised to his coach, and because that coach was there every painful step he took. He couldn't see where he was going, he had no idea when the end was, all he could feel was the burning pain with every move forward. And yet he kept going. When he finally had given his all, he fell to the ground. That's when his coach showed him where he had come. He had carried a 160-pound load all the way across the 100-yard football field, more than he or any other person had expected.

So I actually want you all to think about how this story can apply to you right now.. I hope that I told it well enough for you to be able to see yourself in the story. I certainly was able to feel a huge impact on me as I watched it, as I felt that Heavenly Father was just like that coach, encouraging me to keep going even when I said it was too hard, because I had promised him my best. 

Rain Day

So you all know that today is my P-day... And once again, it is raining! It seems that almost every P-day since I've been in this area has rained. The thing that's weird about it is that the rest of the week there's not even a hint of rain, and then it jumps up on us when we're most excited to go out and have fun. My companion pointed out something ironic... In Korean, the word for rain is pronounced like P, so when we say P-day now, we are thinking "rain-day" haha! 

But even in the rain, we can still have fun! Which we are planning to. As far as this past week, we have seen a lot of great things happen! We were able to meet with all of the investigators I told you about last week, and they are still doing great. :) Keep praying for them in their progress! 

There's actually not a ton to say this week, as it was just a week where we keep going forward and working hard and are still waiting for the results. Something we did decide to work on for the next coming weeks is our relationship with the members. We realized that this past month we have been so busy with investigators that we kind of forgot to keep working hard with the members too, so our relationship isn't the greatest right now. So we are starting to work really hard to show them our love, because members are an important link in missionary work! There really can't be success without them :) 

Yeah... the week was good! Sorry I don't have a ton to say.. It's all going well though! I love you all. Mom you must have had so much fun with Caom's family! I love them so much, and miss them a lot! Thanks for the email from Cami :) <3 and I hope Dad was okay at home on his own! :D

Love you!! 

Sister Segovia

Interesting Fact of the week:

I can't remember exactly when we learn algebra in schools... But it's not till middle school right? I just found out this week that Korean students are required to learn algebra when they are NINE years old! Talk about stress at a young age! Wow. No wonder Koreans are so smart!

Lastly and definitely not least, the biggest learning moment for me this week:

My companion, Sister Kim Yeji, had her very first talk in church as a missionary. :D She told the story from Elder Bednar's talk in General Conference, about his two sons. After the younger brother got a small injury, the older brother proceeded to clean and bandage him up. He used methods he had seen from his parents, first putting a big load of soap on the brother's arm, then using a full tube of soothing medicine for the small cut, and finishing off with bandages all up and down the boy's arm. He certainly didn't do anything perfectly, and perhaps others would have said he did a mess of a job. And yet, he did his BEST, and because of that, the younger brother felt the love and wanted to help others too. When I thought of this story, I realized that I am in no ways perfect, but if I'm doing my best, it's okay! Yeah I make lots of mistakes and sometimes I make a mess of things, but God knows when I'm trying my hardest and He will bless me for it. And others will be able to feel that too and be affected for good. It's not about how we do it, but about how much we tried.

The day we've all been looking forward to...conference!

Yeah, so I know you already saw Conference last week, but us over here in Korea just got to watch it yesterday and Saturday! And wow, it was absolutely amazing!!! I'll talk a little about the beginning of the week first and then come back to it.

So for one, we had interviews with out President on Tuesday, which was really great. I like him a lot. I can really feel that he cares for us like his family. And while we were waiting for our interviews we were able to talk with his wife, Sister Barrow, and she asked us about our families and what life in the church was like for us, etc. 

We met with the children we are teaching, and we talked with them about repentance and baptism! They are such smart kids, and always continue talking about what we taught even after the lesson. And they said that they want to be baptized!! Of course, now we have to talk with their father and get his permission, which we are still unsure about how to go about that..... But we are praying about it and hope that everything works out!

The miracle of the week has to do with one of our investigators that is our same age. I'm not sure if I mentioned them before but we have these two investigators that our both our age. One of them (Sister Joo) has a lot of church knowledge, having gone to lots of churches when she was younger, but she doesn't really have a testimony right now. The other girl (Sister Lee), she didn't know anything about church at all. We met with them and taught a lesson about the Book of Mormon, reading the first chapter of Nephi together with them. Sister Joo was able to understand pretty well, though Sister Lee had difficulties. So it was really great to have both of them their so one could help the other. 

The next time we met them was Saturday night, while the Priesthood Conference session was playing. So we explained what General Conference was a little bit and I was super excited about it so Sister Lee looked like she actually wanted to come. Sister Joo was busy, but we texted Sister Lee that night telling her the times we would be watching it the next day. We didn't here a thing from her. But then out of the blue as we were watching the last half of the last session she came in!! (probably right about where you got to watch conference Dad!) It was absolutely amazing. Especially because she got to hear Elder Bednar's talk that was directed specifically to those who aren't members. What perfect timing that talk was! I was so happy. :D 

So, we hope that she really was able to feel a little more about the truth of our church! I can't wait to meet her this week. :)

As for the interesting fact last week. sorry if it was unclear... I meant "open my bag" not back lol

This weeks' interesting fact: the tradition when a tooth falls out is to throw it on the top of their roof. I'm not really sure what this is supposed to signify, but the thought is if you don't throw it up there than you won't grow your new tooth!

Hope this was fun! I love you all-<3

Sister Segovia

To end, I had a really cool experience this past General Conference that I would like to share. It actually starts all the way back when I was being trained and it was time to watch my very first General Conference on my mission. We were all encouraged to go to Conference with a question, and were promised that it would be answered. During that time, I had a question about prophets, unsure of what the difference was between the 12 Apostles, and the actual President of the church, President Monson. I listened intently for any mention of prophets in that General Conference meeting, but the topic was not mentioned. A little disappointed, I just decided to set it aside and forget about it. Now -one year later- as I was sitting in the Sunday morning session, that question was answered in every way I could have asked, with 3 or 4 talks all about the prophet's role. It was absolutely amazing. I had never even thought that perhaps I would have to wait a few conference's before I would receive my answer. But now it makes so much sense. Heavenly Father didn't give the answer right then because he wanted me to learn this lesson-- that He will ALWAYS answer, but sometimes it may take some waiting on our part. We just have to continue on in faith and it will come, a sweet and clear answer.