Back in the Past‏

So I'm actually writing from an ever-so-familiar place right now.... Nampo Shopping Center! If you don't remember, I transferred from my second area to this area (Deshin) almost exactly a year ago. And I decided to come back! Missionaries who are in their last transfer get to choose one P-day and go wherever they want. I didn't really have anyone that I could see or make an appointment (all the people I would want to see again work at this time or live wayyy far away :[) so I decided to come back here! It's such an awesome feeling to be back, especially because when I served in this area we came to Nampo pretty-much twice a week. So it's been a blast to show my companion around!

Anyway, this past week was great. We didn't get to meet with two of our investigators because they were super busy, which was a bummer. But our other two investigators came to church! The one mother brought 6 of her kids with her, and they all absolutely love us :D

Also, we had exchanges! I was so proud of my companion, because she was with a third-transfer American, so neither or them could speak the other's language very well, but they both did a wonderful job. ^^ And I was with Sister Bonney, one of my MTC roommates--our second exchange together-- which was a last as you can imagine. I love all of these Sisters I serve with! 

Something I've been working on this past week actually started last Monday when we had Family Home Evening. We did water-painting, and I was so excited about it that I continued every night and morning during the hour of personal time we have. It was so fun! I finally finished the painting yesterday lol Sorry I don't have any pictures of it yet. Anyway, it was really do something like that again. I forgot how much fun painting/art is! 

Anyway... I don't have much else to say. We just continue to work hard and get our investigators to realize this church is the truth! I hope you all can know that too <3

Love Sister Segovia

Interesting Fact:They have a TON of children's songs that almost everyone (if not everyone) knows. Anything from learning to say thank you, to a song about tomatoes becoming ketchup. Hahaha Anyway it's really interesting how many they have, and how well-known they are. Us Americans were trying to remember all the little-kid songs in America but only came up with a small list, and those we couldn't remember very well. lol

Spiritual Thought:

When I went on exchanges, I saw this quote: "God and Christ care more about our growth and progression than our comfort and convenience." 

When I saw this statement, it struck me how much sense it made. Really, isn't our progression a lot more important that convenience? There's really no question about it. We may ask why He lets us suffer and curse Him for it, but that is actually the very thing that will make us grow the most! Probably the times when we are comfortable are the times when we sit on a plateau of knowledge. Thank God for the struggles!

Any progression is‏

Well, today was a great day! We actually had a P-day with a bunch of missionaries who came to Gyeongju to check out the sites, from the zone right next to us. I had served with a couple of the Elders before, so it was great to spend a P-day with them just like old times! We went to the Budhist temple, which I'd already seen two times, but it was way more beautiful this time because of the colors in the trees. I love Fall!

This past week was a great one, especially concerning our investigator Sister Choi. She has been coming to church for a while, but she never comes to sacrament meeting, because she always is too busy. But yesterday she came in the middle of sacrament meeting, which we were happy about because it's definitely improvement! And she also is willing to study the Book of Mormon with us when we suggest it, and acknowledges that it's a good book and that she should continue to study it. Her progression is slow, but it's there. We are determined to continue to love her, and we think she will eventually realize just what this church means in her life.

Also, our other investigators are also progressing! Both the investigators that are our age are continually reading the Book of Mormon on their own, and one of them finally is done with the huge College test which frees her time up quite nicely :)

We did meet with the investigator that has 7 kids this past week :) Though she didn't come to church yesterday, she did say that she wants to continue to come to church, though she would rather just learn slowly and not rush into anything. That's a little frustrating because it's like, she already knows it's true in her heart, it's just her mind that's keeping her from accepting it solid.

Looking at everything, this week was pretty great! Everything is going quite nicely. :)

So for the interesting fact, I'll answer mom's question about the Sound of Music. They don't have a Korean dubbed version of it, they just have it in subtitles. In fact, the most common way for Koreans to watch foreign movies is by subtitles, not dubbing. Usually the only movies that have dubbing are movies for little kids, since they can't read subtitles. And listening to English songs is totally normal and cool.:D

Anyway, have a great week!

Love, Sister Segovia

I was thinking a lot about the comparison between the cup "half-empty" and "half-full" a lot this past week. Especially lately, I've been seeing a lot of things that I can have and do here in Korea that I won't be able to in the US, and I was thinking about how important our attitude is about the circumstances we are in. Too often I think we focus on what we don't have, and miss the chance to enjoy what we do have. At least for me I've seen that a lot. For a missionary, perhaps I thought too much about what I couldn't do, and now--FINALLY--I'm thinking about all the things I CAN do! It's humbling to realize how much more I could have gotten from this experience if i had seen the glass as half-full earlier, but I'm glad I've been able to change my view now. :)

The Sound of Music‏

Helllo family and friends! I love you all. :)

This week was great, being a very happy and exciting week. One miracle that I was thankful for was with our members. We finally were able to meet with a member that we had been wanting to meet for so long. But at the same time we were so scared to meet her, because she had kind of been treating us coldly lately. But when we went to her home this week, we were able to really talk with her and I think from now on it will be good! Yayy

Also while we are on the subject of members, there's another member that we actually met with twice this week, both unplanned. One night we were at the church, and she called us saying she was in the area and invited us to go out to eat with her. Then yesterday she wasn't able to come to church so we called her wanting to give her cookies and when we got there she fed us again! Such an awesome, fun-loving Sister. :]

As for our investigators, two of them came to church yesterday! One was the lady that came last week, and she brought 5 of her 7 children this time. We were able to make an appointment with her for this week, so we will be able to know more about her soon! It was great though because all of her kids have someone already in the ward that are their age, so they were able to make friends fast.

And the other investigator that came to church also came to a stake activity we had the night before. It's a yearly activity, where each ward prepares a couple musical numbers. We prepared one song that our members sang, and then our President played a clip from his very favorite movie, The Sound of Music. He really does love that movie, playing music from it for every spiritual message he gives at activities. lol

Anyway, that's about all for the week. it's been pretty warm lately too, so we are all happy.

I was really sorry to hear about Feliza Segovia..  I wish I had been able to meet her. But I know that I, and everyone else in our family. will be able to meet her later! This life is not the end, and I know that she will be happy to see us again. :)

Glad to hear that mom and dad got back safely to home! Love you both so much. Thank you for all of your help, your testimonies, your encouragement, and your guidance. It's always what I need!

Love, Sister Christina Segovia

Interesting Fact: When you get your haircut, they usually will cut it dry, and then afterwards they shampoo. Is that a thing in the US too? I've always seen shampoo first and then cut. Anyway, I got me hair trimmed today, so that's what was on my mind.

This week our District Leader told the story of the man who saved and saved his money so he could buy a ticket for a cruise ship. When he was finally able to buy the ticket, he was unaware that all of the luxuries were included in the cost. While on the cruise, he stayed in his room, eating food that he had brought with him, and not participating in any of the activities. Everyday a crewmember would come and ask him if he would be attending the party that night, and this man said no everytime. On the last night of the cruise, the crew member wanted to know why this man never attended the parties. After finding out the man's misunderstanding, the crewmember was able to tell him that everything was already available to him!

When I think of this man, it always makes me sad how he must have felt to find out he had missed out on so much. Now, we as members of God's true church are like that crewmember. We have the knowledge of all we can do in this life and in the life after. We know our potential. And there are those out there that, while they bought the ticket to come to this world, they've no idea all of the wonderful things they could be doing. They've no idea about eternal families, or about becoming clean through Christ's Atonement. But we know! So when we see those people, don't wait until the last day to tell them what they could be doing. Imagine how happy and grateful that man would have been if the crewmember had told him the first day!

I hope that we all can "live up to our priviledges" and help others do so too.

Here's a Mormon Message about this same story:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?im=true&v=2081541444001

First of the last‏

Yeah, wow it's the first day of my last transfer. Weird thought. It still hasn't quite sunk it yet I don't think, because I'm not freaking out as much as I would have thought. Today we went to transfer meeting and heard the last testimonies of a LOT of missionaries going home. It was inspiring, and it's now my turn to start thinking about what I'm going to say for that last time. It's just six weeks away!

And this past week was such a great one to end out the transfer. We went to two halloween parties! One was in Hogye (yeah, I get to go back to my old area all the time! :D) and the other was here in Gyeongju. The one in Hogye was wayyy good, and a bunch of people that I would never had thought would come to a church party were there! It was so cool to see them :) I was so glad to see that progression in the area! And I like to think that their Halloween party had such good attendance because of how well we did on the Luau party last time :P

And our own party was really really great too! We had it for our English class and some members were able to come too. We did pumpkin carving, then had a talent show, then ate pumpkin pie along with other food that everyone else brought. It was so fun, especially because it was most peoples' first time carving a pumpkin. We just used little tiny cut green pumpkins (Interesting Fact: it's really really hard to find a big pumpkin like they have in America) and it worked really well! And we had a miracle happen! We still aren't sure how she came, but a woman who used to come to English class a LONG time ago randomly showed up at the end, and she came to church the next day too along with her friend! We aren't sure what will happen with her, but something big could be coming!

As for those we are teaching.... We had a HUGE miracle week. By miracle week, I mean that every single one of our lessons was WITH A MEMBER! That's like unheard of in all my time in Korea! We actually didn't have as many lessons as we usually do, but I was still super stoked because in my mind a lesson with a member counts as two lessons without. So yeah, it was awesome! One of those lessons was a meal invitation so we were able to go with our investigator to her home and eat delicious food. And then the next day we had a different invitation for a meal with a different investigator at a different member's home. And then the next day we had another meal invite for just us missionaries. It was a lot of eating. haha

Anyway, this week was fantastic! And I got all my needed classes signed up for so that's good! Mom you stay safe in OK and dad you stay safe at home! I love you both <3

Sister Christina Segovia

Like I said, today was transfer meeting, and in the meeting the Senior couple in our mission talked about gratitude. Something I liked from their talk was this: "Gratitude can be a window to perfection." When we are truly grateful, when we are able to see that all that's good in our lives is not from us, then we are on the road to perfection. Without gratitude, there's no way we can move forward. But when we do recognize the goodness of God, then He can help us so much more. I'm so grateful for everything he has let me experience here!

P.S. Here are some pictures from Halloween!