Tears of Joy Dec. 6th

Dear Family,

This week has been incredible! Definitely my busiest week at the MTC, but it was amazing. I had all of my normal regular tasks (which if you don't know, they keep us extremely busy here at the MTC) but also, a lot more. I got a new calling as Online Coordinator, which means I spent Sunday in meetings. They were really great, but certainly ate up my time. On Tuesday we had the interview with the NY Times. That was a GREAT experience! Super cool! The working title of the article is: "The role of LDS Women through the eyes of sister missionaries" which sounds pretty feministic, but the reporter was very nice. Her name is Lori Goldstien (spelling??) and she always does religious reporting. She didn't ask any gotcha questions, and was very respectful. She didn't really talk to any of the Elders, so it was just the four sisters and her. We ended up talking to her for almost 3 hours and took her on a tour of everything at the MTC. After a while she just asked, a little shocked, "Wow, are all the missionaries this enthusiastic?" I was just so happy that that is the way she was able to see sister missionaries and members of this church, because I really am this enthusiastic EVERY SINGLE DAY! I love missionary work!  There is also another reporter in Seoul right now interviewing sister missionaries there, so it sounds like they are interviewing a lot of people for it, so hopefully they can truly understand the church and why we go on missions.

Also, on Wednesday, Sister Pratt and I got to do a teaching example for the new missionaries that came in on Wednesday, which was really a fun thing to do. It was also a cool thing, because we had to be recommended for that, and for some reason everyone thinks we are super awesome missionaries. So that's nice of them. But it was a really wonderful experience!

Also, I"m soooooo excited because we hosted the some 700 missionaries that came in to the MTC this week, and KIRA ROGERS was one of them!! I love her sooooo much! And loved getting to see her and talk to her at the MTC!

Tomorrow I get to teach all the new Korean missionaries how to use all of the MTC software and such, and I get to teach the native Koreans in Korean, and that is about the most nerve wracking thing. But hopefully they will understand....

The best thing that happened was last night during class, we taught our teacher in English. I just had so many realization about why I am on a mission, and I literally cried tears of joy for like 10 minutes. I have never felt so blessed before in my whole life. I get to love and serve and help God's children for the next 16 months. That is the most incredible and powerful experience! Words can't express my feelings very well on this experience, but the Spirit just taught me so much. I'm so glad Heavenly Father asked me to go on a mission! I never would have picked this, so I"m grateful he knows and loves me better than I do. That is true for every one of us. If you are experiencing a trial, just know that one day you will thank the Lord for that, because He knew exactly what you needed. He knows us and loves all of his children.

I get my travel plans tonight, so I'll email again when I have those and hopefully send a few pictures! I love you all! Keep being amazing!:):):) 

Love,

Sister Hunter

Thanksgiving Week Nov. 29th

Hello family:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I also hope that you received my note from Abby Mortensen! I was feeling pretty homesick Thursday morning (and the whole week really) and I prayed that I would see Abby. Our district had a little devotional at the temple grounds after lunch and on our way to the temple I ran into Abby! It was so great! Heavenly Father just takes care of us:) I'll send pictures later:)

Thanksgiving was pretty cool here at the MTC. I was feeling really homesick this whole week, and Wednesday night I decided that instead of saying how much I missed everyone on Thanksgiving I would just replace all those thoughts with how grateful I was for everyone, and that made the day MUCH better. And I realized I have things really good compared to most people, so I should never complain. 

In the morning we got to hear from ELDER AND SISTER NELSON! I was sooooo excited! It was so so so good, and they helped me so much! I've been getting a little discouraged about Korean lately, and he shared a scripture with us that helped me tons. It was D&C 136:31-33

 31 My people must be ^atried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the ^bglory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not ^cbear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.

 32 Let him that is ^aignorant ^blearn ^cwisdom by ^dhumbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his ^eeyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear;

 33 For my ^aSpirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the^bhumble and contrite, and to the ^ccondemnation of the ungodly.

I just realized that if Heavenly Father wanted me to know Korean really well already, He would have let me do that, but there is a purpose in letting me struggle. So I'm just really excited to have my ears opened to the Korean language and the spirit enlighten me. 

Last night we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue, which was AMAZING! I loved it so much! You should all watch it if you get a chance. The pioneers are so cool! Everyone always says that we are the chosen generation, but I have to wonder about that. Heavenly Father had a hard enough time getting me to pack three suitcases FULL of clothes and come to the MTC. I have a habit of dragging my feet a little bit when Heavenly Father asks me to do something, and that doesn't work very well if you are pulling a handcart. I don't know that I could walk in the snow without shoes for thousands of miles. It just made me realize how blessed we really are to live in the time and place and circumstances we do. 

This week I got a calling in our branch, which is fun. I'm the technical coordinator, which means I'm in charge of fixing the computer stuff when it doesn't work and teaching the new missionaries how to access everything we do on the computers. Clearly Heavenly Father has a sense of humor:) Apparently I'm the first girl to have that calling, so that's cool. I just wish I knew a little more about computers! Haha I need Allan and Andrew here to help me!

Also this week we got trained by the publicity department on our interview by the NY Times, and we'll have another training before our interview on Tuesday! Apparently they are going to be following us around to the dorms and gym and stuff and have cameras, so most likely you will be able to see some of that on their blog. I'm glad they gave us a heads up about that, because sometimes our room is a little less than NY Times clean, so today we get to deep clean our room. I'm just so excited to vacuum! haha Also, the story is supposed to be 3/4 of a page which is supposedly a big deal in the NY Times. I'm just excited to share a little about the gospel and missionary work with those who aren't members of our church. The people from the publicity department said that in order to be chosen for this we either had to be really really good missionaries, or we fooled a LOT of people. So that was nice of them to say. 

In other news, TRC was once again AMAZING this week! I think it gets better every single week! This week we taught a real live investigator- A non-member Korean girl who is going to high school here. We have assigned topics for our TRC lessons, and last week was about receiving revelation through church attendance. We were teaching her about that for a few minutes and she asked us why the mormon church was so special. It was so cool, because I just felt this overwhelming feeling that the Book of Mormon was why, and that really is why our church is true and different from other churches. I have never born a more powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon in my whole life. It's crazy how powerfully the spirit can work through my VERY simple Korean. We ended up talking about the Book of Mormon for a long time and everyone was crying. It was so wonderful. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I just know it. Long story short is that the girl said she would read the Book of Mormon, and hopefully she comes back this week so we can follow up with her. Her member friend said she wants to serve a mission now after that experience, which makes me really excited! Everyone should serve a mission! They are wonderful!!! The gospel is so true and I'm so grateful for it.

Anyway, I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for the opportunity I have to be on a mission and to be doing what I'm doing every single day. I am so grateful for all of you and pray for you all every day! I hope all is well! I can't express how much everyone's love and support mean to me and I'm so thankful for your examples! Thanks for all you do for me! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Hunter

3 Big Things- Really Big Things Nov.22nd

Here is a picture of my district with our two teachers, Brother Decker and Brother Christensen (who we call omoni and obogi, which is Korean for mom and dad) and then our Korean Zone resource Sister Kil who is the cutest! I love these people sooooooooo much! They are my family away from family!

Dear Everyone,

This week has been incredible! Probably the 3 most exciting things ever happened! I will order them from most exciting to least exciting, although most people would probably find #3 most exciting, so read to the end to find out how I'm going to be famous. Just kidding. Sort of. 

1. This was the best thing ever! Last Friday, we taught TRC, like we do every Friday night. Usually RM's volunteer to come be taught by us and that is really cool. Last week though, we got to teach our first REAL KOREANS! It was soooo wonderful! It was super hard to understand them, so that's exciting, but the spirit was soo strong! We taught about the Book of Mormon and how we can receive revelation through reading it. I have never bore a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. I KNOW ITS TRUE. It is seriously the BEST book. Read it! Anyway, for our second lesson I just about died of happiness when we were walking into the room, because we taught a whole Korean FAMILY! I haven't seen children in soooooooo long! I forgot that they existed! haha But seriously, I was just so happy, because this gospel message is a message about FAMILY! It's so amazing and brings such peace and joy to families! The three little kids were sooo adorable, and they shared with us their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and who their favorite prophet was and even read some scriptures with us (6 and 8 year olds totally read better than me, btw... it's cool) It was so cute! And then this little boy just sat and put his legs in the arm holes of his jacket, and that was so funny. Seriously though, it was probably one of the very best experiences of my mission so far! I just love kids and families and I can't even express the joy it has brought into my week and life! God loves us so much! I'm super grateful for my family, and that I have been raised with the knowledge of the gospel! What a blessing that we so often take for granted! 

2. The second best thing that happened this week is that our lessons are continuing to go really really well with our investigators! Kim Honbeen talked to his mom and is coming to church on Sunday! We are sooo excited for him, and we had some of our best lessons with him! Our teachers have said some really really nice things about how good our lessons are, so that's encouraging, especially since I don't know Korean still. haha. BUT. The most exciting thing was our lesson last night with E Dongsun (I don't know how to spell these names in English, sorry) He doesn't have any kind of a christian background, so we've had to teach him everything, but last night was awesome! HE AGREED TO BE BAPTIZED! There is probably no better feeling than bearing testimony of something and be nearly in tears because the spirit is so strong and then  you just watch your investigator 'get it'. That light bulb moment is soooo cool! Our lesson last night was also really cool, because it was like a normal conversation complete with jokes and normal human interactions rather than just teaching with some small talk. Our investigator was joking about our Korean and we joked about how he always reads the BOM on his 'sumartah fone'. And then we read a scripture about how Jesus is the Lamb of God, and he just laughed, because he had no idea what that meant, and we had no idea what he was asking until he starting making sheep noises. It was hilarious. But the spirit was there so strong, and I have never been so happy. I'm just so happy to be teaching the truth of the gospel! I seriously cried tears of joy. I love being a missionary.

3. Ok. So here's the super weird exciting thing! The New York Times wants to interview me!!!! That's real. And weird. They apparently are doing an article on missionaries in Korea, and will be interviewing my companion and I and 3 other companionships. It's apparently kind of a big deal, because the church is sending someone from publicity to train us on Monday on what we are allowed to say. It's so weird. I have no idea why they picked me, but hopefully I don't say anything dumb, because they told us that we will reach more people in this article than we will our entire missions. No pressure. Anyway. It's really cool to think that I can maybe share my testimony with all of America! (Or at least the people who still read the newspaper... so not that many people haha) They aren't sure exactly what the article is about, but they said they are especially interested in Sister missionaries. We aren't exactly sure when they will come to interview us, but sometime after Monday when we are trained and in the next two weeks. They told us we have to be 'perfect missionaries' in every way including how we look every single day, just to be ready for when they come. I'm not really sure what that means, because I don't know how we could possibly raise the standard for how we dress and act. I probably should quote Megamind a little less frequently, but besides that I don't know what else to do haha. Anyway, the article will come out after I'm in Korea, so everyone will have to read it and see if the Times makes everything we say sound super dumb, because they are such a liberal newspaper, but I think it'll be cool anyway. I really feel like something awesome is happening right now in Korea, and I'm so excited to be a part of it. Anyway, that's my exciting news! 

I love you all!! Have a wonderful wonderful week! You're all amazing! 

See ya in the funny pages!

Love,

Sister Hunter