Summer Fun in Taebaek

Hiiii~ This week was really fun because we had hiking with our branch President's family and then this weekend a combined sports day with the 5 other branches in 강원도 - soccer, dodgeball (So scary!), limbo, running relay races (shout out to my favorite Sister Willcox for our matching Arizona shirts) So fun! Also, I realized this week that I've progressed (not sure what to call it) to the point where I can no longer speak either language. Seriously! I can't express myself with proper grammar in English anymore (and realized when I speak English, I cut out half of the words in my broken sentences), but...I can't speak Korean either. So really lost and confused state. 어떻게!!

OH MY Funny story! This week our investigator had a cultural/music event in the park/pond area by our church that she has been preparing for the past couple weeks. As we are walking by, we see 2 harmeonies (grandmas) dancing: one being a harmeony we are teaching and the other, probablyyy 80 years old dancing all out like she is in her 20s (SO funny!). I go to dance with our investigator, which was fun...until I realized it was kinda a loose competition. Slowly backing out....they called me back up to give me a present, which I awkwardly take and shout "아싸" (Assssahhhhh! - YES! Hooray!) to my crowd of grandparents...and then introduce myself. Aftermath: free socks! And many grandparents wanting to talk and meet us! I love Korea!! :)

These past few months, I have really grown to love the word "rejoice." I'm not even sure how to define it. In Korean it translates as "to do joy." To me it represents the peak of happiness - so filled with joy, you just want to jump, shout and share it with everyone so we can rejoice and celebrate together! I have been making a list of all the scriptures that use the word "rejoice," but this week I thought it was interesting how the scriptures define it: "joy; praise; shout; sing; thank." In 2. Nephi 9: 52 it says, "remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice." I love that it says "let," an implied promise that we WILL rejoice as we have grateful hearts and express our thanks to God, recognizing everything we have comes from him.

Marina is the greatest example of this. She experienced a miracle this past week, finding out in her new restaurant she will have Saturday AND Sundays off (what! Weekends off? Does not happen - miracle!) and will be able to go to church every week. She calls me and the first thing she says is, "I am so grateful. You know how hard I prayed for this!" Whenever she receives a blessing, she immediately treasures it and thanks God and her happiness (rejoicing) is a direct reflection of that. Ahh I love her!! One of my first weeks in Taebaek, Sister Koo committed me to begin my prayers every night with only gratitude for the first 5 min. I 100% have a testimony that no matter how hard, stressful, discouraging life seems at times, as we express gratitude we will recognize our blessings, see God's hand in our lives and feel his love, and be happy. Happy people are grateful people. As we are grateful we will rejoice, and we will want to share our joy with others so we can all rejoice and celebrate together!!!

Have a good week!!

Sister Davis

Sports Day!!  Happy Birthday Sister Kang!

Our two cute investigators! Left (정승경 who planned event) and Right (정호성)

Free socks!!!  Unintentionally won the dance competition.  Woo!

Is this real?!  The flowers are so beautiful in Korea.