Letter - 8/4/14

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I want to start off by wishing my wonderful parents a Happy 31st Anniversary! I just cannot express in words that love and gratitude I have for my loving parents. They have taught me everything I know through their own personal righteous examples. I am so grateful for them and their desire to surrender to God's will and love our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ with all their heart, might, mind and strength. I could say so much about my wonderful parents but all  I would like to say now is I love you Mom and Dad. Thank you for always being there for me when I needed you. Thank you for the support you have given me my entire life. Most of all thank you for teaching me that I am a daughter of God and for teaching me how to love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It has changed my life and because of your righteous examples lives will continue to be change. Thank you and I love you.

Anyways now about the mission, yes that's what I am doing serving the Lord in South Korea and guess what!!! It has been 8 months today! I can't even believe how the time has gone. I continually ask myself everyday "Is this real life? Am I really in Korea? Am I really a missionary?" and everyday I come up with the same answers "Yes, Yes and Yes." What an amazing blessing that is. I truly just love being a missionary. Each day has it's own challenges, blessings and adventures. Each day continues to strengthen my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Each day makes me realize the love They have for all of the people on this earth. Each day gives me a reason to rejoice and smile because I know that God loves me and I know there is hope to be found in this world through our Savior Jesus Christ.

This week as always was just amazing! First I want to tell you all how amazing my companion Sister Hunter is! I just don't even know where to start with her. We are having so  much fun serving together. She is the most selfless person I have ever met and truly is a huge example to me of forgetting herself and going to work. She is always thinking of others and how she can help them.She starts of every companionship study saying who she thought about this morning and what she thinks we can do to help them. She truly just loves everyone and is just a joy to be around. I am so lucky to be serving with her as we both shared our goals of our mission which is to be happy and full of love because that is something we can control because it is up to us to be happy and love those around us. I am just so grateful for her example and the work we are doing together.

 In fact I just have to share this story with you to prove how great our relationship is and how much we love each other. So yesterday we went to visit a potential investigator who was home and immediately let us in. She was in the middle of making dinner with her friend so we just sat and talked for a while. During that time her friend gave us corn on the cob but it wasn't cooked and she told us to eat it. I was extremely hesitant but in Korea you eat because food is a big thing in their culture. So we begin eating this raw corn that tastes like the plastic toy corn that would be in my family's playhouse back home. Sister Hunter and I are really struggling to finish it but I finally finish mine. I look over at Sister Hunter and she just does not look like she can eat anymore so I come up with the idea of breaking off the part she hasn't eaten. I hurry and grab the corn from her hand while the potential investigator isn't looking break it in half and put the not eaten part in Sister Hunter's bag. She was so thrilled and just said "You saved my life." We are still laughing about the experience. It was memorable.

 I have so many other stories to tell about this fun area I am in but currently running out of time so I want to share with you what I studied this week. I studied a lot on obedience because I had to teach in Gosple Principles class in Korean on obedience. Yeah scary right?! Well I showed up to church yesterdayall prepared and ended up not having to teach. What a wonderful thing to study though. I love the scripture from King Benjamin in Mosiah 2:22 where it states that all God requires of us is obedience. As I have learned the principle of obeidence throughout my life I have noticed the blessings that God promises us such as joy, peace, happinessin this life. When I was younger I did what my parents asked but not super willingly or I woud wait until I was asked but after an incident that caught my intention my whole attitude changed and being obedient was easy. Obedience I learned personally is the easy way. Once I figured out that obedience is the best way to go with a smile on my face my life was just filled with blessings of joy and happiness. God wants to bless us and that why He gives us commandments because through them is how He blesses us.The things God commands us to do is truly a clear raod map back to His presence. Also while studying this topic I read Mosiah 15:7 where it talks about how Christ's will and God's will became one. As I thought about that scripture at first I thought nice that's a good scripture but the more I pondered I realized that as I am obedient like Christ my will will become God's will and our will's will knit together into one to create the life that I need. I just love the idea of my will and God's will becoming one and being one in purpose. That is what life is all about aligning our will with God's and as we do that He will bless us more then we coud ever imagine because He has to! If we are obeident His only option is to give us the blessings He has promised us. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and for His desire to bless all of His children.

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary as I learned this week this mission time is preparing me for the rest of my life. I can't imagine going on with my life without this essential training that I am receiving personally from my Heavenly Father. This time is short but it determines so much. I love the work I am participating in and cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for guiding me to this experience. I love representing Jesus Christ and striving to become more like Him everyday. I often think of Him roaming the streets of Korea with me and think what would He do. He would just love and smile. I want to share His love with these people so I must continue to be filled with HIs love and pray for it with all the energy of my heart. I am so grateful for this missionary experience. I love and miss each of you dearly but I can't imagine being anywhere else right now. Thank you for all of the letters, prayers, and love. I am so blessed to have such an amzing support system. I hope you all have a great week! Keep smiling and recongizing the little blessing of everyday because they are all around you!

Love
드리스콜자매
Sister Ciarra Jean Driscoll