A wonderful week!

Surprise!  Remember how I said Sydney wouldn't write until Tuesday?  Well, her mission President changed her P-day back so we got a surprise letter this evening with loads of pictures.  We get to talk to her in a week!  Yay!

First off, thanks this week to all the grandparents! Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Gray, I got your birthday card--thank you so much! It's so sparkly! And Grandma and Grandma Arvanitas, I got your birthday card too! Also sparkly! And I loved the Bloch pictures you sent. In fact, I used them in my lesson the very next day! I love you all!!

And Mama Mousser, thank you for the birthday card too! I hope Katie has a wonderful wedding this week and that it's beautiful and not too stressful. I love you!

Also, Daddy happy birthday tomorrow! I admit, I have no idea how old you're turning, but I feel like it's old. I love you anyway and I'll be celebrating your birthday tomorrow, while everyone else is celebrating Buddha's birthday. I'll take lots of pictures for you. ^^

And here's a brief summary of my week.

1. We climbed a mountain! This past Saturday was our ward youth activity and we got special permission to go with our investigator, JungHe (the pretty one), who's getting baptized next Sunday! It was so fun and absolutely beautiful.  Kind of like being back in Pennsylvania, except in Pennsylvania you'd never see the trees decked out with pink lanterns, celebrating Buddha's birthday. It was just nice to be somewhere green and foresty and doing exercise that was more strenuous than my half-asleep sit-ups at 6:30 every morning. And the best part was our investigator had a great time and feels a lot closer to the members now. Win-win!

2. This week is a week of holidays! Children's Day today, Buddha's Birthday tomorrow, Parents' Day on Thursday. So many things! Hopefully I'll have some fun stories to tell next week and to my parents, have a happy Parents' Day! I love you!

3. We had an amazing lesson with HongChungYoung, our Chinese investigator. Even though she wasn't able to come to church yesterday (it wasn't raining ㅠㅠ) we were able to meet with her a coupe times this week and teach her the commandments. She absolutely loved them, especially the Ten Commandments. She was actually crying she loved them so much. She said that if everyone were to follow these commandments, the world would be a happy and peaceful place. In fact, before we even explained the Word of Wisdom beyond "We don't drink, smoke, drink coffee or tea," she said, "I'll keep them all. From today onward, I won't do anything of those things ever again." It was amazing! We were like, "We haven't even told you about the blessings yet..." But she didn't need to hear about the blessings. She knew these commandments were from God and that all things from God always come with blessings.

And I too know that the commandments come from God and I am so grateful for incredible investigators like HongChungYoung who strengthen my faith that all good things truly do come from him.

I love you all!

And family, I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Abba Jameh.

Buddha's birthday lanterns

We sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and then split up the song lyrics and drew pictures to match

KaYun's was my favorite. She had "I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following in His ways."

And then she wrote a little story too. The words say, "One girl walked along the way in order to resemble Jesus Christ. She met Jesus Christ along the way. Because she followed Him she became like Him. And so she resembled Jesus Christ."

Except it's better in Korean.

Buddha's birthday lanterns while climbing the mountain

One of the young men started building a tower out of the Buddhist wishing rocks. Honestly this is kid is exactly like a Korean Christian Agle. It's hilarious.(The Agle's are friends of ours)

Sitting on a turtle with some members and our beautiful investigator.

At the top!

Sydney's companion's mom crocheted them some rings.