Food, Family, and A Few Tears

Dinner with Pyun Keh Soon. I asked what we ordered and after trying for some time to explain, she broke it down very simply. "G.U.T.S. guts." Not bad :)

Jang Kyung Eh, a less active we are working with. She ordered us the 8 person serving, which equaled about 2 1/2 lbs of meat. But SO good!

Choi Nam Hee, and Eeh Chung Song! They are the sweetest women in this world!

Choi Chung Il and his family. They are just about the greatest member missionaries I have ever met!

Dinner with Choi Sung Eem, this is actually the car ride home but it was too good not to share!

Second lunch with Jang Kyung Eh, this time she said that since I am leaving, she would pray to bless the food. It's the first prayer she has said in over 25 years! It was the coolest moment ever!!

So Na Na, the most perfect woman ever! She is always willing to help, and we love her so much!

Kim Mee Ra and our investigator  So Eeh Soon. Kim Mee Ra is the best, and always plans out which spiritual topic we will discuss during our dinners with her, and always has a game as well. 

Last dinner with the Bishop and his family! They are the greatest, most hard working people on earth. His wife said that since it's my last Korean meal, she made all of my favorites. I almost cried it was so sweet. Oh man I will miss them.

Lunch with the ward, they have the cutest kids ever here, and somehow we managed to get them all together for a few seconds for this picture. Well most of them!

Last week in Korea!

Feb 15

So this week there's not a lot to say, except I love Korea and am so incredibly lucky to be serving in the best ward in the world! Because it was my last week, all the members wanted to meet one last time, and we ended up having 11 dinner appointments with members this week. It was so incredible to talk with all of them, hear their testimonies, and feel their love for us and this work! Most of my letter will be pictures and captions, but before I do that, I just want to share my testimony of this incredible gospel! Before coming to Korea, I had a testimony of the gospel. I knew the church was true, I never doubted Joseph Smith of the Book of Mormon, and I knew God lived and Christ is our Savior. But I didn't really understand why it all mattered so much. I didn't know why we needed to do all the things the Lord asks, I just knew that it was important so I did it. But being out here and literally having the gospel be our WHOLE life, it has put things into perspective. I now know why visiting/home teaching is so important, the value of family home evening, family prayer, and scripture study, and weekly church attendance. It's the little decisions that really do determine our destiny. The commandments are all truly given for our benefit, and as we live by them we then qualify to have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. And once we are sufficiently strengthened, the Lord asks us to reach out to others (ward members, friends, neighbors, family) and help strengthen them as well. Which in turn strengthens our testimony which allows us to more fully follow the spirit, and better serve others, and it goes on and on and before we know it others can see the reflection of Christ in our countenance. And that is our purpose, our whole goal in this life and beyond. This gospel is so simple. We have a loving Heavenly Father, who just like any good father, has given us guidance and direction how to be happy and become like He is. He has given us an example to follow in our older brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. And He is always there to help anytime we need. I am so grateful for this opportunity to come to know my Savior in a way that just wasn't possible for me before. He has become the most important person in my life, and He is changing the lives of all those around us. I am so incredibly grateful for my family, who has been so wonderful and supportive and encouraging in allowing me to have this opportunity. This is the Lord's mission, this is His work, and is going forth. I love it with all of my heart! I know it's true! I love you all, and will see many of you on Friday! 

-Love, Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

Everyone would play ping pong for a loaf of bread.

Our zone :)

My cute teammate! We won, and our prize was two loaves of bread a piece :)

Super Mom at our Ping-Pong tournament

Relief Society activity

It's kind of cold in Korea.

Feb 8

This week has been such a great week. And if you refer to the subject line- it has been extremely cold. Yesterday was -11 degrees Celsius, but then you add humidity and wind. Yeah it was cold. But that's also the time we see the biggest miracles it seems, and just assume the weather is Satan trying to stop us! Yesterday we were walking down the street and met a woman who was very excited to talk to us. She seemed familiar, and then she asked my name. I told her 'Gu Seh Rah' which is my Korean name. She looked at me funny, and then said "But I know your real name. It's Wonder Woman!" Yep, we met the same lady on the street again! We ended up talking for about 50 minutes and this time we got her phone number! Then we tried to visit a less active who wasn't home so instead visited a woman we met a few months ago. She was home, and was so excited to see us. She has really been struggling lately and goes in for knee surgery this week. We told her we would love to visit her at the hospital, and help her with anything else she needs. (she is around 75ish) We have visited her several times before, but this was the first time she let us pray before we left. Miracle!

This week was my last zone training, which is super weird but hasn't really sunk in yet. We are really focusing on teaching skills this week, and to help show why they are important, we did the same visual president did at Mission Leadership Council. We offered a moon pie to one of the missionaries. Then we stomped on it (it was opened and sitting on a plate) and asked them to take it. Then we had a non-stomped on moon pie and asked the difference between the two. They were exactly the same thing, but one was presented so poorly no one would want it while the other would be eaten by almost anyone. It was a silly example, but they really seemed to understand. It was really fun!

Everything has been such a blur! Life is good, I love Korea so much. I love my companion, and all the incredible ward members we are so blessed to serve with. This is truly God's church on earth and I am so grateful for this opportunity to share it full-time!! I love you all, have a great week!

Love, Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

Don't quit your day jobs, Elders....

A really cool quote from President Monson!

This is a sweet 16 year old boy who got baptized this week! And this is also what happens when you ask the elders to be your photographer..

This is Kim Seh Young! 

Our 18th month celebration dinner. Delicious!

This is some of the people at Mission Leadership Council, we all came to Korea on the same day so it was fun to be all together one more time.

I love this beautiful city!!

18 months. Holy cow!

Feb 2

Holy cow, I seriously cannot believe it has been 18 months on Sat. since I entered the MTC!! Time has literally flown by! So many things have happened, so much has changed, yet so much is the same. A lot of emotions, and difficult to describe. But I am excited to head into over time for these next few weeks and really give the Lord my very best! And since I have been out here for that long, I must really know what I am doing and be really proficient at the language by now right? Oh dear, no. I haven't shared one of these for awhile, but we had a nice lesson with our cute investigator Ha Yeh Been where we taught about keeping the Sabbath day holy. She was having a hard time accepting it, so I wanted to promise her the blessings that come when we keep that commandment. I explained that during the week we are so busy with school, homework, friends, etc. so we have a lot of stress. But Sunday is special because it is a day God has given us to rest from all that. At least, that's what I meant to say. It turns out the words for 'rest' and the word for 'going #1' are very similar, and I accidentally mixed up the two. So instead, I told her Sunday was a very special day because she can just use the bathroom all day, and because of that my life has been so blessed.. She and my companion were both incredibly confused as I bore my testimony about this concept. Thankfully my companion finally realized what I had meant to say, corrected it, and they both just about died laughing. Not sure how spiritual it was, but it was certainly a lesson she won't forget!

This week we had an incredible miracle with a recent convert named Kim Seh Young. She was baptized about 4-5 months ago, and has been less-active since. But we keep visiting her, and finally met her at her home this week, and met at the church on Saturday. We were able to talk with her, and then realized the ward was having an activity at the church all day. She spent the rest of the day coming to English class and then watching a soccer game with the ward, and then texted us the next morning saying that her mother gave permission for her to attend church again!! MIRACLE!! She came, stayed the whole time, the ward was so wonderful and welcoming, and we were so grateful to them. The Lord really does leave the 99 to find the 1, and rejoices when they are found! Sunday was an incredibly powerful day as we felt the Lord's love for her stronger than ever. 

This week was my last fast Sunday here in Korea, so I decided to bear my testimony about fasting during sacrament meeting. Before serving a mission, fasting was very difficult. My body didn't handle it well, and I would often black out, sometimes throw up, and needed to sleep a lot in order to make it through the day. I was really worried about this going on a mission, because I just can't have that happening and still work effectively. But I really wanted to be able to fast, because there is so much power in that principle! My first Sunday in the MTC was a fast Sunday. I prayed a lot and was really worried, but then was amazed when my body was totally fine for the first time ever. And since then, each and every Fast Sunday I feel like my body is almost stronger than the other days, and I know that the angels are there helping me along. The Lord knows our weaknesses, He knows them very well. And he sends his angels to help us when our own strength it not sufficient, and I have been so blessed to feel that every single month. I know that the power of fasting is real, and that God really does hear and answer our prayers! 2 Cor. 12: 9-10, and Luke 1:37 say it perfectly, with God literally nothing is impossible, and I know that is true! 

It's been an incredible week. SO many miracles, and we are just so blessed! I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord's mission at this time. I know God lives, that Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church and is guiding us through His living prophet Thomas S. Monson. I love them with all of my heart, and am eternally grateful for my relationship with them! I love you all, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Love, Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :) :)

Mushed Red Fish Stuff

Superman!

Lots of my companions at the temple!

Just because subway stations are fun!

They came so close on this translation!

This is our meal. Octopus stir fry, raw squid, fresh seaweed, mushed red fish stuff, and kimchi! If your table doesn't look like this, you are missing out! 

I love Korea!

Jan 25

This week was really fun! I went on exchanges with Sister Evans and we had a lot of fun being together again, even if we do live in the same house and it was only 24 hours! We met with an adorable 9 year old girl named Min So. We teach her English for 30 min. and then share about the gospel for 30 min. They have no religion in their family, so we decided to talk about Heavenly Father. We sang 'I am a Child of God', and taught very simply that she was a daughter of God and that He loved her. She asked a lot of questions, like "where is God?" "Why can't I see him?" "I already have a dad at the office. how can I have two dads?" She paid attention pretty well (considering she is 9) and at the end, she asked for a pen and wrote "I AM A CHILD OF GOD" in big letters. Then she looked at us and said, "I never knew that before. It's pretty cool." It was such a simple lesson to such an innocent little girl, and the spirit was SO strong! Oh my goodness, It was amazing helping her recognize for the first time that God really did love her, and we could feel His love for her so strongly. 

We also met the wonderful recent convert, Choi Sung Eem, and her son Pak Jee Hyun. (I will send a picture of the meal we ate later.) They are seriously amazing. They have the strongest testimonies ever, and are trying so hard to draw closer to God. She was telling us more about her conversion, and what first sparked her interest in the church. She said that she had a business meeting in Salt Lake, and visited Temple Square while there. She had no clue about our church, but was really impressed by how beautiful the temple was, and surprised when she couldn't go in. As she was walking around the grounds, she saw a young family with two or three little girls and one boy. They boy was running around and being super loud, but the parents didn't seem to care. She was shocked, because in Korea they really want to make sure to act proper, especially in public areas. But the parents were letting their kids act like kids! She came back and found missionaries to learn more, simply out of curiousity. At sacrament meeting, she was shocked to see little children running around, playing, drawing pictures etc. while the parents tried to keep them quiet and pay attention. She said when she saw that she felt like our church must be true, because we are all about being real and trying to improve our selves and families, and not just about fake worship and false perfection. It was really cool, and made me realize even more the impact of our example on others. That family will never know how their example changed her life. And it wasn't their perfection that impacted her, it was their humanity! I think that sometimes we think in this life we feel like we just aren't good enough. We aren't smart enough, pretty enough, our house is too messy, whatever it may be. But it simply isn't true. God has placed us exactly where we need to be so we can be in a position to do the most good with our specific gifts and personalities. (see Dec. Ensign) It's very likely those parents were thinking "oh man, how do other parents keep their children quiet? We are at the temple. People are staring. What can we do?" Her life is changed forever, and she will influence others for generations to come, clear across the world!

So many wonderful things this week and so little time to share. But I just want you all to know that I know that this is the TRUE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is mindful of us, He loves us, and is guiding us back to Him! I love you all, have a great week!

-Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

We got it! Presents are the universal language!

We made a prayer rock and Book of Mormon case for our investigator! 

KOREA!!

Jan 18

This has been a really good week, although I am having difficulty remembering it all. Everything just blurs together in a picasso of missionary work. So I will try to share something specific and helpful. Hmm.. well we had zone meeting with about 35 missionaries. We gave a training about inviting with love, and really focusing on promising blessings when we teach commandments. As we teach the gospel to people, we are literally inviting them to change their lives to become like Christ, and for some people that means changing in some pretty extreme ways. And unless they have a good reason to do so, they will never do it. We used the simple example of parents offering a car to their child if they get straight A's in school. Obviously the student will be more motivated. And since God has promised us so many incredible things, clearly the biggest being eternal life, we have some pretty good motivators. They seemed to understand well, and then on Saturday we had a zone wide fast to find an investigator with a baptismal date by the end of the month. Everyone was so willing to participate, and we are excited to see the miracles that will come in January! 

He Yeh Been (yes, if you say it like a hick it sort of sounds like How ya been? but not really at all. we will let it slide since I can't tell you how to actually say it right now :) is doing so well! We taught the gospel of Christ this week, and she understood super well. We also reviewed plan of salvation, and she taught it all back to us. She is only 17, but so smart and excepts everything so well! The only hard part, is that we teach her during the week and then she goes home (which is in Seoul South mission boundaries) on the weekends. Mission boundaries are great, but sure make things difficult sometimes. We cannot attend church with her, and can only call missionaries there if we get permission from both mission's AP's. So trying to coordinate is very difficult, but please keep her in your prayers and we know everything will work out!

We were shopping at Costco, and wandered the store for nearly 20 minutes looking for salsa, something my companion has been craving. Turns out, they  were sold out. Right then, a woman grabs our arms and says "Sisters, where is your church? I have been less active for a long time, but have been thinking about the church a lot lately. I just thought 'I need to go back' and then turned the corner and you were standing here. Can I attend your ward?" Yeah it was the coolest thing ever!! We will hopefully be meeting with her this week. It's amazing how the Lord works through us. We decided her craving was from heaven so we could find the less active. And just to show how much the Lord knows us, we went to mission leadership conference the next day, and Sister Christensen gave us all chips and salsa with our lunch. Miracles big and small everyday!

So many wonderful things are happening, and no time to share them all. But I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! The church is so true! There is no where else I would rather be than here serving the Lord's mission in Korea!! 

-Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

quote of the week:

At Mission Leadership Council, we all went in for lunch, and the sisters all went first. One sister asked "How much can we have?" Me, in my ever loving fashion responded "The elders aren't here yet so we can take as much as we want!" Just then I hear "Sister Seegmiller!" only to realize President Christensen was standing right behind me. Yeah, not my best moment. But luckily he just laughed and walked away. Looks like I've got a little more work to do. Love you!

Trials build testimony

Jan 11

This week has been incredible and crazy all at the same time. I feel slightly like my brain has melted this week, and the Lord has had to work very hard to make up the difference. But as always, He always comes through and the work goes forth! For example, my companion and I planned to visit two less actives and one former investigator one day. We headed out, and it's about an hour walk to get to their homes. We arrive at the apartment building, only to realize neither of us had remembered to write down the door number. Oops. So we started on floor 30 and went down the stairs checking every floor until floor 13. We planned on a surprise visit, but thought maybe we missed her home somehow. So we called, and realized she lived on floor 9. This process repeated itself as we attempted to visit the last two people on our list, but somehow we were able to find them all. Miracle, and proof that the Lord's work will progress even though he works through us oh-so-imperfect beings. 

We were able to meet with our investigator Yang Jee Yoon this week. She is 27, and her mother wanted to join. Her mom is very strong in her church, so we kind of knew what to expect. We sat down and immediately the mother began quoting Bible scriptures to prove us wrong. I stopped her, asking if we could begin with prayer. And she said, "Yes, you can try." Oh boy. After the prayer, she used scriptures to 'prove' why my prayer wasn't scripturally sound. She then 'proved' to us why our religion is false by asking questions like "Do you know why we are sheep?" (there are apparently four reasons by the way, one being because sheep are nice) And the whole time she was so certain our faith would be shaken. But the amazing part of this gospel, is that it really doesn't matter what people say or how hard they try to prove us wrong. Because they can't. We have the full, true, restored gospel of Jesus Christ. My nieces and nephews know more about the Plan of Salvation than a lot of these Bible scholars. Which is so incredibly sad, and also so incredible how blessed we are to have the truth in our lives. We left that meeting 1 1/2 hours later, sad that she was so unwilling to listen, but also with our testimonies even more strengthened that this is truly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so blessed. 

Ha Yeh Been is doing amazing! We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week, and she understood so well. She asked questions about people who don't have families and what happens to them in the Celestial Kingdom, and other really awesome deep questions. And when she prayed at the end, she thanked Heavenly Father that she could know his plan and have her questions finally answered! SOO GOOD! She is still on track to get baptized on Feb. 8th so please keep her in your prayers. 

Life is so good! I love this work with all my heart. Oh my goodness, I love Korea and the incredible people we are so blessed to work with every day. I know without a doubt that this is Christ's true church, where we truly can find all the answers. I love you all! Have a great week!

-Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

Skaters and Strollers and Octopi, Oh My!

Sister Evans got a picture of me helping a lady push her stroller.

We are almost as graceful as those figure skaters!

The octopus the kind lady made for us. That is a few of the 8 she cooked. 

New Year's with our bishop!

Ward eating the soup!

Missionaries playing this traditional game, but I don't know what it's called.

Look what temple is here in Korea! :)

The amazing Olympic sports rink!

The woman second from the left is the gold medalist. 

Guess what the name of this bar is? Anyone? It's "Laman's Bar". How appropriate. 

This man in the ad is 42 years old. I was absolutely shocked, so just had to share more proof of the fountain of youth located here in Korea.

And Happy New Year! (this mannequin is advertising a business, but they dressed her up in a Hangbok on New Year's day!) Everyone is getting in the spirit!

Starting off 2015 the Korean way!

Jan 4

So this week has been really good. We started off the New Year just the way we should, with the ward!! We met the ward at 6:40 am on a mountain called Mangusan on one of the coldest days we've had yet this season! We hiked to the top of the mountain which was actually a graveyard as well. We all stood in the snow and watched the sunrise over the most beautiful city in the world with some of the greatest people on earth. It was crazy watching the sun come up and realizing that I have been in Korea for all of 2014. And thinking back on all the incredible times we have had here was really special. To end, Bishop said a prayer, and then we all headed back to the church for traditional games and Dokkook (a mondue and rice cake soup). At the new year everyone gets one year older (you don't age on your birthday, the whole nation just gets one year older Jan. 1) So I am 25 in Korea- they also count age a little different here. It's been so much fun, and I love this ward oh so much! We got transfer calls, and I will be staying here in Jungnang with Sister Gil for my last transfer. Sister Evans and SIster Ahn will also stay the same, so lucky sister Evans will have lived in the same home as me for 6 straight months in Feb! I keep telling her how lucky she is. :) 

We are meeting with a family from Mongolia, a mom (Chuka), dad, and cutest little son ever (Onkel). The parents are pretty good at Korean, but the son knows very little. And they don't really know gospel vocabulary, so we are trying to find a member who can help teach in Mongolian. But they have a lot of interest, and have come to church several times. So we are really excited for them! And Ha Yeh Been is doing great.She is the 17 year old student we have been meeting with and is scheduled to get baptized on Feb. 8th! We watched The Testaments with her this week to help give her more background on the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. And she said "Wow, I didn't even fall asleep because the movie was good." So we took that as a good thing. 

And in other news, last p-day we went ice skating at the Korean Olympic training rink. The rink is huge, but we were informed that we could only use a small portion, since we came right at the time that the figure skating and speed skating Olympic teams would be practicing. So we skated a little bit, but mostly just watched in awe as we watched Olympic athletes (including the female speed skating gold medalist-who practices with the men's team because she is too talented to practice with the women) as they floated across the ice and it was the absolute coolest thing ever! We all left with the desire to be Olympic athletes one day.

Well that just about sums up our week! It's been great and I love this area and I love this work. We are staying warm and having fun, and are seeing miracles every single day. Nothing could be better! Thank you all for all you do and your wonderful examples to me and everyone else. I love you so much! have a great week!

-Sister Shanelle Seegmiller :)

Arms

These are some pictures of our ward party. I am the arms for my tiny Korean companion.

Cake!

Our adorable investigator, Ha Yea Bean at the Christmas party. 

Our little Christmas party celebration in our apartment, complete with the cake given by a ward member.

Not a week for the weak!

Dec 28

Where to begin. I love this ward 중랑 or Jungnang so much. They are seriously the greatest people on earth and love missionaries so much. So very very much. They love us to death. Or very close. We had 7 meal appointments in 8 days, and meals here are not quite like at home. Generally, they have no real main dish and millions of side dishes. And everything is delicious. Most memorable, we had a meal with the 4 sisters at our ward mission leaders home. They made us a feast of some of the best foods ever, and by the end we were stuffed. I have literally never been so full in my life. They had the sisters over first, and the elders were going to come later. There are 8 elders and 4 sisters in our ward, and they had made the same amount of food for both groups. If that gives you any idea. Anywho, we were all struggling to walk out the door, and went to visit a member who ensured us she would not feed us. But when we arrived, she was making a cauldron of red bean soup and gave us each a large bowl because we just had to try it! We were so incredibly ill afterwards, but were ensured that the gift of tongues was very real in so many senses of the word. We couldn't eat again until dinner the next day.

We had our ward Christmas party on Wednesday, which was so much fun! They decided to have each group (primary, YM, YW, and RS) perform something, and then the missionaries performed as well. We had close to 15 investigators come, and several less actives as well. It was a great turn out and so much fun to be with everyone! Koreans don't celebrate Christmas much, so it was fun to have some kind of party. On Christmas I was able to call and talk to all of you wonderful family members, and that was so much fun. It was loud and crazy and just the way it should be. We may not be the most proper bunch, but everyone has told me that ours is the family they would like to visit most, because we seem fun, happy and loving. And I couldn't agree more!

I guess I can't really explain my subject line very well, but Satan has been working harder than ever this Christmas season to turn people away from Christ. Unfortunately he has had some short victories, but we as missionaries just need to pray more and work even harder to win the tug of ward for these incredible people. Unfortunately, Pak Hee Een was not baptized on Saturday. On Wednesday we lost contact with her, and no one has been able to contact her since. We are not really sure what happened, but if you could please offer some prayers on her behalf it would be greatly appreciated. 

As for some follow up, woman in the family- have you been able to watch that video "You never know" I told you about? And if not WATCH IT THIS WEEK! As well as the Live Nativity, He is the Gift, and Because of Him. Also, I reread the story about the bread from three conferences ago, SOO GOOD! And the talk from last conference, "Approaching the throne of God with Confidence" or something like is also highly recommended. That's all I have to say this week. I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great New Year's! Let's all work together to make 2015 the greatest year we have ever had, and recommit ourselves even further to be disciples of Jesus Christ and building His Kingdom, wherever that may be. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all so much!!!

-Sister Shanelle Seegmiller

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Conference with our zone! 

Dinner with our bishop and his family! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 메리 크리스마스^^

Dec 21

Let's start off with some announcements. First of all, a reminder for everyone to watch "He is the Gift" and "Because of Him" videos on lds.org. The church has made a huge push, especially now with "He is the Gift" and have bought advertising space on Times Square for it. If the church thinks its that important, so do we! Please watch and let me know your thoughts, or how you were able to share it with someone who needed it!! 

Also, this is for everyone but especially the woman in the family. I watched a mormon message last week that had me teary eyed all day and made me think of all the amazing woman in my life. It's called "You never know". Please please watch it. It's about 8 minutes long, but it is so worth it. Especially with the crazy Christmas season coming up, it's so good!! Watch it okay?? :)

I don't know if you all heard about the World's Largest Live Nativity that happened in Provo a few weeks ago, but they made a youtube video about it. It has David Archuleta and Alex Boye and some other people I don't know. But it's super cool, so you should check that out too. And, for years people believed that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun moved around us. But if you read Helaman 12:25, they knew the truth even back in 7 BC. That's why we trust the prophets. 

So lots of miracles this week! First, we decided the Eeh Choong Song needed another visit. (she is the one who was struggling a lot last week) Well it turns out she was still struggling just as much and was deciding whether going less active was a better solution when we showed up once again on her doorstep. She said it's so crazy how every time she is struggling the most missionaries arrive. We were able to testify of God's love for her, and how important she is to Him to keep sending us over. She is doing great now and we are so grateful to have listened. 

We visited another less active, Oh Chang Soon, this week and it went pretty well. She just asked us to teach English. But then two days later she called and asked us to come over again. She told us about her son who had passed away suddenly several years ago. She wasn't able to cope with it well, and asked if we could come more often and review the Plan of Salvation with her. Absolutely! 

And biggest miracle of all. We got a referral from some elders in the Tajun mission.. Her name is Pak Hee Een, 28 years old, and she is perfect. She called the elders for English help, attended a baptism three days later and told them "This is true. I need to be baptized." So they met her everyday last week, taught her all the lessons and she accepted everything. She moved to our area on Sat, came to church yesterday and is seriously an angel from heaven. We had a lesson with her afterwards, and she said the closing prayer. She began crying as she thanked Heavenly Father for this opportunity to start a new life and find the truth, and after the prayer she told us how excited she is to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and always have that feeling with her. She wants to get baptized Sat. Dec 27, so she can be confirmed on the 28th and become a member before 2015, and start the new year as a disciple of Christ. It's been so unreal and incredible and I am just so incredibly grateful to have met her!!! We are going to try to contact her daily and help keep her faith strong and bright, and we will let you know when she decides for sure to get baptized. These people are really out there. Oh my goodness, they really are. And they are truly the elect of God. She is the most amazing person I've ever met. 

I absolutely love being a missionary. Sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's hot, sometimes lonely, sometimes you just want to be alone, we are tired, hungry, sometimes WAY too full... BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS!!! This is the greatest work in the world and it truly brings the greatest joy any of us have ever felt. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it with all my heart. I love you all, have a very Merry CHRISTmas and remember the reason for the season! I will talk to all of you on Christmas! I LOVE YOU!!

-SIster Shanelle Seegmiller :)

"If you haven't chosen first the Kingdom of God, it will make little difference what you have chosen instead"

It's beginning to look a lot like kimchi.

This is from when we made kimchi! Enjoy!

Temple day!!

Dinner with some awesome members in our ward!