Last email on my mission

Hi all,

Well... I really don't know what to write about this week. It's really hard to accept the face that a week from today I will be on the flight home. Since this Sunday is Stake Conference, I already had my last regular church meetings two days ago. It was really sad. The Bishopric announced at the pulpit that I was going home in 9 days, so of course a lot of members came up to me after Sacrament to give me hugs and to talk to me. It was a miracle that I didn't cry at church, but I did cry after church. Honestly, I have no desire to go home. 

This morning we went to the Temple to do Endowment. I am very thankful that I got to go to the Temple one more time right before going home. I was praying the whole time that the person I was doing the work on behalf of would accept it, and I did feel that she accepted the ordinance that I performed. I love being in the House of the Lord as I can always feel the peace that I can't find anywhere else.

I don't really have a lot to share about this past week as it was kind of rough, but I'm just grateful that Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader have great trust in us and really appreciate for what we have done. And I know that there are still a lot of things that I can be grateful for even though we haven't seen a huge miracle yet. It's definitely getting harder and harder to stay focused on the work at all time as that day is so close... When we were in the Celestial room at the Temple, President Choi came up to me and said "Oh Sister Leung this is your last trip". I was like "President I don't want to hear this". I still wish he would just let me extent my mission, but I know it's not happening. He said he would be talking to me about marriage at my exit interview... I will try to distract him but I don't know how well it will go...

I'm not in a mood of typing anything more... see ya!

Love,

Sister Leung

With my companion (:

Sister Policarpio, me, Sister Vander Hoeven, Sister Nelson

Good things are happening!

Hi all,

This past week was pretty great. First, I absolutely get along with my companion (: That's a great blessing! I had been praying for a long time that my last companion would be a good one. Sister Vander Hoeven is just awesome. I love her dearly! Second, Elder Falabella, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, came to visit our mission, so we had a special Zone Conference. My favorite thing of the whole conference was "Are you really a full-time missionary? Or part-time?". We have been called and set apart to serve as a full-time missionary, but how many of us are really constantly doing missionary work? Elder Falabella said whether we are FULL time missionaries or not depends on what we do during the day. That was very inspiring to me. The sad thing of that conference was I had to bear my departing testimony along with all the missionaries that were leaving after this transfer. I was trying very hard not to cry because no one would be able to understand me, and I didn't cry. I mostly shared my testimony of the Atonement and expressed my gratitude for being able to serve in the Washington Seattle Mission. Third, we had Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with the Rencher's from the ward. They already offered to feed us on Thanksgiving two months ago. They always have good food, so I was really glad that I didn't get transferred. We had turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potato, fresh pumpkin pie... everything was just sooooooooo delicious. Fourth, we gave talks and performed a musical number at Sacrament meeting, and it went well. Fifth, my companion and I both love shopping/window-shopping to the mall after emailing time (: LIFE IS GOOD!

We have been looking for people to teach for a long time. Tracting houses hadn't been successful, so we accepted the suggestion from our District Leader to tract apartments. Tracting apartments has never been my favorite thing to do, but I knew that we should give it a try. So for the whole week we only tracted apartments, and we found a few people that were willing to set up a return appointment to learn more. We don't know how solid they are yet, but it's a good start.

Another good thing from this past week was exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders. I stayed in our area with Hermana Hales, and Sister Vander Hoeven went to Bellevue with Hermana Boley. Hermana Hales and I have been friends since we served in Bellevue together, which was a long time ago. It was fun to catch up with her and to learn from her. She is an amazing missionary and a hard worker. We saw quite a few miracles during our exchange. Almost all the people that we planned to visit were home when we knocked on their door. We visited a less-active lady, and she said she had been thinking about coming back to church (: We definitely were there at the right time.

At the beginning of my mission, I felt like I would never get to go home. However, time actually goes by fast! Two weeks from today, I will be on the plane going home, and you have no idea how scared I'm about that day... My Mission President already said no to my request of extension, so I guess all I can do is to work hard for the next 2 weeks and to be a FULL time missionary.

Love,

Sister Leung