Well..... If you asked me if I would ever want to be interviewed by New York Times ever again.... I would say no.... Seriously it was the MOST STRESSFUL week of my LIFE!!!!!!! At the same time, the Lord was giving us so much peace. WE could feel the prayers of everyone for us. So the reason it was so stressful is because they wanted to do specific things. Like a service project, meet with an investigator, teach English, tract, door knock and visit members. Which is all possible and we planned for all of that but when you have a camera following you around and wanting to set up the camera and have you pause and wait for him to get good shots of you... things tend to run a bit differently. And then when you have a sleep deprived NYT reporter who needs her coffee, things run a bit slow. ha ha ha. At the same time. I cant begin to tell you how much I loved Jody (reporter) and Choi (photographer) and Jessica (public affairs for the church). Holy cow. So great and amazing. Jody has interviewed people from us to President Obama and everyone in between!!!! She is an amazing woman. NYT wanted to view the average day of a Sister missionary in Korea and they were sure going to get it. Every day, without fail, someone cancels on us. So the fact that people canceled was not a surprise... just stressful. ha ha ha. Anyway, so for the interview - they had us sit on these mats because we don't really have chairs and we were asked questions like - what does it mean to be a sister missionary? why did you choose to come out? talk about the women in your life? what is rejection like? tell us about the good. Tell us about the bad. what do you think about women holding the priesthood? because more women will be RMs they will have strong testimonies.. do you think they will have an advantage over men in the future? They asked a LOT about both of our sisters serving missions. The reaction to the age change and what we thought about that. They asked us about our families... etc. I was really lucky to be able to brag about the amazing women in my life:) but they asked some deep questions... not sure how I feel about it....... so other questions concerning women and the priesthood we just kinda laughed and said it was not really relevant.
During that day we saw many miracles. They wanted us to go knock on doors.. I told them we don't really do that anymore and we do what Pres. Hinckley asked, which is to work through the members. But I decided we could go see if the family from Finland was enjoying the Book of Mormon we got them... umm okay... miracle!!!!! She answered the door and said it was so thoughtful that someone ordered a book for her in Finnish and that it happened in Korea from two Americans. She asked us to come again.
So NYT got a view of real missionary work which is what they wanted. Wow... so that was an..... interesting experience. What I learned.......- I like my simple life. Simple missionary life where all I have to worry about it pleasing the Lord:) But it was a good experience. Don't need another one though.
We are all geared up and ready to go back into missionary work. :) God truly helped us with NYT , and he helps us every day. This is truly his work. I know it. I am so thankful to be his missionary. I learned the only person we ever need to please is God. If we please our selves, we will never be happy. If we try to please others, we will drive ourselves into the ground with busyness. If we try to please the world, we will build a mansion on earth of rewards...but our treasure in heaven will be of saw dust and dirt.... But when we please the lord. When all we desire is to please the lord, our desire is met, we are pleased in knowing the Lord is pleased and that is the greatest Joy.
This Christmas season I have been pondering a LOT about what to give God and Christ as a Christmas gift. I was desiring so hard, working so hard for a baptism to be their present. It can happen. but also I know I need to just sacrifice all and give it ALL to them. I don't have much time left and so I need to give them my all. Time, energy, desires, wants, weaknesses, etc. give it to them. Christ WAS born. I know He came..... and He lives.
I love you to the moon and back.
Love Sister Cole Ensign
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