I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go... Over Mountain? Or Plain, Or Seas. June 21st 2016

Heyyy everyone! I know I usually email on Monday, but this week we had Zone Conference, and we climbed a mountain! It twas a bunch of fun! Got a lot of training along the way. It was really funny because the big group of 40+ missionaries would be sitting, listening to the training, and old people who were hiking would stop and listen, and then ask our mission president who were were and what we were doing. It was really great! So fun what a bunch of missionaries can do when we all gather in one spot! I would send pics, but there's something wrong with the camera, so I may not be able to. Its been odd for a few weeks now :P 

Besides all that, one time this week I was talking to a lady on the bus and she got a call, talked, and then got off the phone and said to me "I was supposed to call my daughter about picking me up, but I loved talking to you so much I forgot!" 

We were talking with a grandma member a few days ago, and apparently she thought I was bad at Korean, so every few minutes she would turn and say "You don't understand what I'm saying, huh?" Then giggle a bit and keep talking, even though I understood 95% of what she was saying. XD She's so cute. I love grandmas. 

In English class this week we had a lesson on Health. We did a role play where one person was the doctor and the other person was the patient, it was really funny to hear what people said. The Mexican elder told a class member who said her stomach hurt because she drank cold water that she should now go home and drink warm water. Super funny. XD

This Thursday was temple Pday! Yayyy!!! The temple was awesome! Another sister and I both concluded that it was the most spiritual experience we've had. 

After the temple we went to the zoo!!!!!!! YAY!!! It was a bunch of fun. We saw a lot of animals. We also got to watch the lions get fed. That was way cool.

We went to visit a less active, but she opened the door and said we can't come in and visit because some people from the church she is attending were at her house "worshipping". That was interesting, but hey, she came to sacrament, so that was nice.

On Saturday we had the grand and rare, and totally weird opportunity to watch Kung Fu Panda 2 with the ward. It was a ward activity and we were permitted to attend. Yeah. It was fun, and weird. Haha. 

On sunday we had Ward Conference, and we sang in the choir which was fun. Me and 2 other people had solo parts, which was fun as well. Singing in Korean is for sure not as easy as singing in English.

After church we all ate together. One of the members little boys kept trying to give me a hug, and I kept stopping him. Then he was like "Why won't you let me give you a hug????" And I said "Because I'm a missionary, so you can't." And I don't think he appreciated that response. He also told me he was going to marry me. I told him that he wasn't, so he ran away.

Before mission conference we slept over at another sisters house that was closer to where we needed to go. Sister Hwang looked at the shoes by the door and said "Wow her feet are so small!! Look how small these are!!" And she tried them on and said "Oh wait, they fit me." 

So yeah! Its been a great week! Lots of funness, and spiritual advice, etc. I hope you all also have a great week! 

Guess Who Ate the Watermelon the Fastest? June 13th

HEYO!

Its summertime! Watermelon time here in Korea! And its awesome! The fruit here is sooooooooooo good! So I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Although one of our investigators gave us some watermelon as we were leaving her house, and I ate it and got the hiccups and they lasted all day! It was funny we went to the post office, and I was sitting, waiting for Sister Hwang, and hiccuping. One of the ladies at the post office must have thought it was really funny because she kept laughing when I hiccuped. XD Nice to know I can provide entertainment wherever I go and in many different forms! :)

We met with a less active member and went and ate Chinese food together. I ate sea slug. It doesn't taste like much, but what it does taste like I don't really want to eat again. XD

We had zone conference this week and the STLs taught us about loving others warmly by having our ZLs put on a skit about how the sun and the wind were arguing. It was really funny. You'd have to have seen it. It was also quite I riot when the Zls showed us a dance that we can do to help us remember how to ask good questions and listen to our investigators, and then they made all of us do it together. Maybe I'll show you guys later. After, me and another sister were talking with an Elder and I found out something crazy. His birthday is four days after mine! The same as like,3 of my really good friends! It was like some crazy coincidence. Cool though. I have 4 days life seniority though, which is always nice.

We went on exchanges this week! It was my first week leading someone in my area. It started off awesome when we took the wrong subway, twice. But hey, it worked out because we gave someone a Book of Mormon! :) Then we took a lot of buses to go a members house and on one we talked to a lady who was very interesting. She also wanted us to take a picture of her with our phone so we would not forget what she looked like. So, we have a picture of a random lady on our phone! XD Lots of fun. 

On Saturday we had lunch with our ward mission leader. When we finished we had watermelon. So I said to the sister "Want to know one of my hidden talents?" And she asked what it was, so I said "I can eat a watermelon slice in less than 3 seconds." And she got excited and demanded I show her. And then she asked two of the other Elders in the district to race with me. My companion videoed, and then we started. And in less than three seconds my slice was magically gone! The Elder who was sitting next to me looked up, looked at my watermelon, and said "What just happened??" The DL was just like "Whoa, whoa, whoa! That was so cool!" The Elder next to me said "I didn't see what happen, I just heard the noise." The ward mission leader got a big kick out of it.

Watermelon eating. Its a talent. 

Another time, I was on the bus, and a lady sat down next to me. I started talking to her about church and English and things. She wants us to go teach her sons the Gospel and teach her English. She gave me some Korean popcorn. Score! 

Later on I was on the subway and talked to a Buddhist lady who was coming back from being at the temple thingy. We talked a lot about families and stuff. She seemed to like me, because when I had to leave she took my hand, kissed it, and said "I love you, I love you." So yeah. I could have done without the hand kissing, but hey I appreciate the thought! Nice to know I can be loved after 10 minutes of conversation! 

Our recently baptized investigator was confirmed yesterday! Her non member mom came as well!

We had a fireside yesterday for our mission president who will be leaving on the 28th. :'( Its sad to see him and his wife go! We all love him so much! We sang for him, it was a great experience! 

One of the members drove us back from the fireside. Their two sons like to sing non-churchy songs while we are in the car, so I took action to capture their attention and prevent them from singing! I proceeded to tell them my Mom's horror/adventure stories from her mission and they were fascinated the whole way home. When I had to leave the younger son asked "Sister, when we meet again, can you tell all those stories and more?" Super funny. 

Mission tour! (Time to baptize every week!) June 6th 2016

Wow! Everyone! This week was so great! I loved it!! Lets start from the top~

I took a nap last week on pday, but someone downstairs kept making this loud, irregular tapping noise, so that didn't work out so well haha.

We met with a member who is in the hospital for back problems, we went out and ate with her. It was a buffet, and she wanted us to eat a LOT. She's really adorable, she also took a bunch of selfies with us. I love members haha. After we met with her we went to the church and met with our Recent convert and talked about family history, turns out she already has a lot of interest in Family History! So hopefully we can get going on that and help her get to the temple to do baptisms for the dead soon! 

After that we took the subway to go practice the song we were going to sing for mission tour, but we ended up being an hour late because it took longer than expected on the subway, and then when we got out of the subway we took a taxi because we were late, but there was a huge traffic jam, so it took even longer than it would have haha. 

We had a missionary sleepover on Tuesday with the sisters that live in a different area because we had to arrive at the building at 8am for mission conference and we are 2 hours from the building. Twas fun. 

So Wednesday we met at the building for mission tour early to practice our song. It was good. The Elders were all very worried because they didn't get to practice very much.

Mission tour was amazing!!!!! Our area presidency member for the Asia south area, Elder Choi, came and spoke to us! He's really awesome. Among other things, he talked to us about setting a goal to BAPTIZE EVERY WEEK! Whoa yeah. Life. I'm so pumped. I'm all for it. He told us that its nearly impossible, but we are missionaries, doing the nearly impossible is our job! Because that's what God wants us to do! So I hope you can all look forward to good weekly news from us! There were a bunch of really good talks, and all of them very inspired. We were also recommended to sing in the shower. I haven't tried that one yet. XD 

So, on Thursday, we were walking to meet a member and saw a lady, so we said hello, and suddenly she gave my companion the bag she had been carrying- it had random stuff in it like a battery charger, a selfie stick, and other random stuff. So yeah, a random lady on the street gave us stuff. That was cool. My companion was like "Hey! I can use all this stuff when I go home this transfer!" Missionary blessings! :)

We went to visit less actives, and we had to chose between two, so we chose one, and went to the house. The only problem was that we only knew the floor she lived on, and not the number, so we were going to try 302, and then we saw a lady going into the room next door, so we asked her and she said she didn't know. But they she was like "Oh you're missionaries? Which church?" And we told her and she said "Oh you have the Book of Mormon! I love the Book of Mormon! I have 4 of them! I read them all the time!" So she invited us into her house to talk. Her life is like some crazy movie. One thing is for sure, she's had it ROUGH. The thing she said that was cool though, was that every time she read the Book of Mormon she feels peace. The Book of Mormon truly has power to help lift and bless us. 

On another occasion we were on the subway headed to visit an investigator, and I saw a girl working on her English homework, so I asked if she wanted help, and then helped her with it. She was so happy~ 

On Sunday Sister Kim was confirmed :) It was great! Though they didn't use a mic, so I didn't get to hear it, but she was so happy :) 

I helped translate for a little American girl in class. The teacher speaks good English but she was worried she wouldn't be able to teach her well so she had me come and translate. It was fun :) 

We met with an American family after church and ate with them and a few other members from the American branch. One sister brought her non-member friend  who speaks Russian, English, Korean, and one other language. :) Super cool. 

Yesterday we had Sports conference! The whole stake gathered to play soccer, kickball, dodgeball, and a bunch of other sports! It was a lot of fun. Sister Hwang and I may have overdone ourselves though haha. 

After the Sports conference our investigator Sister Baek was baptized! It was her 8th birthday, so after the baptism we had a party. It was really great. We really want to meet with her mom and teach her too!

So all the missionary phones look the same. Yesterday after the baptism Elder Miller saw our phone, thought it was theirs, and then took it. So, yeah. They found out once they had gotten home, so they left it there and told the sisters that we were with that we would have to get it later that night. So after we did some song practice, we went all the way to the Elders house to pick up our phone XD

And that was the week! Its been really great! We anticipate another great week to come! I hope you are all super happy, and living life to the best of your abilities! There's a lot of wonderful things to be grateful for! Especially this beautiful Gospel! 

Love you all!