WEEK ONE IN KOREA

FIRST INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT: The flight to Korea was so long! About 12 hours to Japan, then a 3 hour layover, then another 3 hours to Incheon. I slept maybe two hours out of the whole trip. Looking back on the trip, I am not sure what I did for the whole amount of time. I don't think I was very productive with my time on the plane. Not sleeping I think ended up being a good thing, because I have not had any jetlag. I was able to sleep that whole first night in Seoul.

The depature from SLC was horrible. I don't know if it was the pilot or the weather that was sucked. As we ascened the whole plane was shaking. It did that for 30 minutes. I felt so nasauous and Elder Lee, one seat over from me actually ened up throwing up. I turned away and glanced back at him to see 3 inches of puke in his barf bag. I started gagging. But thankful, my will power not to barf was stronger then my gag reflex.

The native Koreans on our flight were awesome. They went up and down the asisles passing out pass-along cards and shared the gospel with everyone waiting on the fligth to Korea at the Japan terminal. They are awesome. During the whole flight they rarely sat in their assigned seat. They went around talking to everyone. They are so much fun. I brought a box of chocolates and we all were just sitting there eating them. One would take a bit out of one , then give it to you so you could take a bit. Koreans do not have a germphobia. I got a personal Korean lesson from Elder An about how to say, "I want to try Octopus", and things like that.

FIRST TIME IN KOREA: We arrived at the Incheon Airport around 10:30pm. We got through customs really fast. The Incheon Airport is so nice, very modern and HUGE. OUr Mission President and his wife were there to pick us up, along with the APs. We loaded out luggage in the back of a truck, then off we went. Me, Sister Bennet and Sister Manley all road with the Mission President and his wife to the mission home. It was about an hour drive. The roads were curvy and I felt like throwing up the whole time. Oh, also the whole flight I had been suffering throught a cold, so I just felt gross from flying and being sick. We finally arrived at the mission home and I went straight to bed.

MEETING MY TRAINER: The next day I woke up to smell of bacon...yum. Sister Lee made us an awesome American Style breakfeast. Afterwards we had interviews with the President, then went to the church next door and recieved training from the APs and Mission President. Just training on mission rules, basic things like that. When President Lee was teaching us he looked straight at Sister Bennett and said forgot your boyfriend, focus on the work. And continue to talk about that for awhile. It was intense :) Afterwards, we asked Sister Bennet if she had told him about her serious boyfriend back home and she said "no"! The church is true. Our Mission President totally has the gift of discernment. It was so funny. Knowning Sister Bennett, I am sure she was embarrassed and a little flustered after that. I love it. I believe firmly that people should not have an interest back home. Too distracting. Granted it does work for some people.

After our meeting with President Lee we got to meet our trainer. I've been really blessed I got two trainers. An american and a native. Yep, I am in a threesome again. I like threesomes. My trainer, trainer is Sister Marchant. This is her last transfer. She is wonderful, excited about missionary work and talks to everyone. So after meeting out tranier we talked about contacting, then went out and started contacting people. I decided missionaries are the  most akward people on the earth...and I am now one of them. I felt so werid, like I was invading people's space when we talked to them. It's so akward especially when people don't want to hear, yet missionaries continue to talk to them. I have a lot to learn. this is defianlty out of my comfort zone. Plus, my limited korean make me even more akward because I can say  a few things, all involving the gospel. So I don't know how to natuarallly start up a conversation. Once I get better at that I think contacting won't be so bad. Like my teacher always said "Missionaries are not cool, so get over being embarassed about it."

FIRST AREA: My area is called BoonDong (seomthing like that). It is considered the country area. If you where here you would think Alexandria, Virginia. They are buildings everywhere and apartments. Rarely does anyone in Korea own a home. They are so many people in a small area everyone lives in apartments. It's very green and they are some rice patties and farming land in our area. It's different. The area is nice and is one of the wealthier areas. Our apartment is tiny and the bathroom has black mold that won't disappear when you scrubb it. So gross, but apparently it's one of the nicer apartments. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to get rid of black mold. It's is so disorganized and I have already begun organizing and throwing out useless things that have been collected over the years. I am truly my father's daughter. :)

FIRST VISIT TO A KOREAN HEALTH CLINIC: So President Lee told me I had to go see the doctor, so I did my second day in Korea. They sat me in a chair and sprayed air in my mouth and nose. Felt more like a visit to the dentist. He asked me questions and I told him about how I felt and my allergies. The doctor spoke decent English. Then we went back into the lobby. I thought I was done, but then Sister Jung told me to go into this other room. In the room the nurse pulled down the backside of my skirt and gave me a shot in the butt. I never got a shot in the butt before, nor have a gotten one to cure a cold before.

The Doctor was very nice and told us that when he was in High School he joined our church, but is was no longer active. He didn't make me pay for the visit or shot and we gave him a flyer with our number on it and told him to give us a call. Then we went to the pharamacy to pick up the medicine. I got subscribed this packed that had 6 pills in it. Questionable, but I took them for the next five days and my cold is now gone... and I am alive.

I have so much more to write, but not enought time...

WEEK 10

In exactly a week i will be in Seoul Korea! It didn't really hit me till this past Friday. So friday, Elder Cutler, who is in my district, who will be serving in LA, got called to the front desk during personal study time. We didn't see him till lunch. We asked what did the front desk want? He replied, "I am leaving today for L.A at 4pm." We were like whatever, are you serious. I had to confirm with his companion to finally realize he was telling the truth. And like that Elder Culter was off to L.A. His mission president really needed him. When he left is when I realized it's finally happening!

The other neat thing about this story is a couple days before Wednesday, Elder Culter and Elder Hatch got a new companion, Elder Burningham. he was born in Seoul but his mom got remarried and moved to America when he was 9 yrs. old. He is fluent in Korean and for some bizzarre reason he was not put with the native koreans, but with us. And then two days later Elder Culter left. How amazing! God truly is in the details of our lives. No one at the MTC knew Elder Culter was gonna get transferred early, but God knew. It just blows my mind how he works in our lives.

Are you ready to go to Korea? neh...that means yes in korean by the way. At TRC this past Saturday me and my companions were able to teach the first lesson smoothly, to speak by the spirit rather then just sit there struggling with words and grammar. It gave me the assurance that I am ready to go and serve in korea. I can't wait to go and teach the korean people. just 7 more days and I will be there :)

WEEK 8

THREE WEEKS LEFT!!!!! How crazy is that? It has been going by so fast. Do I feel confident with the language? Absoluetly not. It's hard talking to Korean natives, there like what?, what did you say? It's rather depressing, but eventually I will be fluent and actually be able to understand natives not just my fellow missionaries.

Such an amazing thing happened at Tuesdays Devotional...we had another Apostle come and speak. That is three since I have been here! So intense. Elder Neal L. Anderson. Did a marvelous talk on the merits, mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. He talked about how the apostles love to come speak at the MTC and are jealous of those who get to go speak. He said they consider us JR's in the work. We both share the gospel and tesify and are a witness of Jesus Christ. Best part I got to shake his hand! We always go out to the curb to way goodbye to the apostles when they drive by, but this time Elder Anderson took the time to come shake the hands of those waiting at the curb. Highlight of my life :)

Another great experience at TRC (so many great things happen there), we got to teach a non-member. She is a native from Buson, Korea and is here at the BYU center learning english. She has only been here for three weeks. Her roomate is a returned sister missionaries who teaches here at the MTC. They were with her during the lesson. Shin Su Min seemed excited to be there. Though she spent more time correcting our Korean than listening to our message. Which is fine. This was her first week at the TRC and I think eventually she will start to focus on the message more, rather then correct Korean. She told us she will be volunteering every week! It will be fun to get to see her. It was cool, my teacher, Brother Wells, pulled me aside and told me our investiagtor was a non-member, he asked if we should tell my two other companions. I was like YEAH! I think he was afriad knowing that would make us nervous, but truthfully it made me so excited. When he told me I had the rush of love for her and excitiment to teach her. It was a neat experience, prehaps a glimpise of how God loves us.

So during gym time I either do volleyball or four-square. Lately it has been four-square. Some days I kill people or I get killed. But it so funny because so many of the Elder don't trust me cause they know I can get them out. I love it. The younger Korean district boys told my Elders who then told me that they are scared of me in four-square and can't trust me. I was like good, i like to strike fear in people :) Four-square is so entertaining. Everyone is agianst Korea, it's hilarious. We used to have a feud against the Japanese but they are no longer in our gym time. So it's us against the Cambodians, Thai, Vietanmse, Madrins...pretty much every other Asian district...it's so much fun. It's not a serious feud, people don't really get mad, we just like to talk smack. Korean's are the most vicious four-square players...everyone says we are...I love it.

WEEK 7

The new korean missionaries are here!!! We have 12 new missionaries, 4 girls and 8 boys. So much fun. They are learning the language so fast. It's amazing to see and keeps me on my toes. I feel like I have to be smart now and know my korean becauase they ask me questions. The language for me is coming along great. I speak ok, it just takes me some time to form sentences.

TRC of course was wonderful. Our task was to purchase clothing and then share the gospel with them concerning families. I can't wait to actually get to Korea and barter with people it will be so fun. They told us the price of a skirt and I said a korean word that means "give me a discount"...they all started laughing, we had a fun time. And yes they gave me a discount :)

Afterwards we taught them the first lesson: Restoration of the Gospel. I had a more difficult time thinking up sentences. I didn't say that much. My companion Sister Bennet is really good with Korean and she said this long complicated sentences and I just stared at her with this confused expression of "what did you just say?" The investigators saw my face and just busted up laughing. My face turned red and I could not stop laughing, so embarrassing. But definalty the highlight for me in the lesson was reciting the First Vision in Korean. I am the first person in my Korean Zone to have memorized it. In our lesson the Lord really did bless me in remembering how to say and to be able to say it at a good pace with few pauses. You could feel the spirit. Sharing Joseph Smith's vision is so powerful, the spirit always bears witness. After reciting it the investigators clapped for me, the mom was like "wow!" It was such a good feeling, because before I had tried to recite and froze up and forgot all of it, but this time I just prayed for the Lord's help and he did. As missionaries you truly can not do this work on your own, you have to rely on the Lord.

Week 6

WEEK SIX

Provo Temple food AMAZING. I highly recommend eating there for breakfeast. The omelet is full of cheesy goodness and they draw smiley faces on your waffles with fresh whip cream. Today the man gave my waffle a mustache with bacon, it was delicious.

Our devotional speaker this past Tuesday was awesome, it was Elder Dallin H. Oaks! Thats two apostles in a row. His wife also spoke and she is such a good speaker as well. He talked about missionary work and made an emphasis on learning the gospel so you can teach by the Spirit. He repeated twice, "Prepare by learning the principles of the gospel and teach by the Spirit according to that persons need in any order." This is so important to remember because you can get caught on doing the lesson in order everytime, but thats not the purpose of Preach My Gospel. They changed it from the memorized lessons to this for a reason. So that missionaries can teach by the spirit to the needs of the investistigator.

Last night we did a 20 minute lesson with our progressing investigator Rob and we planned a lesson but did not go by it at all. He had not prayed and expressed concerns and we ended up talking about the Holy Ghost. And by the end he left with an understanding of the importance of prayer and how through prayer we recieve answers or get feelings of comfort through the Spirit, which he had felt before when reading the Bible. So it was a successful lesson, but perhaps our committment could have been more substantial. But My one companion was super frustrated afterward because we didn't do what we had planned and therefore she did not say much in the lesson.

Our heard us after our lesson discussing this whole issue and later in class shared a quote by Elder Bednar that I really like, "Planning is everything, plans are nothing." This related to what Elder Oaks talked about. It's important that we prepare and study for the lesson, but we need to makesure to teach to the investisgators needs and not freeze up if nothing goes according to our plans. Prepare and then teach by the Spirit. No one got to shake Elder Oak's hand but I got a picture of him from the curb of him driving away smiling and waving and wearing this stylish golf cap. So cool.

TRC teaching was fun this week. Our first lesson in Korean. Friday night we taught our progressing investigator in korean and it was horrible for me. I literally said two sentences. I was frustrated and knew what I had been doing was not working. I was writing down simply english sentences and then translating them into Korean. I wanted to be able to speak freely, which I had not been able to do. Doing the lesson made me realize I didn't know the vocab. So that night I wrote down words I would use from the first lesson, which was about 20 or more. And then I prayed that I would be able to memorize them and remember them for tomorrow because TRC was the next day. And the Lord totatlly helped me. Got them down within 30mins, and remebered them the next day. The Church is TRUE! I feel so blessed. And when we taught I was able to say so many sentences and express want sentences came to my mind. It was a ruff lesson because of our lack of language. But I left feeling like I was able to communicate what I needed to and our lesson flowed from prinicple to principle. The Lord has truly blessed me and called me to learn this language.

Week 5

WEEK FIVE

So many amazing things have happened! This past Tuesday Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke! You can just feel the spirit when he enters the room and especially when he testified "I know that Jesus Christ lives." I was sitting five seats back on the floor, off to the left. I was so close. During his talk he had all those learning a foreign language raise thier hands. He then invoked an aposotlic blessing on us of the gift of tongues. "But you still have to study" he said. So cool, defiantly need the extra help.

Yesterday I prayed for help, that I would understand the grammar and be able to make sentences in my head, rather than on paper and I was able to. It was so amazing. Its only been five weeks! The lord is truly helping me learn this language. So this week in the TRC we have to do our lesson in Korean! It will be intense. But I am feeling okay about it, because yesterday we did short lessons in Korean and I was able to translate my english sentences out loud and never had to look at the korean sentences. So COOL.

Oh and the TRC this past Saturday so great. We did our Korean task perfectly and our lesson so powerful. The Spirit was there start to finish and me and my companions were unified. Before we each taught one principle, because its hard with three and some talk for a long time. But we have been working on this and this week we didn't have set parts we just talked and would pause so someone else could jump in, it was so good. And then we committed our investigator (who is fake) to baptism! He said yes. After we ended with prayer he asked what he could do until we met again. Thankfully before we had left to go to the TRC i grabbed the Plan of Salvation and Restoration pamphlet and gave him the Plan of Salvation one to read, answer the questions and pray about. Those promptings of the spirit are so real, even if you are just role playing. It was an amazing TRC lesson and afterwards, our investiagor, Brother Ball, said we did great and he felt the Spirit. All you need is the spirit and all goes well.

So my Korean zone is full of traditions. Like every Saturday night we meet at the vending machines and eat ice cream. Well just four days ago we learned of another tradition. So there is an Elder Warner, who is in the older district and he has a bristish accent. His dad is from england, mom from Idaho. Grew up mostly in England and just recently has been living in Rigby, Idaho...so we thought. We were told Elder Warner actually doesn't have an accent and has lived in Idaho his whole life! We were in disbelief and felt betrayed! But at the same time in compelte "aww" of Elder Warner that he had pulled off a British accent for 6 weeks! He even fooled real Bristish people and couldn't convince them that he really was American. So funny. So the tradition is past on as the Older district leaves. They just left yesterday, so now Elder Theobald will carry on the tradition in an Austrilian accent. Which is really good, but super thick. Plus he uses slang all the time and knows so many people in the MTC. So there are some problems that could arise, but I think he will be able to trick the new district coming in next week.

One more thing, I sparined my thumb a month ago in volleyball, it still is sore and I can't really curl my eyelashes with my right hand, because it hurts. So decided to use my left hand...bad idea! While curling them my hand jerked and I pulled out like 6 eyelashes. I have this little bald patch in my eyelashes...so sad. But they are growing back fast and it only looks funny if you look close.

Week 4

WEEK FOUR

This week we got to teach Plan of Salvation at the TRC. But we didn't find this out till wednesday! Therefore we didn't have much time to prepare. This lesson was so hard for me to teach. Everytime we did a pratice I never, ever knew what to say. I know the material, but to put into words was beyond me. Thursday night I prayed for help and the next day i had such an easier time explaining principles from Plan of Salavtion during our practice lessons. But come TRC day I was not in the best of moods. I didn't feel prepared at all or that I even knew my Korean task and when we did the task i actually forgot alot of it. When it came around to teaching the lesson, I prayed that I would feel the Spirit and know what to teach.

The investisgator asked about why she would need to get baptized agian? She was Catholic and had already been baptized. I was able to bear witness to her about the importance of authority and baptism by immersion, sharing scriptures along the way. Then my companions also bore witness. It was awesome, defiantly the highlight of the lesson. After the lesson, the investistgator (who was a returned missionary from Chicago) said if we would have asked she would hasve been baptized! Me and my companions were like "oh no", because that was not the commit we had asked her to do.

We still have so much to learn. On of the things our observer and investiagto commented on was about asking questions. So during companion study we will read a principle and come up with a list of questions we could ask an investiagtor to guage thier understanding and to help us understand their beliefs more. Our questions are getting better and better. When we did a 10min principle lesson with one of the Elders we were on a role with the questions. It was awesome, he even commented on how we asked good questions. It was a great feeling, especially because one of my companions had a little outburst the other day on her frustrations on not knowing what questions to ask.

I have to say the stress of the MTC has not hit me yet. I am so grateful! A couple days ago one of my companions broke down into tears after lunch. Our teach had not been patient that day (stress of college finals we think) and it made her feel really bad. She was understanding everything and she felt she couldn't ask the one teacher for help. But she is good now. I think from my 21 credit semester I had at school, waking up to sew at 5:30 am and not going to bed till 2am, really taught me about how to handle stress. As my teachers always told me, do your best and the Lord will help you with the rest. During companion inventory both said I was really laid back. So i am so grateful to not get stressed easily over the Korean and such. Such a blessing :)