안 산 (Ansan) is beautiful! When transfers day came I was a little sad and even a little nervous. But now that just seems super silly to me. I was sad because I was leaving Sister Chao and would have to go to a new place. I was nervous because I was going to have a KOREAN companion!! So scary! But transfers was actually really cool. All the missionaries gather meet in Sindorim inside the subway station. I was able to see a lot of familiar faces :) Sister Gooch is now in my zone so I am so excited to see her more often. Yay for MTC districts! Elder Ely, Elder Bryner, and Elder Lynn all look so thin and in shape it's crazy. Seriously they all looked so fit and seemed so happy. It was so great being able to visit with them again. However, eventually it was time to leave and we had to part ways and I was left alone to go with my new companion Sister Jeong (pronounced Jung). It took us about an hour to get to Ansan from Sindorrim on an express bus. I had made it a goal of mine to break the ice with Sister Jeong right from the start so things wouldn't be all awkward. And thankfully that was way easy! The whole bus ride home we were talking. She, of coarse, was doing a really fantastic job at only speaking in Korean to me. I learned that she is from Daejon Mission area and she has a big family like me. She is really hilarious and also super sweet. She's been really great at helping me with Korean. I've started to notice that I am learning Korean a lot faster than before which makes me really happy. She isn't leaving me clueless though, thankfully. Whenever I don't understand her I just try to guess what she is saying and if I'm right she'll kind of do this cute grunt noise meaning yes. It's kind of like an uh-huh i guess. But if I can't figure it out she will try her best to tell me in English. However, there has been times she has no clue how to say it in English so then we learn together what it means by using the dictionary on our phone. She's crazy at talking to people on the street. Koreans just get straight to the point I guess haha. So I'll usually say hello and just start a little conversation but she just jumps right in and says that we are missionaries and so on and so on. She has gotten people to give them their numbers too even. I am amazed every single time I see her do that. I'm sure she and I will have lots of success as companions together. She and her last companion already had I think two or three baptisms. So hopefully, we can continue to help people. She knows a little how to cook Korean meals so we've eaten a few. I know for sure the Lord is blessing me because I have been able to eat everything no problem! Like for example, on Thursday we had our weekly service activity where we went to the community welfare center. We went and spent some time with some 어 르신(elderly). I loved it so much! However, I couldn't understand anything they would say to me. I would just nod my head and say lots of yes and aww's haha. Afterwards, we ate lunch there where I ate some traditional Korean food in the cafeteria. After serving the food to them, I got my own tray and the lady who served it put something in mine that I never ever in my life would choose to eat. I was really nervous but I had faith that the Lord would once again help me be able to eat the food as long as I at least tried it. It couldn't be that bad. Optimism is good right? What I ate is called 오 징어무국 translating to squid radish soup. Yup that's right! I ate squid!! Can you believe it?! And it actually wasn't that bad. It didn't really taste much like anything actually haha. So I know my prayers are being answered and the Lord is helping me for sure. And not only with the food, when we had a practice lesson with a ward member, I was able to speak Korean and say what I wanted to say in the lesson. Normally I always had to look down at my notes, but this time I maybe looked once after trying terribly to remember what the word was. I know the Lord is strengthening my ability to learn quickly and he's blessed me with such a great companion.
Anyways, I've now been on my mission 5 whole months and tomorrow will be 3 months in Korea. Is time going by this fast for you? It's like when I look back on the past weeks or months it's just flown on by, but the days still go by a little slowly. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a setting apart of a new missionary going to Daejon mission. Being in that room as everyone shared their testimonies with him was a little overpowering. I felt the spirit so strong. It reminded me a lot of when I was set apart and when I got home I went and reread the blessing that Michelle recorded for me.
Oh, and the Ansan ward is super great! The bishop is really wanting us to learn Korean fast and to adapt to Korean food. He even told us to not eat fast food! I almost cried! haha but it's really ok. It'll say us money for sure haha. And Sister Jeong isn't opposed to American food. Just last night she tried Mac n' Cheese for the first time and really liked it! So thanks mom for those! :D
My new apartment is sooooo nice! Small but way cute! yes it's somewhat cooler here. LOTS and LOTS of pretty trees. but it's still monsoon season so lots of rain sometimes and lots of humidity still. Also, I got bit by some mosquitoes :( I don't even know when! haha We only have about 2 investigators right now but they aren't progressing...
I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
켈리 자매
Sister Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment