It Was Snowing!!

It's finally December! I've been waiting and waiting. As soon as it finally comes BOOM! Snow comes too. We had the first snowfall of the year. I was just sitting at my desk studying and heard something outside so I looked out the window and IT WAS SNOWING!! It's not sticking to the ground yet though, so  I'm hoping I get my winter boots soon because my feet are freezing in these flats.
Whenever transfers come around you can tell how much you are loved by how many meals you are invited to. Sister Jeong had a ton of members who asked but we only had room in our schedule for 3. On Sunday we had a meal with the first counselor and his whole family. Super fun. Then on Monday night we had one with the Bishop, his family, and 3 youth from the ward. The Bishop's children are the cutest! They made Sister Jeong and I some letters and gift boxes. And little 준서 (Joon So) had a nerf gun and he had fun shooting it at the sliding glass door. One of the young men decided to tease him and he put the nerf bullet all the way at the top of the window. Watching Joon So trying to get it done was hilarious. In his cute little korean voice he kept saying, "I don't need help. I don't need help."
On Tuesday night we had our last meal at a fancy restaurant with two of the relief society women. I don't know what exactly I ate, but it felt like Thanksgiving turkey to me so I was happy. Then Wednesday was my half way mark!! Yay for 9 months! I celebrated by going to transfers and that's pretty much it. I also met with the zone leaders so I could finish the first lesson in our mission language program. My goal this transfer is to finish it all so I can go to President Morrise's home and have brunch with them right after Christmas. So far I'm off to a good start.

My new companion Sister Carter is hilarious! We broke the ice real quick when she farted in front of me. So yeah we're getting along great. She's from Virginia somewhere closer to Washington, D.C. She is 21 and like ridiculously talented. She can play tons of instruments, can sing, speaks like fluent Korean and just is really funny and a movie nerd. So, she fits in our district perfectly.

On Thursday we walked to the service center because we were like literally BUTT POOR! We had lots of fun there. Because Sister Carter was new there, the woman who work there asked her to sing for all of the elderly there. It was so fun. They even asked me to sing. The only english song I could think of was once there was a snowman haha. It was fun. While there I had a man tell me in in Konglish that I have a nice body haha and we also witnessed an old man flirting with all the old ladies. It was hilarious. In korean he was like, "oh are you done eating" implying he'll take their trays and then one of the old ladies slaps his butt and laughs saying, "stop! you know i'm not" Sister Carter and I just busted up laughing. Then later we say the same way flirting with another old women. She was sitting in her walker laughing and yelling for him to stop as he pushed he completely down the hall. The best part was after he pushed all the way to the other side he laughed and just walked away leaving her there. So funny! I love elderly people. 
For Thanksgiving dinnner we went out with the elders to a buffet called Ashley's. Cheesecake is normally about $18-$20 so we wanted to go there because it's only $12.90 for the buffet and they have endless cheesecake. I ate soo much! We had a really fun time spending thanksgiving together. Nothing replaces thanksgiving dinner at home though. For me it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, but we tried by saying things we are thankful for. Because I didn't have any cash on me I tried using my card, but it declined for some reason. So I'm grateful for the elders. they ended up paying for me. I hate the end of pay periods -__-

Today we got more money though so we're finally not poor! On Saturday we only had like a spoonful of rice left so we went to the elders begging for some rice. I felt like Oliver Twist "Please sir may I please have some more?" haha Elders pretty much had no rice after they gave us some so hopefully a miracle of endless rice happens to them because they fed the servants of the Lord before themselves haha.
Anyways, I love you all. Glad you all had a great Thanksgiving! If little baby Tucker is born this week please make sure to take pictures and videos for me. I'm bummed I can't be there for it.
Stay warm!!
I almost forget to tell you!! We had a miracle this week well I guess two miracles. So on Wednesday we have our English class, and this was the first time in a long time that a ton of people came. We had our usual students but then we had at least 4 new faces. And it was really fun! And we made sure to have them all commit to coming this next week. I'm praying they do. Our English has been so sad lately with only 2 coming sometimes just one student. So having a ton was great. Sister Carter says she's the reason lol but whatever the real reason I don't care just as long as they come! :D Then last night we got a call from a former investigator. She is the wife that Sister Jeong and I randomly ran into at a cafe and one of the Sister Training Leaders Sister Stout used to serve here and she taught this family so I guess she called them and on Thursday we have an appointment with them when Sister Stout comes for exchanges. So that's awesome because I haven't been able to get into contact with them and having Sister Stout coming back here helped a ton!
Love,
켈리 자매

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of things happened this week. It went so quickly. Another investigator dropped us. So now we only have one. I had an awesome visit to the temple on Thursday where I got to see my MTC companion Sister VanWeezep. LOVE HER! Had some really cool experiences where I could tell the Lord's hand is in missionary work, I did Kim Jang again, and got transfer calls!!! My new companion is Sister Carter! :D Yay! She is currently serving with Sister Johnson. Sister Jeong will be transfering to yeonsoo (not sure if that's how it's spelled hehe) she will have a korean companion so that's great for her. I'm super stoked to have Sister Carter though. She's hilarious and I think we'll get along pretty well.
As for the miracles I saw this week.. On Tuesday Sister Jeong and I were visiting some less active members. More like trying to visit less actives. We had planned the night before who we would visit so they all lived near one another. So we visited the first one, a family... no one was home :( Then we tried looking for the 2nd one, but the address has been changed to the new address system so it was confusing for us to find where it was. My companion stops at this building that didn't look anything like an apartment so I questioned her at first when she started to walk in. "Is this even an apartment," I said. She said, "no... I don't know" and immediately I felt this curiosity to want to see what my companion was doing and so I followed her up the staircase. We got to the 3rd floor where this door was open. My companion asked a woman who turned out to be working there and she said she'll help us find the address. Well turns out the address we were at was indeed that address we had for the apartment. However, the less active doesn't live there because no it's a service center. As much as that sucked, we witnessed a miracle. As we were talking to her, she began asking us so many questions and eventually she started asking if we can teach English there as a service and also be friends with her daughter. She asked for our phone number and gave us hers and her daughters! She was only English interest but it was amazing! We left just in awe, just letting it all sink in. We had planned on looking for a less active member, but the Lord instead had other plans for us. Then after we visited the other less actives one of them included Sister 길은희, the woman who we always visit and I had the wonderful experience of prayer with her. Well, we visited her and her daughter answered the intercom and said her mom wasn't home. We told her to  tell her mom we came and we'll visit another time, and just as the intercom was about to turn off we heard her mom in the background! I was so mad! She told her daughter to lie to us! Ugh! My companion rationalized saying it wasn't her, but it so was. It really makes me wonder what happened. She was talking about going to church with her daughter but now she won't even let us visit.
On Friday we had a really spiritual lesson with Sister 유인순. Our plan was to talk to her about coming to all of church and not just sacrament meeting and teach about the importance of that. WE started about by reading from the Book of Mormon about the prophet Lehi's vision. We focused especially on 1 Nephi 8:31. After reading my companion talked about how should strive to be like those people and continue to "hold to the rod" and do what we can to endure to the end. As my companion was teaching I had a thought go through my head as quickly as you would see a feather blow by."Ask her what changes can you see in yourself from when you were baptized to now?" If one wasn't in tune with the spirit you'd miss it. Thankfully, I was. Without even thinking, I just asked her. In the past I always worried about figuring out if I even know how to say that but I just knew that question was inspired so before I could even let myself doubt my faith, I asked her. And as I said it I felt the spirit insistent become stronger within my heart. Because of my inspired question she shared an experience she had with prayer that week and it was an amazing experience she had! Later, after the lesson, I asked my companion about that question asking if I said it right. And she said it was perfect Korean! I couldn't believe it! The gift of tongues really worked! I've been studying and studying and I'm finally seeing the miracles of the gift of tongues more. And for the first time she actually understood my Korean and my companion didn't have to repeat for me. Complete miracle!
And last I got to help make some kimchi with the Anyang stake. Back home we do tree planting, but here we do stake kimjang haha. It was way more fun than the first time too. It was raining, but we were in the underground parking of the Sanbon church so it was great. I took more pictures this time so enjoy looking at those.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for this wonderful opportunity to serve a mission and be in Korea. I love you all so much!
Take care!
Love,
Sister Kelly 켈리 자매

Brrr... It's Getting Cold!

I miss California weather. I will never ever complain about Utah and California weather ever again. It's so cold here and it hasn't even snowed yet! I don't know if I'll make it this winter. Everyone here also keeps saying that because this summer wasn't too hot that means the winter will be super cold. I want to go home!!! WAH! I don't want it to snow!!
Despite the cold I had a pretty alright week. On Monday we, us and the elders, ate sushi with our ward mission leader and another ward member. So good! I wasn't brave enough to eat a lot of raw fish though. If I was back home I don't think I ever would have tried it, but I'm more used to asian food so it wasn't too bad when I did. Then on Tuesday we had lunch at a less active family's home. So good. It was nice having a nice home cooked meal. Afterwards, we walked to different less active members' apartments in the freezing cold. The wind didn't help at all. It was pretty disappointing walking around in the cold only to find out that they weren't home. When we got home though we got a random call from another less active who we haven't been able to visit for a couple weeks. So the next day we visited her and she gave us some cold squid to eat. Wasn't very good. After we visited her our 30/30 investigator 소정연 (Anna) who didn't have any gospel interest texted us telling us she can't meet anymore. So that was sadly a little bit of a relief. We were going to have to drop her soon, but she dropped herself for us.
Thursday was the coldest day of the week for sure. There's a myth here that says that when 수능 (similar to SAT and ACT) comes it's super dooper cold. And I believe it! I was freezing! Maybe it didn't help that I was outside helping preparing some kimchi to be made though haha.We went to Geumcheon to help with what's called Kim jang.(pronounced kim j-on-g). Every year around this time everyone starts making new kimchi. So we helped make some for a service activity. It sounded fun at first, but touching cold wet cabbage in the freezing cold didn't really make it easy to enjoy myself. They filmed it though and I was actually interviewed so that was pretty cool. I probably looked so dumb. They asked me and another sister to talk about how it's fun and all I could think to say was how I was sorting through the trash. They wanted to get as much kimchi as they could from the cabbage so I had to go through the broken ones on the floor and find the good leaves of it. Normally that wouldn't be called trash but on tv I called it trash haha my bad! They told me it aired on NBC so if you want to try finding it search geumcheon kimchi NBC maybe.. On Friday they continued the Kim jang but we are so busy on Fridays so we couldn't help. Sadly, we missed out on the fun part of making the kimchi. Oh well. Now I just said we were busy on Friday but actually all our plans seemed to fall through this week. Both our two other investigators canceled on us, but we were able to meet with both the recent converts. And they were really good lessons. 최금자 is preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and so we are in the process of helping her get a temple recommend interview with the bishop for that. As for 유인순 and her daughter, they too are preparing, but have a much longer time until they are ready it seems. It was a really good lesson though taught about revelation and feeling the spirit and how those go together. On Saturday we had a planned appointment with the 21 year old girl 차해라 except she never showed up and later after an hour since we texted her she replied saying she didn't see it. So that wasn't so bad as her just not showing up, but she doesn't seem to interested it seems because it's super hard to make a 2nd appointment with her. We invited her to church like usual, but she didn't show up. Our less active did though only because we made an appointment with her after church though. Either way she came! :)
Temple is this Thursday and transfer calls are this Saturday. Super excited! This week will be a good one. I am hoping I leave, but if I stay in Ansan I'll be ok. I'm just a little nervous about what changes will happen. I don't think I'm ready to be a trainer, but everyone keeps saying I just might be training the new Korean that is coming. Guess we will see.
Love you all lots!!
Sister Kelly 켈리 자매

I'll Be SKYPING Home For Christmas!

I don't have much to say this week, because our schedule is the same every single week. However, Mom wanted me to write one so I am. On Monday night when we went to go grocery shopping we stopped at a crosswalk. Only to notice that the elders were on the other street corners. And we all ended up going to the same grocery market to buy food. Made us laugh because it was random We hardly see the other missionaries unless it's a planned thing. Then on Tuesday we met with the less active YSA again because she had a interview that night for a job but it was a English interview so she wanted to practice with me. At least that was the plan, she is really good at English so we ended up just reading the Book of Mormon together. (Her suggestion too) I then ended up going through the whole history of the Book of Mormon because she wanted to know who was who because she didn't remember from when she was little. It was cool. Of coarse when I did that it was all in English, but I never realized how much I actually know about the history of the Book of Mormon. I even told her about this paper that I have about the Aztec and the Incas who have stories PRETTY DARN SIMILAR to the Book of Mormon. I got it from institute. Anyways, it's all from a book called Ancient Americas and the Book of Mormon I think...?? Can't remember.But she majored in History so she was loving it and was so interested. So I'm planning on giving her a copy of the paper that I have.
We have one investigator who is progressing write now. But she is super interested in learning about the second coming and it's deep so it's going to be a challenge helping her. But we'll try our best. This past Friday we taught her about the purpose of the Book of Mormon and used scriptures a lot to help her understand and see how the Bible and The Book of Mormon work together as witnesses of Jesus Christ. She said she's willing to read it and find out the truth, but at the same time all she wanted to read was about the second coming and millennium. So, I'll keep you updated about her.
As for our other "lessons" we don't really call them our investigators. They are just 30/30 program for English. Not interested but we still of coarse are trying our best to find ways that the gospel can help their needs.
Lately my companion has had some rough times and she just doesn't want to talk to me, but I'm working through it. Trying to serve her as best as possible. We still get along, but I think the 3 transfers of being together is finally affecting us. I'm positive we won't be companions after this transfers over.
Speaking of transfers.. we have about 2 weeks left! I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving so crazy! It'll be my 9 month mark too! Wowzers! Time is flying. Also some awesome news: when we met with the Less active young single adult girl she said I can use her computer on Christmas and then when we visited another member she said I can use theirs too! So happy!!! Can't wait till Christmas!! And little Tucker comes too<3
 Anyways, Love you all! Have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Kelly

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! I hope you all had a fun Halloween. We sure had fun here in Ansan. This whole transfer has just been filled with miracles. We had a less active give 4 referrals to the elder. So random, but it was awesome! And 3 of them came to the Halloween party and so did the less active! Fantastic.  Our investigator 차해라 (21yr old) also showed up to the Halloween party and she had a blast. At the party I did face painting and she was so impressed how great I was at it. However, I was terrible in my opinion haha. All I did was a pumpkin and cats on everyone haha. But she had fun so that's great. She's been busy so we haven't been able to meet with her,but after seeing her she said she'll be able to soon. But just the fact that she came to the Halloween party was a miracle! So great. This past week we also had a lesson with recent converts Sister 유인순 and her daughter 다소. We taught about baptisms for the dead and preparing to go to the temple. 다소 was super excited. However, she is only 10 so she will have to wait till she is 12 years old. But she really wants to get baptized by proxy for her grandma.  So that was a really great lesson. Normally, our lessons are pretty rough with them because 다소 always brings her friends with her and she can't stay focused. But that lesson it was just them two so it went great! I totally felt the spirit and I am so excited to help them prepare to enter the temple. As for other investigators, well... we dropped Sister 박미연. The 30/30 program was long overdue and she wasn't keeping any of the commitments that we extended to her and has no interest in God, so we had to say goodbye to her. She understood, but it was so awkward. It was like I was breaking up with someone. haha Our other investigators are doing ok. We have 2 progressing investigators right now, but let's hope they continue keeping their commitments. One of them is really open but she has so many questions I can't answer them all right away like she wants. I left that lesson so overwhelmed because I don't speak Korean as well as I wished. I was even a little frustrated because I knew how to answer her but I couldn't say all of that in Korean. I needed more time to learn the vocabulary and prepare.. But now I'm trying really hard to prepare for her next lesson on Friday. She still doesn't understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon and where it came from and why we read it with the Bible. So I'll be studying a lot for that lesson.
Well, that's about it.. I love you all!! have a great week!!
LOVE,
Sister Kelly