TransfersWeddingThanksgiving

Wow. a lot has happened. Transfer day was on Thanksgiving. I went up to Daejeon to pick up my new companion sister meiers. Sister meiers is from texas, studied something that has to do with plants that i cant pronounce and is blonde. She's really sweet. THe only catch is that she is only one transfer older than me. and doesnt have a korean parents. so... that makes two blondes who dont speak korean in one of the busiest areas in the mission. COOL. I met her at the train station. After we walked away from everyone and bought our tickets i promptly got us on the wrong train headed to SEOUL. NICE kels. I found out because our seats were in car eleven and there was only 9 cars. I probably would have ridden that thing to Russia. Luckily the Lord looks out for His missionaries and after having a good laugh i found a nice looking girl and asked her how to get to gwangju. She was SO helpful and gave us these crazy complicated handwritten step by step instructions. It was really cute. We just got off at a stop i recognized and i bought two tickets to gwangju. We made it and it was nothing short of a miracle. fo realz. When we got back we remembered it was thanksgiving so we went out for a burger. Two bites in we get a phone call from the relief society president inviting us over for dinner.... we think. But because i have no brains in my head i finished my burger, i was hungry, and it was good, and i have no self control. So, we had a huge dinner, then had another huge dinner and somehow survived our first member dinner. The highlights were how neither of us knew anything they were saying and thoroughly embarrassed ourselves maybe 30 times. and then she said "what was president thinking putting you two together? How are you going to teach people?" All i could think was good question. But then i thought about it. I trust the Lord. I trust that he cares about His work. He will help us find a way. My inadequacies arent going to get in the way of anything. I just have to not burn this area down in the process. ha. Oh on saturday we were really hungry and decided to order chicken except i have no idea how to order chicken in korean so when the lady answered the phone i got nervous and said 치킨 주세요 which almost translates to "give me chicken" so she goes " oookk... what kind?" then i said the spicey saucey kind in a super thick korean accent. Of course she had no idea what i was talking about so i just said yes to the rest of her questions. Somehow chicken showed up at our door even though it was totally not what we wanted i was just pleased we got lunch. SUCCESS. We taught our first lesson together. It was kind of ridiculous but we felt the spirit and in my book that is all that matters. she also wants to meet with us again so thats good right? After we went to the stake presidents daughters wedding reception. everyone was in traditional korean clothes and it was COOL. They had this girl who sang traditional songs it was awesome. then the groom tried to pick up the bride for some reason and dropped her like four times. I do not ever want to be picked up by anyone in front of anyone ever. I saw lots of dads Nuskin friends. They think hes pretty cool. I do too. its been a wonderful week full of miracles and divine intervention. I love this work. I love this gospel. It is true. i love telling people about it. I love watching people change. I love the changes im seeing in myself. love you, love me

Thanks Given

I feel happy. This week continued to be full of insanity but I said a lot of prayers and the lord listened. The last three days have been awesome and we have seen miracle after miracle after miracle.

We get transfer calls today. I think im getting transferred which will break my heart. We have so many bapstisms this month. Ill go insane if i cant be here.

Its thanksgiving this week. That is cool. Except people in Korea dont really care. I keep trying to tell them how great it is but they just dont understand.

K lots of cool things happened this week but i really dont want to email anymore because my computor is in the sun and its 10000000 degrees and its making me feel claustrophobic because im wearing like 24 layers because did you know korea is connected to RUSSIA. Yeah its redonkulously cold outside. but randomly so hot where im sitting.

We had stake conference on sunday. It was a special message from the area president of korea, president monson, elder perry, and sister... dibb?. K it was SO good. Tons of our investators showed up and every talk was especially written for them.

all these Nuskin people love us now. We have like eight dinner appointments this week. Yeah. And they better hand over all of their friends. They all love you dad. And they all told me i look just like you. Dont know how i feel about that. Dont get me wrong, you are an attractive man... its just that you are a man.

Really cool stuff happened. Missionary work is cool beans. 

And i love korea. a lot. 

I also love this gospel. A lot. I know that it is true. I love telling people about it. "hey i know how you can have your family forever" best news in the WORLD. 

kk its too hot. Sorry this letter is lame. I really did have amazing stories to tell. 

Love you,

love me  

Temple Square Referral

Hey folks.

ring ring...ring ring... "hi this is the missionaries from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. We heard you were maybe interested in hearing more about our church after your visit to temple square?"

"Oh yes, i was just in Salt lake for a Nuskin meeting and my boss just announced that he is going on a mission for his church so i wanted to know more."

"oh wow, your boss sounds like a really great guy"

"Yes he is. I took a tour around the temple and they told us about how families could be together forever and it really touched my heart"

"Yes your family really can be together forever- that is what our message is all about! When is a good time for us to meet?"

"oh maybe next Thursday"

 

Yeah that TOTALLY happened. Blake and I are doing tag team missionary work!!! Thanks for the help Blake!

I heard that the mission has been getting several referrals like that. Can you believe how cool?! I cant.

 

We had another baptism yesterday. Her name is Chi noo. She is 17. She wanted to join five years ago but her dad said no. She decided a month ago that she missed church and that it was still true. We told her she was right.

I love her a lot.

I do not love that the elder who baptized her had to baptize her 1 2 3 4 5 times. NOT COOL.

But it happened and she will serve a mission and have eight beautiful children.

 

I went on splits to Naju again. I got to see my laywer who got baptized a few weeks ago. When we got to his house he was out in his fields. I ran out to say hi and instead of a polite bow I got a hug. I was shocked to see a different man standing in front of me. His countenace was completely different. All i could think was that this man was converted. He was all smiles and laughter.

We sat in his ancient korean mansion and drank disgusting old man tea and he bore me his testimony. It was all i could do to not break out in sobs. I was SO HAPPY.

The next day was zone conference. President and sister furniss are rockstars. I LOVE them. I didnt have to speak and that was great. actually it was a miracle. I prayed the whole hour bus ride that i wouldnt have to speak. They make us do it in Korean! Do i LOOK like i speak korean?!

 

Ok so everyone keeps telling me to get real and say how im for realy reals doing.

Crazy things are afoot at the circle k.

The reason why im emailing so late is because my companion might be going home. Its a really long story and its not really mine to tell but she is having a really hard time. And so am I.

 Pray for us ok? Especially our investigators because im pretty sure some of them think we are crazy due to crazy things that have happened.

just got a call from president. She is staying.

mixed feelings about that.

I love you so much. Im ok. Its just missionary work. Im learning lots of good things. Just not korean... haha.

Kisses,

Sister lund

 

 

There is a Balm in Giliead

So i dont know what changed but this week was different. I spoke a lot more, laughed a lot more, didnt feel like running to Switzerland (maybe once), and felt so much love and encouragement. I read this quote the other day about how life becomes the toughest just before you reach your goal. Im hoping this means im getting closer to being where i want to be with my language and my work. Also i think we've been doing a lot of things right because the adversary is going to work on our investigators and us. We had five baptismal dates at the beginning of the week and it feels like all of our investigators are going through the same thing- questioning, doubting, or just wanting to ignore answers they have received. I know its just a phase though. They all promised to keep trying. I know they will pull through!!

My halloween was pretty cool. I found this great place called coffee and cat where you can buy some juice and drink it in the midst of like 50 cats! hahaha. Yes. It was the coolest weirdest thing ever. My favorite part was the super creepy owner cat lady man. He LOVES his cats. I saw him kiss their lips a couple times. Turns out i really love cats. I was in heaven a little bit. It was the best medicine in the world to hold something that loves you back. I realized how love deprived missionaries are that holding a cat meant something to me. so so sad and pathetic. After we went to the yound single adult activity. I was a ballerina. Tutu, ballet shoes, bun and all. My companion was a ghost. Just a bed sheet. She mostly looked like a terrorist/maybe a leper or maybe Mary. Anyways we had a lot of fun. The had a unicorn pinata. nuff said.

Oh something COOL happened!  A couple weeks ago we picked up an investigator who i was 100% sure was an english interest only. Guess what? I dont know anything about anything. She walked into our lesson on wedesday and says guys... i was thinking about what we talked about last week, about finding an answer and i was praying while walking down the street and it was cloudy and all of a sudden i saw and felt all this light. I think it was my answer! We told her it most definetly her answer and that she should get baptised and she said yes, of course! HUZZAH!

Oh guess what else is cool. We were having companionship study the other day when i hear these crazy howler monkey noises from outside. I looked out the window and what did i see?! People dressed up as dementors fighting with light saber/ jousting sticks howling like screeching eels. It was so much cooler than you could possibly imagine. Probably the best experience of my mission so far.

OH ALSO. The other day we were heading home on the bus and i was carrying a thousand heavy things plus i was so tired and the only seat open what a seat next to this kid in his 20's. I usually dont sit next to those types of people because they do weird things like touch my hair and tell me my face is the size of a thumb (thats a compliment here fyi). But i was so tired so i just stepped over him and dont worry! my foot slipped and i promptly sat on his lap, spilling my oranges everywhere and i about died a thousand deaths trying to get off of him and not let anyone see my nametag.

Good things are happing. I love love love being a missionary. I love you. The church is truer than ever.

Sister lund

What?????

I am so sosososososo excited for Blake and Nancy!!! I want them to be my mission presidents! They are going to be amazing. Kaedon London and Kelson are so lucky- They are about to have the biggest adventure of their lives.  Happy Birthday dad. My companion and I sang happy birthday for you and ate skittles. I am so happy you were born. You are my hero.  Also happy halloween. Korea doesnt have Halloween but we are having a big halloween party tonight for the young single adults and all our investigators. Spook alley included. I am so excited. I havent decided what i will be but just know it will be epic. This week has been kind of hard to be honest. Mostly because I had interviews with my mission president and he told me i have to learn Korean this transfer because there are 10000 American sisters coming into the mission. I pretty much wanted to die after. But ive been studying like theres no tomorrow because there kind of isn't and its not really helping. Turns out korean makes no sense. We had sisters conference. Sister Furniss is so cool. I want to be her so much. We had so much fun and listened to the relief society broadcast. Elder Uchtdorf.... pretty sure that is not how you spell his name... is the MAN. It was exactly what i needed to hear. I love how the same talk can mean something to a mom in Utah and some sister missionary way the heck in Korea. My companion got sick on Friday. We were at the church waiting for our appointment to show up when she looks at me and says " think i throw up many times" and walks into the bathroom and does so for a really long time. About two seconds later our appointment shows up. My companion is on the floor moaning. I am left to my devices- caveman talk for five minutes. Luckily the church is true and the lord ALWAYS covers for us. The elders come striding in like the knew what was going on and start helping with the lesson. It turned out to be awesome and she agreed to meet with us again. My companion threw up like eight more times. It was amazing. So saturday we took it easy. I studied Korean all day. and then i plucked my companions eyebrows. She was kinda mad but then she told me this awesome story about how her cousin shaved off her eyebrows when she was little and then i told her about how i shaved my own head a little when i was not so little and my sister used to make fun of me. Anyways since then our relationship has been really good. All we needed was some throwing up and some shared traumatic experiences. The work is still challenging but so rewarding. Its a lot harder than i thought it would be. But in between the tough times are all these moments of brilliant light. Never in my life have i felt so sad and discouraged but never in my life have i felt so much joy, fulfillment, and peace. This gosple is true. The savior lives. Joseph Smith really was a prophet. I know the book of mormon it true. It is an incredible thing to be able to teach about these simple truths. I love you. Happy halloween! sister lund

Sister Lund vs. the World

So... once again.... i have overstressed the situation. My companion is only a little out of her mind. She is like 4' 9" and i tried to bench press her last night and it almost worked. She is the first convert in her family and is a gentle sweet little thing. She kinda cries a lot. like a LOT. but it turns out sister missionaries like to do that so i just make her hot chocolate and hand her tissues. Last night we had dinner at Robert Holly's house this returned-missionary-turned-famous-comedian who lives in one of our wards. It was kind of a miracle because i heard he doesnt really like sister missionaries. but dont worry. I totally made him love us... i hope. Anyways his wife gave us pumpkin pie and it make me feel all tingley inside.  So the relief society had a big cooking competition and invited us and i wanted to participate and bought this horrible korean cookie mix. Also i could NOT get the oven to start. We prayed and tried again and of course it immediately started working. Our cookies came out looking and kind of tasting like dirt clods. but i didnt even care because they were miracle cookies. We brought them to the activity and they entered them into the contest. Our area is known for the amazing cooks and these women totally brought the heat. Their food was UNBELIEVABLE. we all introduced our items and I explained that our cookies were made by Gods hands. Everyone thought that was pretty funny and they LOVED our cookies. and get this: WE WON. Our cruddy ugly little cookies beat out all the Korean cuisine!!! hahahahahhahahaha i have pictures. Ill show you in like 11 months ok? This week i got lots of love from home and it was pretty AWESOME. Shout out to Larry Jones, momma oldroyd (the zucchini bread made me cry a little), and of course my mom who is the envy of every missionary in Taejeon. Im speaking a lot more Korean- thats pretty exciting. hmm... k thats all i think i have to say, Except maybe I love being a missionary. SO MUCH. even when my companions are completely nutso. maybe especially when they are crazytown. Remember when i got set apart and my blessing talked about how i would love my compys- its totally true. Sometimes ill be in the middle of a crazy situation and im just able to have a clear head and not get mad and just feel love for them- definitely strength beyond my own. I love you. i love this work. I love korea. Kisses!! sister lund

Happy Pregnant Korean Day and Steve Jobs Died

Today is pregnant lady day in korea which is so appropriate considering EVERYONE is pregnant back home. Congrats to all my Georgia loves. Way to follow the prophets counsel! I will be spending pregnant lady day as a bystander for SURE. i still dont speak Korean. also I dont know if anyone heard but Steve Jobs died and Korea is pretty crushed. Like every one has pictures of him in their store windows. I feel kinda sad too. Who will think of really awesome devices to help me waste all my time? oh well. CONFERENCE CHANGED MY LIFE. If any one isn't quite sure if the church is true just watch conference and you'll remember. I am totally blown away by how inspired the bretheren are. I feel so motivated to be better, try harder, repent more, practice more faith and stop being such a boo boo cry baby. To me, conference was all about realizing how blessed i am and to stop focusing on what im unsure of and realizing the Lord has everything covered. Everything is going to work out just the way its supposed to especially if im doing what im supposed to. i JUST got transfer calls. Im getting a korean companion Sister kim. she doesnt speak english. pray for me. Anyways im all of a sudden completely distracted- what was i saying..... i dont know. Sometimes missions are hard.... kinda feel like my life is over.... but im done being a boo boo cry baby rememeber!? Ok honestly insane things are happening. like we have three baptisms scheduled for dads birthday. I totally plannediton purpose dont even worry about it. Our investigators are unreal. So prepared and so lovely. I love love love them. I pretty much think about them all the time. Its getting kinda coldy outside. I love it. but im freezing to death kinda. can someone send me some leggings? I got the Nuskin stuff. THANKS! It was better than christmas. I almost cried. Im sad sister sherwood is leaving. It kinda feels like Camelot is ending... trudging off into the dark ages.  ok for realsies its gonna be fine. ok i gotta go we have a crazy day, I LOVE YOU! I love being a missionary even when things are weird. love you! sister lund

1984 George Orwell and three baptismal commitments

Remember in 1984 when George Orwell talks about how it doesnt matter how many people tell you you're wrong, if you're right, you're right? I have to remind myself of this pretty much on daily basis in korea. My favorite example of this happened at a sisters lunch with all Korean sisters. We were talking about how missions are 18 months and its like giving birth twice. Then the koreans were like,"but it doesn't work because pregnancies are 10 months". Uh... no they're not. "Yes they are!" uh no. I TOOK THAT CLASS! I watched that WHOLE video except the very end when I passed out. But there was no convincing them- it only ended because the Korean rage was starting to surface and i was scared.  But on to more important things- WE GOT THREE BAPTISMAL COMMINTMENTS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!! Two of them are happening on saturday. I am on cloud nine! I cannot believe the miracles we are seeing. We are planning on committing two more people thisweek and I am pretty confident its going to happen. It seems like every day we are picking up another incredibly prepared investigator.  We had ward conference yesterday and we were pretty heart broken when only two of our investigators showed up. I said a prayer and moments later we got three phonecalls in a row from lost investigators trying to find the church. We had to go on member splits and runa  half marathon to collect all of our SEVEN investigators that came. The ward was amazing and I think everyone had a really great experience. The stake president gave an amazing talk all about repentance, the atonement, and baptism. It was such an amazing missionary sunday. SO many members brought friends or family- we got so many numbers i have no idea how we are going to have time to call them all this week. I looked at our schedule this week and we have one one hour block of time that is not filled with a stellar appointment. The Lord is blessing us in such a huge way- im just hope we can keep this up. We arent taking a p day again today because there really is no time. I dont know how im going to do it. IM SO TIRED. I feel like ive aged ten years this transfer- im losing tons of weight and the weird thing is ive never been happier in my whole life. I love falling into bed feeling like death and knowing I'm doing what i came here to do.  OH YEAH- we had splits this week. My compy from the mtc came up to gwangju which meant neither of us spoke korean and I had to get us to all of our appointments all over the city and try to say something substinative enough that our investigators wouldn't drop us. I've never been so stressed in my life. BUt guess what? The Lord totally covered for us. We had an amazing couple of days. We made it to all of our appointments on time, taught our lessons to our investigators who either understood us or are just really nice. It was a humbling and incredible experience to feel the spirit guiding us in such a huge way. Its comforting to know that the Lord wont let us mess things up-  He ALWAYS has our backs.  An old lady bought us chicken the other day and there were fried chicken feet in the bucket that looked like baby hands. I freaked out inside. The korean elders tried to get me to eat them. um no thank you i'd rather not chew up a foot today. Thanks! IT sounds like everyone it doing amazing! I miss you all somthin fierce.  Lovie dovie all the time

Baptisms and Fall Festival

Fall is in full swing in gwangju this week and im starting to realize why every koreans favorite holiday is fall. There is a huge oldies festival going on in the downtown area that is SO incredible. All the foot streets in the shopping district are roofed with glowing painted chinese lanterns, all of the street vendors are selling their special fall treats that taste amazing. My favorite are these giant walnut shaped custard filled pastry things that make you feel all warm inside. Guess what else I got? cotton candy. I saw the cotton candy man and FLIPPED. We asked him to give me a lot so he made me one the size of a beach ball (heaven) Oh and did i mention that it was made on a chopstick? it was. I fall deeper and deeper in love with korea every day. The festival is fun because as we are traveling or street contacting i hear a group of koreans preforming "california dreamin" or Cat Stevens- its especially great because they dont speak korean and their pronunciation is adorable.  Its also cool to see koreans doing something other than rushing to work- actually spending time together, doing fun things.  So we had FOUR baptisms this weekend... no big deal. Except it was a BIG DEAL!! Im pretty much bursting with this deep, heart throbbing, joy. Our first baptism was kim kyung sun our 19 year old miracle who didnt even really need us- the Lord has been preparing her for a while. I got to be there from lesson one to baptism. I feel so blessed to have been apart. The guy that baptized her forgot to tell her to plug her nose and pretty much threw her into the water she came up gasping and choking and sister sherwood and i basically had to pull her out of the water- it was pretty awesome. AHH! I love that girl! Then we had our couple who almost didnt get baptized because they didnt pass their initial interview but one of the counselors in the mission presidencies came down to interview them at eleven for their four oclock baptism. wow. They were so cute and all smiles.  Then at that same service we had our little eight year old first convert in her family (except her aunt who served a mission in temple square). She was so excited and nervous and filled with light. She came out of the water giggling. I love little kids. They have so much trust and faith in people- i want to be like that. So it was an incredible weekend. We had to go on splits on sunday so we could be at both sacrament meetings for the confirmations. Kim kyung sun sat down exactly four seconds before they called her up. Hallelujah. We are extending three more baptismal commitments this week. Can you believe this place?! How are these people so prepared?! It feels pretty good to be working so hard and seeing so many miracles. Sometimes i feel like the lord isn't being sneaky enough. Sometimes his help seems so apparent. Like He is being to obvious or something. I knew He helped missionaries i just didnt know it was THIS much. It makes me kinda homesicky to be so far away on conference weekend. I get to watch it this weekend and im hearing rumors about it being available in english.... huzzah! I cant wait. Could someone send some mac n cheese? I suddenly crave it all the time. Also i need an update on Kendis roney, Alexis Kaufusi, Matt Oldroyd, and anyone else who I should know about. I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU! I have a testimony of this gospel. Its the only thing that im 100% certain of. I know that we can rely on the Lord even when it feels like everything else is falling apart- he has our backs. He has invested everything in us and wants us to be as happy as we can. As we give ourselves over to His will, He will make us into something better than we ever imagined. I love being a missionary. Its the hardest, worst, best thing i think ill ever do and i genuinely love it. All my love, Sister lund

September 18, 2011

This week was unbelievable. We saw so many miracles! We have been working our heads off and it is paying off ten fold. We picked up six new investigators this week. SIX. And they are real investigators too! with genuine interest!!! One of them is a stay at home mom with three crazy kids. She called about a free english flyer but when we showed up all she wanted to talk about was the church. After calling us she researched our church, found our website, watched our church videos, read some of the book of mormon online and told us, "all my friends told me you guys were a cult but i think they are wrong, i think it might be true". She is amazing! Also her son is unreal. He's this 6 year old ball of energy and the minute i sat down he jumps on me and gives me a bear hug and tells me im pretty. He did this a few more times during the lesson so i totally didnt see it coming when he grabbed my cheeks and kissed me on the lips! We are soul mates probably.  We also picked up a Chinese girl whos english is better than her korean so we teach her in english. She is so prepared. Everytime im around her I feel the spirit. She WILL be baptized. we also met our little ex nun they other day in a coffee shop. I was worried it was going to be too loud and crazy and the spirit wouldnt be there but He WAS. We read from the book of mormon and bore our testimonies. We both felt guided and prompted throughout the whole lesson. I even made a few coherent sentences (the church is true) She told us she thinks the Book of Mormon was inspired by God and that she feels Gods love when she's around us- is there any better compliment in the world? i dont think so. Ah! I could go on and on about all our new investigators. We are so busy that we aren't really taking a p day today because we have so many appointments.  I love being busy! On the way home last night this grandpa made me sit next to him on the bus. He started talking to me a mile a minute about how god and buddah and jesus are all one person and I would just nod my head and say yes when I thought he was asking me a question- sometimes i would add a sentence or two about my testimony and told him about the book of mormon. It was all i could do to not bust up laughing at the ridiculousness of our conversation. At the end when he was getting up to leave I tried to hand him a pamphlet. He looks at me, smiles, pats my hand, takes the pamphlet and says in perfect English, "youre a lovely person- just keep studying korean ok?" WHAT THE HECK! He was totally messing with me. roar.  We had mission tour this week with Elder Aoyagi. It was AMAZING! I feel like a new missionary. It was kind of a cool meeting. Elder Aoyagi is Japanese so he had a translator translating into english and then the assistants would translate into korean. It made for a long meeting but it was so amazing! He told us his amazing conversion story and made us feel so excited to be missionaries in Korea.  He told us about how we need to be aware of our authority as missionaries- he asked us to promise blessings to our investigators. As we have done that this week we have seen miracles in the lives of our investigators. One of our high schoolers has been afraid to tell her mom she has been meeting with the missionaries (sometimes korean parents are controlling to the max) We prayed with her and promised her that if she had the faith that heavenly father would soften her moms heart and everything would turn out ok. Guess who was a church WITH HER MOM on sunday! I honestly started crying when i saw the big mischievous grin on her face.  I have a testimony of the living Christ. He lives at this moment. He is aware of us- all our wants and desires. I know that he loves us more than we could ever imagine. He stands ready to help. I know that this is His church. He wants us to feel the blessings of this gospel but He can't make us. We have to do it ourselves. I love that people really can and do change. Do your visiting/home teaching! Read your scriptures! Have family home evening! Go to the temple! Do those things and everything is going to be ok. No matter what.   I am so grateful for my family. Thank you for your strength. I never realized how incredible it is to not have to worry about your family- i do, but not about the big stuff. I know that you're doing the important things- thanks for being rockstars. oh! guess what? I got my chemically straightened for 20 buck because the hair people freaked out about my hair being blonde. KOREA IS AWESOME! and so is my pantene pro-v commercial hair.  KK I LOVE YOU! Write me letters! Be good! The church is true i PROMISE.Pray for my korean. It is so horrible. Lovie dovie- 런 드 자 매

Falling For Guangu

Sorry i didnt email! It was Chusock? i have no idea how to spell that in english. sorry. Chusock is like thanksgiving and it was SO much fun. We got to make lots of doc- this rice cake sugar filled heaven. Koreans say that if you can make pretty doc you will have pretty daughters so I was feeling a lot of pressure when my doc looked like chewed gumball. Luckily i perfected my skills and by the end people stopped laughing at my doc and then they couldn't tell mine apart from the grandmas which meant that I am PROFESH. Huzzah! My daughters will be ridiculously good looking.  We also spent lots of time with members and i completely am taken with this place. The members are amazing and so strong. gwangju is so tame compared to Naju- at first it was kind of disappointing and I felt sort of out of place but im getting into the groove of things and its turning out to be SO great. I went on splits back to Naju last week. It was way fun except in the middle of the night I woke up and heard sirens telling us that North Korea had bombed south korea and we needed to run for our lives and so i woke up my companion and told her all of this and she freaked out and started running around grabbing her valuables and then stopped dead in her tracks- listened to the siren-glared at me-smacked my forehead and said it was an ambulance. SINCE WHEN DO AMBULANCES SOUND LIKE THAT?! also maybe i have an overactive imagination also maybe i was really disappointed because i really just want to be ingrid bergman in The Inn of the 6th Happiness and guide the korean children over the mountains to safety and into the waters of baptism. These are the awesome thoughts I get at three in the morning.   last week we had a special time at church... our 10 year old investigator came and started rolling around on the ground whimpering about how she hates church and then she tried to run away like six times and then she kept throwing our scriptures on the ground and then she called her dad and told him we were forcing her to stay and that church people were mean and nobody even HAD cookies. It was a real good time. We have a mission tour this week with a seventy who is... japanese. I am so excited!!! I honestly cant wait. I have something insane to tell you. I come home one year from today. This is horrible news. I dont even KIND OF speak Korean. How is time going by so fast!?!? ahhh! Happy birthday mom. I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. I will find someone to baptize for you today. Well a million things happen every week but i cant remember them- ill just tell you when i get home ok? Oh one more thing- how is the Book of Mormon so amazing? also I had no idea that it was specially written for me. Every day I open it up and its like a special note from heavenly father telling me what i need to know. I love that book. It drives me crazy that i cant express myself well enough to explain how amazing it is to people- i just want to say "NO! You do not understand! This blue book can save your life! You NEED this!" oh well. that my life. Not being able to say what i want. roar. My companion is a doll. Its so amazing to be able to communicate and eat want I want to eat for breakfast- i never realized that those things were a right that could be taken away. Missions make you greatful. Thats for sure. Anyways I love you. So much. Thanks for everything. Read the Book of Mormon! Say your prayers! Lovie dovie all the time sista lund

Sept 4 Every little thing is going to be alright

Hey everybody it sounds like the family reunion was awesome sorry I missed it. Remember when you made me dress up as a polygamist at the last one?.... i do. NO i am not over it. I forgive you a little.

 ok so gwangju= total upgrade. Dont get me wrong- I LOVE naju. But guess what? People want to talk to us here and theres a mcdonalds and my companion only has one personality!!

My favorite investigators so far are a former nun who decided she wanted children and ran away from her nunnery into a prearranged marriage and now has two sons named dillon and andrew. She is just oozing with coolness. You have no idea. I kinda want to be her minus the prearranged marriage and being a nun.

We have another investigator who is 21 and total babe and accepted our baptismal commitment on Friday. huzzah!

We also have this little 50 year old chinese man who probably cant meet with us anymore because two years ago he went to vietnam and saw a pretty girl on the street and took a picture with her and he wants to marry her. So he's learning english so that he can talk to a translator who will ask her if she will be his girlfriend.... after he finds her.

I just feel like it might not turn out well. But he said he'd pray about the book of mormon!

My new compy is kinda great. I was really scared of her at first but shes actually a little rockstar. She's from korea/texas (yeah jer!) and is a music education major and a really gifted teacher. She's really patient and constantly teaching sometimes i get annoyed but then i realize its SO good for me. We've bonded over our love of the south (even though texas is not really the south) taylor swift and that she likes to do missionary work which is REFRESHING.

This is her last transfer so I get to kill her too- kinda sad kinda stressful because I need to learn the gwangju area in six weeks- say some prayers ok?

We cover two wards one of them is the stake center and its a really exciting time because the stake is totally pumped on missionary work right now. They are trying to get 100% attendance at church until christmas as a birthday present to jesus. They also have to give away a book of mormon to a friend once a month and they are getting tons of pressure to give us referrals. At the last counsel meeting a went to they drew a chart on the board that says 100% attendance+ baptizing all our friends = temple in gwangju. And you know what i bet they can totally make it happen. I love intense koreans.

We went to young mens young womens yesterday and theres a bunch of foreigner kids in that ward so they teach in english. One of the teachers asked what prayer is. This kid raises his hand and says prayer is like walking on the beach with God except theres no beach and God isnt there.... 

what does that even mean?! hahahaha

OK GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?! We went to the bishops house for dinner and his daughters go to BYU/ he lived in provo for a couple years and guess who they know?! Sorah Kong! Universe! youve done it again! SO im totally in with them now and they'll probs refer all their friends to us.

So things are great. Gwangju is awesome. The church is true keep being awesome and writing me letters.

Lovie dovie,

sista lundo

ching chong walla walla bing bong

A New Transfer August 29, 2011

show details 9:39 PM (15 hours ago) We got our transfer call this morning. Im being transferred to Gwangju. Im nothing short of heartbroken. I teach most of our investigators english and the sister replacing me doesn't speak english so they'll probably drop. I cant go! AHHH! I LOVE these people. With my whole heart. Its kind of funny to think about how much i love these people who i've never had a real conversation with- but i do. WHat will happen to our investigators? Who will tame to angry beast? When will i see these people again? ok i know i need to chill. but its SO sad. My new companion is Sister Sherwood. She is half american half Korean- perfect in korean and english. She is also a teacher so im excited for the help. Im a little scared because she's kinda intense but it will be good for me. Gwangju is one of the biggest cities in the mission so it will be a big change. Im excited. And guess what? Im even sad to leave sister lee- i love that crazy, angry, little asian.  So i got to have christmas this week- Annie came! One day we were walking to district meeting and sister lee hands me the phone and its randomly Annie. I freaked. We got to have dinner-go to a violin concert put on by the branch and then the next day we taught with her (the lawyer man) and had lunch. It was heaven. She gave me so much good advice and completely spoiled us. You have no idea. So i feel totally recharged and ready to take on the world. She is so awesome! Sister Lee and I have been sick this week. But i've been able to study a lot. I've learned more about the church on my mission than my whole 21 years combined (what does that say about me?) I keep learning things and thinking to myself- I wish I had known that, or wow! that is beautiful doctrine. This church really IS true! And it is.  Our hot water turned on and thank goodness because things were starting to get weird in the bath house.  Culture corner: Sister lee and I had a domestic this week because i've been freaking out about how im losing all my hair. She told me its because I dont use an umbrella. I said "what do you mean?" she said rain makes you go bald. I said "no it doesn't do you really believe that?!" she said yes it does! the pollution in the air puts poison in the rain and it makes your hair fall out. I strongly protested and she got way mad and told me americans think they know everything (cause we do)jk jk. And then i realized something: My opinion is never more important than my companions feelings. I apologized and opened my umbrella. Dont forget your umbrellas!  love lovelove you sister lund

August 15th 2011

ok so heres the deal with the compy. She is great. I am learning a lot. She is a good missionary and im learning a LOT about humility. that being said... HOLY MISCOMMUNICATION. haha. Seriously everyday there seems to be some situation were the culture clash is to the max. But we end up being able to laugh about it or rather i do... anyways im learning a lot. Oh and she has two personalities too! From 6:30- 1:00 She is and angry little green monster then from 1:00- 10:30 we have so much fun and I genuinely love her. I pray fr them both asking that little green monster will die and that sister lee will come back to me. I cant decide if its an actual disorder or if she is REALLY not a morning person. anyways, now that i've whined like a sissy girl things are great. We picked up some investigators this week but they are all men which proves challenging because we have to find a member to teach with us. Luckily the branch is amazing and someone is always willing- not so lucky because sometimes they contribute not-so-helpful tidbits like "dont worry about church being too long- you can leave if you get bored". Thanks! ahah

Culture corner: Korean girls are brilliant. Somehow they can talk their boyfriends into wearing matching outfits and its AMAZING. My favorite one i saw last week. They had tight white pants, pink shirts with "love in so can change thEir minds" written on it, and sailor hats. How do they do it?! I have to learn their ways...

I almost died this week. For realisies. We were hurrying home from a members house one night and the crosswalk turned green so i started walking. No one in Naju obeys traffic laws because traffic laws are for sissys or something and this car comes speeding by 10000 miles an hour, swerves and misses me by literally half an inch. SO scary. Guess why I didnt die? because when we were having a prayer leaving the members house the little girl prayed that we would be safe on the way home.

Sometimes I help the old grandmas with their heavy carts that they pull to market everyday. This started out being a good idea because my companion would teach them while I pulled but word got out and now all the old grandmas come find me and ask me to pull their carts. Im getting man arms. I swear they have dead bodies in those things too. Why does their vegetables always look like creepy bodies?!

Anyways Ive been stressed to the max about korean lately. We have this "passoff" book that has a billion korean sentences that we have to memorize and pass off with our companions which is all good and fine except we study in the morning when green monster is around and she refuses to except my sentences because I dont say them like a korean. Then i get so steaming mad and prideful that I cant even read the page and nothing gets done. Ill chill out. I promise.

We have had the most AMAZING weather lately. It is heaven. Everyone is so pleasant! 

I've been reading the BOM lately and am in love. Its so GOOD. I just want everyone to read it! I have a testimony of this gospel. The world is such a confusing difficult place. It is a remarkable blessing to have so much direction and purpose. The other day I talked with a kid from England who teaches English here in Naju. He was listening at first and then I realized he knew a lot about the gospel and started making fun of us because we obey so many stupid little rules. He told be he feels bad for me that I have no freedom. I was so mad! I explained about commandments a little but mostly wanted to punch him in the face and walked away. As I thought about it later I re realized how free the gospel makes us. We are free from so much ofe pain the commandments protect us from.

anyways I love you. Thank you for the letters and packages. They save my life.

Can someone tell Chelsea that if she doesn't write me soon that we are getting a divorce? thanks.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!

Sister lund

Aug.8th 2011

I love August 8th. Its one of my favorite days all year. Its the day you and dad got married, the day my brother was born, and the day my family survived a train crash.

This week was a great one. we traveled to Deajeon for training and stayed for a few days with the threesome sisters. 2+3=6. Thats a lot of crazy Koreans and me. It was SO fun. Training was just fantastic. President Furniss is the man. One night after training a couple sisters went to a university to proselyte. It was so fun! There are PEOPLE in Daejeon. It was especially fun when this huge black guy came riding up to me on his bike. He said,"do you know Annie Judd" I responded, "uh.... YEAH. Why do you know annie?!" He said, "Tell sister Judd Moses from Sudan says thank you!" and rode off. haha the lord works in mysterious ways huh? Then a couple miracles happened where I said some cool complex sentences and people understood me! The church is true.

Then it was time to come home and we were a little late getting to the train station so by the time we got there with all our heavy hugemongous stuff the train was sold out. We needed to get back for an appointment so they sold us tickets to stand... for four hours.... with all our huge stuff... while being more exhausted than we have in our whole lives. I was hopeful that there would magically be empty seats we could sit in. But my optimism failed me when I saw the PACKED train with tons of people standing. we sat in the stairwell of the train until i got stepped on the 20th time and then I decided to find some seats. We walked all the way to the back of the train as in the LAST ROW OF THE LAST CAR.and there they were, to beautiful empty seats, next to each other, calling us for a nap. We decided to sit until the next stop when someone FOR SURE would get on the train. about a  second later I was PASSED out and didnt wake up for an hour. No one came the whole way home. I sat staring at my passed out companion with her tongue sticking out and realized how pathetic we probably looked. It was a miracle- a real one. Then it got even better. As we got off the train and walked up the stairs I heard someone yelling sister lund! siser lund! Its one of our old investigators that dropped us running with his tiny wife to say hello. We talked for a while, he agreed to meet with us again and get thi: they paid for our taxi. Heavenly father helped us the whole way home, step by step. COOL.

We met with "friends" guy again. He brought a script from friends to read. It took me like a year to find a part that I was ok with reading in the church. We finally started reading and then he starts yelling at me that I dont sound like Jennifer Aniston. OBVIOUSLY. Im a MISSIONARY dude. So I was kinda bugged, feeling like it was a huge waste of time until I realized that this situation in this friends episode perfectly fit with what the lesson we were teaching him that day. Heavenly Father helps us out :)

Theres this crazy cyclone situation going on outside and I am greatful to be inside for a while today. P day is good.

K i love you. lots and lots.

July 31st

HI! another week. it kind of feels like a month but only because we were SO busy!

We are teaching this old guy who's a retired lawyer and brilliant. He's spent his whole life single just hanging out having no purpose. He asks intelligent questions and its a lot of fun to teach him. He actually keeps commitments and It makes me SO happy. Elder Chong keeps offering for us to go over to his farm and be his slaves. I was really bugged about this until he came up to us and said, "you know, lots of christians have tried to tell me about jesus who are smarter than you- but they just talk. You girls actually do what you talk about"  Cool huh?  

I got a wedding invitation from Karen Gourley this week and I was SO HAPPY that i showed all my friends at the post office their pictures. One of the ladies asked me why mormons are so beautiful. I told her its because the gospel makes us happy and happy people are beautiful. and guess who showed up to church with her two daughters!? haha yes, It was AWESOME. Afterwards she told me that the people looked like normal people haha.

We picked up a new investigator this week. Our fan broke and while we were paying for a new one we were talking to the people at the checkout about our Gospel english program and one pf them actually called us. He's 24 and pretty much the sweetest purest weirdest kid i've ever met. While practicing english i asked him what he wanted to be and he told me he wanted to be a Friends (yes, the tv show) character. I was going to tell him the show was cancelled but I didn't have the heart. He will get baptized.

its peach season in Naju and I am in heaven. These peaches HAVE to be injected with illegal substance because they are UNREAL. Elder Chong and I have bonded this week over our love of peaches. I bought him pizza this week because we got in a mini fight about how he needs to stop promising to buy people things if they get baptized. Anyways- he liked the pizza and then he told me that he liked me and I was a good missionary. I almost had a heart attack. It was the best compliment i've ever gotten in my life.

Oh and we haven't even had that much rain so don't worry. Naju is too far away from ANYTHING for something exciting like a flood to happen. Thanks for your concern im perfectly safe.

My compy and I are bonding. She gets mad that I sleep with a fan but I stood my ground. She's kind of hilarious. I want to know what is going on in her korean head?! love her. love korea. oh and I love the Gospel. Its amazing how the lord lets you know what people need to hear. Heavenly Father loves the people of Korea. I can feel it so strongly as I teach. Its also amazing how somehow through my terrible korean and crazy invented sign language they understand and can even feel the spirit- the only way that is possible is because the church is TRUE. I promise.

kk lovsies. Keep praying for my brain. Korean is a beast.

sister lund 

July 24th

New companion: sister lee

Area: still Naju

Current temperature: 100000000

humidity: we swam to the Internet cafe

 

Oh HI! Sister Seo left. I am traumatized. Sister Lee is... special. She is KOREAN. She speaks a little english and so between us the miscommunication are in abundance. She calls me her beauty and talks to me like im her pet. "come, my beauty" or "thank you, my beauty" sometimes people run away from us and she loves to run after them and then they throw things at her... and me. Its cool not speaking korean because I dont know what anyone is saying so its the funniest thing in the world and ask them if they want to participate in our gospel english program.

UM ok. I almost died this week. Korean meals usually is rice with tons of little side dishes with sketchy stuff in them. Usually i try to eat some of everything because i figure if i sacrifice my body the lord will let me speak korean. I was going about this practice and ate this little black pepper looking thing. At first it was crazy spicy and then my whole body erupted in pain. I started sweating, i got the worst headache of my life, the room started spinning and I BLACKED OUT. Feel free to read that again. This pepper thing was so spicy my vision went black.

Never again will I eat a pepper... unless an investigator asks me to. oh gosh.

My new companion loves to cook. She tries to get me to eat fish heads for breakfast. I lovingly told here there was no way in heck I was eating anything like a fish head for breakfast. She also LOVES kimchi.

NO i have NOT gotten used to kimchi. It is horrible and my whole life smells like it. I will conquer though.

So im not sure if ive told you about elder Chong. He is the senior missionary in the branch. He has a red scooter. Sometimes he comes and finds us to tell us he has someone for us to teach. Then he makes us run behind the scooter while he rides. He also takes treats out of my hands that the branch members give us and eats them. He asks me to buy him things everytime I see him. He also tells me my Korean is horrible every time I see him. His house gives me food poisoning.

I want to fight him in a dark alley. He might sound funny and cute but he is a bully and my goal for this week is to not box him... and show love and serve him.

Its fun to start new. But i miss sister seo. I felt kind of pathetic this week but things are getting better.

GOOD WEEK. So glad everyone is traveling all over the world having fun times.

I LOVE KOREA!

sister lund

July 17th

I had a real life conversation in Korean yesterday. I understood what he was saying and then he understood when I responded and he understood and it was amazing!

Also I can read books to children when we visit them- amazing huh? i can READ that crazy stuff!

Thanks for your fasting and prayers. its working!

July 17th

So right as i started emailing I got a call from the mission president about transfers and now I only have like 20 minutes so ill do my best ha.

Ok sister seo ye ji is going home this week. I am pretty destroyed about it. I love her like a sister (dont worry chris ill always love you best). So when President called about transfers he asked me how things have been with her and I started crying and saying how much i loved her and begged him to make her extend- it was really embarrassing and sister seo just kept laughing at me but the AMAZING news is that im getting another KOREAN COMPANION! Everyone keeps telling me she so amazing and so much fun so im thrilled- it takes the sting away a little. I cant remember her name and i guess she doesnt speak much english but I know that im so so blessed/lucky!

Every other day feels like monday but then I look back on my week and SO MUCH has happened.

Remember the ancient lady who committed to be baptized? We went to visit her a couple days before her baptism and as we started to pray she says out loud "im going to die soon". I open one eye and look at her like did you really just say that? Then she says again "everyone says im dying and its true"... ok. Then as we start teaching she says I cant get baptized I cant remember the rules and Im probably going to be dead before Sunday. So we decided to push back the date and start over with the lessons. Its kinda funny but kind of horrible. In my prayers every night I pray she wont die because honestly she is SO old and SO weak. I love love love her. Every time we come she says "sister london you're like sunshine" in korean of course and i love it.

we got POURED on the other day and my Book of Mormon was ruined so i decided to retire it and leave it on the bus for someone to pick up. As the bus drove away this little old lady sticks her head out the window and yells hey you forgot your book! and throws it a whole two feet out the window, and then it gets run over by 1000 cars. It wasnt exactly how I pictured the books destiny but it got us laughing pretty hard.

The rains stopped a couple days ago- something i thought would be good but then it turned into a heck sauna outside.

SO HOT YOU HAVE NO IDEA. By the end i am dripping. I take an ice shower in the middle of the night so I dont drown in my sweat- too much information? sorry.

Relief society was AWESOME yesterday. It was about eternal marriage which is usually a happy topic but not in Naju branch.

We have a senior mission couple in the branch who are sort of... special. The teacher asked everyone who was sealed to raise their hands- sister chong, the wife of the senior couple, did not raise her hand. Everyone had a heart attack and asked her why. She responded (shouting) "i do not want to spend forever with that man!" then everyone started yelling about how she has to get sealed and then all these ladies started telling the women who were sealed that they couldn't talk because they all had nice husbands. It was fascinating.

We had another acupuncture clinic. This time my job was to light the needles on FIRE. Not even kidding. Missions are awesome.

ok NO TIME gotta go.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

bye

sister london

July 10

The other day we ate at the senior couples house. They have nothing and basically live in a tent. I love there is traumatic. Let me try to paint a picture. Flies everywhere, both dead and alive, cat from heck rubbing against my leg, they are tying up and murdering chickens behind me, Elder Chong brought in a kitten with one eye and kept trying to get me to hold it.

As we left we both realized we had food poisoning and got thee hence.

As we trudged back home sister Seo ye Ji  got so sick she was laying on the ground moaning taxi as I am laughing my head off because all I want to do is die and for some reason it is the funniest thing that has ever happened. We both threw up like three times I finally called a cab across like six lanes of traffic and got us home where we laid ourselves down to die.

Somehow we woke up an hour later still feeling like death and even went tracting a little. good times.

 

July 3rd

Ok our family is so lame. I cant believe none of us are spending it in the United states. America is the best. You had all better sing the national anthem super loud for me.

Gavin. Happy Birthday little man. I love you like crazy. Ill find someone to baptize in your honor ok?

Doug: Thanks for being alive! I cant believe that happened. Your x rays are out of control. You are in my prayers- and i heard that missionaries prayers count double.

All the men in our family: Have we learned our lesson yet? no more motorcycles. Its reckless and i wont have it.

This week has been lots of fun. We are teaching this little girl and her grandma that she lives with. Her little cousin also lives with them and is part ape. He runs around breaking things and hitting and biting my companion. He wont come near me because im white. After a lesson the other night we asked if the little girl would pray this time. She was nervous but did it and it was beautiful. After the little boy wanted to pretend praying over and over. It was funny but then I pretty much wanted to cry watching this little crazy family pray together for probably the first time in their lives.

The best part of my week was visiting 김 귀 레 the ancient lady whose afraid of water we've been teaching. It was pouring rain so we just sat on her porch and watched the rain and taught her about the savior. She told us she thought she would die soon. She felt tired all the time (shes 94)  

I looked at her and said 김 귀 레 will you be baptized? she looked at me for a moment and said YES!!!!!!! I told her that I knew the gospel was true and that the savior loved her and she smiled a little and said I know it :). Then we all cried and hugged like sissy girls haha.

We gave the little girl we are teaching a Book of mormon on saturday. I wrote my testimony in the front- dont worry it only took me four years to write. When we gave it to her I told her how much we care about her and that if she ever had questions or needed anything we would be there- after I said it I realized how very much I meant it. I didnt even know these people a few weeks ago and there I was sitting in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of Koreans who I love with my whole heart. I love them like family- wanting to fix whatever is wrong in their life. 

We keep meeting with people day after day that are living with the most complicated heart wrenching problems. All i keep thinking is I KNOW HOW TO FIX THAT! I know someone that can make it better. If only people could realize! 

oh well. im working on telling them.

We had fast sunday yesterday- but not for Naju branch they had lunch at 12:30. They got mad at us for not eating with them and when we told them it was fast sunday they said "WE KNOW! We prayed already!" oh naju... 

k i have no time cause the zone is having a 4th of july party and they are making us all go to their city which is an hour away and play soccer... sisters cant play soccer with elders. WORST IDEA. Im trying to not be way mad but i am sort of.

LOVE YOU! happy fourth!!!!!!

I LOVE AMERICA! 

sister lund