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

June 26th

One of my favorite thing about Korea is that the whole country is having a dance party 24/7. My favorite example of this is the grocery store. The place is a dance club! The music is BUMPING and its all techno all the time. You cant hear anything. This is typical of most stores in Naju. We need to adopt this in America. Make it happen before I get home. 

We were greeted by monsoon season tuesday morning. That morning we were having a service project where a "doctor" in the branch was going to have a health clinic for some old ladies. We walked to a members house (became wet cats) and see all these ancient ladies sitting around everywhere. Turns out we were providing an acupuncture clinic. One minute im going around asking ladies their age and what was wrong and the next i look up and the guy in our branch is sticking needles in this ladies bum. I was a little disturbed and then it was hilarious. All the little old ladies were so funny. When I would ask what was wrong they would go on for 20 minutes telling me every single part of their bodies that hurt. Poor things. One lady had a tattoo on her bum :). while we were having our torture chamber a fight broke out in the street and these old guys were beating each other with their umbrellas in the pouring rain- epic.

We are teaching this fabulous old lady. she and her husband remind me of George and Eleanor Kossman. Her husband always has a giant cigar in his mouth and wears these Humphrey Bogart hats that i LOVE. She is my FAVORITE. She's way rude to me but then always tells me im her favorite as we leave. She will be baptized before i leave Naju. Her husband too. She just has to start doing anything we tell her to do.

We went to a members house saturday night and taught their little girl who's getting baptized. Her mom wanted her to put her clothes on so she could be taught and she refused and proceeded to bawl her eyes out for 20 minutes. At one point she started gagging she was crying so hard. I about died trying not to laugh. This is an eight year old. I was glad I do not have children at that point.

I ate a tomato. First one in my whole life. And guess what? I kind of liked it.

I feel like a different person because of what I just said.

What is happening?!

On the way home from crying girl there was a WAY scary bug on the bus that kept getting close to us. So i tried to protect us and kill it with my umbrella an it dripped all over the guy in front of us. He HATED me. He told me to go back to America. I told him to come to church. 

We had ward council on sunday. We talked about how the branch hasn't grown in ten years because every time someone gets baptized they leave Naju. As they discussed solutions someone actually said we should pay people to come to church. This was only turned down because after heated debate they couldn't think of a way to raise enough money. love them :)

There was supposed to be a typhoon yesterday. I was pumped. It was LAME. I wanted destruction! There was some blustery wind. oh well.

Koreans love to eat and they love to sing. After dinner last night a bunch of members were around the piano singing. Its so much fun because they CANNOT sing and they sing their hearts out! They honestly sound drunk.At first it was hymns then it was Niel Diamond BUM BUM BUM!Then we left. 

Such a good week. The gospel is true. How do i know? I study like crazy and ask. God answers prayers. He helps me everyday.

I love you

Sister lund

June 12th

I survived my first week! I landed in incheon on Tuesday afternoon where we were greeted by the Furnisses. They are as good as advertised. I am obsessed. They were so kind and hilarious. I cant wait to serve under them. We spent the next day and a half training and interviewing. Thursday we met our trainers. My Companions name is Seo 저 매 님  She IS SO AMAZING. We had to get our bags from Daejeon to Naju (my area) which was no small thing. I have three gigantic bags. There are two of us and she only counts as half because she is miniature haha. You should have seen us getting them into taxi's (plural) on and off trains, up and down multiple staircases. It was ridiculous. But we did it. The church is true! So we took a three hour train ride down to Naju (rhymes with Naboo). I looked over at sister seo and asked what Naju is like. She got a big smile on her face and told me that "Naju is so fun, the branch is so good you will learn Korean fast but lund chamenim, presidentt complimented you when he called you to naju. It takes a stable person to serve in naju". Im learning what she meant more and more every day haha. Naju is this tiny middle of nowhere town in the south. On the first day i got a tour where we got from one end to the other in 30 min. surrounding are rice fields. and then nothing else. haha. I feel like a REAL missionary. Our branch has 50 people in it and they are all out of their minds. I could go on forever telling you how apostate it is haha. But we are fixing it. Half of the branch are children and they run around like possesed wombats all three hours. Running in and out of rooms, sunday school and sacrament meeting. There are these three little boys who are trying to kill me. They kung foo fight me 24/7 and i dont know what to do cause im not supposed to touch them so I just hold their heads while they swing away and say go away in korean- love them haha. The ward mission leader has these five little girls  who are china doll terrorists. I love/am terrified of them.

I sleep on a yo on the floor. I feel so sweet every night. there are these toads outside that sounds like dogs barking. It is SO loud. Sister Seo and I just lay awake laughing. Korean food rocks my world. Seriously. It is so good. I feel like im running a marathon (i basically am) so i devour whatever is in front of me. its amazing what you'll eat when you're starving. There's nowhere to get American food here so im living the Korean way 100% which aint so bad. my favorite thing so far is these noodle rice things in this spicy kimchi sauce. ay go. But its all so good. You have no idea.

We go jogging past rice fields every morning. Its so picturesque. I get to watch these little old ladies working away in the rice fields.

Ok the buses are CRAZY! They dont stop. They just slow down. When you want to get on or off you have to run for your life and even then sometimes the doors shut on you and I glare at the driver like "really?! I know you saw me!" The buses also smell like death. I have to ride with my head out the window like a dog so i dont lose it.

Every other day theres an announcement made in our apt building that comes straight in our apt. It is so loud- hugest invasion of privacy I have ever seen ha. One day the announcement was that someone threw stuff over the balcony and hit someone walking by and they were bleeding. Haha. I love Korea.

AH! We committed a lady to get baptized on Sunday! HAHA! She is so cute and sweet and speaks a little English so we can kind of communicate. She doesn't have facial expression so i can't eer tell what she's thinking but she's getting baptized and im so excited! I told her id make her cookies and she kind of smiled- awesome.

We also met this BEAUTIFUL lady from Bangladesh with a little girl who wants to meet with us. She is SO getting baptized- she doesn't even know.

Korea is AMAZING. Naju is kinda weird cause all the women are working in the rice fields so the only people we see are men and we aren't allowed to talk to them. We spend lot of time walking. A LOT. I am exhausted but its the good kind. My feet hurt. Will someone send me some food? I want some dried mangos. I LOVE YOU! Im studying so hard! Sometimes people understand me when I speak its so so cool!

I spoke in sacrament meeting. I said the gospel has blessed my life tree much instead of very much.

I taught an english class on thursday. This creepy guy showed up who kept hitting on me and when I kept ignoring him he finally left. We might have to change the schedule and forget to tell him haha.

ok ill write more next week. I love being a missionary. Its has hard and long and crazy and fun as they say it is. Im so greatful for the gospel. Its so happy!

Love love love,

Lund 자 매

June 19th

There are no skittles in Naju. None. Ive looked everywhere. Missionary work is hard sometimes.

This week has been sweeetttt!!

First of all, I walked probably 120 miles this week- no lie. We walk about 15-20 miles almost every day. My calves are ripped! 

The other night we walked past a huge group of cyclists and I got way excited and yelled LANCE ARMSTRONG! I thought they would love it but everyone went dead silent and stared at me. awesome. Seo 자 매 님 told me i have to stop talking to men- it freaks them out. I repented. 

My favorite part of the week was meeting with this amazing lady who used to meet with the missionaries but quit because her mom didnt like it. she's 30 by the way, korea is weird, it know. anyways... she is AMAZING like you look at her and all you see is light! We met at the top of this huge hill where theres all these cool old korean structures and sat and ate weird stuff. We talked about God and how he loves us. I shared a WAY simple testimony and she was flipping through my scriptures and found one that talked about God talking to us. She wanted to know what that meant- I asked her if she felt like God had ever talked to her and she immediately said yes! she told us that god gives her dreams or puts thoughts in her head. I asked her if she had ever hads dreams or thoughts about us and she told us that after she stopped meeting with the missionaries she would see them all of the time and that lately everywhere she went she saw us walking around. I told her that things are not always coincidences- God puts people in our path. I could feel the spirit working through me as I shared my testimony- the things I should say and the scriptures I should share It was definetly beyond my capabilities. I didn't say anything amazing or profound but it was enough. the spirit was so so strong! I was so happy at that moment to be a missionary, sharing the happiest news there is. She agreed to start meeting with us again and i KNOW she will get baptized. 

While we were sitting there all these psycho spiders wre crawling all over me. I was trying SO hard not to freak but one time this crazy spider with pincher claws (im NOT kidding) was crawling on my arm and I screamed my head off and ran away and tripped over this bench and started bleeding all over the place and it was way funny/bad. Dont worry, the spirit came back somehow. 

That night we went and had dinner at a members house and they made me a "special" dessert which was peaches mochi shaved ice ice cream watermelon and wait for it... BEANS. and they were hidden in the bottom so i didn't even know it was coming till it was in my mouth. oh boy. MOST HORRIBLY EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. Why do they have to do such weird things?! they ruin every good thing! k just kidding. I love Koreans and their weird ways. I also drank a tomato smoothie that night. yeah. Im a big girl now.  나 소 영, had her baptism yesterday!!! AH!! She is so lovely. I wish you could meet her. The only negative part was that the branch was out of control. They were being so irreverent and half the branch wouldnt come into the baptism because they were busy having a party with the food WE brought for the baptism. After she came out of the water everyone started applauding and while we waited for her to change this crazy lady kept trying to throw the little kids in the font. Luckily the church is true and 나 소 양 got over it and their LAMENESS didnt ruin it. We made cookies and while we were watching the baptism the kids ate them all. we made like 100 cookies. They were seriously throwing down. Thats what happens to children who are raised believing that beans and ice are an acceptable dessert- they turn into wild beasts every time there's something actually good around ha. We are teaching this ancient lady whos friend joined the church and they are SO adorable. They just sit and argue about farming techniques and tell us we are pretty. They both have such childlike faith- i love it! The other day I asked her if she would pray every day and she said that while she is working in the fields she talks to God all day- ahh! love her. i think she'll get baptized in about two weeks except she came to the baptism yesterday and FREAKED about the water. She wouldnt even come closer so she could see better. We'll have to work on that.  

Things i love:

The old ladies who say im pretty and slap my bum as they walk by (why?!) 

the crazy animal insect amphibians that even my korean trainer has never seen before

koreans are all tone deaf- hymns are a treat

I relearn the gospel is true everyday (scriptures are bomb)

all the little kids who say "hello" to me and then go crazy when i speak korean back

k thats all. I LOVE KOREA!!

sista lundo

 

June 7th

I made it! I feel all tingley i am so happy! We arrived about 5 in the afternoon and met the Furnisses (who i am obsessed with)! We took a bus to Daejeon which took about three hours. I sat by President Furniss for about an hour which was so amazing. I went back to my seat and the woman next to me grabbed my nametag and was asking me all these questions in Korean and I realized I don't knw any Korean. So I tried explaining who I was and about the book of mormon and she just looked confused so I grabbed one of the assistants who talked to her for a while and gave her his information while i smiled really big at her- she'll probably get baptized :) We finally got to the mission home and slept on yo's last night which I loved. I slept the whole flight yesterday and all through the night and I feel great! ha I am so so happy to be here. I am so stinking happy to be out of the MTC! It was so so fun talking on the phone yesterday I was sad I didn't get to talk to ryan longer but ill call you at Christmas dont worry. So this is just a quick note to tell you I am safe, SO HAPPY, and living the dream! I love you. My p day is Monday so talk to you then.

Sister Lund

May 31st

I HAVE SOOO MUCH TO TELL YOU!!

We got our travel plans!! AHHH! Im actually leaving! We leave at 1120 on june 6  and fly through seattle and then straight to Seoul! we land at 5:35 on june 7. We are flying Korean air and i am very happy about that ( i know you are jealous ry, ill make sure to say hi to the flight attendants) hahahaha. I really dont know when ill have an opportunity to call but maybe around ten on the sixth? AHH you have NO idea how excited I am!! The past week or two have been pretty rough. My Korean is embarrassing and I wasnt excited at all to leave. I was feeling so discouraged. I read this talk about Elder nelson having to act on faith to preform a new kind of heart surgery. It wasa perfectly put in his mind what the correct procedure to do was. While reading it it struck me that God knows heart surgery. And that must mean that God speaks Korean. And that means that He can help me. It seems simple but that realization has changed me. All my fear and apprehension left me. It was kind of cool because just a few days after reading this talk Elder nelson came and spoke to us. i was going to say hi but I was worried he would remember me haha.

So I think i told you that Pres. Shin asks us to prepare talks in Korean each weeks and he randomly calls on us. A few weeks ago I was talking to his wife and she told me that because I am such a good missionary and so good at Korean (i have her fooled) he would never call on me. I have been tempted to not write talks since then but have written them simply to be obedient. I did so on Sunday but only a sort of lame one. Guess who was called on to speak?! ME! 2 lessons learned

1. it pays to be obedient

2. dont half way obedience.

I felt so dumb my talk was stupid but I was to thankful I had prepared something! Im glad i had the experience. it feels good to do hard things even if you dont do it perfectly.

missions are spectacular for pointing out your weaknesses. I am brought to my knees every single day. and if i wasn't I didnt do it right. I've had this motto the past couple weeks to do more than Im expected to do. i dont want to look back and feel like ive done anything halfway.

MOM THANK YOU FOR THE GIGANTOR PACKAGE. haha. You are so so awesome. I can always rely on you to go above and beyond. Dont stress! I wont die a painful death if I dont have some random thing. I have everything i need!

Happy birthday Chrissy and Jeremy! I hope you are loving Portugal! Its about time. i cant wait to hear about it!

President Shin wants to have dinner with you mom and dad. I gave them your info and said you'd give sister shine a lifetime supply of agelock... just kidding but i told her you'd give her some :) please? thank you? haha/ 

President shin had a parting meeting with us and told us that the secret to learning korean is loving Kimchi. Fantastic...!

I cant wait to begin this crazy adventure its so amazing to do something that take you beyond yourself. i am learning and growing soo much. I hate how quickly time is slipping through my fingers. I cant believe I have to say goodbye to my district they are all going to Seoul. They have become family. Love is what you go through together and we have been through a lot. 

can i have like two more things?

theres this body mist that this sister has called goji berry&mango from v secret and its AMAZING. plus maybe some yummy smelling lotion. They tell me korea is stinky

I LOVE YOU! PRAY FOR ME!!! IM GOING TO KOREA!!!!!!!! haha HUZZAH!

LOVE LOVE LOVE,

Sister Lund

May 24th

This week probably Thursday we get out travel plans! ah! I can't wait. It was starting to feel like I would be serving my mission in the MTC. It has been a glorious experience- it really has. My testimony of the gospel grows every day. I always knew it was true but the more I study and learn and start living the principles with exactness I have no doubts. I love being in the MTC and watching especially the elders and see how the longer you are set apart as a missionary and are living in this way it changes you. They carry themselves higher, speak a little softer, and testify with a power most 19 year olds only wish they had. I love this gospel. It is perfect.

So this week was filled with some adventures. We held a meeting for the korean district that arrived a week ago. It was held in korean so I understood very little. I was so moved when an elder got up and as he bore his testimony the entire room was crying. My thoughts were that he must have born a beautiful testimony (which im sure he did) but then as the meeting progressed and uncontrollable sobs filled the room for over an hour I began to realize what they mean when they say that Koreans are a passionate and emotional people. I have never seen people cry like that. It was fascinating. I have so much love for the Korean people. We have so much fun together I cant wait to be surrounded by them! At the end of the meeting the Zone leaders and I were to teach them about companionship inventory and explain some of the higher rules the Korean zone abide... IN KOREAN. and guess what? It went great! My korean was horrible but they understood- mostly they laughed their heads off at us but that's ok with me.

The Koreans call me Britney Spears. I try to not be offended haha.

Ok mom. lets talk about this. Im fine. I eat the cafeteria food. I will be fine in Korea. The reason I haven't been eating is because I had EBOLA and I was dying. I had no appetite. Also the cafeteria food is poisonous and will make you obese. I am the only sister out of eight that hasn't put on at least 15 pounds. Thank you for being concerned but I am fine :)

I gave the prayer in sacrament meeting and it went great. Afterwards the branch presidents wife sister Shin came up to me and told me that I sound like a korean when I speak. She told me that pronunciation is half the battle and that I definitely had the gift of tongues. Im sure she was just being nice but it was GREAT to hear.

my tentative departure date is June 6. Its gone by terrifyingly fast. It has been amazing.

I have a few things I need:

mom I need some colorful summery tops. Korea is going to be hot and i feel like I only brought sweaters. You can just grab them from my closet- remember we are allowed to look cute so dont worry about them looking conservative or whatever- just send me color! ha

i think i have some maxi dresses (particularly a pinkish one) downstairs that would be cool for the summer time- im want to try to get them hemmed. 

i need some tank tops that aren't spandex and light weight fabric

we bought a pink night gown dress thing that i wish i had

cute nail polish! Bright colors please! the ones i brought make me feel eighty

flip flops for the showers

silky garment bottoms- i think im a 26

ok sorry for the HUGE list im just trying to get it together before i leave. I love you.

Sister lund

also i wrote letters last week but didnt end up sending them because they were so whiney so dont worry everyone- I will write this week.

love love love