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