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