Monday, April 27, 2015

Temples & Prisons

안녕하세요 everyone!
This week has been CRAZY busy. I'm going to resort to bullet points! 
  • We had temple day! My companion gave her last talk in the temple to a few zones. I'm really going to miss her. I didn't understand her talk but I really felt the Spirit (which is fast becoming my sacrament meeting catchphrase). Temple day was also our President's birthday so our zone stood in front of the temple and sang in Korean as he drove up. It was so sweet. He and his wife were crying. My companion and I wrote a card for him as well. We really love our president. He's so great! The temple is so beautiful here. It's the only one in Korea and it's kind of small but so gorgeous. I felt the same spirit as in the Newport Beach temple back home. It was like walking into a familiar home. I feel so blessed that we have a temple in our mission!
  • After the temple we had a sort of P-Day where we could go anywhere. We went to this delicious American-style restaurant. It had a chocolate fountain and crepes and I think I want to be transferred to that restaurant. A lot of missionaries went -- we took up this huge room! So fun, and I met so many people.
  • After the restaurant we went to this old prison from the Japanese annexation period. It was really sad and scary and was a stark contrast to our earlier experience in the temple. The prison contained a lot of the torture equipment and it was so horrible I can't even describe it. There was a sad, somber feeling in the air, almost of reverence--a feeling similar to what I experienced when I visited Dachau in Germany. The Koreans we went with taught us a lot about the history and culture. They said a few times 'and the Japanese, they never say sorry'. They still have a lot of anger about it. One part that sticks out in my mind is this huge, ugly tree that stood next to the execution room. It's called the wailing tree because prisoners would grab it and scream on their way to death. 
  • We did an exchange this week. I got to go to 준전 (Junjeon) and be with Sister Wijethunge. 준전 is so gorgeous! It's in the country. The air is so clear there. I'm in a very citified part of Seoul where blue sky is kind of rare. There were lots of trees and beautiful flowers, and everyone was so kind! Especially Sister W. She's Sri Lankan and is just INCREDIBLE. There are no missionaries anymore in Sri Lanka but when there were she and her family were baptized. There are only about a thousand members in Sri Lanka and a lot are inactive; they have no temple and very little support for Sinhala (the language) from the church. But she is so happy! Infectiously so. I really loved my time with her. She made food for me, which is the number one way to win my heart! It was this traditional Sri Lankan dish. SO good. Also, they get a real bed instead of floor mats. It was really weird to sleep in a bed. Our proselyting was really good as well. We gave out more copies of the Book of Mormon than I have in a week! We ran out of them and of our cards as well. We taught families from Bangladesh, which was awesome. Story time: Sister W. is the first person from Sri Lanka to come to Korea. Most missionaries from there go to the Philippines and she was really confused about her call...until she got a phone call that there was a group of Sri Lankans living in Korea that wanted to hear the gospel! So great. It really increased my testimony that everyone is here for a reason, that we were all called by a prophet, and that God knows what he's doing.
I'm out of time...love you all!

Sisters at the Seoul Temple
Wijethunge, Brown, Bell, Peni, Johnson, Lynn


Sisters at the Seoul Temple
Wijethunge, Brown, Bell, Peni, Johnson, Lynn

Family we taught from Bangladesh

Blossoms

Korea Prison museum- the hall of mirrors

Found a California License plate!

Exercise Park - they're all over the city!

Mission Conference with Elder & Sister Ringwood

Korea Prison museum


Korea Prison museum tunnel

Monday, April 20, 2015

Bells and Boomerangs

This week has been what we of the missionary profession call a boomerang week.  Or that's what I call it in my head.  When you throw a boomerang the right way it comes back, right?   The farther you throw it the longer it takes to come back.  And the farther you throw it the more powerfully it returns. 


Coming to Korea definitely threw me! It threw me fast and hard. But this week, my mission swung around. The hard work has started paying off and we've seen mighty miracles. As difficult and confusing as these past weeks have been, they've turned into something amazing.

I'll start at the beginning.

I really miss my harp. A LOT. I have dreams about my harp. In my prayers on one of my first nights here, I tacked on "and if you could find me a harp, I know it's improbable but that would be really cool." I prayed for it a couple times. I thought, no way could I find a harp here. The apartments here are TINY, and harps are big and pretty hard to come by. 

We were visiting a sweet less active lady. (less-active, meaning she doesn't go to church regularly). She is SO cute! She always has tons of food for us. Sometimes that food includes interesting items. That day it included tomatoes, which you have to eat like an apple. Having never liked tomatoes, I really didn't want to offend her so I ate the whole thing. I nearly threw up. It was disgusting! I actually prayed for help to get through it and probably thought something like 'I better get some serious blessings out of this!' But I did it. She really loves us, and over the meeting she really grew closer to us. So much so that she showed us a real treasure.

She pulled out this long black bag and unzipped it. Inside was the strangest instrument I've ever seen. It had several long strings and little things that could change the tone. She called it a Kayagum. I was really interested of course -- but then she said "this is a Korean harp”! 

I can't explain the feeling of total love that washed over me. It was like a hug. It was an answer to my prayer! She let me play it and it was actually really similar to a harp. It was amazing. I explained to her how much it meant to me and she started crying. She said she had been feeling really lonely and that us coming had answered her prayers. That little apartment was overflowing with love.

 
Fast forward to yesterday --  a lot happened in between, but my time is running low. 

Yesterday was Sunday here. The elders in our ward had a baptism. They had asked my companion and me to do a musical number -- we had practiced all week and it was pretty decent. We did 'Where Love is'. She played piano and I sang in Korean. At the end some members started clapping. It was pretty funny. They didn't let us sit down, and had us do five more songs. They really loved it. Afterwards an elder came up to me and said 'You won their hearts'. I've been trying to become closer with the members here. It was an awesome experience.

Last night was the crowning moment. My amazing mother has been working with the mission president to get The Piano Guys to come to our mission. They're currently touring throughout Asia so it was the perfect opportunity to hear them. Through miracles and the sheer force of her amazingness she made it happen.  I wish I could express my full gratitude and love for her. It's an impossible feat!

The Mom Disclaimer: (because she said I could not delete that amazing mother part) 
The short version is I asked my pianist friend (I owed him a lifetime of favors already... Bur this trumps anything I could ever do in return.) and they graciously accepted the invitation...  
  • Thank you Jon, Steve, Al and Paul!
  • Thank you to their tour manager for making it work with short notice!
  • Thank you to the Mission President and his wife for being willing to listen to a mom they didn't know, of a sister who hadn't even arrive in the mission yet -- and especially for coordinating the meeting to get everyone there from around the country at the last minute...!   
My heart is especially full of gratitude for the wonderful effects this night has and will continue to have.
I figured the "guys" might be interested in meeting with the missionaries, since they speak Korean:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LBkgR4kVM 

We had been waiting to hear and praying for them to be able to meet with us for two weeks.  Here is are our faces from when we got the text that it was going to happen:

 "The Piano Guys are coming!"

They talked a lot and played beautiful music. One thing the cellist, Steven Sharp Nelson, said really has stuck with me. He said that a mission is like a scrimmage. It's okay to mess up! It's okay to make mistakes! The purpose of your mission is to help you learn and get better; we have fun along the way and maybe skin our knees sometimes but that's okay.  The cool thing is he went on his mission to Korea too - so we know he gets it.

We got to bring an investigator to the concert as well! She's really sweet, from China. Her name is Hong nn nn (it's hard to say and I can't romanize it...). She loved it and wants to meet with us more regularly -- she thinks of us as her best friends now :)


And of course, one final miracle. When they were done, I prayed again and thanked God for letting us have this amazing opportunity. I knew it was a long shot, and He had already blessed us so much I almost didn't want to ask but I asked if he could let us meet them. My companion REALLY wanted to. And so did I! They're missionary celebrities. Last night the Piano Guys gained hundreds of new diehard fans.

Anyways, the president thanked them for coming and then said, "they have to go but they wanted to say hi to some people... they know Sister Bell's family." I got to take a picture with all of them!!!! And I got to talk to them for a while. It was amazing.
My companion and I had been talking about the concert the week before and were saying things like "if they played any song which would you want?" We decided on O Come O Come Emmanuel and were like, no way, that's a Christmas song! It would be crazy if they played that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc

Guess which song they ended with?

They started playing and I couldn't believe it. I felt God's love -- that warm vanilla infused, huge comforter in winter type feeling -- so very strongly. It was incredible. That feeling of sheer joy is persisting right now, like a glow. I'm surprised no one can see it -- it feels so bright. It doesn't come from me, but from Someone who knows exactly what songs I need to hear.

Come thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace. 
Streams of mercy never ceasing 
call for songs of loudest praise.

Despite the turbulent beginnings, my mission has been amazing already. He has tuned my heart to the sound of His grace and it's a song I want to play forever.

xoxo,
Sister Bell 

more photos from the fireside:





 Presentation of Seoul Mission ties...
 The many faces of Steve...


 they signed Lauren's book
 The sisters taking photos...
Random Seoul photo:
The train - everyone but one person was on their smartphone with earbuds in...
we have to get creative to start conversations :)

Article on Culture Shock

My daughter read this and said it helped her to know the feelings she had moving to Korea were very normal.  She asked if I would repost the article. 

Symptoms of Culture Shock
Signs and symptoms of culture shock are: 

  • a feeling of sadness and loneliness,
  • an over-concern about your health,
  • headaches, pains, and allergies
  • insomnia or sleeping too much
  • feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability
  • idealizing your own culture
  • trying too hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture
  • the smallest problems seem overwhelming
  • feeling shy or insecure
  • become obsessed with cleanliness
  • overwhelming sense of homesickness
  • feeling lost or confused
  • questioning your decision to move to this place
Sounds like fun, huh? Now you may have one of the above symptoms or a combination of a few; it's very individual and unpredictable. I know I tend to be much more emotional than I usually am, crying over simple things that normally I wouldn't even look at twice. Seeing people hugging or someone being kind to me would make me burst into tears. I didn't feel sad. Just sentimental. I suppose that should be added to my list. I also found that I clung to the familiar. E-mail and being in touch with people back home gave me a great source of comfort until I realized that I needed to remove myself from the old and embrace the new. I believe that was part of my transition from the Re-integration Stage to the Autonomy Stage.
The Culture Shock Model
Step 1: The Honeymoon Stage
Like any new experience, there's a feeling of euphoria when you first arrive to a new country and you're in awe of the differences you see and experience. You feel excited, stimulated, enriched. During this stage, you still feel close to everything familiar back home.
Step 2: The Distress Stage
Everything you're experiencing no longer feels new; in fact, it's starting to feel like a thick wall that's preventing you from experiencing things. You feel confused, alone and realize that the familiar support systems are not easily accessible.
Step 3: Re-integration Stage
During this stage, you start refusing to accept the differences you encounter. You're angry, frustrated and even feel hostile to those around you. You start to idealize life "back home" and compare your current culture to what is familiar. You dislike the culture, the language, the food. You reject it as inferior. You may even develop some prejudices towards the new culture. Don't worry. This is absolutely normal. You're adjusting. This is actually a pretty common reaction to anything new. Think back to when you started a new job or moved to a new house or a new city or when you moved in with someone. Any adjustment can cause you to look back in awe and wonder why you made the decision to change.
Step 4: Autonomy Stage
This is the first stage in acceptance. I like to think of it as the emergence stage when you start to rise above the clouds and finally begin to feel like yourself again. You start to accept the differences and feel like you can begin to live with them. You feel more confident and better able to cope with any problems that may arise. You no longer feel isolated and instead you're able to look at the world around you and appreciate where you are.
Step 5: Independence Stage
You are yourself again! You embrace the new culture and see everything in a new, yet realistic light. You feel comfortable, confident, able to make decisions based on your own preferences. You no longer feel alone and isolated. You appreciate both the differences and similarities of your new culture. You start to feel at home.
What Is It?
Culture shock isn't a clinical term or medical condition. It's simply a common way to describe the confusing and nervous feelings a person may have after leaving a familiar culture to live in a new and different culture. When you move to a new place, you're bound to face a lot of changes. That can be exciting and stimulating, but it can also be overwhelming. You may feel sad, anxious, frustrated, and want to go home.
It's natural to have difficulty adjusting to a new culture. People from other cultures (whom you'll be hanging out with and going to school with) may have grown up with values and beliefs that differ from yours. Because of these differences, the things they talk about, the ways they express themselves, and the importance of various ideas may be very different from what you are used to. But the good news is that culture shock is temporary.
What Causes Culture Shock?
To understand culture shock, it helps to understand what culture is. You may know that genes determine a big part of how you look and act. What you might not know is that your environment — your surroundings — has a big effect on your appearance and behavior as well.
Your environment isn't just the air you breathe and the food you eat, though; a big part of your environment is culture. Culture is made up of the common things that members of a community learn from family, friends, media, literature, and even strangers. These are the things that influence how they
look, act, and communicate. Often, you don't even know you're learning these things because they become second-nature to you — for instance, the way you shake hands with someone when meeting them, when you eat your meals each day, the kind of things you find funny, or how you view religion.
When you go to a new place, such as a new country or even a new city, you often enter a culture that is different from the one you left. Sometimes your culture and the new culture are similar. Other times, they can be very different, and even contradictory. What might be perfectly normal in one culture — for instance, spending hours eating a meal with your family — might be unusual in a culture that values a more fast-paced lifestyle.
The differences between cultures can make it very difficult to adjust to the new surroundings. You may encounter unfamiliar clothes, weather, and food as well as different people, schools, and values. You may find yourself struggling to do things in your new surroundings that were easy back home. Dealing with the differences can be very unsettling; those feelings are part adjusting to a new culture.

How Does It Feel?
One person's adjustment to a new culture is not necessarily like another's. In some situations, people are excited about their move. Though they may feel a little sad about leaving important people and places behind, they think of the move as a new adventure, or they've heard great things about the place that will become their new home. Some people stay this way. But difficulties adjusting often don't show up right away. In some people, the excitement gives way to frustration as time goes on and they still have trouble understanding their new surroundings.
On the other hand, there are people who never wanted to move in the first place. Their frustration starts the day they realize that they have to move to a new place, when they're perfectly happy where they are. It continues as they find out just how unfamiliar their new home is.
Though people experience culture shock in different ways, these feelings are common:
  • not wanting to be around people who are different from you
  • loneliness
  • trouble concentrating
  • feeling left out or misunderstood
  • developing negative and simplistic views of the new culture
  • frustration
  • extreme homesickness
These difficult feelings may tempt you to isolate yourself from your new surroundings and dismiss the new culture. It's best not to withdraw like this. If you stay calm, observe and learn, and keep things in perspective, you'll probably find that your difficulties will pass. But if you're feeling depressed and you aren't able to function normally even after the first few months in your new environment, you should talk to a parent or trusted adult about whether to seek help from a physician or mental health professional.
So how do you deal with the frustration and fears you may be having? How can you begin to feel comfortable in your new surroundings?

Learning the Language
Depending on where you come from and where you are now, you may or may not have trouble with the native language. It's a good idea to become comfortable with the language as soon as you can. Not being able to understand what people are saying is almost as frustrating as not knowing how to make people understand what you are saying.
Lots of good resources are around to help you practice. Many schools with a good number of students new to the country have language classes. If your school doesn't offer one, check out some of the community centers and libraries in your area. In addition, books make good resources too, and even some websites.
Whatever method you choose, practice is really important. A lot of people are worried about speaking a language they aren't completely comfortable with and think that people who speak the language well will tease them when they stumble over words. This might tempt you to practice the language with someone who is at the same comfort level as you, but it's also important to practice with people who have mastered the language, so that you know when you make a mistake and learn from it.
It might make you uncomfortable when it takes you twice as long to say the same thing as a native speaker, or use the wrong word, but remember that you have nothing to be ashamed of.
Even if you're familiar with the new language spoken around you, chances are you don't know a lot of the slang — casual speech that doesn't make it into translation dictionaries (or most dictionaries, for that matter). This is one of the many reasons why it's a good idea to do some studying on the culture you are immersed in.

Knowing What to Expect
A lot of the anxiety that comes with moving to a new place has to do with not knowing what to expect in your new environment. Learning things about your new environment will help you become more comfortable.
School is a great place to do this. Watch and learn from the people around you — see how the students interact with teachers and each other. Find out what your classmates do for fun and what kinds of things are important to them.
You can also get some insight from television and movies, but be careful — not everything you see on the screen is meant to be realistic. But these media do help if you're still trying to learn the language or catch up on some slang, and at the very least, give you something to talk about when you're trying to make a new friend.
You don't have to love everything you find out about the culture, or start acting the way that others do, but when you gain knowledge of what people mean when they say certain phrases or why they dress a certain way, you do begin to feel better.
Coping With Teasing
Your accent might be different from everybody else's. Your clothes may also be very different from those around you. Sometimes it can be really difficult being different, especially when compared to the other kids at school. But some people at your school will want to get to know you because your differences seem really cool. Other people, though, might try to give you a hard time.
Some of the people who may try to tease you might do so because of stereotypes. Stereotypes are simplified ideas, often exaggerated or distorted in a negative way, that one group of people holds about another. An example of a stereotype would be everyone with curly hair is lazy. Like this example, stereotypes are often wrong, and they can be hurtful.
If someone harasses you, walk away — don't give the person the satisfaction of seeing that his or her comments bother you. If you can't shake off the comments, talk about it with good friends, siblings, or parents. The people who love you and know that you're a great person can often help you understand that the bully has no idea what he or she is talking about. It also helps to find people at school to hang out with who are cool enough not to care what the bully says.
As much as you would hate to be boxed into a certain type, try and get away from doing the same to others. These characterizations are just as unfair as the ones people might use to describe you. And beliefs in these can get in the way of making some good friends.

Your Family
It's important to realize that some people have an easier time adjusting to a new culture than others. Sometimes, if members in your family are having an easy transition, they'll be a great source of support — a group of people who are going through something very much like what you're going through. In addition, your family can be a big part of keeping ties to home.
But sometimes, members of your family might want to keep your ties to home too tight. Your parents might not expect the changes that may happen as you begin to learn more about your new culture. Or, they might need your help as they try and learn the new culture, especially if you have a better grasp on the language. Be patient with them; chances are they're trying to manage their culture shock — just like you.
Help If You Need It
You can do a lot to help yourself adjust to a new culture. But don't forget that you aren't alone — there are people you can go to who can help:
  • Family and friends. Find someone who has experience with culture shock — maybe an older relative who moved to the area before you did. Find out how they handled the newness of their surroundings.
  • Counselors. If you don't know someone who has been through what you're going through, try talking to counselors and teachers at your new school. They've been trained to help all students deal with a wide variety of concerns. Although they may not have personal experience with culture shock, they do have experience with helping people deal with rough times.
  • New friends. Making friends who aren't new to the culture may help you understand the culture better and have someone to talk to when you're feeling down.
Rather than giving up your culture so you can fit in, keep your mind open to new ways of doing and thinking about things. Notice things that are the same and things that are different. Appreciating that variety is what makes people so interesting.
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Continue
Maintaining Your Culture
Everyone feels the pressure to fit in at one time or another — whether they've lived in the area for days or years. But don't feel like you need to change everything about yourself so you can stand out less. All of your experiences before you came to your new home are part of you, and what makes you special.
Here are a few tips for making sure your new culture doesn't overpower the old:
  • Educate people about your culture. Just because you're the one entering the new culture doesn't mean you should be the one doing all the learning. Take the opportunity to teach classmates and new friends about your culture; they may know little about it. It will also help them to learn more about you in the process. Invite them over for traditional dishes from your culture, or show them how you celebrate your holidays.
  • Find a support group. Find kids in your class or neighborhood who recently moved, too. You can share experiences, cheer each other up when things get rough, and introduce each other to the new friends you've made.
  • Keep in touch with home. You probably left behind good friends and family when you moved. If it's going to be a long time until your next visit, keep in touch. Email, text, Skype, or call so you can stay updated on the things happening there, and talk about your new experiences. You've not only left behind people, but also other things — like your favorite spot to hang out. Keep pictures around to remind you of home.
Remember, the key to getting over your culture shock is understanding the new culture and finding a way to live comfortably within it while keeping true to the parts of your culture that you value.
It's important to be yourself. Try not to force yourself to change too fast or to change too many things all at once. You will have your own pace of adjusting. Everyone goes through changes in their life, and it may seem that you are going through more changes than the average person — but as long as you hold on to what's important to you and find a good combination between old and new, you'll be fine.


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

We don't swim alone...


 I'm not going to sugarcoat it: these past two weeks have been hard. Really hard. I could go into exquisite detail about it but I'll restrict myself to a lovely metaphor my half-asleep mind dreamed up last night :)

You remember the kiddie pools from that my friends and I all had when we were little? Every family seemed to have one. The big, ugly blue tubs with ducks patterned all over them that mom filled with the backyard hose. You'd get grass and dirt in it but it didn't matter because you didn't swim in this big blue inside-out boat. You sat in it, and got wet, and were happy. The tub was your ocean. Maybe the water was a little lukewarm, but who cared?

Now imagine you're in a big black helicopter above the ocean. It's nighttime. The rotors make windy little dents in the water's surface. You are very high up. The water is very far down. You don’t have precise perception of distance, but imagine that maybe you can see shapes in the inky blackness. The pilot informs you through the headphones that a large horde of sharks appear to be circling beneath the helicopter. Your time comes and you jump into the water.

In the kiddie pool or even a normal pool maybe you learned some swimstrokes. Your instructor told you that the ocean had some big waves but nothing you couldn't handle. You snapped on your swimcap and dove in.

My time came and I took the jump. Sometimes I still don't feel in control here. That's an understatement: I've been in uncontrollable freefall ever since I left the MTC kiddie pool. Sometimes I think I've hit the water. Sink or swim. The water is culture-shocking cold and unexpected currents sweep me in every direction, and, yes, I've even met a couple of sharks.

But no matter how overwhelmed I feel by the depths of this vast ocean I've jumped into, no matter how many storms mutter like angry old men on the horizon, no matter how tired my arms get from trying to stay afloat -- I know a couple of key, basic strokes. I know every drop of salty water raises the ocean a little bit higher. I know I don't swim alone.

I loved Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from conference last week, about being rescued by a pair of hands. It reminded me of the story of Peter walking on water. When he stepped from the boat, he had his eyes fixed on the Savior; he began to sink when he looked at the raging tempest he was placing his feet so precariously on. When I feel discouraged I remember why I'm here. I put a sticky note on the door that reminds me every time I walk out that I'm here because I love Him, and love His work. I know that He loves me too, and that's what has floated me through this week. It hasn't exactly been a pleasure cruise :)

But it has been an important week in my life. I got to share my testimony to our investigator Hayaybeen (that's the closest I can get to romanizing her name) and she started crying. She's been taking the discussions for 4 months and hasn't ever shown any emotion. We invited her to conference and she accepted; she invited us to lunch and we accepted. It was so good to feel her trust!

We had an amazing miracle the other night as well. This creepy drunk man followed us around and started trying to talk to us and let him buy us food or something and follow him. He was really weird. Right when we were getting a little freaked out...the elders showed up! They walked with us for a while and offered to walk us home, but we had an appointment to get to. It was really a miracle that they showed up then. Our area is pretty big and I know it wasn't a coincidence. God is looking out for missionaries, for us, and for me. He cares about all of us individually.

My companion ate a hot dog for the first time, which was hilarious. She loved it. Then the next day at the mission home they had hot dogs again and she ate like 3. It was awesome.

I watched General Conference with the elders in English, which was great. I'm the only English speaking sister here. I overheard one of the elders say, "Sometimes I think I'm doing okay on my Christlike attributes but then I watch conference and realize I have a long way to go."

One interesting thing: we went to go do service at the Seventh-Day Adventist church and filled out a lot of forms. But they kept asking us to remove our nametags. We kept saying no. They asked us to cover them up; we still said no. They asked us to leave and we said okay. I was bummed. I've been dying to do a service activity. This one was with blind people who obviously couldn't even see our nametags...

It's been a crazy week but I know it will only get better. I already understand more Korean and can say more things, and I say hi to everyone I meet. I was able to have some really great conversations with people on the bus the other day! It's inch by inch that I'm making progress but I know it's coming. I'm so grateful for my family. I love the gospel and wouldn't trade this week for another one somewhere else. I know it's all going to help...in the long run :) God's gospel is one for people who are progressing, not perfect people. I have a long way to go but I know I can do it with Him by my side!

xoxo,
벨 자매
Apartment living

Cathedral in Seoul

Companion with her first hot dog!

Dinner

Exchanges

Missionary meal: Korean rice and Costco Dino Buddies

Creature comforts: hot dog at Costco

First view of Seoul Temple

Street views at night

Blossoming tree in the evening

Monday, April 6, 2015

Dream a little bigger

You know that scene in Inception where the girl is the intruder in the man's dream, and everyone starts looking at her and staring at her sideways? Korea is like a dream. Like someone else's dream.
I am definitely an outsider here; besides the other missionaries I've seen one other white person. People stare at me on the street and talk about my hair and eyes and skin. It's so weird. Surprisingly, there are a lot of Koreans here and Americans are pretty unusual. But they really LOVE Americans. They love America! So at least everyone is nice to me even if I don't know what they're saying.


I don't know what language I learned in the MTC but I don't think it was Korean. I have no clue what anyone is saying, and I have a hard time talking to them because of my accent. But I am trying really, really hard. My companion said I was speaking Korean in my sleep! Sometimes in lessons I'll catch some stray words and be really happy.

There's this line from Pitch Perfect that goes something like 'If at first you don't succeed, get the heck out of Kuwait!' In one respect I'm doing just that...trying to bring a little slice of heaven into Korea :) But even though the first few days were so hard and I had such extreme culture shock, I want to stay here and learn. When I get frustrated about the language, I remind myself that that isn't my purpose here. I'm not here to learn Korean. I'm here to serve God! When I remind myself of that it's so much easier! At first street proselyting was really scary, but now I genuinely enjoy trying to talk to people and understand them. We've met so many people here.

We have a few investigators! They are all very diverse. One of them is a nine year old girl. Another is a girl from Seoul Nam who comes here to school. We taught her Thursday (I think).  We really want her to recognize God's love, because she really needs to feel like someone cares about her.

My companion is awesome! Her name is Gil Suryeo, which means 'glorious luck.' She's really short and tiny and is really vivacious. She literally chases people down the street sometimes. We've given out a lot of cards and copies of the Book of Mormon! It's so awesome to see seeds planted. In some instances we get to reap what we sow. We met a girl on the train today from China - she asked for our number! Usually it's the other way around.

One interesting Korea fact: the sisters can only talk to women and the elders to men. It's a cultural thing. Still a little hard to get used to.


The food is delicious! It's a good thing I like kimchi and rice. We had this steak thing the other night covered in cheese. It was amazing. I ate what I thought were noodles, but I looked more closely and the noodles had eyes, so that was fun. My companion fed me squid without telling me.

I gave my talk in church and got to meet our cute ward. There are lots of kids. Relief Society was pretty small; because school and work are so exacting (my companion got 3 hours of sleep every night when she was a student, so she had no pity for my jet lag haha), Sunday is sleep day for  some people. Many come for sacrament meeting though.

It was wonderful to meet everyone. We say hello to everyone! They are all pretty respectful even if they aren't interested. I love recognizing people who are prepared to hear the gospel. Their faces just shine. We met a girl like that last night -- she was so excited to hear the gospel and just talk to us. Fingers crossed.

Anyways, I'm a little scattered right now, so I hope some of this made sense :)

Love,

Sister Bell


District Sisters & Elders with Teachers


Sisters Phillips, Bell, Jones, Simonson, Cameron, and Coates

Sisters Bell & Phillips at Provo Temple




Arrival at Seoul's Incheon International Airport

President & Sister Christensen

Springtime in Korea