More Glorious and Bright: 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!