A Tale of Two Cities...

Choco Pie

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the hottest of days and the rainiest of days. It was the days of people giving us a lot of free food and then walking away when we tried to teach the gospel. (Which honestly could be worse.)

I'm just going to put it out there: I'm a terrible person. Why do I even go outside? I should just go live in a cupboard under the stairs or something. Speaking of which....I met my new companion.

This is my fourth companion, counting my MTC companion. I really loved serving with Sister Olson and I was pretty sad to leave, and nervous to meet my new companion, Sister Murdock. We were walking up the hill to transfers and Sister Olson goes "There's Sister Murdock!" So I tried my best to look psyched and confident and walked up to her and said "Hey Sister Olson!". Yes. I called her by my last companion's name. It really could have been the beginning of the end. Thankfully, Sister Murdock is really cool. She's basically me with brown hair. We both LOVE reading and Harry Potter and traveling! This is going to be the best transfer ever!!!

Anyways, Donghae (my new area) is SO gorgeous. It's got a bustling little downtown, spreading houses, and a huge seaside. There are lots of farmers and old grandmas doing weird exercises. There are trees everywhere. Honestly, when I was in the big city I wondered if trees were still a thing. They are. They are everywhere. I keep thinking I'm in Mexico. The weather changes every day and there's all these misty mountainy landscapes and ramshackle little houses painted bright colors. It was a 3 hour bus ride from Seoul to Donghae and every bit of it was wonderful! The world outside gradually changed from smoky, grimy city to greeny paradise. Sister Murdock and I got to know each other and essentially we are both huge nerds. I'm so happy. 

That night we went to a member meal. It was super simple but so good. TONS of kimchi that the mom had made herself. Somehow it tasted a little minty. It was SO GOOD! What am I gonna eat after my mission?? After the meal we visited this enormous rose garden by the river. I felt like we were in a fairytale or something.

The next day all our appointments cancelled so we proselyted for seven hours. We just got to explore and stuff. Our area is like Middle Earth sized. (Rivendell is Baskin Robbins. Mordor is the red light district.) There was this windy, cramped-road hill with tons of slanted little houses where we met a grandma with a serious hangover. She was really cute but she REALLY didn't want to talk. We felt so bad!

The next day was an actual monsoon I think. We got soaked. I got this monsoon-proof umbrella in the states and I had a hard time holding onto it. It was super miserable. But we got to meet with our new investigator. We met her riding home from the member's house. She told us during the lesson that it was a miracle we had sat by her because she had prayed for a sign and that kind of thing. She asked for a Book of Mormon and was pretty psyched about tithing. She's basically golden. Except she lives inside a different mission boundary so that's kind of sad. Dang it Seoul South. We still love her though. We looked like drowned rats and she didn't judge us.

And yes, people are giving us TONS of free food. I need to start keeping a list. We've gotten cherries and mangoes and donuts and coffee and rice and a peach energy drink, and a lot more. People tend to give us these things because they want us to eat them, which will make our mouths stop moving for a little bit. Also, people in Donghae are just super nice. All these Korean moms keep trying to set me up with their sons. The high school students keep complimenting my nose. This one girl in the branch covered my nametag with stickers.

So we were in this kind of sketchy part of town. There was no one there and the sky was super gray and kind of creepy. We rounded the corner and saw this tall thin girl just standing there. You know the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when they see Bathilda Bagshot? It was a lot like that. She had this huge crazy perm. She raised one arm and beckoned us really slowly. It was so creepy. We went over and she took us to her house. It was disgusting. I don't know what smell it was but it was not a smell I want to smell again. There was trash all over and the roof was caving in, and the wallpaper looked like it had been scratched off with fingernails. My companion went "Oh no, I know who this is...we're in trouble...." which was not a huge comfort.

She talked to us sometimes, but mostly to herself, and she didn't remember her own name. We did our best to teach her the gospel but no go. She took us to her mom's house too and the mom said "God sent her a friend! She's your older sister now" and that kind of stuff. We finally left after doing our utmost.

It turns out she's a former investigator. The elders called her Africa because she used to wear white stripes of makeup on her face. She's a FORMER investigator because she stripped everytime she saw the elders. She was really nice and I feel bad but it seems likely we won't visit again...

Even so, I love Donghae!

All my love,

Sister Bell

Our investigator from Jungnang! She has a baptismal date :) Isn't she cute??

View of Donghae from the window

I got to eat quail eggs. They were SO GOOD!!!!!!!!

More kimchi :) My favorite Jungnang ward member gave us a meal my last night. It was HUGE! SO good!

김치!! 너무 마시서요!!!!!!

Sister Olson is just too cool

Transfers

My old companion and my new companion, both of whom I called Sister Olson

Hey kids we're getting the band back together (MTC sisters)

Cue the Les Miserables music -- the river by the rose garden

We write member names and investigator names on our sliding glass doors!

We found this mysterious forest path

Bing soo! Basically a mountain of ice and chocolate :)

Transfer to the Eastern Front...

Me and Sister Olsen

Aaaaaaaaaand off we go again. Transfer calls rolled right around again. I'm headed to 동해! It was really unexpected. I thought that after my first trainer left I'd get a little more stability! But that's exactly the opposite of how missions work. I'm going to a place that's about as far east as our mission gets. It's right on the beach, and it's four hours away from the mission home.

When the AP said I was transferring, I actually started crying. I really love 중랑 and I love Sister Olson. Right before transfer calls we talked about how we still have so much to do together and how neither of us would be leaving. That night was kind of hard. I don't want to leave! But I know in 동해 there are some amazing opportunities just waiting. 

My transfer goal is to read the whole Book of Mormon in one transfer. Today I read 1 Nephi 3. Nephi and his family have headed out into the wilderness, leaving behind home, possession, and friends. It must have been a hard choice. Then Nephi and his brothers are told they have to go back. Nephi seems to struggle a little bit with this commandment. It was hard enough to leave home in the first place, and to even leave the unfamiliar wilderness they've struggled through must have been heartbreaking, thinking of all the steps it took to get there. Nephi's father tells him this:

Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured (verse 3).

Basically I read this and decided to stop being so sad about transfers.

As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us (verse 15).

I have things to do in 동해!

Anyways, transfer drama aside… 

Our stats from our 100 hour week were crazy! We had a conference and President told us all about it. As a companionship our stats were 5 times higher than usual, which is crazy. Usually missionwide the stats are about 13000 people contacted a week. During the 100 hour week, it was almost 30000! Super cool.

I also finished LPP, which is the Language Study Program type thing our mission has. I get ice cream from our zone leader because I beat Elder Megargle doing it, and I also got a bracelet I'm never gonna wear (but it sure does feel nice having it). 

This week we again saw a ton of miracles. One of my favorites was the hardest day of the week. It was blazing hot. We had had 3 appointments and they had all cancelled! We went to visit a member who was always home...and she wasn't home. Nothing seemed to be going our way. But we had a lot of fun just walking around.

At the end of the night we were walking down this street. Sister Olson said 'I think we should turn this way', so we did....and nothing happened. That's okay, that happens a lot in missionary work. It was time to go home so we turned around and walked right back down the same street. Then all of a sudden we heard someone shouting our names. We turned around and there was this woman running after us. We had met her before, but she had been in a huge hurry to get to work so we had just given her our cards. But she had looked us up and everything! She invited us into her restaurant and gave us literally the most delicious mango smoothies I have ever tried. It was super cool.

We have a couple new investigators and everyone is progressing pretty well. I'm really going to miss them, especially 재지은. She was the coolest. Hopefully we can stay in touch.

Looking forward to my last PDay in Chungnang! 

Thanks for the love and prayers everyone :)

xoxo,

Sister Bell

PS Here are a few tips:
1. Space bags. Space bags space bags space bags. They will save your life.

2. Come with a gift for your trainer :)

3. Know the section in PMG about inspired questions pretty well. It's really helpful.

4. Bring facemask stuff! It's so great to have at the end of the day. 

5. HAVE GOOD FAMILY PICTURES.

This is actually a Buddhist symbol but I thought it was a Nazi sign for a while

My FAVORITE Korean food! Bap burgers (two clumps of rice with spicy chicken and cheese in between) and Yogerpresso! It's this strawberry cheesecake thing with real cheesecake.

Market time :)

View from the bishop's home

Of mountains and molehills...

It feels like YEARS since I've emailed. This last week we did a hundred hour week! Sister Olson and I got up every morning at 5 and left at 5:30. We didn't have study time, exercise time, or mealtimes -- if we were hungry we ate on the road! I have never been so sore in my life. But at the same time it was the greatest thing ever. I exceeded all my personal goals! There was one day I felt scared to ask for numbers, so the next day I resolved to ask for 3. I ended up getting over twenty! It was insane!

One of my favorite days this week was Sunday night. The day before had been pretty hard. I got rejected like ten times in a row when I tried to talk to people, and a couple people told me they hated the gospel. We're trying to film this music video thing, because the Church is starting this big new website in Korea. This elder came all the way from another zone to film....but we couldn't figure out where to do it. We ended up going to this random apartment rooftop, and it was awesome, but before we could do anything the clouds came out. (Also, there was a naked man bathing on the next roof over. We named him Bathsheba.)

12-week Mission Conference with Sister Christensen

But the next day, Sunday, literally everything I was worried about got fixed. I had some awesome conversations with people, and the video ended up working out too. I don't know exactly what's happening with it but there were tons of really amazing things that happened. We found this gorgeous park with a waterfall and a huge pool and an observatory thing that overlooks tons of trees. It was magical. (Except the waterfall was turned off. I know. Welcome to Korea.) We started singing and playing guitar and pretty soon all these cute little Korean kids gathered around us, totally unprompted. We sang some Korean kids songs with them. They stared at us with their mouths open. It was like a movie. It hopefully will be a movie! Fingers crossed! If anything else happens I'll let you all know.

with Elder Anderson

There were so many cool things that happened this week. I'm having trouble thinking of just a few to write. One of my favorite things this week was probably when we met this sweet old lady on the street. She was carrying this huge bag of rice all by herself. My superstar companion ran over and grabbed it from her and we ended up going home with her. She lives alone at the top of these REAALLY steep steps! Her house is basically just a hole in the wall. She was adorable and gave us some of the most disgusting Korean drinks ever. 

My saving grace this week was Sister Olson! It would have been ten times harder without her. But she wrote me some really nice notes and we commiserated about our sore feet. We actually did 108 and a half hours this week. It felt amazing to just give my all to everything. It also felt like I might die. But Sister Olson is a machine! We just kept going even when we thought we couldn't. 

I've noticed one particular quality that all missionaries seem to share. They NEVER complain about the big stuff. Some missionaries will murmur all day about a tiny blister on their foot, or that their muffin was a little stale that morning, or that the taxi they took smelled like smoke, or that that darn dog peed in front of their apartment again. But you will NEVER hear them complain about how hard missionary work is. About the heartache over an investigator that doesn't want to meet anymore. About how really, they don't understand what anyone is saying to them. About how a family member passed away and they decided to stay in Korea because if they went home they might not come back. I never hear about that stuff. So if you hear a missionary talking about how they didn't realize one sock was navy blue when they put it on, it means "I'm having a hard time, but I love what I'm doing and so I'm going to complain about the molehills instead of the mountains."

This letter is crazy short for how much happened, but I think I'll end there. Most of what happened can't be really put into words anyways. No matter how hard it gets, I would never choose anything besides a mission. 

Thanks for the prayers and support!

Love,

Sister Bell

Ward Mission Leader and his "perfect grandson"

Sister Olson at Shabu Shabu

Sister Olson making a street board

Elder Boyack with street board

All that is not eternal is too short...

Hey all!

Yay! P-Day! The closest next to exchanges we get to vacation. Today we went to Costco and bought hot dogs. The weather is GORGEOUS! Summer is coming and I’m really enjoying this in-between hot and cold. It feels really nice.

I passed off a lesson today! I’m really happy about it. It’s really hard and stressful. We have about 100 vocal words per lesson and we have to teach the whole thing by ourselves. Today was my 2nd time doing lesson 2 with my trainer. I do it 3x total with her and 1x with the district leader. Today she said I did really good! Which I really needed to hear. I’ve been working like crazy on it.

Speaking of my companion, she’s been really sick the last couple of days. I took Max Putnam’s advice and have been serving her as much as possible, doing housework and pretty much anything I can think of. She mentioned today that when I get stressed I react with more stress. I know she’s right and that I need to be better about it—although I’ve been LOADS better recently since I’m 100% all the time stressed but still always happy!

Okay, time for a little self boasting time. It just made me feel so good and changed my day! Yesterday I did MCM (missionary coordination meeting) and said the prayer and both my zone leaders said how good it was and how, by the end of my mission, I’d be fluent because I spoke so much as a green. With LPP I’ve been struggling a lot with feeling inadequate with Korean and yesterday morning was especially hard. I was so nervous about MCM. Hearing that was so helpful.

President Ringwood said a lot of really good stuff during the mission tour. One thing he said that I loved was “Don’t just focus on the end goal—focus on how to get there.”

With Korean especially, progress is so slow and incremental. Tiny bit by tiny, tiny bit. Same with testimony. Every day the hard things make it easier to bear tomorrow and easier to appreciate the todays.

A funny thing happened on exchanges—we were riding the train to switch back. A woman approached us, which was weird because people NEVER approach us. We started talking, then she interrupted and started teaching us about her church. She was a missionary too. She REALLY didn’t like our Book of Mormon. Just a funny encounter.

12-week Mission Conference with Sister Christensen

I didn’t have time to say this before, but something pretty cool happened. The elders referred us to this woman. She’s a tall, scary police officer. We met her at the station. It turns out we’re going to teach the whole police station 30 minutes of English, 30 minutes of gospel. Really cool.

Thanks for your prayers, emails, and support! It’s so important to me and really sustains me. I can’t imagine doing it without you. Let me know the little details in your lives! I love hearing about choir & youth conference & Naval Academy. It makes me so happy. The big & small, I love to hear it all.

I’ll close with a quote: “All that is not eternal is too short, and all that is not infinite is too small.” (Stanford University Memorial) It helps me remember my priorities. I love the church!

Love,

12-week Mission Conference with Elder & Sister Kelly

Lauren