1 Lauren 1:1

Bowling with Sisters Amituanai, Ness, Phillips

1. And behold, the time had come for the Sangay sisters to make ready their houses.

2. For behold, Chuseok had come to pass. And now Chuseok is a tradition, peculiar to the Koreanites, in the which the people feast upon food constructed of various forms of rice.

3. And behold, the sisters were both foreignites, one in the service of their God but separate in culture (the one being from the promised land, the other being from the outer darkness of Australia) and thus had not been versed in the ways of the Koreanites.

4. Notwithstanding, they still ate a ridiculous amount.

5. And it came to pass that their hour of reckoning had come. The time of the yearly cleaning was again upon them.

6. Yet all was well, for they had hearkened unto the words of the Lord's anointed and stored up cleaning supplies for days.

7. And it came to pass that in the ninth hour of the sixth day they began their labors.

8. And it came to pass that in the thirteenth hour of the sixth day they still had not moved from the square foot of space near the sink. And thus it was for a day and a night and a day, and they saw no sun during the space of that time. And the space beginneth to stink unto them; a stink like chemicals that no one should ever come in contact with began to make itself known into them. 

9. And it came to pass that the sisters gave up and ate Koreanite snacks. 

10. And it came to pass that many miracles occurred. The Americanite was given power from on high to conquer her fear of fashionable Koreanite students and cry repentance unto them. The Australianite was given power to teach a grandma the Word of Wisdom. 

11. (Behold this was hypocrisy in the Australianite, for in the very moment that she cried repentance unto this grandmother the Americanite sinned in her heart and thought about that amazing chocolate monstrosity they had devoured that morning, disregarding completely any law of health they had received from heaven.)

12. And it came to pass that they taught a really prepared investigator.

13. And behold, this investigator inquired unto the Lord concerning His will and ways.

14. And behold, the sisters experienced much rejoicing because of the righteousness of this Koreanite woman. She was so righteous. So very, very righteous and God loves her so much.

15. And behold, President Sonksen made a grave error.

16. President Sonksen, though walking in the ways of the Lord, allowed those under his stewardship to go bowling in honor of Chuseok.

17. And behold, Korean missionaries couldn't bowl if the pins were painted neon orange and running straight at them, and the bowling ball was programmed to hit them. 

18. But despite their shortcomings, the Korean missionaries found great joy in finding each other strong in Christ (if not strong in bowling). 

 

Anyways, it was a great week. I learned a lot about finding joy in the journey! If you have joy in your mission, you want to work. You want to work harder. And the harder you work, with the more joy you have, the less hard it feels until it doesn't feel like work. Missionary work is funny that way.

Love you all!

xoxo

Sister Bell

Success is . . .

To quote a classic movie, "If at first you don't succeed, pack your bags" . 

 

I don't have any special reason for opening with this. It's not like I made some huge mistake. (I did make several small/medium ones that are not going in this letter because they're vaguely embarrassing.) I've just been thinking about success a lot recently. How dependent it is on you. How dependent it is on others. My old STL (Sister Training Leader) said success was something you had to define personally. For some people, success is defined by the numbers. For others, it's fluency in the language. For me and where I am in my mission right now, it's defined by agency. 

See, when you define success by agency, you're able to cut out the numbers. Baptisms and copies of the Book of Mormon accepted are defined mainly by others' agency. It's my agency to talk to them. That's success, when I share the message I came to share. When you define success by agency, language fluency or lack thereof becomes more about how hard you're trying. The Lord rewards trying! (Not as much as you want sometimes, but He does.) When I study and listen and speak Korean, I'm using my agency. That's success. 

I'm not saying that I exist totally independently of worries about language or people accepting this gospel -- I'm just saying that that is the standard of success I want to strive for. Simply put, our purpose is to 'talk with everyone,' and some days that's simple, and some days that's complicated. But no matter what, the happiest I feel is when I'm confidently sharing about the restored gospel of Christ.

 

I also wanted to share this quote because there has been a lot of packing these past few days. I joined a threesome in the beautiful city of Sangay. We had heard rumours (ever the enemy of good missionary work) that there was another sister coming late, so we called the AP several times and he was like "I can't tell you she's not coming" and such nonsense, but then he finally said 'okay she's staying' and so I let myself get attached....and now she's headed RIGHT BACK TO SOKCHO. PRESIDENT TAKES THE THINGS I LOVE AND SENDS THEM TO THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. (We love him dearly and respect his authority.)

 

But they're awesome! Sister Ami is the one staying with me in Sangay and she's just fantastic. I really want to just listen in on her thought processes because she has so many great ideas. I have sooooooo much to learn from her and sometimes I just sit and listen to her wisdom. Another very wise missionary once told me, "I figured it out, Sister Bell. Literally no one knows what to do, and we all make it up as we go along and hope it turns out." But Sister Ami seems to know pretty well -- and it's because she relies on the Spirit. That's what I most want to learn from her.

 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week...and thanks for the emails!

xoxo

Sister Bell

 

ps bye Donghae.... :'(

Sister Choi Eun Sook! She is so nice!!!!!

That's right, I ate bugs...and they were delicious!

Soooooooooo precious. This is Yoonji, she likes stickers

Sister Ee

Sister Ee

Leaving Donghae

Sisters Coates, Murdock, Bell, Gu Seonga, Wijethunge, Roeberry

Missing the ocean already!

Cults, Spies, the Apocalypse...and bugs...

This isn't a letter perse, just a list of weird things that happened....

• during exercise I was trying to say I felt like a whale, but I mixed up the words for whale and ancient and the girl I was with thought I was saying I needed to go to the hospital because my joints were worn out. Classic Sister Bell, causing a panic because she hates exercise.
• the North Korean couple we met....we visited them and the man thought Sister Ee's nametag was a camera. Then he asked if we were a cult. We didn't drink the tea they gave us and he asked if we were a cult. The man called our card and asked my companion to come over alone when his wife and child weren't around. She was like 'no' and then he called us a cult. A lot of people have been telling us we're a cult recently. In Korea the qualification for a cult is anyone who isn't Buddhist, Presbyterian, or Methodist. And anyone who doesn't drink tea or go over to strange mens' houses, apparently. 
• Met a Bible Basher. He was a very confused person. I had no idea what was going on -- he kept talking about calculating the date for Christ's second coming. Interesting thing -- he never once talked about Christ or God or how good they are. Just that we needed to start preparing for the Apocalypse. Then he called us a cult. 
• We traveled to this area meeting with our branch. It took an hour and a half to get there. We listened to someone talk for forty minutes. Then we ate for four hours. Then drove home. It was amazing! And the speakers were really, really good. The house was gorgeous too. It was like wonderland. 
• I ate bugs. Finally. I can finally call myself a real Korean missionary. They were actually super delicious....sorry, mom. I got weird in Korea. 
• I'm also transferring. Super big shock and really sad! I've only spent 2 transfers in Donghae and I loved the quiet ocean. And of course, I loved the people. The branch here is amazing -- I almost cried in church. I will really miss them. And I will miss my companion! She was my fourth in four transfers but she was so unique and an incredible missionary. My next companionship is a threesome apparently. So that's seven companions in 5 transfers, counting the MTC (and of course I do because my MTC companion is manna to my soul). Speaking of....she's in my zone next transfer!!!!!!! So we get to do exchanges. Hehe. I'm headed for Sangyay. 

Here's to new opportunities!

xoxo

Bell 자매

With the wonderful members of the Donghae branch

One last day at the beach...

beach with Sister Ee

Lovely Donghae

Chocolate bread!

Sometimes things have to go wrong to go right...

Greetings from beautiful Donghae!

So much has happened it would be crazy to try to cram it all into one email. Also, about 50% of the time I'm not sure what's happening which has made for some interesting adventures. To hit the highlights:

- we picked up an investigator who won't stop talking about New Jerusalem and Noah's ark and regularly references the Book of Revelation (an automatic red flag). On the other hand I've learned some interesting vocabulary, both from the lesson and from my companion as she walks out of the lesson. (Nothing bad just really funny)

- we met a couple from North Korea who thought our nametags were cameras and the guy kind of freaked for a minute. They escaped over 8 years ago. Also, they took a picture with me. At the time I had no idea why because I couldn't understand them very well, but apparently me visiting their house was a huge 'glory', which was flattering. 

- we went to Seoul for a mission conference and literally it's so huge and terrifying and we almost hopped right back on the bus to Donghae! But the food was good....we went to this one buffet and waited in line for 45 minutes because it was so popular.

- At the mission conference, I sang a medley of Come Thou Fount and Savior Redeemeer of my Soul--they go together pretty well :) 

-We also got to go to the temple! I've missed it soooooo much. It was kind of stressful because my companion forgot her recommend and since we live 5 hours away, going back wasn't really an option...we tried calling our President and he didn't pick up! They kind of herded me away from Sister Ee. It felt like that moment in Titanic where Jack is slowly drifting away in the ice cold Atlantic (they had the air conditioning on). But the temple workers pulled me out of the English session a moment later and I got to do the Korean session with her! I had this little translator, which was really a cool experience. Also....huge miracle....a ton of members from my last area were in the same session! I got to see a less active I worked with in the Celestial Room. It was really so special to me. If things hadn't gone wrong, they wouldn't have gone right. 

This is actually the lamest email I've ever written but I wanted to get something out there :) Love you all and feel your prayers lifting me up! And helping me swallow that last bit of mystery soup. Next transfer is this Saturday actually! Whoa, so fast.

Missionary story of the week: my Choongrang zone leader lived in Taebaek (think the moon but less people) for 9 months and I recently heard a story about when he kind of lost it and started deep frying Nutella. If that's not a quintessential missionary story I don't know what is.

You're all amazing!

xoxo

Sister Bell

Adding rocks one at a time...

Delicious mystery dish

You might think it's a perspective thing, but the bowl really was that big and that full!

Bingsu nirvana

Thanks for the birthday brownie mix!

The brownies didn't quite cook like in America...

We went to this korean buffet and it took us 45 minutes to get in. Popular place. Fun though!

Finally back at the Seoul Temple!

A beautiful day with beautiful memories.

We visited the North Korean couple and they were scary so Sister Ee hid :)

Sister Ee next to a little river that we discovered...

...while walking in a downpour.