More Glorious and Bright: "You're transferring"...drops phone.....

Beautiful autumn view from our apartment

That's how our stern and serious Korean AP decided to open up our transfer calls. "Sister Bell... you are transferring." Bear in mind I have gotten a new companion EVERY SINGLE TRANSFER. And that I love Sanggye almost more than my home ward. And that really, I had forgotten about transfer calls because the likelihood of me transferring seemed very, very low given the tiny number of sisters remaining in our mission. So I dropped the phone and kind of just put my head in my hands.

"....to the elders' house." And that was how I found out our stern and serious Korean AP has a sense of humor.

My companion and I are (together) leaving our huge gorgeous mansion house with a waterfall view for a two man elder house but it's still Sanggye so I'm happy! Sanggye is like a dream some days. I can't believe I'm lucky enough to serve here.

Merry Christmas with Sister Rowberry

This week was our first big Christmas concert! We're touring 6 wards in Korea (sounds fancy huh). Honestly when I first heard about the program I thought it might just be ward choir on steroids. But it's actually super well put together. We have some genius violinists that do this arrangement of Carol of the Bells. And a cellist that does O Come O Come Emmanuel. And three concert pianists. But my favorite one is this violin/piano duet. It's this gangly, goofy elder who looks like he's never touched a violin in his life. But he picks it up and it just turns into magic. It's gorgeous. So many people were crying.

These are the elders I do "O Holy Night With"-they're so funny!

I've fallen in love with Christmas all over again this year. It's so wonderful. Even in Korea where it's not really a big deal you can still feel a special Christmas spirit. People are just kinder. And there's a sense of anticipation -- not for presents, 'cause I know I'm not getting anything too special this year -- just a sense of something amazing coming.

So I don't know how many times I've mentioned our gorgeous investigator. She's so miraculous that I'm afraid that if I talk about her too much I'll jinx it. She's a member referral who was so inspired by how she saw members live that she wanted to know more. She's come to church every week. And she now has a baptismal date for January the first! What a way to start off the year! She chose it herself. One of my favorite moments from that lesson was when we were explaining the sacrament and how it relates to baptism and she said 'oh that's what it means! I didn't know, but every time I've taken it I've just had the most special feeling.' She also wants to feel the Holy Ghost all the time because she can tell something is different about our members. She's a great example to me!

We also had this referral we met for the first time who brought a friend and honestly I think they might be undercover missionaries from another church beacuse their questions are so intense. Like, 'so is Lehi talked about in the Bible at all?' and 'how has your religion helped you overcome hard times?' and stuff like that. It's really awesome.

We also met with two adorable little girls! They are the daughters of a less active. Sometimes they never even see their mom for literally days because she is so busy, and their dad lives somewhere else. They are so alone. We had them do an activity where they write down miracles in their lives and they wrote 'the missionaries coming over is a miracle' and 'I saw my sister on the street and I had prayed to see her because I was alone.' God is so merciful because I know He's watching over them even if Sister Rowberry and I can't be there all the time. Consider the lilies of the field.

If you haven't seen the new Christmas video go watch it! It's on christmas.lds.org. It's really inspiring.

Love you all! Have a fantastic week.

xoxo

벨자매

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