Preach the gospel to every creature...

Today is my 2 month anniversary!!!!!!! I have officially survived 2 months in this beautiful country. The acid rain and acid kimchi haven’t killed me yet. We'll see about the extreme heat wave we've been having. All the members are saying it will be a really hot summer. Hopefully we'll have lots of investigators who like have lessons inside. 

Honestly if you had told me two months ago that I would be able to have a coherent conversation in another language...I totally would have believed you. Coming out of the Missionary Training Center makes you feel really confident. But if you had told me that one month ago, I definitely would not have believed you. Korean is really putting up a fight. My MTC teacher said learning Korean feels like you're growing a second brain. It feels like I'm growing a second head! But I'm able to follow most conversations even if I don't understand everything, and my teaching has improved a lot. 

Rose Festival

Monday was PDay, so after email we decided to try to find this rose festival thing. There were posters EVERYWHERE about it! It looked amazing. We looked for it for like 45 minutes. We figured it would be easy enough to find, but we couldn't find it. It turns out it's the same trail we walk and run every morning for exercise. It's pretty but definitely not a festival! It was really funny though, there were all these old ladies everywhere posing and taking pictures. We got ice cream and 밥버거's (rice burgers) which is like my favorite Korean food in the universe. They put meat inside these two pressed-down things of sticky rice and I think that's the food they have in heaven. We also watched The Testaments twice. Sister Olson cried. 

We went on exchanges with the 동대문 STL’s (Sister Training Leaders). They are so great! They're training this cute little Korean girl who got here 3 weeks ago. I thought we were going to roleplay with me teaching...but we ended up with her teaching and me being the investigator! It was super weird being on the other side of things. I always thought our gospel sounds pretty fantastic, maybe a little hard to believe, but when you explain it and let the joy just shine out of your eyes it's not hard to believe at all. She did awesome. Then we went to streetboarding, which is where we stand somewhere busy and ask passersby questions. I met a girl from Pakistan, studying media, fluent in Russian, Korean, and English. I gave her a Book of Mormon. She was really excited about it. Later that day we walked for about 6 hours to find a less active member's house. We didn't find it but we found out that, in fact, water makes you feel really good when you drink it. It was SO hot! We were dying, so we got ice cream and bought more water. I can't stress how great water is.

Wednesday we exchanged back. I had loved exchanges but I was so happy to see Sister Olson again, particularly because she had made really delicious banana bread. She's an awesome cook! This week we made cookies but substituted Cadbury eggs for chocolate chips. She makes everything turn out really good. Meanwhile, everything I make turns into a crepe. I made an omelette and it just turned into a crepe. I literally did nothing but pour pancake batter into a pan and it turned into a crepe. I'm so frustrated. My solution is to mess up the food and then let Sister Olson fix it.

MTC District reunited

Friday was like the best day of my life. We as missionaries don't take many field trips but Friday we got to go to a different mission! We went to Seoul South mission. Not only did I get to see my friends from this mission but I got to see my friends that went to that mission too! (I love them but obviously the highlight was seeing Sister Phillips, my MTC companion.) Elder Mains from the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Ringwood both talked. It was so amazing! Elder Mains emphasized the power of young converts. He told some really cool stories. We got seats on the front row! (We also got up at 5:30 ish but it was totally worth it.) He borrowed my planner for part of it and flipped through it to make some point, paused and went "This is in Korean." It was pretty funny. 

The amazing Sister Phillips!

Honestly, even though the talk was so spiritual and amazing, seeing my MTC companion was just as good. (Next week is fast Sunday and I need God's strength to get through it, so I won't say it was better. Ask me again after fast Sunday.) Sister Phillips and I have been through a lot together, including missing the most recent Avengers movie. I had prayed to be able to sit next to her during the meeting. I sat on the end of one row and she sat on the other end adjacent. It was the best thing ever. I can't even tell you exactly what we talked about. I just know that I still have a smile on my face! She's the best person ever. Someday we'll serve in the same area and get to see each other all the time. I just know it. She also wrote me the best letter ever.

Saturday was cool. We did English class and afterwards practiced for this music thing we have coming up. I'll say more about it later but I'm super excited about it!

Sunday was good too. Our ward always makes really good food for after sacrament meeting! Ahhh Korean food. Then later we met with a new investigator. She's half Korean, half Chinese....and she accepted the soft baptismal commitment! It was the GREATEST feeling in the world, almost nothing compares to it. We're going to meet with her regularly on Sundays. We thought at first that she had blocked our phone number, which made us so sad! But then she answered and came and everything is beautiful.

That reminds me -- we set a really intense commitment this week. We want to have 7 new investigators this week. That means someone we meet with, who's interested in our message, who we start meeting regularly. In South America that number might seem low...but in Korea that's kind of unheard of. But this week we saw so many blessings. I prayed to be able to give away a Book of Mormon, and I gave away 2. I prayed to give away all my pass along cards and I had to borrow some from Sister Olson because I had none left. Similar things like that happened the whole week. It reminded me of when Christ visits his apostles and tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and the net is so full they can't even pull it up. I am definitely fishing on the other side of the boat here, and my net is ready and waiting! We are going to see some amazing miracles this week. After one day we already have one new investigator. Even if we don't get anywhere near to our goal, this is going to strengthen our faith so much. God works mighty miracles!

Brownies to celebrate Sister Olson's 1-year anniversary

It's going to be a really intense week but I'm so excited. It's not fun to go through hard things, but you come out looking a whole lot better than you did going in. I'm still obviously learning Korean and it's pretty rough sometimes, but every time I learn that new word or form or anything I feel so good! God gives us what we can do. He doesn't give it to us because it's easy. We're here on this earth to learn and experience and grow. The only way to really grow in a way that lasts is to struggle. A flower can only grow by breaking the seed and pushing through some pretty tough rocks. 

Anyway, it's been an amazing week. I would like to ask everyone who reads this to read Mormon 9:22 in the Book of Mormon. It's really an amazing scripture and an incredible promise. I know God answers prayers. If you're a lifelong Church member, or if you don't know anything about our religion, you can always act on what this verse says. I know it's true. It's easy to find, just go on mormon.org and type it in :)

Love you all! 사랑헤요!

Sister Bell