More Glorious and Bright: Tattoos, typhoons, and trifles...

Ocean view from Donghae

Hi All!

Another week has come and gone. I still don't know Korean but like that's okay. You don't really learn how to speak Korean in Korea anyways. You learn like a weird form of sign language. I'm really good at expressing that I really, really want to buy that weird food.

Dried stingrays

I'm going to start with the weird stuff today and end with the spiritual stuff. There was, again, a Kim Jong-Un sized amount of weird stuff.

So we were on our way to an appointment and these four guys start yelling and coming after us. Normally we would get freaked out but since we only have 1 progressing investigator it was like, "okay, we'll do anything"—maybe they had a referral. We were in a pretty crowded place so it wasn't dangerous anyways (love you mom). They caught up to us and then asked us to rank them in order of the most fashionable. One of them had these rad tattoo sleeves and we ranked him third, and he high fived us then pulled us in for a bro hug. Almost. We did like a limbo lean and got out of it. We ALMOST gave 4 referrals to the elders! But unfortunately they didn't come to church like they'd promised:(
I think we'll all get over it though.

Mukho view

We went to this area called Mukho to do some kakahoho (door to door) and let me tell ya, I've seen things. We got invited into like 4 houses because it was so hot! Technically right now it's the hottest time of summer, but it's also a typhoon so it's kind of raining too. The weather is a little confused. Anyway, people gave us tons of food and drinks, which was cool, then didn't listen to our message, which was sad. There was this guy with a really bad hangover hanging out his window so we gave him a Book of Mormon and talked about the Word of Wisdom. There was one house I knocked on and the gate was a little open, so I peeked inside...and there was a 90 year old woman going to the bathroom right in front of her screen door. She saw me and stood up (yep) and started yelling. I ran and Sister Murdock, who hadn't see it, was like "Sister Bell you have to finish!" Bless her.

Sister Murdock at the ocean

This one Sister, Sister Kim, came and stayed with us for a couple days. She was really funny! She wrote us super cute notes and made us food. We ate a TON during those couple days, including something called poppingsu that's made of ice and bean powder. It was SO good! She also told me that the Korean name my Korean trainer gave me actually also means Silver Gun as well as Great Blessing, so that's kind of cool. She also told Sister Murdock to stop waving her drumsticks. We're still not sure what that means but it's probably good to keep in mind.

Elders Armstrong, Brantley, Theurer, & Jones

We had a scripture battle with our elders as well. We were a little late getting in and we apologized to the district leader. He sent us this:

Alma 42:29 And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble‍ you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance.

So we sent:

Lamentations 1:20 Behold, O Lord; for I am‍ in distress: my bowels‍ are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword‍ bereaveth, at home there is‍ as death.

And they sent:

D&C 121:10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends‍ do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.

So of course we sent:

Lamentations 4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end‍ is come.

And they sent:

Mormon 9:4 Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness‍ before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned‍ souls in hell.

So we sent:

1 Timothy 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjugation (because we're sister missionaries and we were dying over this verse).

And then we won. See, everybody. Missionaries can have fun.

Okay! Spiritual time!

I read Exodus 14 the other day and it's all about the children of Israel escaping Egypt. In verse 10 it says they were sore afraid. Fear is the enemy of faith, and without faith -- a firm belief that God will be with us the whole way even if we can't see in front of us -- we can't move forward. The Israelites were confronted by a huge ocean, it's true, but they couldn't move forward because they were paralyzed by fear.

In Exodus 14:13 Moses tells them to fear not. When they let go of their fear, they were able to move forward despite impossible odds. I know the same is true for us. If we can forget the things holding us back, and remember that the Lord is on our side -- and that in fact He has gone through all the hard things for us so that He can know how to help us -- then we can go farther than we think possible.

I love missionary work. No matter how hard it is I love it! I love this gospel and I love sharing it and seeing the difference it makes in peoples' lives. Our investigator the other night accepted a baptismal date and, since she moved, is still meeting with the missionaries. Our other investigator has accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet. I know this gospel can bless the lives of everyone who accepts it.

xoxo

Sister Bell