In Which Kim Jong Un Needs Religion...

This week I remembered that South Korea is actually kind of close to North Korea. It's something you kind of forget. Unless North Korea decides to throw a tantrum. Then we hear about it.

This week for instance. We were at a member's house eating an AMAZING meal when our Zone Leader called. We ignored it as the member was telling us this story (and also our mouths were full of delicious food) but he called again so I took it out in the hallway. 

"Where are you?"

"We're at a member's house eating, why?"

"Can you please head home? Nothing is wrong, just everyone needs to go home right now and stay there."

Yes, that's believable.

Add that to the fact that I could hear our mission president's voice in the background saying things like "If we have to evacuate we'll be ready" and "of course they warned us first" and I slowly started to panic. I headed back to the table and my sweet Korean companion was like "What???" She said I was scaring her because my eyes were so huge. I was like "I DON'T KNOW BUT WE HAVE TO GO!" So after making a fumbled apology to the poor sweet member we skedaddled right out of there.

It turns out that the myth about every missionary house having an emergency backpack is TRUE. It was the first time I've seen it. We were told to make sure it had everything we would need for 72 hours. Meanwhile I was like "SISTER EE IT'S NORTH KOREA" and, bearing in mind that I was trying to explain what had happened in Korean, she started laughing and I was like "SISTER EE THIS IS LIFE AND DEATH! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING"

In English, she responded "Bell Chamenim. Calm down." Apparently North Korea does a lot of this kind of stuff. Anyways, at least our 72 hour kit is finally updated. 

My hastily-assembled 72-hour kit

As long as we're talking about funny/seriously sad stuff. There was this guy that came to English class the other day. We all went around and introduced ourselves and when it was his turn he stood up and said in flawless English: "My name is Kim Seong Seok and I am very, very drunk." And then sat down. I could feel the elders just dying a little inside.

Having a Korean companion is interesting because sometimes I'm not sure what's happening. For example, we visited our branch president's mom, who's not a member, and talked about the youth of today and then somehow we ended up in this room just filled to the brim with CORN. You could not see the floor because there was so much corn in this room. She sat us down and we started shucking it. I still have blisters. I'm not sure what happened but it got us through the door!

I finally acheived my mission-long goal of throwing up at a member meal. It happens to every foreign missionary in Korea. It's a mark of bravery and longsuffering. I think it was the octopus that pushed me over the edge. I looked at Sister Ee and was like 'bathroom', her eyes went wide and we hustled right over there. And then after that I went right back and ate more octopus because it would have been rude not to. 

A little piece of very exciting news: a sweet investigator that Sister Olsen and I taught in Choongrang-gu was baptized on Saturday! 

Anyway, quite a week and I am planning to title my memoirs "I Don't Speak Korean and So Can You" because I have no idea what my companion is saying but we still manage to communicate. The gift of tongues is real!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and letters and prayers! Love you all!

xoxo

Sister Bell

A chocolate chip cookie oreo waffle. it's real, folks!

Deep in the ocean of Korean...

This has certainly been an eventful week.

My mind is drowning in a deluge of Korean as I now find myself totally and completely immersed in the swirling currents of all-Korean, all-the-time. The most recent gift and challenge to my language skills comes in the form of my new amazing, beautiful, four foot eleven Korean companion. 

Her name is Sister Ee So Yeun and we actually met before! We did an exchange when I served in Choongrang. We were both greenies then so Sister Olson just kind of herded us like ducklings. I'm in my fourth transfer now and she's in her third, so I'm senior. (I don't really know who made that decision but it seems ill-advised.) Sister Ee doesn't speak English. She knows some random words (she actually let loose with a swearword she learned from a movie that she didn't know was a swearword. She's the purest person I've ever met literally so it was really an experience hearing that) but we've spoken Korean only the last week. She was a little concerned about not being able to understand district meetings and such. She's the only Korean missionary in Donghae, and her last district leader was Korean, as was her trainer, so this is completely new for her. I promised her that even when we were around the other foreign missionaries I would just speak Korean. So my head is kind of exploding right now. 

We've had surprisingly few misunderstandings considering. There was one time I was trying to explain 'shoulder' and somehow she got 'tattoo' but really all things considered it's gone amazingly well. She's REALLY capable.

An aside about Korean missionary culture. Korean missionaries have it rough. When we proselyte, the people only talk to them -- not the foreign companion. The ward pressures them a lot. American missionaries are interesting and therefore get a tiny bit of respect on the street. Korean missionaries get rejected fairly harshly, fairly often. Also, the ward has given us more referrals in one day than they did in 2 transfers. The perks.

Anyway, I was really nervous about being senior since I can't really do anything. Literally anything. So when the first person we talked to together didn't understand me I died a little inside. But then it turned out she was completely deaf and couldn't understand a single word Sister Ee said either. So that was hilarious. Sister Ee cupped her hands around this poor woman's ear and put her mouth right up to it and just YELLED. "HELLO. HOW. ARE. YOU. TODAY." And the lady still didn't understand. 

One of my favorite parts this week -- we stayed at the temple for transfers. They have dorms. All the Kangwondo (country) sisters got to stay there overnight. It was really special because I have really missed the temple; Donghae is too far away to ever go. So I went out into the hall and just read my scriptures and prayed. I was really nervous for transfers but it all kind of melted away right then. I'll never forget that night.

Anyways, I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love :)

Farewell to Sister Murdock (작별 내 친구)...

Hi all,

Missionary Quote of the Week: (while hiking through the forest) "Hey, look. A field. It's white. It's ready to harvest. AND IT'S ALL THE WAY OVER THERE SEPARATED BY A DITCH. Isn't that a lovely metaphor."

Well another week has come and gone, and so has another companion. That's right. Sister Murdock and I were nervously awaiting transfer calls. We loved serving together and we thought we might have one more transfer as a companionship. Every time the phone went off we jumped. Then finally our AP (assistant to the president) called. He's so nice and always makes small talk. (We know you don't care how our day went, Elder Miller, and we just want you to do it like you're ripping off a Bandaid. But thanks.)

South Korea has been incredibly hot this week!
I'm going to miss Sister Murdock

Sister Murdock is going to TAEBAEK. We screamed a lot. Let me put it this way. If Donghae is like the Sahara in terms of no one living here, Taebaek is like the moon. The Sahara at least has obscure tribes of people with strange customs. Donghae has small tribes of people living in hills. TAEBAEK HAS NOTHING. I don't know who my new companion is -- we have a new rule about that, probably because people will dig up anything they can on their next companion -- but I get to stay in Donghae. It really is the Garden of Eden.

I know Sister Murdock will do great anywhere she is planted. We saw a bunch of super cool miracles and talked with so many people! She is so kind and great at Korean and it was awesome coming out of greenie time with her as my companion.

Speaking of greenie time I got to talk to my trainer, Sister Gil!!!!! I was at a funeral and she's at school in Hawaii so it was a little different than we were used to haha. But it was so wonderful to hear her voice <3 Honestly, missionaries are one of my favorite parts of being a missionary. So many people to look up to and be inspired by.

Sister Murdock serving hot dogs at English camp

This week we did an English camp. It was really fun! I fell in love with all the kids that came. We made hot dogs and burned them slightly so we told them it was American style.

We did also go to a funeral, which was a really intense experience. There were a lot of rituals involved. None of us were quite sure what to do but it turned out okay.

Anyway, kind of a lame email so I'm sorry but I'm going to leave you all with this spiritual thought:

“Go ye out of Babylon; gather ye out from among  the nations, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (D&C 133:7).

There's an awesome talk by D Todd Christofferson entitled Come to Zion. In it he describes the difference between Zion and Babylon. Paraphrased, Babylon is all the worldly things we get distracted by. Zion is the things that really matter. In Korea -- and this is something I could talk about for hours -- technology is everything. I think I'll send an email about it next week. I never realized how insidious it could be. But it's something that's been on my mind. Go ye out of Babylon.

Anyways, love you all! Thanks so much <3

xoxo,

Sister Bell

Bing Su--my favorite dessert
Mango, cheese and ice cream on top of shave ice