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 :)