More Glorious and Bright: 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