Letter 3/17/2014

Elder Jo's (a missionary in our ward) brother is in my mission. And he's from Sister Jeong's ward!!

Korea is still without electronica (our family's term for electronic devises - she is referring to the ipads, iphones, and facebook access that many missions have now). Japanese missions have them as the test-run place in Asia. We have little flip-phones with dictionaries on them though!

Thanks for the recipes (I sent some gluten free recipes that use rice flour). My new comp has celiacs so they will be appreciated even more :) A woman who attends the English branch in 영등포 (Yeongduengpo) told me she uses bean flour. But she also orders food through Amazon.com every three months (through the ship and save option or whatever it's called).

Elder Lee's dad sent him a picture of you guys and I got to see it. (Elder Lee's dad & uncle came up to us separately at stake conference this weekend. His dad showed us a photo with Natasha & his son in it. They have been serving in the same ward. He also asked to take a photo of us to send to his son. There is also a family in our ward whose daughter is in Natasha's mission, and is good friends with Natasha).

Cousin Jordan asked me a while ago what American food I miss the most that I can't get here. The answer was - and remains to be - health food. Almond milk, gluten-free stuff, fad-diet foods....

So as you already know we got our transfer calls and I'm leaving! I was 100% positive I was staying. Sister Jeong has been in Ansan since August and she'll probably die here (mission slang for finishing up the mission)because she only has two more transfers after this upcoming transfer. That means she's only served in two areas and they're right next to each other. It's a very unique experience. Our mission president doesn't like to move people around a lot. So you can expect me to stay in my next area for a while. I'm sad to leave Ansan, the ward members, Sister Jeong and the other missionaries but I'm excited for a new adventure because I've only had one area and one companion (though I love her dearly). I'm going to 목동 (Mok-dong - this is an area in Seoul - she been outside of Seoul in Ansan) I'll be with Sister Kei. I've talked with Sister Kei a little bit before because she has Celiac's so she's given me some help.

I went to Sanbon this week for an exchange with Sister Wright. Sister Wright was in my MTC district. She's so cute and sweet so we had a lot of fun.

We started teaching two 中3 (3rd grade of middle school, or 9th grade) girls this week. They want to learn English. I kind of feel like I'm bamboozling people because they tell us they want to learn English and we say; "Okay. Oh, and by the way, after teaching English for 30 minutes we're going to teach about our gospel for 30 minutes. Okay?" But one of them prayed at the end of our lesson.

Sister Jeong's new companion is Korean (I'm glad because she will have someone to help her more with the Young Women). So they're going to have to drop all of our "English Investigators" which is pretty disappointing but they'll be able to to focus more on people who are sincerely interested in the gospel.

We have one English Investigator that we teach every Tuesday morning. The Sisters have been meeting with her since July and she's been progressing but SLOWLY. She's received all of the lessons but Sister Jepng doesn't want to drop her because although her progress is minute it is existent. We were talking about 1st Nephi 3&4. At the end I bore my testimony and asked her to say the closing prayer (she's NEVER prayed). And she said no. So I started again with my testimony. I think I just said the same thing, using different words. But she prayed! And it was a good prayer.

An elder in my ward and I were talking about the plastic surgery here. American women get plastic surgery too but they're more concerned with their bodies. Koreans are naturally so skinny that they don't have to worry about it and so they focus on their faces (it's very popular to get plastic surgery in Korea. Especially having the eye fold cut).

Letter 3/10/2014

We're doing exchanges tonight and I'm excited because I'm going to Sanbon with Sister Wright who was in my MTC district. I miss my MTC district. We had 12 people squished into our classroom and we could barely get in and out of our desks but we got along really well and had a lot of fun together.

 

We get transfer calls this Saturday and tranfers are the following Wednesday. I think I'll stay in Ansan because Sister Jeong has been here since August.

The Young Women have changed recently. The come to church and activities more often and they say they want to serve missions and they are nicer to us. The days of playing tag and hide-and-go-seek are nearly over.

We made cookies this Saturday for our mutual activity. So I was able to use the recipe you gave me! The first two batches were weird..... they looked like muffin tops and the texture looked really weird. I don't know what the problem was. But we were able to get the third batch to turn out. It may have been because we couldn't use real butter because it's so expensive here. Our maybe our baby oven was having problems. But it was fun. And the Young Women who helped seemed to enjoy it.

 

We have stake conference this weekend.

 

The Seoul Institute of Art is right next to us so our bishop wants us to work hard to advertise English to them as a find tool. I confess I'm a little scared of them. One of our English investigators teaches at the University and she's going  to help us advertise.

People here can't comprehend gluten-free. A lot of people just think I'm picky. They'll say things like, "I was going ot invite you over to eat this food but Sister Stout probably wouldn't like it." or "no - this is good quality so you'll be okay." or "I made this myself. You can eat it." But some people do understand and they're super nice. Sometimes people will make special food for me to eat when we have big church gatherings with food and they'll cook up some rice so that I can eat it.

Koreans don't have gluten allergies so it's just a foreign concept to some of them. 

 

Members have started speaking a little English to me. For my first three months I thought only two people in my ward could speak English but once I started being able to hold decent conversations with people they pulled their English out.

 (I asked if they wanted to make sure she could learn Korean before they started using English with her, so that they didn't hinder her)

That's what I thought at first but they talk to our greenie elder now. I don't know. It's fine because I had to learn more. Our President asked us to try harder to speak Korean at church and I had no idea what he was talking about because all I did was speak English at church but I guess the Korean members like to speak English to the missionaries.

Letter 3/3/2014

The primary had an activity this week. They made a flea market. It conflicted with our English class so we had to end early but a ton of kids came to English class! And a big group of Young Wowmen came which was super happy! Being in the Young Women's presidency is really fun. At first we frustrated because it felt like they were running away from us and it takes time away from proselyting and such, but it's been really fun and rewarding. The Young Women have been slowly coming to church and activities more. We've been putting together graduation presents for them (yes, we're a little late...), just a file (for school), a card, Young Women-related fun, candy, and a General Conference. talk. It's been really happy and effective. We accidentally made one and gave it to a Young Woman who wasn't graduating but we hope she'll look past our mistakes and feel the love we wanted to convey. There was a Stake Young Women's activity a couple of  weeks ago and each ward (we have five wards) did a little presentation and doing that with them also helped to build good relationships with them. We're also involved a lot in primary (because we teach the kids an English class and we help with primary activities, especially if our investigators attend) and a little bit in the Relief Society so we have our toes in every auxiliary but the priesthood auxiliaries.

Sister Choi Geum-Ja received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday! I was a little worried because we weren't able to visit her this last week but everything seems good! She attends the gospel doctrines class with us.

We did exchanges again this week and Kim Yoon-Ha Jamae-nim came to Ansan with me. It was a pretty crazy day but it was fun!

Our sudden boom of investigators is already dwindling but we're really excited for the people who are interested.

One lady just wanted to meet with us for English but just told us that she actually wanted to meet with us because she felt like she could be open with us and share her feelings. We finished teaching her the first lesson but since then we've been teaching her whatever we felt like she needed to hear, based on what she talks to us about. The last time we met I was having a nice conversation with her, thinking we were on the same page while we discussed God and following Him and being good people and such when she said, "No, I don't think you understand; I don't want to be a good person." I had no idea what to say. The idea had never crossed my mind. She used to be a devout Christian, feeling like she received her salvation (born-again salvation) but she decided that she didn't want to do it anymore. She felt like it was too hard and she was tired. It is conversations such as these that guide us to what we should teach her.

I had over 30 friends in the MTC go to Daejeon so I wanted to see if any of them are in your ward. I knew an Elder 조 (Jo) but not Cho.

Guess who came to visit me this week? Brother Murakami! (A friend from our Japanese branch/ward) He's in Korea for business (he works for the church). He brought some Japanese oyastu (snacks) for me, and other brothers in the church office were going to send it to my mission office, but then they looked through my letters posted on Facebook, saw I was in Ansan, and came to bring it to me personally! It was so so so so nice of them! The okashi (candy) took me back to my childhood and I enjoyed speaking Japanese again. I'm sure I didn't express my appreciation well but it really made me happy! I wanted to get a picture but I forgot...

Has spring come? Spring is starting to come for us! It's still cold but it smells like spring and the sun is a spring sun. 

Letter 2/23/2014

Three Young Adults in our ward are working on their papers right now so we'll be getting a lot of calls soon. Even some of the less active Young Women have started asking us questions about missionary work.

We had a stake youth activity on Saturday, where the youth of each ward did a little performance.

Sister 최금자 (Choi Geum-Ja) was baptized yesterday! (This is the sister who cancelled her baptism right after Christmas, and it is Natasha's first baptism)

So everything has wheat, I swear. (She has a gluten intolerance) Food is so important to them (the Koreans) and turning down their food really hurts their feelings, even when I tell them it's because I have an allergy. It's weird. They feel like their food isn't good enough for me or something. And you need to eat a lot. And compliment the food non-stop. Like, every couple of minutes. We had lunch with a member last night and she said that she thought I was really proud and picky when she first met me but she's seen that I eat well (I eat a lot and don't complain) so she changed her mind. I didn't know what to say to that. I really don't like food that much so I don't understand. When we taught someone about the Tree of Life this week, Sister Jeong started with asking, "When you eat really delicious food, what do you want to do?" and the investigator answered; "Share it with my family!" (which is obviously what Sister Jeong wanted) I just don't get that excited about food.

We went to a big outside open market-thing (they're the best, by the way) and we found some super cute dogs for sale. It turns out some people buy these dogs for eating. Supposedly it's really good.

(I asked what the difference is between the dogs they eat and the dogs they keeps as pets)
Those dogs could be kept as pets or eaten. I'm not sure. I think mutts are usually eaten. It's really expensive, though. And a lot of people don't eat it because they like dogs too much. I know they do have some dog farms but they're not common.

Letter 2/17/2014

We didn't get any new investigators this week (haha) (reference to how they got 9 new investigators last week) but we had a lot of other progress and blessings.
Sister Choi Geum-Ja who had a baptismal date on 12/29 called us on the 8th, telling us that she was suddenly ready to be baptized. She'll be baptized onFebruary 23rd!!!! And the members have really been helping to welcome her. She's a piano teacher so we asked the bishop to give her a calling to play the piano in RS. And she's already been doing missionary work! She's been talking to her friends about us and advertising our English program for us and she invited two friends over to help her make food on Thursday when she feeds us (that's her baptismal interview date and she offered to feed us lunch before the interview).

We've been super busy but it's been nice. We normally do our weekly planning on Friday but we had to put it off until Monday last week because we didn't have time.

There's a woman who works on a base and attends the English branch in my mission and she is going to help me get gluten-free food (I'll obviously pay for it). She orders it from Amazon. She scheduled certain food to come every three months.

We had exchanges on Wednesday and Sister Gwak Min-Hi came to Ansan with me.

We're starting a similar but slightly different program in our English class and I'm excited. A change was greatly needed. And now we have two other Americans in our ward instead of me.

We went to the temple on Thursday!

We went straight back to our area so help a brother (that reactivated this month) move offices. He's a magician and we found a lot of fun stuff while packing up. We didn't get a p-day but we didn' have anything urgent so it was okay. My companion really wanted the food that he was going to buy for us for helping. I could never be so motivated by food. Food hates me (reference to her digestive problems).

They don't have movie ratings in Korea either (probably referring to how they don't have ratings in Japan).

One of our new investigaors who seemed to have a lot of promise seemed a little less certain after we finished teaching the first lesson. The first lesson always sounds a lot like "America this. America that." "The Book of Mormon took place in America." Joeseph Smith lived in America." "Our headquarters are in America." "Our prophet lives in America and every single latter-day prophet has been American...." And it turns a lot of people off.

At our last mission conference I sat at a table with only Koreans and afterwards a sister said to me; "You can sit with me if you're stuck at a table full of natives. I know how that can be." But I was actually thoroughly enjoying myself. I didn't understand. (This is in reference to how the American missionaries often treat the Korean missionaries - she's having a hard time with it)
I still don't have hanbok pictures but I'm going to copy some of Sister Jeong's pictures onto my camera this week.

The photos are of the sisters in her mission with the mission president, and looking down on the city from the mountains.

Letter 2/9/2014

This week was crazy. We weren't able to do very much work last week because of Seol-nal but this week boomed beyond imagination.

 

We called a lady we met on the street the day before my birthday and she wanted to meet with us for English (and maaaybe religion). We've met with her twice already and she's a trip. She's 77 and hilarious. She spent most of her life in Germany so she speaks a lot of German when she wants to speak English and sometimes she speaks a little Japanese on accident too. She really likes to talk. We can't even sneak in to change the subject because she doesn't pause to breathe!!!! She offered to give our closing prayer yesterday (she said the Lord's Prayer).

 

A woman saw a flyer for our English class and came last week but said she didn't want to come again. We asked if she wanted to meet with us one\on-one and she was really excited about that. So we met with her yesterday and she has the potential to be a golden investigator. She used to be Christian but drifted from it. When we talked about Heavenly Father and prayer she started tearing up and said she would pray.

A woman and her grandson started attending our children's English class a couple of weeks ago and the boy (Seong-Bin) goes to the primary activities afterwards. We were able to talk to the grandmother during one of these activities - the grandma is raising Seong-Bin. She asked us to come over to teach him English and the gospel. She's catholic. We met with them twice this week too.

 

And this grandmother told a friend about us and this friend also wants to meet with us for English and gospel. So we met with her once.

And for the climax:

I don't know if I've told you about this family or not. They attend both English classes every week. They lived in California for two years and want their daughters to keep their English. The dad has amazing English and is working on his PhD right now. They're really amazing and we keep trying to meet with them but the father's mother lives with them and she didn't want us over. They haven't been coming to class as frequently lately and have expressed that they don't like our system. We were really afraid of losing them. But after our Wednesday class the mother asked us to come over and teach their daughters personally. We were super excited. The fed us on Thursday and told us that they also want us to teach their daughters about our church. The Dad believes in God and has read the Bible, the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon. But he hates Christians and Christian churches. But he feels like we're different, more pure. So he wants his daughters to know about us. We're super excited about this! SO EXCITED! We skipped and sang all the way home (unless we saw people, of course) that night.

 

I'm jealous of you being able to spend time with the chibs (our little ones - this is a left over from Japanese/English our family spoke - chibi means little. She is referring to me being done with running our family business, and being able to homeschool the kids and spend lots of time with them in Korea).
Pack what you wish you had had in Japan. I think you'll be in a fairly populated area.

My Koreannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ( I asked about her Korean)

Everyone tells me I'm good for the amount of time I've been out. My comp said my pronunciation is the best of the missionaries "my age". I think Japanese has been helping me with putting sentences together. I was able to start translating last transfer for the elder who came in with me. But I speak with "Satori", which is the Busan dialect - because of Japanese. So it's fun. I can't control it. My comp was trying to help me out the other night but it wasn't doing much good. I don't speak flat enough so I sound more sing-songy. I speak through my nose more and my tones go up and down. My comp assures me that it's cute but I don't like it because people don't understand me even if my pronunciation is perfect. And I pronounce my words too clearly to understand. That's right. TOO CLEARLY. I didn't think that would be a problem. whateva.

Letter 2/2/2014

We got transfer calls on Saturday night! Literally everyone I talked to told me that I was going to train for sure but I'm not. I'm staying in Ansan with Sister Jeong! We both thought she would leave for sure. We're both super-duper happy to be serving togeher again. We were hoping that we could serve together for another transfer but didn't think that that was possible. The elder in my ward who came out with me is going to Gangnam. Our district leader is going back home to Korea. So his companion is getting a greenie! I'm excited to have a baby in the ward to make me feel like a big kid. This means that I'll probably be in Ansan for at least two more transfers. The APs said we're getting 30 new missionaries this transfer. They said that all of them are coming to our mission but they must be going to the Seoul mission too. The last two transfers have had groups of 30-something missionaries come to Seoul and Seoul South. Our mission has about 150 missionaries right now and they said it was going to get it up to 200, which is a lot considering how small our mission is. I think I'll be returning one (like this transfer) or two transfers after Christmas. It will be around Seol-nal (pronounced Seollal) (the Lunar New Year) next year.

 

Seollal (the Lunar New Year) was this week! It's a really big deal. It's like Christmas. But because it doesn't have traditions from all over Europe contributing to it, it's very structured and everyone celebrates the same way. On the day before Seollal the moms spend all day making food and everyone eats all day (mothers hate Seollal). Then on Seollal people visit their family, usually grandparents. And then after Seollal, everyone rests, mostly staying home. We weren't able to do a lot this week because of that. The streets were EMPTY. It had a  relaxing feeling but it was also kind of creepy. So we spent the day doing things that didn't require face-to-face contact like sticking up flyers for our English class, heart attacking less actives, and delivering message cards. On Friday we had a mission training conference which was fun. Sister Jeong let me borrow a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) to wear. I'll try to get a picture from her. Those are actually best. I want one. Some members made traditional food for us (mandoo (dumplings) and ddeok juuk (mochi soup)) and it was super nice of them to do that for us on this special holiday! On Saturday a single woman in our ward invited us over for lunch and it was very nice. She went to A LOT of work for us. And she played some traditional games with us!

They used this game to teach their children the different ranks and positions in the dynasty.