FAT CATS and new schedules

This week we had some big changes in the mission field.  We had a world wide missionary broadcast in Degu and we got some pretty big announcements!  The first is our schedule has changed so now we are making adjustments to it, one good thing about our schedule being different is we have a longer P-day!!!  So we are pretty excited about that.  They also changed the stats we count everyday.  Instead of focusing on lessons, they are now focusing on baptisms and how many we will get everyday.  So that is a big change for us this week.
Coming home from the broadcast took us 3 and half hours because it was a Korean holiday.  Also  everyone we tried to talk to was from a different town visiting our area.  And because of that no one was at church this Sunday, it was super weird.  Also we somehow got asked to go and feed our mission leader's cat on Saturday because his family was out of town.  And it was the fattest cat I have ever seen!!  When it walked its belly touched the ground.
We're seeing a lot of progress with our investigators and it's really cool.  We have a 30 30 program (we teach 30 mins of English, 30 mins of the gospel) going with three ladies and you can tell they are generally interested in the gospel and they are understanding it and following our commitments so we're really excited to see how it turns out!!  Love you all and here are lots of pictures!

Lunch with the Elders at a meal buffet

Young Yang

My companion and I

Bored eating Doritos on a bus

Fat cat!

My companion and I trying to take a picture with the fat cat

SNOW and MORE SNOW!!!

This week it SNOWED!!!  And to make it even better it snowed TWICE!!!  I don't think I have ever been more excited and surprised!  This week I have been able to see some really cool things happen. The first big surprise was with one of our investigators Pantean.  She is Vietnamese and she doesn't speak English or that much Korean so it has been hard to figure out what things she understands when we are teaching her.  This week we had someone translate for us during one of our visits and it was one of the coolest things that has happened on my mission.  She hasn't been able to understand us, but she knows what we are teaching is true and she wants to keep learning more.  And that just shows me that this gospel is true that the Spirit does more in teaching then I ever could in my broken Korean and I am grateful that the Lord has shown me that through Pantean.
We also went less active hunting this week and one of our less actives let us into her house and we had just said hello when her husband started telling us how bad we are for being here in Korea and how we need to learn Korean culture and the language and so on and so on.  And my companion and I just kinda sat there in shock and we both didn't know what to say.  But it made me realize while this guy was yelling at us, how missions are not supposed to be easy and they never were for anyone.  We will be denied, have people look at us weird, rejected, laughed at, we won't fit in or look like anyone that we are talking to, we will eat weird food, and not be able to talk in the native language the best.  But that it doesn't matter!!  We are here serving the people of Korea to help them and it doesn't matter if the accept us or reject us as long as we try.  I am here to tell others about the Gospel and how they can be really happy and not just temporarily happy.  But the biggest surprise was that this less actives non-member husband came to church this Sunday!  Somehow by us just stopping by at his house his heart was soften, and it was not by anything we said it was by the Spirit so again the Spirit can work more miracles than I could ever do!

The last thing that happened that was funny this week was we did this activity this week with a family where they were supposed to write down the most important things in their life and then slowly mark them away and the last thing left was supposed to be the gospel.  But they marked off the gospel first and said that they need food more.  It was really funny so now we know we need to work on our teaching skills hahah
Have a good week in the snow!!!
Love you all!!
이자매

SNOW!!

A couple of funny English signs here in Korea

 Look at the last bin...

BUSSES

This week has been super fun.  So we have decided this transfer to go and visit as many of the less active members as we can.  So we decided we wanted to get a map so we can map out all of their houses and so we know how to get to them.  We went to city hall to try and find a map and all they gave us are these tourists maps in English and they really are no help, it just tells us where all the sight seeing places are.  So we went back to the city office and asked them for bigger maps and they sent us to this other building.  And when we walked in to the building it was all men and they all freaked out because we were foreigners and so they were all running around calling different people to try and find a map for us.  And when they figured out that we could speak Korean, they freaked out even more and kept wanting to give us coffee!  It was super funny.  But they finally gave us all these maps and they were all tourist maps again!!  hahah but now if I ever come back to Korea I know where all the best tourist places are!
We have also been taking a lot of buses this week and they have been either ahead of schedule or really behind so I have been really stressed out because of that, but other than that this week has been super fun!!  Also this Sunday our ward made us do aerobics with them after church with them so that was a first for me.  I also found a cat tail on the road so I now know what happens to the cats' tails here!!  They fall off when it gets too cold!!!
And i got a package from my home ward this week!!  It made me super happy!! Especially all of their cute little notes!!  Have fun this week and stay warm!!!
love 이 자매

everyone's letteres

cat tail

I GOT A NEW COMPANION!!

This week we had transfer calls and I will be staying Andong for another transfer... but I got a new companion!!!  Her name is Sister Fanga!  And she is from Salt Lake City and she is tall!!  So now I won't be towering over my companion!!  So it was because of transfer calls that I wasn't able to get my email out yesterday and why I am emailing so late!

Last week was super fun, first off I called on my recent convert in Milyang 한성주 this week and found out she is going to the temple this week to do baptisms for the dead for the first time!!!!  I am so excited about that!!!  It's really cool to see the change the gospel is having in her life!!!!
 We also met with our investigator pan-ti-an this week and even though she can't speak Korean very well and we can't communicate well, you can see that this gospel is helping her.  Without us even asking her to, she read half of the Book of Mormon last week on her own and she is taking everything that we are teaching her in and accepting it!
We also started a 30 30 program this week with three ladies and so it's really cool to see how much the work has grown from the time I first got here until now.
I also ate jellyfish and pig skin this week.

Have fun in the snow this week!!!
LOVE 이 자매

CRAB AND KARAOKE

This week has been really busy!  To start of this week we met with some investigators and less actives.  We ate crab with them and it was so good!  I don't think I have ever eaten as much crab as I ate with them.  I would be cracking crab and eating it and as I was eating it, they were feeding me crab at the same time.  It was so funny.  We also had a New Years party for our Ward and it was so fun!  We ate super good food and then they brought out the karaoke.... ahh Koreans love karaoke!  They made the Elders and I sing together and it was so bad, but oh so funny.  They kept making us sing ahhhhhhhhhh it was so funny and so much fun.  In Korea they have the tradition that on the first of the New Year you go and watch the sun rise.  So we went with our ward and watched the sunrise with them, it was super fun.  We are also starting to do a newsletter for  our ward and somehow they all chose me for the photo for it so I had to dress up in my Korean dress.  It was fun....  We also met with our investigator from Vietnam and she doesn't speak Korean or English and so it is super hard to teach, but we're having so much fun teaching her and you can tell the gift of tongues is real with her.  Have a Happy New Year!!!!!!