6 weeks!!!

Ahh so this week was my 6 week mark!!!!!

I can't believe I have been in Korea for 6 weeks.  Where has time gone?
We had to go to Busan for our 6 week training and I got to see Sister Brady, and Sister Kim who I served with in the MTC.  We were all really excited to each other.  It's crazy that we are all in Korea speaking Korean and not in the MTC any more.

On our way back home my companion and I had to take a train and a bus to get home.  And when we were on the train we had this guy come up to us and tell us he was Jesus.  And at first I didn't think I was understanding him correctly.  But he kept telling us he was Jesus and it was super weird, we didn't know what to say so we kinda just walked off quickly.  Then when we were on the bus to go home this drunk guy sat next to me.  And I was on the inside seat so I was trapped.  He kept fanning me with his fan and asking me where I was from.  While I was answering my companion was sitting in front of me just laughing.  Then out of nowhere he just grabs my water bottle which was in my hand and just chugged all the water in it.  And then just threw the water bottle to the front of the bus and we were in the back and then just continued to fan me and it was the weirdest experience of my life and I was so glad when he left.

This week we also went and did a service project at a less active member's farm.  The elders were outside scooping horse poop and we were inside sweeping and fighting off spiders and cleaning spider webs.  Can I tell you that Korea has so many spiders and they are everywhere!!  And they're not little cute spiders they are huge spiders and they are disgusting!!! But it was a fun service project and we got feed all the horses which was fun and they even have a horse named Jayne!!!  Ahh i was pretty excited.

We made banana bread! And I am very impressed that it actually worked.  We had to substitute a lot of the ingredients and we had to make it in a toaster oven.  But it actually turned out good!!  So thanks Mom for teaching me to cook!

That is about it for my week!!!
Love you!!!

Spiders

Banana Bread!!!

A bridge by us that they light up every night

Tender Mercies

The Lord works in such cool ways!!
This week we have been going out and proselyting and nobody is out because it has been raining and because of tests.  We will be walking for over and hour and we maybe will see one guy.  And because we can't talk to guys it is really strange.  My companion and I decided to say a prayer and read some scripture about faith.  So we started walking and at every corner we would decide which way to go and if we didn't have a feeling where to go we would rock paper, and scissor it.  And we ended up going on this really weird route that brought us in pretty much a big circle.  And we finally passed these two girls and started taking to them about the gospel and we were able to give them a Book of Mormon and get their numbers to talk to meet them later.  And we were super exited about that and not even 2 minutes later we met two other girls and were able to give them Book of Mormons and got their phone numbers to meet with them again.  And it was just a really cool experience to see that if we trust God that he will put people in our path to share the gospel with.

We also had a couple of other little Miracles this week.  We went and visited a less active member this week and she lives in the middle of nowhere and there was no buses that went to her house so we decide to jump on our bikes to go visit her and then on the way we found a bus that would drop us off a couple of miles away from her house.  So we jumped on the bus and locked our bikes up nearby and then we were walking to her house and this guy had seen us walking and pull over and gave us some drinks.  And it was just a cool tender mercy that the Lord really looks out for us.  And then later in the week we were walking and this guy gave us umbrellas because we were doing good, and it might rain soon.  So we have had a week full of tender mercies.

We met with this guy this week that has been wanting to meet with us because we're foreigners.  And he told us to invite all our religious brother and sister over for some luxurious coffee.  So we explained to him that we don't drink coffee.  So when we got there he sat us down and said " because you don't drink coffee we will have tea!" and he started to explain that this tea is worth over 3000!!! dollars a cup.  And the whole entire time he was talking we're trying to explain that don't drink tea! And he kept saying I have met missionaries, you can drink tea.  Everyone drinks tea. And it was just a struggle.  He gave up trying to get us to drink tea and just started talking to me about America and his travels and he would only talk to me because I was white no one else!!!  It was so awkward and i didn't know what to do.  I don't think we're going to visit him again because he had no gospel interest whatsoever and it was just a weird experience.

Love you all!!!
이 자매

Here are some photos of the Korean country

This is random, but I see stray dogs here and I always pet them.  So now they kinda follow us sometimes and they are super excited to see me.  Don't tell Scout!  Also I absolutely refuse to eat dog.  Some Elders in my area did and I won't talk to them now because of it.  They went looking for dog to eat and I don't know how anyone could do that!!

It's a Small World in the Church

We were forwarded this email from a friend from one of our old wards.

So I found out this week before District Meeting, that the new trainee in Miryang, Sister Lee, used to live in College Station about 8 years ago.  She is Amanda Lee's younger sister!  I used to get a ride from her older sister from early morning seminary to school my sophomore year of high school!  This is the second person that I met on my mission who used to also live in College Station.  Their family used to live in the 2nd ward before they reorganized the wards.  She used to have shorter hair at that time, but after she said that she was Amanda's sister, I can't help but notice just how much she looks and acts like her older sister.  Also, our companions, Sister Gomez and Elder Sam Yiou knew each other really well before their missions.  They were practically neighbors in Hawaii, and their families know each other really well.  They are wearing some stuff for our ward luau on Saturday!  It truly is a small world in the church!  Have a great week everyone!


Elder Martin

EARTHQUAKE!!!

AHH so this week we had an EARTHQUAKE!!!!  I have never been through one before and I was kind of freaking out, but I loved it haha.  It was a small one and I don't think anyone was injured because of it.

During the week we were proselyting and we saw these two Grandmas on the bridge and they were staring at something.  When we got closer we found that a kitten had gotten stuck on a ledge of the bridge and couldn't get off because he was injured and they weren't able to reach him.  So because I am so much taller than most Koreans I just reached through the fence and grabbed the kitten for them.  They were very happy.  I literally felt like a fireman who had saved a cat from a tree for an old lady. hahah

We also went and visited one of our english class members in one of the more country parts of our area.  It took us about a 15 minute bus drive to meet her.  When we went and visited her she had her son come meet us down at the bus station and they were just so excited that we came and visited them.  When we got to their house they kept feeding us food and they even turned on there AC unit for the first time ever.  It was just so fun and we even got to cut wood for her.  But they are some of the most giving people I have ever met and they just made our week.

One of our members found that I play volleyball.  So after one of our activities with the YM and YW he went and bought us a volleyball!!!  We were so excited!  Today we are playing against the elders and whoever loses has to buy ice cream for everyone.  We're super exited about that!!

We also rode bikes this week.  Because our area is so big and so country we have bikes, but we never have ridden them before.  And I was hoping we never would.  But we had an appointment that didn't have a bus that went by there and it was too far to walk so we had to ride bikes........ So we tried to ride them with skirts, but we could tell it wasn't going to work because it was super windy and our skirts were just going everywhere.  So we ended up just taking our skirts off and putting sweats on.  It was a sight to see haha it took us over a hour to bike to there house and it was the hottest day this week when we were biking and so we were super sweaty but now i can say that we have ridden bikes and I don't think we are ever going to do it again because our butts hurt way too much from the bike ride hahaha.

Here are some answers to your questions Mom.

We mostly walk everywhere we go.  And if it is too far away we will take a bus, and if it is even farther we will take a train.  And we do have taxies that we can take sometimes if we have to get somewhere in a hurry, but we are mostly walking.

Our apartment is super nice like I am still surprised how nice it is.  It has two bedrooms and a kitchen area though it is really small. And we just sleep in one room and the other one has our closets and the washer in it.  The bathroom is small and it has a toilet sink, a shower and a normal toilet.  The shower is different, it has no curtain.  It's just like the whole room is tiled so everything just gets sprayed down.

The stores are really small like boutiques everywhere, but they are really run down I don't know how to really explain it.

Our typical meal just depends, sometimes we get takeout and that can just vary.  But if a member is feeding us it's rice and then a meat and then a bunch of different side dishes.  And then you take the meat and rice and put it in a lettuce leaf and shove it in your mouth.

At church we are in Young Womens so we teach one young woman on Sunday.  And then we just have to set up the chairs and clean the church before.

We mostly just go out and walk and talk to people while we are walking and sometimes we go and knock doors.

Korea is fun, i love you all!!!
SISTER LEE

When we went and ate with a member

A view of the city

Rain and baptism‏

This week we had a baptism!!!  Her name is 한상주(han-song-joo).  She is 19 years old.  The missionaries met her a couple of week before I came into the area and she is the cutest girl!! You can tell that she really knows this gospel is true.  The day the baptism was suppose to happen it was pouring that morning and the day before.  My companion and I were super worried that the baptism would be cancelled because of the weather.  So we prayed.  And it was still raining, but as soon as all of us went to the river for the baptism it stopped raining and it was a super cool experience.  Once the baptism was finished it starting raining again.  The Lord does answer our prayers!!

After the baptism my companion and 한상주 wanted to go eat something new.  So we went and ate pig guts.  Like the intestines and liver and heart.  It was ok I didn't like it that much so I mostly just sat there eating rice and then I would kinda pretended to eat the meat.  But it was nasty so I really didn't eat that much.  But I probably will have to eat worst things here.

This week it has not stopped raining one bit.  And it's crazy because I thought it was suppose to be summer not monsoon season.  So we are pretty much wet all the time.  We also found theses things called mellon bars and they are amazing!!  I really can't stop eating them.  They are just the best ice cream bars know to man.

We also went on splits this week and I got to go to a bigger city and it made me grateful for my little country side.  It was so crazy how many people we got to talk to in such a short time and how packed it was.  There are four other missionary companionships in my area and we can walk everywhere or take a bus or train if we need to.

Love you all and happy fourth of July!!

My district

baptism

Pig guts

Miri Young

This week has been pretty fun.  I am in 미래 양 (miri young).  It is a small area in the county side.  We have about 15 members in our branch.  It contains about three bigger cites (they are all pretty small) in the middle and a lot country area outside.  We spend most of our days proselyting in the three larger cities.  I finally convinced my companion during the week to go into the country side and it turns out that there was nobody our there but men! And we are not allowed to talk to me so we ended up just going back home.
We ate a meal with one of our members this week and it was super good and called bean n bop.  Once we were finished with our food she started to cut up theses huge tomatoes and put them in front of us to eat.  And I hate tomatoes.  So I started to pray to Heavenly Father for me to eat those tomatoes and not gag.  I had to say a huge prayer to get those tomatoes down.  Let's just say that miracles are real and that I ate all of those tomatoes.
I have found this thing in Korea called banana milk.  And I am in love with it!  It is my new addiction.  So if you ever find banana milk in a store buy it because it is so good!!  They also have super good fruit and they sell it everywhere.
We go and do this service activity every week at an old persons retirement home.  Usually we just clean, but this week they wanted us to sing to them in English.  When they asked that my companion and I just looked at each other.  We ended up singing primary songs and we had one of the ward members with us and she can speak a little English.  When we started to sing she was belting out the songs.  It didn't even matter that half the words were wrong.  And it was just so bad... but they loved it.  Next week we're planning to bring the Elders with us so we're are not alone singing to them.

We had a zone P-day today and we went and visited one of the Buddhist temples. 

Here's some answers to your questions Mom.  So everyday we mostly go out and proselyte to people on the street and we have gone door knocking twice.  We have one investigator in out area and she is getting baptized on the 2nd!!  We are super excited!!  We have a washer in our apartment so we do our wash and then hang it dry.  We do get fed by members at least once a week.  I am in a really small city and we have about 13 members come regularly to our branch so there are not many here to feed us. 

Love you all!

I'm in Korea!!!

Getting to the airport from the MTC was a adventure.  We ended up having to take the tracks and the train to get to the airport.  It was a adventure with about 20 missionaries with all of their stuff trying to get on and off with the trains.  It was adventure and while I was trying to get my luggage into the airport one of them fell and a guy walked up and grabbed and said, "You are struggling, let me help you"  and just started to walk off my my bag and I started to panic thinking he might steal my bag, but he didn't, so that was fun.
Our plane went from Salt Lake to Portland, to Japan, and then to Korea. It was a pretty long plane ride, but luckily it went by pretty fast.  Once we got to Korea we were met by are our mission president and they drove us to their home and we spent the night there with them.
The next morning we woke up and me our future trainers, we didn't know who would be with who until later.  And we went and proselyted on the streets.  And it was funny because all I can say is "hello" and "we are missionaries" and then once that was done I was stuck and so I would just look at my companion like a deer in the headlights for her to say the rest.
So my new companion is Sister Gomez.  She is super nice and from Hawaii. Our area is Midijong. and it is so HOT!!!  I can't tell you how hot Korea is!!  I never thought that Korea would be hotter than Texas, but it for sure is. So I am over here sweating.
I have found that I stick out in Korea like a sore thumb.  People are constantly pointing and staring at me.  They will even pull over to the side of the road and take pictures of me it is so weird!  On Sunday this drunk guy saw us and by us I mean me and he bought us drinks because he likes "white people" it is such a weird feeling sticking out and having everyone looking at me.
We don't have much time or I would add more stories so maybe i'll write them next week love you all!!