1st Week in Korea

안녕하세요! I’m in Korea!!!!! It’s crazy and I love it!

When I stepped off the plane it felt like paradise! It was a crazy first day. I met my mission President (President Morrise) and his wife in the airport.

They fed us some Korean snacks, gave us a 몰몬경 (Mormonkyong–a Book of Mormon), and then threw us on the subways and we just started talking to people. I had no idea what was going on and I was so tired from jet-lag, but people are so kind. You can just say Hello to people in Korean and they will then compliment you on how good your Korean is. People also like my hair and eyes and will tell me I’m pretty no matter how I actually look (haha). They love that a foreigner is trying to learn Korean. It makes them so happy.

Subways are fun. So many people squeezed together ignoring each other to look at their phone...except us. We talked to everyone. — Subways are fun. So many people squeezed together ignoring each other to look at their phone…except us. We talked to everyone.

That night we were fed a delicious Korean meal by Sister Morisse (some sort of spicy/sweet meat over rice with Kimchi). It was delicious! The next day I got my companion, Sis. H. She’s from Australia and says “Crickey!” It’s probably the best thing in the world! I love her so much. She doesn’t have that much of an accent when she speaks Korean, but she does when she speaks English. Lots of people will actually come up to us on the street to practice their English and they make me translate what she’s saying because they don’t understand English with an Australian accent. I feel bad, but she’s a good sport about it. She speaks the Korean, and I speak most of the English (haha).

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES — View from apt. We ran up that hill one morning and met a guy who used to take English class from the missionaries, but then moved. We invited him to ours and he was super excited.

We’re in the Yeosu area. It’s not as crowded as Seoul, but it’s so lovely! We teach a free English class at the church every week and it is my favorite thing so far, I think. That’s where we have found most of our investigators. People really want to learn English here so they are really excited to come. We teach with the Elders in our ward a beginning, intermediate, and free-talking class. I’m teaching the free-talking class because I don’t know enough Korean yet to explain everything, but I love it so much! Everybody is so kind here!

I love our ward so much! There’s about 50 people in it. They made me introduce myself and I was so nervous, but somehow I got the words out. At the end, I did say something that would translate to, “I PRAY this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” (which is wrong). I realized as soon as I said it, so I jumped back up to the pulpit and yelled the word for “to testify” in Korean. The ward thinks I’m super funny now because of it. I hope they like me.

I didn’t understand anything of what was said in church. Apparently during Gospel doctrine, they were talking about First and Second Estates in Korean, so that makes me feel a little better that I didn’t understand. I don’t think I even understand that very well in English.

I love the food so much! My strategy at the beginning was–if I don’t throw up after eating it, I love it! I actually do love most of it. Except one of our investigators fed us a meal, and I was eating something really crunchy and delicious…and then I realized there were a bunch of little eyes staring back at me. Haha! I think it might have been crunchy anchovies, but I’m not sure.

Vegetable Kimchi pizza I made with my companion. Nothing about it was like a pizza...except its shape...but we had fun — Vegetable Kimchi pizza I made with my companion. Nothing about it was like a pizza…except its shape…but we had fun

Everyone likes to ask if you’ve tried Korean food yet and if you like Kimchi. If you like Kimchi, they love you a lot! So I love Kimchi SO MUCH (haha)! Korea actually does have the best drinks I’ve ever tried though. I had aloe water for the first time and it’s SO GOOD! I also had this milky soda drink and I don’t know if I can live without it now (haha).