The Post Script Files

Other People's Blogs Are Way Better Than Mine

2012-01-21T12:44:00.002-07:00

Just Call Me Chaviva
Band on the Diaper Run
I Love Charts
Moment Junkie
Not Worth the Brisk

More, of course, are out there...

2012-01-16T22:24:00.001-07:00

No Sympathy.

2011-09-25T16:35:00.002-06:00

I remember several times during my student career where a teacher would tell the class things like:

"I'm behind on grading."
"I'm going to have to spend the whole weekend reading your papers."
"I looked all around town to find (x object) for you."
"Do you know how long this took me??"

Do you remember teachers telling you things like this? I don't know about your reactions, but when I heard comments like this, I would think things like the following:

It's your job. Get over it.
After saying up until 2 am writing that paper, I don't really care if you loose some sleep over it, too.
You can't complain about grading homework that I didn't want to do anyway considering you were the one who assigned it.

I was scrambling this week to get grades caught up. Yes, I was behind in grading. And yes, I actually told this to a couple of classes--but in my defense, it was more to explain why their grades weren't all current when they looked them up, and NOT to ask for their sympathy.

Having been a student myself, I can understand that I won't ever get sympathy from the students. But thinking about the teacher-student relationship, it's no wonder. I mean, teachers are to students...what would be a good analogy? God? We don't just tell students what they have to do, but we pass jugement on how well they do it, too. No wonder it's strange to see your teacher at the grocery store.

Now living life on the teacher side, though, I'm starting to realize that teachers really aren't that scary. We're just people, actually. And it seems to be that it's the ones who care the most who will get involved enough that they take papers home on the weekend or to spend their precious spare time on their students.

Not that that will change anything. Or that it should.

Meditations on eavesdropping and French

2011-07-31T00:34:00.002-06:00

So, at the end of April, I was offered a job at a charter school about 25 minutes south of my house. When I first went in to interview for the position, one of the three conducting it made a comment (as she pulled out my resume) about how, "this is the one who does Spanish and French." When the junior high principal called, she said that I would be teaching both.

She also explained that they are on a block schedule, and that I would be teaching A days at the junior high, and B days at the high school (which were not in fact on the same campus--the high school is a 10 minute drive away, and is also not yet completely built). Since she's the junior high principal, it was from her that I eventually found out what my schedule was going to be there: Two classes of French I, one class of French II, and one class of "Study Skills."

It wasn't until I finally emailed the high school vice principal this week that I got to find out my remaining two classes. Since I wasn't signed up for any Spanish at the junior high, I had assumed the high school load would probably be Spanish I classes. But, actually, I will be doing a combined French I and II class, and then a combined French III and IV class.

I was surprised. I'm going to be a French teacher. Somehow, I didn't think I'd ever end up as a French teacher. I started college as a French major, but at some point switched to Spanish Teaching with a minor in French Teaching. I don't remember my reasoning, exactly, but I'm pretty sure that part of it was that I thought Spanish was going to be more marketable. Towards graduation, I actually had a few sad moments where I thought about all the work I've put into French, and how I wouldn't get to use it anywhere.

But it turns out, I'm going to teach French. Huh.

Thinking about Spanish, though, I've had a few moments I'd like to share. I hear a lot more Spanish around me from day to day than I do French. And one of the serious benefits of studying another language is being able to eavesdrop. (That, and being able to have your own secret conversations.) I've heard three interesting comments lately:

1. At the grocery store one day, there was a mom and a couple of kids who I started to notice. A girl was riding on that under-part of the cart, and she was saying, "Para, Mom! ¡Para!" After a few rounds of this, the frustrated mom finally said to her daughter, "I don't know what that means!" to which the girl responded, "Para means stop."

I don't know for sure, of course, but it looked like the girl was enrolled in a dual immersion program and was acquiring Spanish, but her mom didn't know any Spanish. It was an interesting exchange--it made me think of immigrant families, where the kids get English super fast, where they start to grow up as Americans. I imagine their childhood and experiences can be so different from their parents', to the point where their parents might sometimes have to stop and say, "I don't know what that means!"

2. Since graduation in April, I've been on a few trips with my family. We've been out to Sacramento and to San Diego visiting my sisters, as well as to St. Louis. Especially in California, I had my eyes peeled for materials I could use for Spanish classes. I figured places the gift shops of Cabrillo National Monument (commemorating the landing of Spanish explores in 1542) and Sutter's Fort would be great places--the history of some of these places is intertwined with Spanish-speaking people, but also so many Spanish-speaking people live around these places! There's such a huge presence of Latinos in our country, I figured places like these would be considering that by doing things like having materials in Spanish. I could hardly find anything, though.

In the gift shop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, I found out I wasn't the only one thinking this way. A native Spanish-speaking couple was there, looking around, browsing the huge selection of books. They were looking for something specific. The wife showed a book to her husband, and he said, "Pero lo quiero en español." But I want it in Spanish.

3. This week I was leaving the gym as a family of Spanish-speakers was coming in. The kids were young. The older sister (who was only maybe seven years old) was directing her younger brother to open the doors for their mom pushing a stroller. "¡Los puertas!" she directed her brother. "¡Los dos puertas!" The doors! she was saying. Both the doors!

I was walking past and I thought, she should be saying "las puertas." Spanish has masculine and feminine nouns, and while the little girl was calling the doors masculine, they're actually feminine. I've been intimidated by the prospect of heritage speakers who might be in my classes. There were a few when I was student teaching, and they made me so nervous. Walking past the little girl, I actually (very) briefly considered turning to her and correcting her: "Las puertas, mija." I didn't, but I walked away thinking, maybe--just maybe--I do have something to offer to those heritage speakers in my classes.

Soneto I

2011-07-12T23:53:00.005-06:00

I was going through some papers yesterday and found a sonnet I wrote for a Spanish literature class a few years ago. I had totally forgotten about it, but after I read it I thought it wasn't half bad. So I'm putting it up here. Just as a disclaimer, though: I started learning Spanish in 2005, and wrote this in 2007. There are a couple lines where I'm not even sure what I was saying.

Also, for some context: For about two years, I lived just down the street from Rock Canyon trail head. I would go up there pretty regularly, and got to see the canyon year-round.

Soneto I, o, Hoy fui a caminar en las montañas y vi que las hojas han comenzado a cambiar

17 de septiembre 2007

Cada semana a las montañas he ido

Verano, otoño, inverno, primavera

Buscando el cielo y olor de madera

Las caminatas y el tiempo han fluido.

Hace veinte años ya que yo he vivido—

Este número no cupo cuando era

nuevo en mi boca aunque una cifra es huera.

Mientras las estaciones he subido.

Es el viento que, como un cumpleaños,

cambia; viene otra estación bellida.

Me saciaría tener ochenta años;

Veinte cuatro veces hace una vida.

Sol, nieve blanca, y tiempos extraños

Cada estación es mi preferida.

And because I still think it's clever, here's the same assignment from the equivalent French literature class Well, nearly. Apparently we were assigned to write a poem in a different form and not a sonnet. (Does anyone know what it is? I don't.) Also, this time we were given a topic: food.

I've posted this before--if you've already read it, please ignore.

L’anthropophagie

Le mâle d’araignée survive pas la veuve

Et un têtard (parfois) mangerait son voisin

La version animale ce n’est pas le preuve—

Le cannibalisme, c’est aussi pour l’humain.

En Nouvelle-Guinée, ils ont la pratique

L’expédition Donner, ils l’ont fait dans le froid

Quoiqu’on préfère un cœur, le cerveau, j’explique :

C’est anthropophagie—c’est dangereux, parfois.

If it's not the best job ever, it might come close

2011-06-11T22:31:00.004-06:00

One week into French Camp, and here are some of the things I've been paid to do:

Get lots of practice speaking French

Go to the opera Béatrice et Bénédict

Spend a Saturday at 7 Peaks water park going down water slides, synchronized swimming, and listening to girls say how cool it was that all of a sudden they were the exotic foreign language speakers that you run into from time to time. I haven't had that much fun swimming since I was 9.

Eat camembert, brie, and gruyère

Spend lots of time with the two friends who happened to be the other counselors

Live in an apartment where professionals come and clean our bathroom, people drop clean towels off at our door, and where I have a key that opens every door in the building

Eat ice cream cones

Pretend to be a snobby art critic at the Museum of Art and then end up discussing the deep meanings of this (which was actually really neat).

Watch À la folie...pas de tout, Sabrina, TinTin

Dance along with Claude Francois and les Claudettes (yes, this video is that amazing)

Late-night posting

2011-06-06T00:38:00.003-06:00

I feel like it's the last day of summer.

After a month of doing nothing, I'm going off to Provo tomorrow for three weeks to be a counselor for a French camp that the university's putting on for high school students. I'll be teaching a cooking class, as well. When I get back, I'll start working for a day camp at our local rec center.

I've been trying to get things together and going to meetings the last couple of days, and while I'm excited for both jobs, I am also realizing that my retirement vacation is definitely coming to an end. Oh well.

It's probably a good thing, though. Despite ambitious plans and my best intentions, I really didn't get much done when I had all the time in the world. Maybe a little more structure will be good for that.

Also, my Korean melons are doing miserably. Even with my mom's magic green thumb touch, they have hardly grown an inch in the last six weeks or so. They're living, at least. We transplanted them this weekend--hopefully they will grow.

Grow, plants. Grow.

Retirement

2011-05-17T00:54:00.007-06:00

When I finished student teaching, it felt like what I imagine retirement to be like: gloriously open days, nowhere to be at seven in the morning, no frantic late nights...

So here's some of what I've been doing with my retirement:

Family
My grandparents, an uncle, and my oldest sister (Emmy) and her family came out for graduation. It was wonderful to see all of them. There was a joint birthday party for my mom, niece, and nephew.
My nephew was really excited about the page of biology notes my dad found at Costco.

A couple weeks later, my parents and I went out to Sacramento for what we thought was going to be my nephew's baby blessing. Instead, it turned out that my sister ended up in the hospital, and I got some bonding time with my sweet 20-month-old niece and newborn nephew. (You can read the whole story and see some battle wounds on Dagny's blog.)

We did have a fun day before the adventures started.

My dad can fly kites! I've never really been successful--even when he got it up and flying like this and handed me the line. I still couldn't keep it up.

Here my niece and I are playing hide-behind-the-door-then-run-out-and-get-tickled. She was sad when we left, which actually made me feel really good.

My mom and I are going out to San Diego tomorrow to get some more time with Emmy, Brad, and their cute kids.

Books
I've had time to read, which has been so nice. A good book makes the gym ten times better, too. Here are some that I've finished since retiring:

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I was proud of myself for finally buying David Sedaris' new book. But then I realized the copyright is 2008, and that he's already on tour for his next project. Oh well.

Waiting for the Light to Change by Annette Haws

Our neighbour, Annette Haws, wrote this book. And it's addictive.

El Diario de Greg 3: ¡Esto es el colmo! by Jeff Kinney

Our local library has a tiny Spanish section, but this was fun and quick to read (more satisfying than slogging through Unamuno...). I felt like I was getting a peek inside the head of a 12-ish-year-old. Junior high, here we come.

Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis

This book made me grateful to Civilization 201 for explaining the traditional classical education--CS Lewis got the same schooling that little Roman boys did.

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Kim

I haven't finished this one yet. But I love it.

TV
A friend who also went to Korea on a mission introduced me to the Korean TV show Secret Garden. Again, addictive.

Garden

The other day, I was thinking about how I missed Korean fruit: mandarin oranges, giant pears and huge apples, sweet strawberries, huge chewy grapes that need to be peeled. And this Korean melon, which was one of my favorites.

This lead me to an internet search for Asian seeds. Come August, I should have some lovely melons (hopefully!) along with some Asian-style cucumbers and carrots.

Gradumacation

2011-04-22T21:26:00.009-06:00

The alchemy majors all wanted to know how much money they'd be making after graduation. "Just give us an approximate figure," they'd say, and the professor would shake her head and cover her crystal ball with a little cozy given to her by one of her previous classes. When it came to our futures, she drew the line, no matter how hard we begged--and, I mean, we really tried. I was as let down as the next guy, but, in retrospect, I can see that she acted in our best interest. Look at yourself on the day that you graduated from college, then look at yourself today. I did that recently, and it was like, "Yikes! What happened?"

The answer, of course, is life. What the hag chose not to foretell--and what we, in our certainty, could not have fathomed--is that stuff comes up. Weird doors open. People fall into things. Maybe the engineering whiz will wind up brewing cider, not because he has to, but because he finds it challenging. Who knows? Maybe the athlete will bring peace to all nations, or the class moron will go on to become the president of the United States.

--David Sedaris
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Back Bay Books (2008), p. 78

Before and After (and the return of photos!)

2011-04-15T20:01:00.007-06:00

After various technical difficulties and constraints on time, I am once again capable of posting photos on the blog. And what better photos than some before-and-after's. I always loved these--maybe for the same reason that I preferred the Mr. Rogers' episodes where he visited somewhere outside his house and explained how something worked. When he went to the crayon factory, for example. I think behind-the-scenes is endlessly fascinating, and that includes finding out what's under your carpet.

Which leads to the pictures. After a few months of "funky smell" in the basement, my parents pursued it. Long story short, it turns out a heating duct installed under the house had rusted through. A pool of water had collected and grown things, and those things were blowing into the basement.

This precipitated filling in the heater vents with cement, and while they were at it, an update on the basement. So this is what we started with:
And here's the same view without the kitchen cabinets, carpet (I remember tap dancing on that floor when I was little), ceiling:
Drywall and paint:

And at the other side of the basement:

Observing the lives of over-achievers

2011-03-12T15:39:00.003-07:00

So the classes I'm teaching for this student-teaching business are all "Honors." I had never heard of Honors Spanish--that kind of thing certainly wasn't around when I was in high school (though I recently saw that my alma mater is in fact now offering Honors language classes). Aside from giving me what is likely poor preparation for classroom management in the real world, I have learned some other things from these classes: namely, what it is to be a high-achiever.

During one class, I asked them to pass in a paper that went with a class activity--just designed to keep them on task, really. If they had something on there, they were going to get full credit. I was hurrying them to hand it in so we could move on, and took the paper of one boy who hadn't finished a couple of questions. "If you didn't finish, don't worry," I was saying. But as I took the paper away from him, he reached out after it, moaning in the Spanish he could muster: "No!!" he said--obviously distressed, reaching towards me the way you see people in movies reach out to a child who is being torn away from them. "Lost points!!" That was the moment I realized the students I was going to be working with were a little different.

I am not one of this crowd--I never was a 4.0er. So I've been learning from these students. Here are two patterns I've noticed about being a school-super-achiever.

1. Every point counts

These students will come to me the next class after I post the grades to an assignment (or, like in one case, send messenger with a note about the grade). Sometimes I post the assignment but don't get to filling in all the grades. This makes them freak out. Anything that could be construed as an error? It get asked about it immediately (like I said, the next class period at the latest). The mentor teacher I'm working with has a policy that they can re-do any assignment, making corrections. How many points would students need to miss to be motivated to keep working on the assignment, you may ask. Well, for some, the difference of one point is enough to go back over it. One point.

2. They advocate for themselves

This is related to the "every-point-counts" policy. A characteristic of these high-achieving students is that they ask. They ask about grades (as noted above). They come in before they miss a class (for, you know, things like out-of-state snowboard and skiing competitions, DECA competitions, debate tournaments, family trips to Germany, etc.) or right after. They raise their hands and ask me to explain again the things they don't understand (and correct the mistakes I make while teaching). They ask to go over the homework if it was particularly difficult. In short, they know how to advocate for themselves in class.

3. They're involved

As noted above, these students are busy and generally stressed out. They are involved in other advanced classes, in clubs, and so on. The Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate class (which I'm not allowed to teach) has two Sterling Scholars in it. In that and another class, there are a couple of students who have helped organize a rally against climate change. In Spanish 4, one day a girl was carrying an application to Harvard when she came into class. This kind of stuff isn't exactly a secret their success like the other points are. Still, a fair observation about the characteristics of this group.

4. They have family support

One night for homework, students wrote sentences using some grammar form about stuff their parents tell them, I think. I don't remember exactly. One of the students wrote something like: "Get good grades, or your parents will be mad." Another student came in after school briefly. Talking to him, it turns out his parents wanted him to go to this school for the International Baccalaureate program. A couple of students have Spanish language tutors. The parents of these high-achievers obviously have high expectations. I think that really does help them achieve like they do--but that it ads pressure at the same time, of course.

Things that Make Me Happy

2011-02-25T20:53:00.004-07:00

So, the last month or so has been stressful. I had no idea it would take up pretty much all my time to come up with lesson plans. It's taxing to be constantly examined as well, constantly getting "feedback." I've had some other odds and ends to work on at BYU, too, and then my computer crashed. It is fixed but still not back to normal...

I was feeling pretty negative about life but decided I need to try to be more positive. So I'm including a few things that have made me happy recently.

"Shampoo" by Elvis Perkins. I listen to a lot of music lately. Sometimes loud, and at wee hours of the morning to keep me awake. This song came up on Pandora the other day, and I have been obsessed with it since then. I don't know why. And don't ask me what it means. I don't think that's the point. (Hope it isn't!)

Mates of State. Along the music theme, I discovered this last night from the band. Mates of State is a husband and wife team, they quit their jobs as a cancer researcher and elementary school teacher to be independent rock stars full time. I also took a look at this group's blog last night--I read it every few months or so. It just delights me that one post will be about finishing an album or a big tour, and then the next is about what to do with kids all day when everyone's snowed in or making Halloween costumes. They're a family, and just happen to be rock musicians, too.

Reading the good word. Honestly, sometimes it's harder to stay consistent with scripture and gospel study than it is at other times. Lately, it's just been a pleasure to read. Something that's been especially beneficial lately is Richard G. Scott's October 2010 talk "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character."

Doctor Who. Should I admit this? During last Summer term, one of my roommates convinced me to sit down and watch an episode with her. It took convincing, too--I remember the older version coming on late at night on PBS and it really freaking me out. The newer series have just been fun to watch--though if I do alone late at night with all the lights turned off, I find myself looking over my shoulder when the episode finishes and I walk down the dark hall to bed...

More Machines...

2011-02-13T17:12:00.002-07:00

More about technology.

I was hurrying to school this Friday morning. I had stayed up late again but still not quite managed to get everything totally ready. There were still a couple of handouts on my computer. We were going to be reading part of 100 Years of Solitude in Spanish 4 (but the English translation, since I didn't have a copy in Spanish--lucky students), and I had some handouts about background information for them to look at in groups. Apparently my teaching is too teacher-centered. This is frustrating, because I feel like I try to get them to do stuff. Like printing out little bits on the United Fruit Company, magical realism, and the environmental impact of banana plantations in South America for them to read one of these and report to their group about.

This didn't happen, though. I got to school and while they were doing some exercise in partners, I opened up my computer to transfer and print the handouts. The screen looked like a stone, but lit up. I restarted it--same results. My computer...had died.

I took it down to the Apple store when school got out. I pulled out of my bag for the "genius" at the "Genius Bar" at the back of the jam-packed store. The "genius" said, "I haven't seen one of these in awhile." He scanned something and pulled up the purchase date: July 2005. He explained that Apple doesn't service computers that have been discontinued for five years or more, and that I just barely snuck in under the wire.

It's getting shipped off to Kansas or something and should be back in a couple of days with a new graphics card and something else and hard drive. Suck as much life out of it as possible...

Extraordinary Machine

2011-02-08T23:50:00.002-07:00

Before I left Korea, I wanted to get a flash drive. Korea has such beautiful electronics--I have pictures of a refrigerator displayed in front of an appliance store, and of the rice cookers from our apartments. I would tell people how beautiful their cell phones were as a way to start a conversation. "There isn't anything like that in the US," I would tell them, and it's true. I came back and found we have smart phones that can do amazing things. But with surprising colors, sparkles and lights, graphics and flower designs, their phones (like their refrigerators and rice cookers) are beautiful.

So I wanted to get a flash drive. These were also cheaper in Korea, and had huge capacities (at least compared to what I had seen...). So when my parents came to get me, we spent some time at Kyobo Book Store, and there, I found a flash drive.

And it is beautiful. It has an 8GB capacity. It is the size of the tip of my thumb, brushed red metal. It came attached to a little string so I could hook it to my cell phone, and a little chain to add it to a keyring. When I hold it, it makes me think of a rosary.

(Is that sacrilegious? Or just geeky?)

I never really had a need for a flash drive until I started student teaching. Going back and forth between my computer and the one in the classroom, I use one now pretty much every day. And at the end of the day, I take it out and stick it in my pocket.

Or, that's what I did until I washed the pants with the Korea flash drive in the pocket this last week. I don't put flash drives in my pocket anymore.

I was sad. Tonight, though, I thought I would just stick it in the computer and see what happens.

And it worked.

2011-01-20T20:21:00.003-07:00

So, a lot has happened since my last post. I've been thinking about my blog, and trying to think of significant/interesting/poetic things to write about. I'm just going to summarize what I've been up to since I last wrote.

--I left Provo. This included the following events:
+Finals
+The Provo Tabernacle burning up the day before I left. I kept waking up to helicopters and wondering what on earth was going on.
+Moving furniture six inches out from the wall to check out of the apartment. This was apparently a new part of the check-out process. Items found behind said furniture included used tissues, a necklace, a pocket-sized hymn book, and a framed picture of Joseph Smith. This was BYU, after all.

--Christmas. It was lovely. My sisters and their families were in town, which was the best part. That, and the tee shirt my dad gave me. It has Che Guevara wearing a Che Guevara tee shirt.

--New Years. At this point, it was just me and my parents. We hiked Ensign Peak (I should really include photos...) in the snow, and it was a beautiful way to start the New Year. After this Korean New Years tradition, we proceeded to a family New Years tradition, and went to a movie. We saw The King's Speech. It was excellent.

--I have a new ward.

--I started student teaching.
+For the first two weeks I just observed. This actually wasn't that pleasant. To be honest, I got bored. Plus I didn't know what to do with myself.
+I did some bits of lessons. I lead the reading for my first go at something in front of the class. After, I was convinced they hated me, were bored, and that I probably actually didn't know anything.
+I've started teaching whole classes. Up until this point, I was thinking things like, "So, what is my plan B? I know I've been fixated on becoming a teacher for a few years now, but..." Since I've been teaching more, though, things are better. I really do enjoy it when I'm doing it. I was surprised at how much I care for the students. I was also surprised at how exhausted I was after I taught the whole day today.

--I'm trying to finish the thesis for the Honors program. Mostly, the last little while of working on it has been me wishing I knew more math.

Successful Activities

2010-12-14T22:22:00.006-07:00

I was a Family Home Evening group leader this semester for church, which meant I was responsible for organizing some sort of spiritual enlightenment and activity once a week for a group of people I go to church with.

There were a couple of things we did that went well, so I'm going to share them.

Creating

I think one of the biggest worries of people my age is what to do with your life. So, one week, we started by reading a few quotes from this amazing talk about finding your life's calling.

Then we watched a video that my sister Emmy posted on her blog awhile back. A "Mormon Message" about creating. Because that's what we're doing. Even homework is creating, and creating is divine.

Then, for the activity, we sculpted ice cream. (Do you see a theme?) For the treat, we ate ice cream, but not the same ice cream that was sculpted.

We bought ice cream in cartons, so you can just peel away the carton, and then bring out the figure within it (with spoons, knives, and other kitchen implements). The theme was Disney characters.

This is Lumière (Beauty and the Beast)

This was supposed to be Simba, but the way it turned out, we decided it could be a character from Brother Bear.
Mater, from Cars. (Sideways--sorry about that.)

Bridge

I learned a few things during this past General Conference. One of them was that we just need to keep being consistent and doing the little things. Another was a story told in Neil L. Andersen's talk. He talked about how we need to not get offended about little things. He told a story about how Parley P. Pratt had been offended when he was doing what was right but was "judged unfairly." When it happened, Joseph Smith told him, "Parley...walk such things under your feet...[and] God Almighty shall be with you."

That phrase stuck with me: Walk such things under your feet.

So, for a family home evening lesson, I passed out a little piece of scrap paper to each person, and a sticky note to each person. I found the whole Parley P. Pratt story in his autobiography posted online, and read bits of it.

Then, I asked each person to write a challenge to faith. I told them it could be a personal challenge, an offense, a commandment, whatever had challenged their faith. And that no one was going to read these.

I then asked them to take the sticky note and write on it one thing they learned in General Conference that we should do. This might be following the prophet, praying, reading the scriptures, etc. (And that we would be reading these)

I had set two chairs facing each other, and told them that this was our "bridge of faith." I asked them to crumple their scrap paper and throw it under the "bridge," and then stick their sticky note on the bridge. We talked about how doing things to develop faith--the things they had learned to do at General Conference--can help you overcome the things that challenge your faith. To "walk them under your feet."

And then I asked if anyone wanted to cross the bridge. A few of the guys did it.

"Um, excuse me..."

2010-12-09T11:44:00.002-07:00

So I biked to school this morning. I always bike to school, on the eBike that I got from my cousin (thanks to my parents). I had just got onto lower campus and was going up a hill to get to my class.

I was also running late, and was trying to go quickly. Another bike came up beside me, and the girl riding said something to me. I was listening to my iPod, so I couldn't quite here her. (I assumed it was a comment about my bike, since a surprising number of strangers ask me about it. In fact, that's the only thing people talk to me about while I'm riding a bike.)

I took out an earphone, and what she was saying was, "Did you know there's a bra hanging off your backpack?" The answer to this question was obviously no (in fact, I just about ran into her at this point). I stopped, took off my backpack, and--sure enough--there it was, hanging from a bottle of water I had in one of the water bottle holders.

Yep.

I tried to replay in my mind the people I had gone past. I couldn't remember passing anyone I recognized--besides the nice Jehovah's Witness man who stands at the entrance to campus and passes out copies of The Watchtower most mornings. I tried to think of where it all broke down. What was the fatal decisive moment? Was it buying a bottle of water the other day (I had felt guilty for that, plastic bottles ruining the earth and all). Was it not putting all of my laundry away last night? Was it getting up to late to not be in a hurry this morning? The implications of what would have happened--possibilities of riding through campus with a bra hanging off my backpack, of walking into class with it--also went through my mind.

And so I want to emphasize my gratitude to that girl on the bike, who saved a bit of my dignity. She instilled in me a resolve to tell people the things they don't realize, whether they have food in their teeth or toilet paper stuck to their shoe. I, in turn, urge you to do the same.

The awkward people of the world will thank you.

Most Recent Life: Fort, Spark

2010-11-21T19:00:00.007-07:00

I've had a few recent blog realizations. One, I'm a little more interested in my blog again. Two, I don't have particularly interesting things to blog about. Three, I really enjoy reading other people's blogs, even if they are just about every-day stuff.

So, I'm blogging about some kind of mundane stuff.

The Fort.
So my roommates and I got a group date together. There was much deliberation about what we would do for this date (which gave me a new respect for guys who plan dates). After much discussion, we decided to build a fort. In our living room.

The fort wasn't looking to be very exciting until one of the guys suggested we turn the couch on end. We did that, and put a chair on the table, strung sheets off the ceiling and from the door and the refrigerator, put all the couch cushions on the ground and had a picnic in the fort. The picture hopefully gives you some idea of how it all went down. Spark.
My friend Jessica gave me a Groupon to Spark Restaurant Lounge for my birthday. I went there Friday night with some friends (the group would have included Jessica, except she lives in Salt Lake, not Provo, the location of Spark Restaurant Lounge and of me). It's quite the place. I was going to lift a picture of someone's Flickr photostream, but I'll just let you click the link. They set our places at the end of a long, black table. Kind of like medieval dining. We all felt chic. My friend Natalie got a Shirley Temple. It was described in the menu as having a "cotton candy cap." We all wondered what on earth this meant, until she got it. Basically, it's what it sounds like. There was fluffy cotton candy on a stick stuck in the drink like a flag. Quite the garnish.

The Trip, Part II

2010-11-07T13:58:00.005-07:00

Some more pictures from the trip--this one of the Hill Cumorah. It really is the tallest thing around--a spectacular view from on top. Several people elected to roll down it. I declined. A set of keys to one of the rental cars was lost in the process (and quickly found).
We drove from Palmyra, New York, to Kirtland, Ohio. Everyone learned the Erie Canal song ("I've got an old mule and her name is Sal...") on the way. It was sung several times during the trip. We stopped at one of the locks on the actual canal. It's still used for shipping and recreation.
A reconstruction of the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio, where the Church was officially founded on April 6, 1830 (a Tuesday). The other building on this site is half a visitors' center and half a meeting house for the area.
And we went to Kirtland, Ohio. The Kirtland Temple was a highlight of the trip for me. It's currently owned and maintained by the Community of Christ, a break-off from the LDS Church. They also run several of the sites in Nauvoo, and they had some big-wig guides for our group. One was one of their major scholars, and the other the director of all their sites in Nauvoo. I appreciated their work to maintain these common aspects of our heritage and their explanations of their beliefs, but that wasn't why I so loved visiting the Kirtland Temple.

A lot of amazing things happened in the Kirtland Temple while the saints were there. There are reports of miraculous things happening at the two packed dedication services. Later, Christ, Moses, Elijah, and others appeared here. And though not all the ordinances we have in the temple were performed until the saints were in Nauvoo (so after the days of the Kirtland Temple), it was the first temple of the new dispensation--it opened this age of temple work. I felt such a special peace being inside it, and I felt close to and grateful to those who worked so hard for it.

It's a big building, and I got the impression that it's very delicate. There are three levels: two huge meeting rooms (with pew boxes and benches that could be shifted to face either way) on the first two floors, and offices upstairs. The main level meeting room was for everyone, the second level was for priesthood meetings and training. The upstairs offices were used by the First Presidency, but also used as a school on weekdays open to anyone.
On the way to dinner that night, we stopped to see Symons Ryder's grave. He was an early member of the Church; the reason he gave for leaving it was that Joseph Smith spelled his name wrong ("Rider") on his mission call. He was a wealthy man, and after he left the Church gave a lot of money to a college in the area, and was a leader in the Campbellite Church. "Disciple" in "disciple of Christ" is misspelled on his gravestone.

Isn't this a wonderful cemetery? We stopped really briefly, but there was a quick game of "Enemy and Defender," which involves lots of running and giggling, before we left...car keys were lost then found here, too.
The next day we flew to Saint Louis, then drove to Nauvoo. A brief stop in Hannibal, Mark Twain's home town.
By now we had a tour bus rather than cars. Everyone was excited as we drove into Nauvoo--excited to see the temple. There it is, on the hill. We drove in to Nauvoo from Missouri, talking about the saints being driven out--following their footsteps, so to speak. It was so hopeful--triumphal, even--to see the temple in Nauvoo. And when we left a few days later, we were again in their footsteps, this time to Salt Lake City. Salt Lake, where it all finally worked--enough for them to build their houses, city, temple. Enough for them to stay. It strikes me that I am living what they hoped and worked and sacrificed for.
At one of the Community of Christ gift shops in Nauvoo, our professor, Richard Bennett, noticed two or three books he had authored or co-authored. He asked one of the students for a pen, picked one up, and started signing. He let the visitor's center people know as he was through about half the stack.

The Trip, Part I

2010-10-31T14:57:00.005-06:00

It's not like I haven't gone on any trips lately--I kind of feel bad for not giving others this kind of attention. But this really was a special one. I signed up for a Church history class this semester because I needed two more religion credits, two more Honors credits, and something that fit with a crazy schedule. This class was the only one that fit the bill. I was surprised, though, to get an email this summer informing me that the class included a trip to Church history sites in the eastern US. My parents, bless them, agreed to pay the subsidized fee--and it was an amazing week.

We flew into Rochester on the 22nd. For the first half of the trip, we were in rental cars and mini vans. We landed and started driving, and all of us were just excited to be there. Couldn't quite believe it--midterms one day, New York the next.

The next morning we went first thing to the Joseph Smith farm. This is where the 14-year-old Joseph Smith prayed about which church to join, and got a direct answer from God and Jesus Christ.

I was just blown away with how beautiful upstate New York is. When we were flying in I had already pretty much decided to move there. The farm itself is also beautiful. And, this is silly, but part of what was so cool about being there was that that's where the Restoration DVD was filmed--the DVD I sometimes saw three times a day on my mission with people learning about the Church. It's a good one. Click the link, go watch it.

The Sacred Grove was a highlight of the trip. It was so peaceful. A few people talked about hoping for a life-changing experience going into the Grove where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to answer a prayer, but that that didn't happen. That instead, there was a feeling of calm and of peace. The feeling here--that feeling--was like being in the temple.

Next was the Grandin Print Shop, where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed. As we were about to leave, a senior missionary stood up and said they were one of a handful of missions that was piloting a program with missionaries blogging. MISSIONARIES BLOGGING! Using technology, how wonderful is that? And it's not just the senior couples, but young missionaries, too. Here's his blog, and a link to all the official missionary blogs that have been started. I'll put a link in my blogroll, too.

This is Alvin Smith's grave (Joseph Smith's older brother), though his remains got washed away in a storm a long time ago. So his grave marker.

Home Again, Redbox, Halloween

2010-10-29T23:45:00.004-06:00

I got home last night from a Church history trip to Palmyra, New York, Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois. It was a wonderful trip. I wanted to blog while I was gone but then I forgot my camera cable...so I'll post about it--with pictures!--real soon. I feel so cheerful since getting back. It was so good to have in the middle of a hard semester.

I used Redbox for the first time in my life tonight. It just blew me away. I think it's pretty much space-age. Technology in general is just amazing me particularly lately. Maybe the Church history tour helped with this--hearing lots of stories and reading about a time when communication was hard, transportation was hard. Now there are cell phones, computer models of buildings, instant publications, airplanes...and Redbox. The video comes out in a little case. It really is like something out of a movie. Seriously.

Today was Halloween on campus--the day closest to it that people could dress up for. This just delights me. I saw a black cat and a couple of wizards. There was the Queen of Hearts with a full Elizabethan collar. I saw a Miss Frizzle with red curly hair piled up, and a dress made out of planet fabric. I had two favorites, though. One was a girl dressed up as an old person. This itself is not that creative. What made me smile was that she was on her own, but still walking with her cane using little shuffles. She was on her cell phone, telling the person on the other end in a grandma voice, "no, today my name is Granny Granger, and that's what I made my second-graders call me." She carried on the voice and the shuffle for as long as I could see or hear her. The second favorite was when I went up to the video section of the library on campus. They keep the videos behind a big desk, and employees have to go get them for you. I was asking about one when all of a sudden Charlie Chaplin walked out from the shelves of videos. I was severely disappointed when he started talking to someone.

Out of the Closet

2010-10-19T21:24:00.005-06:00

I realized today how much I don't like talking about politics.

In the half hour break before my French teaching class, I sat down to eat my lunch. Another student from the class (before anyone in my family gets excited about this: he's married) came and sat down next to me and pulled out his.

We were talking about the homework assignment and teaching and whatever, and somehow we got on politics. Or he got on politics. It started out alright. Things I could smile and nod about. Then he started talking about how terrible it was that the Democrats wanted to get rid of democracy, and that really what would be ideal is to return to a flat tax--I mean, people don't want to move up to the next tax bracket, and it makes them lazy. And some people end up living off Medicaid.

I realized about then that this was like those moments on my mission where I started talking to someone on the street who turned out to be very Christian and whose son had been a missionary in China and Australia and just blessed me for what I was doing--when I knew, a moment later, I would talk to them about the Book of Mormon I was carrying, and they'd do a 180.

And so it started getting a little awkward as I didn't really give any "yeah, I know what you mean!"'s to what he was saying. I started making broad generalizations as I was thinking things like, "this is why I don't talk politics. I hate disagreeing, and I hate arguing my points." And that's mostly what I advocated in our conversation (and what I really do believe): we have to start agreeing with each other, or nothing is going to happen for anyone.

The awkwardness increased, though, as it became evident that, even though I'm a Mormon in red Utah county and BYU once more, I wasn't agreeing.

It continues.

This was the second time this semester I've talked about politics. The first one was maybe a week or two ago when I was doing homework in the Wilkinson Center, and a girl came and sat next to me. She was a journalism student, writing a story for the Daily Universe, and could she interview me? I said sure. She asked me about the elections. I told her I had voted for Obama. I was gone for the first year of his presidency, but what I've experienced since I got home I've been happy with--our big problem, though, is that there's no compromising. It's just becoming more and more polarized--therefore, more and more of a stalemate.

Okay, so back to today. Me and French Class Kid were walking into our classroom. I waved at a professor I know who was walking down the hall towards us. Carrie, said the professor as he stopped, you were quoted in the Daily Universe...today or yesterday. Talking about politics. Giving your opinion. French Class Kid turns to the part of the class that was there--hey! he says. She was in the newspaper!

At this point, I just about died. I know that professor's pretty conservative. I knew French Class Kid was, and that he knew I wasn't. And I knew this shouldn't be a big deal. Still, I realized I don't like wearing my politics on my sleeve at BYU. No, I don't really like it period. I kind of felt like I was outed today. ...Still, stand up for what you believe in, right?

html

2010-09-30T18:13:00.003-06:00

A professor in the French department just emailed me and offered me a job--making some Word documents html compatible.

So I'm trying to figure this out.

That should be four spaces and
a new line.

Yes! It worked.

and this should make italics

So far so good.

Do'es this make an apostrophe? What abo't that?

Can I put it in the center?
How about italics in the center?

And this way?

2010-08-15T21:50:00.004-06:00

I sat down and started writing an essay. Writing a good, though-out essay--thought maybe I could post that here. My blog needs a niche, or reviving, or something. And wouldn't it be interesting to be able to sit down and read intelligent and thoughtful essays that were good and thought-out?

But I gave up quickly. I didn't even take the photo for this post. It's one my uncle Niel, who's building the fence, took and that my mom sent out. Didn't take it, didn't load it up.

It's a picture of the Corner. Bertelson Corner is a piece of land on Big Turtle Lake in northern Minnesota with three tar-paper cabins from maybe the '40s, a wash house, a boat house, a tool shed, and a pump house. It has a regulation-size badminton court and a shuffle court that no one's used for years (but that I've always been dying to try. Once I brought this up and somebody said the stuff to play was probably in the former-boat-house-now-tool-shed and I was sent to look but couldn't find anything and was terribly disappointed), two aluminum canoes, a speed boat and a pontoon boat, and an great big Windstream trailer that must be from the '60s. The Corner is a time capsule--the chairs and tables, the pictures and the old magazines lying around. There's a fan in "the House"--the biggest of the little cabins--that has a green tag hanging off of it. "If you take this," it says, "make sure it's back at the Corner by July 1958. --Dad."

I was surprised about how happy I was to be back here. I came when I was little-little, and didn't come again until my second sister was in junior high and I was 11 or 12, and the three of us (with my mom) came up. For a long time I felt like I had missed out on the Corner because of that little gap. But when I was getting an update on my second cousins--the ones that were younger than me, young enough to not consider ourselves the same age, are starting (and finishing up!) college, the baby who wasn't born yet that first trip back is in sixth grade--I realized I have been coming for awhile.

It's usually walking across from the cabins towards the lake--under the trees, across the short grass--that I start to wax reflexive. I think about the last time I'd been there. I think about how old I was then, what I was doing. The Corner was bought by my maternal great-grandparents, and my grandma and her sisters spend time in the summer up here together. Since I got here on Friday, I've been listening to them talk about the cabin they would rent before the Corner was purchased. Listening to them talk about the people they know or knew up here. Listening to them tell stories and laugh and laugh, and realizing they all have a sense of humor and love of life, like when they were younger (I think I realized this when my grandma told about how her mom sent her and her sister outside with some cleaned fresh fish to put them in that side of the icebox that opened from the kitchen and from outside--it was dark, and when they opened the little door, there were these two hands sticking out to scare them--their mother's hands). I think about myself and how I've changed from Corner visit to Corner visit--how much more they must do that than I. Thinking about year to year, not just back ten or fifteen years. The other day, we went on a drive, my mom and grandma and great aunts and I. We went in to see the place of a man they had known who had passed away. The now-owner drove in while we were there, getting out of her car, wary. My grandma explained we had known the former owner and introduced the group. "We're from Bertelson Corner," she said, "been coming here since 1925..."

The Famous French House

2010-07-04T00:50:00.005-06:00

So, the other week, someone knocked at our door. There were two guys when I opened it, one with a camera, the other one asking if they could film us speaking in French. They were doing a spot for BYU, they explained (it was about the Spanish House, I think) and just wanted to get some footage of the different languages of the Foreign Language Student Residence. We sat on the couch and talked, and they filmed us.

And then the other day, I got home after classes, and my roommate Clémence told me there'd be someone coming by to film around dinner time that evening. Kind of the same thing--later that evening, a guy with a camera, a girl, and some other guy who didn't seem to be entirely connected came in to our apartment--following another of my roommates, Sydney. They walked in and I kind of rolled my eyes and muttered "great" in French.

Then they turned off the camera...it turned out that, unlike the first group, this group actually spoke French. In fact, they had come from France (except the third guy, who seemed to be a guide/host from Church headquarters). They began introducing their network--M6, a national network in France. It was about this point that I realized this was a little bigger than the BYU TV guys.

It turns out they're working on a huge...special? on Mormons. They followed missionaries around in France and talked with members there, they came to Utah and went to Temple Square, Welfare Square...and BYU! Asking Sydney about it later, they followed her around for most of the day. She got pulled out of class that morning--someone at BYU helped them narrow down students. Sydney said they were looking for someone who lived in the French House and was taking a French class.

They came to dinner--watched us eat--and asked everyone questions. Questions about why BYU, about the Honor Code, about what we do on the weekends, about dating. I hope we represented well. The next day in the shower, I started to wonder--will we be the only representation of young American Mormons? I wonder...

Last of all, I finally have pictures working again...here are some from the FLSR. Just for the sake of finally adding pictures again.

This is my Russian friend Alla making me kimchi.

Sidewalk chalk messages for roommates.

And me. In someone's apartment. Mine?

French Camp and Photos

2010-06-08T00:27:00.005-06:00

I feel bad that my last post--that's been on here for so long--is ranting about things. A pretty mild rant about things that have little impact on the world, but still...

Today I started helping out at a French Camp that BYU is putting on this year for high school students. A graduate student and I are doing a cooking class for an hour each day, alternating groups every other day (today we had the "advanced" group, and they were pretty darn good). The grad student is paid. I am not. I emailed a professor and asked to be involved with the project.

As this was coming up today--as we were approaching 3:15--I started thinking, why am I doing this? I am busy with classes, and it's kind of a funny dynamic, actually, with the grad student, especially since she asked me if I had talked to the secretary about how I was getting paid...

But it was fun today. We made quiche Lorraine, which, it turns out, you can get into the oven in 15 minutes flat if you have pre-measured ingredients. I had convinced the grad student we needed to do a questionnaire about food allergies, which she said we could do after the quiche was in the oven...turns out one girl was vegetarian, and the quiche was the only recipe we're doing with meat in it. Oh well. Another girl is allergic to cantaloup and honeydew, and we were also planning a melon salad...I had had to talk the grad student into letting me do the questionnaire, and when we got the results I was thinking inside "ha, see it does matter."

Tonight we had Family Home Evening, and our group took photos wearing the tye-dye shirts we made for FHE two weeks ago. I would post them, except I'm having photo problems. I lost the cord to connect my camera to my computer, and my fancy memory-card-that-turns-into-a-USB has a virus, it turns out. I didn't know memory cards could get viruses, and I certainly don't know how it caught it. Anyway, I think blog posts without photos are kind of lame. But it looks like they'll be kind of lame for a little while still.

Classes, money, and realizations

2010-05-07T13:49:00.004-06:00

First, a class update. I am no longer in the technology class, so no more EduBlogging. I am, however, in a multicultural education class, whose assignments keep telling me to post something as my status update on Facebook or on Twitter or to text my friends. Creative...but my classes don't usually invade my Facebook life.

Well, but I have added professors as friends. Weird.

Anyway. The week has included several monumental moments for me.

First: the US Mint makes fake money.

Have you seen the newer one dollar coins? I don't know if it was just a PR failure, but I had no idea about this program when it started--the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Though I sure did hear a lot about the state quarter thing when it was starting, and when the dollar coin was introduced, and even about the revamping of dollar bills, I never heard anything about this. The first time I got a hold of one of the presidential $1 coins (I think as change for pizza at high school, if I remember correctly) I thought some dumb kid had given the lunch lady fake money that she had bought into, and now was giving me fake money back as change.

The design--especially the Statue of Liberty back--it looks fake and cheap. I bought a snack out of a vending machine this week and got gold $1 coins as change, and initially had the same reaction. Wait, this isn't real money!

And other coins, too--after completing the state quarter thing (last year, right?), the Mint is now starting an "America The Beautiful" quarter series--again, going through all the states and territories (kudos to them for including American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands--places I didn't even know about until 10th grade, but that's a whole other issue), depicting nature scenes. There's currently in circulation a penny with a shield on the reverse and also four different pennies with scenes from four stages of Lincon's life: birth and early childhood in Kentucky, formative years in Indiana, professional life in Illinois, and presidency in Washington, DC. "Westward Journey" nickle series with five different nickles with a buffalo, the Pacific coast, Louisiana Purchase/Peace Medal, a keelboat, and the traditional Monticello. Oh, and there are currently three designs for the reverse of the Sacagawea gold dollar.

I have to admit, I was a fan of the original 50 state series--I have all of them in a book at home (except about five) that I've been collecting for the last ten years. But I think part of my attraction to the program was how it was so new. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I didn't realize it was just the start of the future of American money. When did our currency come out of novelty shops, anyway? There are so many variations that you can't even tell what's real.

Second: Not everyone likes Minerva Tiechert's paintings

I love Minerva Tiechert's paintings. I'm signed up for a class about appreciating art and museums this term. We meet at the BYU Museum of Art. For our first assignment, we had to go write a response to a work in the museum. I chose The Rug Dealers by Minerva Tiechert, a huge--maybe five feet by ten feet--painting showing two Native Americans holding up woven rugs to sell. There are some cowboys--two Latino, one Anglo--standing on sides of the scene looking. Behind the sellers, a woman is standing and weaving a rug, a child at her side. It's Minerva Tiechert's style--more impressionistic, softer colors, movement--and looks so American, with the Native American designs in the rugs, lots of different cultures and people, an American scene in the American West.

I wrote the paper about it, and the next day at class, we all walked around the museum together, lead by our teacher. She asked us to present the work of art we had written about. We were close to mine, so I said I'd go. I stood up and described the things I just described, and then the teacher started asking the class questions, leading a discussion. She brought up Arnold Friberg, who painted the picture of George Washington kneeling and praying by his horse--and the series of pictures that appear in front of copies of the Book of Mormon. LDS audiences usually like more realistic depictions, she said, and when Friberg's and Tiechert's Book of Mormon paintings were both submitted, Frieberg's were chosen.

This lead into some discussion--several people saying, yes, I like the more realistic Friberg pictures. I don't like the chalky colors and painting style Tiechert uses. Her pictures are vague.... I guess this all just surprised me. I really like Tiechert's paintings. I guess it had honestly never even occurred to me that people might not like them.

Which leads me to realization number three.

Third: Some people think The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is cheesy

Another thing I love: the 1060's movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's French, entirely sung, and sad. I watched it for the first time with my dad, and liked it so much that I bought the soundtrack and, when I was in France, went to Cherbourg and tried to buy an umbrella.

I've moved back into the French House at BYU, where I speak French with my roommates and five days a week all the French House people have dinner together. The other night we were talking about French movies. We had talked about Les Diaboliques and Amélie and I said, do you know The Umbrellas of Cherbourg? Clémence, who's from France, laughed. Christina rolled her eyes. "It's so cheesy," said Clémence.

I still love it. And listen to the music.

Blogging in class...

2010-04-28T08:55:00.004-06:00

I'm sitting in my technology for education class, and it's the ten minute break. At the beginning of the class, they wheeled in two carts full of MacBooks (how great is that?), and we're all sitting at our desks...learning how to set up blogs. I had to set up one using a different provider since I already had one. It's on Edublogs, which is just glorified Wordpress...trying to sell you things. www.blogformyclass.edublogs.org. It's not going to be exciting. It's going to turn into my "personal learning environment," or "PLE"...eg, where I post assignments.

I'm having a great time. Hooray for school!

Okay, back to work. I need to go update the other blog.

Photos! (Random)

2010-04-11T22:52:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking about how I need to update things...everyone has a blog now, though. It's not quite as cool of a hobby as when I started it. I think that has been part of my delay.

I wanted to get some mission photos up. I wrote a lot about my time as a missionary in my emails that got posted, but there weren't any photos to go along with them! I finally uploaded (most of) my photos, and I pulled out a few to post here. It's a pretty random selection...
In my last area, Suwon, there was a restaurant that had the best kim bap in the world. And by that time, I had eaten a lot of kim bap for lunch or dinner when we were out and about (didn't eat it every day...but pretty close).
A member invited us to his steamed bread shop. These are made with rice flour, I think, and filled with red bean paste. A little tiny shop.
This is in my second area--Anyang stake. Gumcheon District of Seoul. I took the picture at the top floor of an apartment (that was on a hill). We had gone up to the top to start knocking on doors. Take an elevator to the top, then walk down, a floor at a time, knocking on all the doors... (I knocked on so many doors)
A threesome! Last area, I'm on the right, then Sister Choi (pronounced "chay") and Sister West. It was a holiday, and the missionaries had a sports get-together thing.
While I was in my second area, a bunch of missionaries got together on a Preparation Day and biked along the Han River. It was such a beautiful day.

Notes on Home

2010-03-18T09:37:00.003-06:00

I'm back.

My parents and I explored Seoul for a week, then flew back home. It was a nice transition week. We visited some investigators and members who I wanted to see again. My parents were great--it was neat to see them sitting on the floor, eating with chopsticks....

When I came back, I started dusting off my Facebook account (Facebook is different!), getting a new cell phone, resurrecting internet banking.... I finally decided all of it will just take a little time. The blog, too.

I was told that when I got home, things would be the same. But things are different! The term "reverse culture shock" comes to mind--culture shock being going to a new place and not knowing how to function, how to do everything. And now I'm back and...I don't know how to do everything! Mostly with technology (wait...how do I log out of Facebook? And where did my wall go?) Also, social networking, opinions about products--the web feels more...instutionalized. It's like this social evolution is taking place, and on the internet, it is accellerated. First Facebook was for cool kids, and they started growing up and having families and weren't really kids anymore, and now everyone is on it....

And the news. Pretty much the only recurring dream I had on my mission was of turning on the radio to NPR. I missed it. Now listening to it, Mexico is going crazy, lots on healthcare, and you can comment to Talk of the Nation with Twitter. What?

I'm seeing the economy really is rough, too. Before I left, a mall in our neighborhood got leveled, and a major construction project to turn it into an outdoor mall and housing units started. I was so excited to come back and see it. But it's still a huge plot of dirt--the same as when I left. The project was halted. Not enough money.

And, well, I maybe got more done as a missionary. Even if I tell myself I'm going to sit down and read the scriptures at 8:00, I don't motivate myself to do it the same way having a companion and strict rules did. So that's another thing I'm learning--how to use time well, and get things done. Maybe we're all learning that.

Anyway, I'm speaking in church about my mission this Sunday at 1:00, and anyone is welcome over to our house from 4:30 on. Contact me and I'll give you more info.

Last Letter!

2010-02-25T12:14:00.001-07:00

Hello! Last mission email, can you believe it?

A lot of things happening. Our area will be closing next week--the sister's will no longer be in that area. We will be packing the apartment up this week and turing investigators over to the elders, and the zone will actually become part of the Daejon Mission from March 4. We all got the announcement a few weeks ago--this will be a part of some adjustments in missions around the world. The rest of the Seoul West Mission will be combined with the Seoul Mission as of July.

It has been sad that what we're doing won't be continued with other sisters, but the same work will go on--and will go on well. And wonderful things are still happening--the most wonderful, and the most wonderful feeling when things are directed by the Spirit.

One of my two companions, Sister Choi, had to go home this week--she left on Tuesday night. The new school year is starting, so she had to leave a little early. She had been serving in Suwon for seven months, and touched a lot of people. There was an outpouring of love towards her with her leaving. A lot of people inviting us over, a lot of people wanting to see her.

One was the councilor in one of the bishopbricks of the wards we're in. They are a stalwart family--four kids, one a returned missionary, one on a mission now; his wife teaches lessons a lot with us. He asked us to stop by and say hello at his chin bang shop--sweet buns filled with black beans and steamed. We got off the bus and wandered through a market street to find his shop--it was tiny. He fed us buns as we talked and shared favorite scriptures.

I don't know if he was saying anything in particular, but for some reason my thoughts were on Christ, filled with thoughts of Christ, and changed my mind on what I had planned on sharing, trying to find a verse that reflected what I was feeling. The best I could find in the moment was 2 Nephi 4: 20, from "Nephi's Psalm," from Nephi, who crossed an ocean, who's brothers hated him, who trusted God and did what he said: "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep."

I had this warm feeling. I felt close to my Savior. I felt that He was with me, and I felt like He had been with me the whole time. That He had been with me through all of it. I feel guilty so often--I know I am insufficient, I know I don't make good choices sometimes, I know I don't do as much as I could or should. And I felt like He knew, and forgave me, and that it was okay.

Walking out on the street, down through that market, I felt, Christ is here, among these people. I felt connected to everyone, but not person-to-person, but because I was connected to Christ, and He knew every one of the people I was seeing on the street, on the sidewalk, on the bus. I felt love. I felt like I knew. I felt like Christ was with me.

I am grateful for my mission.

I love you all, and I'm so excited to SEE YOU SOON!

--Carrie

Letter from 17 February 2010

2010-02-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hello!

This past week was the Lunar New Year, so things were a bit slower. It's one of the biggest holidays of the year. It fell on Sunday this year--the same day as Valentine's Day--which meant everyone got a short weeked for the celebration, but it actually worked better for us. That way more days to be out doing things.

A member who knows Sister Choi somehow invited us out to lunch that day. Most wards moved Sacrament meeting to three, so we went out before church. We would be attending a different ward than her ward, and the lunch went long, so we all piled in the car after we were done--the missionaries, her husband, two kids. We continued chatting as we went. She dropped of her family at their building, and then continued to drive us to where we would be attending.

I was surprized at how I felt when everyone left--"now we can really talk to her," was kind of the feeling. Coming to Korea, I was a little concerned with...well, with how women would be treated here. It's a very Confusician (sp??) society, and he wasn't too fond of women. There is a little more separation between men and women--and that has meant I have spent most of my time with women. I realized on Sunday how much I enjoy these fine women I have met with, talked with, laughed and cried with. My mission has taught me so many things.

Love You!

Carrie

Letter from 11 February 2010

2010-02-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Today was temple day. I always think about family in the temple. The next time I go I will be there with my parents--I'm so excited! The last week or so I've felt a longing for my family like I've never felt on my mission--even at the beginning. It makes me think about our heavenly home, also. How after this life, we return to our Heavely Father. This last weekend, Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve visited Seoul. We went with some less active members to a fireside where he spoke. His wife spoke before him. And Sister Oaks said something I really liked. She said sometimes we feel longings for closeness, for goodness; feelings of sadness or similar feelings. She said those things help us remember that we don't belong here. They help us remember that we are celestial beings, living in a fallen world. This isn't our home.

There were more church members than I have ever seen in one place gathered at the fireside. It was a neat experience. And there were members from every area I've served in. One especially neat experience: I saw Jae hyun. She's a young woman from my first area. My...maybe third or forth month in Korea, my companion, Sister Bang, and I would meet with her. She was preparing to take the big high school graduation exam, and to take the TOFEL English test to be able to go study abroad. She's the only church member in her family. Sister Bang offered that we could do the 30-30 program with her--help her with English, and then share a gospel message.

I remember that Sister Bang and I often walked away from those appointments a little disappointed. Jae hyun had been spending her time studying comic books instead of for the exams she wanted to pass so badly. And then she got a part time job that meant she would have to work on Sunday--making going to church difficult. She talked about how she wanted her testimony of the gospel to grow. I talked about how God doesn't move--but we can get closer or farther away from Him, holding up my fingers to show the variable distance--and asked her, for one week, to pray and read the scriptures every day. The next week we met, and she hadn't done it.

That was a year ago. Then, on Sunday night, in the crowd of people, there was a familiar face. "Sister Gold! Guess what! I'm going to college!" She was so excited she could hardly stand it. She got in to a school just outside of Seoul. She'll live in the dorms. Maybe go to church twice a month there, and twice a month at her home ward in Seoul. She talked to me, gave me her address, and then held her fingers just like I had when I told her about how we can be nearer or farther from God. I had forgotten that I had done that. All of a sudden I remembered how urgently I had wanted her to understand that, how I had so little Korean to communicate it, how I wanted her to know and to make choices that would make her happy.

I had forgotten, but she remembered. It was so amazing to see her.

And always more amazing experiences ahead.

With lots of love,

Carrie

Letter from 3 February 2010

2010-02-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ah, sorry--no time. I spent most of email time today registering for BYU classes. I now have two companions waiting....

All is well in Happy Suwon (that's the city motto, and it's everywhere. Happy Suwon). A wonderful transfer. I feel like I'm dying, though. A meeting with a Ward Mission Leader and the elders this week, talking about all these new ideas and things to try...and I won't be around for them....

Things are wonderful. I'm grateful for my mission.

--Carrie

Letter from 28 January 2010

2010-01-28T11:56:00.001-07:00

Hello! Not much email time today.

It has been a blissful week in Suwon. I am wonderfully happy here--this is probably the happiest time of my mission. What a perfect way to end! I am enjoying being with two compaions. It takes some of the pressure off of being with just one person always. Sister Choi is 100% teacher. It is wonderful to see her and learn from her. And it's so good to be with Sister West--she helps me feel like I have things to contribute.

We have two investigators, especially, who are wonderful. Goo Ja yeong first, and then we met the first time with her best friend's little sister, Won Ji yeon (who looks a lot like Emmy). They...well, I'll have to write about them next week--out of time!

Lots and lots of love,

Carrie

Letter from 20 January 2010

2010-01-22T13:34:00.002-07:00

Well, today starts the last 6-week "transfer" period of my mission. Transfer calls come Tuesday--or don't, if we're staying in the same place with the same companion--and you pack up and leave Thursday by 7:00am. President Burton usually calls the sisters in the morning...but sometimes does in the evening. The whole thing puts you a little on edge about what's going to happen.

Sister Ee and I were almost finished with study time Tuesday morning, and I had pretty much decided a phone call wouldn't come. We were sure I would stay in Seoul Nam, since I got there just six weeks before. Not as sure about where Sister Ee would go. Anyway, the phone rang, we both jumped, and I answered.

And now here I am writing from "Happy" Suwon! Really surprised. I didn't think I would move. I got moved out from the middle of Seoul to the countryside. Sister Ee stayed in Seoul Nam, and my former compaion Sister Lee (Well, in Korean, both are Sister Ee) joined her there.

I have two new companions--a threesome. Sister West is from Idaho; this is her second month in the country. She's 21, has three siblings, and attended BYU for two years where she studied geography and took some Chinese classes. Sister Choi (pronounced "chay") is 29. She joined the church in middle school and is the only member in her family. She has two sibblings. She's a high school English teacher, and could only get a year of leave (not 18 months) for her mission. It's also her last transfer, though she'll leave a week early to go back for teacher training meetings before the new school year starts (in Feburary here).

Suwon is beautiful. Our house is right by Hwason Fortress (worth googling), a formitable, very traditionally Asian-looking stone fortress that was built in the 18th century. Huge walls...anyway, really neat to live right by it.

We were walking by it today on the way to email, and had such a bizarre experience. There was a woman carrying a couple grocery bags and an enormous white teddy bear, maybe about three and a half feet tall and almost as wide, who also was walking by the fortress. She had a pink scarf looped under one of the bear's arms and over her shoulder, and carried him--it--messenger bag style. Sister Choi saw her and said, can we help you? People always refuse when we offer, but the teddy bear woman said, "yes." I grabbed the bear under its arm and Sister Choi held it by it's ear. We walked with it between us, but had to move over when a red and gold tourist train that had come up behind us started honking for us to move over. We walked with the woman for a ways, as we went talked about the Plan of Happiness, or Plan of Salvation, that Heavenly Father has prepared for us, and then parted ways. Sister Choi had said she liked teddy bears, so at one point the woman tried to give it to us. But Sister Choi said no.

Before I left Seoul Nam, we were able to visit some members at their houses this week. We do that a lot as missionaries...with time shorter, and especially leaving the area, I had a greater appreciation for it. I was grateful to hear and share how the joys we have in the gospel. Learning from other people is one of the greatest joys I've had on my mission. I'm learning so much going into people's homes, seeing them with their children, hearing how they talk about the gospel, seeing how they serve. I'm excited for the lessons yet to be learned.

Have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Letter from 13 January 2010

2010-01-15T23:33:00.000-07:00

Hello! Another cold and snowy week. No one really has snow shovels here. Lots of people went out on the street and attacked the snow with brooms (it gave me a new appreciation for the sport of curling). And I saw a citizen's brigade dragging a tarp piled with snow; they had removed a manhole cover and dumped it in. It's like people don't really know what to *do* with all this snow.

Other events of the week: I got to ride in a car elevator. We had interviews with President Burton this week, like we do every six weeks. His wife, Sister Burton, needed to run out and get some lunch while my companion was being interviewed. So Sister Burton took me along. We drove to Costco (it felt like going on errands with mom). And the parking attendant (there are parking attendants everywhere) waved her into...an elevator. We drove in, they shut the door. Per directions, Sister Burton turned off the engine, and pushed the "third floor" button and we went up to the roof of the building. Strange sensation.

One of my favorite parts of the week this week was meeting Sister Hong at the church. She joined the church awhile ago--we're not sure when--and hasn't attended in a long time. She saw us walking around one day. She had run into the missionaries before, so had our phone number. She's a high school English teacher, and needed help seeing if her students had plagerized an assignment. So she sent us a text message and asked to meet. We met her last week and again this last Tuesday.

My companion, Sister Ee, said when she had met her before, her heart was hard. That she questioned the church and doctrine but didn't really want answers. Meeting the past two weeks though have been really amazing. She has questions, we open the scriptures and read together. We talk a lot, and enjoy each other. And she wants to talk about spiritual things. She told us that she's been seeing the missionaries--elders and sisters--everywhere lately. We always start and end visits with a prayer. Last Tuesday, she offered to say the concluding prayer. Praying, she said she's been seeing the missionaries a lot, and that she's been baptized, and that maybe she needs to come to church, and asked to have Heavenly Father's help. It was really neat. I'm so grateful I get to know her.

Have a wonderful week! Stay warm and healthy.

Much love,

Carrie

Letter from 6 January 2010

2010-01-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

What an amazing week! Lots to write about.

Well, we did not in fact freeze on New Year's. I wasn't too excited about the hiking activity. But I ended up absolutely loving it.

New Year's Eve, we were doing regular missionary things like we always do, and on the way home, around 9, it occured to me that there was nothing special that seemed to be happening or gearing up to happen. I started asking my companion, Sister Ee, about what people usually do on New Year's in Korea. She said some people stay up and have parties, but maybe a little more common to celebrate New Year's DAY--the first day of the year. Hiking, and seeing the first sunrise of the year. That night going to bed at 10:30 felt so strange--"you mean we're just going to end it like this?" That's what it felt like (though it wasn't the first time I haven't stayed up...I don't think I've stayed up for the last four years).

The next day--2010!--we woke up earlyand took the bus to the trailhead of Gwanak Mountain. The group of about 12 of us from the ward gathered at 8am and got going up the mountain to greet the new year. The air was cold and fresh. There was no wind. The snowy mountain was beautiful. There were so many people hiking--most coming down--they must have been on the mountain to see the first sunrise of 2010. We hiked together, and when we reached the top, the sun shining down on us, we formed a circle, and the bishop offered a prayer. He prayed for the new year. For the ward and stake, for the leaders. For missionary work. For the country. After, wandering off a little on our own, we offered our own prayers.

We climbed down and headed to the bishop's house and ate dok mandu soup (dok is that sticky, chewy rice cake; the soup is traditional for New Year's), and then the bishop had us go around in a circle and talk about our goals for the new year. It was such a wonderful New Year's Day! A wonderful new start, wonderful to look forward, and to do things together.

We had another "hiking" experience this week. Sunday night, I think, tons of snow fell. Maybe a foot and a half? Two feet? They say Seoul hasn't seen snow like this in 100 years. That day we planned to go heart attack Lee Eujin's door. Her mom got baptized recently, and we met Eujin a few weeks ago. Her grandfather has been really sick lately, though, so they haven't been able to come out to church. I felt like we needed to do something to try to keep in contact with them...we didn't have appointments Monday afternoon, so we decided to go out to their house to heart attack their door--stick paper hearts all over it--and leave a note.

Monday morning we woke up to all the snow, and it kept snowing. So when we were on the bus on our way to Lee Eujin's...the bus got to the bottom of a gradual hill, stopped, and the driver told everyone to get out. The bus wasn't equipped to go up the hill in the snow. So we got out...and walked.

It ended up being forty minutes? An hour? to walk. In the snow, going up the gradual hill, the scenery turning more into country-side. Rolling hills and trees, all covered in beautiful snow.

I loved the pioneers when I was younger--I still do, I guess. And as we were walking, started thinking, why aren't I thinking about the pioneers? Thinking about how this is what it would have been like for the ones caught in early snow storms...and then I thought, because this is Korea. Korea didn't have European immigrants pulling handcarts across the wilderness.

Grammy found a magazine article that Mom sent along soon after I got here last year. The article included an old black and white picture, maybe from teh 40's or 50's, a picture of a line of women, poor women, on a path, walking somewhere. They were wearing traditional Korean dresses, han bok, and carrying bundles of things. They looked tired and hungry.

I started thinking about that picture again on Monday as we were walking through the snow. I was thinking about it as we rounded a bend and a valley opened up--a valley filled with a beautiful, modern apartment complex. I saw that and thought of the women in the picture. "This is what you were walking to," I thought. "Did you know that? Walking to a where their country would live in peace. In security, in comfort." I don't know if they hoped for that. I don't know if they hoped. But they were walking towards something. They couldn't see it, but it would be there.

I want to remember the feeling I felt. I we don't know if we know what we are walking to. I think God knows. And I think when we ask Him to, he will point us in the best direction to get there. We can't know everything. We just do our best to follow Him. And keep walking.

I love you all. Happy New Year. The best is yet to be.

--Carrie

Letter from 30 December 2009

2009-12-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hello and happy new year! Tomorrow morning, the first of the year, Shilim ward has asked us and the elders to attend their hiking activity with them. I guess they do it every year to welcome in the new year. Sister Ee's home ward does it, too. Should be exciting. I hope I don't freeze.

Last Sunday it snowed! Maybe two inches; snow usually doesn't stick, but it did, and it is beautiful! I had forgotten how much I like the snow. How you can see people's footprints, see where they've been. How things are quiter, muted. How beautiful snow is on the rooftops and trees. I am also tremendously grateful for good winter boots, and find great satisfaction in being able to walk through slush and banks of snow and it not effect me.

We met a new investigator yesterday for the English program. We haven't had many new investigators lately; I was so excited to meet her! Her first name is Oo joo--which means "space." In a not-weird-way, though, apparently--When Sister Ee heard it, she said, "Oh, pretty!"

Christmas this week, and a Christmas phonecall (a wonderful present!). A senior missionary couple hosted a bunch of missionaries at their house after that. Ate burritos and played Uno. That night, we met a new member and her two new member daughters and an old member for dinner, and one of the daughters had a temple reccommend interview after. Wonderful.

Have a wonderful week--and wonderful year! May it be the best one yet. I've been learning a lot about goals on my mission--appreciating them for the first time (I never was a goals person--until now). I'm seeing how when we set them, pray about them, work for them, things actually happen. I set some goals for the new year today. I'm excited for 2010. It should be a good one.

Lots of love,

Carrie

Letter from 24 December 2009

2009-12-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I didn't write a group email last week! That evening, walking down the street, I all of a sudden realized I completely forgot!

Merry Christmas to you all! What a wonderful time of the year. This Christmas has been such a special Christmas--I'm grateful to be here. I feel closer to Christ this Christmas than I ever have. I'm grateful that he is our Savior--that He can understand all things; that He knows us, our trials and worries. That through the atonement, He can lift our burdens, and that in repenting we can be clean from sin. I'm grateful for the scriptures that testify of Him. I'm grateful for good men and women who follow him--and so act in love and charity. I'm grateful that his gospel has been restored in its fullness, with the same orginaztion that he established during his ministry.

Our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Burton, in about September invited us, as a mission, to do an activity together. They gave us each a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon, and asked us to highlight four things in different colors: references to Christ, His words, His attributes, and doctrines. We were to read five pages a day to finish by Christmas Conference.

Christmas Conference was Wednesday, and I finished reading on Tuesday. Just a few pages of the activity shows how the Book of Mormon truely does testify of Christ. And reading it like that every day, I started to see how the Book of Mormon really is a record of people who believed in Him. Who taught others of Him. Who followed Him. It gave me such a new appreciation for this Book that I carry around every day. That I show to people on the street. That I teach out of. It truely is a testament of Jesus Christ.

People have been so kind to us during the Christmas season. Last Sunday we got presented with gifts from the wards we serve in--socks, candy, fruit, and really nice shampoo that smells like Korean medicine. And the Christmas Conference for the missionaries yesterday included a turkey dinner and a visit from Santa. A member from the ward lent me a han bok--a traditional Korean dress--to wear. All the sisters dressed up and looked lovely.

We went caroling with some members last week; I made snowflake decorations for the English class Christmas party (everyone was kind of in awe with them--I guess snowflake cutting has not yet been incorperated into the Korean kindergarten curriculum), and Sister Ee headed a mass cookie baking/card making effort that has yeilded a gift for every member in Shilim ward for their Christmas party tonight.

The best part of Christmas so far, though, was last Sunday when a recent convert came to church with her 19-year-old daughter. We attended the meetings together; after taught her the first of the missionary lessons. We asked her, when, through prayer and reading the Book of Mormon, she came to know what we were teaching was true, if she would be baptized. She said yes.

Out of all the things we do, those are the best kind of moments.

A very Merry Christmas! I love you all!

--Carrie

Letter from 9 December 2009

2009-12-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hello!

This week was transfer week...and I got transfered! That made seven months in my last area, Anyang stake. My new area is called Seoul Nam Stake (Seoul South Stake). The sisters serve in two wards here, Shilim and Dongjak. This might be my last area--thankfully enough. Packing is horrible! Thankfully here door-to-door shipping is common and inexpensive, so the bulk of my things are getting shipped, and I just dragged one suitcase on the subway to get here.

The new area is right near Seoul National University, for a way of locating it. The best university in Korea.

My new companion is Sister Lee Ja yeon (not Sister Lee Yae ji--different Sister Lee's). "Lee" is actually "Ee" in Korean anyway (I don't know why it gains a vowel in English), so for the sake of distinguishing between the two Sister Lee's, I'll just call her Sister Ee.

Yesterday things worked out to be able to meet Sister Byun who got baptized a few months ago and the Choi sisters who just got baptized a few weeks ago. It has been so wonderful to see Sister Byun, since she was baptized in August, grow and change. She is happier. She is working to reach out to her family and to help them. She serves in callings at the church--serves other people. And she has a testimony of Jesus Christ. That was the most difficult thing for her when she got baptized--believing in Christ. And now she believes in Him, trusts Him, follows Him, and finds strength in that. And that is so beautiful.

Love you!

--Carrie

Letter from 2 December 2009

2009-12-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hello!

December has come! Our apartment, from over the years of missionaries, I guess, somehow has two Christmas trees. I pulled one down this week--it was in a box on top of a cupboard above the washing machine--and set it up along with a snowman doorknob hanger and a stocking that says "Elder Miller." Merry Christmas!

I guess I wasn't too excited for December--I wasn't expecting anything too exciting for Christmas. Christmas isn't too big in Korea. We had a zone conference this past week, though, and the mission president's wife took some time sharing some of her favorite scripture passages about the Savior with us, and we sang a few hymns together...so simple, but hearing what she shared made me realize getting ready for Christmas was a time to remember Jesus Christ. In the mission we have, for the past few months, been reading the Book of Mormon looking specifically for references to Christ, His words, His attributes, and doctrines. But the last few days, more than studying about Him, trying to remember Him and focusing more on trying to love and serve like He did and taught us to do has helped me feel closer to HIm at this time of the year when we celebrate Him. And now the Christmas season is becoming special.

We visited Yang Boo soon again this week, the grandmother who lives in our same apartment complex. She's been attending church regularly, has read the whole Book of Mormon, but she gets a little flustered whenever we talk about baptism. This week she went, and she told Sister Park she wanted to fix her hair, show her how to do it (and Sister Park said, oh, I think she mentioned this last time...). She told her to take out her barette; Yang Boo soon got a bottle of styling wax out of her bathroom, put it in Sister Park's hair, told her and showed her how she needed to style it with her fingers so it would be taller and whispy--"THIS way. You need to do it THIS way"--and if she just cut it here and here, it would be right. She disappeared onto the viranda and rummaged around, and then appeared with something metal and long and pointed, which made Sister Park jump. She put the camp-style gas stove she uses on the floor and started heating it up over the flames--turned out to be a screw driver. We were both a little nervous about what she was going to do to Sister Park, until she explained it was because she didn't have a curling iron.

"Have you ever tried this before?" was Sister Park's response. It all turned out alright.

That night, we got a call from some of the Elders in Anyang ward. There was someone at the church for us, they said. It turns out it was someone who knew Sister Park's mother. This family went to Canada for a few years and met Sister Park's family there. They wanted to take us to dinner. We were eating and talking, and the mother of the family pulled out her cell phone, rummaged around for a phone number...and dialed up Sister Park's mom. Missionaries have lots of rules, one of which is that we call home twice a year, on Christmas and Mother's Day. So when Sister Park's-mother's-friend tried to hand her the phone, everyone else around the table started waving their hands and saying no, no. So she handed the phone to me. I got to talk to Sister Park's mom (who is very nice).

Maybe both of these stories are you-had-to-be-there kind of things. Hmm.

All my best, have a wonderful week!

With love,

Carrie

Letter from 26 November 2009

2009-11-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to the Osan military base today for a Thanksgiving. The family who hosted us had lived there since August; before that they spent six years in Italy. Going to the base was such a strange sensation. I could understand all the chatterings (in English) that were going on around me. We walked into their house and they told us we could keep our shoes on. I started to eat my dinner and went to pick up my fork with my right hand, and thought it was the oddest thing in the world that it was on the left (I actually switched the fork with the knife and spoon before I realized that the place setting was actually correct, and I've just been eating with chopsticks for so long that I didn't remember that the fork really does go on the left).

Strange things.

Other news: we set a baptism date this week! Hooray! I've been in this area for over six months now--I don't know if I will still be here when Eu reem does get baptized. If I am or not, it's still happy!

So little email time today...sorry! Hope to share more adventures next week!

I send my love,

Carrie

Letter from 18 November 2009

2009-11-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello! Hello from Sanbon, Korea!

It's getting COLD! It's been almost one year since I've been in Korea, and things are coming full circle. Things were bare and cold when I got here. And it's getting chilly again! It reminds me, though, of what I've already experienced in Korea, and that's fun to look back on.

We had a neat experience this week. An appointment cancelled, and Sister Park and I took some dinner time to regroup a little bit. We looked at some rolls and picked a member in the area, called her up. She happened to be home. I hadn't seen her at church before, but we don't get to attend in that area very often. It turns out she hasn't really gone for five or ten years now, though her son still goes. She gave us fruit and dumplings and warm milk, and we talked for awhile. Before we left, she offered to say a closing prayer. I was grateful we happened to have time, happened to be near, and she happened to be home.

The other night, after a lesson with the family from North Korea, the member who had taught with us and her husband offered to drive us home--about 40 minutes, a long way. I was so grateful, though--not just that we were on time, but for how they chatted with us, told us how they met, what's important to them, about school and their missions. I'm so grateful for these people.

Have a great week!

--Carrie

Letter from 11 November 2009

2009-11-11T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hello!!

It's been a good week (do I say that every week?). Thursday night we had dinner with a member who is a little less active. Towards the end of the visit we were sharing a message from the scriptures, encouraging her to read on her own. And then she said that, a few months ago, she wasn't reading or praying because things were hard. But then the missionaries started visiting--me and Sister Lee--and after that, she started thinking that because things were hard, she should probably be reading and praying. And so she's been doing it more often lately. I was just so grateful to hear that. That something we did mattered. And then she said I was a good missionary. I had been feeling a little down that day, and what she said turned it around. Goodness, we need each other to help each other. We helped her, and she certainly helped me.

On Saturday, there was an area (stake-wide) fun meeting with Robert Holley. He's an American who when he was younger served as a missionary in Korea, eventually moved back, married a Korean...he's a lawyer originally but works in broadcasting, did some English-learning stuff, I think, some acting...anyway, I guess he's kind of famous here.

Well, it turns out that the uncle of my new companion, Sister Park, lives in the area we cover. She got special permission to call him and invite him to the meeting. And he came! Missionaries have so many rules that it made it just a little awkward--first of all me (her companion) having to always be with her, and then, when he wanted to take us to dinner, because of a rule that sister missionaries can't meet alone with a man, a church sister came with us...a little strange, but we think he had a good experience.

At dinner we were talking. He showed us his hand--he's missing about half of three fingers. He was ten years old at the time of the Korean war, he said. He lost the fingers because of a hand grenade. He said there's still shrapnel (sp?) in his hand that has worked its way out over the years. One day a few years ago he was washing his face and all of a sudden something cut his face. It was a piece of that hand grenade that had been in one of his fingers for years.

On Tuesday we went and visited another member. She's newer in the church--she was baptized about three years ago, I think. We went and talked to her about the temple. She has never gone, not even seen it, I think. I'm so glad there's a temple close to here--it makes it so much easier (I imagine) to help people look towards the temple. We told her about how all people need to be baptized, though there are people who lived and died without that opportunity. So, because God is merciful and just, he has provided a way for all people to be able to follow Christ though baptism--that those who died without that knowledge will still be able to learn, and that we, in our bodies, can be baptized in behalf of them on earth, in the temple. We were explaining about it, showing pictures, and she said, it seems to be a very sacred place.

And timing worked out well--the bishop and his councilors meet at the church on Wednesdays (this was a Tuesday), and a group are going to the temple to do baptisms on Saturday. So she had an interview with the bishop last night, and is going.

And then, last night we met some new people. The elders had met the mom on the bus, they were interested in the English program, and we had some time last night, so we went to their house to meet them. A grandma, mom, and daughter. Sister Park was trying to place their accent and asked right away where they were from. Turns out...from North Korea. Right on the boarder with China (that's how they got here--went through China, and then Thailand, I think). They came about a year ago, though the girls older sister had come first. Three years before. She was fourteen and left on her own--her mom had no idea what happened to her, she explained. Ran away? Dead?

After some time, the grandma's sister sent them some money, and that's how they're here. The ten-year-old stood up and sang some songs for us, songs about Jesus she had learned. I had seen a documentary years ago about North Korea with a child standing and singing just like that. She sat down, and the mom talked about Kim Jeong Il--about how he didn't allow churches in North Korea. About how people didn't learn about Jesus Christ.

Well, I'm out of time! More next week!

With love,

Carrie

Letter from 4 November 2009

2009-11-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Saturday was the baptism for the three sisters--So hyun, Do hyun, and Gi hyun. Their schedules are pretty crazy--they attend school plus private academies like most Korean students, so the only time during the week before the baptism we could meet them again was Friday--the day before. We taught one more lesson--told them about tything and fasting--then they had their baptism interviews, one at a time. While they were waiting for eachother, we wandered downstairs to see the baptismal font, talk about the service. Their mom was going to play the piano at the service (though it turned out she couldn't), so we went over to the library/missionary room to make some photocopies. As I was pulling up the...lid? cover? to copy the hymn, So hyun pointed to the copy machine, and said, "was this paid for with tything?" "Yep," I said. "You got it."

The service went well; Sister Buford--now Elizabeth--came with her boyfriend. She went home when the six-week period transfer ended last Thursday and when I got a new companion; she's now packing up her apartment and getting ready to move back to the US. She'll leave next week. It was funny to see someone who had been my mission compaion three days before in a knee-length skirt and high heels with a boy at her side. It was wonderful to see her, though, and I was so glad she could come.

On Tuesday we went to a member's house for a Halloween party she was putting on for a couple other moms and their young kids. They were obviously expecting us--when they opened the door for us, they were all lined up to greet us. Halloween isn't big in Korea; this member had lived in the US and thought it would be fun. And the party was a great success. There was a costume contest--the kids wore and were very satisfied with very simple things--a witches hat, or a mask, or a cape. And then we "Trick-or-Treated," with Sister Park and I standing in the bedroom and the kids coming to knock. Then the member had us read a few picture books in English to the kids--really simple things, they enjoyed it. As we did, I overheard the member telling one of her friends about the English/gospel program, and she wants to meet us later. Then we had lunch and jello and went on to our next appointment.

Out of time!

Have a great week,

Carrie

Letter from 21 Oct. 2009

2009-10-25T23:26:00.000-06:00

Hello!!!!!

I finally have a little more time to write this week! Hooray!

Things have been pretty busy! Which is absolutely wonderful! Last Friday was Pak Na ra's baptism. Sister Buford was so anxious to make it an event to remember. We turned on the heater in the bathroom about two hours early. We got a gift--a plant with pretty flowers and a notebook and (can you picture Sister Buford in the store?) a pretty candle and almost a little plastic bear keychain with the date on its belly and a pretty green coordinating gift bag to put it all in.

We were at the church early to try to get photos worked out for the Sister Buford fireside that next day. The elders were there too, it turned out, trying to get the baptismal font filled up. The boiler wasn't working, so we put water on the stove and in the rice cooker to start heating up. It ended up really not making a difference, though--poor Pak Na ra. She was a good sport about it, though.

The ward mission leader also requested that Sister Buford and I do a musical number, so we practiced singing a hymn in harmony. And then, as people were getting ready for the service, one of the women of the ward asked--if I could play the piano, they could play "I Am a Child of God" on the ocarina.

Have you ever heard of an ocarina? They look kind of like little submarines--kind of like a recorder in submarine form. They kind of seem to be a trend here. I had never seen them before. There's a mid-week ocarina class at church, and a lot of the ward members are learning it. I thought it was just kind of a way-to-make-music-accessible kind of instrument--inexpensive, pretty simple--but then I saw a big banner at an arts center for an ocarina concert.

Anyway.

So I accompanied the ocarina choir for "I Am a Child of God." I don't play much piano. I played the right hand and the bottom note and it worked out okay. I don't think anyone knew the difference. (Right??)

That was Friday; Saturday was Sister Buford's fireside. She had a translator--who I sent a text message to confirm with that morning, then turned around and called her and asked if she could teach a lesson with us that same day. I didn't put together that they were the same people. Oops. She was gracious, though, and did both for us.

Sister Buford showed pictures from filming the movie, getting her makeup done, practicing action scenes, with famous Korean actors. She got to the last picture--at her baptism. Dressed in white.

And I thought, "*this* is real."

After did "sign," as the Koreans say, and took pictures with people. I think it was a success. We'll do it again this Sunday at a different ward.

Sunday was Pak Na ra's confirmation. I opened my eyes after the blessing and looked at Pak Na ra...and she was different. After church that day we hurried over to a different ward building for an appointment, and happened to run into Byun Shin jeong, who got baptized a couple months ago. She was there asking another member for help with her family history. And this week, we met and taught a lesson to Byun Shin jeong's mom. Pak Na ra, and then Byun Shin jeong and how much she loves the church, how she's been changing and growing...they're helping me start to get it. I feel like I am finally starting to get missionary work. That people change with the church. That there's a difference when they are baptized and confirmed. That we don't just need it, but that it makes people happier. And that it's possible! I feel like I am starting to light up inside. I am finally starting to understand. And if it took me this long and this much work to start to get it, well, then how much more precious that knowledge is.

Also on Sunday, there were five other girls who attended church--investigators. And Monday and Tuesday, we went out to Ansan to meet some member high school students friends. There are a group of four members--three boys and a girl--who attend the same high school. The girl--Jeong Ee sul-- did some street contacting with us and is a better missionary than us! What wonderful people. And last night, the bishop of another ward went to a hair salon with us to introduce us to someone another member had met and wanted to introduce to us (confused yet?). I just feel privlidged to work with these people, be around them, learn from these members and their testimonies.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you dearly!

--Carrie

Letter from 15 October 2009

2009-10-15T13:40:00.001-06:00

Hello hello! The leaves are changing, the weather is nice--a lovely time to be a missionary.

This week we were teaching a lesson to Hong Kyung sook. We were talking about the Ten Commandments, and I was explaining what we did on the sabbath day. Midway through what I was saying, my companion, Sister Buford, burst out laughing. When she started laughing, so did Hong Kyung sook, but the member teaching with us, O Mi jeong, was good enough to retain her composure as she calmly explained that the word I was looking for was "shee da."

It turns out the word I thought meant "to rest"--"shee ha da"--actually means, roughly, to piss. Sister Buford (who didn't originally learn Korean as a missionary), explained this to me later. As she did so, all the situations I've used this word in started flashing through my mind. Teaching investigators that we rest on the sabbath day. Talking to people on the bus about why we attend church. When we've visited members in their home and telling them they need a rest.

Goodness. At least someone finally told me.

Other news this week: we have a baptism tomorrow! Hooray! Pak Na ra is a high school student, her friend is a member and they started attending church together. We're excited!

Time's about up--I send my love.

All my best,

Carrie

Photos of Carrie

2009-10-01T00:23:00.004-06:00

Carrie sent some photos to her sister, and they can be viewed here, here, here, and here. She looks great!

Letter from 30 September 2009

2009-10-01T00:23:00.001-06:00

Hello! Today isn't preparation day--just email only. This weekend is a big giant holiday, Choo sok. So prep. day is getting moved to Saturday, the main day of the holiday. I've been asking people what they do for it. The women all kind of moan. Then make mounds of food, clean the house for visitors. A lot of people call it "Korean Thanksgiving," but it sounds like it's even bigger. Traditionally held at the parent's house, and the oldest son's wife gets to do a lot of the cooking.

Other things we've been up to: We're working on planning a special fireside meeting with Sister Buford. We've been talking to people at the different wards we serve at, and one of the bishops really latched on to the idea. Sister Buford will talk about being in the movie, show some behind-the-scenes pictures, do a Q and A, and then talk about how, during and after working on the movie, she found the Church. She'll tell about her past attending a different church and studying religion, about getting a Book of Mormon, meeting the missionaries by chance, etc...and about her conversion.

We had a meeting last night with the bishop and his councelors working on some of the plans. We also met on Sunday. I walk out of these meetings feeling like a diplomat. I get to negotiate what people are saying, and translate--Sister Buford speaks some Korean, but I speak a little more. It was fun to look through some of her pictures last night, too, and the people at the ward were enammored (sp??)--someone handed us a bag of corn-pop like snacks. We really didn't need them--an investigator had just bought us a huge dinner (I think it was an entire duck that we ate), and so I tried to hand the bag off to someone as we were leaving, and the bishop said, no, they're for Sister Buford.

A member had also given us a flat of pears for Choo sok that we took home on the bus last night. I carried it on my head on the way back like the old women here, and Sister Buford laughed, and made me laugh. Things are good:)

Much love!

--Carrie

Letter from 24 Septemer 2009

2009-09-24T20:09:00.000-06:00

Hello from Gunpo, Korea! It was a great week. We worked hard. We saw miracles.

We went to church on Sunday, not sure about being able to teach any lessons that day, but with a few possibilities, and a goal to teach three with members. And at church, a high school student, Un jeong, brought her friend, Na ra, who we had met with once. Also, another member brought an old neighbor, Sister Han--two of Sister Han's three kids had been baptized, but the family had moved and they hadn't been attending church. So the member called them up, and Sister Han said she could bring them to church. So after church, we ended up being able to teach Na ra with her friend Un jeong, and Sister Han and her daughter with her former neighbor, Kim Jeong sook.

Two lessons. We needed one more.

We called Jeong Hee sook. Didn't answer. We had planned on visiting a member, Nam Un joo, and hoped to maybe find someone to bring with us. Didn't happen. We tried going door to door in an apartment complex, and actually found someone who said come back in a half hour. We were still in the same area, so we called Nam Un joo up again, asked her to come, and she met us. We went back up to the apartment and...the person said, "never mind." So, we tried on the street, with the member coming along. And we found two sisters who stopped, listened to a lesson with the member, Nam Un joo, accepted a Book of Mormon, and gave their phone number.

Three lessons. Whew.

Sister Buford is willing to WORK! I have a hard time keeping up with her;)

Have a wonderful week,

Carrie

New Transfer--Letter from 17 September 2009

2009-09-17T20:32:00.000-06:00

Well, it's a new transfer! Yay!

And I have a new companion.

Transfer calls now come on Tuesday instead of Saturday, and the change took place today--Thursday. Sister Lee gets to serve with another Korean sister (which I think she'll enjoy), and I get to serve with...Sister Buford!

I wrote about Sister Buford a couple weeks ago. She's American but has lived in Korea for the last 20 months or so. I heard more of her story on the ride home today: she did some acting in high school, studied finance at university. Spent a summer working for Paramount. After she graduated, she got a job in finance, but decided to follow an urge she's long had to live abroad, and to try out a dream to be a film actress.

Her mom's Korean, Asia is good for business things, she had been to China and didn't like it...anyway, she moved to Korea. She got a job teaching English and sent out resumes and auditioned for movie roles. And she got the main part in a Korean movie. She was working on it this time last year.

And...she had been religious during her whole life, though a bit disillusioned with religion during college. A friend sent her a Book of Mormon, though. And one day on the subway she talked to the missionaries. Event after event happened, and she met with the missionaries. Meeting with them, she just wanted to learn. She didn't want to pray, because she knew what it would mean if she learned for herself if the message was true. But she did pray. And she got baptized last Feb.

Originally when she met with the sister missionaries, it was a threesome--three sisters together. She eventually ended up meeting our mission president, I think, and said if that situation would arrise again, she was willing to help out.

And so that's what she's doing! She's serving for just a short time: this transfer. Just six weeks. She says hello to everyone she sees, she has worked to study the missionary lessons, she is so excited, so ready to go. I am so excited to serve with her--her faith is enormous, and her desire to share the gospel is amazing. Such a reward to be able to work with her.

So this morning Sister Lee met her new companion at the subway station, then I travelled with the mission president to the mission office with other "trainers"--companions of new missionaries. It felt like coming full circle. When I came here, just like that, there were a couple little meetings, and the new and training missionaries got together and bore testimonies and the president assigned who would go with who. Being there today on the other side was an interesting sensation. I'm grateful for as far as I've come. I didn't realize a mission is just one big learning curve! I'm grateful for what I've experienced and learned, and it's fun to be able to look back and look forward.

I send my love!

--Carrie

Ha, there's one more thing I wanted to share this week.

Sister Lee and I visited with a less active member this week. We happened to visit when the bishop was already there--neat to see him in action (encouraging to act, do things, to forgive and to repent), but also kind of awkward.

Anyway, the bishop finished his visit and left, and the member (Sister Kim) and her daughter talked to us for awhile. I guess Sister Kim knows medical things well...I don't know what all she does...but Sister Lee asked her about her skin and how to take care of it, which lead to a long discussion I didn't quite understand. And anyway, Sister Kim offered to do accupressure on Sister Lee's ears--sticking tiny bead-like balls on parts of her ear with skin-colored tape that you then squeeze.

And then she asked me if I would like her to do it to me. I said yes... because, well, I've never had anyone do accupressure on my ears before. She asked me if anywhere hurt, and Sister Lee piped up "her ankles!" which was true--they've been sore lately.

So Sister Kim pulled out a big book and opened it to a diagram of an ear with dots on it, found the one for "ankle," and stuck it on that place at the top of my ear. She squeezed it so it hurt, and said if I kept doing that, my ankle would be better.

And the incredible thing is...it worked. My ankle stopped hurting.

When I tell this to Americans, they say things like "really?!?" When I tell this to Koreans they say, "of course."

Anyway, have a great week!

Letter from 9 September 2009

2009-09-09T22:47:00.001-06:00

Hello! Today might be in two parts...long story.

I don't have any emails to respond to this week--maybe it's just technical difficulties;) I can (I think--not sure how much time we have) spend some more time writing a longer group email, then.

It was an interesting week. On Monday night, we went to dinner with some members in one of the wards we serve in. Elder Choi and Sister Goo. Elder Choi was called last Conference to the first quorum of the Seventy (for those of you who knows what that is). We invited Byun Shin jeong, who just got baptized, and another member and her son--Darima. She was baptized a few years ago now, she's from Mongolia. We meet her and help her and her son with English and teach a gospel lesson.

The appointment was good--after dinner, we sat on the floor and talked about the priesthood. We carefully planned a lesson, starting whith asking Elder Choi to define the priesthood. I asked him to do so, and he took the question and ran with it, asking his wife, Sister Goo, to explain about it as well. I added my testimony to what they said--I talked about the priesthood, after it was lost after New Testament times and the death of the apostles being restored again in modern times when a new prophet--when Joseph Smith was called. And I added my testimony to what they said.

I am growing in appreciation for the priesthood, and for the blessings that come from it. And I told those new members during the lesson (in my broken Korean) that whenever they need help, to ask for it. That Christ loves us, and one way he shows that love is through worthy priesthood holders.

Also this week on Tuesday, we set a baptisimal date with O Ha na. Yay! She attended church on Sunday--couldn't take the bus because of her hurt foot. I called some members and, bless them, one picked her up Sunday morning and drove her to church, where we met her. She is scheduled to get baptized on the twentieth.

On Tuesday, we had originally scheduled an appointment with O Ha ha for that evening, but that afternoon she called us and said she was starting university again, so couldn't meet in the evening, but could we come that afternoon? We went, and in the meantime she decided her foot was still too bad for her to go back to school. (So in the future her schedule will be the same--available in evenings. Just a one-day fluke) During the appointment, the bishop called us, and told us how one of the young single adult women in the ward, her father had just passed away, and the funeral was that day. He asked us to go that evening. Because of the schedule changes, we went.

Sister Lee was wearing a white shirt and light checked skirt, and said maybe she would have to change to go to a funeral. And she was right--everyone was in all black--except the mourning family. Sister Im and her sister and mother were dressed in bright white simple traditional Korean dresses. The contrast was striking. A picture of her father was set out, surrounded by white flowers, insence, fruit. Guests would face the picture, and bow deeply--kneeling, and touching their heads to their hands to the floor. Then they turned to the family, and each bowed like that to each other.

We talked to Sister Im briefly. Sister Lee and I were both nervous to go--not sure what we could say or do. We said a few words, and she had to excuse herself to bow with her family. Other church members also attended--I hope she will find strength in the gospel right now.

Transfer calls are next Tuesday--I find out if I change companions, if I change areas. I don't think I'll move areas. Any changes that happen will take place next Thursday. So I'll let you know then.

Have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Letter from 3 September 2009

2009-09-03T10:31:00.000-06:00

My sister Dagny had her baby this week--a girl, Kate. I don't have news that can compare to that! I'm "exciting" (as Sister Lee says) for my family, and to meet new members of my family when I get home!

It was a good week. On my birthday (Monday), the mission president and his wife called me up and sang to me on the phone. And Sister Lee and I had pat bing soo--kind of like an ice cream sunday, kind of like a snow cone: shaved ice, sweet red beans, fruit, flavored syrup, chocolate sauce, "dok" rice cake (not the crispy kind you're probably thinking...it's more like bread, but really chewy), sometimes corn flakes, ice cream....

Also, we met a great new investigator that day. Recently, for the missionaries, there's been a focus on "remembering"--recognizing the blessings, the little miracles that happen each day. At a district meeting last week (a small meeting with four other missionaries serving in close areas), with this in mind, the district leader asked us to talk about some of the miracles we saw this week. And, this week, our miracles are our investigators.

On Monday, we met O Han ah (a member we met with this week who lived in the US for awhile and has an American husband said her name sounds Hawaiian: Ohana. When I met her, I said it sounded like Hannah--since O is her family name. Han ah means "one" or "first"--usually. Names can have lots of different meanings. Anyway...). The elders met her as they were knocking door to door. They called us up and gave us her phone number, said she was interested in the 30/30 English program.

People found going door to door like that, and people interested in the English program aren't often the ones who stick around for a long time. So I guess I went without huge expectations. But she is amazing. After 20 minutes or so of chatting in English, she said, "I think 30 minutes is almost over. Can we talk about church in Korean now?"

A car ran over her foot in January, and for some reason it still isn't healed--so she's at home most of the time, goes to the doctor every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She's 23--born the same year, 1987, as me and Sister Lee. That's important here.

Yesterday we met a woman in her seventies, again, who the elders had met. She studied piano and vocal performance at university, and we showed her the baby grand piano in the chapel and she played through some of our hymns. She had me sing for her, and she said I would be really good if I had better technique. She brought us two sacks filled with about twenty apples each. We talked about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy.

And another new investigator who called us up on Sunday and said she wants to get baptized at the end of September. Like I said, our miracles this week were people.

I love you all,

Carrie

Letter from 27 August 2009

2009-08-27T08:43:00.001-06:00

Hello! Not much time again--I'm sorry. Today we went to the zoo in Seoul Grand Park with the Olympic judge. She's officially dropped as an investigator, but not as our surrigate grandmother. I love spending time with her. She's waiting for us.

This week we had zone conference with other missionaries, and we ment a sister who will be a missionary for the next six weeks to keep the number of sisters serving together even. It took a bit to piece together her story. Turns out she lives here, joined the church six months ago. She's an actress, and was the lead in "My Girlfriend is an Agent" (if you want to look it up). She got up and told us the story of her conversion. I really want to serve with her...maybe because she's a movie star. But...more, I would really like to spend six weeks with someone with her faith. She is on fire with faith, lit up because of the gospel.

I love you all, have a wonderful week.

--Carrie

Letter from 20 August 2009

2009-08-20T08:42:00.001-06:00

I promised Sister Lee just ten more minutes four minutes ago--I have to write quick! We went with other missionaries to a war memorial museum today, and there isn't much time for email! It was good--learned some new things.

I wanted to share some Korean moments I had this week...

--Proselyting (sp?) carrying about 20 pounds of kimchee. A member gave it to us. She made it last November. We eat it for lunch.
--Hitting my head on the corner of a brick wall bowing goodbye to an investigator after a teaching appointment last night. Fortunately it was dark (though maybe the reason I didn't see the wall coming) and everyone was busy saying goodbye, so I don't think anyone saw.
--Having my bag and everything in it smell like soy sauce and garlic after carrying around a mix of sauce left over after a ward dinner.

Also, an investigator (who we dropped that night--sad. Lots of those lately) took us to eat Vietnamese noodles. She had been to Vietnam, and so I was asking her about it as we ate. She said, they're Communist, you know? I didn't know. I should have. I heard that and I thought, oops, we lost that war, didn't we?

We've been visiting a lot of less active members lately--well, maybe three this week? One of the women finally said it--you can tell the missionaries anything, they just come and go. These people tell us exactly why they're not coming to church. I just wish my Korean was better--and that I had some answers for them. I just have "missionary answers," as someone once put it. Pray. You can always pray, even when other things look to hard. Read the scriptures--that's one way we can get answers, and sometimes we find things that are specifically for us. Everyone is human--everyone makes mistakes. The Savior knows everything we're going through, and He will help us as we turn to Him.

I know those things are true. I know they are. I just hope...I hope people will listen--well, not listen, but try for themselves.

I love you all, have a great week.

--Carrie

Letter from 13 August 2009

2009-08-13T08:41:00.001-06:00

Byun Shin jeong got baptized on Saturday. She was excited. I was excited that she was excited. The next day, Sunday, when we got to church 20 minutes early, the other missionaries told us she had already arrived. This week we wanted to meet with her at a member's house to talk about the temple, but she said, sorry, I'm busy. She's attending the world-wide Korean Young Adult Conference that's being held this week.

Some other good things this week. We have really not been busy lately--not a lot of investigators, people to meet with (that's not the good thing!). One night, looking desperately for an appointment, I saw a name on a role from church that I didn't recongize and asked if we could come. It turns out the woman was baptized a couple years ago, and last year, just decided to stop going to church. She said we could come by, and as we were visiting, she said flat out she had no intention of going to church again. But she told us to come visit her at her work--she works at a daycare, where kids get care for free (this week she's going camping with them). And she said we'd probably be able to meet with her sons, too.

And we met a new person on Sunday--her son was recently baptized. We asked if we could teach her more about our church, and she said yes. The family is just the two of them--mom and son. I hope they will be able to start doing this together.

The past two days were rainy--aparently, this year is especially rainy. It was a nice respite from the heat, though. And last night, when the rain cleared out, the air was clear, that beautiful early-evening sun shined. People on the street started pulling out cell phones to take pictures of a full rainbow that had appeared.

Have a wonderful week!

Letter from 5 August 2009

2009-08-05T08:40:00.001-06:00

Hello!

Transfer week--but no changes here. I'll stay in the same place with Sister Lee.

The number of people we're meeting with is still...small and smaller:( That means we have had time, though, to meet with more members. I am terrible with directions, and Korean names are really hard for me to remember, so that means I've been spending a lot of time--trying to!--figuring out who the members of the wards are, what areas they live in, etc.

Tuesday morning I was looking over names, pictures, and looking at someone's picture--Choi Dong hee--I thought, "we haven't visited her yet, have we?" We hadn't. I called her and asked if we could stop by that afternoon. She said sorry, but she had other plans. Then a few minutes later, she called back and asked, "what time can you come?"

We went and talked and visited, and shared a message--a passage from a General Conference talk, about how parents can give children good education, lessons, etc, but if they haven't given them faith, they haven't given them much at all. Choi Dong hee said earlier that day, after we had called, she thought that maybe the missionaries really should come by. So she cancelled her other apointment and called us back up. She said those were words she needed to hear. It was a neat experience.

Also this week, Byun Shin jeong set a baptism date--she's getting baptized on Saturday! We were teaching a lesson and had planned to set a date with her. She easily goes off on other topics, and when we were talking about something like house cleaning, I decided it wasn't the most spiritual moment and figured it would have to wait till the next time. And then, after some comments about mopping, I think, my companion, Sister Lee, said something like, "So when are you going to get baptized?" Byun Shin jeong kind of thought for a second, pulled out her cell phone and looked at the calendar on it...and decided on Saturday.

The singles her age in the ward have been wonderful to her--she spends time with them; we had dinner together with one, Kim Soon hee, Tuesday after Byun Shin jeong's interview. We had never been to Kim Soon hee's house--but Byun Shin jeong had, maybe three times before. I'm excited for her, and I think things will go well on Saturday.

Have a great week!

--Carrie

Letter from 29 July 2009

2009-07-29T08:39:00.001-06:00

Hello!

Sometimes I get letters or emails from people and they have great news, they've been up to interesting things...and I think about what I can write back, and there isn't a whole lot! A mission is actually kind of regular--pretty much the same schedule, doing the same things, teaching the same lessons...or maybe I just need to see life more creatively.

This week we had another lesson with Byun Shin Jeong. She's the one we've met with for awhile, she's thinking about baptism. During the lesson she asked me all of a sudden what I was looking for in a husband. I'm not quite sure why she was thinking about that...anyway, she said the members of are church are pretty much what she's looking for. She wants to marry someone who doesn't drink, who doesn't smoke, who's good with kids, and who's a good dancer. She said it's really rare that men in Korea don't drink or smoke--and she said that the church members were good to their kids, to family. It was interesting to hear her talk about it--talk about it like she was already a member of the church!

This is the last week of the transfer--I find out this Saturday what will happen with companions, areas, etc. So I'll let you all know!

Much love,

Carrie

Letter from 23 July 2009

2009-07-23T08:08:00.001-06:00

Hello!

I think we've gotten through monsoon season. I was asking around--people said it lasts 2-3 weeks. It hasn't rained since a huge storm that hit right as we were walking home last week. We got off the subway--though in this area it's above ground. We were at the station and had a few minutes before we needed to head back to our apartment, so wanted to talk to people there--but hardly could, it was so loud! There was lighting and thunder clapping, but mostly just the sound of rain pounding on the roof made it so we couldn't hear people we were trying to talk to, and they couldn't hear us. We left the station--kind of took a deep breath before going out in the rain. The umbrella hardly did any good--there was standing water on the sidewalks that we had to slosh through, my dress got wet at the bottom and wicked water until it was mostly all wet; as we were walking somehow even my hair got wet.

But it hasn't rained since then.

The woman we met in the elevator two weeks called us up suddenly last Friday. We had asked her to read the Book of Mormon. She was reading it Friday afternoon, and thought it was strange, and couldn't understand it, so she called us and told us she didn't want to meet us anymore. We went up to the 19th floor one more time and said goodbye. It was kind of like a breakup.

We've had a few other parting-of-ways lately.

But we're finding people, too. The whole process just keeps going. We met a grandmother, Lee Hyun Sook, her daughter, and granddaughter for the first time this week. The grandmother has some friends who are members of the Church, and wanted to do the English program with her granddaughter. We met on Sunday and introduced ourselves, talked some about the program and introduced our gospel message. We met again on Tuesday--with the grandmother, her granddaughter, Ji min, and grandson, Bom (they're cousins). Bom is staying with them for the six-week school vacation. His mother recently died of cancer. He and Ji min are the same age (9 American age), have the same glasses. We practiced English together, and they--and their grandmother--all know a lot.

At one point, Bom asked his grandmother in Korean: "How do you say 'past' in English?" She told him, and then he said, "I am happy past." "Because of his mother," Lee Hyun Sook said. It broke my heart! The whole family attends church and knows a lot about spiritual, church things. We were telling about how Joseph Smith was confused about how there were so many churches and religions, so he prayed to know which one to join, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him to answer his prayer. When Ji min heard that, she said wait, God is a spirit, not a body. I showed her Genesis 1:25-26, talking about how we were created in God's image...and was amazed about how I was showing that, explaining that to a 9-year-old. At the beginning of the lesson, when I asked who God was, Bom (also 9) said "Jesus is his only begotten son." Ji min said the closing prayer for the lesson, and did so beautifully. They are truely part of a wonderful family and are being raised so well. I was grateful for that example.

I love you all, I hope you have a wonderful week.

--Carrie

Letter from 16 July 2009

2009-07-17T22:31:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to write down fun quotes again. I want to keep sharing them.

I'm sorry about last week! We had a big meeting on Thursday--the whole mission got together to hear a professor from BYU talk about Korean history and religion. Travel time, and then some technical difficulties with computer resulted in...last week's short email.

It was a great lecture, though, and wonderful to see the other missionaries. It's the first time we've met all together. Now that I live in a house of just two instead of four sisters, it feels like I know the elders--the male missionaries--better. And they're a lot of fun!

We had a neat experience on our way to come email last week. A woman in the elevator started talking to us as we were coming down from our apartment to come email. She's lived there a few years, and has seen the missionaries come and go. We set an appointment to meet her, and we've already met her three times since last week. She lives on the 19th floor. We live on the 6th.

We've had some other neat appointments recently. Last week, we finished the six-week English program with Kim Jeong-ah--had our last lesson.Kim Jeong-ah lives never married, lives alone. She teaches yoga as a hobby, and is the kind of person who seems comfortable in any situation with any person.

After English time, we started gospel time, and asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon. After she said it was hard, we started to talk about some ways of doing it--looking at topics, we suggested. We pulled out the Book of Mormon Introduction card we use, with some questions on it and where to find the answers in the Book of Mormon for another example of how to study. And all of a sudden she said--I've wondered about that question.

It was a question about why God allows suffering to occur. We read the passage the card suggested--about Alma and Amulek, how they taught people the gospel, but then the people who believed were burned. We read what they wrote, and talked about the principles of free agency--how the persecuters had that choice--and of justice--how they couldn't choose the consequences. We talked about how God is just, and how the atonement makes things just.

And to end the lesson, we sang to her. We sang a church song, a children's song about prayer. She loved it, and she sang a song for us--a song about God. There was just a sweet feeling in the lesson. She bought us ice cream on our way to the bus stop, and we said goodbye.

We had dinner again last night with Kim Jeong-jah, the retired international gymnastics judge. Recently for English time she has me correct the autobiography she's writing in English--she decided it would be good language practice, and, she said, every day is the same for her, so instead of writing a journal, she would write about her past. She is endlessly interesting to me. She was born in North Korea, and her and her family were refugees twice during the Korean war. Her husband--her "kid's father," as she says it--was a fencer on the Korean national team and competed in the Olympics. He would come in every night at curfew (there was a curfew--at midnight), and later moved to California and owned a dollar store. She finished a book a couple of years ago about rhythmic gymnastics, and gave me a signed copy.

We invited her to be baptized this week. She didn't really answer. She did say, though, that she had been thinking. Thinking about if her husband had been a member of this church, which teaches no drinking. She's come to church a couple of times, said a few times that maybe she could see herself joining it.

I hope so.

I love you all dearly, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Email from 2 Weeks Ago

2009-07-15T20:30:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!

A few notible events this week. We went to a fish market with an investigator--the woman who judged gymnastics in the Olympics for years. We went to a tank, and she picked out a fish, and an octipus (sp?). As the man fished them out and got a stick with a hook on it ready, a woman was tying on a big, thick rubber apron...he wacked the fish once on the head with the flat end of the stick, the gills splayed out, and the woman cut it up right there, and another employee chopped up the octipus. They layed everything out neatly, and we went upstairs and ate it at a restaurant--raw fish wrapped in lettuce with spicy sauce; the octipus still moving, its suckers sticking to our chopsticks. Sister Gubler asked how long it keeps moving. "About an hour," she said.

Yesterday, we met with an investigator, Byun Shin jeong who met some members at the English academy where she works. She doesn't like the job--she said it was kind of amazing that she worked there, met that person there, and met us. She stopped progressing for awhile, and now, all of a sudden, she's progressing again. When we meet with members, they all really encourage her to get baptized. Yesterday we got so close to setting a date. We had the calendar out. If you don't mind praying for someone, go ahead and pray for her.

Today was transfers--the last six weeks went by fast! Sister Gubler moved to another area, and now I'm senior with Sister Ee Yae Ji--Sister Lee is the English version. Senior. This will be an adventure.

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Letter from 1 July 2009

2009-07-02T21:00:00.000-06:00

Hello!

This morning, I was doing crunches in the park, and an "aunt," as thery're called here--an woman in maybe her 60's or 70's--came up to me and said I was doing it wrong. She held my knees and counted loudly to ten (in case everyone wasn't staring at the foreigner already) as I did full situps. She said something about *that's* the way you loose weight on your stomach, and walked away.

This week, we met with Yoon Dong-hee, who talked about the "aunts." She said sometimes they're called the "third gender." They have opinions, do what they want to do, have strong wills. Strong. Not male or female, Yoon Dong-hee said. The third gender.

We've been meeting Yoon Dong-hee for maybe four weeks now. We go out on the bus on Monday mornings and meet her at a community center near the girls dorm where she lives. She's a graduate student, wants to practice English. She always gives us something to eat or drink when we see her--last time, she brought a plate of mandu wrapped up in newspaper and two sets of chopsticks that she had prepared at her apartment. Her mother is a preacher, and she said she believed in religion, but nothing specific. She kind of has the same view a lot of people do, it seems--Christ, Buddha, others were good teachers. The mountain analogy: there are many paths, but they all lead to the top.

But she's progressing, which is amazing. She reads the Book of Mormon, asks questions about it. She prays. She wants to attend church. And now...we're passing her off to another set of missionaries. She's technically in our area, but the church building that's closer is in another area.

We also met with Byun Shin-jeong again this week. We talked more about baptism. She lost her job, and she's planning on taking an exam the next two weeks on Sunday (Koreans are often taking tests, and more often studying for them). She knows she can attend church one of the two, but isn't sure about the other week. She said she wants to wait a little longer before she's baptized--because you have to keep going to church after you're baptized, right? That's how she asked it. She gets it.

I also got letters this week--and was so, so grateful for them. They were filled with kind words, testimonies of the Savior and the atonement. They helped me when I was feeling a little down. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Much love,

Carrie

Letter from 10 June 2009

2009-06-11T20:58:00.000-06:00

Hello!

Last night I was filling out a teaching record for a lesson we had taught when Sister Lee came in to the study room asking Sister Gubler to make cookies that she could include in a package she was sending home. Sister Gubler makes cookies often for members, people we visit or who do nice things for us. She wasn't sure there was enough dough left of what she had made for Sister Lee's family, too, though. So I said--should we make them? Now? We had 25 minutes before bed. Sister Lee and I did it together. She hadn't made cookies before. This morning, I asked her, "how was it?"

"Easy," she said.

We visited a lot of members yesterday. Lately I kind of feel like a diplomat. To a foreign country. We meet with members, and as we meet, I always have a few goals in mind: show that they can trust us--that we're capable and responsible and nice and dedicated; figure out when they might be available to teach with us (we always want to teach lessons with members); figure out how to help them do missionary things--if they know someone interested in meeting, or trying to show them how to share the gospel with someone; help them feel the Spirit and feel uplifted. And get in and out without the appointment lasting forever.

And without them feeling pressured. That's where the diplomatic skills come in, I think. Yesterday we visited with three members or families. The last appointment was with a family (part of them were home) who just joined the church in February. And I wanted so badly for them to think about who to share the gospel with and take action and do it--the prospect of them doing that seemed so exciting--that I just kind of flat out said it. Who do you know you could share the gospel with? And then the mom spent the next ten minutes or so talking about how awkward doing that is, how other people think our church is "ee-dan" (cult? unorthodox? I don't know if there's a good translation), etc, etc. So that really isn't the way to ask, I realized. Oops.

A few weeks ago we met with a young mother who just moved to a new apartment. I asked if there was anyone who lived around there who might be good to visit. And she talked about her neighbours, how she would like to talk to them about church, but it's hard sometimes. We talked about the power of example, and tried to encourage to continue building friendships in the area (she seemed really lonely, actually). A better way to ask, I think.

Anyway, I feel diplomatic.

I'm realizing, too, that with teaching, with being a missionary, there is endless room for improvement. There is always something new to try, always something to do better. Tonight we will be doing a lesson with a member and her neighbour who was asking questions about the church. It's just the second time we'll meet. We want to talk about the Plan of Salvation, and also about baptism, and ask her to be baptized. I've taught about baptism a lot. Lately, our mission president has been stressing a lot the doctrine of baptism, and studying about it this morning, I realized that same thing: endless room for improvement. It makes me nervous for tonight. But it should be fine. Good. It will be good.

I send my love!

--Carrie

Letter from 3 June 2009

2009-06-04T20:59:00.000-06:00

Really short today!

Yesterday we met with an amazing member family. They lived in New Zealand for about two years, but when they heard a talk about how members need to help strengthen the church in their own countries, they moved back to Korea.

Their oldest daughter speaks wonderful English with a beautiful New Zealand accent, and is smart and a good studier, but they decided to take her out of high school so she could study at home. Her parents didn't like how they couldn't have dinner together as a family ever--high school students stay at school late, late studying.

I was amazed at their courage to make these decisions, and at the blessings that came from them. They had a strong, loving family, and it made me (again) want my family and home and children to grow based on gospel principles.

Choi Hee sook, who we set the date with, couldn't come to church this week. So the date will be pushed back. This way, though, she will be able to prepare better for baptism.

Out of time!

Have a wonderful week,

Carrie

Letter from 28 May 2009

2009-05-29T12:54:00.000-06:00

It will be a quick one this week.

We met again with the investigator from North Korea last night, Choi Hee sook. And we set a baptisimal date with her! I get worried when we talk about baptism. I worry people don't understand it, or that they aren't ready for it, or that they're not doing it for the right reasons. So I was worried when we were talking about it last night, and invited her to be baptized. But as we did, I had that same kind of feeling I did meeting with the group who got baptized and then left for Fiji. A good feeling. A feeling that surprized me. Choi Hee sook said she would work at changing things around at work so she could attend church, and she was excited when we talked about June 7th.

Wednesday was a good day. Kind of a strange one. We hadn't had investigators who were available during the day, and we spend time walking, riding the bus, and meeting with a member. A bit later we met with a woman other missionaries met and referred to us. We met on the street, and were going to walk to the church to do a lesson there, but she really struggled walking. So we just sat down on some steps near the sidewalk, and taught the first lesson like that. It wasn't the ideal situation--we kind of attracted attention. I don't think it was the most comfortable setting for her (I'm pretty much used to looking weird and standing out by now, so it wasn't strange at all for me). It ended up that two other people came up to us and requested Books of Mormon from us.

So things keep going.

I love you all, and hope you have a great week.

--Carrie

Letter from 20 May 2009

2009-05-22T12:53:00.001-06:00

Hello!

It was kind of a long week. But I got through the first one in the new area with new companions...things should start speeding up from here.

I'm enjoying the threesome. It has a very different dynamic. When we visit people they are kind of surprized that there's three people, but at this point it isn't weird for us. That's kind of true for a lot of things about missionary work, though--it's kind of strange for other people, but not at all for us.

Like praying all the time. In the MTC, there was a Korean tutor we could meet with for thirty minutes at a time. She would always have us start with a prayer, which was strange to me then, but now...why not start with a prayer?

Also when we tell people we live together, or when we explain why we only have one cell phone number (we're always together), they are a little surprized. But that's what missionaries do!

I'm enjoying getting to know my companions, too. So my last compaion, Sister Bang, made sure I started using eye cream. Now Sister Lee (my companions are Sister Gubler and Sister Lee Yae Gi) told me I need to wash my feet every night before I go to bed. "Think about it," she said, "walking around all day with your feet in your stockings." So now I wash my feet at night.

Sister Lee also eats more Korean than Sister Bang did. Sister Lee said she needed rice at every meal...then she said, well, two out of three is okay. We ran out of rice this week. On Sunday had packed a small lunch that we ate in the kitchen at the church building after the meeting--crackers, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cookies Sister Gubler made. It was the second meal without rice--Sister Lee refused to eat.

We had a good dinner that night, though. The ward's bishop and his family invited the members over to his house for dinner. There were at least fifty people--but seating is a lot more efficient when you sit on the floor, I've noticed. We had an investigator who came--someone we're meeting with and teaching.

Her name is Choi Hee sook, and she's from North Korea. She is looking for the right church. I was currious about meeting with her. We taught a lesson last week, and she started talking about North Korea. I really wish I could have understood more of what she said. I really wish that. She talked about how people are so poor they don't have rice--they eat barley or corn. And she told us how no one knows about the Bible, about religion.

After meeting with her...before, in my mind, North Korea was just a political ananomly (sp?), some fluke in history and government. I don't know how to describe it...maybe like looking at those old Soviet propaganda posters. You know what's behind them isn't quite right, but they're foreign looking and far enough away from you personally and historically that you don't have to worry about it.

After the appointment though...I just got maybe a sliver more of understanding. There was also a member at the appointment with us. Choi Hee sook has been in South Korea for about nine years now, and the member looked at me and said, "you haven't seen your family for a few months, but can you imagine nine years?" And then I asked if you could send letters to North Korea, or email (because I really can't imagine nine years), and they just laughed. Of course you can't just send a letter to North Korea. And people don't have computers.

That night I thought about it...how even if it was a historical fluke the way I thought, what it comes down to is that it affects normal people every day. They are so close from here, but their lives are completely different. Members take us out to eat and overfeed us...and within a few hours they can't afford rice--or there isn't rice. All of a sudden it felt a lot more real. This is definately a learning experience, as a missionary. In a lot of different ways.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I send my love.

--Carrie

Letter from 13 May 2009

2009-05-15T14:40:00.000-06:00

Transfer day!

Sister Bang and I got up at 4:45 this morning to head to Shindorin subway station. It's a central point in the mission, so on transfers, everyone moving meets at the same point. So this morning at 7:00 there was a heard of white shirted foreigners. Quite a sight.

I found out on Saturday that I would be moving, and so the last few days I've had some unexpected feelings. It is sad to say goodbye to people. It has been gratifying to realize I love them and appreciate them, and that maybe I mattered a little bit to them, too. And it's been exciting to think about the new experiences, especially new people, waiting for me in this area.

Yesterday was a good last day in Yeongdong. We had a district meeting, them met with Jeong Tae ja. She's middle-aged, we met her on the subway. She invites us over and cooks for us and talks, and we try to get a lesson in. She dilligently attends another church, and so considering that, and how long visits always ended up taking, we weren't sure if we should keep meeting with her.

During our visits, Sister Bang figured out Jeong Tae ja's husband knew a member of the church from Sister Bang's home town. And after awhile we found out...her husband had been baptized and joined our church when he was in college. This friend baptized him.

So it didn't feel like just chance that we were meeting with her, though she didn't seem to be really understanding what we were teaching--more like she would hear things she wanted to hear. But yesterday we met, and we read from the Book of Mormon together. We tried to explain again how it's not just a good book, but that if it's true the church is true (like her, a lot of people accept the Book of Mormon, they just don't see the implications).

She is really involved in her church, and Sister Bang and I weren't sure that her changing religions was really a possibility. But yesterday when we met, she started talking.... I have a really hard time understanding her when she speaks, so I had to check with Sister Bang after. But I heard right--she was saying that if it was right, she would come to our church.

I also got to see a few more church members yesterday who we had gotten to know, and a newer investigator we've been meeting with--Nam-Goong Yoo ran. She is learning nail art and has a dream to do it in America. And in the evening we had an appointment with Nam Gi yeon. She was actually really distressed that I was leaving. She's the investigator we would sing pop songs with during English time. She asked me which one had been my favorite, and we sang it together. I promised I would never forget her. And I really don't think I can.

And then that night I finished packing like mad--stopped folding things even, just throwing them in. So now unpacking is a mess. I think because people rely so heavily on public transportation here, shipping things is really inexpensive. I packed up two good-sized boxes that Sister Bang arranged to get sent (total: about 14,000 won, so about $14) and somehow still filled up my two suitcases. I will have to eliminate things. Especially since a wheel broke on one of the suitcases. It got really heavy at that point.

My new area is Anyang stake. We cover five wards--I'm not excited about that part of it! At least I'm a little more keyed in at this point, so getting to know people and areas will be a bit easier this time around, I think.

I'm in a threesome. Sister Gubbler is from California. She has three transfers left, so has lots of experience! She is Sister Lee Yae gi's trainer. Lee Yae gi is from Daejeon (in the southern part of Korea), and this is her second transfer.

This transfer will definately have a very different dynamic. I'm a "co-senior" companion with Sister Gubbler. In Korea, age is really important. The American "age group" of "peers" and "friends" gets a heirarchy. You are "friend" (for lack of a better translation)--which means you were born in the same year--or an "older sister/brother" or a "younger sister/brother." Sister Bang explained to me that we would never be called "friends" in Korean, since she is older than me. We would be a "friendly older sister" and I would be a "friendly younger sister" (again, for lack of a better translation). And Sister Bang and I were friends in the English sense of the word, but at the same time she really was my older sister ("oni") in the Korean sense. And different than just a junior and senior companion. She would have me sit down on the subway if there was just one seat. She would tell me things I needed to change. Made sure I took medicine if I was sick. Made sure my bag wasn't too heavy. That kind of thing.

And when I was dragging the suitcase with the broken wheel, I realized I didn't have an "oni" anymore! The threesome feels right, though. It will be different, but it will be good. A friend from the MTC wrote me awhile ago. She was in a threesome and said she actually really liked it--there wasn't so much guessing about what the other person was feeling/thinking. Also, I'm seeing that I will be able to take more responsibility now without my "oni." So for several reasons, I think it will be good. An adventure, too.

Much love,

Carrie

Letter from 6 May 2009

2009-05-07T00:42:00.000-06:00

Hello!

The weather is warming up fast here. Spring brought yellow and white forcithia bushes, cherry blossoms and magnolia trees all over, and now as they are leafing out there are bright pink and purple flowered bushes blooming all over the city. It is getting hot faster this year than normal, though, and the monsoon season is reportedly coming early--maybe the beginning of June. And after monsoon season, Sister Bang tells me, is when summer--hot and humid, from what I hear--officially starts.

The warm weather makes me think of all sorts of happy memories--summer has good associations, with school letting out, family vacations, and also thinking about this time last year making arrangements, going to interviews, really getting ready to go on a mission.

Also, I caught a cold this week, and oddly, that has brought up unexpected memories, too. Like the comfort of going to the doctor's office with my mom when I was little. And also, all of a sudden Korea smells like it did when I first came--I had a cold when I came...the two must be connected. Interesting, the things that bring up memories.

And interesting, too, that I have a few memories to look back on in Korea, as a missionary. All of a sudden I'm towards the middle of my mission, not the beginning! I still feel like I'm just figuring things out, though!

People are becoming more important, too. We are still meeting with Nam Gi Yeon. We sing pop songs with sad lyrics together when we do English practice. When we do gospel lessons, she summarizes bit by bit the things she's read in the Book of Mormon, and asks questions about the House of Israel and Moses. Yesterday when we met, she asked for help reading some letters from nearly 30 years ago. When she was a school girl, her and a friend met two foreigners on the subway--one from France, one from Switzerland. They were traveling the world, and the one from Switzerland send her some postcards, a couple of letters. And then they lost touch, but she kept the letters.

And we meet three times a week with Kim Mi Yeong, but just twice this week because Monday was Children's Day--a "red day," so kids had it off from school, adults off from work. It was fun to see families out and about together. It's just a day to make kids happy.

Kim Mi Yeong asks about how to actually use the atonement. She wants to know if God lives, about Jesus Christ. As we meet, I try, I hope she sees that with prayer, with reading in the scriptures, attending church--as she searches out and learns, she will come to know. She will come to feel God's existance, and Christ's love. That's how all of us do it.

I am seeing more and more that knowing things, that the Church, the gospel, is a process, not a somewhere where you arrive, and then you're set. We have a whole lifetime--for a reason, I think. We need time. It's step by step, and each step comes with greater joy, with a greater ability to feel peace. And that's why it matters.

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

--Carrie

Letter from 29 April 2009

2009-05-04T23:29:00.000-06:00

Hello!

It was another good week. I feel like I learned a lot this week.

Like how being capable is a process. For a long time I had the idea that if I just decided to do things right, I could do them all right--so I guess I thought if I just concentrated a little harder, I could be perfect. Maybe a couple of months ago the sisters in the mission got together on preparation day for lunch, and the two leaving soon were asked to give a few words of wisdom. One of them said that on her mission, she has learned that God doesn't expect immediate perfection, just immediate progression. And that kind of sums up what I've started to realize.

And I am seeing that we're all just works in progress. I am a better missionary that I was when this began--and a better person, I hope. But I haven't "arrived." I don't think we ever do--thank heavens. There are always other lessons, other challenges--so things won't get boring! And we've been given a whole lifetime to keep working at it.

And one other big lesson this week. Before I cam on my mission, I had felt the joy that comes from obedience and following the Lord--that He really does direct us to the paths that will make us happiest. I tell people often, when we talk about prayer and getting answers and direction, about how I chose a university. I didn't particularly want to go to BYU. But I prayed about where I should go, and it felt right. And I when I followed that prompting, I really did find joy. I found good friends, there are good classes for my major, I had opportunities to do research. When we follow the Lord, he leads us to be more happy.

Joy comes from following, but I think it comes from service, too. And sacrifice. I don't feel like I am doing a lot as a missionary. I don't speak much Korean, and I can't tell you which way is north when we're looking for houses for appointments. I misunderstand people's questions and have a hard time remembering the names of ward members at church. But this week...the members we had taught who were just baptized, came to church and one had brought a friend, and we met another at home...nothing in particular, except realizing I loved them, I wanted the best for them, and that there is joy in that, too.

Have a good week,

Carrie

Letter from 22 April 2009

2009-04-24T09:15:00.000-06:00

Hello!

It's been a good week. Maybe I'll work backwards.

Yesterday we had a zone conference--a long meeting, filled with good things and lots of things to do better. Life is a work in progress. Goodness. A member took us out to dinner, and we had a lesson with Song Bo mi, the middle school student who just got baptized. We talked about the temples, and she listened so closely, looked at pictures, asked questions. It is amazing meeting with her. On the subway on the way home, we ended up talking with a woman who attended the Church and read the Book of Mormon when she was in college--fifty years ago. It was really extraordinary. The Church had just come to Korea fifty years ago--it was so small. She must have seen a really neat time.

Meeting with her, I wondered what I usually wonder seeing or meeting with older people--what they have seen. Korea has changed so dramatically in the last fifty years since the war. I want to hear their stories, their memories. See what they can see when they think back.

Tuesday we jumped rope for exercise and met with Kwak Kyon Jin, who lives upstairs in a two level house, and has to wave an umbrella in front of the dog chained at the bottom of the stairs to distract him so we can go up.

Monday an investigator fed us bi bim bap and her husband figured out his friend knows my companion, Sister Bang. His friend is a stake president.

Sunday we did a companion exchange, and I went to Kangdong ward for the first time. A woman who showed up at English class on Saturday asked me to correct an essay for her, and said she'd come to church so we could look it over on Sunday. She came and sat in another room during the meeting, working on her essay.

Saturday there were only two people at English class. We met a member--a high school student--and practiced English and did a gospel lesson at the church. There was a ward activity going on later that night, and half the ward primary children came in in a herd, and we talked to all of them about how Joseph Smith restored Christ's gospel.

Friday I didn't write in my journal.

Thrusday--preparation day--Sister Bang and I found an art museum on a map. We went, and it turned out they had a special Gustav Klimpt exhibit. I had wanted to see it--I had seen it advertized--so I was really excited. We also got hearded into some opening event where they were serving a buffet. A nice buffet. Catered. Sister Bang asked a few times--are you sure we can eat?

Yes, yes, they said. Enjoy.

I love you all!

--Carrie

Letter from 15 April 2009

2009-04-18T17:20:00.001-06:00

A few lessons this week.

Last week I had met with a new investigator along with a member--Sister Bang was busy helping get ready for the baptism service. We met, I introduced the 30/30 English program, we introduced ourselves in English, introduced the Book of Mormon, and set a next appointment.

Especially with the English program, I've felt like in the first meeting, we need to do what we say we're offering. We say we'll do English then teach about our church. I've felt like, when we first meet people, if we don't do English and teach about our church (what's promised), they will feel like we're wasting their time.

This investigator, though, dropped by the next week. Sister Bang was making phonecalls the day of the drop, and when she hung up, she looked at me and said, "you didn't do anything to build the relationship, did you?"

We had talked about it before--we had had a dinner appointment, and practiced a lesson for it, then practiced asking the people if they knew anyone else we could teach. At the appointment, though, there were lots of people, we weren't sure when we would leave because someone was giving us a ride...and the gospel message ended up just a card with a scripture on it Sister Bang slipped to the hostess and a "thank you."

After the two experiences--especially the "you didn't..." experience, I'm thinking my idea of meeting expectations and showing people they can trust us is maybe culturally different. I'll keep working on figuring it out. But I wish I had a Korean mind--things would be more effective, I think.

Another lesson from Sister Bang this week: eye cream. It started the day I looked in the mirror and said, "well, that one's new," looking at some of the lines around my eyes. Sister Bang found out I didn't use eye cream. She let me borrow hers (and followed up nightly to see that I used it) until the two of us could go to the store and I could get my own. Eye cream is expensive. I wondered what on earth I was doing, but then told myself the price was in won, it must not really be that much...

Have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Letter from 8 April 2009

2009-04-08T22:46:00.000-06:00

Hello!!

We had a baptism this week! Shin Dong oon, her neice and nephew Hyun jeong and Su hyun, and the family friend, Song Bo mi all got baptized and confirmed last weekend.

Two of the baptisimal interviews were done earlier, and then the two girls, Hyun jeong and Bo mi, got interviewed just the night before (Korean students are super, super busy--always at school or hak won--a private academy--studying). The girls went in one at a time, and as we waited, we did a short lesson with the one not being interviewed.

And then we just talked. Hyun jeong told me about the founding story of Korea. A bear and a tiger wanted to become human, so they talked to the son of heaven (I think), who told them to go to a cave and eat only garlic and mugroot for one hundred days. They tiger gave up on the ninety-ninth day. But the bear became a woman, and married the son of heaven. And that's how Korea was begun.

Later in the week, we were leaving one of the huge apartment buildings after meeting with a woman for English practice then a gospel lesson. A church member, Pak Yeong mi, had come with us, and as we were leaving, she pointed to some of the plants that are beginning to sprout with spring. She bent down and picked a green leaf and handed it to me, explaining that you could eat it. It was mugroot--쑥.

The baptism was on Saturday. The four are the first ones I have seen from the first lesson to baptism. That night Sister Bang and I did a companion exchange so she could help them get ready and a member--Kim Jeong sook--and I met with a new investigator. When Kim Jeong sook and I finished, we went into the hall and I saw Su hyeon dressed in white...it was a really impressive feeling.

I had a lot of feelings that night--I didn't quite expect to. I was happy and excited for them. And relieved. And really worried. Worried about them understanding what we taught, what they were promising with baptism.

They were confirmed the following Sunday in church. Shin Dong oon lead the line of four up to the front of the chapel, and sat down first to be confirmed. She looked really resolute as she walked up. She is in her thirties, really small, and each time we meet with her I think she is more beautiful. I was just impressed with her. And her courage.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Carrie

Letter from 2 April 2009

2009-04-02T09:32:00.001-06:00

Hello!

Another good week--I hope for all of you, too.

On Saturday, we had a marathon lesson with Shin Dong oon and her neice and nephew. We've been meeting them for maybe two months now, but had a good chunk of material to cover in one night so that they could be interviewed for baptism on Sunday. Sunday we went to their house with two of the elders, and waited as Shin Dong oon and her nephew were interviewed (her neice will be later this week).

I worry a bit about how much they understand about what we taught. I worry that maybe they don't understand with baptism, they're making a promise about how they are going to live...that it's not just an action that happens once and is over. I have been learning a lot about baptism over the past few years and especially past few months, and I guess...realizing I understand it a bit better I'm also realizing there's a lot I don't understand. And that not understanding is okay as long as we keep learning.

We had a similar lesson on Friday with Song Bo mi (not Song Bom ee like we thought), who is going with this group to Fiji, and also anxious to get baptized. We met along with a church member, Kim Hyon jin. She's two years younger than I am and thinking about going on a mission. She is beautiful, studies law at university, always brings bread or a treat when she comes and teaches with us. She wants to serve at Temple Square in Salt Lake if she goes--but if she goes or not, she's a missionary.

A wonderful one. Sunday we had an activity with the ward and some members came and talked to people on the street with us. I grabbed her and got her to come with me. Her enthusiasm was a lot of fun--handing pamphlet after pamphlet to people who would stand still long enough for her to talk to them. And on Friday after that lesson, Sister Bang and I were walking back to the subway, Kim Hyon Jin to the bus. Chatting--mostly her and Sister Bang. And when we were parting ways, she grabbed my arm and said something about getting some dok to eat. We had to get back to our apartment by 9:30.

But I would have liked to.

Letter from 25 March 2009

2009-03-30T11:53:00.002-06:00

Hello!

It was a good week. Things are picking up again in our area. We have been meeting with an aunt (Shin Dong oon) and her neice (Hyun jong) and nephew (Soo hyun) who will be going to Fiji soon for the neice and nephew to study there (they can go to an English language school). While there, they will live with friends--members of the Church. The friends told them about the missionaries--they could learn about the Chruch and also do some English practice. So we have been meeting with them for maybe a couple of months, and they want to get baptized. We meet with them in their big, new apartment. We sit on the floor, and Shin Dong oon gives us oranges or milk. During English time, Hyun jong tells me about her boyfriend who lives in Incheon and taking pictures with her friends. A couple weeks ago she gave me a book about learning Korean.

Also, Sing Dong oon gave us the name of another student who will be going with them--Bom ee. The whole group of them--all four--came to church on Sunday, and meeting with Bom ee is really neat. She's in middle school, and her mom sews church choir robes from home. She asks good questions, and reads the Book of Mormon, and has prayed. And there is just such a neat feeling when we meet with her.

We always teach about the church in Korean, so I can't always understand investigators well, or talk to them a lot. But we do English practice with her, too, and in Korean and English, she is just bright and smiley. I enjoy our visits.

And Korean is getting better. I feel like I am starting to be able to connect with people some through Korean. And that is making missionary work a lot more exciting--when people have feelings and personailites and names and concerns and ideas and things they love. I'm really grateful for every bit I can understand--though it's still very little.

I "passed off" this week with one of the zone leaders--I had to learn a ton of vocabulary, learn all of the lessons in Korean (we only did the first two at the MTC), learn scripture references. I wasn't excited about passing it all off, but the zone leader used it as a teaching experience, and I went away encouraged about things. And after, Sister Bang and I stopped at a mart to get a treat to celebrate. I got a snack, from the picture it looked like it was chocolate with a nut in the middle, little balls. I opened the bag and as a fish smell came out, I asked her what it was.

"It's squid flavor," she said.

"How do you say 'squid' in Korean?" I asked.

She pointed to the huge writing on the bag.

Squid and peanut. It was actually pretty good.

Outside the sky is light with stars

2009-03-12T08:15:00.000-06:00

12 March 2009

Hello!

Sunday Sister Bang and I split and went to two different wards--I went to Seongnam church by our house, and she went to Songpa church. Between the two, we had six new people at church! The most I've had in one week! It was great.

We don't have many investigators lately, but we have some really good ones. After church, Pak Yong mi, my companion church, went with me to Songpa. At Songpa, three investigators stayed after sacrament meeting to see a baptisimal service. And one, Min Un bi, stayed after that for the kim bap lunch they had.

The women at Songpa were putting together a dance for a Relief Society get-together that will be this Saturday, and after some cajoling (sp?), the investigator--Un bi--and Sister Bang and I were all of a sudden all learning the dances to "Beautiful Girl" and "Nobody but You"--two pop songs that are popular right now. It was a lot of fun, and it was good to see Un bi has fun at the church. I think we will be performing the dances with the ward on Saturday night.

During the week we had one really long walking day. We had just one appointment that night, so we went all over Songpa trying to visit some members who don't come out to church as often. We visited six different houses (another record for one day), only one person was home. Then our appointment cancelled. Church members are so, so kind to us, feeding us dinner, etc--I figured it was a day of earning their kindness.

Yesterday we met with Yoo Jung and her daughters. She lives with her four daughters, husband, and parents in a great big apartment. She's the only member of the church among them, but hasn't come to church in a long time. We do some English with three of the daughters then teach a gospel lesson once or twice a week. The daughters love singing church songs, and last night we brought a new one to sing with them (in English, "Families Can Be Together Forever"). Sister Bang and I told them we'd sing it once so they could start to learn it. As we were singing, Yoo Jung started singing, too. She knew all the words.

It was really neat.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Carrie

Letter from 4 March 2009

2009-03-05T08:14:00.001-07:00

Hello!

A quick one:)

This Sunday we had a baptism--the mother of the members of the ward. I got asked to give a talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost, which took a bit of preparation, but went all right. The service was after sacrament meeting. When sacrament meeting ended, all at the same time I was trying to say hello to one member and follow Sister Bong who was hurrying me to get Kim Jae rae dressed and ready and then Jae rae's daughter in law handed me a set of scriptures I was supposed to write a nice note and sign it (I don't actually really do that well in Korean)...but it all came together and she got baptized and it was wonderful.

A lot of investigators have dropped us lately, so we've spent a lot of time looking up addresses in the stake directory and walking and looking for their houses to try to visit them. Slow going. And Sister Bong has a hole in her shoe so her feet get wet when it rains.

This week we met again with a woman who wants to do the English program--but turns out isn't too interested in the gospel message. We met her with a member from the ward. The member bore her testimony of why she knows this gospel is true, why she lives this way...and, as Sister Bong explained to me after, the investigator just told her she was wrong to think that way. This went on for a half hour.

The member was absolutely wonderful, though, and she bought us ho dok--all of us, including the investigator--as we waited for the bus. She has a huge smile and likes red, and I don't think I will forget how as we waited, her smiling at me, waiving me over to the ho dok stand--"you must be hungry!"

With love,

Carrie

Feb 26 Letter to Family

2009-02-26T09:57:00.003-07:00

Hello!

We went to the temple this morning. It's about a hour and a half on the subway. We left about 8:00 and hit some rush-hour people traffic. A man in a nice uniform put his hand on my back and pushed me hard into one of the subways, but maybe not enough--the umbrella in my bag got caught in the door and he said something in his walkie-talkie to get the conductor to open it again.

It was a good week. A longer one. I get to help plan our schedule now--yay!--but there's a little more stress involved. We've had lots of people cancel and people who don't want to meet anymore (they say very politely: we've been so busy lately, and tonight we have plans...we'll call you when we have time again). Tuesday we ended up walking around a lot trying to visit members, but they had all moved or weren't home. We did have one appointment that night, and Sister Bang showed me new Korean food (she was sad when she found out I had eaten so much kim bap--"but there are so many good Korean foods!"). That evening it was a soup with huge backbones with meat on them. It comes out boiling (they head the bowl strait over a gas burner) and you pick off the meat and eat it with rice and kim chee. Yum.

Lots of love!!

--Carrie

Sweet memories: Why was a humming as if I know

2009-02-19T10:48:00.001-07:00

2-18-09

Hello!

A big week! An investigator had a baptisimal interview, someone taught us to make kim chee stew, and I have a new companion! Exciting things.

Sunday was stake conference, so we went to church at a different chapel. It's a new building, four stories, big! I was surprized when I saw it. In the elevator there's an "F" button instead of a "4," since four is a bad-luck number in this part of the world (like how some buildings in the US don't have a 13th floor...right? Or am I making that up?). After the meeting, kim bap (like sushi) and tangerines and dak (glutenous rice dumplings...sort of...) were passed around and Sister Romney made small talk with people while we waited for Kim Jae rae in her baptisimal interview. She passed.

Also this week we got phone calls about transfers. All the sisters but one pair got moved around. I am staying in the same area, and my new companion is Sister Bang Ae ra. Her name, Ae ra, means "piles of love." I was excited when the mission president told me--I couldn't ask for anything better. Everyone says she's an angel, and since meeting her this morning, she has lived up to that. And I'm so excited to be with a Korean sister! I'm grateful, too, that she doesn't speak much English. I want so, so badly to learn Korean and Korea. I am excited.

I am super nervous, though, that I'm the one who's supposed to know this area. Ahh! We spent some time looking through the record books today and I don't know many people in them. And navigation is going to be an adventure. Thankfully, Sister Romney will still live in the same house! She got transferred to the other side of the stake--she moved across the hall. I'm grateful she's there to answer questions, help Sister Bang get to know the area too, etc.

Since Sister Romney knew she was leaving, there were lots of goodbyes this week. She loves kim chee stew, so last night Lee Mi hae showed us how to make it. I made some more for everyone this afternoon, and it turned out pretty good.

I send my love!

--Carrie

Honorific Teeth

2009-02-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

2-11-09

This morning during Korean study I found out there is an honorific word for teeth. I am starting to realize some of the things that make Korean hard. Honorific things--different words for people above you. And that it's just plain different from English. I know four ways to say "and" now--between verbs, between nouns, at the end of a list, between sentences. I still don't really know how to make things negative (which sometimes makes things interesting), or really how to say "you," since Korean doesn't use "you," it uses titles, and I don't always know what title is appropriate.

It is coming, though. Last Sunday my companion and I did an exchange--she went to Songpa ward, and I went to Songnam ward for church. We had ward members as companions during that time. My companion, Kim Young mi, just got back from a mission in Pusan, Korea. The plan was that Sister Romney would be in Songpa for two people coming to church for the first time, and in Songnam I would teach a lesson to someone preparing to be baptized--Kim Jae rae--during church and after to someone who just started meeting with us.

Kim Jae rae's baptisimal date has kind of been moving around--just because of logistics. Her son is in the bishopbrick, though, and she's been attending church regularly for the past few months. She had been taught everything but the lesson on commandments--which is long, so Sister Romney and I had planned on breaking it up over two lessons in the next couple of weeks. Sunday morning, after talking with some of the ward members, she decided she wanted to be baptized the following Sunday.

So thank heavens for Kim Yong mi--we taught together the rest of what she needed to learn, and then I talked to the elders about an interview that day. I felt triumphant figuring all of this out in Korean--and excited the baptism was being moved up. Everything was good until I asked Jae rae's son for a form for her interview (because he's in the bishoprick), and he said (I summized) what's the rush? Just get baptized a bit later. Now the plan is March 1st.

Poor Sister Romney in Songpa--neither of the new people came to church, and she was frustrated we went through it all to arrange doing an exchange when they didn't come. The next (Monday) night, too, all of our plans for Tuesday except one appointment fell through. We called everyone we could think of and no one wanted to meet, do anything. She was an absolute wreck. Tuesday we were supposed to do a special training with two elders. They are finishing their missions--going home it two weeks--and the mission president gave them the assignment of spending a day with each companionship in the mission.

Originally we had a full day planned to do with them--four appointments--and they, and backup plans, just started to fall through. Sick. Busy. Freaked out by having four missionaries come to see her. Didn't what to meet with us again, period. Didn't answer. Can't visit because kids study at home. We went to bed not really knowing what we were going to do with this special day when we were supposed to learn alot and have a lot to do.

But it worked out wonderfully. It turned out we had the day open to ask questions we needed answers for. I had been so nervous about being overwhelmed by the training--overwhelmed by them shadowing us in lessons, about them judging me, judging us. I think it would have been hard for Sister Romney, too. Instead, we got to talk about how to do things better. How to help people come to church. How to find new people to teach. How to get ward members to trust us. How to encourage people and build them up and help them do things that will help them learn and progress. Questions about things we had been wondering about. It just turned out perfectly.

Well, I'm out of time, but I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Much love,

Carrie

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift!

2009-02-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Another quick one--I had lots of emails to respond to this week, so thanks:)

We've been really busy this week--three or four or five appointments every day, plus travelling to them--busy! The mission president and his wife visited our apartment this week so he could do interviews for the transfer, which was fun.

That day was probably one of the best so far. After interviews, we went to one of the churches we're working in to meet an investigator, Sae won. We had a good lesson--me stumbling through in Korean. Earlier this week we had a day where Sister Romney kind of taught everything. It made me kind of mad. So I'm trying to teach more of the lessons, even though I don't feel like I have the vocabulary or lesson plans memorized to do them like I want to. I just try to get sentences out, and sometimes it requires a lot of patience from everyone. During this lesson, Sae won asked a question, and as I was trying to add my thoughts to what Sister Romney was saying, I kind of just looked strait at Sae won for a minute, trying to gather the words to say it, and all I could think about was how badly I wanted her to understand what I was saying. How badly I wanted to talk to her.

Sae won made us lasagna--really good lasagna, and garlic toast from bread she made herself. And salad. She always cooks for us and packs it up for after our lessons, and she's a good cook. It was the first time I'd had Italian food since being here. I was surprised at how good it tasted to be eating it.

Our next appointment cancelled, so we decided to drop by the house of a member. Song man and his wife Ing dok. I had wanted to visit them for awhile--being told that it's important to know the senior members of the ward. That respect for them and from them matters in how the rest of the members see you.

Song man is the oldest member of Songpa ward--92. He was so excited to see is, so warm and kind to us. His wife, Ing dok, really isn't doing well, but we visited with them and sang a hymn with Song man. Seeing how he cared for and loved his wife was really neat. Seeing his love for the church was really neat. We sang the hymn "How Firm a Foundation," and he was certainly exemplary of it.

We had a dinner appointment with Jong sook. She fed us pounds of meat--I was kind of sick after (for like a day after), and thought about how my brother in law Brad threw up once at a dinner appointment with members. I was a bit nervous. It was really good meat, though. She has shared some experiences she's had that have helped her really feel an obligation to help the missionaries. I feel we are connected. And again, I am grateful for her firm foundation and service.

We talked a bit long, so she gave us a ride back to the church for our last appointment of the day. It was good to see people, good to learn from them. A good day.

My time is up. I love you all, have a wonderful week!

--Carrie

Jan 28th Email to Family

2009-01-29T23:05:00.001-07:00

Today will be a bit shorter--I tried to download (successful, but then the computer froze) and attach (not successful) photos to send. I think I will have to print and mail them. Goodness, with such sparce computer use over the last few months, I've forgotten how computers don't always cooperate.

This week was 설날--lunar new years, the biggest holiday of the year. Three days. Slow for missionary work. The first day was Sunday (in Songnam ward this week)--church and a lesson, then spent the rest of the day cleaning the building. Monday we spent cleaning our apartment, and the Songnam bishop invited us to dinner. Tuesday we had a missionary meeting in the morning and an activity in the afternoon, where we played some traditional Korean games.

One of the games is a bit like hacky sack, only the "ball" is small and (in this case) plastic with a bell on it, then it has streamers. It was interesting to see the Koreans do it verses the Americans. The Americans with hackey sack tried out their creative moves, while the Koreans who were good at it were like precise machines--one leg, very exact.

There was also a human Yoot Nori game. Yoot Nori is kind of like Sorry--you try to get your pieces around the board and back home. Instead of dice, there are four sticks you throw in the air. Each stick has a flat and a rounded side, and you count according to which side is up. In the human Yoot Nori game, they wrapped missionaries in giant pieces of brown felt and had them roll around on the ground with their eyes closed. Quite memorable.

Also a game (I can't remember the name) where you hold one foot and hop, trying to knock each other down. They had a Sister's tournament first for the six of us there (though I just couldn't bring myself to do it in a skirt in front of everyone), then the forty or so Elders all went at each other. The mission president joined in.

Two other dinner appointments this week, too. The first with an older woman. Her son and daughter in law attend Songnam ward, and they encouraged her to listen to the missionary lessons and get baptized. Her daughter in law, Sister Kang, is a good mother, and a mother to us, too. She came with her kids to the dinner appointment. We ate out of the same serving dishes, Korean style. There was a fish dish, and she would pick off bits with her chopsticks, inspect them for bones, and put them in her kids' rice bowls. The second time Sister Romney went for the wrong part of the fish, she started doing it for us, too. Like a mother bird.

I love you all; Happy New Year.

--Carrie

First say to yourself would be; and then do what you have to do.

2009-01-21T23:33:00.001-07:00

Hello, hello! Here's the news from the week:

I bought an electronic English-Korean dictionary. It has Japanese and Chinese characters, too. We bought it on the way back from the grocery store, where I had bought a mop, which I had to ask Sister Romney to hold so I could use two hands (polite!) to had my debit card to the salesman ("...Sister Romney, would you mind holding my mop?"). The best part of it, which I discovered later that day, is that it has recorded pronunciation for not just Korean, not just English, but for thirteen languages. If I need to know how to say "socks" in Russian, I am set.

Other news. We did a companion exchange with the other sisters in our apartment on Monday. I went with Sister Hunt to Sugey and Boondong. We had three lessons. For the second one, we met the woman and a member at the subway station. The member was a woman in her seventies neatly dressed all in purple, up to her hat. The investigator found us--in her forties, perhaps; navy blue lace tights, a short gray bubble dress, a billowing black sweater and bright blue nails. Her English name is Regina, and as she drove the four of us to her apartment (which was huge and well decorated), I thought about what an interesting mix of people we were. The gospel really can bridge differences.

That evening, we met with a woman and her young daughter. Her husband was on business in New Jersey. We asked her about going to church, but she wasn't sure about it--she didn't want to rock the boat with her husband and her husband's family. Things like that are hard to hear. We were teaching with a member, who suggested that since things are more and more modern, women can be more independant about deciding things like that.

In our district meeting this week, I asked for opinions about how to involve the whole family. It's hard when we just teach a woman during the day, when the husband isn't ever home. And it can be hard for her to go to church on the weekend when he actually is home--it seems like Sunday is precious family time for a lot of people. The Church can be something that makes families stronger. The gospel makes people better from the inside out, as I heard someone say it once, and so the effects of that include being a better family member. I've been thinking about how to help people with the Church that way--something that unites and strengthens rather than divides. In the meeting, we talked a little about involving the whole family from the beginning. A challenge!

There are six of us in the district, six of us at this meeting. One of the missionaries is Korean. Part way through he asked me where my ancestors were from. Aparently thoughts were rolling around in his mind during the whole thing, because after, he asked everyone the same thing. We were all of European descent. "So why do you all look so different?" He asked. I guess it was a valid question. There is less variation among Koreans. I thought about Punnit (sp??) squares the rest of the day.

--Carrie

Hello Day-by-Day! There's always a small happiness.

2009-01-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

15 Jan 2009

Another fast week--that's the best kind! It started out a little hard--in a combined district meeting with a bunch of other missionaries, we talked about setting goals. So Sister Romney and I, during our weekly planning meeting, set goals, by gum. It took us an hour. I maybe cried. We got frustrated with each other. We now, though, have a very lovely paper posted on our wall with some goals for this transfer (6-week period).

Church was good again this week. I really enjoy church. I enjoy talking to the members, and I enjoy recognizing faces. And we had an investigator come to sacrament meeting! We met Sae Woan on the subway--I gave her a flyer about the Book of Mormon. She's "gospel interest only" (the only one right now), so we don't do English practice with her, just teach the gospel lessons.

We met her after church with a member from the ward--Son Ja. Son Ja is one of the first people I met here--Sister Romney visited her apartment maybe my first week. She wears black-rimmed glasses and has a huge smile. The first time I saw her at church, she was wearing a han bok--a traditional Korean dress--and when Sister Romney asked her why, she said there was no reason, just for fun.

When we visited them, her and her husband weren't feeling well, but she sat down at her kitchen table with us and scraped the last of some 유자차--syrupy, lemon herbal tea--out of a jar to give to us. We (mostly her and Sister Romney) talked and I shared a scripture that I love--2 Nephi 2:25 that says, "men are that they might have joy."

I've shared this same scripture with that investigator who came on Sunday, Sae Woan. We did the second lesson with her this week--talking about the Plan of Salvation. She isn't so sure about things like resurrection and judgement--she says she likes life the way it is here, now. She doesn't want it to change. I believe, though, that through the gospel, things just get better and better. "Happy" can become "happier."

We've been doing the second lesson with a lot of people this week. We also try to include the commandments as we go along. Teaching the commandments is scary to me. This week I taught the Word of Wisdom to the women we met on the street and her daughters--the Lee sisters. When we asked them to live it, she just said that well, her daughters already kept it because they were young, but as for her, she liked her coffee. I haven't yet had an experience like the sisters we share an appartment with: an investigator's husband just gave her a brand new expensive cappicino (sp?) maker. She was so excited to show it to the missionaries. They were planning to teach the Word of Wisdom the next day.

The next lesson with her and the Lee sisters, though, went really well. They had all prayed on their own, and they had all read the passage of scripture we asked them to read.

We had other good lessons this week--there isn't time or space to write about them all (which is probably good). We met with a woman who has been meeting with the missionaries for months--Gyoo Ewl. She wants to be baptized, but her husband isn't okay with her attending church. So we meet with her weekly, and she continues to study and pray on her own. Sister Romney and I prepared alot, thinking and praying about things we could do to help her. We ended up encouraging her to keep the commandments she can keep, and continue with the things she can do. There was such a peaceful feeling during the lesson.

We are also meeting with a new family. There are two families (sisters with their husbands and children) living in the same giant apartment. It is fun to see how they live together--they take care of each other's children, they talk and laugh together. We're doing English practice with the two older children, and the daughter told me about how she's dating a boy living in Incheon--they chat online, and he plays games on the computer with her little brother. He's coming to Seoul today. During our gospel lessons, her brother always laughs when we pray. And they give us oranges.

Time to go. I love you all so much!!

--Carrie

You will make a good businessman. You know how to spend and how to save.

2009-01-08T15:39:00.001-07:00

8 Jan 2009

Hello!

Wow, this week went fast.

First, a couple items of business. On Christmas, I promised to email my address for Google Earth purposes. I'm not quite sure how to translate it, though. Until I get something more exact, try searching for Kyongwondae University. You might have to try some spelling variations--Kyungonedae University, maybe. And maybe if you Googled that and found an address, you could search for it. We live very close to it.

Second, I will email strait to Brad, too, but I need Brad's email address.

Okey doke. This week. Still no snow, though I hear there's lots at home. It snowed once and melted within the day, but it's looking like winter in Seoul isn't too snowy. I'm relieved. I am terrified of walking on ice, and I was nervous about having to do that. And when there's snow, there's ice.

Our "teaching pool" had shrunk the last couple of weeks, but it's getting built back up. There's the mom we met on the street--we do the English program with her daughters. She always gives us treats and then feeds us dinner when we meet with them. This week it was a piece of cake and a sliced bananna for each of us.

I have learned to eat tangerines--I've always been squeemish about fruit texture, but I eat tangerines all the time now. We usually have lots around the apartment that people have given us, and when someone at an appointment handed me a peeled one and said, "eat!" there wasn't really a way out of it. I can do strawberries now, too.

But the bananna was just too much. I ate one and a half of the slices with some of the cake. When the mom later kind of looked at me and looked at my plate, all I was thinking was, "I ate one and a half slices of that bananna, the first time in my life that I have eaten a bananna on my own free will. This is a monumental moment. Can't you appreciate that?" Sister Romney ate a few more slices when the mom's back was turned (like a few weeks ago, when she couldn't handle the bowl of gensing root and passed some over to me).

Things are going well with the gospel lessons with this family. Our first meeting, when we pulled out the Book of Mormon, she kind of pulled away and said if you teach my daughters, that's fine, but I'm not interested. But she's been listening, and they've been praying on their own. And at the end of the lesson, Sister Romney asked one of the daughters. She wasn't too sure about that, and the mom started saying, "you know how, open with 'Dear Heavenly Father'..." and the other daughter started added, "end with 'in the name of Jesus Christ...'." It was really neat.

We met again with our Buddhist family this week. During English time with the daughter, she told us about some of the old rules for Korean wives. They would go live with their husband's family. But if they didn't have a son, they could kick her out. Or if she didn't take care of her husband's parents, or if she stole, or if she got sick. She would have to leave. And then we talked a little about how sometimes changes are good. We had persimmon tea and strawberries.

The mom has read almost a hundred pages into the Book of Mormon. She wants to know how she can help her family. We have also started meeting with a university student majoring in English. At our second appointment, after we explained how if we read the scriptures and pray daily we can learn little by little, get answers, understand the gospel bit by bit. And at the end of the lesson she prayed that she could also learn and understand this way.

Heading out. Today Sister Romney and I are going to attempt dak boki for lunch. (I don't think it's one you can mess up too easily). It's made with thick glutenous (sp?) rice noodly things--dak (kind of the equivilant of pasta here)--and a spicy sauce. Someone gave the other sisters a bag of dried anchovies this week--we'll use them to flavor the sauce.

Lots of love!!

--Carrie

Thank you for I love you with a heart

2009-01-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

02 Jan 2009

Hello!

Goodness, a lot happens in two weeks, I don't know what I should write about!

Happy New Years, first of all. I am now 23 Korean age. Age is according to what year you were born, so 1987-ers are in their 23rd year.

New Years, was our preparation day (but email places were closed--so emailing today). Some elders came by to put more insulation around our windows. The one has construction experience, I was relieved to find out (so we weren't just being girly by him coming to do it). He ended up taking off a set of windows that had been badly installed and refitting them--so the six of us (there are four sisters in the house) kind of spent the day together. Lots of tasty treats got baked and eaten. There was some guitar playing, and letter writing.

Sister Romney gave me the Christmas present she had forgotten about--a gongi set. Gongi (sp?) is kind of like jacks. You have five little...balls. You throw one up and try to grab one off the ground and then catch the one you threw. We're meeting with a Buddhist family--we practice English with the daughter, who is about nine. She loves gongi and showed us how to play. She says everyone knows how to do it because they played when they were little. Her mom and dad are both good at it, she says.

At our first visit with them, we gave a copy of the Family Proclaimation to the parents, who were both home. It turns out that was quite a coincidence--usually, when one gets home, the other leaves for work (the mom's a nurse and works odd shifts). Since, we have been able to teach gospel messages twice to the mom and daughter (and baby brother), but I'm just praying we can meet them all together--and more often. Both parents seemed to have some interest that first night.

Christmas was wonderful. It's really not a big holiday here, but the ward did have a Christmas party on Christmas Eve. There was a big dinner, and when we walked in to where tables were set up, Sister Romney were directed over to where the mission president and his wife and visiting daughter were sitting. After we sat down, feeling brave, I ventured over to another table where three ladies were sitting and tried to ask them what their names meant (they all mean something! like 샛별--Morning Star--or 민선--highest jewel. I love Korean names!). I had NO idea what they were saying for 90% of our conversation, but we smiled alot. And laughed. I still don't know about their names.

Sister Romney and I did a skit with the elders, and later there was a slide show. While waiting for some technical difficulities to get resolved, the brother who stood up and did the impromptu solo the other week sang a Christmas carole in (Korean) sign language. As I watched him sign in his white gloves, and looked around me, I thought about how I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world at that moment.

We also had our mission Christmas conference since I last wrote. The word came down that the sisters were borrowing hanbok--traditional clothing--for the conference. Sister Romney and I talked to someone in our ward, and a few days before the conference we went over to her apartment to pick them up. She showed us how to dress and did our hair (well, she did half and then had our companion do half, so it turned out a bit lop-sided), and we took pictures. And then she fed us.

We ended up with a dinner appointment that night, too. We are fed so often by members, and they so often send us on our way with things. The other day we looked someone up in the ward directory and visited her unannounced. It turns out she's been inactive awhile, and wasn't that happy to see us. But she let us in, and let us talk together, and gave us barley tea and fruit and sent us with two apples a peice and an entire bulk bag of frozen cream cheese that she had. Again, I just feel like I receive more love and gifts than I ever offer. I have had calm assurances, though, that God knows exactly how much I can (or can't, as the case may be) do right now, and that it's still the right place for me to be.

A few more experiences from the last two weeks. We met with a husband and wife in their car parts store. The husband had been meeting with the elders for about a year, practicing English and hearing the lessons. The elders finally decided to stop meeting with him, but he thought his wife might like to. She really wasn't interested in the church, and during a few moments of them hurrying around the shop and us waiting, I kept thinking things like...I'm in Korea...in a car shop...in Korea.... After talking about some things we probably won't be meeting again.

On Tuesday, we were at a bus stop, and I went up and bowed to a woman and introduced myself. I thought she said she wasn't interested, so I just gave her a flyer for the English program. We taped one up on a pole, too, as we waited. She looked at the flyer I handed her, and at the one on the pole, and came back to talk to me. We ended up meeting with her and her two daughters later that night. "A Korean first," as Sister Romney calls them.

It is often hard to connect to people through language, culture, fear...but this week one of the other sisters and I had a moment and I just wanted to do anything for her; and then talking to the daughters of the woman we met on the street, I wanted to really know them and everything about them. In the MTC, the lesson I seemed to be learning over and over was that everything is better with love. With charity. When you love someone, it doesn't matter so much what they do or don't do. And I started to feel that again this week. And I am very grateful. Hopefully, now, it will keep growing.

Have a wonderful week!

Carrie

Get up friends! Go for your dreams.

2008-12-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

18 Dec 2008

Hello, hello!

Goodness, time is starting to move much more quickly. The other day we were on the subway, and a group of three Americans with skateboards got on. They were kind of roudy (sp? I don't have spell check), and I was kind of embarassed...and it just, in a weird way, reminded me that this is a neat place and a neat time in life. I am starting to love Korea. I am trying to talk to everyone, to talk to people as we travel--which is really weird for people. And here it's especially weird to talk to strangers, and it's weird for a foreigner to speak Korean. But even when I get rejected, I get rejected very politely.

It's not just that, of course...it's how I feel at ease here, and how I'm grateful to be able to focus just on the gospel. And to do that with them. Yesterday we took a bus out to an area outside the city. We were going to be meeting with two member couples. It was a rainy day, and when we got off the bus, there was a man with an umbrella who smiled and bowed--he and his wife came to pick us up because of the weather. We went to the restaurant owned by the second couple, and as the six of us sat around a low table, with a soup boiling in the middle, eating with chopsticks out of the same bowls, and as they laughed and talked with eachother, I just felt at home with them. I had had kind of a rough morning, and being with them brought sunshine to my soul--I don't know how else to describe it.

On Sunday, we ate with another member family--the family of the bishop of one of the wards in the stake we're in (Yong Dong stake). We had asked a couple hours previously if we could just stop by briefly, but when we did, his wife sat us down to eat with them. After the meal, as we kneeled and prayed, I was just overwhelmed by their goodness and love, when I felt I could give so little in return.

Some other stories from the week. It was kind of a musical week. On Saturday we teach a beginning English class, and we're supposed to do gospel time, in English, as the last part of it, which is hard with beginning learners. We decided to sing the chorus of "Follow the Prophet," since it has a grand total of three different lines, one of which you sing six times.

We had some time before to prepare, so I found a children's song book and practiced playing it on the piano. During the class, I wasn't sure if I would actually be able to play while people were singing--whenever I've tried doing so before, my heart beats so fast and my hands shake so badly that I can't play what I've practiced. But it was just fine. I played it without problems, and we went through it several times. Thinking about that, about being able to do something I couldn't do before, was another reminder of how...I often feel I am getting so much help. I can speak to people without getting nervous, without worring about the language, things that I didn't do before. And I am just grateful for it.

And the language is coming. I can usually follow the small talk that preceeds our lessons, and I am starting to join in with it and with the lessons. A little. And people are so, so patient. No one learns Korean, and they know it's hard. They are so kind about it (though sometimes I solicit a giggle or two).

On Sunday, there was a baptisimal service--someone the elders in Song Pa ward had taught (there are elders in every ward, then sisters divided between stakes). I was excited for my first baptisimal service in Korea. Sister Romney and I got recruited to be in an impromptu choir, and we rehearsed "The Spirit of God" as we waited for the meeting to get going. It opened, and after some remarks, people went upstairs to the font for the actual baptism...but we stayed down and practiced a few more times. Sad. But worth it.

The plan was to have a piano solo on the third verse. Our little choir was made up of all sisters, though there was one brother who's a ward missionary who kind of sang with us as we rehearsed. He obviously enjoyed singing.

Well, people came back in after the baptism, and there were some testimonies, and then we got up to sing. We got to the third verse--I had been warned a few times about the piano solo--and all of a sudden, the ward missionary brother who had kind of sung with us stood up, and, following the music and his heart, began an impromptu solo and joined us at the front of the meeting. The rest of us nearly burst out laughing, but instead joined him on the chorus.

There was some more music last night--Sister Romney and I played hymns on the piano together--me the left hand, her the right--as we waited for an investigator to have her baptisimal interview. Her name means "Morning Star." She had a baptisimal date before I got here, but since then we've met with her a few times, reviewed some things, talked about work and school.... She is nervous to be baptized, but she is ready. And I am just grateful to share in some small part of that with her.

I love you all!

--Carrie

Segment of Happy Life

2008-12-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

11 Dec 2008

We were on the bus the other day, and I saw a cafe called "Segment of Happy Life." I enjoyed that. There's lots of English and Englishy and Konglishy things around here. And sometimes there're rather poetic.

A good week. We laughed, we cried, we went home happy. This area apparently has a weather pattern of about 4 warm days followed by about 3 cold days. Well, the cold days hit last week. There are four in our appartment, and we all sleep on the floor of the living room on "yos" (foam pads that you fold up and put away during the day). Houses are heated with a hot water system--there are pipes under the floor, and they are heated with the water. All together, it is quite pleasant at night.

Except this week, when it really got cold, our hot water (and therefore heat) went out. We all woke up and kind of just laid in bed, cold, not wanting to move. After some phone calls, we packed some things and got ready at the mission home. The office elders fussed with our apartment during the day--they unthawed the pipes (though it's not quite clear if that they were frozen and that was the problem) and brought a big heater, which we turned on the next night. But it used too much electricity, so the next morning we had neither heat nor hot water nor electricity. We spent the next night at the mission home. Some more fussing, and we're okay again...it was an adventure, to be sure.

Elders here cover wards, but the sisters cover stakes. So Sister Romney and I were at a new ward last Sunday, and it was delightful. We had already met with some of the people in the ward, and it was wonderful to see familiar faces. It was fast Sunday, so sacrament meeting was testimony meeting. Last Sunday, at the other ward, they had me get up and share my testimony and introduce myself. This Sunday, as the sacrament meeting started, I heard my name. I wasn't sitting with my companion, and I had no idea what they were saying, but just in case they were saying I was going to get up and introduce myself, I got up and was the first testimony of the meeting. I was afraid to ask my companion after what they really said.

This week we set a baptism date with someone we started meeting with after I got here! She's the one who wants to be a flight attendant, and every time we meet with her, she just agrees with things and is happy about what we teach. When we asked her about being baptized, it was the same way. And during the lesson, I just kept thinking, if this is the only thing that happens on my mission, it's worth it. Entirely worth it.

Ahh! Out of time!!

Lots of love,

Carrie

First Week. Done.

2008-12-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

04 Dec 2008

Wow, it was quite the week. At least I don't have to do the first ever week in Korea again! Few! Maybe my first or second full day, we were transfering between buses--walking between stops--and I was thinking about how I needed to be talking to people--but I can't talk to people--and why didn't they just send me to Argentina where I could actually communicate?--Argentina, wait, why not to Idaho, for heavens sakes? I came on a mission thinking I had down the lesson of trusting God. I think I'm getting a little more practice, though. Which is good.

The mission president's wife and president (Sister and President Burton) hosted a zone for Thanksgiving, so we got to go there for turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce.... It was lovely. We were just missing the kim chi. A meal without kim chi. Or rice. (Hardly complete!)

That night, Sister Burton was going to take me to the doctor when she heard me still coughing. But after a teaching appointment, she and President Burton had talked it over and gave me some cough drops, pm cold tabs, a humidifier, got me a blessing, and drove us home. And I'm doing great--all fixed up:) I'm being taken good care of.

It has been a big adjustment to see how investigators actually learn and progress (after practicing teaching in the MTC), but it has been wonderful to start meeting with real people! And we actually are meeting with and teaching people--I really didn't know what to expect in that regard, either.

The missions in Korea do an English program, where we tutor English for 30 minutes, then teach the gospel lessons for 30 minutes. English is in high demand here--thinking about it, I think that is just part of how fast their country changes, which in turn seems part of how hard, hard, hard they work (another manifestation of that--rush hour is a couple hours later than in the US). I was kind of doubtful about the 30/30 program, but we're upfront about how it works, and there really are people who are receptive to the gospel lessons who first learn about the Church because of the English program.

We only talk to women in contacting, and we only meet with women. And we are meeting with some really neat people. One wants to be a flight attendant for Korean Air ("flight attendants are like rock stars here," one of the other sisters said once), so she needs to know English (and Japanese or Chinese). She seems receptive to what we teach about the gospel, too, and prayed the first time we asked her to, even though she hadn't ever before. That was a really neat experience--to hear somebody's first prayer. We meet at the church, and last time she brought us dak bogoi--big, thinck rice noodles in spicy sauce that we ate by stabbing them with wooden skewers.

Then there's a high school home ec teacher who files her nails into points. Her husband is an author, she's Catholic, and she has traveled all over the world. She has a month long break starting on December 25, and we set a time when she could teach us to make kim chi stew. I really love talking to her. I love being around her. I love learning from her. And she is learning from the Spirit, little by little.

We were out tracting the other day (in Korean, tracting is 가가호호--ka ka ho ho. I love that word.) and a woman saw us and invited us in. We sat on the floor around the table, and Sister Romney talked about the Book of Mormon. And she was just happy, agreed with what we said. She took the book and liked what we read from it, but wasn't really interested in meeting again. That seems to happen often, which has really surprised me. People like the Book of Mormon, even accept it; like how it teaches of Christ and supports the Bible. But they don't quite see the implications of accepting it. That's how it seems to be for the high school teacher.

There's a high school student who is friends with the stake president's daughter. She's agnostic, but last night, she said she is starting to believe there is a God. She said she feels strengthened when she meets with us. She reads and prays, and when we meet and I try to talk, I just hope and pray she will know this can make her happy. There's a lot of that, right here at the beginning when I really can't speak to people. Hoping and praying that they will understand. I guess there always should be, though.

I send lots of love!

--Carrie

Korea. At length.

2008-11-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

27 Nov 2008

Hello!

So, first of all, my weekly email time has been doubled--I now get an hour each preparation day. Hooray! That will be good especially because mail will be slow--according to my new companion, we don't give out the apartment address, so everything has to go through the mission office, so I'll only get letters every two to three weeks. Sad.

So. Leaving. We left the MTC at 5:00 am, and took a bus to the airport. A short flight to LA, then a flight to Incheon. The LA international terminal was great--people from India, all over Aisa.... We were on a giant Korean Air plane to Korea, and when we got on, the neatly dressed flight attendants were bowing and saying, 어영아심니까 (sp?)--the polite hello. We flew along the coast of California and up the edge of North America, across Alaska--frozen, snowy, no signs of life--and the Bearing Strait (the highlight of the flight--how often do you fly over the Bearing Strait!?) and across Siberia (funnily enough, Russia looked a lot like Alaska--snowy, frozen over, lifeless), then down over some ocean, across Korea, and to Incheon.

The mission presidents from the Daejon and Seoul West missions were there with their wives to greet us. I had to say goodbye to the sisters from my district that I spent all of the last 11 weeks with (which was sad), and then was the only girl in the group.

We loaded up the luggage into a van, then Books of Mormon were passed out, we took a picture in the parking lot, and President Burton announced everyone would be going to the mission home on the bus and trying to place them...except Sister Gold, who would ride back with them. I felt a little left out. But I got the chance to talk to President and Sister Burton for the hour and a half or so ride into Seoul.

There were two Korean missionaries who got here yesterday, too. 김 종로님 and 조 자매님--Elder Kim and Sister Jo. We spent two nights at the mission home. I was babied--they gave me the nice bedroom, all to my self. They heard me coughing, and the next day they pulled out a humidifier. That afternoon, after filling out paperwork and going to the bank (I now have a Korean bank account), we all sat in the living room and did some training, and they had me sit right by it. As we were getting ready for dinner, Elder Bogner said, "what's with the humidifier? Is that like a Korean thing?"

And than I said, shamefully, "no it's for me."

"Oh, that's embarassing," he said.

We had a traditional Korean breakfast yesterday--rice, kimchi, bulgogi (spicy marinated beef). We went out to a little place for lunch, and Sister Jo picked out some dishes for us--kimchi, bibim bap (veggies and rice), and cheese kim bap (kim bap is Korean sushi--this one with American cheese. Not a good idea.). Dinner was good old Hawaiian haystacks.

I got a good night's sleep, then the trainers came this morning. Two meetings talking about some things, then we had a testimony meeting, during which President Burton decided the companionships.

The sister missionaries are assigned by stake, rather than by ward. I am in an area right near the mission home (it was to be that or Incheon--an hour and a half away and being opened up new for the sisters. I was happy to be staying here.). My new companion is Sister Romney. She's been out almost 11 months. We're in a great little apartment in a neighborhood--the buildings look like blocks stacked on top of each other. There are two other sisters in the same apartment (yay!). We have two study rooms, a clothes room, two tiny bathrooms, the kitchen, then a central room where we'll all sleep on yos on the floor. It feels cozy.

I so desperately wish I spoke more Korean. I hardly understand a thing--which I expected. And around the missionaries and such, everything is in English, since there are so many Americans. I just hope and pray I will learn fast--learn Korean, and learn to speak up. That I'll be able to do this.

I am happy to be here, and it doesn't feel strange at all that I am.

I love you all!

--Carrie

I'm in Korea. You're in the USA.

2008-11-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

26 Nov 2008

Hello, hello! Just a quick email to say I made it--per instructions. No problems getting here, though it was sad to tell Sister Jensen goodbye at the airport. We're at the mission home for two nights--last night, then we'll head out tomorrow afternoon. There is a Korean sister--Sister Jo--who came in at the same time. They let us have seperate rooms, though--which I'm so releived (sp??) for--I'm still a bit sick, so I didn't keep her up coughing (the night before I left I was wondering what I could do about that with my companion--earplugs might be an odd gift for someone you just met). Our preparation day will be Thursday--so I'll be able to send a longer email tomorrow.

Korea doesn't feel very foreign--Europe felt more different than here does. Maybe because so much is so new here, like in the US. I just wish I could speak Korean. I keep praying to be able to open my mouth--I think that's the key to everything I want to do here. Hopefully it will start to come. Soon!

Lots and lots of love,

Carrie

Last Week!

2008-11-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

18 Nov 2008

Ah! How can I write about this week in the ninteen minutes and seven seconds I have left till I get booted off MyLDSMail?!

The 14-year-old Sister Jensen and I had been communicating with over chats and email who wants to get baptized told his parents that this week, and was absolutely crushed by their reaction. And Sister Jensen was crushed by not being able to do anything about it. After, she said maybe this is what make missions hard--people finding truth and wanting it, but being kept from it. And I'll add my own speculation: people making decisions that will make them unhappy. And you want them to be happy. And you love them.

I have thought about that this week. About love. There was the 14-year-old, and then some people in our district had some down days; Sister Jensen and I swung apart for a moment before swinging back together. My assignment as a coordinating sister ended this week, and when they told me I was done, I felt such a huge relief.

I don't know if I am successfully tying this all together--that caring matters so much, but it is hard. But it matters. I would do pretty much anything in my power for any of those people--the 14-year-old, or Sister Jensen, or the people in my district. And I try to. But there are things they have to do for themselves. Or let God do.

I think this is strangely related to a grand awakening this week: that I don't have to be perfect to be a missionary. On Sunday, we had our exit interviews with the branch presidency, where we were to teach something for five minutes in Korean. After I did mine, I came out convinced there was no way I could do this. I don't speak Korean. And so many other limitations.

Then this week, one of my teacher's supervisor came in and showed some mission pictures and told about what he learned. And then I heard a clip of a recorded talk someone was playing in the residence hall, and a story about a man who "didn't have a car, but he had feet. And faith." And then it was warm enough to go outside for our gym period, and somewhere in there I realized I don't have to do it perfectly. I just have to try, and work, and talk to people. And I think I can do that. But there are things I can't do for myself. But it will be okay. God isn't asking me to do those things--and if he is, he'll help.

So I think I'm ready.

I love you all!!

Perfect Saturday; Two-Week Countdown

2008-11-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

11 Nov 2008

Hello, all!

I am scheduled to leave on November 24--two weeks from yesterday! It snuck up on me--I was settling in to the MTC for the long haul and all of a sudden I am tying up loose ends again and getting ready to move on (something I have a feeling I will be doing often during the next few months). I am less scared and more excited to go. The cafeteria is helping with that--they do a good job, but I am anxious for Korean food.

Last Saturday was lovely. Classes in the morning, like usual. On Saturdays we have our "Teaching Appointment," where we go teach volunteers who are pretending to be investigators. I didn't feel ready at all, but we had time to practice and prepare that morning and afternoon.

When we go to the Teaching Appointment, we first have a "task," where we do something new in the language with the volunteers, like talk about food or give directions. On Saturday, we were supposed to ask for referrals--if the person knew anyone else who might be interested in meeting with us. The volunteer was a teenage girl from Korea, and when we asked her, she said, "yes, my friend."

"Where do they live?" Sister Jensen asked (though not quite so eloquently, as it was in Korean).

"In Seoul," she said.

She wrote down their names for us, and I said, "Wait, really?"

She really did have two friends in Seoul who she thought might be interested. We had her write down their addresses--and we walked out with two actual referrals! After, the lesson we taught in Korean went slowly (as we tried to find the words we needed somewhere in our heads), but very well.

Also on Saturday, I got lots of mail! My mom sent me the front page of the Deseret News from election day--which made me feel so loved (if a little guilty). And I got a big envelope from my cousin's family--April and Kevin and kids--with each of them having contributed something. It was so wonderful to read through their kind words! I also got a note from a friend who recently left the MTC and is in Montreal.

Then, that night was our district's time to go to the Referral Center, where we do outbound calls to people who have ordered free material from the church and take inbound chats and calls from people with questions. I ended up chatting with a fourteen-year-old I had chatted with before who is just excited about the Church and the Book of Mormon--ended up doing the first lesson over chat! Just a good day as a missionary.

I love you all!

Election Day!

2008-11-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Tue, 04 Nov 2008

Happy election day! I have been excited and nervous for today...I am hoping some sort of election news will penetrate the MTC, but I would be grateful for anything anyone sends my way. I got my absentee ballot a few weeks ago and sent it in--trying to be a good citizen:)

Events of the week:

Last Tuesday night a microwave in the residence hall exploded. I was sitting talking to someone out on the floor, and all of a sudden there was a huge bang. And smoke. And girls screaming and running around. I started thinking to myself: "That was louder than anything I usually hear in the residence hall...I think that might have been an expolsion." And, sure enough, I looked over in the direction of the smoke and a forming crowd of girls to see the microwave's door had blown off, control panel askew. Inside was a green waterbottle that someone had put in the microwave closed tight.

There was glass everywhere (no one was hurt), and in the flurry of girls in pijamas I heard things like "has anyone called the front desk?" and then a vacuum start up. Action was taken. We all bonded. We're closer because of it and got to tell the story the next day.

Halloween on Thursday. I dressed up as Sister Jensen and Sister Jensen dressed up as Sister Gold. We switched hairstyles and clothes. It was quite convincing. We had our cleaning assignment that morning, though, and after we had changed back into church clothes, it appeared Sister Jensen didn't want to be Sister Gold anymore. We had gym a few hours later, and I stopped being Sister Jensen. I was quite glad to be myself again.

Yesterday, Monday, Korean and I had a fight. Korean grammar is different from the languages I've studied before, but entire semester-long classes spent disecting sentance structures has helped immensely with Korean. Everything up to this point has pretty much made sense to me grammatically, even though I can't always reproduce it. Yesterday, though, we were going through a sentance (or is it sentence? I'm sorry, another reminder--no spell check) in class and there was a part I didn't get, and it absolutely drove me crazy. Korean and I didn't speak for the rest of the day, I was so frustrated. It made me scared to think about surviving in Korea. But I will learn. I'll be back at it again tomorrow.

Lots of love,

Carrie

Another Lovely Week

2008-10-29T08:07:00.002-06:00

28 October 2008

Hello to you all!

I had another wonderful week, though I'm not quite sure what I can write about it. I feel like I am growing so dramatically in gospel things--which seem to come to me in such whispers, so personally, that I don't know what they would have the same impact if I tried to share them all. So instead, I will say that God teaches us. "Knock and it shall be opened."

A new group of missionaries headed for Korea came in this Wednesday. At the end of their whirlwind day (like when my group came in), they had a meeting with the district presidency. The district is kind of our "congragation" while we're here, and the district presidency act as branch president--like a bishop--and his counsilors (sp? No spell check). The zone leaders (who are elders--missionaries) and I got to go in and talk to them as part of this meeting. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, I got to give the sisters a tour of the MTC. I used my best tour guide voice.

I really enjoy the association I have with the other missionaries here. The missionaries are such an extraordinary group--we all, of course, need conviction and reasons to be here. I especially enjoy my association with the sisters--who, if I might say it, I think are even more clear on what they're doing and why. We've had a couple more years to think about it, and because it isn't out of obligation.

I love you all and love hearing from you. Have a wonderful week.

--Carrie

Hello, hello!

2008-10-23T08:05:00.001-06:00

21 October 2008

I've been thinking lots about our family this week with Tanya's wedding--my heart was there if the rest of me wasn't! I am anxious to hear all about it, and would really love to see pictures (just a note, though, I don't think I'm able to download attached pictures, but I can get hard copies in the mail, no problem!). I was sorry to miss it, and I would love to know how the day went.

I had a wonderful week here, though. Richard Scott addressed us on Sunday, and Sheri Dew talked to us on Tuesday. I started to realize how extraordinary it is to be here. We also taught our first full lesson in Korean this week, which was difficult, simple, and slow, but we did it.

Yesterday was just an especially good day. Classes as usual--Korean is starting to click, which I am so grateful for. The crazy sentence structure is starting to make sense; the pieces are starting to come together. We had our gym time in the afternoon, and my companion Sister Jensen and I went out to the field across the street. It was such a beautiful day--fall seems to have arrived all at once. The sky was so blue and perfect flat-bottomed clouds made shadows on the mountains that are all of a sudden covered in fall colors. I had a wonderful run.

That afternoon, someone came into our classroom and announced we would be starting a program called "OMTC" where we would be meeting with a "progressing investigator" (one of the MTC teachers) twice a week and teaching them the lessons, helping them read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, inviting them to go to church, and so on, like we will with the people we will teach in Korea. And we would be doing it all in Korean. And we would start that night.

I was overwhelmed--our weekly "teaching appointments" where we practice teaching the lessons (which we now do in Korean) felt like plenty to prepare for, now we had these on top of that. We had a few hours to prepare, at least, and I sat down and read a few scriptures. I started thinking about some things. I started thinking about how, according to eternal laws, God gives us blessings when we follow commandments (Doctrine and Covenants 130?). I started thinking about a fireside where we were told we needed to give everything in this service. And I thought, okay. That's what I'll do.

The first visit with our "progressing investigator" went wonderfully. I wasn't nervous; I spoke slowly as I struggled to form coherent sentences out of the handful of words and phrases I know, but I wasn't nervous. It went well, and the appointments will be so helpful in preparing to do it for real.

Earlier that evening, Sister Jensen and I were sitting outside studying when a MTC employee came up and asked if we could take a newly-arrived sister up to her room. It turned out she had just gotten in from Mexico, and barely spoke English. So I got to use my Spanish and we showed her her room and around the MTC a bit. That's exactly why I wanted to learn Spanish--Spanish is useful. I was so glad I had it to help.

That night, when we went back to the residence hall, I was tired. A good tired.

I love you all!

Assignment, Talk in Korean

2008-10-16T08:03:00.001-06:00

14 Oct 2008

It's hardly worth talking about weather from Provo, but this morning was so beautiful--cold and crisp and frosty. It felt so fresh. We went up to the temple this morning (it was still dark) and on the way back, the sun was peaking over the mountains, with rays lighting up the sky.

This week the branch president asked me to be the coordinating sister. (I'm going to explain this, because I never understood it before I got here) At the MTC, we are grouped into zones and districts. Our zone had...maybe 60 or 70 missionaries until about half of them left for Korea Monday morning. The zone is broken into districts of about 8-10 missionaries. They're the ones we have class with--and end up spending a lot of time with.

An elder from each district is asked to be the district leader, to keep track of things in the district. Two elders are asked to be zone leaders, to keep track of the things over the whole zone--including things like trying to keep things in order in the residence halls. The zone leaders aren't ever in our residence hall, though, and it would probably be awkward for them to tell a sister her shirt is't buttoned high enough, so they ask a sister to be a "coordinating sister" to (for lack of a better way of describing it) keep track of things with the sisters in the zone.

On Sunday I went to a training meeting with the new district leaders. I was the only girl in the room. It was an interesting experience...I have heard of women in predominantly male workplaces feeling an extra need to assert themselves to make sure everyone else knew they were part of the group. That's kind of how I felt, and a lot of why I participated as we discussed examples of good leadership.

The meeting had a lot of comments about how you do not lead with cooersion (sp?) or force or fear. Later that afternoon I went to another meeting, this one with newly called coordinating sisters, lead by the MTC president's wife. She began the meeting by stating it was a forum for how to serve the sisters, and the first suggestion from one of the new coordinating sisters was that we could put treats on the pillows of the new missionaries coming in. And then I realized men and women are different.

Also this week we had zone conference. We had all been told to write a talk in Korean, and people would be picked at random to give them. I actually don't know much Korean, and I was a bit frustrated with the assignment. But I felt pretty proud of myself after getting together a few coherent sentences and some scriptures to quote. It even had an introduction and conclusion. And guess what? I got called on to give it. That I did--very slowly.

After I sat down, all shakey, there was a musical number. An elder sang--in English--about the God we are serving. And I remembered why I let them call on me to give a talk in Korean, even though I don't speak Korean. And I stopped shaking.

I love you all!

Carrie

This Week's Email

2008-10-07T20:49:00.000-06:00

Hello again!

Mom and Dad, I hope you are having a wonderful time in Italy! I love hearing about it.

Dad, happy birthday! I bet it will be a good one, considering the setting. If you ever figure out if someone did resign, pass it on! I'm kind of in a news vacuum.

Well, it was another good week. Classes and our "teaching appointment" on Saturday were canceled for General Conference. Besides the meetings, we didn't have much going on for Saturday and Sunday, which meant a chance to slow down a little and breathe! (I got some ironing done--exciting!--and shined my shoes. I had never shined shoes before. A new experience.)

We watched all four two-hour sessions of conference all dressed up sitting in the big assembly room. I have never done that for Conference before--at home, when it is broadcast, I quite enjoy watching it in my PJ's (though I do sit and take notes even if it's at home on the couch). It was good to listen so attentively, though, and I got a lot out of what the speakers said.

Sunday nights we all meet together for an hour-long fireside. Last Sunday, though, I was a bit suprised that we were having it after already having so many meetings that weekend. They did keep the time-spent-in-meeting factor in mind, though, and the fireside was mostly made up of musical numbers.

We always sing prelude hymns before the meetings get started, since people have to be in their seats early--there is usually an overflow room where the meeting is piped in. Sunday, though, they announced first that they were packing everyone in the same room--no overflow--and second, that one of the prelude songs would be "all eight verses of 'Book of Mormon Stories'."

"Book of Mormon Stories" is a primary song, much beloved, in a minor key, with actions, that most of us hadn't sung in a very long time. And maybe because the rules of a mission help you enjoy simple pleasures, the announcement was met with a lot of excitement. The two thousand of us sang it, many with the actions and a bit of foot-stomping. While this was happening, more people than the room could handle were coming in, and people were trying to sort out where they would sit. Soon elders, in their suits and ties, were carrying in the couches from the hall, lifting them over their heads and arranging them in the front of the room.

Like I said, a mission helps you enjoy simple things:)

I love you all!

--Carrie

(No Subject)

2008-10-07T20:48:00.001-06:00

Hello to you all! I hope you have had a good week.

I got over my cold this week. Coming to the MTC and realizing how many people were spending so much time together in such a confined area, I figured it was just a matter of time until I caught something. And I did last week, but I am feeling better.

I think also this week I have adjusted to being a missionary. While I was unpacking in my room when I first got here, I remember some awkward moments thinking about how I wasn't supposed to go places alone anymore, or listen to the music I'm used to listening to...and now those things are more routine.

I've noticed, though, that a lot of the things I used to define myself have gotten stripped down. We don't talk much about movies or music or even majors. Get-to-know-you questions have mostly been stripped down to "Where are you from" and "How many people do you have in your family."

I don't think the other things are bad--that's why missionaries don't do this forever. And being so concentrated on church things has, at times, felt a little odd. Sometimes it feels a bit like I'm living in a convent--a girl in my district called missions the modern Mormon version of "Get thee to a nunnery." In my conservative skirts and mary janes, singing hymns as we walk or finding myself quoting scriptures, I sometimes feel like a nun.

But on the other hand, I have gained a new appreciation for the religious devout. I have thought a lot about missionaries. And before my own mission, I would think a lot about the negative associations with missionary work that have happened over the centuries. I've heard awful stories of missionaries quashing cultures and doing well-meaning but misplaced things in the name of religion.

But as I am surrounded by goodness here, I am seeing the more positive side. Without excusing mistakes, I am seeing the love that motivates such work. Coming into this, I have had a lot of concerns that what we are doing is culturally sensitive. After this week I have more confidence in our missionary work, and I see that it really is motivated by love. None of us is perfect, but God rarely does things by himself--he does them through imprefect people, probably in order to help us all.

That's what I've been thinking about this week. That might be more interesting that what I've been doing: classes and meetings. Last night our district leader came down on our group for being disrespectiful in a class on planning, and the coordinating sister talked to the sisters in our zone about not flirting. We are working on learning the second lesson to practice in our mock "teaching appointment" this Saturday. My companion had to go pick up a prescription at the BYU health clinic down the street, and we were both excited to be able to leave the MTC campus for a half hour. We've learned how to conjugate Korean verbs into past, present, "if," and "when" forms. All is well.

Much love,

Carrie

First Full Week

2008-09-23T14:57:00.002-06:00

Hello!

I wish I could tell you everything, but there is only so much I can fit in an email. Today was my first full week on a regular schedule, though (last week was full of orientation meetings), so I thought I'd write a little about that.

Every day except Tuesdays (preparation day) and Sundays, our day is divided up into three blocks of time, plus a gym period, three meals, and an hour before bed to prepare for the next day.

Two of those three blocks are class time. We have two teachers who teach both Korean and how to teach gospel subjects (which felt a little schizophrenic to me at first--it's the first time since sixth grade that my teachers have taught more than one subject).

The third block of time is "MDT" or "Missionary Directed Time," which is a bit of a misnomer, since after we get in an hour of personal study time, an hour of companionship study, and an hour of Korean study, there isn't much of it left. We do things like go to the Teaching Evaluation Center, where some nice teacher listens to us practice.

Saturdays, we have our "teaching appointment," where a volunteer comes in and we teach the lessons we would teach investigators. Also on Saturday, we spend time in the call center.

Our whole schedule is the same for our "district"--a class of ten missionaries. We go to class together, eat together...I share a room with the other sisters in the district...we're getting to know each other very well.

Tuesdays are preparation day, which means I get to write letters, wear normal clothes, and do laundry. In the afternoon, we go to the temple, and Sister Jensen and I go to choir practice. The choir practices on Tuesdays and Sundays, and sings at the devotionals for the whole MTC that happen on Tuesday evenings.

Sundays are calm days--more time to get ready in the morning (we usually have just a half hour, unless you're willing to sacrifice sleep), more personal time, which I like to fill up with reading. I thought that I would be reading the scriptures all the time here--for more time than I could stand--but it turns out it feels like I never have enough time for them. We have Relief Society in the morning, after watching the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word from Temple Square (which is a very calming thing--I bring my journal or some other activity). We have Sunday School later with our district, then Sacrament Meeting with everyone learning Korean later that afternoon.

So there you go!

Lots of love,

Carrie