Letter from 30 December 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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