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
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
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