Letter from 28 January 2010

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

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

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

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