Monday, November 3, 2014

Of Mountains and Maple Trees

What a week.

First off, Madds HAPPY BIRTHDAY~
Wowowowow, you're fourteen. I never even got to see you when you were thirteen! I love you and I hope you had a great day! Send more pictures because the ones Mom and Dad take are always blurry. Guys, you have a camera. You should, like, use it or something.^^

The only things I can remember about this week are decorating for the Halloween party, having the Halloween party, and getting in with the Filipinos. I'm sure other things happened, but did they?

The Halloween party went really well! So many people came and brought their friends! I felt just like missionaries on The District except we were on a much smaller scale and I'm sure a whole lot more chaotic.(this is a series made for missionaries that lets them look into a day in the life of missionaries) But it was good and the church looked beautiful. Hopefully I can send you some pictures of the decorations because we spent forever on them. But it all paid off because members, less-actives, and a whole lot of potential investigators came. In fact, one of our members even brought the friends that came to the Halloween party to church the next day! One hundred points to Gryffindor!!

As for the Filipinos, our investigator F..... is friends with pretty much every other Filipino person in Jeongup and now so are we. It's awesome. There was this exclusive "Filipino Person Only Volleyball Tournament" this week and we totally got an invite. We were in Korea, but no one was Korean.

And then, last night, we went to another Filipino birthday party and we ate all the chicken adobo. All of it. Don't tell the Koreans, but I might like Filipino food better. It was quite freeing to understand none of what anyone was saying and not even care because guess what, I don't speak Tagalog! And that's okay! We ate well and bonded with the only other non-Tagalog speaking person, a Korean girl who turned out to be an old investigator! Miracle!

But all this "running with the Filipino crowd" will have to be left to Sister M..... now because I'm transferring! It's sad, but I knew it was coming. What I did not see coming was who my new companion is. It's 이예진! Also known as the girl I was just companions with before Sister Matsen. Hahaha oh, President Shin. There are no rules for transfers with him. I'm excited though because I'm finally serving in the city (충장) (This is an area in the city of Gwanju) and I already know and love 이예진! The members here in 정읍 are sure to find this hilarious.

Here's to the last two transfers of my mission!
What the what?!

I love you all!!!
Sister Sydney

Halloween party! We were dolls. It went really well, even though the kids were crazy. At the end of the night Kimyoungchan just said to me, "Oh Abba, why can't I control Jeongup?!" 








 Last p-day we bought selfie-sticks. Are these a thing in america? Because Korea loves them.


ㅋㅋㅋKorean jokes.

Weird camera setting and cute friends. I love it when 규태 pinches his eyes.


 My camera can do this thing where it puts makeup on your face, makes your eyes bigger, and your face smaller. It's so ugly I can't even...

 I wish I could show you now, the videos we filmed when we came home from the Halloween party, but you'll just have to wait three more months. Here are some screen shots to tide you over. ^^


The leaves are changing and the weather is crappy. Yay.

Our last time all together on 박유진's bed. I'm gonna miss both of them so much.



       Also we went to 내장산 today. I don't know if any of you have been to a mountain covered in maple trees                                            before, but it was SO BEAUTIFUL. SO BEAUTIFUL! 








Monday, October 27, 2014

Short letter and lots of Pictures

Before her letter I'll share a few messages she sent separately.  She didn't write a long letter but, prepare for picture overload at the end.  She's down to her last 3 months.  Holy Cow!  That means only 12 more letters left.  Crazy!



Maddie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK. When I saw that you're turning fourteen, I fainted. But now I'm back and I'm typing this email. I love you and I can't wait to see you! I bought you lots of fun Korean things today and I'll give them to you when I get home on Christmas 2.0!


Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Gray, I got your packages!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH. I love you and I love the scarf you picked out, it's beautiful! I'll wear it this week and take a picture. I love you both and hope you're well.




I can't remember a whole lot from this week other than going on a split, making decorations for the Halloween party, and a few appointment here and there. It was a great week though and a couple of our investigators are even progressing! Fatima watched the Joseph Smith movie twice she liked it so much and when we taught her the Plan of Salvation this week we taught a little bit about the temple too. The first thing she said was, "Wow! I want to go to the temple!" And we were like, "You can! But first please come to church." But she didn't. We'll keep trying though.

Lately I've been reading through D&C because I'm trying to like it as much as I like the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, but I'm still not quite there yet. But I did find a nice little scripture in Section 90, verse 24, "Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good."

I love that. "Be believing." Belief is so much more than what we have, it's who we are. The Lord expects us to believe, because when we do, we can trust in His blessings and find the hope we need to carry on. So let's be believing! Because we are promised that if we are, all things will work together for our good.

I love you!
Sister Abba.

BABIES! I went on a split this week in 전주 and we went to visit the bishop's wife. She's in her mid-thirties, but she has seven children all under the age of eight and four of them are twins. We played with her youngest set of twins and helped her move furniture around. It felt good to be useful. ^^

 My companion for the day. She was actually the MTC companion of my old companion's (이희원) older sister. Weird, right?

Pretty!

Korea has these fun suction cups things that are supposed to relieve the strain off your back and neck. Our less-active had them and you bet we took pictures.


 I made all these ghosts for the Halloween party! They look like ghosts, right? Kimyoungchan keeps saying they look like squids...

We came to 중앙 for P-day today! The fall leaves are looking beautiful! We plan to go to Nejangsan next week (as is the rest of Korea, I'm sure) so hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to send of the maple leaves. They haven't quite changed yet, but they're getting there.



A cute little neighborhood in joongang. All the walls are painted!



I want to live here!




This girl likes bibimbab!

 Terrifyingly festive E.T.


 A Kung Fu panda noodle restaurant!

Totoro!