The city is different but good

안녕 친구.

First off, Grandma Bonnie happy birthday!!! I will be sending you a letter today because today is a letter-sending kind of P-day. I love you!!!

Nicky, I'm sorry you're kind of, sort of staying in Celaya. And that you're zone leader. But I believe in you!! Hopefully your (sort-of) new area is nicer. Love you, kid.

Another week here the big city. So many buses. That's all I can think, every day. Bus after bus after bus. After spending the majority of my mission in areas that have only one main bus that we ride every day, this place is crazy. It is incredibly convenient though, so public transportation for the win.

This week we met with investigators. Guys, I have more than one investigator that has interest outside of English! YAYAYAYAY. I'll tell you about them with secret code names.

MJ. A referral from Temple Square. Yes, you read that right. Isn't that awesome? She was just visiting America with her brother this summer and her brother's friend (a return missionary no doubt) suggested that they visit the historic sights at Temple Square, and so they did! MJ loved it and wanted to learn more, so the Temple Square sisters referred her to us. And guess what? This week we set a baptismal date with her! Hopefully it works out, though she's still a little too shy (nervous? lazy?) to come to church. But let that be a lesson about the importance of Temple Square sisters. Their efforts can work miracles!

MiO. This lady in her 50s who met with the missionaries once a long time ago and decided to call us up and meet with us again. She's an English investigator, but has a ton of questions and religious interest. Part of the reason why she called us is that she started thinking about attending a church, but she didn't know which one to join (sound familiar?). She went to one with her friend and because she's, you know, worried about the state of her immortal soul and stuff, she asked the minister how she could gain salvation. He told her that by listening to his sermons every week, her salvation was secure. Just like that! Well, MiO wasn't satisfied with such a quick fix. Plus she didn't feel very saved so she called us and we've been teaching her about the Atonement of Christ and repentance and baptism. I'm not sure she completely understands yet, but we're working it on it. ^^

Pongo and Perdita (i think i'm hilarious). A married couple! We have family investigators. All my dreams from The District are coming true! They have three little boys who are crazy wild, but they want to raise them well and fix their marital problems, so what better cure than the gospel! They are perhaps some of the most humbling investigators of my mission. I don't want to mess up or lose them! I just want them to be sealed as a family and be happy in the gospel forever and ever.

I'll keep doing my best! Though any advice is always appreciated.

I love you all so much.

Sister Arvanitas

A lot of these pictures are right before she left her last area.  There are a few at the end of the new area she is in.  

The District (her old one)

Saying "goodbye" to some of my favorites.

 Our old investigator took us out to the "lunch of a thousand 반찬." (side dishes)

 One last picture of Sister M..... and a crab.

 Our Filipina investigator, Fatima. Her last words to me were, "You take care always." I LOVE HER.

A final 신권 모임. I miss them already.

My favorite family and the cake they gave me.

. The hairball we'd been growing. (Um, gross!)

A dramatic farewell to 정읍.

 Sad to be separated.

Our church. I KNOW, RIGHT?!

English class with small children. They could not get that last letter. We even told them the word in Korean and they started shouting, "M! it's M!" "no, H! H! it's definitely H!" Sooo funny.

We were just walking home last p-day and we found a giant Pororo made of flowers!

More flowers

That one time we had a mini explosion in our house. R.I.P. my curling iron. (Don't worry, Momma. No serious burns.)

New and Old come together

안녕 from 충장 (it's a rhyme, I promise)! Actually, to be more specific 안녕 from 풍향! This area is the most confusing thing of my life. I'll try to explain, but  you'll probably get bored so you can just go on ahead and skip to the next paragraph. So once upon a time there was Poonghyang, Choongjang, Nongseong, and Songjeung (I hate myself for romanizing them, but it's for the greater good). The were four separate wards with four separate church buildings. But then the Church decided to build a massive, wait no, MASSIVE, stake center right in the middle for all four wards to meet in and got rid of all the old buildings. Then they combined Poonghyang (my area) and Choongjang into one ward and Nongseong and Songjeung into another ward. And if that weren't confusing enough, both wards meet in the giant stake at the same time Sunday morning, except my ward has sacrament meeting first and the other ward has sacrament meeting last. Does that make sense? Let's just say yes and move on.

But hey, I'm back with 이예진 again! It's nice because we didn't have to go through the whole "New Companion Awkward Stage." It was just like, "Hey can I borrow your clothes?" "Yep. You know which ones you like." It's so easy. Since our companionship ended so lamely before with me being really, really sick, I'm kind of glad we get another chance to end things happily. We already worked well together before so here's hoping we can do it again!

Leaving 정읍 was really sad though. I love 정읍 so much. I think it'll probably be my favorite area and it was hard to say goodbye to all the members and the missionaries there, but I only cried three times! A new record! My favorite memories from 정읍 will be four-person district meetings, games with the youth, maple leaves, 신권 모임 (priesthood meeting), Sister M....., and 준호 of course, the little seven-year old boy who I love more than anyone. We ate dinner with his family the night before I left and then he called me and Sister M..... later that night and told us he loved us. It was cutest thing that's ever happened to me. We hung up the phone and burst into tears.

But this area will be good too! It's different in pretty much every way. I've taken the bus more these last few days than I ever have before. I'm definitely not a city girl, but I like it here all the same. Our house is cute and the members are nice, even if there are like two hundred of them...

I just want to share one scripture before I go! It's one of my favorites and it's the one I shared in my "Introduce Yourself to the Ward" talk yesterday. 

Thessalonians 5:16

"Rejoice evermore."

This has been how I have tried to serve my mission these past fifteen (?) months. With joy! This is such a happy message and it deserves to be shared with joy! I'm so thankful to be a missionary and to have this gospel in my life because it has made me so happy and I have seen firsthand how it makes other people happy as well. I love this message and the opportunity I have to share it. Missionary work is hard but it is so happy. I know that if we serve the Lord with joy, then we receive in return His promised blessings and surely those blessings give us every reason to "rejoice evermore."

I love you evermore!

Sister Sydney

Sydney forgot her camera cord, so she couldn't send pictures of the last week, so she sent more pictures from her pday excursion to see the fall leaves with Sister M..... and the two elders in her district.  

 Just this random boy we found throwing leaves. Not really. He just never wears his nametag

Red leaves and blue sky

There were just so many of them!

Korean jokes

Fallen  leaf heart without photobombing elder

Cute

You bet we climbed the mountain. We were tired, but the air was clean and the view was beautiful.

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!