The One Where She Accidentally Took Alcohol from an Investigator...

Hello everyone! Boy is it FREEEZZZINNG here in Pohang! This week was so crazy! So many funny and embarrassing things happened!!! I'm sure you're all wondering about the crazy title of this email, so I'll go ahead and explain that first! 

So last Tuesday, we had an appointment with Won Ji-won's family and committed them to pray about the Book of Mormon and we taught them about baptism a little bit and gave them the baptism commitment. They still don't have a date and aren't progressing very much, but we are just hoping that something with will break through! Anyway, after the appointment, Won Ji-won's son was super excited to give us these "sodas." He started telling me something about them and my head went into mind-blown "Am I understanding this or not understanding this" mode and everything he said to me went in one ear and out the other. Sister Morrison was putting on her bag and coat and wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying so she took the "juice" before I could explain to her that he may or may not have just said that it was not just juice, but dancing juice!!! I had no idea what to do, so I tried to say something to keep the situation from escalating into a pure catastrophe. But then again, I wasn't even sure if I heard what he said right! For all I knew it could have been Korean Fresca! Then all of the sudden, his mom comes back and is like "why are you giving that to missionaries?! It's alcohol!!!" And then he went on to explain to her that he told me it was alcohol and we still took it. Oh boy, was I in a pickle!! I quickly tried to explain to them that we actually don't drink alcohol and it was all just a big misunderstanding in both Korean and English, but they wouldn't take it back. "We gave it to you, no worries! Just take it and give it to someone else!" Shoot! So after trying to give it back to them three times, we each left with a can of alcohol and had to carry it around in our backpacks all day and it's still in our fridge right now. I think this week we will have to take it back and teach them about why we don't drink. Yeah, I definitely deserve the worst missionary of the year award. Korean is so hard! The longer I am here, the more I realize how much I have to improve on. I am so inadequate it's not even funny.

Anyway, the rest of our week was pretty fun. We had Kid's English Class and it was Sister Morrison's 21st birthday (lol at the fact that we got alcohol!!! God sure has a sense of humor!) and Sister Kim Jung-ah and Sister Merrill threw her a surprise party after if was over. We ate homemade RiceCrispies and chocolate milk!

This week was also had a worldwide broadcast to all of the missionaries in the world. Everyone around the world watched it live together, except for all of us in Asia because, naturally, we were sleeping when it was happening. It was really cool and I really loved Elder Bednar's talk on the spirit and how we can bring the gospel unto the hearts of the people, but only the spirit can take it in if our investigators invite it in. That gave me a lot of comfort about Alice, who officially dropped us this week. That really ripped my heart out of my chest. But Elder Bednar's words really spoke straight to me and reminded me that I did my best and all that I possibly could have done for that girl, but she chose not to let it in. Maybe in the future she'll meet the missionaries again. I really hope so! I'll be praying for her! 

Oh this week was BITTER cold! It was -10 celsius the other day. We decided that we wouldn't let that stop us from doing missionary work and talking to people! We were sooo cold after being out there for hours! I almost died! And then we sticker boarded with the Elders and I lost my gloves on the bus, so I was DYING! I am sooo glad I was not a pioneer who crossed the plains!! But soon the winter will be over!

Love y'all!

사랑해요!!!

I you love!

Sister Johns

Hi! I am freezing and also a Russian grandma. 

The One with the Sharks in the 시장 (Shijang)

Hello everyone! 

This week I really have nothing exciting to tell you about. Missionary work has been pretty slow lately ever since Alice stopped responding to our calls and texts. So sad. Please pray for her. It seriously breaks my heart that we don't get to see her anymore. And other than that, our other investigators won't come to church or keep their commitments. It's so crazy how fast things can go downhill...and right as you are feeling like you're on top of the world. It's kind of discouraging. 

But despite all of that, we had a really great exchange this week with the STLs. I got to serve with Sister Lee Yeji and we ate my favorite spicy 떡볶이 and taught Kids' English Class together. I had to lead Kids' English for the first time and it actually went pretty well! Crazy story: When Sister Lee Yeji (이예지) and I were jundoing, we went to the public market to find a less-active sister and we ran into this shop that sells full-out sharks! It was insane! There were just three HUGE sharks laying out for sale and another huge one just cut in half! And there were just buckets of shark heads and shark meat! Super crazy! Sister Lee had never seen that before and she's Korean! Haha. We were both a little freaked out! Then when we were on the way to teach Kids' English, we got chased by dogs! It was super funny. We were dying laughing and so exhausted by the end of the day! Usually on exchanges you stay up late talking, but we were so tired that we both fell asleep right when our heads hit the pillow. That was a first! Haha.

Also, the other day we were craving ice cream SOOO bad! It was a really hard day and we had already told our district leader that we were home so we couldn't go out and get anything. But in Korea, you can have anything delivered to your house, so we called McDonalds and had ice cream and fries delivered and we ate it in bed! That was so fun! Delivery makes not eating sugar hard! Haha.

We also had interviews with President Barrow this week. That was so cool. I have been really stressed and I have felt so inadequate lately (especially with my Korean! I just want to be fluent, but it's so hard!!), but when I was talking to President, I just felt at peace and like everything I was doing was alright. I was so grateful for that. He gave me so much insight on how to be a happy, successful missionary (and person after my mission) and we talked a lot about spiritual gifts and using my gift of love. He told me to not stop falling in love with the people or Korea even if I get rejected all of the time. We talked a lot about my fear of rejection and how it is the corresponding weakness to the gift of love. It was really cool to hear from my mission president about my spiritual gifts. I don't really ever notice my strengths on my own to be honest. And it just felt so good to just hang out with President Barrow for a few minutes! Also, when I was waiting for my interview, I got to hang out by myself with Sister Barrow for a little bit! It was so fun! We did planks and lunges and squats and pushups together in our dresses! Hehe! It's insane how quickly you can get SO out of shape! My body is a noodle and it scares me so bad!! Sister Barrow talked a lot to me about not getting stressed out and told me that since my body is young, I'll be back in shape in no time after my mission. That made me feel so much better. I haven't really had a chance to run in like 2 transfers! It's crazy!

Well, sorry I have nothing fun to talk about this week. But missions aren't a vacation or a study abroad there are SO many ups and downs. They are hard and challenging and trying and SO rewarding when you look back on it all! I can't believe I've been in Korea for 6 months and a missionary for 8 months! It goes by so fast and so slow at the same time. I think only someone who has served a mission can understand that! 

사랑해!!

I you love!

잔스 자매

Sister Johns

The Sort of Rough One

I wish I had a ton of good news to write home about this week, but to be honest this week was kind of rough...

First of all, Alice went out of town all of the sudden so we couldn't meet, she didn't come to church and we had to push her baptismal date back, which made our branch president really upset with us. That gave us a TON of stress.

Also, from 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning until Friday afternoon I was throwing up every 30 minutes because I just got a horrible stomach bug. I was so miserable and I just wanted to die. I felt so weak and annoyed because I just had to sit at home all day and I couldn't do anything missionary-wise and when you're sick as a missionary there's not TV, movies, or books to entertain you. It was pretty much the worst two days of my mission. 

So yeah. It wasn't the best week of my mission, but I'm doing really good. Somehow despite it all, I'm still happy. Funny how that works when you're a missionary. 

I have hardly any time to email this week because we are doing a zone p-day in another area. I love you all so much!! 

Please, please keep praying for Alice! all I want is for her to be baptized!!! Okay! Love you bye!

The First One of 2016

Okay...why is everyone moving on with their lives! Blake, Kendl, Lauren, Corinne, Kayleigh, and now Emily all married or engaged. Another one bites the dust. Ew.

Anyway, things over here on the other side of the world are pretty great. I have been seeing so many miracles lately, which makes missing out on all of that fun stuff at home not seem so bad. And I also got to see 2016 before all of y'all back home, which was pretty sick.

Pohang has been awesome lately! Sister Morrison and I have been having so much fun serving together and we have been seeing tons of miracles. We were shocked that she was staying here for one more transfer, but so grateful. It has been so fun!

Korean New Year is pretty chill compared to America, but there are some fun traditions. My favorite is that on the first day of the New Year, not matter when your birthday is, you get a year older. And you eat this special soup on New Year's morning that when you eat, you "eat a year" and get older. So I am 22 in Korea, but 20 in America. Weird, right?! We ate New Year's soup (떡국) like three times on New Year's Day! But the best was that we went to Kim Un-jung (our recent convert)'s house and practiced English with her and her husband. They are so cute and so in love. Like I am not even kidding! I want a love like that someday. You should see the way he looks at her! It's adorable! After English practice, we made dinner all together and talked. It seriously felt like I was at home. I could feel their love for us so strongly and I just love them so much that at that moment, that was the only place in the whole world where I wanted to be. I didn't care about missing weddings or wanting to see my family or anything like that because I am loved here I love these people so much. They literally feel like family to me. I can't even describe it.  

This week we met with Alice again and she's doing so well. She seems really committed to keeping the Word of Wisdom, although that was really hard for her. And guess what?! She's not actually living with her boyfriend!!! Yay! That was an answer to weeks of fasting and prayers! She has everything she needs to be baptized! The only thing holding her back is coming to church, which is a pretty big problem. But we're going to see if the branch president can give her a ride because that would make it a lot easier for her. Please pray for Alice to be able to start coming to church and that she will have a genuine desire to be baptized! We just care so much about her! It's insane how that happens to these people you barely know and don't even speak the same first language as! She feels like family or a best friend!

Another fun thing that happened this week is that the senior couple (Elder and Sister Dustin) came and visited Pohang to do housing checks and they brought us Lucky Charms!! I was so happy and we ate it all in one day...and it was a family-sized box. We just missed American food so bad! But it was a good last hurrah because I gave up sugar on New Year's Day. The 25 pounds I've gained here have got to go away! Anyway, after district meeting we ate at the market and I think all of the dead fish and pig heads hanging everywhere really freaked out Sister Dustin...oops. I just forget how used to the whole Korea thing we all are!

Anyway, that's all I've got for this week! Love y'all! Say congrats to all of the newly-weds and engaged lameos for me! 

사랑해요!!!

I you love

Sister Johns

Embarrassing moment time: I was doing my hair the other day and I accidentally burned my face (so lame, right). Everyone in Korea was freaking out that I would get a scar and acting like it was the end of the world. Elder Jang was so afraid that I would get a scar and that it would make my mom sad that he gave me these stickers to put on my face to make it better. (Background information: in Korea it is completely socially acceptable and not weird at all to put "bands"- aka stickers- on your face if you have a zit, a red mark, a scar, you name it!) So I have been walking around feeling like a total dummy with giant sticker on my face for the last three days and Elder Jang and all of the moms in the ward say I have to to keep it on for 9. Yeah, that probably won't happen. You've gotta love Korea!