Monday, January 4, 2016

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!

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