The One Where Borahm Got Baptized and Sister Johns Went to Jeju

Sooo much has happened this week...I have no idea how to write about it all! So, so, so many good things!!

First we'll start with the baptism! 

Yes, Borahm got baptized and it was amazing!!!! And it was all such a miracle how it worked out!

Last Tuesday, Sister Workman and I were doing companionship study when we got a call from Borahm's teacher in America. This year, she won't be able to come to Korea, so she called Borahm and encouraged her to get baptized ASAP. That day during lunch, we got a call from Borahm and she said that she wanted to get baptized on Saturday! You could just hear her beaming with excitement through the phone. So we did all we could to prepare, she passed the interview with flying colors and she was baptized on Saturday and she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. She was so cute about the whole thing and the member who gave her the Holy Ghost, blessed her to become a wonderful missionary someday! It was sooo cool. She fits right in with the ward and is already making friends with the youth. Her siblings got baptized in America and we went over to their house to watch it with her family on Skype so I could translate for them. It was so cool. Her mom still doesn't have much interest, but she really enjoyed the baptism and she spent all day with the members and made a lot of friends. She really seems to enjoy being around them! 

Also, the fashion family is progressing so well! We shared the message of the restoration with them and they loved it and said that they want to know for themselves if it's true. They were so excited and willing to learn. The mom had already read the entire intro section, testimonies, and all the way to 1 Nephi 5 in a week! They really wanted to come to the baptism but they were out of town! We'll see what happens! 

Nam Gyung Hoei is doing well too. She attended the baptism and had a lot of questions. I hope she works toward baptism too! 

Gee...I was sad to leave Coomi! Funny because I had such a hard time loving that area at the beginning. God really works in mysterious ways! 

Anyway, Saturday was probably the craziest day of my entire life! We had the Skype baptism in the morning, appointments all day, so much prep to do, the baptism, then transfer calls that night. Even though Sister Workman and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off to get it all to work out, it all went well without a single hitch!!! It was perfect. I was soo happy when I saw her go down and come up out of the water!! There's nothing else in the world like a baptism! And I'm not gonna lie, we spoiled Borahm pretty bad! You know me! I like cute things and I love spoiling the people I love! I'll send y'all pictures of it all later! My USB in in my luggage on its way here...

Which brings me to the next exciting news! I got transferred to Jeju Island!! I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of sad at first because I really, really wanted to serve in Busan and have a subway in my area...BUT I got called to be STL of the South Pusan Zone along with my new companion, Sister Allred! That means that I get to go on exchanges to the big city!! Yay! The only crazy thing is that we will be having to ride an airplane almost once a week to get to the mainland!! I'm a little nervous to be STL because I've never done it before, but I know God will help me! I love Sister Allred to death and we already are having so much fun! She came to Korea a month after me so we were in the MTC together. We were super shocked when we got called to serve together because we are both such "old" missionaries, but I think it will be a break for both of us after having the big responsibility to train. It was so funny because I thought I was going to Jeju to follow-up train her trainee and she thought my trainee was coming to Jeju to be follow-up trained by her! But then we realized that we were companions and we were so confused. But it's super fun serving with her, so I'm not complaining!

Jeju is really beautiful! We took a plane to get here and we were traveling all day yesterday so we didn't get to email and so that's why my email is late! But don't worry, we have permission to email today!! I am so excited that I am on Jeju and that I have come to such a beautiful place for possibly my last area!! I really miss Sister Workman all ready and I can't believe training is already over, but she will do so well! She is such a great missionary! I know Coomi is in great hands with her and her new companion, Sister Han! Everything is working out for our good, just like God promised! I know that we will see lots of baptisms here on Jeju. I can already feel it! I am so excited to serve God in this new (beautiful) vineyard!! And P-Days are gonna be pretty sick!ㅋㅋ 

Well, I love y'all to death! Have a wonderful week!

사랑해요!!!

"I you love"

Sister Johns

Cleaning the baptismal font after a long day of jundo in the heat #bucketlist

That is the face of pure happiness, friends.

Cleaning the font was kind of yucky. It had been since Janurary since we've seen a baptism in Coomi!

We made a cute little table display for her because cute things are cheap and so easy to find in Korea...plus we just had a bunch of random picture frames chillin in our house

The masterminds

We really tried to make Borahm feel like a queen as much as week could!

The YW

...and the YM. I think they have a crush!!

Nam Gyung Hoei

We got to see one of the less active/ part member families I've been teaching in Coomi one more time before I left

 Bishop's wife made the yummiest bye-bye meal for me! She is an amazing cook and makes everything healthy style!

Jeju crab...get excited, Dad! YUM

Yes, friends it is this hot outside... #sweatstains4dayz

We got some American treats from the senior couple in Daegu zone and made some mudcups on P-day

The One With the One-Year-In- Korea Mark

This could possibly be my last email from Coomi! We have transfer calls this week! SO much happened this week and it is all kind of funny. Coomi may or may not be a town of crazies!!

But first, I'll update y'all on Borahm!! Yesterday we finished teaching her the lessons and invited her to get baptized. I could really feel the spirit working through us as we taught that lesson! She said that she's thinking about getting baptized then and will let us know before Friday so we have time to organize a baptismal interview! It's all coming up really quick and I am going to give you all a favor because we don't have much time and miracles need to happen!! I need all of you to pray for Borahm and I need you all to pray specifically that she will be baptized on the 23rd. There is power in specific prayers and in telling Heavenly Father exactly what you want and then showing Him how bad you want it. I have been praying so hard for this and I told God that I'm going all in. I'm putting all of my cards out on the table and putting all of my faith in. I know that this will happen if it is God's will!! No ands, ifs, or buts about it! She is ready for baptism and I can feel it in the spirit in the room when we teach her! I am doing all I can, now it's in God's hands!

On a more crazy note...
We met with some really interesting people this week!

So I'm pretty sure that the lady that showed up to English class last week has some issues going on...but that doesn't mean we don't love her anyway. But let's just say that she invited us into her skincare shop, talked our ears off for hours and acted like a total weirdie. It took us like an hour and a half to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which usually takes us 30 minutes or less) because she just kept getting distracted and talking about how we need to take good care of our skin, about her dog, about how her family is insane, and about how her daughter really likes Fruit by the Foot...ahhaaha. We were dying laughing after the appointment. We are meeting with her again tonight and we will see if she has real interest or not. Pray for us!!

2 crazy things happened on Tuesday. The first is good and the second is kinda weird. There is a less active sister that I have been meeting with every week since I came to Coomi named Lee Hyosun. She hasn't progressed at all, but we were persistent with her and she finally started to pray again. She had cancer, it was in remission, and now the doctors think it may be coming back. It breaks my heart because I care so much about her. But the experiences that she is having lately have really humbled her and she asked me this week where I think she will go after she dies. I asked her where she thinks she will go and she said 별의왕국 (the telestial...lowest???) because she is less active. She asked me to teach her how to make it to at least the 달의왕국 (sorry, these are hard in English!!! I think the middle kingdom of glory it is like terrestrial??) . I testified that it is never to late for her and that she can still make it to the 해의왕국 (Celestial) if she repents and changes her heart. She asked where she needed to start and I said that she needs to start with prayer and faith in Jesus Christ that when she repents, she can become better. Then she needs to start working on keeping the commandments again. She said it seemed hard and scary, but I told her that I know that she can do it! She said she would start trying again and she even prayed at the end of the lesson when I invited her. I have invited her to pray at the end of the lesson every single time for almost 3 transfers and she constantly refused until this week. The spirit was so strong. Every single week I tell her this before we leave: "저희가 자매님을 사랑하고 하나님은 자매님을 저희보다 훨씬더 사랑하세요!" My Korean is probably horribly wrong, but this basically means "We love you so much and God loves you even more than we love you." Usually she just shrugs it off, but this week it brought tears to her eyes and as the door was shutting just after we were leaving, she poked her head out and said "사랑합니다!" which means "I love you!" before going back inside. It was such a special experience.

But...on our way back home this crazy woman chased us down on the street and refused to talk to us in anything other than broken English even though it was clear that Korean would be more comfortable for both of us. She knew all of the stuff about us and I have no idea how...I'm pretty sure we have a stalker here in Coomi...ㅋㅋ So hide yo kids hide yo wife. She wants to meet again, but we decided against it because she has absolutely no interest in the gospel and she's a little creepy.

On Thursday we had to go to Daegu for Zone Meeting and on the way back we were waiting for our train when a little granny came up to us and started talking to us. I explained that we were missionaries and that we teach about Jesus Christ. She got excited about that and invited us to come to her house after we got off of the train. We didn't have any appointments, so we said "sure!" So we went to her house out in the buttcrack of nowhere and she obviously misunderstood the missionary thing because she tried to make us drink alcohol...ahhaahhahah! You should have seen Sister Workman's face when I explained to her what was going on. It was apparent that we weren't going to be able to teach her, so we said that we had to leave immediately and she was kind of sad, but on the way out she actually read our tags and was like "oh!!! you're jundo people!! I go to church too!! Jundo to me!!" I was like "Yeah I told you that like 5 times on the way here!!" And she said "No you said you are missionaries of The Church of Jesus (서교사) and I don't know what missionary is. But I know what jundo person is (전도사)!!" (These words are similar sounding)  So we gave her a Book of Mormon with our testimonies in it and we are going to meet again next week except this time there will be no alcohol! Haha! That was such a crazy day! You never know what grandmas will pull on you!!

On Friday we met with a new family of fashion designers. Their apartment is so cool and they gave us tons of clothes...well Sister Workman a ton of clothes. They said I am too fat #thanks. But they are super cool. They used to be Catholic, but now they worship at home because they didn't like some things about the Catholic church. We gave them a Book of Mormon and taught about it a little. They were way excited because the mom had met with our missionaries a long time ago and they said that they would read from it when they worship together. This week we will have time to teach the whole restoration and I am so excited!

But...on our way home a bunch of JW grandmas (Jehovah's Witness) came up and tried to bible bash with us and I couldn't be bothered with it so I just didn't say anything and I told Sister Workman to try and give them a Book of Mormon if they bother us. (Jundo tip: sick your trainee on them) They came up and tried to hand us pamphlets and stuff and Sister Workman didn't know what to say so she just didn't say anything and just handed them a BOM and then said "This book is about Jesus Christ" and walked away. You should have seen the look of the lady's face!!! Hahaha. Sometimes you have to use your greenie to your advantage. It was so funny. We both just cracked up. I kind of felt bad because I really do respect and appreciate other religions. I guess it just makes me so annoyed when I so blatantly wear the name of Jesus Christ and my church on my chest and I came all the way to Korea to teach people about that, but people from other churches so disrespectfully disregard that and try to jundo to me. It just brings out the sass in me, that's for sure.

Anyway, I'm all our of time!

사랑해요!
"I you love"

Sister Johns

The One Where Miracles Happened

This week was a miracle-filled one!! God just opened the windows of heaven and poured out blessings on us. I have seriously no idea what I did to deserve it!!

It all started on Monday when we got the call from Borahm's teacher. Borahm had testing this week (which is a huge deal in Korea) so she wasn't able to come to church/we couldn't teach her again, but she contacted us and said that she will be a church again starting next week. We will commit her to be baptized on the 23rd then! Pray that it all works out! Also, tonight we are meeting with her mom and explaining what baptism is and figuring out all of the details for Skype. We are also going to invite her to start meeting with us so we can teach her. Pray that it all goes well!!

On Tuesday with met with Lee Hyo-sun, a less active member that we have been visiting every week since I came to Coomi. Every week we invite her to pray or keep some small commitment, but she doesn't. So for this entire transfer we have persistently been teaching her about prayer. Last week I may or may not have called her to repentance and told her that Satan tells us not to pray, so she's listening to him...#oops. BUT my boldness worked because she prayed this week for the first time in 3 transfers!! Yay!!

On Wednesday, we met with Nam Gyung-hoei and she has been praying and she said that she is taking good care of her faith plant!! She also said that meeting with us is like healing! Pray that she'll come to church this week!! 

The next big miracle happened on Thursday when we had interviews with President. Honestly, I have never seen so much success or taught so many investigators on my entire mission as I have right now! We are teaching two families, and four other investigators! It is sooo amazing, but sooo draining on me considering that all of this is happening while we are training here in Coomi. Sister Workman is amazing. I love her to death and she literally does everything she can to do her part and I am so thankful for that, but as a trainee you can only do so much because of the language barrier. So I have to lead every lesson and teach almost all of it all by myself. I also have to help my companion learn how to be a good missionary, how to be obedient, etc. and on top of it all I have to teach her Korean. And then when it comes to lessons, I am in charge of all most all of the talking and 100% of the understanding. Anyone who served outside of Korea, Japan, China, Finland, and maybe Russia will probably never understand. It is soooo draining!! Korea and English are so different!!! And I don't want my companion to see how stressed I am because that will stress her out and make it seem like it's her fault when it's not at all!! Anyway, I have been so stressed that it is effecting me physically. My hair comes out in little clumps sometimes when I shower, it is impossible for me to lose weight even though I try so hard because I have to come home soon!!! (ahhhhhh), and I have been sleeping terrible. I hardly even have the energy to run in the morning, which is usually the thing that gets me through the day. So I talked with President during interviews and he gave me amazing advice and really talked me through everything. It was a great interview!! At the end I was planning on asking President for a blessing, but we were already over on time and there were other missionaries waiting so I decided I could go without it. President bowed his head to say the closing prayer for our interview, but before he said anything he stopped and said. "Sister Johns, I feel like I need to give you a special blessing. Would that be okay?" We both just started crying and he gave me a blessing that has gotten me through so much this week!! It didn't make all of the stress go away, but I have been able to manage everything a lot better! Being a missionary sure is exhausting, but it's possible through Christ's atonement and through the guidance and help of others like President. Priesthood holders: Never be afraid to give someone a blessing or offer to give someone a blessing. If you feel like you should offer to give blessing to someone, chances are, they need it and that is the spirit telling you to help them. Always follow the prompting!!

Saturday was AMAZING! It all started out in the morning when I was stressed out of my mind because we teach 2 family investigators in a period of a few hours on Saturdays and before all of that we have our 2 hour service activity teaching kids English with the Elders, and we also have English class at the church. But here's the catch: an Elder in our mission had a concussion and had to go home so there was an emergency transfer and now we don't have Elders in our area (they are only here on Sundays for church). So Sister Workman and I are the only missionaries in Coomi, there aren't any elders with the priesthood, and honestly, all of the pressure is on me. I was really feeling that pressure on Saturday morning when we got a random call from Elder and Sister Dustin, the senior couple in our Zone. They said they were coming with a surprise. They showed up at our door with bags and bags of American food any everything to make tacos!!! They even brought raspberry jam!! And cheese!! (you can only find stuff like this on the American military base!!) They woke up that morning and prayed to know who to help that day and felt like they needed to bring us a pick-me up! It was so amazing! They just came dressed in white like angels with everything we needed to be boosted up. All of y'all back at home, please follow their example. Get down on your knees and pray, ask who needs help, then don't waste a second, get out and get to work! You will see blessings!!!!!!!

Anyway, that first miracle kick-started a day packed full of miracles!

After the service project. We taught Park Hoeigyung and her family and they expressed that they have a little bit of interest in the gospel and lots of questions about our church right after I prayed that they would have interest so I wouldn't have to drop them (we were planning on dropping them that day). A little isn't much, but it's enough!! I told Heavenly Father that I wouldn't give up on my investigators! I want to bring as many people along with me to the Celestial Kingdom as I can! And when I told Heavenly Father that I was bringing Park Hoeigyung and her family even if I had to drag them, we a saw a little miracle!

After teaching the Park family, we had to rush back to the church for English class. This woman showed up for the English class. She had met the Elders on the street a while back so she decided to come to the church for English class. We didn't even end up teaching English because she just randomly opened up to us and a member about her crazy life (it literally sounds like a soap opera!!). She just cried and cried and we had to rush to our next appointment, but before we left, I took her by the hands and shared my testimony that God loves her and Christ died for her and understands her. The spirit in the room was so strong and every single person there was crying...there was not a dry eye in the house. It was one of the most intense spiritual experiences of my life. My words were not mine and I could feel that as I said them. I could literally feel God's love for her. She just folded in half and cried for a few minutes. She said that she wants to meet so we can teach her to pray and be happy. She drove us to our next appointment and gave us like $100 worth of insane skincare products because she runs a skincare center. She also came to sacrament meeting on Sunday and brought us each a bouquet of flowers!! That just shows how thankful she is to hear about the gospel! I really think she would literally give all that she has to be happy and know God! Pray for her!!! She needs to be baptized!

After English class we rushed to our next appointment with the other family we teach. They made us food and we did 30/30 and they really liked the message. We taught about family prayer and they said that they would pray together this week. The only problem is that they're Buddhist (not that it's bad to be Buddhist!!! All religions are beautiful and point to the fact that we have a Heavenly Father and that it is a part of humanity's divine nature to want to be close to God and have religion). I just hope that we are able to touch their hearts somehow so we don't have to drop them. But the mom really loved the message and she seemed really opened minded! I really hope we can teach them about Jesus Christ!!

Well, I'm out of time this week! I just have a quick assignment for everyone reading! This week I want you to look for the little miracles you see and report to me! It's your homework!!! Sister Workman had this idea for our families and friends!!! Do it and email me!! :)

사랑해용!!

I you love

여한들 자매

Sister Yo han-der

The One Where She Ate Boiled Pig Stomach and Saw a Fasting Miracle

Well this week was full of adventures! The work is really moving forward in Coomi. I've never had so many investigators in my entire mission!! We are currently meeting with three people and two families! The only problem is that every single one of them except for Jung Borahm is an English interest investigator. All of you people serving in areas of the world where you don't teach English, just count your blessings!

Anyway...

We'll start with the big miracle. This transfer we were setting district goals and I said that I think every team in our district can baptize one person this transfer. We all decided to make that a goal and as the weeks have gone on I have felt really discouraged and a little stupid for encouraging everyone to set that goal and then not even be close to keeping it myself. So this fast Sunday I just fasted for the wellbeing of our investigator and that we could see a baptism before the end of the transfer. We visited some really awesome members last night and we talked about how we can get Jung Borahm to get baptized a little quicker and we made a plan for her teacher to skype in and watch the baptism that way. We were going to also see if our bishop could help get the teacher's contact information. But then this morning I was on my hand and knees scrubbing our floor (because mops aren't a big thing here) when we got a call from a random number. It was the teacher in America!! She told us that Borahm's little brother and sister are getting baptized in America on July 23rd (the day before transfers!!) and she wants to skype Borahm and the parents in to watch the baptism. We decided that it would be a great idea for Borahm to get baptized in Korea at the same time that her siblings are getting baptized in America and we can all be part of it together over Skype. Please pray that everything works out! I would love to be able to see Borahm get baptized!! I have been praying for that every morning and night for two transfers now!

Other than that, we just started meeting with people out the wazoo this week! All of them are just interested in english and it is really frustrating because they are just using us and it is so annoying to be manipulated!! But we started meeting with a new family and for the first time in my mission we are able to meet with a mom, dad, and their two kids all together. Their interest is in English, but they are very humble and you can tell that they love each other. Sister Workman and I had a really good feeling about them after meeting with them the first time, Please pray that they will be prepared to accept the gospel and be baptized!

Nam Gyung Hoei is going really good. We shared a message with her on faith and we put a cute little succulent in a mug and covered it in "dirt" made of crushed up Oreo. We asked her to eat it and she got all freaked out when Sister Workman shoved a big handful of "dirt" into her mouth. Then Gung Hoei tried some and she realized that it was just cookie and really loved the analogy. Especially because she is teaching her students at school about plants during science time. We talked about growing faith and we said that actions like faith and scripture study made it grow. She loved that so much. She said that she had a warm feeling in her heart. We asked if she had ever had a feeling like that before and she said "not in a long time because I am not happy." We told her that when she prays and grows her faith she can feel that warm, happy feeling any time and she said that it was because it is the spirit and the spirit comes when we make good decisions like keeping the commandments, praying, etc. We told her that the plant can be her "faith plant" and every time she waters it, it will remind her to water her faith as well. She said that she would pray. We promised that if she prayed the spirit would be with her and she would be happy. I'm pretty sure she was crying a little during the lesson and the spirit was just so strong. Please pray for her and pray that she will pray and progress toward baptism! She's got a long way to go, but I think we are finally seeing some progression. 

Okay, now the boiled stomach story!

After Pday on Monday, we went on exchanges and I went to Gyungsan with Sister Amende. We were out jundoing and there were all of these grandmas sitting out on this stoop eating and we said hi. Sister Amende asked what they were eating which is basically code for "can I try some?" in Korean culture. Well, I knew exactly what they were eating and I did NOT want to eat it. But of course, in their cute Korean grandmaness they wanted to share and they fed it to us strait off of their chopstick. And this is no intestine sausage that is kind of tasty. This is literally a straight up stomach boiled, cut up and dipped in salt. I have eaten a whole heck of a lot of weird things in my life and especially on my mission, but I have never had anything more disgusting in my mouth in all of my life!!! I had to spit it out into my hand while they weren't looking. Sister Amende and I ran off laughing and spitting as we went! Sister Amende is from New Zealand and words that are swears in America are just words with no bad meaning in New Zealand so Sister Amende just yells "Oh my Gosh!!! This tastes and smells like @ss!!" I laughed soo hard! She is so funny!!! We ran to the nearest convenience store, washed out our mouths with like 6 bottles of water and then ate 2 ice cream sandwiches each because it was the most gosh-awful taste that has ever been in my mouth. Sister Amende could not have been more right. It really did taste like bum!!! HAhahahaa!!

Well, that's all I've got for you now kids! Have a great week!

사랑해요!!
"I you love"

여한들 자매