The One With Chicken Feet, War Sirens, and a Buffet

Hello from Jeju!!! 

This week was a crazy one!

The other day we were on our way home from our Phillipina investigator's house when all of the sudden these alarms that sound like tornado sirens started going off and these dudes in military vests started ushering everyone out of the streets. He made us go into a 7-11 and I was more than happy because it had AC and ice cream. Sister Allred was freaking out so bad. I think she thought the world was ending. I'm not sure why I was so chill, but I couldn't be bothered. The guy at the front of the 7-11 told us that it was just training for in case we ever go to war with North Korea. haha. What a joke. I just bought some ice cream and enjoyed the AC.

After that we went and visited our very favorite investigator who runs a kimbap place and never sleeps. She is our favorite because she will spend like 20 minutes going off about how fat and ugly we are every time we visit her shop. Wahoo for self confidence! Korea has seriously wrecked me. Haha.

Also, on Friday we met with an investigator who was sooo excited to eat chicken feet with us. We went to this chicken feet place that is famous and only here on Jeju. It was actually not that bad or spicy at all! It was just the texture that got me. But the best part was the stir-fired chicken cartilage. That was actually not bad at all! But don't worry, Mom. I know you're a light-weight and you Americans can't handle stuff like that.

Also on Saturday night we went out to eat with some really cool members and they took us to this buffet at this huge, fancy, beautiful Ramada hotel. It was amazing! I ate sooo much yummy sushi and raw oyster and even some jellyfish! It was sooo good! And they had real bread, real cheese, and pancakes for dessert! It was amazing!!! Brother Kim Sungsoo also told us all about his mission president back in the day and it was soo cool!

We also had a new investigator show up to church on Sunday and she seemed to really like it! Yay!!

Today for P-Day we went to this place called EcoLand, which has a forest train. It was pretty fun, but it just made me laugh because American theme parks have rollercoasters and rides and Korean theme parks just have 100 different places to take pictures. Asians really do love their pictures! haha. 

Well, that's all I've got for this week! 

사랑해요!!

"I you love"

Sister Johns

Yummy lunch with an investigator!!

We're kind of weird...

Chicken feet!!!!

EcoLand!

I love sister allred!!

On the EcoTrain

Our companionship summed up in a picture...ahhahaha.

Jeju rock dudes

ahahaha that sign though

The One Where She Danced With Grandmas at 5:10 in the Morning and Biked Around a Tropical Island

Hello everyone! We're just living the life here on Jeju! We are working sooo hard, but sometimes it feels like we're hardly working because we are having so much fun!! Things here on the island are great! This week was insanely busy but so great!! 

On Wednesday we flew to Pusan for Zone Conference and it was amazing!! President Barrow's MTC companion who served in Pusan 37 years ago came and spoke to us and shared lots of cool miracles and stories from his experience in our same mission. After Zone Conference, we went on another exchange with the Deshin sisters and it was so fun because I got to go with Sister Lee Wonji and it felt sooo great to serve with a Korean companion again!! I pray that I get to serve with at least one more Korean before I am done!! After exchanges we literally had to run from the subway station to the Yungsan sisters' house because we slept there because it is right by the mission home and closest to the airport. It was so much fun! We stayed up late talking with Sister Cook and Sister Jo Sungmin. Also, the icing on the top of this whole sleepover was the grandma zumba class that we went to in the morning. Apparently a few transfers ago when the AP's were scouting out a good trail to do our hiking zone conference on they stumbled across a zumba class for old ladies where they do super weird, super Korean dances to super, super old 60s/70s Korean music. I heard about this and wanted to go sooo bad. Sister Jo is pretty much the most fun person ever so she said she'd go with me. So we woke up at 5:10 in the morning and went to granny zumba with the Office Elders. Haha. It was so funny. Those grannies know how to get down!! I can't even describe it to you!! Haha. Some of the moves we did seriously made me feel like I belonged in an insane asylum. ㅋㅋㅋ But it was the best! If you would have asked me to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to go dance with a bunch of Korean grandmas at 5:10am two years ago, there's not a chance that I would have gone, but now you don't have to persuade me! I'm the one signing us up to do it! Haha. My life is so fun right now. After zumba we played basketball at the mission home with the other elders and sisters around. And by we, I mean them. I kind of just stood there and awkwardly screamed when the ball came my way. Some things never change.

By Thursday we were back on the island, which was great because we have a lot of work to do! We visited our amazing Phillipina investigator and recent convert and met a lot of really cool people during jundo! We have lots of appointments with new people set up for this week and I am so excited to see how it goes! 

We also figured things out with our Russian investigator! We called the AP's, who called the missionaries in Russia and we are going to set up a time for them to Skype with Arina and teach her! Yay! 

We also met the coolest lady when we were jundoing last night who just moved to Jeju a month ago and who is looking for a religion! We will be able to start meeting with her next month once things get settled down at work because she is super busy right now! But it was sooo cool to meet her!!

Also, today's Pday was soooo 대박!!!! Ahhh! So much fun!! We went to a little island off the coast of Jeju called 우도 (Oodoe). We took a bus, then a ferry to get out the island and then we rented bikes and rode around the whole thing. It is soooo beautiful!!! It was so hot, but we didn't even care because it was so much fun! We also stopped and had a picnic by the ocean. It was so nice! 

Other than that, we're just keeping on keeping on! Time is going by so fast!!! I can't believe I only have 99 days left on my mission! It is sooo scary!!! I don't want to go home! There's no kimchi in America!!! What the heck am I going to do?? And also, I don't want anyone to see me and I just want to hide under a rock because I look like a troll!!!!! Ahh! I just want to live in Korea as a fat troll and hide forever! I don't wanna grow up!! Ahhhhhhh!!!! Going back to real life seems  sooo scary! I'm going to be a wreck when I have to leave! But for right now, I'm just going to enjoy these last 99 days doing the Lord's work in paradise!! 

사랑해요!
"I you love"

Sister Johns

The One Where She Ate Shark and Went to the Beach

Hello from Jeju!!

Honestly, I don't have much to write this week! Time is just going by and we're just keeping on keeping on. Missionary work has been crazy lately and like all of our investigators are from crazy other countries...we only have 3 Korean investigators right now...the rest are from Russia, China or the Philippines. Super crazy!!

This week we met with a new investigator who works for Samsung insurance and she is the funniest 60-something lady. She took us to this fancy lunch and fed us shark, squid, and octopus. Squid and octopus are just a normal, daily thing here. But shark was new! It wasn't too bad! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and we shared our testimonies. She attends Catholic church and really loves Jesus!

We also had a ward picnic at this famous beach yesterday. It was really, really fun! I really want to come back to Jeju later and actually be able to enjoy everything! In Korea you can have your favorite food delivered to you anywhere...even the beach!!

We also met with our Russian investigator yesterday. It is really cool, but really hard because we literally know zero Russian...ㅋㅋ Their family needs a lot of help because they don't know much Korean and the little boy gets bullied at school because he doesn't know a lot of Korean. It breaks my heart. He is just so shy and scared of new people. We ordered some pamphlets and a Book of Mormon in Russian, but it's kind of hard to point and try to explain in Korean...so moral of the story is, if you know anyone who is fluent in Russian, help!! ㅋㅋ It was so cute because they tried to teach us the Russian alphabet and they said they would teach us Russian if we teach them Korean and English. Also, when we met yesterday, we were asking our investigator, Arina who is who in the family and we found out that despite the fact that we guessed that she was in her early 30's that she is actually the mom of the 21 year old girl and a grandma!! We were pretty mind blown. I need to know her secrets!!! I guess the fountain of youth is in Russia.

Well, that's all I've got for this week! 

사랑해요!!
"I you love"

Sister Johns

The One With Adventures in Pusan and Morning Exercises With Grandmas

Wow. This week was eventful!! Life as an STL...ㅋㅋ 

This week we left for Pusan early on Tuesday morning and we had an STL training meeting with President Barrow and the APs. It was really great and I learning a lot, but the best part was probably the salad for lunch and the choco-peanut butter bars that Sister Barrow made.ㅎ

After that meeting it started pouring rain and a typhoon came through so Sister Allred and I had to trek through the dumping rain to the subway station. But it was pretty funny and we just laughed about it. All of our stuff got completely soaked though and everything in my suitcase smelled like wet dog...yum! 

We went on our first exchange with the Deshin/Quejung sisters. They cover two areas, Deshin and Quejung which are in the older part of Pusan. The coolest part is that Korea's very first church building is in Deshin because I think that Deshin is where the church started in Korea. It was super cool and Sister Allred and I worked our butts off there to help those sisters!! It was really great and I got to go on an exchange with Sister Markus from the MTC.

After we finished up with Deshin/Quejung sisters' exchange, we headed over to Haeundae/Gwangan...boy was that amazing!! I have wanted to see that area for my entire mission! It was soo cool! We even went and got lunch by the beach. And on the way to teach an investigator, we passed by the world's largest mall!! It was sooo cool! I think there's a reason why I have to serve my whole mission on the countryside because I would get waayyyy too distracted by the tall buildings, flashy lights, beaches, and malls in the city! 

But the best part of exchanges was morning exercises with the Haeundae/Gwangan sisters. There's a little track/exercise park by there house and everyday from 6-7 the grannies and grandpas go there and do yoga and at the end of the "yoga" class, everyone gives each other a massage. We couldn't pass that up, so we went running for a little bit and then joined in on the yoga. Not gonna lie, it was pretty dang hilarious considering that the grannies and grandpas were so excited to have four foreigner girls and a foreigner boy (and his poor Korean companion who was 100% mortified) come join in. At the end we all did a massage train and the most awkward part is that a grandpa started massaging me!!! Ahh!! Don't tell President...ㅋㅋ It was sooo funny! Everyone chanted while doing the massage train and Sister Allred and I died laughing...we may or may not have both peed our pants a little bit. But the best part is that at the end everyone slapped each other on the butt and said "good job" so I got slapped on the butt by an 80-year-old grandpa (that's not weird in Korea, btw. It's just something that old people do to young people in a sort of grandparent-baby sort of way). Hahahaha!! But it was all worth it because my back was cured of 14 months of knots from sleeping on the floor! Ahhh! It was soo funny! I really wish I would have taken my camera...It seriously looked like an episode of TellieTubbies...ahhahaha.

Back on a more spiritual note, we had Mission Leadership Coordination Meeting on Friday and it was really great. It was super cool to learn lots from the other leaders in the mission. And Sister Cooper and Sister Hall were there, so it was great to see them! And we had one of my favorite foods for lunch and delicious TEXAS SHEET CAKE!!! I was so happy!!

It was way fun to have so many sleepovers with the other sisters, but sleeping on the floor kind of made my back hurt, so I was really excited to see my yo (Korean floor bed thingie) back in Jeju.

Things on Jeju have been great! We met with a new Russian investigator and her family. She speaks a little Korean, no English, and we speak no Russian (unfortunately...ㅠㅠ) so teaching is pretty interesting. It's just a lot of hand gestures, Google translate, and our rudimentary Korean against hers. But we ordered some Russian pamphlets, so that should help a lot. We also are going to see if we can find someone in Seoul or some other part of the world who can translate for us through Skype. We still have to talk to President about it, but I have heard of other missionaries doing that in other areas and seeing success. Hopefully it all works out! 

Other than that, things are just coming along. It is hotter than Hades here and we are constantly sweating to death. I know it's not Thailand or anything, but this weather is killer! I can't wait for it to be nice outside again!! 

Before I finish I have a quick assignment for all of you! This week a new American family moved into our branch and we taught them in English during Sunday school. We talked about the Sabbath Day, keeping it holy, and consecrating ourselves. Our discussion really made me think about who I was before my mission, what I did with my time and how I really know so little about what really goes on in ward and branches around the world. After being a missionary, my eyes have been opened to a lot of things!! So I have a few questions for y'all and a challenge. 
1. Do you know the names of all of the less active families in your home ward/branch and actually try to reach out to help them? 2. Do you know the names of the investigators the missionaries in your area are teaching?? What do you do to help them? 3. Do you know the names of families in your ward/branch who are struggling and need help?
If you have answered yes to these questions and you are actively working to help these people, then thank you and keep up the good work. If you said no, I would invite you to repent, change, and help your brothers and sisters out!! Most of these people have made sacred covenants with God and they aren't keeping them. Do you know what that means? If you look in the scriptures, it's really not pretty! And if they haven't made those covenants yet, they're missing out on blessing that we have that they don't! And if we don't do anything about sharing those blessings so that others can receive and enjoy them too, then that's pretty dang selfish. If you said no, please think of what's holding you back and compare that thing's worth to the worth of a soul. We have a lot more responsibilities than we think as church members!! Are you fulfilling yours?? I sure hope I continue to once I return home from my mission. And I sure hope that it doesn't just end with the dissipating of fresh-off-the-mission "RM weirdness." In every ward or branch in the world whether it's here on Jeju, at BYU, or anywhere in the world, there are people who need a friend and a helping hand. Are you making yourself available to be that? 

I hope you will all look out for people in your area who need help and actually act and do something to help them!! This religion is not a passive one! We must follow Christ's example and love all others around us, not just through our words but through our actions. Whether it is the family across the street that just moved in, the old lady who has lived next door for ages, or the less active church member who has been forgotten on the church member list, it's our job as Christ's followers to help them. That is what we covenanted to do at baptism. 

Anyway, that's all I've got for this week! Have a great week!! 

사랑해요!
"I you love"

Sister Johns

The One With The Tuff Cone

Hello from sunny, beautiful Jeju!

This week has been so great! If Sister Allred and I serving on Jeju together this transfer wasn't inspired, I don't know what is!! I haven't been so stress free in ages! We both know what we're doing, love what we're doing and we just get the work done. This is a much needed break!

Ahh...this week was so much fun! Where do I even begin?!

I love Jeju!! It's so fun! The work is really moving forward here and we've got a lot of investigators. It's really cool because Jeju is a really diverse place, so we have lots of international investigators. We are currently meeting with a few Phillipina investigators that our Phillippina recent convert introduced to us and we have also been meeting with a Chinese investigator...but she doesn't speak much Korean at all so one of the members in the branch who is from Singapore translates for us. It's super cool!!

Guys...there are sooooo many Chinese people on Jeju...hahaha. But it's really easy to tell who is Chinese and who is Korean...ㅋ But it still makes our job a little hard when there are  so many tourists. But that doesn't stop us!!

Sister Allred and I are having way to much fun together! We run every single morning and we are on a very strict diet! The Jeju branch also plays soccer together every Saturday morning and we have to go. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty humiliating for me because I suck at any sport with a ball, but mostly I just run up and down the field and pretend to care so that I can get an extra two hours of exercise time in.ㅎㅎ We also have bikes in our area, which gives us another excuse to exercise because sometimes we take our bikes instead of the bus when the Elders aren't using them. But one of them has a flat tire right now, which is so sad!!

Also, it is soooo hot here. I cannot even describe it to y'all! It's soooo hot and humid and no matter how much sunscreen I put on, I come home looking like a lobster at the end of the day! ㅋㅋㅋ I seriously have no idea how people want to meet with us because I look and smell soooo terrible. I have literally never sweated so much in all of my life! But Sister Allred and I joke that the uglier that you get on your mission, the more blessings you get when you come home. I think I will be the world's most blessed woman if that's the case because I am just a big sweaty, stinky, chubby troll! Oh, you've gotta love missionary work! Sister Allred and I laugh all of the time about how we came out on our missions thinking we would stay cute and not gain a pound...hahaha. What a joke! Everyone who decides to go on a mission needs to realize that they are going to become an ogre!! ㅋㅋㅋ

Today was such a sick P-Day! We went to this thingie called the Tuff Cone. It's supposed to be an hour hike, but we got up in like 20 minutes...haha. I'm so out of shape though! I'm slower than molasses in winter! But I love serving on Jeju because we get to do all sorts of fun outdoor activities and it is sooo beautiful! It was so hot today when we were hiking. We were literally dripping with sweat. It was pretty nasty! 

This week is going to be insane! Right now it's summer vacation, so everyone wants to come to Jeju. We have two missionary leadership meetings on the mainland this week so we have to fly in on Tuesday, but there weren't enough plane tickets available, so we'll be in Busan from Tuesday until Friday night. It's insane and so sad because we can't meet with any of our investigators. But it will be good because we will just get exchanges out of the way. 

I love y'all!! Have a great week!

사랑해요!!

"I you love"

Sister Johns

It was soooooooo hot!!!! Can you tell??

From the top of the Tuff Cone

I love jeju

Yeah...this is my home.

lol there's these old ladies in wetsuits who dive in the water for clams and they put on a show.

Black sand beaches because of volcanos or something like that.

Some shells we found

Before we started our diet, we had to get in one last hurrah, so we got the yummiest mint chocolate bingsu!