The One Where There Was No Such Thing As Coincidences

Hello! I have so much to say and no time to write!

This week we met with a new investigator that was referred to us from the missionaries in Pusan. We were taking with her and she is seriously the most prepared person I have ever met. We invited her to be baptized and she was so down. The only problem is that she is going to China tomorrow and won't be back in Pohang until June, but she wants to be baptized then!! She asked us to send her spiritual message texts each week until she gets back and to send the Elders to meet with her husband. All of the sacrificing and hard work is paying off! But here is where it gets really crazy! This lady is a referral from a member living in Pusan. We were talking about the member who referred her and we found out that her name is Kang Min-jung. Now lets flash back to my first week in Korea when I sent out a message to all of the members and less actives in the Jinhae ward introducing myself as a new missionary. And if y'all remember right a less active sister invited us over to her house after getting that text. We went and she told us that right as she had been praying to find a way to come back to church, she got my text and invited us over because it was an answer to her prayer. For the three transfers that I spent in Jinahe we met with Kang Min-jung all of the time and she was able to come back to church once her son's tests and college applications were completed. She was an active member again and then on my last week in Jinhae, she and her family moved to Pusan for her husband's job. While she was in Pusan her friend (our investigator) come to visit, went to church, loved it, and then decided to find out more when she got back home to Pohang! Miracles happen and every little thing you do counts! I am so happy and I know that there is no such thing as a coincidence! God really does put people in each other's paths for a reason! Kang Min-jung was the first person I ever met with in Korea and I had such a special connection with her! And now because of her example her friend and her friend's family are going to be baptized in June!! Never ignore a prompting or an opportunity to serve even if it seems insignificant! You never know where it might lead!

Also, in other less important news this week, last night we met with a member who is a little on the crazy side (the one who said I look like the Angel Moroni and that I will be the next prophet) and on the way there it started pouring rain and snow and we had no umbrellas so we got SOAKED! So when we got to the member's house we smelled like wet dogs and had crazy string-cheese hair (like the weird little cartoon string cheese man on the string cheese packets)! She didn't care one bit and invited us right in! So we shared a message and in the middle of us sharing our testimonies, she farted SO loud! I think she even caught some air because of it. And it smelled so bad...like kimchi farts!!! So I am literally using every bit of will and self-control to hold it together and Sister Clove just started cracking up. I am not kidding, it took every ounce of willpower in me to not pee my pants laughing, but I made it through without even cracking a smile! Mom would be so proud of me for being mature! But not really, because once were were out of that member's door I was practically rolling on the floor laughing!  Oh, you've gotta love being a missionary!

사랑해요!!

"I you love!"

Sister Johns

The One Where She Cut Off All of Her Hair

Hello from Powerful Pohang! 

Sorry my email is late this week! That is because of an exciting adventure we had on P-day that I will explain more about later! 

But first of all, I can't believe Kayleigh is getting married in like a week or something and Aubrey got into BYU! It's so crazy and everyone is growing up so fast! I just want to go run away to Neverland with Peter Pan! Growing up scares me so much and I just wish all of y'all back home would stop doing it! Sister Clove has that super sappy dad-jeans song called "Butterfly Kisses" on her usb and when it comes on in the mornings we have to sprint over to turn it off because it makes me feel so depressed. Haha. I am such a baby!

Anyway, this week was an adventure! I randomly woke up one morning and wanted to cut off all of my hair. I'm not going to lie it was getting so long and unruly! I was starting to look like Captain Jack Sparrow! And then I saw Sister Curr at District Meeting and she had just bobbed her hair and my mind was set! I needed to get rid of at least 6 inches of crazy, ginger hair! So we set up a hair appointment at the good hair shop that the Gyungju Sisters go to and Sister Lee Yeji (who is perfect and both English and Korean) helped us make sure that we didn't accidentally tell the hair lady to shave our heads bald. Also, I had them work a little Korean magic on my hair (literally because that's what it's called) and permanently straighten my hair, which I thought would take an hour and a half, tops but it ended up taking pretty much all day...so that is why we are emailing today ! It just made President laughed when I talked to him at Zone Conference yesterday! I was so embarrassed! But I had no idea that doing an American's crazy ginger hair would stress out an entire Korean salon's staff and take 4 hours. Oopsies! Next time, I won't be doing magic on my hair! 

Anyway...

On a missionary work note, things are still a little hard here in Pohang because we still only have one investigator who can't/won't come to church. But we have been working sooo hard. And we are finally starting to see some of the drops in our bucket show because last week at the bus stop I talked to this old lady and she just kept going on and on about how much she loves Americans because the American soldiers gave her food that saved her family when she was young and Korea was still a developing country. I gave her a Book of Mormon and told her about my Great-Grandpa serving in the Korean war. Then last night we were getting on the bus to go to Kim Unjung's house and she came up to me and said that she remembered me and wanted me to teach her granddaughter English! We got her number and called her and we are still waiting for her to call back! Please pray that it will work out! Also, Kim Unjung (our recent convert) really wants to share the gospel with her brother's family but she doesn't know how because they don't want to come to church on Sunday, but please pray that we will find a way together! 

Zone Conference was so great yesterday! We learned about the importance of repentance and how to teach it more effectively to everyone. We studied Luke 15 and I wanted to share some of my insights that I got from studying it/conference yesterday. In Luke 15 there are three parables of things being lost and found. If you look at the end of all of them, you can see that when something is lost and then found the people who find the lost sheep/silver/son call all of their friends together and rejoice. We have all lost something in our lives and then come to find it again through Christ. Most often, we lose ourselves doing something dumb that seems worth it in the moment, but when we "come to ourselves" and repent, we "sing the song of redeeming love." And that song isn't meant to be sung alone! "The more you understand the Savior and His Atonement, the greater your desire to share the gospel will become." (that's in PMG somewhere or something) So as we repent each day (and repenting just means going through your day with God and telling Him all the things you did and counseling on how you can do better) we will understand the Atonement more, and want to share with our friends and family. The gospel really is a great gift and such great news! Share it with everyone! Your friends, your family, your kids. Whoever will listen! 

I love y'all so much! I can't believe how much my life is changing here in Korea and how much everything is changing back home. Sometimes I really miss it, but I know that it will all work out. Soon enough I'll be home laying on the floor listening to my The Smiths records and reading Hemingway. But for now, I've got some really important work to do and not a lot of time to do it!

사랑해요!

"I you love!"

Sister Johns

Fun at Zone Conference with new and old friends! 

The One Where They Jundoed All Day, Every Day For a Week Straight

Hello from Pohang! Boy am I tired?! I probably worked harder this week that I ever have in my whole entire mission! Probably because I just realized that I ONLY HAVE 6 TRANSFERS LEFT! WHAT?! Time has gone by so fast!! And also, we don't have a single investigator in Pohang at the moment. Also, the reason why I am so exhausted is because pretty much every day this week from the time we left the house after language study until planning at night we were out on the streets talking to anyone and everyone. It was a holiday this week so it was impossible to make appointments...so we just jundoed and jundoed and jundoed. My feet hurt so bad from walking so much (and have I mentioned that my shoes have holes in them?). We still haven't found a single person who is interested in our message, but we'll find them soon. I lived through this as a trainee and I can do it again. I know there are people in Pohang who will listen, I just have to search high and low for them. The only problem is that this area is the second biggest in the mission, so I think it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of creativity to track down prepared people. But for some reason I have a feeling that this week we are going to find some of them.

I learned a lot of really great, really important lessons this week!

Being senior companion is rough not matter where you are or who you are, but it is especially hard in a huge, overwhelming area like Pohang. But it has made me rely on Heavenly Father and Christ's enabling power so much more and I have been seeing the little miracles and hint of God's hand in my life like never before. I hate to say that I needed to be compelled to be humble even as a missionary, but this new responsibility humbled me like dirt and made me realize that I was really taking God and all that He can do for granted.

The first experience happened on Tuesday. I had taken so much time on Monday night to map everything out for the next day, looked at the bus routes and schedule, find the stops for where we needed to be going, choose less active members to find and visit, etc. But we got on a bus on the next day and even though I had tried my hardest to organize everything, the bus number that was in the area book was wrong and we ended up at the end of the bus line at a shack of a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, about 30 minutes from the place we had planned to be. I felt so stupid and inadequate and like my poor companion couldn't trust me because her senior companion was such a dummy. So we waited forever for a bus that would take us back into town when I realized that I had forgotten the paper with the address we needed on my desk at home. I just wanted to cry and bang my head on the wall for being so stupid and disorganized. But my companion was so patient and when we were on the bus I just prayed and prayed that I would be able to figure everything out when I opened my bag one more time to see if I could find the address. I reached down and the first thing my fingers touched was that little slip of paper. And I had dumped out my bag three times at that little bus stop in the middle of nowhere just hoping to find that paper. Sure it was probably in there before, but I know that God helped me have clarity of mind to find what I needed and get where I needed to be going.

On Wednesday, we jundoed all day and we were exhausted. I had worked so hard all day and seen absolutely no success. When I wanted to crash I realized that I had forgotten about my English class message and I said a little prayer because it wasn't my intention to forget, I was just so busy with everything going on and forgot. I just said a little prayer in my heart and then felt that I needed to teach about the Plan of Salvation. And the spirit was so strong and my Korean came out so smooth it was so cool. 

We also have a girl in our ward who is preparing to go on an mission and we have been meeting with her to prepare her to go. She is the cutest and I love her so much! We took her jundoing with us this week and she was so scared! It was so much fun to help her out and encourage her. I realized how much I really miss serving with Koreans!! I really hope my next companion is Korean! I just wish she could come to Pohang instead of Seoul! I would be so down to train if she was my trainee! Haha. It was just so humbling to realize how far I have come since I was also a trainee! 

Anyway, I am out of time. But I love ya'll so much! Moral of the story: don't take God's hand for granted! Pray to Him! Tell Him how you're doing and He'll help you out! He'll send you great people, miracles, and even cute little Korean friends to help you survive it all!

사랑해요!

I you love!

Sister Johns 

We gave them American Valentines Candy and they died of happiness (and a sugar rush)

bb lipz

He is such a little cutie! 

We were at the beach jundoing and this random girl insisted that she take a pic of us...hahaha

It was Lee Sojin's birthday so we surprised her with a cake at English class!

The One With the Half-Way Mark

Hello from Pohang! The weather is so sunny today and I am so happy! Sun makes the freezing cold wind more bearable!

Can you believe that this Friday I am halfway done with my mission?!?! What the heck! I still feel like I was a little trainee in Jinhae five minutes ago! I can still remember rolling into the MTC in Kendl's red Jeep like it was five minutes ago! And when I walked through the MTC doors and the lady pinned on my missionary tag for the first time couldn't have been more than a second ago. And don't even get me started on how serving with Sister Kim Yeji and Sister Jung Hyemin feels like it was just a second ago! I have learned soo much! I can't even describe it to you! I have learned SO much! I love this mission. I love, love, LOVE it! I love Korea so much. I didn't think my love for Korea and Koreans could grow any more, but I keep surprising myself and falling more and more in love with this place! I really wish I could adequately describe to y'all how much I have grown as a missionary and how much I have learned. I know all missionaries say this, but if you're not on a mission, get yourself on one! You will learn so much. You will grow so much. It will be hard. There will be days when your back and feet and neck kill from walking and walking and walking all day long. There will be days when you are so discouraged because you tried so hard and talked to everyone but only taught one person who ended up rejecting you. There will be days when you have gained an insane amount of weight and you want to scream. There will be days where your head spins from listening to and trying to understand a foreign language nonstop for hours. You will feel SO inadequate, and there will be days when you just want to give up. Missions are NOT a vacation or a study abroad. Missions are certainly NOT easy. But they are the most rewarding thing that anyone can ever do as a selfish 20-year-old. Why? Because on those days when your feet hurt and you ache everywhere imaginable, you will realize that you have been made mentally and physically stronger so that you can take on anything. When you are discouraged from rejection, you will find just one person who will listen even if it is just for 5 minutes, and that will be enough. When you get on the scale and want to scream, you will end up realizing that none of that really matters and your confidence will increase just by knowing that. When you are struggling with the language you will have a moment of clearness and understanding that keeps you going and striving to be better. And when you feel inadequate you will look at yourself and realize that you are climbing a ladder that is getting closer to God with each rail. And as you get closer to God, you realize how wonderful, perfect, kind, and stunning He is. Which will make you feel so inadequate, yet so loved because God is helping you climb that ladder to becoming just like Him. So at the end of the rough, exhausting days, you will know that through Christ's love, mercy and Atoning power that you can do it. And as you do it all with a positive attitude, you become happier and happier even if nobody listens to you and you suck at the language and there are so many other missionaries who are 100 times better at the work than you. I love this mission. The longer I am a missionary, the more grateful I become that I took the risk of coming on a mission to Korea. So if you are thinking about going on a mission, go. You will not regret it. It will be hard, I promise you that. But every second will be worth it in the eternal scheme of things.

Okay, now it's time for me to get off of the soapbox and share some news! This week was transfers and Sister Morrison got transferred to Daegu, Songin and I will be staying in Pohang with Sister Clove, who has been in Korea for 4 months. She is two transfers younger than me so I am a little scared because it is my first time to be senior companion. But I am just grateful I'm not training yet! Sister Hall from my MTC district and another Sister who has been in Korea for less time than me are training! So glad it's not me! I am so not ready for that yet! I am so afraid to lead this area. My Korean is so inadequate. I can't even describe it to you! I wish so badly that I was good at this language. I just want that more than anything in the world so I can communicate clearly with people and not feel so many limits and barriers when I teach. I just want to be fluent sooo bad. I can't even describe to you how much I want that. It would help with the work so much. I will be fasting and praying so hard for the gift of tongues! Please pray for me as well. I am going to need all of the help that I can get from on high!!

I love y'all so much!!

사랑해요!!!
I you love!

Sister Johns

The One When Everyone Either Dropped Them or Wanted to Bible Bash

Hello from freezing Pohang! This week was insane and a little sad to be honest, but that's just life. Honestly, I don't really have anything to write except that every single one of our investigators randomly dropped us this week except for one and these ladies called us and pretended to be interested in our message so they could try to Bible bash with us. Why does that happen so much in Korea?! I just told them that as missionaries we don't Bible bash or contend with people, shared my testimony that God lives, and left. It was super annoying and a waste of time. There are some serious weirdos in this country. But on the bright side, the Elders had a baptism on Sunday and this one member that I have been trying soooo hard to get trust from was finally nice to me this week. He came up and squeezed me arm and told me that I was good at Korean and eating spicy Korean food and that I should marry a Korean boy (yesss!! That's like the best compliment a Korean can give you!). Haha. I love this place. But if felt good to finally feel like I'm getting some trust in this branch and see that not everyone just sees me as this dumb American who has only been in Korea for 6 months and has no idea what's going on--although I feel like I am totally that person! Haha. We have transfers next week and I am so nervous and sad for Sister Morrison to go! We have become such great friends! But she has been in Pohang for 4 transfers, so I guess I am going to have to lead this area! (SO scary!) But it will all work out! 

I honestly have like nothing exciting to tell y'all this week. I have started to go a little crazy and Sister Morrison has some pretty embarrassing videos of me dancing to EFY music/Christian rock (ew...lol) in my PJ's. I don't know what I'm going to do when we're not companions anymore. My life will probably get really boring. 

Okay! Love y'all! Have a great week and try to write me sometime! It makes P-Days a lot more exciting for me! 

사랑해요!

"I you love"

Sister Johns

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