HI Everyone!
OK. SO 2 things.
1. Korean children are adorable.
2. Korean's are brilliant. They heat their houses by having heated floors.... and we sleep on the floors. It's my favorite.
Anyway, on to the other details of Korea. So, I live in Songpa, which is right by the mission home. That's our church actually. My trainer's name is Sister Knox. She's from Texas. She loves horses and singing. She's really sweet. Songpa feels like Salt Lake kind of. Where I live at least. But other areas in our area are SOOOOO huge. Like BIG cities. It's crazy. I'll take pics sometime and send them to you. And other places are sooo poor and the houses are so close together you can touch the other house from the window. Literally. It's pretty scary ghetto. But the weird thing is how safe it is here. So don't be worried. Everyone in Korea is super nice! I love the Korean people.
Church yesterday was GREAT! I love our ward. We have 12 missionaries in our ward. That is the weirdest thing ever. It's us and then another pair of normal elders, the office elders, the AP's an elderly couple and then President and Sister Morrise. Idk if the Morrise's really count, but they are in our ward. But yeah. Tons of missionaries. But yesterday I had to introduce myself to the ward and give a little talk in Sacrament meeting and I didn't really prepare anything for that because I didn't know about it really, but I just said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me, and he did because I talked for a good amount of time, and said things I didn't know I knew how to say. And afterwards the Bishop got up said how good my Korean was and how he couldn't believe I came to Korea 6 days ago, because I must have come already speaking Korean. This is a definite testimony to me of the gift of tongues, because there is literally nothing about my Korean abilities that would indicate the I came speaking Korean. But he was really nice. After the meeting all the members were so nice and they all complimented me on how shocked they were with my abilities, etc. Which is really ironic and funny, because I didn't have any idea what they were saying, and my companion had to tell me everything. So yeah. One old guy said he got an 'electric shock' when I said I love the Korean people. I really just am so glad because we have 9 investigators and they all really really need member friends, so I think the members all want to help with missionary work more. Apparently that was not the case in the past, so that's good:) A bunch of members asked to have us practice teaching them lessons to help us with Korean, so that's awesome. Also, the ward mission leader is hilarious. He always introduces me and then makes hunting jokes since my name is hunter. He also said my pronunciation is perfect, so he's really nice. The ward is super nice though. The oldest member of the ward is really important to respect and befriend, because of Korean culture, and the oldest man in our ward is so funny. He sat by me all of church instead of his wife and he told me that my smile is gorgeous and that if he was young and single he would "ask for my hand to take me out so he could tell me how much he likes me." hahah I almost died laughing. I'm not sure whether to be creeped out or not. But he's hilarious. And his english is really good, so he translates for me. That's super nice. I literally didn't understand a single word in sunday school though. Nothing. So that was super great. Also, Korean food is awesome! I love it.... as long as it's not spicy. But the ward has fed us twice. So good. Korea is a lot like America. I love it. I just feel like someone filled an american city with Asian people.
We teach english every single day to, which is weird, but teaching the gospel is great. Most people here really want to learn english so that's how we find investigators. We have 9 investigators, which is a lot I think. 4 of them came to our ward Christmas party, which made me super happy. Monica is on of our investigators and she's awesome. She always gives us referrals, and she brought people with her to the Christmas party. Also. we are teaching this girl named Ester and she's great. Super shy and kind of sad, but teaching her is the best because I know she needs happiness in her life more than most of the other people we are teaching. I hope she will continue to progress, because she's really sweet. She doesn't have a lot of friends I don't think, and it's hard for her to talk to people, so she just sat by me during the party, but she started joking with me. She's so funny. And blunt. She told me I was really skinny, but if I keep eating as much as I do (cuz I eat tons!) I'm going to get fat. She also helped me with my chopsticks, cuz i'm bad at those. They have pizza here, but its weird. They put sweet potatoes on it. It's so weird, but still pretty good. Another kind of pizza I had my first day was so spicy after one bite that it made me tear up pretty bad. I don't know how I'll ever get over the spicy food, but I'm trying.
Anyway, I love you all! You're amazing! Thank all the ward members who sent me letters! It was fun to already have mail when I got here! I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm so excited to talk to you on christmas! I love you all!:):):):) Missionary work is absolutely the BEST!
Love,
Sister Hunter:)
