My Companion & Awesome Trainer

Leanne Noelle Chun <leanne.chun@myldsmail.net>

 Dec 18 at 10:13 PM

Heey!

*music notes* I'm in Korea Yeah! *music notes*

There is so much to say, which means I probably won't get it all down, but I'm going to try. It's going to be a jumbled mess, so buckle up.

When I introduced myself to the ward during sacrament meeting yesterday, as soon as I explained that my dad is a 한국사람 (Korean), literally every member of the ward nodded with understanding. I had to refrain from giggling.

Koreans are SO nice. The food is SO good. The city is SO gorgeous. Be jealous, all of you! ;)

My companion is so sweet and optimistic and focused! She's doing a great job of training me, and I'm learning a lot. Hopefully I can learn quickly. She's a quarter Korean, but doesn't really look like it, which means we get a lot of interested looks when she starts speaking Korean better than I do. :) But I'll get there soon, I'm sure.

Having said that, I still don't really understand what people are saying, and it's great. I just nod and say "네". And if I think they may be complimenting me (they bestow pity compliments when they learn I've only been studying the language for 9 weeks) I say "감사합니다" and then [humbly] "아니요 아니요 아니요." Like I said, the Koreans are real nice people.

While in the MTC, I had heard that Koreans don't really get sarcasm, and now that I'm here, Koreans don't really get sarcasm, and that is also great. There's an elder in our district who it seems like is always trying to make facetious jokes with them, and there's always a pause before he has to clarify that it's a joke... Hehe good times.

I love Korea so much. I mean, it's not all cupcakes and rainbows (although I did have delicious apple spice cake last night at the mission home), but I love it. I have found this past week that the cure for feeling discouraged, sad, lonely, faithless, and testimony-less is to get over myself, forget myself, and think about other people! It really works, y'all, in sort of an amazing way. But it's one of those things that constantly needs to be re-learned, I think. I guess that's what the next 16 months is going to be, huh?

I love you all!

화이팅!

PS - The place where we come to email is SWEET! It's literally just a room full of computers, totally decked out in gamers' equipment. These Koreans know how to do things. 

Also, the monitors are bigger than Uncle Bong Soo's. (Uncle, now you have to get a bigger one! 농담이에요!!!)

PPS - Me and my beautiful trainer and also my district with the bishop and some Filipino members that showed up to our sacrament meeting. They're visiting Korea, and they were so cool. Pretty sure we're going to hang out after the mission.