Training in Jungri

Hello everyone. Sister Mecham here.

My email just got erased, so I am a little flustered, but I'll do my best to recap. Right now we are the Helms' house. They are a senior couple in the Daegu area who invite everyone in the zone over for a breakfast the 2nd pday of the transfer. We ate well. It is always fun to be with other missionaries.

Well, after last Pday I went with Sister Chu back to Daegu. She is a Korean sister who has been serving here for 3 transfers. She doesn't speak hardly any English so I truly learned a lot of Korean in the few days we were together. We worked in the Sangin area (my first area and where my current home is located), and also went to my new area, Jungri. It was kind of a fiasco, but we had fun. Sister Chu is just about the sweetest person in the world. She is nearly 6 feet tall and quite a bean pole. Truly a gentle giant. I love living with her. I hope she is doing okay. The language barrier is still somewhat limiting, but she is great.

On Wednesday we came back to Busan for training day. We did some fun contacting activities out on the streets of Korea with these 5 new American sisters. They were so pumped about missionary work. It was really contagious. It's so fun. That night I stayed the night in a neighboring Busan area with Sisters McComber and Sister Lee. Both of them are also training. It was fun to be with them. It kind of feels like a sleepover when you don't have a companion. It is a nice "break," in a way.

The next day we were assigned our new companions. My new companion in Sister Wallace. She is from Heber City. We are complete opposities in every single way. She is loud, outgoing, blonde, cutesy etc. etc. It is fun, though. If anyone has ever seen "Enchanted" she is a lot like Jizelle. She says "anyeonghaseyo!" to every single person we see on the street. She really doesn't feel confident in her Korean abilities, so she just talks to people in English. It is funny and fun. People really don't know how to react to her. She is quite an anomaly here, but because of that more people are talking to us. I was initially a little worried about our differences, but I know we're together for a reason and that people can feel her love quite easily, which is a talent I don't always possess. I think that may be a big part of the reason we're serving together. I'm glad we get to learn together. It's fun to see Korea through such young new eyes again. Korea is so fresh!

We still don't know a lot about our area yet, but were able to learn quite a bit from the Elders who are also serving there. The ward is just 35 strong--about half of which is youth who essentially come on their own. I think we will be working a lot with the younger people in the ward. One of the members, Sean (his American name), is about 20 years old and just recently returned to church. He speaks English almost perfectly and also knows Mandarin. He studied in Malaysia. His roommate there was a returned missionary. Sean was maybe 14 or so when he was baptized. Since then his mom has been a less active member and the rest of his family knew nothing about the church. Sean is really excited about church right now. This week his mom and his 14 year old younger sister came to church! We have an appointment to teach his little sister on Thursday. She is so cute. To me it is a testament of the power of the testimony of family members on those they love. I know members are the key to the work. Right now we are working on the trust of the members, and when we're not doing that, we need to be out finding on the streets. I know Heavenly Father will sanctify our efforts.

Granted, I am at times still overwhelmed with the responsibility and task at hand. But, we'll get there. I have never prayed more in my life. I know when we take a chance on people, with faith in Christ, Heavenly Father sees He can trust us. I hope this week will be full of Jungri success stories to relay. Until then, Sarangheyo!

Mom and Dad--sounds like you've been busy again with health issues etc. Hope the island hopping stops long enough to catch a nap someday soon. Love you and I'm so grateful for your mail/support!

Nick and Meg-- hope you're well this week. Hope the birthday was fun and things are going well. Miss you so much!

Char--thanks for the 2 emails. It's fun to hear from you. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me. It is nice to draw on in times of need.

Matt-- hope you are doing well! Did I miss your birthday? I am sorry that I can't remember when it is.

Ladi-- so off to PA, eh? fun! we have a neighboring amusement park in our area---Woobang Land. We may go there next week. It's no Hershey Park, but it's the best I've got for now. I still haven't heard from you. Write fast!!

Bob-- hope school is going okay. Congrats on the internship at Hershey! Can't wait to see what happens.

Love,

Julia