typhooooon!!

Hello!

I'm still alive, though, according to weather forecasts, I may not be
alive tomorrow. A really big typhoon is supposed to hit this evening
and continue on tomorrow as well. Apparently it's the first of the
season. Yesterday at church everyone was warning us about it and
telling us not to go outside tomorrow. Apparently winds up to 50
km/hour. We'll see. It seems this happens every year here so people
are used to it. I'm not planning on dying and neither is anyone else.
Hopefully we'll find a safe way to do missionary work. Ha.

It has rained, poured, drenched us most of of this week--although we
did have a couple sunny days. My shoes, as my first Korean companion
would say, are rotten. Yes, yes they are. Welcome to European heritage
and water logged faux leather, my friend! It is fun to carry an
umbrella around as we walk. For the first 10 minutes we're dodging
puddles and carefully, very optimistically holding the umbrella
overhead. The next five minutes start to become miserable---our feet
ARE puddles themselves. And the next five minutes I start wondering
why I'm carrying an umbrella at all. The misery dulls a little and
it's just life. We've been walking through rivers and forcing some
laughter when cars splash us. Such is life.

We were able to teach our new member, Sister Choi, in Seoguipo. She is
young and has a tough upbringing. Usually her mom doesn't let her go
out of the house when it's raining, so the fact that it was pouring
when we caught the bus to meet her was a little disheartening. But,
miraculously we could meet and we taught her about the Plan of
Salvation again. She is so cute and loves my companion, Sister Yoon,
so much. Later that day we taught Sister Go, a 16 year old sister. She
has a hard time coming to church, but does want to be baptized, even
though she is afraid of the water. We explained that she has to come
to church if she wants to get baptized. She is sweet, but I'm not sure
how well she's grasping the concepts we're teaching. We're still
holding on and praying we can meet this week as well.

We met with a less active sister, Sister Kim, who has been very warm
to us. She said that she wants to study the Book of Mormon with us
and, in turn, learn a few English phrases to help her with her work at
a Japanese restaurant. We were surprised at her interest, and although
it kind of seems she wants to read the Book of Mormon as a favor to
us, I think if we prepare well and help her gain a testimony of the
Book of Mormon, this will be a good opportunity for all of us. We meet
with her this Friday. We talked about prayer and she told us she has
too many doubts to pray. It is prayer that removes doubts. We're
looking forward to talking to her again.

We met some interesting characters this week--a Korean man who has run
a deli in New York for 21 years and has been here in Jeju hanging out
for a year. "What's up?" was his opening line. He was a character--not
too interested in the gospel, but we had an interesting conversation.
We also met a guy from London who was visiting his girlfriend here in
Jeju. He was really nice, but told us he likes Buddhism because it
doesn't have many rules and restrictions and just focuses on loving
everyone. It was fun to get to talk in English, but not too much came
of those experiences.

This week I hit my one year mark in Korea (Aug. 30th.). Pretty wild.

Anyway, the typhoon winds are picking up here in this citizen's center
and the windows are blowing around pretty hard.

I'm grateful for the opporunity to serve and the fresh start of each
day and moment if we allow it to be that way. That's something I'm not
naturally inclined to do, but I am grateful for the moments I see
people through the lens of forgiveness and brother/sisterhood. It is
the only thing that motivates me in this work. Thank you for writing
me this week! I hope I have more to say next week. Love!

a quick one!

Hello!

I heard from many of you this week with stories grand and simple.
Thanks for making me feel like I was there. It was good to hear from
you.

I'm pretty sure I will be cramming to write much for the rest of my
mission. There is too much to do in Jeju to just sit around. We are
professional tourists on Mondays around here. Hopefully it will be
rejuvinating. Next week is Halla Mountain. This week was an "illusion"
museum. It was pretty fun.

This week was a little bit of a bust. We travel about once a week to
Seoguipo, the other area in Jeju. There are between 20 and 25 members
that attend regularly, so we usually end up teaching the female
investigators becase the members are so few and can't attend and the
elers can't teach them alone. So, this week we taught Sister Go. She
is 15 and has been to church quite a few times. She hasn't been coming
the last few weeks, so we decided, since we don't have any
investigators in our ward, we would, with our branch president's
permission, go to Seoguipo branch this week, knock on Sister Go's door
and see if we could get her to come to church. She has some sort of
learning disability and is deathly afraid of me, but slowly warming
up. Anyway, after our appointment we gave her a baptismal date and
told her we would come pick her up for church. Well, after 15 minutes
of pounding on her door and calling her....nothing. Agency is a
wonderful gift, but as a missionary, I'll be honest, sometimes I want
to subscribe to Satan's methods. Ha. But, force never was the way to
conversion, was it. I know that, and at the end of the day, I'm
grateful for the ability to make choices and that others have that
same ability. I have confidence in God's perfect timing. We'll keep
trying. It's not easy, but we have to do it.

So I guess the best way (so far) to get to the residents of this town
is to go to their homes. We have been knocking on doors. I love the
responses of dismissal that come. It's funny. "I don't have religion."
"I already have religion." "I'm Buddhist." All three of these
responses are seen as an adequate dismissal. We did talk to a
Phillipino woman in English for about 5 minutes. She is afraid of her
husband and worried he would come home so she didn't talk to us long,
but seem genuinely interested. We will try to go back this week.

The street is my favorite way to talk to people, but I'll be honest,
I'm in a bit of a proselyting slump. Gotta get out of that one.
Anyway, hard to believe that this transfer is just over halfway
over...

Time is fast and slow on a mission. It is an interesting concept. I
think the fastest way to get out of a slump is to realize how short
time really is and get moving. It's not always the method I subscribe
to, but we're planning on a few new investigators this week, or at
least an effort worthy of a few new investigators. One of our members
has a friend she's been talking to a bit about the church. She told us
this week she will give us a referral if things go well on Tuesday.
We're hopeful about that one. Members are the best way.

Ah. Time. Love you guys. I'll organize my thoughts better before I
write next week. Lovvvveee. Hope things go well with the baby, being
back in SLC, and life in Guam. Thank you for your testimonies and
support.

Julia

peeling back the layers of this town

Hello!

 

An eventful week, family wide--Nick's birthday, Mom and Dad's anniversary, Minnie's birthday coming up, Ladi and Bob back to SLC, Char ready/not ready for the baby etc. Thanks for the updates.

 

We just finished hanging around at the beach near the airport. I love the ocean. Every time I see it here in Korea, I gasp and say "ocean" in Korean. I can't help it. It was beautiful as usual. My camera is having big time battery problems so the memory will live on in my heart, I guess. There is a big basalt rock formation that is (sort of) in the shape of a dragon. It's supposed to be good luck to make wishes there. Call me a cynic, but I feel like everywhere is supposed to be a good place to make wishes. I guess that's true. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have aspirations and the faith that they can become a reality wherever I am--Jeju Do rock formations or in small town Logan, Utah.

 

We've been on a less active member search this week. We found Sister Kim at the Japanese restaurant where she works and, suprisingly, she warmly invited us to talk. Understandably, she was bewildered at how, exactly, we had found her. Little does she know that Mormons are quite good record keepers...ha. In spite of being a little creeped out, we had a good discussion with her and shared a message about enduring to the end. She can't come to church because she has to work. She is the only one who joined the church amongst  her family and that makes things difficult too. She never really understood the Book of Mormon very well, so without that foundation, I'm not sure she really knows exactly what the church is about. Anyway, she said we could come back again some time. It is rare to be responded to that way, so we were pleasantly surprised, but will be more pleased if we can find a way to help her come out to church again.

 

This week, Sister Yoon, shy as she is, got her first contact on her own. She couldn't believe it. She was smiling the whole day. It came through knocking doors at an apartment building. It was a teenage boy whom we wanted to invite to "friendship night" at church. He agreed to give us his information. Sister Yoon looked like she wanted to cry, she was so happy. I think the only time missionary work isn't fun is when we're not working hard, because honestly, nothing happens. I was glad that Sister Yoon got to see even a small fruit of hard work. When the "impossible' happens, it brings great hope to one's heart. I want to see her that happy all the time.

 

Our ward mission leader's mother in law passed away this week and it kind of consumed the ward a bit. I went to a sort of Korean funeral (apparently the language barrier is still in force). It was set up for people more with Buddhist beliefs, but it was interesting. His mother in law was not a member of the church, but the stake president came and we all knelt as he offered a prayer in front of a giant picture of our ward mission leader's mother in law and a table with candles and a table with plates of fruit on top of it. 5 minutes in and out.  It was at the hospital and then there was food afterward on the 3rd floor. I didn't really know what to expect, but it's interesting to eat longer than celebrate someone's life, but that's what happened.

 

Finding here is certainly different than Daegu, but it's kind of fun to try and figure out a new area and what's going to work best. If we can't find the people who actually live here on the street than we have to pound the doors of their homes. So, that's what we've been doing. We have high hopes for a new investigator this week. We taught Sister Go, but she was deathly afraid of me so I think she said 10 words the whole time. Still working on that. Maybe I'll pluck my eyebrows this week and see if that improves matters. They're getting a little unruly and if I ran into me in a dark alley I might be nervous too.

 

Anyway, I feel really lucky to be blessed with something beautiful to see around every corner. Jeju is Korea's best attempt at quaint and I am certainly an appreciator. It fills up my heart to see the beautiful things we get to see. I think after long days it's Heavenly Father's way of telling us He's still there. I know He is. I'm grateful to be here and grateful for the opportunities, big and small, I have to tell people what's written in my heart. It's interesting to see how much differently people respond when you use your heart instead of your head alone. Something I'm still working on, but I know it's God's way.

 

Dad-- hope you survive upcoming transfers. I'm sure it's really too challenging. You are really always on the move, aren't you? Get some sleep if you can. Your description of your missionaries, those who are obedient and not, is apt. I've seen it in my own work and in the lives of others.

 

Mom-- thanks for the mail and the update. It was fun to read your stories about driving in the crazy streets etc. Glad you're back to full health. Hope you have a good week!

 

Nick-- hope you had a good birthday. Time is flying. We are both getting so old!!

 

Meg-- hope you had a good week and ate something delicious (I suspect Mexican food..?) for Nick's birthday.

 

Char-- keep that baby in there until she's ready to come out. thanks for the mail and the honesty you're well known for. i think it's hilarious. love!

 

Matt-- sounds like you are living solo a lot these days. hope the olympics are keeping you company. are they still going on?

 

Ladi-- good luck with the upcoming drive. sounds like a beast! back to SLC. tell minnie happy birthday from her favorite aunt.

 

Bob-- glad to hear you're still playing soccer and enjoying your time with the latin people. have a good drive back to UT.

 

ahhhhh. Love you all. Until next week!

 

Love,

Julia

JejuDo!

Dear everyone,

Yep. I'm really here on the magical island of Jeju. It is definitely a
welcome change, as far as the weather goes. The wind is actually
refreshing and the shade is nice relief. I can see why the people in
Daegu were raving about it. Honestly, I haven't seen much of the
island yet, but we have big plans for the next few P-days. This -P-day
we took it quite easy. Let's just say during my nap I had a dream
inside a dream. Enter missionary Inception...I guess air conditioning
(a very novel idea at missionary apartments) has a way of lulling us
right to sleep. It was nice.

This week was an eye opener. I guess I hadn't mentioned that Sister
Yoon has just finished receiving training, so, including her time with
me she just completed the 13th week of her mission.  She has been on
Jeju Do for all of her training and my guess is we will be companions
at least for this transfer and then she may be headed elsewhere. I
realized this week that I have rarely served with anyone who is
"older" than I am in the mission. I was trained, then I trained, then
I served with Sister Foy, who was in her 3rd transfer, then trained
Sister Wallace, then served with Sister Cutler who was in her 3rd
transfer and now I'm with Sister Yoon who is also in her 3rd transfer.
I love 3rd transfer missionaries. They still have a lot of fire and
are spreading their wings. That said, because they still feel "new"
they are really humble and willing to try new things. It's the best.

Sister Yoon is very quick to serve, as are most Koreans. I can barely
find ways to serve her, she's so often already done both of our tasks.
It's not something to complain about, but I'm trying to sneak a few
things in here and there as often as she'll let me. She also loves
Harry Potter and thinks I resemble Hermione. Not true, but fine by me.

It is strange to serve in a tourist town. Most of the people on the
street are visiting. It kind of causes me to feel like I'm on vacation
too--a feeling I am working at overcoming. Ha. I see probably 6 or 7
white people a day, which are record numbers. The shock value of
seeing me is wearing thin to people around here. And, while my ego has
taken a shot, it's certainly nice not to stand out quite so much.

We have been doing some less active searching and knocking on doors.
Right now we don't have any progressing investigators. There is one,
Sister Kang, who comes to church every week and has done so for about
7 years, but she doesn't want to make some of the lifestyle changes
getting baptized requires. Whenever the missionaries start teaching
her she stops coming to church...it's quite the phenomenon, but I hope
she will start progressing soon. She's got the coming to church thing
down. We also help out with sister investigators on the island in the
other ward--Seoguipo. There are only a handfull of members and the
elders can't teach sisters alone, so we help out occasionally. We have
one sister who has a slight mental disability, so teaching her takes a
long time and she doesn't always remember, but she comes to church
really well. Anyway, our focus is finding this transfer. I have to
believe that there are people ready to hear the gospel here.

There are about 50-55 active members in our ward. They are all good,
humble people. I am excited to work with them. The less active members
we were able to work with this week either told us the church is too
far away or they have no faith. This area is completely different than
any other I've served in, but I'm looking forward to receiving
inspiration about how to find people who are ready to hear the gospel
here.

Anyway, unfortunately there wasn't much to write about this time, but
I am grateful to be here and confident I'm here for a reason. I know
this is Christ's restored gospel. I feel the spirit as I read the
scriptures and when I am conscientious enough to allow for it, the
spirit guides my thoughts throughout the day. I am not a perfect
servant, but I know this is a perfect gospel through which we can
improve and become sanctified. I am so grateful for your examples and
love.

Dad--it's really inspiring to hear someone from a generation down
express her thanks to you for helping her family find the gospel. it
must have been really rewarding to get that letter. wow. sounds like
you're keeping at it quite well. i love you!

Mom-- thanks for the note. i'm sorry you're sick.  i hope you get
better soon. sounds like you're still bringing in the hits as far as
the meals go. i'm sure the missionaries love you. you're right, the
time is short, but it's such a blessed time, right?

Nick-- happy birthday this week!! we are getting old, but wiser too,
right? i hope you do something fun. i have a card ready to go in the
mail, but we didn't make it to the post office this week. soon. love
you.

Meg--hi there. i hope you and nick have a fun week! i love hearing from you.

Char--whoa, baby Adsero is on the way, isn't she? (still referring to
her solely as a niece. pulling for it, you know?) your hospital
episode sounds less than desirable. it can't be worse than korea, can
it? LOVED the self portraits. lincoln has a future in it. look out,
Andy Warhol. you and ladi will have great fun soon!

Matt-- hey, hope you get a day off soon. sounds like you are a
busy-working-man. hope the socks are the talk of the office. get some
rest if you can!

Ladi--NYC again? skunks galore. count me out. Tracy Aviary is scary
enough. i don't need real live stinky wildlife. ha. glad you got out
unscathed. hard to believe you're almost headed back to SLC. sounds
fun. thanks for the mail. tell the arrington's hello and
congratulations. i don't know much about Hannah's wedding, but you can
clue me in anytime.  LOVE YOU.

Bob-- sounds like you've been checking many things off your bucket
list this summer. good for you. i hope you've had fun and your
internship has gone well. sounds like you took it all in stride.

love you all, anyone who reads this. thank you for your love and support.

till next week,
Sister Julia Mecham