Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Wow~~ what a crazy week! So many things changing and I forgot my camera today so I don't have any pictures :(

 

Before I left 부평 (Bupyeong) I wanted to say goodbye to people like members or investigators but it's kind of hard because I was only in this area for one transfer so I didn't really know who to visit. We ended up making an appointment Tuesday night with our investigator Iryn. We didn't tell Iryn I was leaving but we were going to tell her during our appointment.

 

When we got to Iryn's house she said that her mom had made us dinner. I looked over at the table and about had a heart-attack.

 

There on that table was a Raclette machine!

 

I was in Korea eating my favorite traditional Swiss meals: raclette. 

 

Apperently, Iryn's mother lived in Germany for a little bit and fell in love with the food and the culture. Needless to say, that was the best "last meal" ever.

 

When I told Iryn I was leaving she was sad to hear. I felt like we had grown close in only one transfer. I'll definitely miss her!

 

After that delicious meal, an English class member wanted to introduce me to his daughter before he left so he invited us to get 짜장면 (jajangmyeon), a chinese noodle dish. I was stuffed from having my fill of cheese and potato but I do love 짜장면. It was nice to meet his daughter, a middle school student, because we found out we both loved Pentatonix,  an acapella group.  Music really brings people together, no matter how how different your cultures are :)

 

THEN,  after that, a member called us and dropped off some chicken to top the night off. I was full to the brim. It was really nice that people were thinking of me though. I will miss it here but...I still get to live here so that's nice.

 

Wednesday was transfers, since I already live with my new companion we just stayed home and deep cleaned our apartment to prepare for the new missionary. We also bought a cake to welcome her with.

 

Our new house-mate and Sister Wright's new Trainee is Sister Moyer from Arizona! She is a real legit country singer and is working on making it big. She just bought a guitar yesterday so we have been having jam-sessions at night singing hymns and wonderful things like that :)

 

And finally, my new companion Sister Chestnut! Sister Chestnut is from Payson, Utah and she loves movies and music and culture. She went to BYU studying history. We already know each other really well so the transition was super easy.

 

My first real day in my new area we English Flyered which I really love because telling people who want to learn English that you teach free English is a lot easier than telling a devout Christian that you are a missionary teaching about Christ -- there are a LOT of different religions here in Korea. There's probably a church on every block. It makes for interesting conversations!

 

Then, on Friday night, we had English class. A lot of new faces were there and we got to get to know a lot of new people. I teach a basic class with one of our elders, Elder Gehrig, who is actually German (we found out we lived in the same stake when I lived in Germany) so I just helped him teach pronounciation. :)

 

At the end of the class, everyone got together and I introduced myself as the new missionary and then taught everyone how to sing 'Row Row Row your Boat.' It was so fun to see a room full of about 40 Koreans singing this children's song. Afterwards, they said they wanted me to teach them more songs in English. I think I have found my calling here!

 

I'm very sorry there are no pictures. I need to be better at that :/

 

Until next time!

 

홍다연자매