Whoa, week 3 in country

I am slowly getting the hang of the blog updates... kinda.  I hope to be able to get the letter before the pictures this go round.

Ah, dearly beloved :) we gather here today to read about this past week in Korea (me ramble for who knows how long!)

First, I LOVE YOU.

Second, when I call home..in 9 weeks :D eek!! Um, I only get to talk for 30-40 minutes...thats all the information I have about that, so lets keep that in mind and I will update you when I know more.

Third, Uh ..... This part of the email had to be deleted per Whit's request.  She let me know in a previous email that I cannot share her personal experiences thru the email but we are welcome to tell them to people personally.  I have left a little bit of the email attached just ..... they said yes! :) That makes me happy.

Forth, read the talk by Jeffery R Holland entitled Feed My Sheep. Rocked my world. Elder Holland is incredibly bold and I love it, I wish I could be like him! He said a few things in that talk that brought me a lot of comfort. I'm not suggesting ya'll to look at it, actually read it. Please. It will help you understand where I'm coming from. And it will spiritually uplift you. In the talk he talks about after Christ died and the apostles didn't know what to do, so they go fishing. Jesus appears unto them and elder holland kind of quotes what Jesus would have said. He said, "When I asked you to follow me, it was forever!...When I asked you to serve a mission, it was forever!"

Listen, I know I have said this to ya'll before, but I'm going to say this again. I'm in this forever. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the happiness it brings. I love the comfort it brings. I am half way around the world from all of you...through the power of God. God comforts me. Jesus Christ comforts me. And why do they comfort me? Because they want me to follow them forever. They want ME to find His sheep! I know I keep saying this too, and I'll keep saying it too, missionary work is hard. So HARD. There are days I just really can't see how I can do it another day, and through the grace and mercy of God, I am saved. He carries me just one more day. So! As a missionary, my challenge, or commitment if you will, is to let God carry you. DON'T GIVE UP ON THE HARD DAYS. If I can live half way around the world, and still feel God's love, you better believe you can feel his love and comfort where ever you are. Continue seeking Him.

Fifth, Read Alma 26. Along with Elder Hollands talk, this is the best way I could describe how I am feeling. Especially vs 22-37. The anti-nephi-lehites & lamanites are converted and bury their weapons of war. They would "suffer even unto death rather than commit sin" (24:19). Being in Korea I feel like vs. 12,16,22,27,36&37 explains & sums it all up. Here I go again: Missionary work is extremely difficult. Ever single time I'm on my knees pleading for help because I want to give up, or like vs. 27 says, "turn back", the Lord comforts me. He is telling me to be patient in my afflictions. Be patient in learning korean whitley. Be patient in suffering whitley. Be patient in missing loved ones whitley. Be patient when you can't understand anything going on around you because, "I will give unto you success" (vs.27). Blessed be the name of my God, forever! :)

Sixth, something I learned. Take note: Praying wont change the will of God. BUT RATHER changes the will of my heart.

Seventh, remember how I love you all so much?

Eighth, that's all.

Ninth, I don't think dear elders work here, so if you have tried to send me some..I haven't gotten any.

Tenth, sounds like a good number to end with.

Me & God love you! Stay strong and stay safe!

With all my love,

whitley jean xo

um an adventure....the other day i was on the subway and i was reading some korean notes or something i can't remember and this person stands in front of me, which is normal cause it's super crowded in there and this guy like bends over so i am looking at him instead of whatever i'm reading and it's his old korean guy. and i kind of smile cause he's a cute old man but i'm also startled and dont know what to say cause i don't know korean and he says are you american?! and i said yes! and he said are you christian?! and i smile all big and say yes! are you?! and he says here read this! and hands me this tiny bible book that has pictures and is all in korean and then i tried to offer him the book of mormon but he wouldn't take it. anyway that was cool and weird haha.

 I'm not sure what happened when I got this email but my emotions fell apart!  On Sunday nights I get a little crazy checking my email, I guess you could say I am a bit obsessed, when I see she emails I quickly email her back so I can chat with her for a minute. I don't think we exchanged more than two emails and I was crying like a little school girl - I MISS(ED) her SO much!!  I guess I just needed my sister, my friend on Sunday.  Whit is always full of information and full of inspiration - I am TRULY grateful she gets to teach us thru her experiences.  

  

Okay this is the coolest thing ever. The kings palace! Right in the middle of the city of Seoul. Also, it's HUGE!! I didn't even realize how big it was. We walked around for like 2 hours and it's the most open space I've seen since being here.

That statue is the guy who invented the korean alphabet. and behind it you can see the palace.

This is the biggest shrimp I've even seen/eaten in my life. Whoa. This week I also ate pig guts. It was interesting. Haha. For the most part I'm doing great with the food. It's not even a worry or concern for me. I've always been able to eat just about anything, so that's a huge blessing.

I love and miss you!

2nd Pday In Korea

 

Easter gift, Saying bye to Elder Layton/trying to be obedient/I'm going to miss him, Had to say goodbye to her again, my emotions got the best of me. I'm missing Eishelle! But I know that God needs us to be in different parts of the world.

 

  shopping, Ice cream cone! The police station.  These bananas were 5,000 won = $5.00 the fruit is kind of expensive here.

   

The desks where we do all the studying. The bathroom is kind of small. Um there isn't a shower curtain, we just stand on that plat form you see there and shower...everything gets wet pretty much. And there isn't a fan in the bathroom so it gets all steamy and hot ;)

Then the kitchen, behind that door is where our washer is. 

 

This is our bed room. The pad I sleep on is about 2 inches tick, which is pretty good compared to other people. Our living room....with our little table and the rack of where we hang our laundry.

Those shoes and bag I got for 10,000 won each. Which equals about $18.

That's all the pictures I have. We are going sight seeing today for pday so next week hopefully i'll have some cool pictures for you to see korea, like i see korea. Oh also there is a taco bell here! and pizza hut, mcdonalds, burger king. Oh dad and guess what else is here....outback steakhouse! Maybe I'll be eating that steak after all ;) there is a 7-11 on every corner, maybe I already told you that? When we went shopping last week there are name brands every where. and korea is all about fashion so they have their own brands. Koreans are very concerned about the way they look. anyway thats all.

I LOVE YOU ALL

xo

whit jean

OK, so I thought I was done with the blog and went to "preview" my work - and all the typing was deleted, the pictures are put of place, my funnies are gone... all of it ...  and I cannot figure out how to get the letter before the pictures so we are going to let the computer win this time and I will try better next time.  (I am a letter behind so hopefully that will get updated this week as well)  

FAMILY!

 Whoa.. so I've made it two whole weeks here. I still can't believe I'm here. I wrote sky and told him and every morning my alarm clock goes off at 630 and I think, is this real life? I still just can't wrap my head around it. I also told him I don't feel like I'm in Asia, but I don't feel like I'm home either. I don't know, it's hard to explain. Josh, maybe you can understand? And Brady, when you were in Brazil? I don't know how it's supposed to feel. I've never been a missionary and I've never been out of the country. All I know is, I'm not home. 

 A lot of people ask me if I've experienced culture shock. I don't know if I would call it that. I know that I stick out like a sore thumb because I am american, and I have huge eyes. But I think my biggest shock is ALL THE PEOPLE. I mean I was told there was a lot of people, but you can't just imagine it, you have to see it with your own eyes. And wow!! People are everywhere I can hardly believe it myself. 

 I'm not having a hard time with the food or anything like that. Members in the ward are the SWEETEST people ever. Even though I can't understand them, I know they love me, because I am a missionary. I've eaten a lot of weird food. but i dont think i have ate dog yet. i had seaweed soup! mom you would have hated it. Haha. you know when we float the river up in island park and you fall off your tube and drown for a second? and the taste of seaweed gets in your nose? imagine that but warm water..and it's not in your nose it's in your mouth! Haha it was good, i actually loved it.

 As I was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday, not knowing what the speaker was saying, I looked up the word CONVERSION in the bible...second to las paragraph it says, "complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing." Look up Luke 22:23. Then it says "to labor for the conversion of one's self and others is a noble task. Look up D&C 18:15&16. I'm a missionary. This is what I do...eat, drink, sleep, pray, and walk the gospel. I love this gospel. I love my heavenly father. I love my savior who sacrificed and suffered for me, that he could be my ultimate comforter. I've had to seek him a lot as a missionary, and I believe this is training me to do this my whole life. I'm grateful for the opportunity, even though it hurts like crazy at times.

I wish I had more time.

Korean's are kind. Some are rude, but you find those people every where you go. Some are funny, some are not...haha. Oh this week as we were jundoing (proselyte) we saw a man who just felt like taking off his shirt and....it was gross. I turned away as soon as I saw that, I'm not sure if he was going to take off anything else, and I didn't want to see. A grown man picked his nose in front of me, that was sicky. Ummm yeah that's about it. Haha, hope this cheers you up!

I love you all so much, continue praying.

Love,

Whitley Jean

Alive Week 12

Well, I'm at it again... and either I don't know how to count or she is saying she is heading in to week 12. I am going to hope I didn't count right on the last blog - if so that might have been the fastest week of this whole mission! - and I am TOTALLY ok with that!!!  :)   **disclaimer to readers**  the exclamation marks and caps are for real - I get excited easy and I'm full of warm fuzzies when I talk about our family.  The :) is kind of an LOL, kind of a smile to myself, etc. but I know some people like to see those used sparingly so I have adopted the :) to mean the same thing.

Anyway - Whit's new P-day is Monday which is our Sunday night so when I got her email I was able to go back and forth with her for just a minute - LOVED it!  I think this mission has helped me learn how much the small things matter.  I'd like to think I am a very positive person and I feel like I can look for a bright side in all challenges - for this mission I am grateful to be reminded of the small things.  I have to tell ya - when I talk about my sister (or other family members) people are amazed at how close we are and how well we get along.  I can tell you it hasn't always been like this but I know with each challenge we have faced as a family it has made our bond that much stronger.  My parents and siblings are some of my best friends and I can almost promise you they would say the same thing.  I TRULY believe that as a family we are all getting thru this mission because of each other.  We are not only encouraging Whit but we are encouraging each other.  For those of you who are reading this that will be sending a sibling out on a mission - I won't lie, it's not the easiest thing to stay positive about but I can promise you, if you support one another it will make things SO much easier.
Below is Whitley's email:

So I'm in Korea! Whoa. I don't know if I'll ever get over this culture shock. I can't believe I am actually here. And holy cow, THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERY WHERE!!! I've wrote down a few things I wanted to mention to you. Not that they are important cause they're not, but here they are. Um well lets start with the air plane....longest flight of my life. Literally. I didn't sleep the night we left so I had been awake since Sunday morning we left the MTC at 3 blah blah blah and then we were in san fran and I called :) and I tried real hard not to cry. There were a lot of mixed emotions as you could imagine. But the most important thing is that I made it here, and all of you just said the right things to me and encouraged me and let me know that I could do this and I was going to be okay. Thank you for your love and support. You don't understand how much ya'll save me. So we arrived in Korea, oh and I probably slept a few hours (maybe 4) on the plane. We meet missionaries and the President and his wife. Mom, he should have sent you an email and a picture of us. I'm sure I looked dashing. Traveling and being awake that long and then taking a photo should be against the law. But my mission pres and his wife wanted all the parents to know that all of us missionaries were okay. 

On our way back to his house we took the Subway. Okay the subways here are insane!!! Whoa. Huge pat on the back to whoever invented the travel plans through Seoul. They are amazing. Also, remember how I don't really like big cities? Yeah, I still don't. Anyway the AP's made us jundo, which means proselyte and that was rough because I don't speak Korean. I can't even pretend. I have found myself pondering a lot this week and I'm always wondering, "why did the Heavenly Father send me here?" I can't communicate with anyone unless it's in english. Oh also, a lot of people know english. They learn it in school so you'd think I could get by but no one really wants to talk. Shocking huh? Anyway, we make it to presidents house and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. They were blood shot red and I literally felt like I was losing my mind. I was so tired. Oh and on the way there I seen a Baskin Robins! There are so many american things here it's nuts. All the stories I heard about Korea was so false.

K moving on the next day was a bunch of training and then I met my companion. Her name is sister Lee. She's from Korea and she attends byu hawaii, so she knows a little bit of english. Well a lot of english. She thinks she's bad at it but we communicate just fine. She is my life saver. Literally. I couldn't do anything without her. She knows her way around and she is so good with people. Later that night after we went to our sook-so (house) we prepared for a lesson, and I had to teach english. The house we went to was crazy big. Well it was an apartment and it was a really nice one that had a camera to see who you were to let you in and the tv on the wall was taller than I was. Anyway it was awesome and that lady was very kind. So that was what my first few hours/days were like here.

There is so much I could tell all of you, I don't even know what else to say. Where do I even start. All I can say is thank you. Thank you for loving me. I love you. At my mission conference this weekend I fell flat on my back on some ice! HAHA that was awful, and funny, and it really hurt. I didn't check for a bruise. It would cover my entire left butt cheek. There is a ZILLION 7-11s here. You know the store 7-11? Yeah, there is one every where you look, it's insane. Seoul is insane. It's so full of people. There is this place I love it's called Paris Baguette. I love it because they play COUNTRY music :) :) oh man I was in heaven when I heard Wanted by Hunter Hayes. I also heard some tswift, and call me maybe! haha oh and A Team, I love that song. Braid, you know what song that is. So I decided whenever I'm feeling like I need some home I'll go there :)

The sidewalks here are covered..with everything. It's nuts. They sell produce, blankets, clothes, all kinds of food actually, fish. Fish! Real live fish. Stinky stinky. Cars are parked on the sidewalk and motorcycles drive on the sidewalk. It's crazy.

Anyway, I've been adjusting...as much as I can. I'm really trying to love it here. I miss all of you!

Love you forever,

Whitley Jean

God is real, and his power is undeniable. I love you!!