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!!