Saving Souls in Seoul

So. I received my mission call, to the Korea Seoul Mission! Like holy cow. That is so not what I was expecting. I was thinking for sure church history visitor center, maybe South America. But it's absolutely perfect. My friend Heather B. was pestering me right before I opened it to just pick some guesses. Apparently "anywhere" wasn't good enough for her. My picks were Nauvoo Visitors Center, South America, South Africa, or South Korea. I figured if I didn't go to a church history site, I'd love to speak Spanish (fully and fluently) and I happen to geek out about South African history and Korean history. Like holy cow though, I didn't think in a million years I'd be flying to the other side of the globe to speak an Asian language.

There's even more irony to this call though. Steph's best friend growing up, Rachel, who lived across the street, was adopted from Korea after her parents served as the mission president and mission mom there.

And the apartment complex I work at and live in right now will be hosting like 40 Korean exchange students starting this week.

And as a ward missionary, one of our investigators right now is from Korea!

BUT IT GETS BETTER.

So remember this post? Probably not. I'll refresh your memory. Last Fall semester I randomly took a Modern Korean History class just for fun. I LOVED it, but it was one of the hardest classes I'd taken because I knew nothing about Korea before taking it. I also happened to be the only person in the class wasn't either a Korean or a Korean-speaking returned missionary. Well guess who'll be learning the language, loving the people, and sharing the love of God and His gospel in Korea!

Really at the time, that class was giving me ulcers, I even regretted taking it after the damage it worked on my GPA, but now I see it as a tender mercy. I may not know the language and can't pretend to understand the culture yet, but at least I know something of their history!

Does Anybody Even Like Goodbyes?

Goodbyes are never fun. I've been getting better at goodbyes, though.
The lives of most of the people around me are a little transient. Semesters change and people scatter across the globe: teaching English in Ukraine and China, preaching the gospel in Timbuktu, or returning to a home state or country after graduation. It gets tiring to always be saying goodbye. Goodbye to roommates that were family day in and day out, sharing so much life and experience and growth together. Goodbye ward friends and classmates, sometimes with the regret that we could have been even better friends than we were. And every time we move, it's goodbye bishop after bishop after bishop who gives much-needed counsel and guidance.

Since many of my own students are in "the system," their lives can change at the drop of a hat. A student works hard to do well and stay clean, earning the privilege to go home. And we have to say goodbye. Sometimes a parent makes a choice or a kid messes up or previous actions catch up to them in court, whisking them away to another program or facility or group home. Sometimes a kid tries to escape their problems by running away. Those kids often are brought back. And then sometimes a kid hates his program, gives up on life, plans to run away to Vegas, doesn't up running, starts doing really well in math again, and then overdoses on some prescription drugs before school, he passes out in class, doesn't wake up, is taken away by paramedics, his teachers search all the trash cans and interrogate peers to figure out what he took, and then that night his teacher gets a text, "He is okay and has been released from the hospital." The next day in class the students and teacher quietly do their work, thinking about the goodbyes they didn't get to say, but grateful that he didn't die. The teacher tries to not think about all the dormant potential sitting in this kid. He has the biggest heart. He loves making people smile. He's got brains and does well in all his classes because he works hard. He is loved by most everyone, earning himself all sorts of ridiculous nicknames. And we almost lost him, and we didn't get to say goodbye.

I feel like goodbyes are bitter but sweet. They offer us a chance to reflect on the people in our lives. My friends have shaped my character so much. I wouldn't be me without them. I feel like even just this semester the group of us has experienced a full range of human experience. Dramatic, I know, but it was a concentration of crazy ups and really crazy downs. But we grew a lot, didn't we? And we had a lot of fun! Camping out for BYU basketball games, day trips up to Salt Lake, rugby matches, lots of lacrosse, a few First Fridays in Provo, lots of good music, movies, circus tent forts in our front room, dinner parties, late night talks, snow battles, soaking up springtime rays at the park, and a big goodbye slumber party.


Maybe instead of saying goodbye, we should just say thank you. Thank you for sharing some of your life with me!

Let The Mission Papers Commence!

Guess who's starting up their mission papers! Woohoo!

It actually takes no time at all to fill in the information. Now I just need to go to the dentist and the doctor to hopefully get a clean bill of health. Luckily, my health has always been fine. My teeth are another story. To make up for my perfect health, my teeth have always had some expensive thing wrong with them.

My availability is set for June, and I am soooo excited. My wise Bishop called me to be a ward missionary, and I'm loving it. We had a baptism 2 weeks ago too! I would love to serve anywhere, speaking English or otherwise. I'm a little partial to Spanish, but I am just so excited!

My family is offering to make some sacrifices to pay the monthly contribution. I'll be paying all the upfront costs, and if possible, I want to have money saved up for school when I return. That means work, work, work!

The end.

The semester is done. It was a bad one as far as grades go, but I don't regret the classes I took. I love what I have learned.

• World Religions - I gained an appreciation for all religions and understand more of the eastern culture that accompanies many of those religions. I love seeing God's hand in the beliefs and lives of all of His children. I know better how to represent my own faith tradition because I now know how it compares to others.
• Korean History - I love thinking about how little I knew of Korea compared to what I now know after my modern Korean history class. It's cool to go from total ignorance to at least some understanding. I'll spare you the details though because I could go on forever about that class.
• History of Science - I love the perspective I've gotten from my history of science class. It has been really cool to map out the evolution of thought and argumentation in everything from the systems in the cosmos to the workings of human brain. It's crazy to think of the intellectual development that we inherit just by being socialized into our culture at this time. It's incredible to then realize that what we know is very little to everything that God knows. It's even more incredible to think of our own potential to become omniscient through God's plan.
• World Geography - I loved the professor's stories. I could probably still fill out the various map quizzes for as long as my short-term memory holds out. Yet, I don't feel like I've learned many new ideas. I did like the professor's perspective on the Israeli-Palestinean conflict, though, very interesting.

My grades will be bad, though. I'm getting burned out on school. It was easier to be motivated for school when I worked somewhere that didn't satisfy my career desires. It has been harder to stay focused on school this semester since I'm already doing what I want to do. But I know that school is important and I will finish it!

On the positive side, I have learned sooo much at Summit. I learn so much every single day. Today I said goodbye to two of my students. They were happy goodbyes since one girl gets to go live with her little brother and the other guy has straightened up enough to go home to his family. I'm going to miss them. I'm also working with another teacher to track down one of our students that was relocated. We're going to see if we can visit him together.

Every day I pray that I can make some difference in my students' lives, and it is so amazing how Heavenly Father just fills me with love for them all. They can swear at me, hit on me, flip me off, ignore me, hug me, listen to me, or completely blow me off, but I really care for all of them. Some of them are really genuine and others are really good manipulators, but I still love them. I have grown so much, I am definitely not the person I was before this job. The only downside is that I am completely desensitized to swearing. I don't use profanity myself, but I hate that I hear it so casually.

Family, Isn't It About...

Time. Family Time!
I'm lucky to have my family live so close. I get to see them a lot. I also have the chance to be a part of a few pseudo-families trying to fill the needs when blood relations aren't readily available. So here are some of my family updates.

- The Wood Family - 

October included general conference in Holden, Mom's birthday, a cabin trip with Sierra and Harper, cheering Mom on at the Provo halloween half marathon, the Wood family halloween dinner, a traditional halloween visit to Grandpa and Grandma Burnett, and plenty of family dinners and afternoons doing laundry at the parents' house. Lots of fun!

- The College Family - 

Some of my roommates and friends have little or no family in Utah, so we build up little networks of pseudo-families to help fill the need. A roommate needed help recovering from ACL surgery and needs rides to work, school, and physical therapy. A friend needs someone to vent at. Another friend needs someone to go get treats with and unload their frustrations. One of my roommates is in a family science class and needed to do a family tradition and write a paper about it, so all 6 of us roommates went out to eat and celebrated all our birthdays at once. The family tradition was everyone saying what they loved about the birthday person, so we took turns telling what we loved about each other. Great tradition! Mostly college students can get wrapped up in work and school and the loneliness sets in. Even though they call, facebook, or skype their family, it really helps to have a support network nearby to call on when life is hard.

- The Summit Family - 

Where to even begin? For many of the students, they see their teachers and classmates more hours in the day than their foster or proctor families, and certainly more than their actual families. The learning at Summit doesn't start and end with standard curriculum. Some impromptu lessons this month? Let me see... interviewing skills, accountability, substance abuse, respect for women, mending relationships, proper theatre etiquette (at Thriller), valuing other people for who they are (at school campout, music class concert), and how to have fun (Chess tournament, Halloween faculty flashmob, Halloweiner roast). My students also like to ask me about what my life is like. I think the most attentive and behaved they ever were was when they asked me about what my life plans are and what I value in a relationship.

Sometimes the lesson works the other way. Today my students taught me about family. Tony walked into class, buried his head in his hoodie, and was silent for the first part of class. Lorenzo pops up out of his chair like usual (I swear I'm going to duct tape that kid down). He goes over to Tony and asks him why he's sad on his birthday. Tony mumbles out that he misses his family. Lorenzo then takes up a quick cash collection and gets a note from me to go to the vending machine. He comes back with chocolate for Tony and leads the class in the birthday song. Then he tells Tony that he'll be his family and gives him a big hug. It's really sad to see what happens when families fail and kids end up in the system, but sometimes we have small moments of success like this one.

I also love the faculty I work with. When I need teaching advice they are full of good ideas that work! Then there are the school's counselors and administrators who psychoanalyze my life and give me dating advice, whether I want it or not. Haha, I love them too. One of the school activities coming up that I'm looking forward to is a Girls' Night Out. All the girl students are invited and asked to bring a father figure with them. I don't know what's planned, but I'm sure it'll be good since the invitation asked the father figures to wear pink, haha!

I'm so lucky to have my family, my college family, and my Summit family!

My Music Moods

A picture is worth 1,000 words, but I don't currently have a camera. SO a moving picture with lyrics and music must be worth much more. Here are some current favorites.

Penguin: Christina Perri

Someone Like You: Adele

(Also Set Fire to the Rain, Make You Feel My Love, and Turning Tables all by Adele)

Hold Me: Jamie Grace

Did You Know?

It only takes an 9.5 minute walk from my front door to my M-W-F classes, but 17 minutes to my T-Th classes.

It is possible to spend all day hiccuping, even in the silent library and between sentences while giving FHE tours at the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures.

It can take up to 3 visits and loads of phone calls to accomplish a 15 minute paperwork and fingerprinting process with Alpine School District. I love my home district, but it can be messed up sometimes.

It is possible to win in the game of roommate roulette. I went into a 6 girl apartment without knowing the girls, and I love them all!

It is also possible to love all your classes! I have Comparative World Religions, Modern Korean History, History of Science, and World Geography.

Did you know that God puts people in our life who genuinely care? I have the best bishop, the kindest principle/boss, the most positive co-workers, and supportive roommates and friends.

Sometimes I wonder why I was even hired to teach math, especially to my type of students, so I asked the ones who hired me. The principle said he liked my coaching experience and my positive attitude. The assistant principle said I've got that "It" that you can't teach a teacher. The supervising math teacher said she knew I could think on my feet and really care about my students. After a rough class I have to remind myself of those things. After a good class I am just walking on cloud 9 and start believing what they said.

It's also very possible to take on more than you can handle, or not handle your stress properly and develop stomach pains and complete loss of appetite and nausea and find yourself threatening to get emotional over the stupidest things. However, just when things were building to an unforeseen breaking point my friends, roommates, boss, and bishop all happened to want to talk to me about life. Solid counsel and healthier stress management has led to a return of appetite, easing of the stomach pains, and a more level-headed me - all in one week!