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!