One Month!

Dear family,

 

How crazy is it that I've been in Korea one month?! Well, almost. This week I will be. It blows my mind! So Korea:

1. Nobody has dryers, everyone hangs their clothes up!

2. There are no 4th floors, it's just "1,2,3,F,5" because 4 is a bad number

3. People don't wear wedding rings! That one was interesting.

 

Ok so my week! Last Tuesday for FHE we played this super awesome game that is so, so fun. It is really hard to describe so remind me to tell you when we get home so I can tell you! It involves the gloves you use to wash dishes and things and slapping people with them. So funny. So you know how I said we run in the mornings? And that there are these super awesome old people that do zumba where we run to and it's the best thing of my life? Ok so, everytime we run by they always beckon us over to join them but we can't... which breaks our hearts. But! Haha now when we run by this old man always yells "It's ok! Modest dancing!" Haha it's so funny.

 

Wednesday we had district meeting which was good. Sis LaBlanc ate bundagee (a steamed silk worm thing... Mom it's what you told me not to eat, I think!), anyways she got super sick and was out all week! It pretty much destroyed her stomach. Thursday was super fun! We had a "sisters conference" that no one has done before but our sister training leadesr (Sis 권한나 and Sis LaBlanc), decided it would be fun and planned one for us! It was awesome. We did all of these fun games/examples (human chairs, 3 legged races) ((which btw Sis. Seegmiller and I dominated in ;) )) and at the end we got these awesome shirts that they had designed and had had made for us! We signed the backs of everyone's :) That night we were supposed to meet with our investigator, 방연숙, but she never showed :( We had a member there with us so we felt bad she didn't show up!

 

Friday...... Don't remember much! Except that it was weekly planning! Which takes a solid three hours! Haha. But it's great! We taught 강지은 that night and it was really fun! We were talking about Lehi's dream and staying on the path with the iron rod so we did this interactive example thing with her. We set up a pole she had to hold and then she had to get to the end while we were trying to convince her to let go. Haha we had a member with us (김요희), who took it really literally and was trying to drag her away. Haha it was kind of funny.....

 

Saturday! We had another appointment that the person cancelled right before (said she was in the hospital... but she wasnt... haha), so we were visiting people in our area that hadn't been in contact with missionaries for a while. Haha the people would open the door and as soon as they would see us would shut the door so quickly. Haha it's funny. Only happened 3 times though so wasn't even bad that day! We just leave message cards on their door. OH YA! So, we went to visit this lady that lived on the 21st floor of an apartment. She never showed and we were so close to the roof... (26 stories), so we decided we might as well go to the top. IT WAS AMAZING!!! Oh my gosh I can't describe how beautiful Seoul is! Wow. We could see so far! It was tons of tall buildings but then all around these beautiful mountains! That was awesome. After was English class. After... Our whole district except the other two sisters went to get dinner... I don't want to talk about it though... It was terrible. Well, ok my food was good! I got this soup thing that has an entire chicken in it! It's crazy. and everytime someone orders soup, it comes out So hot! 130 celcius! Anyways, that's what a few of us got. The others got 보시탄. Which I'm not saying what that is. But they made me take a bite, and it was the worst moment ever. Ok moving on!

 

Sunday was great!! Ward conference! And 방연숙 came the whole time! There were soo many people there. So, it will shock you to know I'm in the choir here (ok surprise all of the missionaries are). So we sang in sacrament and oh man... I couldn't hold it in at the end. We sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and the last note goes super, super high. No one can hit it, but this one woman kind of screams it so loudly and it's always a struggle for us not to all laugh. Anyways, I was trying so hard not to laugh, but then the conductor started laughing so of course then I couldn't help it! Haha the looks on the faces of all the ward members. So funny. Also, for some reason I got pushed to the front and middle and for a solid while I had no idea where we were in the song so I just faked the Korean.. That worked well. (When I went to turn a page it accidentally turned two and I didn't realize it. It was great.) That was so fun/funny! After, we all ate together right there in the chapel! They quickly move all of the chairs and bring up tables. There was soo much food and it was all so amazing! Korean food is seriously the best.

 

After Sis. Seegmiller and I walked around talking to people and we talked to this one woman that was just... crazy. We kept seeing her for awhile so then I turned and just said hello to her and she Freaked out! She just kept yelling at us "So beautiful! So beautiful!" She was super nice, but everytime we tried to talk to her she would just back away saying we were bewitching her with our charm... Then she asked if we'd had plastic surgery (that's a big thing) and we said no and she couldn't believe it. She called me Sleeping Beauty and Sis. Seegmiller Wonder Woman. Haha. Then she said "No! You're Sleeping Beauty and a mermaid!" So in case you didn't know, I'm a mermaid. Haha, that was so funny. When we walked away she yelled (literally screamed after us) I LOVE YOU!  In Korean and then English. Which is totally out of their culture! Then she said she would call us. I'm afraid she will be the one person that calls us.

 

That night we were invited to a 식사! (meal thing) It was a little ways from us (just over an hour), and when we got there we realized there was a miscommunication. We thought it was just supposed to be the 4 sisters in our district, but the elders were supposed to come, too! So we waited for them to come.... Anyways the food was so good, but there was so much! It was crazy. And in this culture it's really rude if you don't eat all that they give you. So oh man, we were just getting sick eating this. There was this bowl of a brown spicy paste in front of me and I thought I had to eat it, so I was eating so much of it and getting so sick. Then at the end I realized that there was only one on the table and that it was for everyone and we didn't even need to add it! Haha! The sisters couldn't believe I had eaten so much of it. Good thing to know for the future.... When we left it was raining a ton!!!! Ah so beautiful! Haha I walked on the bus to get home and slipped like crazy and fell straight to the ground. A girl was on the phone and laughed for a solid 5 minutes. She told her friend on the phone what happened so it was great hearing someone retell what happened 30 seconds later.... haha I don't think she knew I could understand her.

 

It's been raining all day today!!!! It's a downpour!!! We just got done doing service because tomorrow is our p-day! You will never guess what we're doing. Never! We are..... GOING TO THE DMZ!!!!!!! My whole district!!!!! I'm so excited!!!! It's because Elder Ross and Sister LaBlanc go home this transfer :'( So we got permission for all of us to go! I'm so lucky because they've gone their whole missions and haven't gone and I've only been here a month and get to go! I'M SO EXCITED!!!

 

Well, Hope all is well at home!!!! Lots of love!!!

사랑해요!
Sis. Gentry Evans

First Day in Korea

Third Week!

Hello!!

So, been another great great week :)

1. Whenever they eat fruit/vegetables, they always peel the skin. They don't even eat the skin on grapes! They just take a little bite off the end and suck out the middle.

2. You know how we have salt/pepper shakers on tables? They have little containers with shrimp in them!! How awesome?! And not just the tail's like what we normally eat, it's the whole shrimp. They are really tasty though! They're a "natural" way to salt food I guess because of the salt from the ocean. So smart!

3. When people sneeze, you don't say anything (not bless you or anything)

Ok so! Going from memory here... Tuesday I got to go to the Seoul temple!! It was so so beautiful!! It's funny because the temples are all similar, you know, but this one had such an Asian feel. Haha it was perfect! This is the last transfer for two people in my zone (actually both are in my district), Elder Ross and Sister LaBlanc, so they gave their "last words". It was... so sad :( But motivating!) They just talked about how much they love Korea and that they're excited to go home but just heartbroken to leave Korea. They both have learned so much it seems. (Sis. LaBlanc lives in my apartment-she is awesome!! She's from Vegas so close-ish!) Oh my gosh after the temple... We went to this place called Ashley's for lunch with our zone. (There's about 36 people in my zone I think?) It's an "American" style restaurant and oh my gosh, SO GOOD! It was a buffet and I'll just say we got our money's worth... hehe. Then we went to 동대문 after which is like a big shopping area. We went to this place where it was just a ton of shops and thousands of ties! Oh my gosh you can't imagine! I took some pics I can hopefully send if I have time! Elder Ross bought, guess how many ties? 103. Yep. They're super super cheap and really nice (Rylan, dances? Just kidding I don't think I could get one to you in time...)

That night we had FHE at the church and it was fun, after, we played "Do you love you neighbor?" Wednesday... Just talked to people on the streets and went to houses of less actives. Thursday we had the service project! Don't worry, I'm catching up to the workers speed (haha... but seriously). It's so fun working there! After, Sis. Seegmiller and I met with this really old woman, 김명숙. She... basically just kept telling us she's in a lot of pain and wants to die. She's funny, though! We would say, "To start, can we pray?" or something and she would say, "Yes! And pray for me to die!" And then laugh about it. When we were going to leave, another older woman came in with a plate of food for her and then 김명숙 made us stay and eat it with her. Haha we were walking out and kept saying, "Oh no. It's fine!" But she just kept yelling at us in an angry/loving way to eat. She would take our little poker things, get food and give it back to us till we ate it. I had no idea what I was eating... There was also corn on the cob and I thought oh! Sweet I know what this will taste like! Nope. You have never quite tasted corn like this... I can't really describe it! Haha but still good.

Friday... yes... So! Elder Ross hits his actually two year mark of his mission on Wednesday so to celebrate, my district went to.. dun dun dun dun...... OUTBACK! I'm not kidding!! There is one here! Let's just say... It's a bit expensive... But totally worth it! For the 10 of us in my district it was only $270, that's not bad.. right? Just kidding it's terrible. Elder Murdock & Ross ordered fries for an appetizer and they were $20! Haha oh my gosh! I got an awesome burger. Yess :) so delicious! So that was super fun! But oh ya!!! Guess what?? While we were at Outback, of all people, guess who they played. The played Ingrid Michaelson!! I'm serious!! I didn't think I would hear much American music here, but Ingrid Michaelson?! That was crazy. It hurt me trying not to sing along haha. They also played one of Sis LaBlanc's favorite songs and she was dying haha. After, Sis. Seegmiller and I had weekly planning which takes a solid 3 hours. Then we taught 강지은! It was fun. She's awesome!

Saturday, PASS OFF DAY. So we have this "language progression program" which is a tad bit stressful but super helpful in trying to pick up the language as fast as possible. So I did my first pass-off with my district leader (Elder Savas) and taught him the 1st lesson. It went better than I thought! I mean, I'm not understanding a ton, but I am understanding some :) After was English class, always fun. After this lady, she is so so kind!, came up and told me I was so nice and helpful in her learning English and some other things. I think her name is 김유진, but I'm not totally sure!

Yesterday, Sunday, was interesting. My first week here, I talked to a lady on the street and yesterday she came to church! The ward was so awesome and talked with her a ton. Right after church, they turned all the chairs, brought out tables and we had a 식사! A lunch thing. I guess they do it every week! It was sooo delicious. Also, there was a lady there we talked to and her husband was the first bishop in Korea! She was so cool!! I honesty thought she was 50 or so and afterwards, Sis. Seegmiller and I figured it out that she couldn't be under 73. So ya that was crazy! They were actually mission presidents in the Seoul West mission in 1982-83!! 김휘나 was her name, I believe. He has already passed away. Dad, have you heard of them?

After, we walked around to talk to them. That was... good most of the time except for two things. We were talking to this one girl and she seemed interested. She was really sweet, but she was with her friend who mostly seemed annoyed. She took a BofM and then they walked away. After a little ways, the friend took the Bof M out of her hand, looked back at us, and slammed it on the ground. Ah! My heart! That was terrible to watch and I just didn't understand why she would do that... But I'll probably be seeing that a lot. After 5 minutes later, we were walking across a street & talking to a lady and someone else ran up and told her that we were a cult and then just kept staring at us saying we were a cult over and over. That was fun... Everything else was fine though! After we had another 식사 meal so it made up for it :) It was just the missionaries and the bishop & family at the church and ohh it was so good! The food here is seriously the best. That was fun!

 

Pretty much my week! We just found out that my foreigner's card picture didn't work so we have to go there tomorrow again to get it! Ah! Now we know to get there and hour before it opens to get in line, though!

I love you so much and hope everything is well at home!!!

Love,

Sis. Gentry Evans :)

Week 2

Hello!!

Everything is just the greatest! I'm going to try and do 3 random facts about Korea to open up :)

1. Korean people hate the sun; they avoid it at ALL costs! If there's a huge sidewalk, people will all be in a line next to the wall to be in what little shade there is.

2. Old people can push you (if you say hello and they don't want to talk to you), and it's totally fine in their culture! Just because the harmonies (old people), are super respected so they can do whatever they want.

3. You don't tip in restaurants and delivery to your home is always free!

Alright! I don't have my journal again... but I'm going to try and remember what I've done! Today I had to get my foreigner's card and we were there from 9 this morning till after 2... Took forever! It was funny everyone from my district from the MTC was there except 2 people. Little reunion! But I have it so all is good :)

I don't remember what I told you last week, but there are 4 of us in my apartment.- Sis. Seegmiller & I, and Sis. LaBlanc & Sis. 권한나. The other 2 sisters are awesome!! They are the sister training leaders for my zone. Last Monday, we basically spent the whole night deep cleaning our apartment. Because of 추석 (the big holiday), no one was outside so we cleaned! It was actually super nice to have everything really clean :) We also spent most of Tuesday finishing.... Then, Tuesday was our p-day. We went to the church and met the elders there and played that card game Bang for a while, so fun! Hehe I never died. We all got Pizza School :) Then we had FHE! It's on Tuesday so if families want to come they can. It was also really fun! We played a name game at the end.

Wednesday I went on an exchange with Sis. 권한나 and it was really fun! We taught a woman that night English for 30 minutes and then about the gospel for 30 minutes. She was soo sweet!! My district also street boarded that night and that was so fun! (By the way there are 5 companionships in my disctrict, 3 elder and 2 sister)

Thursday we got to do a service project! We went to this factory place where mentally handicapped people can work. We worked with them packaging rubberbands and going to be honest here.... They were all faster than me! I'm not kidding! The saddest part is I was actually trying to keep up with them! Oh it was embarrassing. No worries, after a few weeks of practice I'm sure I'll be able to keep up ;)

Friday was good....... Don't remember much... Oh ya! We met with 강지은. She's an inactive member but has been meeting with us quite a bit!  Her English is super good so she always runs up and talks to them and asks if they're German because she is obsessed with Germans. Mom, she said she was going to friend request me on facebook, so if you see that you can accept her! She's super nice.

Saturday we taught an English class! It was so fun and I met a lot of people! Luckily I taught the advanced group so they all knew English really well :) There was this man there (he was really nice!), but we were talking about where we are from and I said I was from Arizona. He asked me if I was from Arizona why was I so white...... ;( Haha I told him I spent two months inside of a building learning Korean!

That night we had Stake Conference! We had to go somewhere else for it because the area is so big for the stake. Elder Koichi Aoyagi and his wife from the 70 spoke. It was terrible... I didn't even realize he was speaking in Japanese and not Korean for awhile. The Korean is coming GREAT! Haha just kidding, it really is! :) One day I will be able to tell the two apart! Haha

The next day (Sunday), was Stake Conference continued. We taught after and then just spent the whole evening pretty much just out talking to people! It was great :):) I have never walked so much! Ever! But it's great! I hit my yo at night and pass out within a minute. Not that that is much different from home... But it's nice being so tired at night that I fall asleep so fast.

Oh ya! Wednesday we went to THE BEST place EVER to eat!! It's called a 샤브샤브 (Shaba shaba) and basically you get all the meat and veggies you want and cook them in a bowl in front of you at your table. And it's unlimited! Oh it was the best. It's funny because at home where we would just have beef and steak and whatever meat, they have shrimp, fish, squid, octopus and that kind of meat! And when I say those animals, I mean the whole fish and whole octopus just in a pile. But they are suprisingly not bad :) The food here really is the best!! I love it.

Well, I don't remember much else! Glad to hear things are going well at home :) Love all of you!! Until next week :)

Love,

Sis. Gentry Evans

First Picture from Korea

First Week in Korea!

 

GOOD MORNING KOREAAAA! (that's a reference so... I hope someone gets it. Also it's 5 in the afternoon so I hope you're not thinking it's in the morning....)

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello family!!!

Oh this is amazing!! I'm actually emailing you from Korea!!! So much has happened I don't even know where to start. Also, sorry we came straight from a 식사 (like a meal thing), so I don't have my journal. And I really have a terrible time remembering things so I'm sorry!

Ok so, a week ago saturday we had to say goodbye to our teachers. So so so sad!! We were all soooo close with all of them. Hehe we got them the funniest gifts though (this lovey-dovey card for Bro. Christensen that was just hilarious about "it's so easy loving a man like you " and stuff. hahaha. Also a pointer for him bc he's aways touching the tv) And a superman card and signed tie for Bro. Sung. Then just a cute card and sour candy for Sis. Gardiner bc she likes them.

Sunday! the 15 of us left (my district, the 3 elders from the other district that were going to Seoul, and the 2 native elders). We sang a song in sacrament & it was super nice. I sounded great, just saying. ;)

That night.... well I didn't get much sleep...... or any... I just took all of my stuff out in the hall and packed! It wasn't bad though. Then at 3 Sis Brown and I took all of our stuff down and out to the bus area!!! Wow we were so pumped. And then we saw all of our elders! We were so excited. We put all of our stuff on one bus, but then the bus driver said "oh my bad! This is the wrong bus" so we had to take everything off and wait a while to get on a different bus haha. We were all freaking out we would miss our plane! But of course we were totally fine on time.

Being in the real world? Super weird. I just ran from every person. haha jk. On the flight from Salt Lake to Seattle, it was basically just us missionaries on the plane!! Which was awesome!! A lot of us got the two seats to ourselves, I was one of those people. ;) I fell asleep so so fast and was just out that whole flight. I also had just passed out in the airport while we had been waiting for the plane... After I found out that some of the elders had been placing bets on how fast I would fall asleep because I had had so much energy on the way there and had been so excited. I guess I did fall asleep quite fast...

Then the Seattle airport. AND REAL FOOD. Oh my gosh oh my gosh yay it was so good!! I had a panini :) And I got to call you!! That was amazing!!! Loved talking to all of you!  It was a bummer my calling card didn't work as long as it was supposed to! But I did get to talk for a while so it wasn't too bad :)

Then the flight to Seoul. A flight attendant though I spoke Korean because he had asked me a couple things in Korean and I responded and he asked if my parents had lived in Korea so I told him that my dad did for over two years and that my mom had for about 6 months. Then later he was talking to me and said so how long have you lived in Korea? Your whole life? haha I was like no!! I couldn't believe he asked me. My Korean is horrible horrible! But he was so so nice and talked to me for a while.

On the flight, everyone sat in the back next to each other except me and elder Eggleston! They were in row 40-42 and I was up in row 19 :( But it was ok! I sat next to the window. The man that sat next to me was from the Philippines going to the base in Korea because he 's in the military. That was kind of awkward because he did not understand what being a missionary meant and was asking for my number and saying we could get together in Korea... I was pretty much just plastered against the window (HAHA Britt and Christie!!! I was Ben!!!!!!)

The flight was long and I thought it would never end, but then all of a sudden it did and we were in KOREA!! I took a step off of the plane and... choked because I couldnt breathe. Haha welcome to humidity! Now, I don't even notice it! Except for sometimes in the late afternoon.

Anyways, We met the mission presidents and they're so awesome!! They put our luggage in their vans and then all of the missionaries got to take the subway home! There were 4 missionaries that met us there with the mission presidents (2 zone leaders and 2 sister training leaders), so they guided us of where to go. and we were supposed to 즌도 on the subway!!! (like, talk to people and teach them kind of) I was terrified! But it wasn't bad and I survived :) Also, it was raining the whole night so that was amazing! The mission presidents house- so amazing. In the most beautiful location ever! I'll send a pic :) Also I'm remembering way more than I thought so this is a novel! a lot to process (I don't blame you if you don't read all of it)

We ate dinner and whoa- I was exhausted. I fell asleep on a chair... So we all went to bed! for the first time I slept on a traditional bed- a "yo." It's what they sleep on here and basically it's a tiny mat they put on the ground and then just put up in the morning! No making my bed for 16 months ;)

The next day we had an orientation and I met my new companion!!! Sister Seegmiller!!! She is awesome!!!!!!!!!!! We get along so well. Yay! She's from St. George, Utah. Sister Brown's companion is a native! But she speaks really good english so that's good. So after the conference, we all split up to our new areas! It was super sad saying goodbye to all of the elders :( But it's ok! Because we had a mission-wide conference Saturday!

So Dad- my new area is 중랑. Did you ever serve there? It is SO amazing!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!! Umm let's see... I'll talk about it later! That night we just bought a few things and talked to people on the streets. The next day we taught a lesson at night! It was to a less active and it wasn't bad! I was kind of really nervous at first because of my lack of Korean but it wasn't bad! A member was there and she talked a lot haha. Um........ Don't really remember..... We 즌도 ed a lot. (walk around and talk to people on the streets) I've never walked so much in my life! You know how in New York we walked so much? All day? That's what it is here! Everyday! It's great :)

Friday night we went to a birthday party! The biggest birthday they celebrate here is 1, so it was this little boys first birthday party in the ward! He was SO cute!!!! Seriously. Korean children are the cutest!! (besides our cousins') He was dressed in very traditional clothing and they had the traditional activity of having a bunch of things in front of him, and seeing what he grabs first. He grabbed a golf ball so I guess that means he will be athletic! The ward members were so so nice and there was so much delicious food!!

Saturday we traveled to 신당 Saturday for the mission conference. (I write the Korean for you, Dad, so you can know where we are going/ what we are doing) That is where the mission home is! This weekend is one of the biggest holidays in Korea- 추석. It's basically our Thanksgiving! It starts Sunday and last till Tuesday- basically everything is shut down. So that is why we had a conference! Mom, look up a video called "This is 아리라" I don't know if it needs to be in Korean or not so try that one and if it doesn't work try "This is Ahrira". Ok trying to romanize is terrible. That is their national anthem and it's this video they showed us of basically a flash mob playing their national anthem. It was so cool! I know you'll like it.

This is actually the last mission-wide conference they will ever have! Pres. Christensen told us that. It's because our mission is too big! So I'm glad I got here just in time. I saw all of the missionaries from the MTC that left 6 weeks before me! So cool. Um let's see.... Oh a ton of missionaries came in the traditional Korean clothing for it so that was so cool! So so much rich culture here. Lot's of performances on drums and other traditional instruments. The first hting they did was play a video with pictures missionaries in our mission have taken over the year that the mission president got and it was hilarious! Oh my gosh everyone just seems so funny. They played country music with it and that surprised me! Weird listening to music after so long! The conference was awesome.

The next day was Sunday. I gave a talk! Well, it was fast sunday so it doesn't really count. But they asked the new missionaries in the ward to so it was me & 2 others- Elder Moore and Elder Armstrong. Guess what? Elder Armstrong is Michael Armstrong! You don't know him but he graduated a year before me from MVT and we did track together so I actually know him kind of well! He has ridiculous amounts of energy.

Now, you won't believe this. When church was over, there was this HUGE pile of food by the front door for us. I guess every fast sunday the ward members all bring food and leave it for the missionaries, SO NICE. I couldn't believe how generous they were!! There was seriously so much food!!!! The ward it great great great. Super small but amazing. I'm so excited!

So for the holiday, today all of the missionaries in our area (so district, there's 8 of us, 4 sisters and 4 elders), went to the ward mission leaders house for a 식사, lunch. He actually lives about an hour away from us. The area is huge and there's only one ward in our whole area!

We take a subway, then bus, then walk a ton! He had a really nice house though. (And by house I mean apartment, everyone just lives in apartments here.) His family is great! And oh my gosh, SO MUCH FOOD. Like ridiculous amounts!! They just kept giving us more and more and more..... And I ate octopus!!!!!!!!! They gave us some soup with our meal, and I took a spoonful and guess what was sitting right there? An arm with tentacles!!!!!!! Hahaha oh man! They also just put a whole fish on our table. All of the food was so tasty though! The thing i had the hardest time with was the soup... Not because of the octopus, but because of the muscle! Eh... not my favorite. And now I"m here!

Ok I'm running out of time soo.. I'm going to make a list of everything that's amazing about Korea!

-Everywhere along the street are vendors with the cheapest clothes and just fresh fruits and vegetables! Also tanks with fish, crabs, squid, octopus, shrimp, and tons of animals!

-the fruit is amazing!!! I love the grapes!!! You bite just a little, then suck everything out of the middle! Mm so good :)

-Ok so, every other day we (there's 4 of us in our apartment) we go running. The other day we do p90x! (We have a small video/dvd/cd player thing)

-When we run, we run down the big building streets and along a river. There's this group of old Koreans that are doing a zumba class! It's the best thing ever!!!

-Ok Korean's are the most fit people in the world. All they eat are healthy things and walk everywhere! In the morning, we run through a park place that just has exercise machines along the side and it's just a ton of old ridiculously in shape Korean people!

-I've never been told I'm pretty so many times in my life. Everyone says it that I talk to! It's just because I'm foreign though. They just always say it to my companion and I. Haha my confidence is being built here every second! It's just going to be crushed when I go home.

-Ok and because of that, I've been offered marriage so many times. Just by older woman, "Oh you must marry my son! Come over and have dinner with us now!" haha

-Couples match here! It's so funny, all of the teenage couples wear somehting that's the same, usually the exact same kind of shoes

Dad, no worry about sending me church magazines, we get them each month!

I am out of time so I can't respond to much else.

I am having SO much fun here though!!! I seriously love Korea so much!! I hope all is well at home. I'll try to send pictures!!

LOVE LOVE!!

Sis. Gentry Evans (hehe 에반스)

 

Gentry and Sister Brown re-enacting a picture of Gentry's father and his compantion from the MTC.

Last E-Mail from the MTC

Hello family!!! The time has FINALLY come finally! (haha Britt)

Soo let's see. I'll answer some question stuff first. Mom, yep my visa is all good! And ya my whole district is on my flight so that's awesome!! Plus the 3 who didn't leave with their district this morning because they're going to Seoul South and then the 2 native Koreans. (It will be so nice to have to natives with us to communicate when we get there) Oh! Dad I got Matt's dear elder (the deacon). It was so kind of him! Tell him I appreciated it and say thank you. Ah, that was so heartbreaking about the two Taiwan missionaries. I can't believe he was Hayden's last companion. I'm praying for their families!

Sax, thanks for your dearelder!! It was awesome! Glad to hear from you. Mom, I love the picture you put in the frame! It's so cute. Also, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PICTURES!!! I love them so much!!! And your letter was so nice, thanks!! Haha and yes, I did happen to get 22 dear elders one day from them trying to print all of them off. I only got repeats though, so I guess the couple (and I really think it was only 2 or 3) dear elders I didn't get just disappeared or something.

Rylan, you're cutting to 113, right? Also have fun at the car wash this weekend. Probably keep your shirt on though so you don't scare all of the people away.

Mom, awesome I'll have someone take the box to the front Monday morning, is that ok?

I totally forgot to mention this last week, but we've had the best weather ever!!! It rained almost evvery day last week and it was so fun! One morning, it was so cold there was snow on the mountain tops!!! Yes!!!!!!

I think that's all the questions! Ok so my week... I have been absolutely terrible about writing in my journal the past week because it's been so crazy busy so I'm just going to try and go for memory! So..... Last Friday only Sis. Brown and I got to Skype for TRC (or teach at all) because they didn't have enough volunteers and because we didn't get to last week our elders said we should teach (they weren't going to have anyone teach because there was only one but they vouched for us!) ((We weren't there when they found out)) Also, Friday I didn't have a companion most of the day because Sis. Brown go to go to SLC to walk around temple square and stuff since she's an international. Cool! Also, The night before had been craziness because one of the new sisters woke up in the night & couldn't breathe and stuff so she had to go to the ER. But everything's good! Just a stress attack I guess. Also as you know, WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS FRIDAY!! Which was so so exciting!!! I'll send pics.

Sunday was wonderful!! I had my last meeting that morning as sister training leader because I was released in sacrament! It was fun but now there's a lot more time. Sis. Wilcox is the new STL. She's great!!!!!! We get along so well. She's from Mesa and went to stapley and MVT and everything. SHe's actually from our stake! She graduated 2 or 3 years before me? One or the other. She's super cute.

Anyways, the 1st c in the young women's general presidency and her husband spoke at RS (Bro & Sis. McConkie or something like that). They were amazing talks! During sacrament (which is just with our zone, relief society is for all the sisters at hte MTC), the 3 districts that came in the day I did sang "I'll go where you want me to go" (2 verses in Korean, the last in English). It was so awesome but sad at the same time. We walked around the temple and hahaha it was so fun. We took a ton of pictures since half of us were leaving before the next temple walk (the ones that left today for Seoul South). It was so so fun! Don't remember much....

Um yesterday...... Oh! Tuesday the devotional was awesome, although I don't remember who spoke. I just don't have anything in my journal for the first time for the past few days! Um... Well... that is all! Last night we had to say goodbye to the 19 missionaries that left for Seoul South this morning. So sad! One of them was sis. Park, the native that's been with us for a few weeks. She's so cute!

Oh ya! Yesterday morning all of the sisters played sand volleyball together and it was SO fun!! Hahaha it was hilarious! We were laughing so much. Oh, and I did this crossfit workout thing and holy cow, I was sore for days! It was awesome though. Watch out Rylan ;)

Today is my last Pday and I leave Monday morning!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Mostly for the food. Hahah just kidding (The food here is slowly killing all of us).

Hope all is well at home! Love all of you so much!! Sax- Tell Jenny I say hello and good luck at school!

Love,
Sis. Gentry Evans :)

Next time I"m emailing, IT WILL BE IN KOREA. Oh ya, I CAN'T WAIT TO CALL YOU MONDAY!!!! Keep your ear close to your phone :)