HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! ^^

Dear Family,

1. When I found this out I was shocked! Just because it would never fly in America. So the schools here are super strict and no one is allowed to dye or curl their hair. The girls aren't allowed to wear any makeup or jewelry and can't have painted nails. Also, their hair has to be exactly 11 cm from the bottom of their ears. The teachers take a ruler and measure it every month! And if it's longer than 11 cm they cut it right then and they get in trouble. There's a standard for the boys, too, but I don't know it. So it's super easy to tell if someone is a junior high/high school student! Their hair is a certain length and all of the other stuff. If it's any other lighter color (because everyone's hair is black...) You know it's not a student!

Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!! I'm glad you already got the package! Although it arrived way faster than I thought. Hope your birthday on Thursday is a good one!!! :)

This past week was wonderful!! Last Monday wasn't our pday, Tuesday was. Monday just normal missionary stuff! For our pday on Tuesday, we went to a museum!!!!! I was so excited ^^ It's The National Museum of Korea. The most famous here! We went with 2 other sisters in our zone so there were 6 of us. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!! All about Korea's history. Learned so much ^^ Actually.... as much as I could. Haha the parts that were translated into English I understood really well!! And how lucky were we... there happened to be another exhibit here just for a time. It was from Pompeii!! So Mom I saw a lot of what you saw!!! Kind of... This Pompeii exhibit is travelling around the world and happened to be in Korea right now. I think it's here for another month. It was so fascinating!!! They had the casts of the bodies and everything. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. But I have some from the museum! Learned a lot :) That night we had FHE! Very fun.

Wednesday we had zone training!!! So fun to see our whole zone! It was super good! :) Pres. and Sis Christensen were there because they were doing interviews, so that was fun to see them, too. Also! I forgot to tell you a month or so ago when I found out our new mission president!! "Sonksen" is his last name. When he served a mission in Korea the entire country of Korea was only one mission! So not saying anything.... But that was a bit of time ago... He and his wife own  a peanut butter company so that's interesting. They've from Ohio! That's about all I know about them. They come in July, I think?

Back to Wednesday. So after the training we went to teach 민서 Meen-soh. We've actually been picking her up at her school. (It's funny, all of the little kids that see me run around me shouting "hello!" and foreigner! foreigner!). Anyways, her teacher saw my companion a couple times and then talked to the woman we pick Meen-soh up with and said that she used to actually be interested in the LDS church but that was years ago. She asked her if she could receive a Book of Mormon though. So of course we said no. Just kidding! How crazy is this story??! So when we went to pick her up today we talked to her teacher a bit. She doesn't want to meet but we gave her a Book of Mormon and our number and stuff. So cool ^^ Never know who's watching!

That night we just did door-to-door :)

Thursday... Our last time at our current service project! We have new ones lined up so we served there our last time and then said our goodbyes. This night was so awesome... So there's a girl in our ward that's really quiet and doesn't like to talk to anyone. So we went to visit her! Her mom and older sisters are members but her dad isn't. He comes to church all the time though! So we were visiting her and she said no one else would be home that night. Then! All of a sudden her dad came home!!! So awesome!!! 10 minutes later her older sister! 10 minutes later her Mom! THE WHOLE FAMILY! It was so cool ^^ They gave sister Ahn and I so much food. We were dying! Haha. But we started sharing a message and then the whole family started talking to the dad saying how they want him to be baptized and they know he wants to and all this stuff. But not in a pressure kind of way, just a loving kind. So he said he'll meet with us!!!! So cool!!!!!!

Friday was the famous weekly planning. That night we visited another woman (김영미 kim-young-mee) but we really wanted to meet her husband. He never came home, though :/ 

Saturday... Oh ya! So we english class at 1:30 because there was a ping-pong tournament today. Class was fun as always :) I get along really well with a few people that come so it's always fun seeing them! Also, this new couple came today and they were so awesome. Hehe they're such hipsters. I wish you could've seen them. Anyways, I thought she was maybe 24ish. Turns out she's 34. what. The ping-pong tournament was so fun!! My partner and I (최이진 chway-ee-jeen) took second... I know. It isn't first. I don't want to talk about it. Hahaha don't know how it happened because you know my ping-pong skills. If Saxon took my place we would've probably taken first. Then there was a relief society activity. Our investigator 유옥렬 you-ong-reor was supposed to come but she didn't show :/ Anyways, Sis. Ahn and Sis. Gil have been dreading it all week because of what we were going to eat... I feel like my emails are always about food. But it is an interesting part of the week! They said they wouldn't tell us what we were eating until after! But as soon as we got there all of the women were so excited to try and explain it to us. There actually isn't a translation for what it's called in English so I still don't really know what we ate. But what I got out of it is that it's some sort of river fish that they boil and then blend the whole thing up and that's what makes up the soup. Appetizing, huh ;) But it wasn't even bad!! It was actually really good! And I guess really healthy, too. Don't worry, when we come back you're all eating it ;) The only problem was the portion size. When we were first eating it I said to the woman next to me that I really liked it and she freaked out and yelled to all the servers, "The foreigner likes it!!! Bring us more!!!" So you can imagine how much they kept bringing out... So painfully kind of them. Then we went to the relief society president's house and did some activities. One of them was a game where we get cards that had really profound Korean words and then we go around in a circle and explain why this word is important to us. Even the women were saying they didn't know what a lot of the old words were! So Sis. Seegmiller and I were at quite a disadvantage. Haha when it was my turn you can imagine my explanations for why the particular word was important. They were so funny. I'm sure they were all so confused but they would just clap after. How nice of them. 

Sunday! 방연숙 bong-yeon-suke came! And after church when we had a lesson she actually focused! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and it kind of blew her mind. She thought it was amazing! That was really cool teaching her. Then we visited that same old couple we visited awhile ago. The one that gave us all of the incredible Korean paintings!!! They are so nice. He's Buddhist and she's... a member obviously haha. He is the coolest old man. He decided a little bit ago he wanted to learn how to play this instrument so he bought it and hired a tutor so he can learn. He showed us and it was so cool! 

Well that was pretty much my week! This Friday we have transfer calls......... I've been in my first area for 4 transfers so everyone keeps telling me I'm out of here! We'll find out this Friday! Well, I will :) You will next Monday. So I'll be emailing next week early by the way! 

Love you all so much!! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission!!!

Sis. Gentry Evans