I ate a lot of creepy meat this week.

Great way to start off an email, right? But really, I ate a lot of weird meats.

1. Lots of intestine. Lots. We went to a meat buffet.

2. A cow..... hole. (How do I make that NOT vulgar?) which is technically the alrge intestine but I thought I would give it its own number anyway. An Elder brought it over to us at the meat buffet last P Day. And... I ate it. It was really chewy.

3. Pig intestines stuffed with intestiney stuff, swimming in a soup of fire water with....

4. PIG EARS. Also very chewy.

 

And there you have it! The week of weird meat eating. Great experience.

 

I went into a cafe this week that a member took us to. It literally looked exactly like our house. They gave us citrus tea and Jack Johnson was playing. I wanted to die. it was the most tempting thing in the world. Sometimes I wonder how I survive without music.

 

We made paper dolls for this cutie little 6 year old that we teach.She is precious. We are teaching her mother the gospel. Her American name is Sally. She is progressing really well and she loves the missionaries. We are hoping that we can get a baptismal date with her soon and help her on the path to God.

 

Our District is doing a fasting project this transfer where a member of the district fasts each week. It was my week and we showed up at a members house to a big batch of homeade soup. Which the member decided to feed to just my companion. I serioulsy thought I was going to die. HOWEVER, my groaning quickly changed to stifled giggles when the member handed my companion a bowl of the NASTIEST looking soup I ahve ever seen. My companion whispered to me, 'this looks like cement.' Who is grateful to be fasting NOW? My hands are up.....

 

We did a really great prosleyting activity with the ditrcit in the dowtown shopping area of junjoo. it was INSANE. Here are 3 funny happening from that day-

1. I told a teenage boy that his waffle looked really delicious and then he proceeded to try to feed it to me. Um, no.

2. A scandalous Vietnamese woman jsut came up to me and asked if she could take a picture with me.

3. A reaaaaaally drunk guy tried to hug me. Also no.

 

We DID get a few phone numbers from some people taht were interested in learning English thought! At the same time I really hate treaching English as a misisoanry. I use to really like it when I was a greenie because I felt like I was doing something but now that my teaching skills are a tad bit better I really just want to teach the gospel.

 

Also! Yesterdya we were at a sweet grandmas house that we found this week by knocking doors and she was watching a Korean drama on her TV. When she got up to go get some apples my companion and I sorta gave in for ten seconds and watched 15 seconds ... and we uncerstood EVERY. WORD. it was the most bizarre expereicne. we looked at each other with our jaws dropped. Crazy inderstanding moment. Kassey, be reasy for lots of Korean dramas when I get home.

 

Love you all! I hope that you had a wodnerful Easter!

xo sister kelsey pappa

Pictures: Its totally tacky but me and Elder Hill found all these filters on our cameras 

and its the closest thing I have to IG, so I used a few this week. 

They're kinds fun, I guess.

Someone hanging out their TaeKwon Do Uniform. I thought this was so cute.

 The Elders and us messing with our cameras.They are so happy and are always making us laugh.

 Riding the bus with my usual proselyting stuff.

 The Cherry Blossoms are still out.

 This baby in our ward that always looks so distressed.

 A former investigator had this beautiful litter of kittens. 

One of them has two different colored eyes which totally reminded me of Karissa Winterton.

 (who emailed me today by the way! gosh, i miss her.)

 There are flowers EVERYWHERE.

 A GIANT bug we found at our investigators apt. Welcome to Summer in Asia.

There are still lanterns all over this city.

 A Failed Attempt at trying to photograph what kinds of things members send us home with.

 In American you get leftovers and cookies.

 In Korea you get.... a TURNIP. just... a turnip.

An adorable kid teaching me taekwondo. It was adorable.

 My posture is horrible in this picture 

but this is after out intestine soup date with a few members in our ward. 

The woman next to me is an ANGEL. 

She is a single mom in very humble circumstances,

 but everytime we leave her house our arms are full of things she gave us. Her name is Sister Yoon.

 The Vietnamese Girl. I look so disgusting next to her.

Our investigator left for BYU today!

 She is in the foreign exchange program. 

We are sad that we didnt get to see her be baptized but we are hoping something will happen at BYU.

Pictures

1. Me and this insanely adorable little gal in our ward. I want to take her home for Cort and Dayne. 

Her name is Heejee.

2. Cherry Blossoms

3. A reaaaaally white girl, just traveling to a LA members house. #onlyinasia

4. My companion told me to pose like this for this picture, is this awkward or is this awkward?

5. Our really happy moment. It was really happy.

IM TRANSFERRING!! Can I get a Hallelujah.

Oh my gosh. Im here. Im alive. Sorry that Im a little late today. Things were a bit behind this morning and so we were rushing out the door, then right when we were about to start emailing we got TRANSFER CALLS AND IM TRANFERRING! and also my companion is as well. This area is reaaaaally struggling and I think that the members are really needing some new misisonaries to liven up the work with some fresh ideas.

Im transferring to 중앙 (Joongang) to be with Sister King, who is a really great missionary I had the privelege of going on a split with about a month ago. Also Im going to be in a FOUR MAN HOUSE again. Im so excited I cant even think right now.

 

Your emails all made my whole days. That sentence doesnt make any sense but I think you get it. Cort's baby bump pictures. Funny FB posts. April Fool's jokes, another package coming (seriously you guys, seriously.) Dad taking care of my new debit card, pictures of standing on the horses and being the same ol cowboys/girls I know you to be. our new laundry room and of course all of your sweet and encouraging words. OH MY HEAVENS I AM SO OVERWHELMINGLY JOYFUL RIGHT NOW I CAN HARDLY CONTAIN MYSELF. Literally, so scatterbrained. Wow. Just wow. I feel so blessed.

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! Im grateful that youre my parents. I am oh so grateful. I love you. I hope you did something super fun together.

 

Random Happenenings of the Week:

1. This random old lady came up to me on the street and started hugging me. She pressed her cheeks up against mine and just WEPT. I was so darn confused. On top of my limited language ability, understanding old Korean ladies is IMPOSSIBLE. Theor language is a world of its own. It turns out that when she saw me, she was reminded of one of her children that are abroad, and seeing the face of a foreigner brought the pain of missing her own child. It was so weird and so sweet at the same time. I laughed a little to myself afterwards wondering if my mom did the same thing everytime she sees an Asian person.

2. I talked to this lady for like 20 minutes on the street, by myself. Granted I probably could understand like 60 percent of what she was saying, but I actually by some miracle was able ( I think) to answer a question that she had about returning to live with God... with a SCRIPTURE! I was so lucky to have studied for soemthing so similar a few days earlier.

3. FHE with the branch is so dang fun. Just wanted to say that. Tonight is our last one. THREE of the four missionaries in our area are leaving. Im sad, I wont lie. I love the members here and I know my heart is going to break to have to leave them. They are so special and like family.

 

This week was a miracle. A downright beautiful miracle. My companion is finally coming around and surrending. I think she has just come to terms with the fact that using our limited energy to hurt is exhausting. Surrender. Be kind. You don't have to like everyone you just have to be nice to everyone. (thank you mom.) I want to share with you the sweetest moment of our companionship so far. It started on Tuesday as we were walking back from the PO. We were walking alongside the nasty Naju river and I stopped for 3 seconds to pick two fluffy dandelions from alongside the bank. Immediately the most miraculous thing happenes.. my companion giggled. She requested that we take a picture together. I wish you could have seen how much effort it took for me to not drop my jaw at the sound of her words. We smiled for a picture and then I took a video of us making wishes on dandleions. It was the most simple moment that provided so much comfort for the both of us. No one was judging. No one was yelling or crying or upset. We were just childlike in our innocence and simple in our joy, with two dandelions in our hands.

The Lord allows things to end peacefully when we put our trust in him. When we don't give up. When we don't throw the towel in and run away. I hung in there. I did it. She did it. And I think that both of us a re better people now for handling our misfortunes in the way we did. We didnt do it perfectly but we did it, and thats what matters. We allowed God to help us grow. It was incredibly (and at times seemigly unbearable) but We DID IT. We spent all of winter in little Naju, growing.

 

Oh my gosh, I am so blessed. I am learning so much a on my mission. I am becomign a different person, I can feel it. I am experiencing trial and heartache and sorrow but I know it will all be worth it. Im so excited to hear conference this week. Im excited for my new area and my new companion. I have the most wonderful family, (which will have grown by the time I get home!) and friends who support me and spoil me out of my mind with letters and emails and packages. NO words can even being to describe my blessings in this life and in this experience.

Thank you all for hanging in with me, through everything. I love you I love you I love you.

 

Sister Kelsey Rae Pappa

Pictures

This Week Some Miracles Happened

FamBam,

IM SENDING PICTURES THIS WEEK! Be excited. I sure am.

This week was better. Not because the circumstances were better, but because the Lord blessed me with a lot of miracles, mostly just small changes in my outlook but changes nonetheless. Sometimes change is acutally a miracle in and of itself.

First off, was the PACKAGE I recieved in the mail. Like seriously you guys, Im being spoiled out of my mind. It came at the most perfect of all perfect times. President Shin had just come for itnerviews a few days earlier, my companion and I had just (the day earlier) had the worst fight of all fights, (if you want to call it a fight. It was more like my companion yelling at me and me crying) It came as we were in the middle of a call with our Sister Leader. My companion was on the phone with her in another room, I took the spare 20 minutes to ditract myself and open up the box. I literally was so overjoyed I didnt even know what to do with myself. Seriously. So happy. Thank you a million. To put all this in simpler terms, the package came on a day where I REALLY needed it- a day where one of the few things my companion said to me was "I HATE YOU'... ouch. Love from home needed. I wore Romas dress and my new short at the same time, it made me feel a little bit closer to home.

That night, after a reaaaal rough day, I was sitting at my desk. My companion was on the phone with someone, gossipping about me, taking no thought to speak quielty. I knew she was doing it to hurt me, and the worst part is that now that Im actually starting to understand better so I knew a lot of what she was saying. So I was sitting at my desk, miraculously sort of numb to it all. I hae made it through the whole day with a hard shell, and as I sat there at my desk listening to 'Come Come Ye Saints' I stared at our family picture on my desk and was suddenly so overwhelmed with joy. This sounds so weird but it was one of the most englightening moments I've ever had. I listened to the words, 'All is Well, All is Well' and actually felt the Spirit testifying that truth to me. It felt so good, looking at your faces and know that it was all ok. One day this won't matter anymore. In 9 months I'll be on a plane home, with a heart full of good experiences and a beautiful family welcoming me at the end of that escalator. All was well. All was seriously... well.

We've been working with a less active member in our ward, the one who I was able to talk about baptismal convenenats with. We think we FINALLY found a way to get her to really gain a personal testimony of the gospel- temple work! Her parents passed away and we had a really great conversation with her about doing work for her family. Becuase she is interested now, she has been bringing her less active son to church so that he can baptize her father. So. Precious. There truly is a way that we can reach out and help EVERY person we meet, we just have to look around and find the answers.

I love you all sooooooooooo much!

love, Sister Kelsey Pappa

ps its spring in Naju and the cherry blossom trees are UNREAL. I will try and get some pictures of them this week.