SUWON

Dearest Family,

Oh how I love you all so much! I am so happy that I was able to talk with you all on the phone before I left. It made me so happy. I don't even know where to start.  We shower every day and then when we walk outside we essentially shower again, but in our own sweat. It is so gross... but thankfully since everyone is sweaty its not as awkward. It was an adventure to get my baggage from the mission home to our apartment. We had to take them up several flights of stairs and through small spaces and then in and out of a taxi. It was quite a sight, but we were able to talk with a woman who wanted to know why we had so much stuff. It was a great missionary opportunity! The advantage of being American is that people wonder "What on earth is she doing here?" So they don't turn me down as much when I try to street contact. We are turned down so many times and most people we talk to don't want to hear our mesasge, but we are at least planting the seeds. I remember my third day here I had a full conversation with a grandma on the bus and I gave her a pass along card. I only said maybe 5 sentences, but it was so cool! I have so much more to learn, but just having that one conversation made me so happy and made me realize that Heavenly Father will help me as long as I am living righteously and as long as I am doing all that I can to learn the language.

My trainer is Sister Yoon and she is from Busan area. She will train me for her last 2 transfers and then she goes home. She is so kind and so patient with my inability to speak the language and she translates for me in church so I can get a basic understanding of what is going on. I so appreciate that! We use the busses so much and depending on how far we need to go we occasionally use the subways. I am in Suwon right now in the Kohk Bahn Jeong area. The ward is so sweet.  We had lunch with one of our investigators  and she took us to a European style cafe. It was weird eating American food in Korea. But it was a good time to talk with her and also share a message. We teach English to most of our investigators. It is called the 30:30 program. Half is a lesson and the other half is where I teach them English, something I can do well! Many Koreans are interested in become fluent in English, or at least most of them in my area are. Every day I learn something new in Korean and then I practice it out on the streets. I cannot wait for the day when I can understand everything that is being said to me. It gets to be frustrating sometimes, but I've only been here a week so I had to remind myself to not be too hard on myself.

Only my trainer and I are in our apartment. We sleep on floor mats, but they are surprisingly comfortable. Most building don't have AC so there are fans everywhere. We would die without the fans in our room. It rained on Friday and we went jogging in it in the morning for exercise. It was so great! It made the day nice and cool and I was so grateful for it. I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and it went pretty well. I talked about how I decided to serve a mission and then bore my testimony. Short and simple. It wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be. Our Bishop is very kind. He gave me a book by Elder Christensen about ward members being missionaries and told me to make it my own. I am almost done with the book and I love how everything mentioned applies to not only members but also missionaries.

 Thank you so much for your prayers and for the support. I feel your prayers lift me up every day, and I am so grateful for that. I love you all with all of my heart and soul! I hope you have a great week and I will email you next week!

 I am praying for all of you. I am doing well and I am so happy to be here!

Love,

Sister Goodnough