Transfers once again

Family and friends,

I am cheating this week and sending my companions letter... I'm sorry her's are much better than mine and you will only get it this week. But I love you all thank you!

So we are back after another 6 weeks of crazy times in Gimpo! (김포)!

So yet again in the normal life of a missionary the anticipated, exciting, dreaded phone call comes. Telling the missionaries where and who they will be with for the next 6 weeks. 

Because of the many activities happening on Saturday they had to do a out of the blue transfer calls on Friday. 

Sister Tovar and Sister Fudge had to cancel the exchange they were going to be on so that they could be together for the exciting time. 

What is going to happen to 김포 and the awesome district??? Who is leaving and who is coming in??? We will find out after this quick message. 

Sisters Burton and Oscarson were in Korea! 

They have come to talk to the missionaries and the members in Korea. What a great opportunity it was for the Seoul South Missionaries to have a training with Sister Burton and the missionaries of both Seoul and Seoul South with the members to have a fireside with Sister and Brother Oscarson, Sister and Brother Burton and President Ringwood (Area President for Korea missions). 

It was the first time ever that Woman general auxiliary leaders have gone to foreign countries to speak to missionaries! What a ground breaking and spiritual experience! 

For the missionaries in both missions to be able to see each other again was awesome! Also for investigators and members to hear the wonderful words of God chosen leaders is a lifetime memory for the people of Korea! 

And We are back....isn't that just an awesome experience for the missionaries and members in Korea? Sister Burton was so inspired and her and her husband sang a Korean folk song so beautifully.

The call comes to Sisters Tovar and Fudge...Elder Kim AP calls and says

"You will be staying together...(pause)....and will be in a tripanionship...."

Elder Kim---"it will be a new missionary." 

Sister Tovar---"who is training?"

Elder Kim---"Sister Fudge, and Sister Tovar will help out."

So there we go folks. A tripanionship with a new missionary!! Crazy isn't it!???

The next question is what happened to the Elders?????

That question will be answered after this quick break.

What do missionaries do to celebrate Easter in a foreign country? 

They have an easter egg hunt in their ward building and decorate them like monsters...

At least that is what the missionaries in Gimpo do! Thanks to the mother of Sister Fudge and her kind heart in sending candy and egg dye kit to make the missionaries Easter special.

Sisters Tovar and Fudge hid the eggs in all the appropriate areas of the church in very hard places for the Elders to find...

This is all done before Elder Woodford's last district meeting....They are let in and they go to town! 

Elder Woodford finds the most and can't find is candy box even though it is in plain sight.

After they find all the eggs they eat 떡복이 courtesy of Elder Robinson and decorate eggs to look like Monsters....then they have district meeting....Fun times still being had in Korea!

And we are back....wow the Gimpo missionaries are really fun aren't they???? :)

The Elders........Elder McLean will be moving to 수치 (SuJi) with Elder Smith and 이정환 장로님 (Elder Lee) is coming to be the new district leader in Gimpo with Elder Robinson. Elder Hegewald will continue his training with Elder Chow. Elder Woodford is finishing his mission with honor!! 

And there you go everyone! The adventures of missionary like in Korea still goes on!!!

Remember this Thursday May 1st to start reading Preach My Gospel from the beginning and do the personal studies...it will end Oct 24th when Sister Fudge ends my mission! Please send Sister Fudge your thoughts and insights if you want to...Sister Fudge will send some of hers as time goes on.....

Until the next 6 weeks! Have a safe time and keep warm and healthy!! 

LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!!!!!!!

I will send pictures in another email!

Sister Fudge

Korea Seoul South Mission

Peace Observatory

Family and Friends,

This week has been kind of slow because well I finally caught Sister Fudge's cold. So we have had to stay in most of the week. However, we did have one great adventure on Monday. 

Monday we went to the Peace Observatory on the island in our area. It is about 1.5 miles from North Korea. So cool!! No worries I am safe and we are all safe. The Peace Observatory was incredible. It really helped me gain more of an appreciation for the people of Korea. My heart breaks to know 

that the people of North Korea are suffering because of the decisions of a few people. My hope and the hope of many of the Korean people is that one day there will be one Korea instead of two. I'm so grateful for the freedoms we are blessed to have. I'm so grateful for the gospel, and for prayer. I was also able to take some pictures of North Korea.

Lastly, I of course want to mention the boat accident. It is devastating, I suppose it is all over the news there too. We do an English class at a local high school in our area and so were able to find out that high school students in their Junior year go on a trip to Jeju Island. Our students went the week before and flew into the island. It is really sad what happened. Most of the people on the boat were high school juniors. They do this trip that year because the next year all the seniors are too busy studying for the college entrance exam. We were actually in an office cutesy supply store called Artbox and the lady working there was upset because of the boating accident. My companion caught her looking at it and having tears in her eyes. She left a plan of salvation pamphlet. I'm grateful to know I can be with my family forever. 

I hope you are all doing well and I hope you are enjoying the sunshine outside :).

Love,

Sister Tovar

General Conference

Family and Friends,

So today will be a short email but I think that's good every now and then. Not much happened this week... which no news is good news sometimes. 

General Conference!! I finally got to hear this past weekend. I was so excited. So because of having to wait for translation Korea watches General Conference a week after the United States, and although I do get to watch it in English we wait to watch it until the rest of the country watches it. It was awesome! My favorite talk was Elder Scott's talk! So good. They are all truly men called of God and women called of God. Our investigators actually went to watch conference and it was super cool because they both got something different and Sister Fudge I also got something different. The cool part is that we all heard what we needed to hear. 

Two things that I will mention. The first is that I loved that they talked about member missionary work. As a member maybe it gets tiring and draining to hear, but as a missionary we pray for those talks. More than that we pray that people will act on them. The best investigators come from member referrals because they have an automatic fellow shipper who is truly invested in the future. Or for members to come to activities so that they can meet the investigators and bring them in. As a missionary you understand you will leave, but members stay and so that is they are the best people for investigators to attach to. Okay sorry that was my shpeal but I really did love that they mentioned it, it was great. 

The second message I will mention is the common running theme, well one of them. We need to be kind and loving to everyone even those that do not believe as we do. Even those who are unkind to us we must always be kind. As a missionary you have a name tag so like the story in general conference regardless of what people do or say we must always be kind and and polite, and smile. But as members we always where an imaginary name tag too. Anyway, I really loved that they mentioned that. 

I hope you are all doing well. Hopefully I'll have some cool adventure to tell you about next week. 

Love,

Sister Tovar

Week 30

Dear Family and Friends,

This week had a lot less adventures but was still a lot of fun and so good! The week started with us not having pday last Monday because we were able to go the temple this past Thursday. 

Tuesday was what we call our miracle day. We went to the island, which is usually where we have our many adventures take place. We were asked to go to the island because our Mission President and the Stake President were thinking about opening up a group there but wanted all the information we could gather before making a decision. So all six of us in our district went. Our day started with us trying to find a building to have English Class and guess what?? We not only found a place but they had been trying to figure out how to start get an English Class started w/ native English teachers and then we showed up! How cool is that? Then the women we were setting things up with asked about the church and my companion gave her a Restoration pamphlet and explained a bit about it. By the end she asked if she could keep the pamphlet, she said she has no religion but she was curious about it.

Then we were walking around trying to talk to people and we passed this college age guy on the street. We didn't think anything of it but then we passed him again and this time he stopped us. He had bought two strawberry milks and said do you have? We of course said of course of we have time. But can we maybe bring our friends with us to chat? He asked why and we tried to explain to him about the rules with sisters and boys and he said no I like girls lol. Either way I sent a quick text to the elders telling them where to casually run into us just in case. But it turns out he is an awesome guy and he wants to learn more about our gospel. Also, I guess the elders had run into him before but hadn't gotten his number or given them theirs and so Elder Robinson had been praying to run into again so that he could give him their information. And we did! Prayers are answered! 

Lastly, we went to meet up with a less active the elders had found on the island to see if she was interested in going to sacrament if it was closer to her. She said yes and to let her know details when we had them. That was the answer we needed for president to want to start a group, so he did and we are now starting a group on the island! So exciting

Then we had a barbecue with the ward which we found out about at the last minute on Saturday. There was a good turn out which was great, what was even better was that there were almost the same number of investigators and members there :). I felt like a real missionary it was so cool. And the members did a great job at fellowshiping. And the guy setting everything up went all out. It was raining so he essentially with a tent, and fabric built and additional room connected to the building by a door. Then because it was so windy he had to tie strings to cars and then he drilled into the cement to keep it from flying away. He also brought out his massive sound system and started playing cool music like macho man macho man... Then he brought a screen projector and a sound system to play a movie for the kids, which movie did choose? Of course Frozen so yes no I have a seen a total of 15 minutes of Frozen and know pretty much what it is about and how it ends. But I LOVE THE SNOWMAN!!! I want a snowman stuffed animal, but not just any I want that snowman stuffed animal. 

Oh and Avengers 2 is being filmed in Korea! In my mission! How cool is that??

Okay lastly Temple day! It was awesome. We got to see the new movie (I saw at the MTC) but my companion was super excited about it. And then it rained :( so the hike we had planned had to be cancelled. Instead we went to the church building and played games.

One of my investigators is from Singapore and she is awesome! Her husband is Korean and that is why she is here. She is five months pregnant :). She is so awesome! and so nice and laid back. She is an example to me. Her name is Yen and I learn so much from her answers it's great. 

Okay I think that's it :). I miss you all so much and love you so much! Thank you for the birthday wishes and the cards and letters I really appreciate it!  

Love always,

Sister Tovar

Week 29- A week full of adventures!

Family and friends!

The past two weeks have been crazy! It has felt like a month has gone by but I guess it hasn't lol. Anyway, good time, bad times, funny times, rule breaking times, risky times, and all the in between. 

Okay so recap of the first week in my new area. I have a new companion, Sister Fudge, and she is from Florida. She is my first companion that is older than me lol. At home I felt young still on the mission I feel old lol, but I'm not I promise. Anyway, so transfers day was awesome! Because I got my new companion and we had a lesson to teach that night. The next day (Thursday) we traveled to the island that is in my area, yes my area covers an island. But it doesn't just cover one island it covers around six islands and I can go on all of them! So cool!!! However, I can really only justify going on three of them. I'm so excited. So that day we just explored because she hadn't been on the island either and we ended running into an grandma that was awesome! She is very lonely because her husband recently died. So we left a plan of salvation pamphlet with her and told her we would come back. Mind you exploring and island and finding a miracle person all happened on the first day. 

Okay that was the most exciting part of last week, now this past week yay!

Monday- we decided that for pday we would explore one the smaller island and boy was that an adventure. Only one set of elders came with us and no one else really wanted to travel that far that day so the four of us started our adventure after email that day. We took a bus to the first island (it has a bridge connecting it), and then a ferry to the next island (a bridge should be built soon) and the ferry ride was only about 15 min. Well in that hour and half we ended up playing three games of bang -on the bus and while waiting for the ferry. So much fun! After that we got the island and lets just say it was very deserted and we decided to be adventurous and explore the more deserted part of it. While my companion thought it would be a great idea to explore rice fields lol. Well we ended up meeting people and seeing the area is worth exploring more. These people have never seen missionaries before in their lives! How cool is that! Anyway, on our way back to the ferry we were walking along this small cement road, both sides had water with dirt and bushes. I was of course on edge from the beginning but then out of nowhere this fezent popped out of the bush and of course me being me, I grabbed on to the first thing I could, which in this case happened to be one of the elder, Elder McLean. He finally brought me back to after a minute when he said, "Can you please let go of me." I apologized a lot and was super embarrassed but then the older elder, Elder Robinson, decided of course to mock me for the rest of the walk back. Where was my companion the whole time, two feet ahead on the phone with our district leader. Yes, hilarious pday. No worries after breaking the rules with Elder McLean I decided repent and held on to my companion the rest of the way back instead. 

And Monday was the birthday of the best nephew ever, Erick!!!

Tuesday- I'll make this short, I discovered my new English class has a couple of creepy men in it. So Elder Robinson will now be teaching the class with me thank heavens. And we visited a less active who after three years wants to come back to church and decided to ask for help.

Wednesday- Well now I know what it's like to be a pop star, and the elders in my district need some humbling. We went to do service at a high school with low income students. We obviously went to help teach the only thing we could-English. Well as we are walking to and into the classroom all the students eyes are on us. They all were saying hi and getting super excited. We walked into the classroom and immediately the excitements heightens and the teenage girls start going crazy over the elders and well us in general. The teacher starts the class and asks us to introduce ourselves, my companion is first. She says her name and then come screams - all that was missing were the flashing camera lights- then again they have phone cameras. Then wow, Elder Heglewall starts to introduce himself-he is blonde, blue eyed, tall, and bit muscular- need I say more? And Koreans LOVE Americans- especially blonde and blue eyed Americans. This continues for the rest of the introductions but two of the elders got the most screams. It was awesome to be able to help and I loved the girls I was with they were awesome. We even talked about families and I told them how much I love my family and that my best friends are my family. They also wanted to get our phone number, I didn't know if it was allowed so I told them next week. 

Well one of them ended up coming to our English Class on Saturday and brought two friends- so exciting!

Thursday- we went back to the island and rode a bus to try to get information about the other island we want to explore. On the bus we found the perfect person. He was a kind, service oriented older man. The elders will be meeting with him :). We were at the bus terminal on the island and we decided to go on a bus that had many grandmas and students lining up to go on it. It was great because we know where to go now but on the way back we decided to get off the bus and explore a bit. Well it turns out not many buses drive on that road... so we ended having to hitch hike our way back to the terminal so we could get back to the mainland in time for our dinner appointment. We are only allowed  to go in a car with a female in it so we had to make sure she was a female driver. My companion ended up teaching the first lesson to her :). So cool! I'm glad she stopped because if she hadn't it would have been about an hour or two walking distance. Oops, at least now we will be better prepared. Then our dinner appointment/back to being pop star we went to eat dinner at our investigators house with the elders because they will be teaching her husband while we teach her. Well on the way there my companion was stopped by a man which isn't unusual we are stopped often to say hello. She does a little hair flip I tease her about all the time, she flipped her hair out of her badge. Then he shows her pictures of us teaching at the high school, apparently they are online??? Then he wants a picture with us! Crazy right!!! Turns out he knows someone from the high school and that is why he knew about the picture, but so cool!

Friday- We had interviews with President Morrise (best mission president ever!) And later that night we were supposed to host a game night to help the ward and our investigators meet all the new missionaries and each other but we only had our investigators turn out and only two of them. No ward members :( (Please go to ward activities) I was devastated because it was perfect time for our investigator to meet the ward and no one showed up :(. Well the other elders wanted to have more people so they went to find them and we had 6 more random boys come to the activity. It was a fun a night all in all. 

Saturday- My birthday!!!!! The Relief Society just so happened to be going to lunch and a movie that day so we were invited to the lunch. So I got free lunch! Then had an awesome English class turn out!  Afterwards my awesome district took me out to Baskin Robbins were we all shared a bucket of ice cream! So much fun!!! The day before at interviews I was also able to get letters, cards, and a package from great people back home! Thank you so much!! I didn't expect to get anything since my birthday package from my family had come early but it was an awesome surprise!!!

Okay that was my week, yes the expectation is pretty high for this week! We will go to the temple and hike one of the biggest mountains in Korea!

Love Always,

Sister Tovar