Heart and Seoul: September 15, 2014 - Bidding my adolescence a fond farewell...

Selfie. Disclaimer: I am living in Korea where
selfie camera's are a lifestyle.

I think the overwhleming feeling of love I got from reading my emails this week renders me entirely incapable of forming any form of adequate response. Whatever it is I attempt to conjure up from this point forward will be of little significance compared to what I just read.

With that said, let me tell you about my week.

... Ah yes. I turned twenty this week. I knew something exciting happened! And boy was it good. Just picture one of the parties at Jay Gatsby's house, Bilbo's 111th birthday, and the feast thrown for Belle when she arrives at the palace, mix them all together, add some cake baked in a rice cooker and some hot Korean weather and you're practically there!

I guess you could say that I bid my adolescence a most fondly deserved farewell.

In all reality, however, it was a perfectly ordinary day, though my sweet companion made sure to make it special. Whilst I mused over the fact that I had entered into the third decade of my life, she cooked me up some french toast and a banana smoothie. But even more than the delicious food I consumed (our recent convert took me us out to dinner too), was the new investigator I met that day. Her name is 등소 from China and she is both very pregnant and very prepared to receive the gospel.

We also taught a first lesson just this morning to a now new investigator, who is the best. She is a busy mother of three, but she has such an admirable yearning for truth and is genuinely curious in what we are sharing. She is so open to everything we have to tell her and willing to act on it. The hard thing will be that her husband hates all things religious, so she has been hiding the Book of Mormon from him... Gah. Men.

We're excited to teach her though and have truly been seeing so many blessings in our area.

In other news, our district went hiking last week for P-day up the most beautiful neighboring mountain and found the coolest waterfall.

My companion and I have made friends with nearly every old lady in this city (we may have missed one or two, but don't worry. We'll get 'em).

This city is crawling with sunflowers so naturally it's impossible for me to get down.

I met and talked to a girl from Ireland on the train for the whole two hour train ride into Seoul and left her with a Book of Mormon and me with her email. So cool.

This morning, as my companion and I did some door to door, we rang a doorbell afterwhich followed a chorus of terrifyingly loud barks and howls. Only then did we notice the little pink sign above the doorbell that said something along the lines of "PLEASE DO NOT RING THE DOORBELL. DOGS.". We had just enough time to read that sign and hear someone yelling over the barks to take off running down the stairs. It took an elevator ride back up for us to overcome the heaves and laughter.

Hence we may say that things are going well for me. Yep. I wish I had time to write all the little miracles and funny moments, but I have yet to master the delicate art of mingling those little insignificant things in with the big ones. I spend most of my days communicating in what little Korean I can, so I apologize for the lack of artistic grandeur in my letters.

My name is McCloskey. Sister McCloskey. I am twenty years old, I have ombre legs (we can thank the sun and various lengthed skirts for that fun phenomenon) and I have a not-so-secret crush on the rain. And I am currently serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because I know that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ can and will bring greater happiness to those who receive it than they can ever comprehend.

I love you all and I love this work.

Love,

Sister McCloskey

P.S. .... And here's to my last moments of being a teenager. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ