Hi Mom! And Dad!

Thanks so much for your letters this week!

Things are going well with Sister Alcazar so far. She has jumped into life as an American missionary in Korea! She has good ideas about how we can help the members in the ward, and isn't scared to try to talk to them! That is huge, because it can be really intimidating as a greenie. The members are really impressed by her attitude and can't believe she has just been here two weeks! Sister Alcazar studied Japanese before Korean, which has a similar grammar makeup and some similar words, so I think that has helped her a lot. There are also a lot of foods in Korea that are the same thing but go by another name in Japan. When Sister Alcazar lived in San Diego, she worked at a sushi restaurant so she loves trying new things. Yes, she definitely had nakgi bokkum bap (fried rice with octopus) during her first week. I went through the menu with her and was really surprised when she went for that. I've been avoiding octopus my whole mission! Although there have been some occasions when I've had to eat a tentacle or two...uh, yay!
On Sunday, we got to teach Do Ha-yun the 2nd lesson, and set a preliminary baptism date with her! Her mom (a non-member) had said she wants her to get baptized, but we still have to check the date with her and see what her husband says about it. We're grateful for Ha-yun's older brother (middle school student who's a member), who agrees to help out at Ha-yun's lessons.
On Monday, we met with Sister Shin Hee-sun, a less-active member in the Hogye branch who said she needed help making a phone call to the American embassy. We thought we were going there to help her with her English call, but when we got there, she said, "Okay, let's pray!" So we prayed and then she looked at us expectantly for a spiritual message, and we happily obliged. Luckily, we had taken a General Conference Liahona along with us and marked Sister Beck's talk for her to read. Shin Hee-sun is having trouble deciding between religions right now even though she was baptized into our church last year. It's interesting because she said every time her friend, a Buddhist nun, teaches her about Buddhism, I call her! And lately when I've called her, She talked about how she attended church diligently for 6 months, prayed and studied the scriptures for 2 hours everyday. During that time, she said she felt herself receiving personal revelation and felt close to the Lord. But having a calling in church was hard for her and she didn't like being so busy. She said she recognizes that she doesn't feel the same spiritually now that she is not going to church or studying her scriptures. Sister Alcazar and I were impressed by how straightforward Shin Hee-sun was with us. We were so grateful that we chose to share Sister Beck's talk about personal revelation with her, which we decided on before Shin Hee-sun told us about her experience with personal revelation! I am truly grateful for how the Lord can guide us, even in the seemingly small decisions we make. I know I need to recognize and allow for His guidance more in my life---especially as a missionary!
Yesterday, we had zone meeting in the Hogye branch church. We enjoyed meeting up with all the missionaries in the Ulsan area and learning from our zone leaders. Afterward, we practiced for a musical number we have coming up. Elder Michael Ringwood of the Seventy is doing a mission tour in Korea so we have to sing when he meets with two zones in our mission. Yeah, we're a little nervous....putting a musical number together with 12 missionaries who live far away from each other is no easy task! The mission tour conference is later this month in Daegu. Even the missionaries on Jeju-do get to fly to Daegu to see Elder Ringwood .
Today we went to a whale museum/small aquarium with the other sisters and the Bangojin elders. It was a lot of fun! We actually went last week, but it was closed, so we went back to downtown Ulsan and rode a big ferris wheel that lets you see much of Ulsan. So we were excited about going back this week.
So it has been a good week! Sister Alcazar and I are excited to begin another week, work hard, and help our investigator and less-active members progress. I really do love Ulsan! We want to do the best we can to serve the people here.

Oh Mom, can you check with Alyse and Chelsea about the housing situation? It's really important to get that taken care of as soon as possible because finding housing can get really difficult as it gets closer to the beginning of school. Let me know what happens!

I love you! Have a great week!

Oh yes, and happy much belated birthday Brooke! I can't believe you're 16 now! Now YOU can drive me around! haha. I love you!

I hope Dad and Chris have a fun time in southern Utah!

Love,
Alyssa