Riceys Mission blog

So I am officially in my new area!! 부평(boo-piong) It is a big city in Incheon. It’s about 50 min from Incheon airport. So I pretty much started form the east of our mission and ended up on the west side. Kind of a fun! My companion is Sister Holmes and she has been here for about 3 months now. She is from Pennsylvania and likes to sing and she is a super reader. She finished the bible last week.... uhh ha-ha I’m a little behind. She’s cool and we get along real well. She is so great at stepping out of her comfort zone and trying new things, besides the fishy food ha-ha but I don’t blame her. Some of it can be a bit scary. I appreciate her desire to keep trying and not fearing anything. That is something I need, so I am learning a lot from her, especially stories in the bible :) We live with another companionship and they are great too, we all seem to work well and get along. So.. the house we live in used to be the mansion of the mission so it is super nice.. real wood floors!! Anyways, it is fun over here and the people are very nice to us. Hey guess what, we met the girl who I met on the subway that wanted to meet while I was living somewhere else. Remember her?? Her name is 이연억(Sister Lee). She is having a hard time with her family especially her son who is 20 and doesn’t have a good relationship with his mom and lots of personal problems. She wants us to help her and we plan to meet with her shortly. We gave her a proclamation to the Family and shared a message about how we can overcome our challenges through Christ and his gospel. It was a good meeting and she wants to meet again, but for now we are fellowshipping her because her husband doesn’t like church people too much.

It was hard leaving my last area, the members were amazing and we really grew to love each other. I got some tips from sister Rose about this area because this was her last area, but to be honest, she scared me and pretty much said you can’t be yourself. I was kind of stressing this past Saturday because I had no idea what I was walking into and I didn’t know how I was supposed to act. I loved my last ward because the ward loved who I was and we all were comfortable with being ourselves and being hard working missionaries at the same time and willing to help the ward. But as I got to know the members of bupiong ward, they were amazing! Everyone was happy and I felt relaxed after meeting some members and meeting the bishop. And the best part was, I GOT TO BE MYSELF!!! Some people said that the bishop can be very hard to work with, but as I was myself around him and expressed myself freely, he wasn’t bothered at all and at that moment I felt relaxed. I know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and that I’m a missionary and I need to work hard and be diligent, BUT IT DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE MYSELF!! Sister Holmes and I were talking about this and how we are all sent to places for a specific reason and for who we are. If I hide who I am then I am living a lie!

I am happy

I am hungry

I am half Asian

I am obsessed with mike wazowski

I am a missionary

I am a daughter of God

I am a Mormon!!!!!!!

And another miracle, Joy Lee’s dad works around this area!! The missionaries have seen him !!! I am going to try and find her dad (he sells cultural Korean items) and talk to him and keep in contact!! It’s insane how small of a world this is. A lady in my new ward knows someone named Eric Olsen form Las Flores ward. They served in deajeon mission. I know the Church of Jesus Christ is true and that Christ lives!! He is here and everywhere!!

I love you!