Bella Tres Chic: What's On My Happy List?

Kyleigh in Korea-
mission update week 52

I'm actually at one of the best points that I think I've been at on my mission. It took me a long time to settle into missionary life. I'm not the best missionary or teacher in the world, but I'm not as scared as I used to be to do missionary work! I just wish we could be busier....Not a whole lot to report as far as investigators..

There is never a dull moment in missionary work. This week included....

Our crazy ward member (whom I love to death) calling us several times and texting us in the middle of the night to tell us about the revelation she was receiving and about the ghosts and spirits she sees all the time...

Being hit on by a Turkish man...when I told him I was a missionary for my church he slowly started to back away...that's right mister! Haha!

One of our English Class attendees called us twice and we are pretty sure he was drunk both times...

A taxi driver trying to get me to date his son who is ten years older than me...

And many more other randomness in between...

The best part was getting my trainee/new companion Sister Cordero! She's from Ogden..24 yrs old and a BYU graduate. She is super bubbly and already loves Korea. She is an expert on Korean music and dramas. She is just super cute and we are getting along great!

Sister Cordero

My MTC companion Sister Johns! She will be training Sister Cordero's MTC companion.

I will forward you all my trainees weekly emails because she is much better at writing than I am! Enjoy :)

{Oh my gosh...if you really want some insight on what's going on with Kyleigh in Korea read her new companion's email home. Quite entertaining. I died laughing. }

Fwd: Week 1 in the KoreaWeek 1 in Korea!

Week 1 in Korea!

How and where do I begin? This week has been a serious adventure. Like I feel like I am the Pirate Queen on a ship on wild waters here in Korea. So first off I flew from SLC to Portland to Tokyo to Busan. All was smooth sailing (for I was awake the entire trip

😴). But our flight from Tokyo to Busan was delayed about 1 1/2 hour, because there was a typhoon or something like that. All I understood was there was bad weather and we were delayed and then the plane had to basically make return trip directly back to Busan once it picked us up because the Busan airport had curfew of 11pm. My little travel leader heart almost died from the stress. But as we were flying of the Busan city in the dark I could see all of the glorious light and bridges. The cool thing about Busan is that there are all of these hills in the middle of the city that have no buildings on them. So there were these dark spots I could see as we flew next to the city. So cool!!!

Anyway, got to Busan and stayed the night with other sisters' in the mission presidents home. Pretty nice! We even got to stay in the visiting general authorities room. Very fancy, it had a nice big bed (which is where Sister Workman slept) and I, of course, slept on the floor because I am a kind generous person who thinks of others, even when I haven't slept in a very long time. I am just sooo kind. 😬

The next day we arose from only only 4-1/2-5 blessed hours of sleep. Met had a bit of an orientation/(American) breakfast and then met the trainers and then they set us out upon the city of Busan (4 sister companionships and 6 elder companionships)... It was a lot of missionaries all in the same area and it was very overwhelming. But we had a chance to "Jundo" or proselyte with all of the different sister trainers (who were all Americans). After that stressful and horrific experience we had a traditional Korean meal. Then after that we were told who our companion is and the area where we will be serving...

So my new companion is from Murray, Utah, and her name is Sister Cooper. She is about my little sister's age (shout out to the Beebs!

) and is really nice! She was the one I really wanted to be my trainer too! We are serving in 도계동 Dogye-dong (I will let you do the Google and Google it). It is about an hour by bus northwest of Busan city. There are 6 missionaries in the area (4 elders (2 companionships) and 2 sisters (me and my companion). A little bit about 도계동 Dogye-dong is basically all I know is that there is a lot of trash everywhere because you simply place your trash on the curb and they pick it up but it really just ends up all over the place.

On Sunday the Bishopric of the ward here all wore these magical sparkly ties. I had only heard rumors about the magical ties of Korea, but now that I have seen I can truly say that I believe. It was amazing and I respect them for the fact that they wear such magical things. On Wednesdays and Saturdays we teach English to anyone who comes. There was one member of the English class, we shall call him "Jin". Jin is an older gentleman, a bachelor (there are a lot of them roaming around these part and pestering my beautiful light eyed companion). Anyway, Sunday night Jin called our phone, possibly very drunk, and was speaking broken English and asking for my companion's previous companion. He called again today as we were returning from buying groceries, likely drunk again and speaking incoherently in English. My companion swears she saw him walk passed or apartment before we got out the taxi, but I don't think it was him... Creepy...

Speaking of creepy. Every Saturday night we teach (or try to at least understand for not even many native Korean speakers can understand what she is saying and she speaks fast and says A LOT) a member of the ward here. She has off and on been meeting with the Jehovah's witnesses here and to try to put a stop to that the sisters' having been meeting with her every Saturday for an hour for at least a year (though she continues to meet with the other group to "help" her understand the bible). This woman can see ghost and receives revelation through random scriptures that come to her mind.... This woman. People... Welcome to the crazies found in Korea, for there are many and we have talked to a lot of them... I just have no idea what is happening here anymore. There are a lot of crazy things happening in this area. We don't have any solid investigators right now and a lot of our time has been taken up dealing with these very interesting humans we have found.

We cook a lot for ourselves, but tomorrow is my first dinner appointment with a member. But while cooking for ourselves we had a sweet potato explosion in our little oven which was terrifyingly loud and then as we were cooking meat it got a little too smokey (no fire alarm happened), but there was oil in the air which dispersed itself 😑all over the floor... super awesome to clean up...

Also, as we walk around and I hear K-pop music (Korean Popular Music) ALL THE TIME! I remind myself that it is the music of the devil!

I love K-pop so much,

but I have to tell myself not to listen to it and remind myself I will have many more years to listen later on! But now is the time to dedicate my time and talents to the Lord.

Anyway there is so much more to tell, but not enough time to expound! If you have any questions, feel free to send them and would love to try and answer them!

Also my address for paper letters and packages:

Sister Julia Cordero

Dongnae PO Box 73

Busan-si

Busan-gwangyeoksi

South Korea

LOVE YOU ALLLLL!!! 사랑해요!!!

🤓

코데로 자매 (pronounce Co-de-ro, and it is hilarious to watch and hear everyone try and say it... these people... adorable.)

P.S. They have cereal here. What a 21st century country I am living in! (also I forgot the cable for my camera so pictures while have to come next week!) 😬

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In other family news this week....

I'm a little behind here.

We've had one of those weeks.

Seriously what is it with the month of May?

{Nutso}

Mother's Day!

Love my girls ;)

While I'm no expert at Motherhood...I have learned a few things in my 20 years of mothering that I would pass on to anyone asking for advice on raising children...especially girls....

My top 5 mothering tips...

1. Listen! Listen way more than you talk and give advice. And try and not over react. ;)

Kids shut down the second you do.

2. Know each child's Love Language. Everyone expresses and receives love in different ways. {Learn those 5 different ways HERE.} Knowing how your child feels most loved by you is key to feeling connected and having a good relationship.

3. Keep expectations for your kids {and yourself} reasonable and realistic. No one has perfect kids and there is no such thing as a perfect mother! Stop comparing your self to others, focus on your strengths, and embrace your unique mothering style..there are a million ways to be a good mother.

4. Patience Patience...Patience is a virtue.

5. Have a sense of humor. It's a must.

I love fairy gardens. Emmsie knows it.

I love the hand made gifts they make at school and Primary! :)

The dirt is a chocolate muffin. How cute is that?

On Saturday my food of choice for my Mother's Day celebration was a pastrami burger ;)

Took the kiddos for some mom and me time...

Kate was wanting to go to the bookstore and B wanted to try one of those chocolate chip blended creme Starbucks drinks..

{without the coffee}

So Barnes N Noble it was.

Hit two birds with one stone.

{B 'n N is Brie's happy place}

We plopped right down and read the cutest children's book.
Brie cheese included.

Emmsie and I went graduation dress shopping for our little outing. This girl hates to shop. She told me the only reason she ever looks good is because I buy myself clothes and she wears them. haha

Late night run to Swig with my Hannie..

One of the best thing about Mother's Day was seeing this face..

Still not a huge fan of Skyp'ing though...
I swear I've got to be the only missionary mom that doesn't like it.
I'd rather just email.
Seeing her just makes things harder. For her too.

The last ten minutes she started breaking down....Leaving her in tears does not comfort me.

Although through her tears she happened to mention that the nickname the missionaries have given her is "Happy Cooper" so she is fine, it's just hard out there!

Can you believe this happened a year ago??

{this pic still chokes me up}

Kyleigh hit her year mark this week!!!!

We are officially on the downhill.

***do'in the happy dance**

Some Asian noodles were in order to celebrate!

****

A whole lot of random...

Went on a field trip with Kate's Kindergarten class to the Nature Center..

******

dating drama for Hannah....

{which we shouldn't even be dealing with quite yet. Jeesh!}

working on her profile drawing for art class...

Some major car drama for Emmsie.
I'm telling ya, it's been a week!
It was a true Friday the 13th for us!
{Freak'in scary.}
Beyond grateful she was not injured.
Car is a goner though. #ByeByeBlazer.