Happiness and Sadness

The week started out so quietly and easily.  After Sunday, which is supposed to be the "day of rest", when we seem more busy than any other day, we were able to start a quiet day on Monday.  The funnest part of Monday is being able to read the 100+ emails from the missionaries which they send me each Monday on their rest or preparation day.  They are full of hope, faith, miracles and challenges.  The heat continues to be a true challenge.  All week the heat index was over 100 with the very high humidity.  When the low for the day, even in the night is in the mid-70's and humidity at 100%, you know it's a challenge.  The missionaries seem to notice more the experiences.  Here's a flavor for the notes I get each week:

This week was really good. One amazing thing that happened for me personally is that we taught the First Vision to one of our investigators this week and I recited the First Vision. This is only my second time reciting the First Vision in Korean to an actual investigator. I have studied out the First Vision in Korean very thoroughly because I wanted to be able to understand all the grammar and vocabulary. Because of this, I know what I am saying when I recite it. As I recited it to her, the Spirit in the room grew so strong that I was unable to speak. I was so overcome with emotion. It was SUCH a special experience for me. It was a real moment in which I saw the gospel as just being the gospel-- not "the gospel in Korean" vs "the gospel in English". How amazing is it that the gospel is always the same, no matter what language we are giving it in!!

Monday evening we had dinner with a sweet sister leaving our mission to go to Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission.  She has been in our mission for more than 10 weeks while she awaited her visa interview.  That was approved and she was gone.  We will miss Sister Jeong and hope she'll visit us after she finishes her mission.  Her English has improved so much.  We can hardly wait to see her about 15 months.

Another missionary went home later in the week.  Sister Turner and I were able to spend time with him before he left.  Elder Rees was actually hit by a car while standing at a bus stop last fall.  He had to go home for several months to rehabilitate.  He worked hard to be able to return.  Unfortunately, lingering health issues resulted in his return home this week.  We will miss him and know the Lord will help him through the healing process.

We attended another baptismal ceremony this week.  It took us two hours to travel the 25 or so kilometers.  It was amazing.  We did get a few fun pictures while we waited in traffic.  Every direction you look you see tall apartment complexes.  The geography of the country of South Korea is roughly the size of Indiana (6 million people) or 45% of the state of Utah (three million people), but it has 50 Million people, the housing has to go up and not spread out.  There are so many mountains in the area that it presses the housing into a small area, hence all the cars.

And of course, every city has a lion, right?

We haven't seen a movie yet, but it looks like a familiar one is being advertised on busses here now.

The city has to have half the cranes on the planet in Seoul.  Every where you look you will see cranes building new apartments and new business sky rises.  They are very good with what they do!

When we did finally arrive at the event we found a happy bunch of church members who welcomed us warmly.  We had tried to visit this ward several weeks ago, but didn't anticipate the traffic and ended up arriving an hour late.  We felt bad so we left very early and still only arrived a few moments before!  Funny it only took us 30 minutes to get home!

Today was another full day.  Sadly, I have a week of exit interviews with a dozen missionaries who have reached their 18 or 24 month period of service.  The first one was today.  At the ward we attended they provided a wonderful meal afterwards to say farewell to the young lady serving there and to welcome Terri and I to their unit.  They treated us so well.  I asked that those that remained after cleaning up allow a picture.  They love being in pictures of which I am so glad!