More sad farewells and happy welcomes and a great day of playing!

We started this week with a day of play.  On the missionaries' preparation day we had half the mission come together at a park in the morning and the other half came together at a different park in the afternoon.  They have worked so hard and the results have been wonderful so we thought we'd allow them some time to play on their preparation day.
We started with a 5K fun run or walk in the morning.  We had rented a soccer complex for a few hours.  We could run around the area seven times to be over 5K.  I originally estimated eight laps and the fast ones ran the entire thing which came out closer to 5.7K.  I was the official distance tracker on my GPS and at lap six realized we would only need to run six laps.   Some played football or tossed a Frisbee instead of running/walking, but that's okay.
I had to take this picture before we took off running.  I turned and ran so for a few moments I would be in first place.  That didn't last long....

We then got lunch for everyone and relaxed before starting the real fun, kickball!

We divided into four teams and off they went to play

Rather than add commentary, we are adding pictures of the many athletes in our mission. We're sure we don't have everyone represented here, but we tried to capture as many as possible in the limited space we have.

 

Of course, there was showing off at times as well.  We were glad they had a great time!

Terri and I left half way through the event and headed to the other venue.  We had originally scheduled this event for the week before, but we were rained out.  We did the same basic thing, but played kickball first.

It was fun to see those who had never played the game pick up quickly and have a great time.  The weather was terrific and we had a great time.  You can tell each team had a bandana to help them identify their team.  they really were great!

We ran another 2.5K because everyone was hot and tired after the games.  There were a few that literally flew through it.  The smallest guy was the fastest.  I was pretty tired, but I committed to run with them and they were good to me.  The season is young.

Tuesday was meant to be the day to pick up the new missionaries, but the flight was delayed so we met them at 6 AM the next morning.  We had a great time with them, tired though they were.  This time we had a sister from Hong Kong, a sister from Hawaii and an elder from Idaho.

We had a nice lunch with them.  You can tell one of these is spicy and one isn't.  If it's red, it's caution you must consider! The dear sister from Hawaii wanted the sea food, but was cautious of the spice so Roger had the red one.

   



 

After we went them off we prepared for the departing missionaries.  It was an evening of many tears, hugs, laughter, good food and company.  We are sad to lose these folks.  Three are from Korea and we're likely to see them soon. The other three are from California, Idaho and Texas.  We know their families are more anxious to have them than we are to keep them.

 

 

After this week, Terri and I knew it would be a while before we got a break so we took a preparation day and visited the city of Icheon for their semi-annual ceramic festival.  They have 1,000 years of ceramic history with beautiful vases, pots, drums, dishes, etc. from true masters.  It was fun to just wander and see the many things.  We realized later we hadn't taken many pictures of actual ceramic pottery.  However, everything you see here is made from clay.

 

 

On the way out we saw signs for two Buddhist temples. With Buddha's birthday on May 3, we wanted to stop by.  We knew we'd be too busy to visit a temple this week, so we went while there were few people around.  The beautiful color, artistry, architecture, landscaping made it a wonderful experience.  We are still trying to learn the meaning of all the art on the walls around the outside of the two temples.

 

 

 

Of course we saw interesting items this week as well.  How many motorcycles do you know with phones and GPS settled on the dash?

 

We close with the setting of the sun in Seoul. (Sorry for the spotty window!) We're still having fun. We love our experiences, but more importantly we truly adore our missionaries.  Thanks to all the good parents!