Sunday, December 31, 2017

Best Christmas Ever!

It's hard to express the amazing feelings Terri and I felt as we spend the vast majority of Christmas with our missionaries.  We had 115 of our children under one roof for a great day of Christmas celebration.

But first, last week, one set of elders ran out of interviews for an appointment before we could get their pictures so we got one for their families.

We started the day decorating. Sister Turner  wanted this to be a memorable experience in every sense.  The lights, the stars, the ribbons, the snowmen and trees.  It was amazing.  We hope you'll notice them as you view each of the pictures below.

We spent the first hour plus a little bit just talking about their being foreordained to come to this mission at this time because of their faith and diligence in the pre-mortal existence.  We talked about the fact that we all have weaknesses, but we still have enough strengths to make a powerful contribution.  We watched the video "The Butterfly Circus" and allowed them time to contemplate their worth and what they can contribute.  We encourage you to ask your missionary what they thought of the experience and to go on to YouTube and watch it yourself.  Here are a few pictures of us for the spiritual feast of the day.


We had a bit of lunch and mingling before the games began. The office elders and sisters serving in our area together with Sister Turner had much for them to keep busy and laughing.  It was a great Christmas afternoon!  You know Dasher and Dancer et al, but do you recognize the most famous reindeer of all?




 The beginning of the relay race.  Each zone had to send two representatives to eat a Chokopie, then whistle, one to drink a Sprite, whistle, move an Oreo from their forehead to their mouth, and then wheelbarrow beginning to end.  It was a wild day.



 The judges had to be careful not to get a face full of food when the competitors whistled.

The championship team received Santa's crown and a picture for the blog.  That seems to be the most desired prize!
 Sister Turner and I know who the true winners were!

We had them act out the Nativity which was  a bit irreverent, so we had them all pause after it was over as the narrator read it again with out the characters on stage.  Made a huge impact.
We took pictures by zone, both serious and humorous.   It's their favorite thing to do.
 Suwon Zone

 Incheon Zone

 Anyang Zone

 Gyeonggi Zone

 Gangnam Zone

 Gangseo Zone

In the end, it  was about the birth of the Christ child we celebrated.  At the end of the day, we had a wonderful slide show with pictures of all the missionaries from the last six months.  Then, they surprised us with their own video clips of sharing their thanks and their love for Sister Turner and me.  To top it off, they sang the mission hymn, followed by two of Sister Turner's favorite numbers.  The first from Christmas "Angels We Have Heard on High", and "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul".

We were standing on the stage gazing upon everyone of our cherished children weeping great buckets of tears.  We felt the all encompassing love of the Savior and our missionaries as never before.  The final hugs and handshakes were the most tender we've had since we arrived.
We can't thank you enough for the young missionaries you send as bright Beacons of Light to our mission.  We thank you for all your prayers and support.  We hope our missionaries share even a small portion of how they felt that day.  Our hope is that this was a wonderful Christmas which has created a memory they will forever cherish.  Until next time!  Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Last Interviews before the Christmas Activity

This is a quick note to catch you up before the big day!  Tomorrow we'll have everyone together and we're excited to take lots of pictures to share.  We may have another post early in the week.

We started the week with our first real snow of the winter.  We've had small amounts here and there, but we got about three inches last weekend.  This is a view from our apartment window on the third floor of the church.  This was early in the day.  We have yet to see a snow removal or salt truck.
We finished up all the interviews this week with the last two zones.  What an amazing group.  The buildings are always so cold we tend to dress in layers.  Here in Korea whole buildings are not heated, only the rooms that are in use, and never the hallways.  We have taken to putting feet warmers in our shoes, and hand warmers in our pockets.  

 This sister was so enamored with the white beard contrast with her black hair, she wanted Santa's curly locks.








 We happened to be in the nursery for these pictures, lots of props to use.  The previous building had very little in the way of options.




 This is the wonderful military relations couple serving near the large base in the south of our mission.  We have a new couple coming in January because the one base is getting too big and we need a couple to cover the air force base.

Our evenings continue to be full with multiple activities.  We had another caroling, proselyting activity at a large train station.  We had a good time with these missionaries in the cold evening air.  They didn't care, they just continued in their work.


We had an afternoon lunch with a wonderful senior couple here is  a great view over a busy street. This area can be so congested, some taxi drivers refuse to take passengers to this area.  We love seeing all the busyness with all the buses, taxis, people, houses, apartments, business buildings, etc.  As you can guess, we love the food!

 We love Christmas decorations as well.  Some of the buildings have great decorations.
The streets are amazing.  The decorations on some trees are truly jaw dropping!
As it is the Christmas season and we have a tradition of making two types of special cookies every year (this is our 38th Christmas doing this together, these are the same cookies Terri's family have been making since her great grandmother brought the iron over from Switzerland), we brought over the assistants to help meet the production demands.  We will be serving them to the missionaries at our get together on Christmas

Terri makes all the dough.  Roger puts the Spritz (from Sweden) dough in the special device and puts them on the pan to bake.  The Bratzlies (from Switzerland) are made in a special iron and we used the young hands of the Assistants for this work.  They had to be specially dressed so as to not get anything on their good clothes.  You can tell who lost in rock, paper, scissors...
We had a local church Christmas party which resulted in lots of crazy antics and nice presents.  We are well treated.  Though, it may require some uncomfortable dancing...

On the Sabbath before Christmas, the wonderful office couple wanted to provide a special Christmas morning type breakfast to the missionaries serving in our ward.  However, their apartment was a little confining for so many plus potential investigators.  After the church services, we had all the missionaries and an investigator join us for brunch.  It was quite a feast.
 We had a picture in front of the Christmas tree, but we were too big.  We are fortunate to serve with wonderful young people, even if they are older than us in some cases...
The one goofy part of the week was the allergic reaction Roger had after a dinner one evening.  Nearly immediately his body started doing funny things.  The eyes started to  itch.  Terri kept asking if I was having trouble breathing.  Nope, but you can see the impact on the eye.  If this is the worst thing happening in these three years...


We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with those they love.  We miss you all, but we have so many lovely people here.  It is a special time of year.  May all your hearts and your homes be full of love, joy and laughter.  How grateful we are for the Savior in our lives.  We feel his presence daily. We are blessed to be able to share his gospel, and the wonderful plan of salvation.  We are blessed to be able to celebrate with 115 delightful young missionaries and six of us older ones.  Love to you all.