Saturday, February 24, 2018

Mr. Miyagi and the TaeKwonDo Kid? We've seen it all now!

We've started a new round of zone conferences and we'll do each zone separately. This is a lot of fun!  There are great trainings, skits, musical presentations, and Sister Turner's Tasty Treats.

The very first skit by the Gyeonggi zone leaders and sister training leaders was pretty funny.  We had a sister being a Mr. Miyagi-like character (complete with a dried seaweed mustache) and an elder being the Taekwondo Kid.  They did great.  We wish we had recorded the skit.  We only got a few stills.  The training is about obedience and the results.
First you must wash the window side to side!  Then you must clean the white board up and down!
 See what you've learned as you have been obedient to your training?
There was great training with everyone attentive.
 The Assistants are great leaders and teachers.
We had great music.
 We occasionally have a birthday on the day of the conference...
 We have a sweet young sister from Korea who is only with us for four weeks before she goes to Hawaii.  We had to Hang Ten with her before she leaves in a few weeks.  As you can see, everyone is happy for her; jealous, but happy! :-)

It's probably important before we go on to capture the thoughts of one of our missionaries.  It captures well the maturity in thoughts and perspective of our missionaries.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do:
This week I also had another thought and more that I learned about Christ's love. Yesterday, my companion had like a panic attack kind of thing were he just got hit with being very stressed and worried about me being mad at him and not being happy. Then I just talked to him for a while and assured him of my love, had a very good hug time. He's better again, it was just a little bump in the road on his way to recovery, and I did advice him to think and pray about meeting with the counseling couple. But as I thought about the experience this morning and pondered over the things that I learned of Christ's love, among the many thoughts that came to mind and the testimony that was strengthened, I want to share just one of them:
The Lord truly loves and desires to help and save us. He did not go through the Atonement and suffer everything that we feel, all of our pain, and weaknesses, and sins, and whole torrent of negative things we find in life merely to understand us. In the scriptures it doesn't say that Christ called the blind, the sick, the lame, and the wounded to Him just so that He could pat them on the shoulder and say, "I know how you feel." He called them to Him so they could feel understand AND healed. Christ didn't go through all that suffering merely to be a bystander offering moral support, rather He did it so that He could be an active participant in our life and to heal us. Despite that, He will never violate our agency. He desires to help, and to heal, but He will not until we ask and invite. There is a reason one of the most repeated commandments in the scriptures is "Ask." He looks at us and cares for us with the same compassion that He had in the past. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He truly is knocking at the door and pleading us to open up to Him.

We next had the Incheon Zone.  Another crazy day that included a proselyting activity and dinner afterwards.  They let us participate.. It included wonderful music as well. There was an incredible flute and piano piece, but I didn't get a still of it.
We had more good training and skits. We have some aspiring improv actors.

 This sister wanted so much to try one of Sister Turner's Tasty Treats, but has a challenge with flour, she hasn't had the opportunity.  She had a great treat!
What a funny group to be around!! They can be so serious, yet so relaxed.  They know how to do the work!
 We expect you've seen these hand signs with the Olympics being in Korea!
 We followed the conference with a proselyting activity at a high traffic area near a subway station.  There were four bottles with various items in them.  If the passerby guessed a number close, they got candy and a pass-along card.  If they were really close, they got a Choko Pie.  You can see a little bit here:
Each missionary spent some time walking the streets doing basic chatting and proselyting.  They exchanged with the ones on the corner so everyone had some time. ( It was FREEZING, just sayin')  We then had the opportunity all together to sit down to a meal. The room echoed with laughter .  It was much warmer sitting on the heated floor than standing on the corner.( "Army" stew never tasted so good!)
We were in the Anyang Zone on Friday for the last conference of the week.  This was a much smaller zone of 13 missionaries which made it very intimate.  Please know they are no less talented and put just as much effort into the training and musical performance.
This group is pretty amazing.  very tight knit.

 Caught them here enjoying Subway sandwiches for lunch.
We finished our Saturday attending a baptism of a young man.   He's a high school senior.  The young people in the ward have really taken to him.  They even put in to buy him a suit and white shirt and tie.  There was such great joy in that meeting.  We really enjoyed this.

 A few of them sang to him.
 On our way home, we hadn't eaten dinner so we stopped at a place that serves fried pork cutlets.  I ordered a King Cutlet.  The menu didn't look any different than other items so I thought nothing of it.  When it came, we both gaped at the size of it.  Indiana is known for large cutlets, but this one dwarfed anything we ever saw!  I tried to show some restraint by sharing some with Terri and bringing one third of it home.  There are surprises every day awaiting us.
We look forward to another great week of zone conferences.  We hope you find your missionary somewhere in the pictures.  We adore them and love every moment with them.  With time flying by we try to take very moment to be with them one-on-one and in groups.  We're blessed for it!
Know of our love and appreciation for your prayers and support.  Have a great week.