Lots of interesting happenings, it's all monumental!

As I thought about the last ten days (I'm sorry if I let any of you down not posting on Sunday!), I thought of all that happened and thought, well nothing monumental, but in reality it's all monumental to us or to someone reading something special or for a family that sees their son or daughter here!  Our capacity to love the country, the culture, the people, and especially our missionaries is unbelievable.  It seems to grow every day.
It seems like every week we say goodbye to one or two or twenty who have completed their mission.  This week we said good by to Sister Kwak.  She is actually flying to Utah to see her sister who is preparing to enter the MTC and serve a mission in Hawaii.

We had our first temple excursion with two of the zones, about 35 of our missionaries.  Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of all of them before they left for their areas.  Some had to travel two hours to get there while others it was only about 30 minutes.  I think you can see by the smiles on their faces that they enjoy their missions, the temple, and of course the mission president and his wife!  I received on email this week after Terri spoke in church all in Korean that she was now a celebrity among the missionaries.  They do love her.  She got one compliment this week when a young elder said, "You know who you remind me of?  My MOM!"  We hope in some way these young men and young women can come to us as their surrogate parents so they can talk about concerns, problems, etc.  This comment was a treat!
We get to go to the temple over the next two Thursdays with the rest of the missionaries.  We truly look forward to every opportunity we have to be with them!

 Of course, we want them to know that as well as being their parents, we still love each other!

The reason we are here is to help these missionaries in their desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Every opportunity we have we attend a baptism and celebrate with the missionaries and the families and individuals who accept the gospel and commit to live by its principles.  These two young missionaries had the opportunity to teach a teen-age girl whose mother had been baptized many years ago but had not been actively involved until recently.  Together they are enjoying the blessings of the gospel.  During the ceremony, nine young men, five of who are preparing to serve missions in January sang to her in beautiful harmony.  They sang "Army of Helaman" which was truly amazing.  Afterwards there was a great feast for all in attendance.  This is the last baptism in this building as it is being sold and this ward is moving to another larger building with several other wards.  They have outgrown the building!

We do have the opportunity to eat out often because of all the travel we do.  Some with friends and some alone.  This week we had McDonalds and On the Border.  We've now had those plus KFC in the two months we've been here.

Of course there are some things we miss that just can't be duplicated, good old home made pizza!  And alas, there's no corn, cherries, sweet potatoes, or other interesting things added like you find in the local shops.  This was good old-fashioned Canadian Bacon!   Food is pretty important here!

 

We had a special conference this week with Elder Garrit W. Gong of he Presidency of the Seventy of the Church.  He and his wife came from Salt Lake to train and to teach in his role as a leader overseeing Asia.  After the meeting we had a wonderful Korean meal with the various leaders of the local stake and spouses.  To interact with these great leaders is a truly wonderful experience!

As we travel we see all kinds of interesting things.  Occasionally on the walls of the subway or underground shopping malls we'll find something interesting and fun to mimic.

I have no idea what to say about this one....

 We also see interesting signs on busses which serve so well as billboards.  They advertise everything from movies to TV shows to things I can't really explain.

 We also find neat advertisements like this giant crab on a building.  We haven't yet figured out what it's for as we only pass by at a fairly high speed on this main road.

We do actually work once in a while as well.  This week we went to the area farthest south in the mission to work with four great missionaries.  We truly enjoy spending time with them and they say they enjoy having us around.  Of course, it always ends with an ice cream treat of some sort! The young man in the glasses knows our son, Jacob very well as he was his teacher in Vernal, Utah. Jacob sees Elder Young's grandfather at the store periodically and loves to give him updates.  I'm sure this one will bring him great joy!

I know I mentioned this sight before, but someone said these were the national birds of Korea, the crane! It was such a beautiful evening, we had to take a pictures.

Finally, we had the special opportunity to meet our Korean tutor from last winter.  Hanna Choi was working at the Missionary Training Center until December when due to travel and other reasons had to discontinue teaching us.  She was such a fine young lady that when we learned we would be in an area near her family home in Seoul we were anxious to reach out to her.  She joined us for a quick chat. She left a few days to return to BYU to continue her education.  What a joy and help she has been to us!

This one is pretty long, but we had so many things happening.  This next week is pretty crazy too.  We are very happy here and hope you can sense that in our messages.  We wish we could share in a meaningful way the experiences with interviews, blessings, special counsel sessions, etc.  These are not our children and the people we meet every day are not our family, but while being this far from our own, they have quickly become ours and they are blessing our lives!  We are so grateful to be surrounded by such good people who lead by example in all they do.  We are indeed blessed!

Incoming/Outgoing and Everything That Goes With It!

This was a full week with all the transfers, incoming missionaries, outgoing missionaries, and a few other things that went with it.  However, we have to finally show the tree we purchased for Terri. As a girl who loves her flowers, her trees, her grass, etc. living in an apartment with no yard has been challenging for her.  We have two camping chairs, a box for a table, a tree, and a planter of geraniums on the roof top.  It has been so hot she has to go up two or three times a day to keep the tree watered. 

We have learned that the flower of Korea is the Rose of Sharon.  This picture is for our friends Jack and Sherran Schmalfeldt in Plainfield who gave us one several years ago because Jack disliked it so much!  These plants are everywhere here.

Over the weekend we called the majority of the missionaries in the mission to chat about transfers. We had new missionaries coming, missionaries leaving, and moves to cover various vacancies.  Three of the changes were in the office as Elder Kim Geunsu who served so faithfully as an assistant was allowed to return to the field as a district leader.  We also sent Elder Perkes to an area as a district leader and trainer and then Elder Ryu Hogeol to the field to be a senior companion.  We had three new office elders, Elder Kim Injoong to be the new assistant, Elder Hays as the Supplies Manager and Elder Kim Sungsoo as the Mission Recorder, come join us.  We have a staff meeting each Monday and it was a full room this week.  These are all good young men.  We also have Elder and Sister Black from Orem, Utah here with us as the office couple handling all the logistics, finances, paperwork, planning, etc. for us.  We are really blessed!

While traveling around doing exit interviews with our wonderful departing missionaries, Terri is left with lots of time to wander around. She can't go unescorted (she's geographically challenged) so she took a few sisters with her to show her around.  You never know what kind of things she will find in the streets.  Here she is with Sister Sweetnam and Sister Risenmay wandering the streets of Anyang in search of the perfect journal to turn into a memory book.

Each six weeks we get the pleasure of traveling to the airport to welcome a group of new young missionaries from the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  In eight to nine weeks for foreigners learning the language, and three weeks for Korean nationals learning the missionary processes these folks come in ready and willing to really work.  They are happy, energetic and full of love.  It is a true treat for us to give them a hug after a long day on the airplane.  They then are put on the subway for their first experience in the culture.  It's nearly a two hour trip to the mission office, but it gives them the opportunity to have real conversations with the local population and share their message.  Here they are at the subway station at Incheon ready to head into the big city! They are accompanied by two sisters and two elders already serving here.  We can't get them lost.  The other four are driving the luggage back to the mission office.

We also welcomed for the next year a couple to be our military relations missionaries at the military bases at Osan and Camp Humphreys within our mission.  Elder Hawks served in the military in Korea on two different tours over many years.  He and his wife will be a strength to the military members of the church at these two camps playing the role of mom and dad to them.

Another pleasure for me is to look at the twelve incoming missionaries and assign to them a trainer who will help acclimate them to the country, the work, the schedule, the rules, and everything else over the next twelve weeks.  It is a tender mercy to see the hand of the Lord helping make these assignments.  When we announce who they are we are amazed at the likenesses, the character traits, and other similarities between the new companions.  Some actually look like brothers or sisters.  There is nothing but positive comments when the assignments are made!  We had the opportunity for them to have some training with Sister Turner and I for the afternoon including a little lunch.

The downside of every transfer is the departure of other missionaries who have served faithfully for 18-24 months.  We have the pleasure of having them join us for dinner for an evening and breakfast the next morning.  We have about two hours of testimony meetings where each gets to share their experiences over the past months and years and the great love they have for the people they have both served, and served with.  There are many tears shed, both on their part and our part.  They truly feel like our children.  It is amazing how quickly we have grown to love these young people over such a short period of time.  We have only known this group for about seven weeks.  As you can see, they still act like teenagers at times, but that's the fun in it!

We live about two blocks from a bus stop that is pretty direct to the airport.  During the two or so hours they have traveling to the airport they have the opportunity to reflect and journal and to chat about the experiences they have.  This is a good thing as they watch the Korea they love go by.  They have another dozen or more hours on the plane on their travel home, but that is at 30,000 feet and doesn't reflect the views and memories as well as those they see on the road to the airport.
One of the things they have to do is drag their luggage up over the hill to the bus stop.  This time we said, "at least we have one more time to work up a really good sweat in Korea."  The temperature was in the 90's with about 80% humidity so the index was very high.  Again, they showed their determination, unwavering spirit as they drug their two 50 pound bags and carryon's over the hill.

Here's a good close up of your sons and daughters at the bus stop awaiting their ride.  There are so many we split them up in case the bus was too full.  It is truly like sending your own children off to college.  We look forward to seeing them again upon our return.

I had a special treat this week as a friend from the time I served in Korea the first time in 1978-1979 came to visit Korea on business.  This special friend Bill Sherwood and I met here and had some fun experiences before life separated us.  We remained friends over the years.  He hosted the Turner family in his Detroit area residence as we went to attend a bowl game about 18 years ago between BYU and Marshall.  He's been a good friend and sharing a few hours over the weekend was a real treat.  I hope we can meet again soon in the USA.  He played the role of mule as he volunteered to bring a few items from home that were too hard to find.  You know how valuable Jell-O, licorice, powdered sugar and the like are!  Brothers from a different mother!

Finally, this weekend Terri and I had the opportunity to speak at our first stake conference.  I spoke on Saturday evening for 15 minutes in Korean.  I'm sure there were many headaches in the congregation when that meeting ended.  I did it without a translator. I read much, but tried to not read for a good part.  Sunday Terri and I both shared a message through a translator.  Twenty minutes feels like an eternity.  At the conference this stake had plaques of the missionaries serving from their stake.  One was serving in Boise, now the Nampa Mission.  I need my little Rachel to find her and give her a hug from Korea.

We met her parents and their joy in their daughter is pretty high!  Once again, we are truly amazed at the feelings of love and happiness we find here.  So many days start very early and end so late with little down time in between.  However, as we say so often, "it just doesn't get any better than this!

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!