Preparing for our biggest transfer

The majority of this past week was about preparing for the upcoming transfer at the end of next week.  Normally, we have transfers every six weeks, but due to a conference next week, the transfer was moved up a week.  I spent this week looking for 18 new trainers (13 elders and 5 sisters) for the missionaries coming next weekend.  We were delighted to learn that a sister in the MTC was moved forward six weeks on her arrival because her language skills were way ahead of the curve.  Her mother is from Korea and this young lady has spent some time here.  Additionally, an elder who was here for a period, but left for a period is returning.  That means in total we have 19 coming in.  We only have 102 missionaries now.  That is nearly 20% of our total numbers! We have five returning to their homes this month which leaves us with 116 total missionaries.
We had 17 last month come in and 18 needing trainers coming in this month.  Between those two groups, 70 missionaries are involved in training.  Throw in the 12 or so the transfer prior and you have 94 of 116 that are or just recently were involved in training. Nearly half of all our missionaries have arrived in the last three transfers!  We are young, but happy.

Terri and I went into an area to work with missionaries.  She was smarter than me and got some pictures with Sister Troxel and Sister Holste.  They had fun visiting church members and chatting with people on the streets. Aren't these happy faces?!

We did have a little snack afterwards with these two and the three elders I worked with, Elders Lydon, Pettijohn, and Coon.  It's fun to find connections with these missionaries.  Elder Coon attended seminary in Draper, Utah taking a class from our son, Nathan.

Terri and I spoke in a stake conference on Saturday evening addressing some 200 members of the Seoul South Stake.  Terri did a great job in English with a translator and I scared them with my Korean skills.  It was fun, but as I told them in the meeting, it's the one thing I knew would scare me during me service in Korea.  We get to do it again next Sunday to a larger group.

Today, we met with our Missionary Leadership Council for six hours discussing the challenges we are facing and how to help missionaries in their work.  As you can see here, it's a handsome group.  We try to keep it serious, but most are still older teenagers and need to loosen up a little!

They are all so smart and full of happiness.  Who wouldn't want to talk with this group, despite their scary leader!  Our love for these young men and young women grows each day we get to interact with them.

They tolerate me, but the adore Terri and her ability to love and feed them. You'll never see longer, more enduring embraces than when the sisters grab Terri!

This week we saw a few more unique things our missionaries see periodically.  We hope you enjoy!

Delivery truck with some sort of family of bananas.  I didn't have time from the car to capture all the sides, but it has to do with birthdays and other gift giving events and sending texts.  It didn't make sense to me in the moment we had to look at it.

We found another activity we can't let the missionaries participate in.  If we did, I'm sure it would show up in the white missionary handbook.  This one is for you Rachel Munk!!

We told you last week everybody delivers here!  Unfortunately, with the "better ingredients" come very high price tags.  We haven't had the Papa in our house yet...

A favorite for our missionaries is called a Bob Burger.  Actually, the Korean word for rice is very close to Bob.  Missionaries love these burgers where the bun is really sticky rice and the meat is Korean Bulgogi.  It's fairly cheap for a missionary budget. The little bowl is a spicy soup with large rice pasta noodles called something like Ddukboggi.  There's one across the street from our home/office and when we need something simple and quick, it's a Bob Burger.

In one of our early blogs I showed a piece of exercise equipment on the street that people can use.  Near our home is a small river that has a walking, jogging, biking path that runs for a few miles.  Along the path is a string of exercise equipment.  On some preparation day mornings Terri walks and I jog at the park and see people on this equipment.  The community is throwing their investments to good health in Korea.  They have to since we have exported to them McDonald's, KFC, Papa Johns, etc.  The majority of the individual using the equipment is probably over 50!

Finally, in the 20 years since Terri and I were last here, the number of pets, mainly small dogs, people have in their homes has exploded.  Most are the smaller dogs no larger than a toy poodle or a terrier, but occasionally, you'll see a lab or a setter. We even saw a beautiful greyhound and a Saint Bernard. They coddle and pamper their dogs.  With the weather changing, they are upping the fashion!

This next week will be exceptionally crowded as we have lots of training, transfers, new missionaries and their orientation, and lots of Sunday meetings.  Monday we attend a mission president training seminar to improve our skills.  That will be all week.  I'm not sure that we'll have an update next weekend, but for sure we will the next.  Thanks for your kind thoughts and continued support.

Apostles and Prophets and Medical Emergencies

We have been unbelievably busy these past 10 days.  For those who are so faithful about reading our blog on Monday,  apologies for getting behind this week.  To say the least, we do have our priorities straight! :)

We interviewed the other half of the mission this week and in the middle of the week we had a visit from a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder David A. Bednar.  Since he could only be in Seoul for a short period, we combined the two Seoul missions for a three hour conference.  To see nearly 250 missionaries and church leaders all together absolutely mesmerized, leaning forward, eyes fixed for those three hours was amazing.  The missionaries in our mission have many friends in the Seoul Mission and as they came together beforehand, they had a grand visitation.  Sitting upstairs in the building while they gathered in the courtyard below was like listening the growing drone of a huge hive of bees!

One of the elders in our mission has a twin brother serving in the Seoul Mission.  If the one didn't have glasses on you'd never know who was who...  (Sister Turner knew immediately! :)

Terri likes her opportunities to hang with the sisters.  She's always taking pictures for the memory books.  They are pretty entertaining!

We worked hard to arrange a picture with Elder Bednar.  We didn't know if we'd have time, but in case we did, we had some help checking the lighting, the chair set up, etc. With Sister Turner are the zone leaders from two zones and a district leader and his companion.

Elder and Sister Bednar arrived with the Asia North Area President, Elder Whiting and his wife, his counselor from Korea, Elder Choi and his wife about 15 minutes before the meeting started.  President and Sister Sonksen, Sister Turner and I met with them for a few minutes to discuss the personality of our missionaries, their challenges, and what they might be expecting today.  We then went up into the chapel where we met.  In case we could get a picture in the chapel, we had the Seoul missionaries sit on one side and the Seoul South missionaries sit on the other.  As Elder Bednar entered they all respectfully stood.  Elder Bednar and his group quickly sat on the front row and the missionaries all stood or sat in a way to try to get everyone in the picture.  I do wish it could have been better, but with the time constraints, this was the best we could do.

As was said earlier, the missionaries were on the front of their seats, eyes wide and very engaged in all his discussion.  He didn't lecture for three hours, he asked questions for two hours and let them share their feelings.  He had forwarded four articles from past general conferences and other speeches he had given for them to prepare for this meeting.  He asked them about their feelings, their learnings, their personal revelations on the subjects.  It was a mix of humor and very deep, heart-felt discussion. At times it was just him having a conversation with one of the missionaries while the rest of us listened.  For the final hour he asked if the missionaries had questions.  Of course they did!  They were respectful and appropriate questions about how they could do better personally and be faithful as missionaries and for the rest of their lives.  It was quite amazing. 

He had to leave immediately after for an interview so there wasn't socializing time, but the missionaries filed out quietly and returned to their work areas across the two missions.  The emails I have received since the meeting have been full of excitement for the things they learned and felt.

Terri says it was almost like Christmas having all the children home and in one place.  It is such a wonderful thing to be a part of their lives. 

That evening we were invited to attend a dinner with the church leaders from around the Seoul area with Elder and Sister Bednar in attendance.  Again, he was very sociable and warm.  At the end he pronounced an apostolic blessing on the sisters in the room that moved the sisters to tears.  We had the pleasure of another picture with him. For those that don't recognize him, he has the beautiful blue tie on the front row.

 

Also on Saturday we had the first true medical emergency within our mission.  A wonderful retired man and his wife who have served in our mission for about four months.  While taking a cultural tour the elder suffered a stroke.  Gratefully, there were American military medics close by who gave him immediate care and then helivacuated him to a university hospital in Suwon.  Terri and I hurried to the hospital to be with the sister. He was given a priesthood blessing at the time of the event and again in the emergency room.  Gratefully, two sweet sister missionaries hurried to the hospital to help with translation service since neither of the senior couple speak the language.  He had the normal challenges of movement on one side of his body and the slurred, even incoherent speech.  As we left a few hours later he could fully move his arms and legs, but his speech was challenged.
The next day we visited him again in the hospital and his language had improved immensely and he could more easily communicate.  So many tender mercies and miracles were witnessed over the weekend.  As we write this, he's been moved into a private room from ICU and is starting to really get annoyed with not being able to get out of the hospital!  They will return home to the U S when he can travel for full rehabilitation.  They will be sorely missed.

We also took Sister Daley to the airport today to return home.  Due to unforeseen issues, she finished her mission a few weeks early.  It was a treat to have her in our home before taking her to the airport.  The one on one time is so fun compared to the large mass departures we have about every six weeks.

As per normal we continue to see entertaining and interesting sites on the road.  We spend so much time in the car every day, we can't help but see interesting things.  The missionaries see these every day as they walk..  They become so common place it's hard to notice them after a while!  Here's one of my favorites.  It's hard to see, but it says, "Drive Through Coffee and Sandwich" in English and the arrow points to the entrance of a car wash!

Motorcycles are very interesting.  These drivers are absolutely insane!  There are no traffic rules regulating their operations.  If they do, they are ignored or equally insane as the drivers.

This guy has his GPS on his bike which he operates while smoking a cigarette or talking on the phone.  If you have a missionary who served in Korea living near you, ask about the motorcycle guys.  What if McDonalds also delivered in the states!  We've seen KFC, Burger King, Dominoes, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut delivery motorcycles.

This vehicle looked a little out of place....

They do some pretty cool artwork on their vehicles.  There was no reference for what this was about.

We really enjoy the statues and artwork all around the Seoul area. Much of it in the area in which we live are extra life size statues of Olympic athletes, but we really liked this guy sitting on the rail.  As you might guess, we are not in Indiana any more Dorothy.

Finally, Terri found this in the basement of one of the buildings we were in. She likes to explore the buildings (as some of them are quite old) and find what's behind the closed doors (you never know what treasures you'll find, or adventures you'll have).  She's a natural!  She can make noise like any of the grandkids....

Well, it's been a busy week. We joke that we've already have several years worth of experiences in four months.  I think you can get a sense from the blog all we have going on!  I'm keeping some interesting statistics about things like how many health issues we've had reported to us, how many trips to the airport, how many blessings I've given, how many different wards we've attended and much more.  It'll be fun to share those at the end of our three years.
We truly love the Lord.  We've been lifted by an apostle as well as all the missionaries and local leaders and by the Lord himself as we've handled each day.  After next week's transfers we will have turned over half the mission in less than five months.  We have so many missionaries that are anxious to serve.  We have never loved so many great people at the same time!  Until the next time....

Work and Watch

This week was mainly filled with interviews.  For 15 minutes each I interviewed about 52 of our missionaries.  While I had one missionary, Terri had the companion where she reviewed area books, planners, and caught up with them emotionally.  She also fed their spirits with some of her home made chocolate chip cookies which always has a huge impact on moral!
No pictures to go with that, but close your eyes and imagine not eating chocolate chip cookies for up to two years and having one of the best cookie makers in the universe drop a few in front of you with some cold milk.  That should be picture enough for you.  Everyone left happy!

We are preparing for a visit from Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles this week.  He will speak to a combined meeting of our missionaries and the missionaries of the Seoul Mission on Wednesday for three hours.  There is quite an exciting buzz amongst the missionaries.

We had another wonderful baptismal service this week we were able to attend.  The missionaries in one of the areas had baptized a young girl a year ago, but the mother had not been interested.  A few weeks ago the new missionaries in the area called the mother, thinking she was a member and asked if they could teach a practice lesson with her.  The missionaries seek every opportunity to practice their language skills is a real teaching situation.  This woman agreed to chat not hinting about her current beliefs.  When the missionaries arrived at her home a friend was with her along with another friend whose daughter was friends with the woman's daughter.  She was a member of the local ward.  Well, after only a few weeks, she felt impressed that she should change her life, she read the Book of Mormon along with her normal Bible readings and felt the Spirit touch her life and decided to join her daughter in baptism.  The father attended the event also with a great happy face.  I put my arm around him and said I'd like to come back in a few weeks and share his baptism with the family.  He smiled and nodded warmly.  The most touching part was a choir of about eight Primary-aged children 8-11 years old singing, A Child's Prayer.  They were joined by five of the six missionaries in the area..  The sixth missionary was playing the piano.  The adult missionaries sang the chorus and touched everyone.  I had to follow as the next speaker which was very difficult.  It was truly moving.

On the way home Terri and I did see one sign that made us smile.  I don't think there would be enough time for us if we utilized this park and ride area....

Like in the Midwest or the mountains of the west, our favorite places this time of year, the colors are starting to change.  Because the summer has been so hot and dry and not much rain this Fall, the colors are not expected to be great, but they are changing.

Because we get to feed large numbers of missionaries periodically we make a stop at the local Costco.  They have out the Christmas decorations already.  They've been out since late September, the last large holiday in Korea before Christmas.  They had the usual stuff, but this special fellow caught our eye.  Maybe we should send one to each of the grandchildren... I'm sure their parents would appreciate it, especially Jake and Nia with three kids.  Can you imagine one in each room or two in the room with two kids?  Think of the photo opportunities!

As much as we drive we continue to see interesting things on the side of busses. Unfortunately we are not always quick enough with the camera to get a good shot.  This one caught our eye this week.

The artists are very good.  Anime is huge here.

Finally, while walking in a clothing mall, I saw this item that wouldn't quite fit me, but defined me pretty well.  The missionaries love us and think highly of us most of the time, but occasionally, my love for them and for the work I am doing gets the best of me...

I watched this little vignette and found it very illuminating.  I thought I'd share it with others.  There are so many questions we get about the meaning of life in the face of so many challenges. I felt this provide a nice perspective.  Until next week, thank you again for the love and support!

Following God

Little Miracles, Unique Places

So much can happen in such a little time.  More and more I realize there are no coincidences in this work.  Just as Alma met Amulek as he reentered the city after being chased away, the Lord puts people in places to have an impact on lives.

A few weeks ago we had a young Philippine missionary that had to come to Korea at a different time than other missionaries from the MTC because her visa would expire if she waited the extra days.  When she arrived in Korea, airport immigration reviewed her visa and somehow it had been cancelled.  The poor young lady was not able to see us nor we to see her.  She called on the phone in tears anxious to be with us, but was locked in an isolation room until the next day to fly to somewhere else.  Later it was determined she would go back to Manila to await the new visa.  That is all the story we knew at that time except to add that as she called in tears wondering what to do I counseled her, "Sister, you are a missionary, act like a missionary.  Things will work out."

Well, this past week, young Sister Canete arrived at the airport again with a new visa.  We waited all evening, but found she didn't come out the gate we expected her.  We finally had her paged and were united.  It truly was a joyful reunion.  At that point we learned the rest of the story.

This tiny little soul had been placed in an isolation room with many, many other individuals not being allowed into the country.  There were many people in tears.  Sister Canete speaks several languages of the Philippines, English and a little Korean.  Unfortunately, the room was filled with individuals from many other Asian countries, not including the Philippines.  She could not communicate well with any of them.  Most were women.  There were many in tears.  Sister Canete's companion at the MTC had given her a gift of chocolate as she departed for Korea.  As she sat in the isolation room and considered her options, she said she remembered my words to act like a missionary.  She stopped her crying and started sharing her chocolate and started talking to many others.  One woman from Thailand spoke no Korean and a little English.  They talked about religion and about God. The woman was raised Buddhist but was willing to listen to our little missionary.  By the time she left the next day she had acquired contact information and a desire to meet the missionaries in Bangkok.  In the end, this young lady had eased the panic, fear and unhappiness of many individuals.  She is a ball of energy and anxious to work with her new companion, Sister Capener.

This was a week of training for our mission leadership council.  During the month of October they will focus on certain things as Terri and I feel impressed to share across the mission.  This group of 24 takes the information to the remainder of the missionaries in zone training meetings and then on to district meetings.  This is a great group.

The sun was so bright outside, we decided to take the picture inside.  Here's fun picture. We had in this meeting the tallest missionary and the shortest missionary.  My Terri is just under 5'2" tall which should give you some perspective on the height of these two powerful missionaries.  We truly love Elder Eads and Sister Diano.  Height doesn't measure their capacity and their influence!

From a cultural standpoint, during a recent visit into the city we had the opportunity to quickly stop by two famous statues.  The first is the statue of King Saejong, the founder of the Korean language nearly 700 years ago.  Formerly based more on Chinese, this king created a phonetic language based on letters and not picture characters as was the Chinese custom.  Terri wants to have a chat with him when she gets to heaven and ask him "what where you thinking!" he created a very difficult language.  The children here don't seem to think so, only the missionaries and other foreigners.  October 9 was the day set aside to celebrate the creation of the Korean language.  On the side of his statue podium are the characters he created.

The other statue is of Admiral Yi Sun Shin. He was the commander of a fleet of what were called Turtle Boats.  You can find a little more about him here: Admiral Yi Sun Shin.

Since we travel so much we always have an interesting treat for you.  Check out the little wrecker used to haul away vehicles from accident sites.  It's hardly bigger than the cars they haul.  I've only seen one in action and the camera was not easily found at the time.  They do get the job done!

Here's a place we didn't check out, but the name was interesting.  Anyone know what bubbletea is?  The waffles I can go for, don't drink coffee, but the bubble tea was intriguing...

We found this interesting little toy box every child would love to have in their room... Maybe grandpa can be creative in a few years.

We had a wonderful dinner at the home of a local church leader.  Very unusual for Korea, he has nine children.  Three or four are grown and moved out, but he has the saint of a wife who cooked for a group of leaders and invited us.  All but two of us ate on the floor which is pretty traditional.  There was not enough room for us on the floor so they set us up at a table.  My knees were grateful, but my pride was hit when I looked at this picture which seems to represent us as the leaders of the kingdom.  The food was wonderful and the fellowship phenomenal.  These parents have a neat little sign on their piano that says in Korean, "We will serve a mission as a couple in 2029, let's prepare".  Their youngest is about 12.  In 13 years they believe they will be in a position to be missionaries like us. They are a wonderful family.

 

Once again, we are overwhelmed with the kindness, welcome, and love shown to Terri and I. We are embraced by our missionaries wherever we go for which we are very grateful.  They definitely feel like family and treat us like loving parents.  It's fun for us.  We have 18 more new ones coming in four weeks. With that, more than half the mission is training new missionaries or have just finished training new missionaries.  The language is exceptionally difficult, but they soldier on with faith and hope that the gift of tongues will be theirs.  Here's a link to a site that says to native English speakers is one of the most difficult to master: Difficult Languages.  They get frustrated at times, but all of them work hard to master the language.  What a happy bunch! 

Hello, Goodbye, and.... That's Interesting!

Transfer weeks are always the busiest weeks.  We start the week shopping for food to feed the coming and going.  We had 17 coming in (#18 will come in next week) and 15 who have finished their service and are headed home.    I did the 15 departure interviews over four days. I spend about 45 minutes with each missionary discussing how they've grown, what they've learned and how they've seen the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ change lives.  Many times it's their own lives that have been forever changed.  Here's the outgoing group.  You'll see 16 missionaries, one went home a few weeks ago and wanted to come back and visit her group.

Here's a comment from one Elder he sent in his final email to me:
"I'm happy because I'm always happy, but honestly my heart is torn. It's been so bittersweet saying goodbye to members, investigators and others that we've been working with here and in other areas. I've been thanking them and they've been thanking me, but in the end we are all just thanking our savior.
I've come to realize how much of an effect service and love have on a people. Every missionary who comes to Korea or who goes anywhere puts so much love and care into the people and the Korean people know that legacy. I feel that the love that in turn comes back to us is also meant for those who come before us and those who come afterwards still putting their love into this people.
Last week sometime I was thinking about going home and mostly about what Heavenly Father has thought about my service here. I believe that I have gotten part of my answer. During the last week about everyone I've talked to during proselyting has ended saying just about the same thing. All of them expressed their thanks for me for helping the Korean people. I know that people don't always accept our message, but they know that we are helping others and helping their country. Heavenly Father was speaking to me saying, "Thank you for serving my children." I think of the scripture, Matthew 25:40 "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me."

But more than I could ever give to our Savior are the blessings that I've received. I was looking through quotes I liked this morning and Emerson said this "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
There is also another quote that I will use to describe a mission. "The joy of living comes from immersion in something that we know to be bigger, better, more enduring and worthier than we are." Being a part of this mission and this gospel has humbly opened up my eyes to the glory of God and I feel very blessed that I could've taken a part of it; when it is so much bigger and worthier than me.
I'm excited for where this mission is headed. I wish I could be a part of it all. I know that miracles are going to happen in so much abundance. But my part of this mission's story has come to an end, and I wouldn't give up any of what I experienced for anything." 
As you can see, these are deep thinking, considerate young men and young women! 

On  this evening we have a nice dinner and final meeting that is incredible.  Here's a cool picture of the pre-dinner table for about 10 of the missionaries.  They were busy helping us get ready:

I know we've

shown departure pictures before, but they are so interesting.  The three or four block walk over the hill to the bus stop is a sight for the local neighbors.  We go over the hill with a bunch and come back normally just the two of us.  Some times we make the trip two or three times. Interesting that this bus taking them to the airport said it was heading to Paradise... Some would agree!  Some went to California, Texas, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Korea, and one to Australia.  The one from Australia had a twin sister serving in the Seoul Mission that was meeting her at the airport to fly home together.

We met the 17 at the airport on Tuesday evening. Talk about energy!  This group was wanting to go to work. I interviewed all of them in the morning the next day in advance of assigning their companion.  What a wonderful experience.  One little sister is from the Philippines (another is coming next week from Manila), and one is from Thailand.  The rest are from the US.  Similar to departing missionaries, they are from all over the US.  We put them on the subway with four other experienced elders and two experienced sisters.  The rest of us drive the luggage back to the mission office/home.  We meet them about two hours later for dinner.  They are hungry and tired, but still happy to be here.  The nine weeks in the MTC really teaches them a lot, but it also gets them hungry to get here and put the language they have learned to work.

After interviewing, we have lunch and announce companionships.  This group has so many and not enough trainers we have some in threesomes.  They all get along very well and during the orientation we ask them to introduce each other to the larger group.  We have some pretty neat groups.

In the area of interesting findings recently, we were able to visit with a good friend from the US and from our departure home in Indiana.  Dave Kinard and I worked together at Eli Lilly and Company.  He brought some treats and a note from my great and loving friends in Global Mobility at Lilly.  We had a nice breakfast and shared stories and experiences.  Given his periodic travels into the region, I hope to see him again.  Thanks, Dave!

For those who enjoy Pixar flicks, you might recognize this fellow on the stairs:

We work our missionaries pretty hard.  Sometimes they need a break.  They always have to be with a companion.  This elder wasn't feeling so good.  He had received a slight concussion hitting a door when he turned around.  He was resting while his companion worked in the office.  It's a great picture! The light bothered his eyes and Terri instructed him to sleep.

From a food standpoint, there is always an adventure waiting.  Terri went off with one of the young missionaries to the Garak Market which is basically sea food.  However, this woman was selling chicken feet.  If you check out the goodies behind them you'll identify them.  Of course, one of my favorites is the first meal I ate with my companion in 1978 when I arrived the first time.  It's called JJamPong (짬퐁).  It is a spicy noodle soup with sea food.  As you can see, I found a tasty little guy with eight legs (only four of the octopus's eight are showing)!

On the way out of the restaurant Terri found these little guys in a place next to us.

Finally for this week. We have found this great advertisement on the side of a building.  Think of it similar to what they put on the side of the JWMarriott in Indianapolis when big things are happening in town.  The color and detail is pretty amazing!

We wanted you to see the traditional clothes Korean royalty wore in years past.  We had a little fun today in a hanbok.  Ah, the memories we are creating.

There is so much more, but it will have to wait until next week!  Too much to do to prepare for the next week.  The days and weeks and months fly by.  Thank you all for your emails and Facebook comments.  We appreciate your love and good wishes and support.