Week of the three P's

Our six week cycle is broken up as following:
1. Transfers - a week of receiving and sending home missionaries and helping missionaries find their new homes and new companions.
2.  Week of the three P's: Prayer, Planning, Preparation - this is a week of determining what training needs to happen over the next few weeks and preparing for interviews.
3 & 4. Zone Conferences -  We have six zones in our mission.  We meet as a single zone, two zones or three zones together.  Depending on the message and what our goal is we'll determine whether to have two, three or six conferences.
5 & 6. These two weeks are pretty well dedicated to interviewing all the missionaries.  We may sneak a few into week 4 depending on the number of zone conferences and the number of venues where we'll be interviewing.  This week we will also make decisions about what happens the next week where we start over again with transfers.

This week was the week of the three P's.  We met with our mission leadership council (MLC) and discussed items they felt were important, where they see training opportunities. This is a great group! These are the assistants, the zone leaders and the sister training leaders.  We learn much from them.

We used the afternoon of one day to visit a school created by the Korean government for children of families who are refugees from North Korea.  We have set up with an English teacher there for two of our local missionaries to visit once a week and have conversation with a class.  The current class has eight students 14-19 years of age.  In the class today, the youth prepared a small presentation on traditional or favorite Korean foods.  Kimchi was the most loved, but there were many other good items.  If they had challenges saying a word, they were to talk to their advisor; however, they always went first to their teacher.  The missionaries would then ask questions in English such as, "what is included in this soup?" or " what items are in Kimchi?".  It was fun to watch them interact.

The teacher said the first day (this is the third) the students were very reserved.  However, now they are more comfortable and enjoying their two American visitors.  It was a great day with them.

We also had the opportunity to attend two baptisms this weekend.  We wanted to attend a third, but darn, we can't be in two places at once.  We try hard to do so, but no luck yet.  The missionaries and a number of youth sang.  They always have a great sound.

One day during contemplations Pres. Turner had to have a meal break.  Lunch of champions!  Ramen, rice, kimchi.  It doesn't take much to please ...

Terri needed a Spring "break" so we found the local flower shop.  We are preparing the roof for our spring study time and for a quiet get away place.  Right now, one of the bathrooms is the greenhouse with the large window with lots of morning sun.  The egg crate is for her budding spider plants.  She has seeds from her mom she is anxious to have bud in her bigger pots.

Occasionally, our Korean missionaries have to do some reserve military training for a day.  They shed their missionary uniform and put on the camo to serve their country.  These two are great missionaries.

Finally, on the way home from meetings today, we found these three sandwiched on a motor scooter.  They were a bit reckless.  I hope they don't have any problems.

We are excited for this upcoming week.  We get to put on jeans and help some missionaries move to new apartments, then three days of zone conferences with about half of our now 115 missionaries.  We are excited to be with them.  They are doing so well.  We are constantly amazed!  Not as much in this week to share, but we promise we were pretty darn busy!  The missionaries were too!

Sad farewells - Warm welcomes!

This is the great and terrible week for a mission president and wife.  We said farewell to six missionaries and welcomed 14 new ones.  Five returned home after completing missions.  One was only with us for six weeks while awaiting his visa to serve in the US.  The elder below with the pink bag, Elder Lee will be a great missionary in Southern California.  We look forward to seeing him in 23 months when he comes back fluent in a second language.

We had a great evening with these missionaries before their departure.  Three had their families pick them up as they live here in Korea.  The other two returned to Connecticut and California.

 We said farewell to Elder Kim Sungsoo who served for seven months in the office.  He was a great sport.  We will miss the games with him.  We had a few emotional moments together before he departed.

 

We sang together in the mission home stairwell.  I've uploaded it directly to Facebook in the past, but it's too big for the blog.

We excitedly traveled to the airport to pick up the incoming missionaries.  We took five other elders and sisters to travel home on the subway with the new group.  Sister Turner had a posing moment for them in the lighted flowers.

 This is a great group that represents a very diverse number of countries.

 These young men are exceptionally talented, their language skills amazing for the short study time they've had.
Elder Sayan from the Philippines

 Elder Hoopes from Utah

 Elder Luce from Ohio ( we like the Midwestern kids!)

 Elder Miller from Utah

 Elder Sanderson from Utah

 Elder Abrao from the Philippines

The young women are exceptionally talented in singing, musical instruments, and language talents.  Sister Davis is from Utah, and has traveled the world in her youth.  Like us, her parents will serve as mission president and wife in Turkey starting in July.

 Sister Earnshaw is from New Hampshire

 Sister Jung is from South Korea

 Sister Kim, serving with another Sister Kim is from South Korea

 Sister Pari is from New Zealand

 Sister Perlawan is from the Philippines

 Sister Tobler is from Utah

 Sister Warner is from California.

This group with their trainers represent 25% of our mission.  We truly enjoyed being with them.

 

We attended a stake conference over the weekend and any time we have our missionaries together, there has to be a photo taken.  Hopefully, you'll find one of your missionaries here.  The young man holding the Book of Mormon on the second row is not one of our missionaries, but is anxious to serve!

On the side of the unique this week, we pass a large plot of ground periodically that is reserved for wild flowers.  In the winter, it is home to what we call Garfield's family.

If you want to know what it looks like when we make a run to Costco and other supermarkets the week of transfers when we know we will feed a lot of missionaries, here's the vision. Actually, we share the experience with Elder and Sister Black for their shopping as well.  It's quite a morning every six weeks.

Finally, just a block from our home is an elementary school.  On the wall surrounding the school is a mural.  As we drove by it one day, Terri exclaimed, "I know what that represents!"  We had driven by it many times, but we hadn't taken the time to look at it in its entirety, only in pieces.  Let us know if you think you know what the story is and who the author is.  We love his books!

It has been another full week.  For about 48 hours, from 2 PM on  Tuesday when we leave for the airport to pick up new missionaries, until 2 PM on Thursday when we typically say goodbye to the departing missionaries, we run pretty hard and have truly amazing spiritual and physical experiences.  We're glad we only have to do this every six weeks!  We hate saying goodbye. If Terri had her way everyone would stay, and then leave with us when it's time for us to return home. 

We hope you see a face you recognize and love and hope you get a smile.  There will always be new faces.  Until we slide into next weekend, hope your days are as good as ours!

More Missionary Homes and a few treats

Another very busy week visiting homes and interviewing missionaries.  There is nothing to lift the spirits of the mission president and his wife than being with the missionaries.  In their homes, they are even more special.  Some shared meals, some cookies, some banana bread cooked in a rice cooker, cheese cake from a mix, etc.  We get great treatment.  They seem genuinely glad to welcome us into their homes.
Elder and Sister Black got lucky, they had their interviews at the kitchen table over dinner.  We could not function as a mission without him handling the finances and her handling every other important logistical activity.  We are so blessed to have them.

 These two have great musical talent, one with the keyboard, the other on guitar. One from Texas (family currently living in Quebec for work), the other from Utah.

 These two are a terrific pair.  One is from our home area of Indianapolis, the other from Utah.

 Not everyone can have the Eifel Tower on their wall in Korea.  One sister from Hawaii, the other from very close to our daughter's home in Boise, Idaho

 Four sisters live in this home and boy do they keep it nice.  They are such a happy pair. One just arrived a month ago and is from Korea, the other's parents are both from Korea, but she grew up in Southern California.

 Four elders in a house and you'd expect chaos, but they had it well organized and clean.  You can't really see it in the picture, but they have a huge couch they found some where.  We could all sit on it. From left to right they are from Utah, Tennessee, Georgia, and Hawaii. They have the US pretty well represented in this house.

 This house full of young ladies has more energy than any in the mission.  This was a unique way to show all of us together.  At the bottom of the mirror you can see pictures and comments that represent each of their personalities.  Left to right they are from Nevada, Utah, Utah, and Korea

 Now you can see their true personalities.  Even Sister Turner fits in well here!  I'm glad I'm the photographer.

 These elders are completely at home with the floral wall paper!  They keep their place very nice.  They get the pleasure of having one more join them this week.  It's plenty big enough for their physical bodies, but the strong personalities could be squeezed! One from Utah (had our son Nathan as a seminary teacher), the other from Washington state.

 This pair are helping each other learn more music: one with six strings, the other four.  One elder from Korea, the other from Washington state.

 Another wild group.  What a fun house!  They have a Ukulele, a guitar and a broken cello.  The cello was given to the elder and his family sent him the things necessary to repair it and now can practice with it.  We have lots of musical talent in our mission.  Left to right they are from Colorado, Utah, Texas, and Utah.

 The final interviews we did were with the two mission assistants.  One from Korea, the other from Utah.  They are two of the hardest working missionaries in the universe.  Right in front of the mission home, Terri caught them on camera doing what they were sent to do.  This person they started a conversation with was from South Africa.  She speaks great English, but they have all the materials needed in her native Afrikaans to teach and answer any questions.  We can't say enough good things about them.

Actually, we can't say enough good things about all of our missionaries.  This next week we lose five, but we get 14 new ones.  You'll learn all about them on the next blog.

One evening we were out with four of our missionaries near a very busy subway station in front of a McDonalds.  We decided to introduce the Book of Mormon through sticker boarding.  The board said, "What kind of a book is the Book of Mormon?"  The four options were: 1. A book about Mormon, 2. A book like the Bible, 3. The word of God, or 4. another testament of Jesus Christ.  We let them see the book and then could answer their questions.  It was a cold evening, people in a hurry, but we gave away 17 books and collected follow up phone numbers for appointments from 10 individuals.  We had a great time.

 Right next door was a neat place that all kids need to see right over Terri's head:

Per any normal day we are in the car, we saw some unique sights. A car drove by us that was covered completely in some unique material.  We weren't sure if it was being delivered and the material was to protect it or to cover some unique nature of the car.

 

 

 

 Historically, when family members pass away they have been buried on a family hill or mountain side.  They have burial mounds all over Korea.  As you can guess, with 50 million people in Korea, roughly the side of Indiana, burying that many people today would be a challenge.  At this point most are cremated, but still some families have space for burial plots.  The size of the mound roughly represents one's social status.  You can Google the great kings' tombs of Korea to see some very large burial mounds.  We drove past a place where there were hundreds, most with a marble headstone.  I'm sorry you may not be able to see much, but if you pause or slow the video clip, you will pick out the mounds.  In a future blog, we will show more from a standing position and not a moving car.  Because of traffic I couldn't slow down.

We were invited with the Blacks to participate in an evening with the leaders in our local ward.  They played some interesting games including follow the leader game.  I made the decision to photograph rather than participate this round... Elder Black was the one everyone was following.  At the end, he pointed to someone else who had to lead the next round.  It would have really been a wild one if I would have been selected!

We received a request from our daughter-in-law, Nia, to show more food.  We'll do our best. I mentioned this in another blog some time ago, but this is Budaechigae, a stew cooked in front of you made up of many different items.  When the Korean ward ended, the Koreans were starving and the US soldiers had lots of scraps the Koreans would gather including left over hot dogs, baked beans, bacon, etc.  They now add nice sweet potato noodles, ramen noodles, Spam, onions, cheese, and other things and boil it in a dish in front of you.  Add some rice on the side and the always present Kimchi and you have a wonderful meal.  It is one of my favorites.

That pretty much covers this week.  We are happily and richly blessed.  We are amazed the Lord would call us to do this work.  We are surrounded by so many good people!  We hope you enjoy what you find here!