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!
