What a fun week. However, we really have to start off with this funny story from a few of our missionaries. We think you'll enjoy it. It happened a few weeks ago, but this is a good time to share:
"Okay so that's pretty much us, except before district
meeting one of the windows got left open on Sunday after church, so last
district meeting we chased a magpie out of the church which was hilarious. My
sides still hurt. Except we had to clean up some poop, because it was in the
church for a few days we think.... but yeah just thought I'd spice the email
with that, it was hilarious. When the magpie escaped he flew away to the
building next door and glared at us the whole meeting. Maybe he wanted to
stay... But we're not looking for avian investigators right now. :( "
We had special visitors this week. Elder and Sister Yamashita of the Asia North Area Presidency came to teach and train us. We had a delightful time with them. We started with a special mission leadership council meeting where he taught our zone leaders and sister training leaders and helped them better understand their responsibilities. They are a fun bunch. If you haven't ever seen the South Korean 'love' symbol with the finger and thumb, here it is! (Sister Turner is doing her best to continue with strategically posing the missionaries.)
On Thursday and Friday we had conferences with one half of the mission each day. During the day, Elder and Sister Yamashita as well as Sister Turner and I did some training. We hope you hear in your weekly emails this week things they may have experienced or felt. It was pretty amazing. Here are the group pictures from the two days. We hope you can find your loved one!
They are all so amazing. We had some powerful lessons, but we still had time to laugh and enjoy some of Sister Turner's Tasty Treats. They love the Sour Cream Banana bars. They want the recipe, but this is a special treat right now. We'll let them have it if they ask as they leave the mission.
There is always the occasional one-off selfie that has to be included.
Sister Turner and this Sister dressed similar, but opposite. They really matched well today.
On Tuesday, South Korea will elect a new president. One of the ways they campaign is for each candidate to send out a host of small trucks made up special to allow people to stand in the truck bed and wave and speak to the people. We wanted to capture one for your view. This is the first time we had stopped long enough to get a picture. If you can't get them on TV, you can get them on the street.
For the children, we captured two good pictures. The first, of course, is the movie all the kids love,
The second is the young man wanting to shop with his mother. He crossed the street at the light and was in no hurry. Even when mom wanted to hurry him along, he had his determination and his pace.
Food continues to be of great interest to us. We had an evening of Samgyupsal 삼겹살. It is very thick pieces of bacon (see the large chunk to left of the grill) which is cut into smaller pieces and grilled at the table. You add it to a leaf of lettuce with various things like kimchi, garlic, onions, etc. and then eat like a sandwich. It's probably one of the least healthy foods, but very tasty.
Then, there always has to be a taste of home. We had to make our family favorite Macho Nachos for dinner tonight. We had to use the oven since we don't yet have a grill, but it was almost comfort food. It would be more colorful if there were some tomatoes on it.
Finally, a lovely sister returned home last month. She happens to live close enough to our sweetheart daughter, so that Rachel could meet her. Everyone of these young men and young women are like our own children. We get so close to them. With those already returned home and those who are still here, we have roughly 200 new sons and daughters right now.
Well, it's been another rich week. We never know what the next week will bring. This week we also had a missionary that has only been here a week have to return to his home in Busan to recover from a bought of pneumonia. We will hope to have him back soon. That's it for this week. Know of our love and appreciation for all your support.
