Sunday, November 26, 2017

Arrival, Exit, Visitor

What a great week.  Some long days, and short cold nights.  Winter is coming in at quite a pace!
We welcomed five new sisters and five new elders this week.  What an amazing group they are!  Some are shy, others are bold, and they are all ours WE LOVE THEM!









 There is a lot of energy at lunch.  They have just met their new companions and there is so much information to learn from each other!  They are all great sports about the day.  The new missionaries are still pretty tired from the long day previous.
As soon as we got them all out the door and off to their new areas, we welcome the departing missionaries into for final interviews and a nice dinner and evening meeting.  There are lots of tears and half a box of Kleenex used up in that evening.

 There are so many different ways to take pictures.  We could be here all night!

After we sent the last two missionaries off to the airport the next afternoon, we had the special opportunity to welcome our first visitor from home.  Our youngest son, came to visit us.  We will get five days with him letting him get to know what he missed when we were here 20+ years ago with the family.  He was three when we returned to the states.  He is looking forward to the Korean food!  He's already tired of the traffic.  We sat in traffic for an hour one days with more cars in a few blocks than in the entire city of Logan, Utah.  He has the right facial hair for the winter.
Next week we'll have lots of pictures from our adventures with him.
This week we saw a few other interesting sights around town.



Short and sweet today.  We hope you enjoy and can find a picture of your loved ones.  We miss the ones who have been honorably released and welcome the ones who are here to make an impact.
Until next time!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Zone Conferences and Mission President Seminars

We know it's been a long time since we last updated you on what's happening in the Korea Seoul South Mission.  So many good things!  After completing interviews, we met with all the missionaries in three zone conferences.  They are all so amazing!  We hope you see your favorite person here!
Anyang Zone
 Gangnam Zone
 Incheon Zone
 Gangseo Zone
 Suwon Zone
 Gyeonggi Zone
We hope you can pull off what you want for your own records and memories!

Along with the group pictures, there are a few others of performances, stolen phones, and impressionist posings.




 We even have two birthdays.

 This elder looks like I feel several days each transfer period!  Love you, Elder.
We even took the time to take a few moving shots (sorry if it was moved to quickly):
Unfortunately, we had one sister go home for health issues.  Missions are hard on the feet if you're in a walking area.  Our entire mission is walking areas so the missionaries get lots of time on their feet.  If you have a young person preparing for a mission, get them walking, biking, hiking, etc.  They have to be physically able to handle the work.
Terri and I spent a week with the mission presidents and wives from the seven Japan missions, four Korea missions, and the Guam Micronesia mission.  These are amazing people.  The area presidency is made up of Elder Gay, Elder Yamashita, and Elder Choi.  We train the missionaries each transfer for about six hours.  We get a training for three or four days twice a year. We call this our mission president zone conference.  Along with the training, we did a few cultural things including visiting the Seoul Korea Temple.
This is the view from our hotel window of the Dongdaemun or Great East Gate in Seoul
 Fishy lunch
 Some handcrafted mirrors we made.
 Dressing up in traditional clothing (they look like Siamese twins!)
 Posing with the totems
 Acting like the totems
 Terri learning how to bow properly.
 Preparing to make a meal for a king called Bibimbab
 Terri feeding me because I didn't want to wait for the finished product.
 Finished product of rice, bulgogi (meat), zucchini, onions, bean sprouts, carrots, and shitake mushrooms with some spicy red pepper sauce.
 The current mission presidents of Korea with the cast of a production we attended.
 Travel time where we don't have to drive.  A bus is so nice.
 Learning how to bow properly (what's that light spot on the crown of my head?)
 Terri by the river with the lighted horse and archer.
 The gate from ground level
 One former and four current Korea mission presidents in traditional costume.
Some wonderful friends from the week learning about Korea and its culture and traditions:
The proper bowing technique.  She's getting pretty good.
During a recent run at the conference I discovered some interesting characters that are lit at night on the drainage river.  This time of year the water is minimal so they use it for a lantern festival. There was much more than I will share here, but wanted to limit it for you.
We are excited to welcome a new couple who will work in our office fur the duration of our mission here. They are from my high school home town and the home town of the previous couple.  We are sad to see the previous couple depart as they have been a great blessing to us, our missionaries and our mission as a whole.  Their picture will be on the blog next week.  We hope you understand that we don't put names on here because of goofy people taking advantage of such information.  We know you know your loved ones!
There are so many pictures to put here, but we're just out of time.  Until next time, keep smiling.  We are and it's blessing our lives!