Mr. Miyagi and the TaeKwonDo Kid? We've seen it all now!

We've started a new round of zone conferences and we'll do each zone separately. This is a lot of fun!  There are great trainings, skits, musical presentations, and Sister Turner's Tasty Treats.

The very first skit by the Gyeonggi zone leaders and sister training leaders was pretty funny.  We had a sister being a Mr. Miyagi-like character (complete with a dried seaweed mustache) and an elder being the Taekwondo Kid.  They did great.  We wish we had recorded the skit.  We only got a few stills.  The training is about obedience and the results.
First you must wash the window side to side!  Then you must clean the white board up and down!

 See what you've learned as you have been obedient to your training?

There was great training with everyone attentive.

 The Assistants are great leaders and teachers.

We had great music.

 We occasionally have a birthday on the day of the conference...

 We have a sweet young sister from Korea who is only with us for four weeks before she goes to Hawaii.  We had to Hang Ten with her before she leaves in a few weeks.  As you can see, everyone is happy for her; jealous, but happy! :-)

It's probably important before we go on to capture the thoughts of one of our missionaries.  It captures well the maturity in thoughts and perspective of our missionaries.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do:
This week I also had another thought and more that I learned about Christ's love. Yesterday, my companion had like a panic attack kind of thing were he just got hit with being very stressed and worried about me being mad at him and not being happy. Then I just talked to him for a while and assured him of my love, had a very good hug time. He's better again, it was just a little bump in the road on his way to recovery, and I did advice him to think and pray about meeting with the counseling couple. But as I thought about the experience this morning and pondered over the things that I learned of Christ's love, among the many thoughts that came to mind and the testimony that was strengthened, I want to share just one of them:
The Lord truly loves and desires to help and save us. He did not go through the Atonement and suffer everything that we feel, all of our pain, and weaknesses, and sins, and whole torrent of negative things we find in life merely to understand us. In the scriptures it doesn't say that Christ called the blind, the sick, the lame, and the wounded to Him just so that He could pat them on the shoulder and say, "I know how you feel." He called them to Him so they could feel understand AND healed. Christ didn't go through all that suffering merely to be a bystander offering moral support, rather He did it so that He could be an active participant in our life and to heal us. Despite that, He will never violate our agency. He desires to help, and to heal, but He will not until we ask and invite. There is a reason one of the most repeated commandments in the scriptures is "Ask." He looks at us and cares for us with the same compassion that He had in the past. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He truly is knocking at the door and pleading us to open up to Him.

We next had the Incheon Zone.  Another crazy day that included a proselyting activity and dinner afterwards.  They let us participate.. It included wonderful music as well. There was an incredible flute and piano piece, but I didn't get a still of it.

We had more good training and skits. We have some aspiring improv actors.

 This sister wanted so much to try one of Sister Turner's Tasty Treats, but has a challenge with flour, she hasn't had the opportunity.  She had a great treat!

What a funny group to be around!! They can be so serious, yet so relaxed.  They know how to do the work!

 We expect you've seen these hand signs with the Olympics being in Korea!

 We followed the conference with a proselyting activity at a high traffic area near a subway station.  There were four bottles with various items in them.  If the passerby guessed a number close, they got candy and a pass-along card.  If they were really close, they got a Choko Pie.  You can see a little bit here:

Each missionary spent some time walking the streets doing basic chatting and proselyting.  They exchanged with the ones on the corner so everyone had some time. ( It was FREEZING, just sayin')  We then had the opportunity all together to sit down to a meal. The room echoed with laughter .  It was much warmer sitting on the heated floor than standing on the corner.( "Army" stew never tasted so good!)

We were in the Anyang Zone on Friday for the last conference of the week.  This was a much smaller zone of 13 missionaries which made it very intimate.  Please know they are no less talented and put just as much effort into the training and musical performance.

This group is pretty amazing.  very tight knit.

 Caught them here enjoying Subway sandwiches for lunch.

We finished our Saturday attending a baptism of a young man.   He's a high school senior.  The young people in the ward have really taken to him.  They even put in to buy him a suit and white shirt and tie.  There was such great joy in that meeting.  We really enjoyed this.

 A few of them sang to him.

 On our way home, we hadn't eaten dinner so we stopped at a place that serves fried pork cutlets.  I ordered a King Cutlet.  The menu didn't look any different than other items so I thought nothing of it.  When it came, we both gaped at the size of it.  Indiana is known for large cutlets, but this one dwarfed anything we ever saw!  I tried to show some restraint by sharing some with Terri and bringing one third of it home.  There are surprises every day awaiting us.

We look forward to another great week of zone conferences.  We hope you find your missionary somewhere in the pictures.  We adore them and love every moment with them.  With time flying by we try to take very moment to be with them one-on-one and in groups.  We're blessed for it!
Know of our love and appreciation for your prayers and support.  Have a great week.

Crazy Few Weeks!

We hope you understand that when there is a large gap between posts it is because of the pace of our schedule!  What a crazy few weeks it has been.  However, in the midst of the busyness we got lots of time with our missionaries.

We wanted to start this post off with some amazing thoughts from a missionary.  Think of this as a small summary from a general conference.  We get a few of these each week and would like to share it:

I started by searching the word "negativity" in the General Conference section of Gospel Library. There weren't very many results, but one that I found linked to a talk related to gratitude. I realized that was what I needed: gratitude. For a long time, I have been struggling to focus on my blessings and was focusing unhealthily on things that were wrong: the things I wasn't doing, the things my companion was struggling with, the investigators who weren't agreeing to baptismal dates, the few ways we were failing to be imperfect in obedience. I was focusing on these things so much that I was missing the joy and happiness that came from the blessings Heavenly Father was giving to us: a couple progressing investigators, a loving and always serving companion, a desire to do God's will and a testimony of the restored gospel, and most of all, the marvelous wonder of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I realized that gratitude for what we have, what others do, and what the Lord is doing for us is needful for me to conquer my self-defeating attitude and for other missionaries to work with greater faith, hope and optimism.

We posted last time about the fireside with Alex Boye.  Later in that week, Alex did a special concert and any missionary who had an investigator with them was able to attend.  Over 300 non-church members attended the two nights.  So many with interest in our message.
Two of our missionaries were invited by Alex onto the stage to participate.  I only captured a few moments, but you'll see their faces and their loved ones will recognize them.

Later, Alex invited all the missionaries in attendance from the Seoul and Seoul South Missions on to the stage to share some feelings and music. Sorry if it comes out sideways! If you want to better appreciate the energy of this song, you can go to YouTube and search for Lemonade - Alex Boye or click here: Lemonade

Over the weekend the missionaries were busy filling fonts for five baptisms.  We wish every weekend were like this.  There were too many for us to attend them all, but we attended the ones we could.  What bright lights they are.

The tall Korean missionary third from the right is one of the ones going home this transfer.  His parents, who are next to him, came to see his final work!  What a great experience we had with them.

The weekend was all about preparing for and making transfer calls.  Given an important late meeting Saturday, we moved transfer calls up 24 hours which got everyone excited.  Then on Monday, those wonderful, dear missionaries who have been faithful to their 18 or 24 months came to enjoy the evening with us before they departed.  There may be signs of puffy eyes in the pictures! (okay, really it's just Terri but, what's a mom gonna do?)

 Sometimes they like to get a little funny!  Our home is full of laughter and happiness.

They are great about being willing to help clean up.  We have to have aprons for them!!!

It was hard saying goodbye, but there is also joy in the departure.  They have new adventures ahead and we can look forward to future meetings, the dates of which are unknown.

 The sister in the olive jacket actually helped us say goodbye to both groups, but she didn't leave until her family picked her up the next day.  We had two Filipino missionaries return at 4 in the morning and we didn't get good pictures. We had a Korean elder go home, but in the madhouse of the train station didn't capture his picture.

On the evening of the departure day for these thirteen we got six new missionaries.  One will only be with us four weeks before she heads off to the US for her service.  She will actually be in much warmer climes serving in the Hawaii Visitors Center - Korean speaking.  All of us resident in Korea right now would love to consider such an assignment!  Here she is with her mother who dropped her off into the care of her two trainers:

 It's always fun to travel to the airport to meet the new missionaries.  Terri makes it an adventure for those who accompany us to give them their first experience on the subways meeting people.

 We then welcome the terrific new missionaries coming from the MTC. We have Hawaii, Washington, New York, and Utah represented in this group.

The next morning we had a nice visit with them all, assigned companions, oriented them to their new surroundings, fed them lunch and sent them on their way.  We have lots of pictures here, but we want the families to have them for their records.

You know how parents are always so proud of her children?  Sometimes when things go well, and you're left alone, you can gaze at each other, after all it was Valentines Day!.

With transfers come new leaders.  We had new zone leaders, sister training leaders and a new assistant to the president.  We had our first  Mission Leadership Council with these leaders. This is a great group to be with. They are full of great ideas and faith.

We had another great opportunity to visit with some of our missionaries who had returned home. It's like having the kids come home for a few minutes.  It's never enough time for the parents.

We think it's important you get a sense for the amazing insights we see from our missionaries as the emails come in each week.  Here's one from a fairly young elder:

Super funny analogy but this investigator really liked to workout. We compared his workout routine to trying to learn the gospel for himself. We told him that if we workout for one day, we aren't going to gain all the muscle in that very moment. But as we take it one day at a time, and learn to work as hard as we can, we can gain the image that we want to be. Same with the gospel, we begin learning little by little with the simple things. Things such as praying, reading, and attending church can really build us up into what the Savior wants us to be. We explained to him that through this life, we experience trials and challenges that try to push us down, just like a weight may when we are benching. But its that resistance, or those trials, that really pull and tear at our spiritual muscles and help us grow.

 Thank you for sending such amazing, intelligent young people!  We are amazed and humbled as they share their gifts.

This week we also saw a few funny things while driving:
If you missed it, Buzz saved Woody again this week.

 If you ever want to have your excess cellulose babysat, here's the place for you.

 What at first glance looks like a construction worker is just another 'dummy' to get your attention. These workers are less expensive to replace and take care of...

Lastly, there has to be food.  After a very long day, a few of the missionaries invited us to join them for dinner and to chat with a young man who is here teaching English.  We love food and good company.

Another two weeks has passed on this fast track.  It's like we're in a whirlpool that gets faster and faster as we get closer to the middle.  Thanks for all your support and prayers for each of our missionaries!  It's great to be part of their lives.