Meetings, meals, and missionary work

We had three great days of interviews and activities with the missionaries.  Hopefully, you can sense on their faces the happiness they find in being here and doing what they are doing.  We sure enjoy them!

First, our purpose for being here is to bring others to Christ through understanding the doctrine of Christ and making sacred covenants.  We had three more wonderful baptisms this week.  These missionaries are truly putting their hearts out there!

These are dedicated young people that not very long ago were pursuing more self-centered activities.  Now their time and energy is spent in bringing others to Christ.  They can also sing.  Only one sister in this choir because the other was playing the piano.

Like last week, we met in a district council and did interviews with each individual missionary and then had a meal with them.  We ended with a missionary activity on the streets.
Their favorite part is the meal, maybe.  They just enjoy being together.

 For the backdrop of our interviews this time, we used the sign out front of the restaurant in which we ate.  This is a chain favorite among missionaries because it's a buffet!

 They love working together.  We feel bad because two sisters were so anxious to go off to visit with people on the streets that they were gone when we stood to take this picture.

The next district we got a group picture at the park.  We ordered some "Mom's Touch" which is a chicken sandwich with fries and ate at the park.  It's hard to make out the detail, but we tried.  We then took pictures together.  We are using the local outdoor exercise equipment.

They always have fun while Sister Turner poses them...

 yes, she even poses me!

 They had a missionary activity with members of the local ward next to a subway station to chat with people about the wonderful Book of Mormon.  It turned out really well.  We were expecting heavy storms that night, but they didn't materialize.

 Then, the camera ran away again...

The south part of South Korea was hit hard by a typhoon , but when it started to head toward the Seoul area, it's path shifted and went south of all of us and instead of 60-70 mile an hour sustained winds and torrential rain, we had a light rain and slight breeze hit us.  We asked them to have an early curfew and hunker down.  It all ended up a very calm experience.  It lowered the temperatures.  They had a quiet day and then went back to work.  Really they were disappointed they couldn't tell everyone they had survived a typhoon. :}

We interviewed another district and had a great district council with them as well.  We had a nice meal and then together with another district did 'busking' which is singing in public.  Normally, you ask for money, but we just wanted to make people happy.  With 16 missionaries plus Sister Turner and me, we were all very busy at the local Suwon train and subway station talking to people by the bus stop.

We were all so busy talking to people that no one took a picture of those performing!  We have so much talent in this mission.  This zone is particularly loaded with singers and pianists.  The missionaries even captured us chatting with people.

 We missed one sister here because she was busy talking with a person about the possibility of learning more.  She waved us off so she could continue working!

Once again, the camera ran away...

Finally, a very nice church member gave some missionaries fresh peaches.  Just so you know, peaches are in the range of US$3 - US$5 each!  They shared two with us!  These are like gold.  We thanked the elders and asked that they thank the member.  We enjoyed them with our breakfast!

We are blessed by cooler temperatures and some additional rain this week.  We are very excited because the missionaries can be outside much more talking to the people they enjoy so much.  We will have a great mission tour with two members of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy and their wives this week.  We'll have more pictures next week.

Thanks as always for all your love and support.  We are enjoying your sons and daughters.  We try to treat and care for them like they are ours  (which they are :]!) Thank you very much!

Interviews and Time with Missionaries

Another crazy-busy week! However, the highlight was being with all the missionaries at once. We had a great visit with the Apostle Elder Gary E. Stevenson and the Area President Elder Yoon Hwan Choi and their wives.  We didn't get pictures with them, but we did with all our missionaries and with the Seoul Mission missionaries.  Wish we could get the pictures bigger.  You can download and enlarge them, I believe.

The rest of the week was all about interviews, proselyting activities, district councils, and just fun with the missionaries.
Here we had a zone preparation day with the Gyeonggi Zone.  Two missionaries were missing, but the rest kept us busy playing soccer volleyball and Korean dodgeball.

We are trying to get a bit closer to the work.  This week we are conducting interviews on the day the district has its council meeting and then doing an activity with them. It worked out really well. Here's the first one for this week with half of the Incheon Zone.

 We survey people on the street about important questions.  The one with the picture of Jesus asks if they know who he is, what he can do for you, how you can get close to him, etc. The other asked the purpose of life.

 This square where we conducted the activity is surrounded by building with a million colors and signs, most of which are for food.

 Here Sister Turner and I found what we were looking for.  It appears to include good food and beverages we don't drink.  We don't know if we're looking in the wrong places!

We had another day with the other half of the Incheon Zone. We forgot to take a picture with the district council meeting or having dinner, but we got the important pictures.  For those wondering about the picture on the board, it represents Ne Ne Chicken, the favorite food of the missionaries.  They happened to order that for our dinner that night.

 Again, we divided into two groups and did more surveying or stickerboarding in another area.  It was a warm, beautiful night with a nice breeze.

We had another special luncheon for those who certified as Preach My Gospel Teachers.  It was good to spend some time with them.  Boy can they eat!

We had a special experience this week as a former missionary came to visit us with her mother.  Her mother was so thankful to her Heavenly Father for the safety of her daughter's missionary service she felt the only way to show that gratitude was to give a gift to the mission parents, Sister Turner and me.  She hand made these beautiful sweaters.  There are no words to express our gratitude and love!

On the casual side this week, there is always a picture or two to share.  Here's an interesting motorbike with two young men riding it.  It seems to have some training wheels!

While running I found some ancient burial tombs that are purported to date back to between 16 BC and 700 AD.  The size of the mount usually represents the persons stature in society.  Right in the middle of the big city (tower in the background) is this nicely preserved 5+ acres of land.

This will be another busy week with district council meetings, interviews, activities and the usual missionary service.  We love what we're doing and appreciate all the support!