This week represented a good variety of all the things we seem to do here. The only thing missing was a zone conference, but the three district councils took care of that.
The true highlight of the week were the two baptisms. The first was of a man who is deaf. His friend introduced him to the gospel and we have never seen anyone so happy as he entered the waters of baptism. He was wanting to serve everyone during the refreshment period after. The thoughtful elders asked many missionaries across the mission to use Korean sign language to say "Congratulations for your baptism, we love you". Some got connected as a single recording, where others were individual areas. Here are the results:
A Young Single Adult group also welcomed him by singing "I am a Child of God" in sign. Unfortunately, it was too large to lead here. We've put it on Facebook.
I don't think we've seen happier missionaries!
The next day we had another baptism. This has a unique story. Ten years ago a young man wanted to join the church. His mother wanted to learn about it. She attended church for ten years. She was a member in every way except she hadn't actually made the sacred covenants in baptism. Her son served a mission and recently was accepted to BYU-I. He was able to baptize his mother. It was a special day.
The day before, other members were going to the temple. Even though she couldn't enter the temple, she took a tour of the area and said she had a most spiritual experience.
Another recent convert was also able to be in the temple to perform proxy ordinances. What a day!
we had interviews this week with three different districts. We enjoyed lunches and conferences as well. We forgot to take pictures of some lunches. We start each meeting by standing and reciting our missionary purpose in Korean and in English.
We followed the meeting with a Korean language study period. Learned so much!
The sisters love to pose with Sister Turner. You'll see more later..
We had one evening free and found these colorful hearts. We're so close it is hard to tell they're hearts. It was Valentines week after all.
On this day, the elders made a special lunch for everyone. It was some of the best Budaejjigae ever. It's the military stew we've talked about before.
Budaejjigae
We had a great district council and language study as well.
The camera ran away
Powerful threesome!
We had one more day of great company! We had lunch, but no picture.
Again, runaway camera.
We got to finalize the week with a sisters' preparation day. A houseful of daughters is loud and happy regardless if there are two or 24. Even included the moisturizing masks. Lots of happy sisters and friends.
they watched Moana and can be seen here charting the stars
Had to show they were well chaperoned!
We need to figure out and elders' preparation day, but the house is a bit small for the 50+ elders. We'll have to think through that.
Nothing to show here, but to say the least, we awoke to an amazing surprise announcement on Saturday morning allowing missionaries to call, text, email, etc. their parents every preparation day. We expect the missionaries will call a lot. We are excited, but concerned that they may get distracted with the goings on at home. We encourage parents to resist the urge to share all the good and the bad going on at home. Share as much as would be sent through an email. This will be a great blessing to their lives and the lives of the families if managed in moderation. It's a great day in history. We're so happy to be a part of it. We love these young men and young women. They are clearly the cream rising to the top! Until next time!
