finishing up interviews

We can't believe how quickly this week past week has raced by.  We just updated the blog a few days ago!  We were in more than a dozen  homes this week doing interviews over four days.  Then, we had the great opportunity to watch general conference.  We do it a week later so it can be recorded and watched during local time and not Mountain Standard Time!

Nice couch!

 The missionaries have reminders on the door to turn off their heat.

 The members gave these guys lots of fruit for the recent holiday...

 A kind person donated these cool blankets, not sure about the special hair rollers...

 Another house full of stuffed animals...

 The three teams in this house have a Korean great wall mask which is fun for any season...

 Not many decorations in these houses, just a nice Korean flag.

 These ladies are chasing miracles!

 House decorations...

 Nice day for a picture outside...

 Another great view from the apartment window.

We had more lunches and district council meetings to attend as well.  We were well taught and impressed by the discussions.
Here we got the meeting, but not the lunch

 Here we got the lunch, but not the meeting.

 Here we did get the meeting,

 and the lunch...

 Here we got the lunch, but not the meeting.  We had a great week with them.

We found another house with an amazing chandelier this missionaries love!

They all have very good strength and love for each other...

Some missionaries asked if they could come over and bake.  They had fun making bread bowls and pretzel bites.  It was fun to listen to them chat.

Over the weekend we were able to watch with all our missionaries the sessions of General Conference from Salt Lake City.  We all recognize we need to be and can be better!  You can expect good emails from them with their commitments to be stronger teachers and better prepared to fulfill their responsibilities!

Sister Turner is always coaching the missionaries how to be better care for their apartments, be sensitive to expenses, have extra socks, etc.  One house painted an old door with some of her 'commandments'.  It was fun to see this! Hope you can read all the stuff around the edges.  Former missionaries will especially have fun with this.

Some times we get tired too!  Never get tired of this sight.

We never tire of the special visitors who drop by and visit us when they come 'home' for a few days.  This sister brought her husband and parents (who served in Seoul 30+ years ago as well as her two younger brothers.

 This young man just went home five weeks ago, but is working with a company that does carpet remodel work in temples.  He came to Seoul to help with replacing the carpet in the Seoul Temple.  He surprised us with a note he was available on Sunday.  We were so grateful to have him come visit us!

The last picture for this issue is from a visit to an international festival at the Olympic Park.  It is only a few minute walk for us to the park.  Of all we saw, this one really caught our eyes.  They are native Indians from Ecuador.  They were playing native music on their instruments.

We have so much going on and it's happening so quickly.  We are amazed at the miracles and the commitments of their hearts.  We are so richly blessed to associate with them.  Make sure you ask your missionary questions about their miracles and daily activities.  They'll amaze you like they do us.  Here's an example of what we get from them every week:
My companion] and I had a great week ourselves as we were given the chance to meet with the man from last week whom we'd given a Book of Mormon to! I can't even explain how unbelievably prepared he really is. As we met with him, he explained how he feels like they is something missing in religion here in Korea and he's just been looking for answer for so long. He explained that he'd been having a hard time lately and asking God what he should do, when all of a sudden he met us! He told us he'd read the first two book of Nephi already and how much he relates to Nephi in the Book of Mormon!! This man is already likening the scriptures to himself and we are beyond grateful to have found such a man like him. We were able to share the reason why we came to Korea and telling him of the Restoration of Jesus Christ Gospel and just watched as the Spirit testified it's truthfulness to him. I'm really excited to continue working with him and helping him come closer to God.

Thanks for helping them prepare!  Until next time...

Great week of interviews - in their homes!

We had a fun week with the missionaries.  We were able to interview them in their homes.
You will be very proud of them!  They do a good job of being organized.  I think some mops would help, but in general, very nicely cleaned.  It didn't even look like they waited until the last minute!

We are very proud of them. We will do another 15 homes this week.  This is a fun thing to do periodically.  The pictures are even fun for us.
Great picture to have in your home to see every day!

 We decided to do some interviews outside with them because the selfie stick wasn't with us.

 This is the cover of a future rock group...

 We tried to give you a sense of the view for this house...

 The members of the ward provide gifts to the missionaries 'by the dozen'...

 Korean pears or "bae's" are quite amazing.  They were so kind to share...

 Who wouldn't want this soothing wallpaper in their son's apartment?

 All smiles because a local church member took them to Costco for a treat...

 This apartment was kind of small and hard to find a place to extend the selfie stick...

 Another small apartment where we went into the hallway to get a picture with wall art and poetry...

 The lone piece of wall decoration in this apartment... Is it Christmas already?

 Another house with Christmas stars...

 Royalty's chairs to recline in with the sober look of royalty...

 These large marshmallow chairs were hard to pass up on...

 These sisters are carefully nurturing a small garden.  They even named their plants...

Another place with few decorations and very clean.  They have 'The Book'...

We also did some lunches, district council, and a few missionary activities together.

 Sorry this one is so fuzzy.  It's the old man shakes on the selfie...

We had three visits from previous missionaries who have finished their service, but still come visit us.  These truly are a blessing to us.  Sometimes they are surprises and we have to adjust our schedule.  We never tire of the relationships we have with them!
This one came all the way from England.  She brought her sister who has been working in China.

 This sister we only had a dozen weeks while awaiting her visa to serve in the United States.  She lives pretty close

 This threesome surprised us on a rainy morning.  They traveled from the southern part of the country to visit the temple and to visit us.

What an amazing couple of weeks in the work. We had a number of baptisms, people seeking the covenant path.  They are a rich blessing to our missionaries and the missionaries to them.  The joy of the gospel is clearly apparent in their eyes.
There were others we did not receive pictures for and were unable to attend.

 This little family is from Cameroon and she met the missionaries while riding a bus nearly a year ago. Their little girl, who doesn't like strangers was playing with the missionaries and the mother wanted to know why there was so much light and kindness in the missionaries.

We had another luncheon with missionaries completing their language certification training.  What a fun bit of time it was being with them.  We forgot to capture the picture with them and their feast, but we caught them nonetheless.

We caught a few random pictures of missionaries these past few weeks or they forwarded them to us.

One of the nicest chandeliers in the mission...

 Just a random pose.  Can't get enough of the wall paper!

 Who wouldn't want the light of these sisters in their lives!  This little girl cried and cried when her mom took her to church.  Now she cries worse when she tries to take her home!

I can never get enough pictures of Sister Turner in random (?) poses.  She wants to pet every puppy.  This one really lit up for her

 She loves the group of nutcrackers we have in our home.  She'd like to add this one to the collection.  It's a little larger (10X) the others, but that's okay...

 She is known as the mother of the mission... One of the favorite foods of the missionaries come from "Mom's Touch" restaurants...

 Biggest dandelion we've ever seen.  These are in some sisters' apartment.

Finally, we took a trip on the train to avoid the traffic.  We traded cars for bodies...  Your missionaries see this much more than we do!

No boring days during our time here!  We are enjoy everything about Korea, even the challenges that come from the traffic, the distances, etc.  We are so grateful for any time with the missionaries and working side by side with them.  Their attitudes are infectious and magnetic.  There is such light and goodness in them.  We will take this group over any other 18-21 year old group you can give us.  Thank you for all you've done to prepare them to be here.  Until the next publication!