Mission Leadership Seminar, Service and Flowers

This is a quick one.  It's all about Terri and me.  We spent three days in mission president seminar, what we call a zone conference for mission presidents.  We didn't get many pictures on our cameras, the Area Presidency had a special photographer and we won't get those for a while.

We had a great evening in the temple with eleven other mission president and wife couples, the area presidency and their spouses and some of their staff.  It was such a gorgeous day!  We had a traditional Korean meal and crashed for the evening.

We do have to tell one story, before we checked into the hotel and headed to the temple, we had seen a show on Netflix our kids had told us about called 'Street Food'.  It had an episode on three women in Seoul.  We found out where the market was that one of the women had her shop and we stopped in there. You can see in the picture over Terri's head the reference to the Netflix show.  She makes her own noodles and dumplings so we had to have some!

If you get the opportunity to watch the show you can get a sense for how kind she is!  She is just like that up front.  There were people standing in line to fill the roughly 20 seats around her little kitchen.  If you're in Seoul, it's a nice visit and a good lunch.

We had to get a picture of the four couples serving in Korea currently.  The lovely sister in the middle is the Area President's wonderful wife.  He was off taking care of things so we missed him.

 This sister is the wife of the area president and she and Sister Turner have a wonderful relationship.

We were able to get a picture of the Area Presidency together.  Great leaders and better fathers and husbands.

These three couples started their missions together in June 2016.  The couple on the left is in the Tokyo South Mission, the one on the right is leading the Daejeon Mission.  We will end together and hope to stay connected ever after.

This is Terri's friend serving in the Busan Mission.  Terri found her a summer version of the hat we had for our grandkids for winter. They have too much fun together.

 This good man is the Area Authority Seventy for the Seoul Missions.  He's a very faithful, warm, loving man who provides much guidance to us and the local church leaders.

While at the hotel we saw this wall and I had to take a picture to show to my friends who might be a little OCD.  Does this type of thing seem hard to look at or is it fundamentally orderly?

The day after the seminar ended, one of the local stake units had organized a family service event at a large central park in the city.  They asked the missionaries to come support the families and to have them invite others roaming the park, especially families to come by and play games, eat snacks, and various other things.  Here's a little intro.

The missionaries dressed up as characters and made friends with the kids.  It was a warm day and we were grateful for their willingness to do it.

Picture of president losing in a chopstick race to one of the missionaries.

While we're doing games, we got a group playing jump rope including some of the missionaries.  Some seemed that they had never seen a jump rope before!

All the volunteers.

 This is the great stake presidency for the Seoul West Stake. They are great leaders and they are exceptionally organized!  We love serving with them.

On the walk to the car we saw this 'car rental' place across the street from the park.  You can rent\ the car and remote control the car your son or daughter ride.  It's a pretty cool selection!  We saw a few at the park and the kids were having a great time. I think the parents had fun with them as well...

Before the Saturday was over we had the opportunity to attend a baptism of a young lady who has been amazing.  She attends Institute of Religion three times a week, works daily with the missionaries, and attends church.  She was really pushing to be baptized.  It was a great day!  The missionaries sang with some other young singles.  There are only elders in this area.

In an earlier blog we had shown some pictures of the Rose Plaza at the Olympic Park.  They were covered with rice stalks.  They were then unwrapped as Spring came on.  Well, now, it's an amazing explosion of color!

Even a little commentary...  It's worth seeing!

Finally, after attending the Anyang Ward for what is likely to be the last time during our time here, we were invited to enjoy a meal with the leaders and some recent converts. It's a great day with traditional Bibimbap, one of the oldest traditional foods in Korea.

Well, we're almost caught up.  We are only a week behind.  We will have another up for you shortly.  It will have many more pictures of missionaries who we interviewed this past week.  We are on that cycle again.  Have a great week.

Always the hardest week!

The pace is quickening and the busier the schedule the faster the days go by.  Our calendar is full!

This was the week of transfers.  We had two elders leave, one for health issues who we pray will return quickly, and the other completing his 24 months of service. 

 While dropping off one elder at the airport, we greeted seven new sisters and a new elder.  Wow, what a wonderful group!  Thank you parents for providing such prepared disciples of Christ!

After a good evening with them we let them rest before connecting them with their trainers.  We match the goodness of the new missionaries with high caliber trainers.  We work hard to select the correct ones each transfer.  Gratefully, the Lord is the one providing guidance.

 This sister is from Oklahoma.  I'm sure she's glad to be here with the tornadoes racing through Oklahoma,  we pray for the safety of her home state.

 This young lady is from Arizona.  Her mother is Korean.

 This young man is our first from South America coming from Argentina.

 This young sister is from California

 This young sister is from Utah,

 This sister is our first one from Mexico,

 This sister is also from Utah,

 and this fine sister is from my home town in Utah.

Once we got them settled, we prepared for the training we do each transfer with the district leaders.  Though only a few are new as leaders, we bring them all together with the Assistants to train them on their roles and responsibilities.  They are all amazing.
The Assistants are great trainers and bring a wonderful spirit and laughter to their training.

 We have to wonder about their focus once in a while... But, all in all they are pretty amazing.

 President was off doing an interview so Sister Turner had to control the crowds.

Over the weekend, we had the opportunity to attend church services at the smallest branch in the mission in far away Anseong.  Afterwards they had a little treat of fresh watermelon for us.  The young man on the stand was recently baptized and is encouraging all his friends to come join with us.  He's a young Alma.

Even though it is into  the next week, we did conduct our transfer Mission Leadership Council or MLC with the Assistants, Sister Training and Zone Leaders.  Again, a wonderful day training on roles and responsibilities and teaching them new things we want them to know and teach at zone conference in the next several weeks.
The phone gets hijacked occasionally!

 It's not always stressful for them.  We try to lighten the load and allow them to let their inner child out.  They have such great personalities and talents.

 Of course, there is always Sister Turner's tasty treats to occupy them while they de-stress at the break.

Finally, we had another great visit from three of our former missionaries on school break.  College stresses them, but they know coming to Korea would lighten their load, especially visiting their former mission mom and dad!  We can't get enough of these young people.  They bring so much joy to our lives!  They are all as good looking as when they were with us, the light in their eyes is still bright.

Well, enough pictures for today.  We'll add to your opportunities as soon as we can.  Share with everyone.  These are great faces!  Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.