Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival!

This is a picture of Ben running the 5K course we chose to race earlier today.  Today is P-Day for the missionaries.  It is also Chuseok, a national 3 day holiday, the harvest festival.  It follows the lunar calendar, on the 15th day of the 8th month, so it is not always held on the same day year after year, such as Christmas which is always on December 25.  It’s not like the American Thanksgiving which is held on the fourth Thursday of November each year.  Today is the official holiday with the day before and the day after as part of the holiday.  Chuseok started during the Gabae (third reign of kingdom?) during 57BC-AD935.  Back then there were festivals that had contests such as weaving/for a month.  The team that wove the most fabric during the month won.  There were archery and martial art competitions, too.  That is not known/mentioned today.  But the people do gather as families, traveling to an older relative’s home.  It was a time to visit ancestral hometowns.  So we invited our missionaries to come together at the mission office.  If they already had a Chuseok invitation they did not need to come here with us.  We had about 72 missionaries come, change clothes, and then we all walked over to the walking path for our run.  The path is down below the street level, so during the flooding water reached all the way to the top of the areas that are covered (a short segment of tunnel under some of the subway line).  The path follows a creek/drainage area that has different stops along the way with exercise equipment (think of the exercise stations near LA Fitness back behind where the Moline family lives-mostly grandparent age people use these machines).  There are basketball goalposts that are still down from the flooding, along with downed nets for badminton.  There are a few bushes/flower gardens along the way, too.  We had it set up to where the missionaries ran 1.55 miles down the pathway, crossed over one of the bridges, and ran back to the finish/near where we started.

Sister Bowcutt was at the beginning of the race, the one who said “Go!"  She was also at the end of the race with a stopwatch to call out people’s times.  I think she said my time was about 48:54, bringing up the last of the walkers/runners.  I didn’t really run the race.  At the second of the bridges that crossed over I crossed (instead of crossing later on where the turnaround was) so that I could take pictures of the runners on the other side.

Sister Bowcutt had water bottles and homemade muffins for all the finishers.  I made the muffins over the past few days.  Elder Suter ordered me some muffin pans since we couldn’t find any in the mission home.  Then I started trying new recipe (ones I had in my recipe box, links Kenzie sent me to try, others that I found on line).  I kept some recipes and threw others out.  It’s interesting trying to adapt recipes with the ingredients that can be found.  Now I know a little more what we like.

We plan on gathering again, October 3, for the next holiday (when Korea was founded-way long ago when it was one Korea) to run again.  We told the missionaries to listen for their times and when we run again we will try to beat our times.

Dad is in the green shirt.  He is amazing!  Dad woke up early (like he always does) and ran 12 miles, before he ran in this fun run 5K.  He started at the back of the pack of runners, cheering on the sister missionaries who were walking.  Then he worked his way up to the front, encouraging all along the way.  The first sister missionary to finish came in behind Dad with a 25:00 time.  Not bad Dad!

A recently returned missionary sister in our ward wore this beautiful traditional Korean dress that her mother made (her mother is standing with her) to church yesterday.  I thought there would be more people dressed in the traditional dress, but this was the only one.  I was happy to take her picture before church started in case we got held up talking to others afterward.  The bishop announced that we would be having Fast and Testimony Meeting, only, because of the holiday.

More about the Holiday, etc…..We had about 72 missionaries gather at the mission office/chapel to celebrate.  They came from all over, dressed in their missionary clothes, so then they had to change into exercise clothes.  Dad and I walked ahead to the park/trail/walkway to make sure things were set up.  The office couple were there already in place.  Elder Bowcutt rode a bike down to the turn around/half way spot while Sister Bowcutt handled the start and finish of the race.

The soghees (office elders) set up the water, muffins, table, banner, etc along with getting the bike and Elder Bowcutt situated.  They did lots of running back and forth.  Surprisingly they ran in the race well.  We did have one missionary get sick, maybe from the heat combined with the running and extra stuff.  One of our assistants ran the race well.  But after the race the assistants and office elders started running back to where the mission van was parked to hustle back to the mission office parking lot to start cooking the meat for lunch.  Before they got to the van the assistant vomited, continued running but didn’t turn when the others turned.  He just kept running, jumped a fence, said later he didn’t know what he was doing/didn’t feel like he had any control of himself/couldn’t clearly remember what happened.  Somehow the other missionaries got him back to the mission home (along with Dad’s help) to lie down on the living room floor there.  We elevated his legs and feet with cushions from the couches, put a cool wet towel on his head, cranked the A/C down, had him take sips of cold water then Gatorade, slowly ate a few crackers to get some salt in him (his leg muscles were cramping in front and in back), then slowly ate a few grapes.  He slowly started remembering/talking like normal.  I showed him a few of the pictures I took—but he couldn’t remember anybody’s names.  I asked him to sit up to take a sip of water—but he didn’t seem to comprehend what I was saying right away.  It was weird and scary.  After some time he went back outside to where all the other missionaries were playing games (board games, basketball, volleyball, badminton) while others were cooking the meat on the grill (pork like thick slabs of bacon that they grill then cut with scissors-fat is way more desirable than what we would want in America-roll up the meat with rice, onions, and red spicy sauce in a lettuce leaf), but his legs were kind of wobbly.  Overall the activity was lots of fun and successful…besides the scary part with one of our assistants.  Remember to DRINK LOTS!

Another part of Chuseok was a dinner invitation we had Sunday night with the assistants and the office elders.  Elder Min is a Korean so he knows all about this holiday, as opposed to me who doesn’t.  So I guess Elder Min decided to cook traditional Korean foods for Chuseok, which he told us a number of times that he was doing that, until we finally had Ben ask if that meant he was inviting us over to share in his meal.  Sometimes the art of an invitation gets lost in the translation.  Anyway, we had a great dinner last night that Elder Min prepared.  The other missionaries either helped cut up foods or set up the table and chairs along with the tableware upstairs in the church, while Elder Min did the cooking.  He made two kinds of soup—one is soybean (a thin broth with tofu and I don’t know what else in it) and a dumpling type soup with some Spam, dumplings, thin broth, etc.  Kimchee pancake thingies—even made one without shrimp for me, jopje (I’m not sure of the name but it has clear noodles with cut up vegetables and egg and stuff—it’s the STUFF that I never know what it is that surprises me), Spam with onions fried, rice, kimchee, maybe something else.  It was good, as good as fried Spam can be…but it all tastes even better than it probably did because the missionaries made it with love for us.  They are wonderful missionaries.  We had good conversation going around the table answering how a mission has blessed our lives, how it has blessed other’s lives (I guess I was thinking that when we serve others-maybe starting out with not the best attitude- that as things progress we see that the person receiving the most blessings is us!).  They all had great answers.

Earlier in the afternoon one of the stake presidents had meetings with Dad.  He stopped by our home beforehand to give us a box of Bae-Korean pears.  It reminded me of each year when LE Simmons gives Dad/us a box of grapefruit for the holidays.  What a treat!  That was a fun surprise.  Also, Saturday night the man in charge of the FM (Facilities Management) group and his returned missionary daughter (Eugjin) stopped by with some traditional Korean food for us for Chuseok.  Her mother made breaded pork medallions, breaded sweet potatoes, and breaded zucchini.  She made these puffed rice (look like the size of Puffed Cheetos) thingies that are honey coated and rolled in something.  Also some rice cakes thingies—well they call them rice cakes but it’s nothing like a cake.  Anyway, people here have been very generous and sweet to us.

On Saturday we had another MLCM with our zone leaders and sister training leaders.  We had a MLCM two weeks ago and we set this one up to follow up with the challenge to comeback with ideas on how we can increase teaching opportunities.  Our numbers have been down/frustrating/stagnant…I know that the numbers aren’t the most important thing but here’s an example to give you an idea of what we mean.  At this meeting one of the sister training leaders mentioned that we need to increase our expectations of everyone we meet.  She mentioned that at the service project in the park cleaning up debris we had lots of missionaries there, there were lots of people there, the opportunities were there, but maybe we just didn’t think that was the time to find people to teach.  Maybe we thought they wouldn’t be interested.  Maybe we limited ourselves.  It made me think of a portion of Sister S. Hulet’s letter she wrote to her sons both serving missions of a missionary letter she read: 

The last one I read talked about him going to the temple with the Sisters and Elders serving in his area.  Once in the temple, the missionaries no longer wore their name tag but instead “became like one of us”.  He got to thinking about how so often, he thinks that the temple work is his duty, and missionary work is their duty.  Yet, there in the temple, the missionaries were doing the same work as him.  He realized he should be doing the same work as the missionaries!  (that was a rough summary).  After reading the article, I started thinking too!  Ya know, the missionaries here in our area have a goal to invite 25 people a day!!!!  B’s goal is to invite 20 people a day!!!  What if I was to invite or at least talk about the gospel to just ONE non-member every day?!!!  Umm…Well, my friend and I talked about it and decided to give it a try.  I’m some days kinda failing.  I had fears that I’d be accosting people at Walmart or the gym every day.  It’s sorta true, but ya know what?  Almost every time I went out the week before, I was given the opportunity to at least “mention” the church.  Sadly, there were times I skirted the topic and then later wanted to kick myself.  I told the family and the Sister Missionaries about my goal.  T. decided to do it too and guess what!  He brought up church (by mentioning you guys) to his friends at lunch!  Pretty cool huh!!  And tonight K. told me that she has been taking on the challenge and has been talking about church in some way every day this week.  Guess what!  I have succeeded 4 out of 5 days this week!  We’re taking small and simple steps and working to make them bigger! 

One of the office elders had his birthday on Friday so I made Rocky Road Fudge Bars to celebrate.  I have found that everything tastes a little different here.  If I try a new recipe then I’m ok with it.  But if I make something from before then I get a little disappointed or my expectations just haven’t been met/hard to explain.  But for dinner that night Dad, Ben, and I tried a new restaurant that we think all of you will like.  First of all, we sat at a table in a booth…with our feet dangling down rather than Indian style with our ankles rubbing on the floor and our legs falling asleep.  A huge pan of broth was set before us over a heating element, with bunches of leaves and vegetables and then meat to be put inside to cook, incrementally.  The hostess who seated us came by to show us how it’s done.  It was fun, plopping in meat and stuff a portion at a time.  Then a later stage we put in these noodles and skinny long mushroom thingies.  Then when we thought we were all done she brought out some rice (I had even commented that we hadn’t been served rice with our meal) and she ladles out the leftover soup type broth stuff, plopped in the rice scrapping the sides, then adding some eggs and then some broth back in to make a creamy rice dish.  We were stuffed!  That was a different experience than what we have had before.  

Wednesday during the day Egjin K. (who brought food to us Saturday) took me shopping at a big mall.  At stake conference last week she mentioned she would like to spend some time together so I asked if she knew where to buy cards—like birthday or wedding cards.  She came over to show me where to go.  We had to take the subway a few stops on the red line, then transfer on the brown line, before transferring on to the green line.  We exited inside the subway station and took the elevator upstairs all without having to go outside at all. I was surprised when Dad called to say that it had started raining again hard enough to where he thought the tunnel by our house would fill up with water again.  I didn’t hear a thing of a storm while we were inside shopping.  Eugjin and I walked through the food court area of the mall.  Everything in Korea is so fascinating and different from what I’ve experienced in America.  The way the shops set up their foods is different yet one way is not right and the other is not wrong.  We could watch while foods were being prepared behind a glass barrier…yet no smells were all around us (think of First Colony Mall Food Court with the smells of pizza baking and Chinese food cooking and McDonald’s fries smell in the air.  But then going around another corner where the people sit down with their food all the aromas seemed to hit us.

Monday night of last week we were invited to the former stake president’s house for dinner with the assistants and the office elders, and a companionship of sister missionaries met us there.  The best of the foods missionaries could want to eat was all prepared for us.  People are so kind and generous.  Wow!  Food is a big deal with the members here.  We drove up incredibly steep hills/roads to where this family lives.  The view from their apartment over the city is amazing.  Life was so different back at home.  The weather here has been great…it will be difficult to endure 95-103 plus degree heat when we go back to Houston in three years.