We came upon this directions sign,
that reminded me of the sign at the beginning of each episode of MASH, that tells
how many miles to each of the cities/homes of the doctors and nurses. So I looked
it up on the computer: Niki is the closest to us, in Busan, Korea as she is in Exeter, England,
at 5855.6 miles away. Steven and his family, along with Alex, inProvo, Utah are
5975.3 miles from Busan. And then Kenzie is 7010.8 miles away from Busan, in Austin,
Texas.
On Saturday we hiked up the mountain.
Dad gave us the impression we would be hiking for about an hour. We hiked for over
four hours. This is outside of one of the gates (not the South gate because we hiked
to that gate a couple of months ago), of Geumjeongsanseong.
We had finished walking down the
hill entering into this courtyard area,looked at the map to continue, when this
lady named Claire asked for helpwith directions. I wanted to take a picture with
her because she spokeEnglish with a French accent. She was born in Seoul and was
adopted by herfamily and raised in France. Fun surprise.
While walking and talking with some
other people this man, Mr. Lee,overheard Dad and asked if he was a member of the
Mormon Church, saying that his wife and sons were members of that church. In fact,
his son is serving a mission now in Seoul.
After walking to two of the gates
at Geumjeongsanseong we walked down the trail to Beomeosa, the largest premier Buddhist
Temple in Busan. There were numerous statues of turtles and marble etched signs guarding
the temple.
Outside a Buddhist Temple there
were these statues of different animals,also a cat and a turtle, lizard; which was
around the corner from the LDS church where Dad had interviews with the missionaries
last week. I don't know what the different animal statues represent.
Last Wednesday Dad and I were invited to
eat lunch with the assistants and two elders serving in Gwangan, to a members home. The Kim family, an older couple who just recently
returned from serving a mission in the Seoul Temple. I will send some pictures from our visit. I feel like I’m torn between two cultures when
we eat at a member’s home. I sat by Dad,
along with the host (husband) and all the other missionaries. Near the end of our meal I commented that Sister
Kim’s plate was still clean/not eaten on.
If I was back at home I would be helping the hostess in her kitchen with
preparing the meal, if she needed any help.
But the hostess would sit and eat with us. I felt bad like I should not be sitting there
enjoying this wonderful meal while she is still working hard in the kitchen not
able to sit and eat with us. After eating
the local missionaries shared a spiritual message. When they were done teaching their message the
host asked each of the assistants to share their testimonies. This whole time the speaking was done in Korean. Then the host asked me and Dad to share our testimonies. I told them I was going to speak in English, which
I did, but it took me a moment to get started.
I felt so grateful for the kindness and hospitality, the graciousness, the
fun! I feel very fortunate to be here and
to be treated so warmly by the Korean people.
I sit and listen in on the conversations between Dad and the host (whenever
and wherever we may be), and the conversations between the assistants/missionaries
and the host (this visit was fun to hear of one of our assistants as a youth—thought
to be a troublemaker back then—look how he’s grown up since!), and the daily activities
of our missionaries (that I wouldn’t ordinarily hear about during a zone conference
or mission tour). It reminds me of the conversation
I had on Sunday with a young returned missionary sister in our ward. I asked her if she ever met a general authority/apostle
while on her mission, to which she said yes.
I asked her if she was excited to meet them, to which she said yes. When I asked her why she said she was excited
for what she could learn from them, and the feeling she got/love when she shook
their hand. The same thing when she attended
a mission tour. The same thing when she attended
zone conferences—but this time Dad and I were the ones teaching and sharing our
love. But we can feel of the missionaries’
excitement and love for us—just to come to zone conferences. And we can feel the love and excitement from the
members when we attend their stake/district/branch conferences and regular Sunday
meetings. I feel like I am blessed with such
a warm reception—the same way I felt excited about having a visiting authority attend
our church back at home. It’s hard to believe
being on the receiving end. It kind of reminds
me of a part of the lesson we discussed in Relief Society on Sunday, taken from
Teachings of Presidents of the Church Joseph Fielding Smith:
“One day at a church conference in the
Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square a 12-year-old boy, excited to be there for the
first time, had come early to be sure to get a seat close to the front. … Just before
the meeting began, and when all the seats were taken, an usher asked the boy to
give up his seat so that a late arriving United States Senator could have it. Meekly
the boy complied, and stood in the aisle, disappointed, embarrassed, in tears.”
President Joseph Fielding Smith “noticed the youngster and motioned him to come
up [on the stand]. When the boy told him what had happened he said, ‘That usher
had no right to do that to you. But here, you sit by me,’ and shared his seat with
him, in the midst of the apostles of the Church.
I have tried to get to my meetings early
in order to get a seat up front. I remember
doing that as a youth when our family traveled to Detroit to see President Spencer
W. Kimball speak along with Elder Thomas S. Monson, back in the late 1970’s, in
the Pontiac Silverdome. I remember the people
filing into the seats in the stands and the floor seats were reserved for the missionaries
and whoever else got there early enough.
But Janine and I wanted to sit up front so we told our families we would
be down in front—and we were! We sat on the
second row (I could tell because I remember seeing a picture in the Church News
with a sea of dark suits/church coats row after row but the two inside seats on
the second row were light colored—dresses).
I remember writing in my journal how excited I was to sit up so close that
I could even see the spit fly from Elder Monson’s mouth as he spoke! Now when I sit up close at meetings like stake
conference I do so in order to help me hear and see (aging). But I can relate to the boy in this story from
the manual, lesson 20, because I get excited to shake the hand and hear the talk
from a general authority. I want to be close
to them to feel of their spirit/love. Really,
that’s what it’s all about. Love. We are drawn to love. And as a representative
of the Savior, a general authority brings the Savior’s love to the people. We feel it and want to get close to it, longing
for it.
This reminds me of the scripture in 3 Nephi…when
the resurrected Jesus came to the people of Nephi, from the Book of Mormon. He had taught the people many things but when
it was time for Him to go the people didn’t want Him to leave just yet:
3 Nephi 17:3-7 “Therefore, go ye unto your
homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the
Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the
morrow, and I come unto you again. But now I go unto the Father, and also to show
myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for
he knoweth whither he hath taken them. And it came to pass that
when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude,
and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if
they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion
towards you. Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have
ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered,
or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will
heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.”
3 Nephi 18:32 “Nevertheless, ye shall not
cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall
ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and
come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be
the means of bringing salvation unto them.”
3 Nephi 19:1-3 “And now it came to pass
that when Jesus had ascended into heaven, the multitude did disperse, and every
man did take his wife and his children and did return to his own home. And it was
noised abroad among the people immediately, before it was yet dark, that the multitude
had seen Jesus and that he had ministered unto them, and that he would also show
himself on the morrow unto the multitude. Yea, and even all the night it was noised
abroad concerning Jesus; and insomuch did they send forth unto the people that there
were many, yea, an exceedingly great number, did labor exceedingly all that night,
that they might be on the morrow in the place where Jesus should show himself unto
the multitude.”
It kind of reminds me of the Saturday night
session of stake conference. The meeting
was so good that the people did not want to go/did not want it to end. They were instructed to go to their homes and
ponder, ask/pray, and prepare for the next day’s meeting. When the Savior saw how sad they were for Him
to go He had compassion on them and asked for their sick to be brought to Him, any
that are afflicted in any manner. He would
heal them. They were healed for just being there at that wonderful meeting. When I say was there, full attention mentally/spiritually
as well as physically.
Then we see in chapter 18 that we do not
want to cast out any from our places of worship (look at 2 Nephi 26:26—Christ doesn’t
tell people to stop worshipping. He wants to add to our knowledge/good.). Come unto
Christ with full purpose of heart and I shall heal them. Attending our meetings/coming unto Christ with
full purpose of heart we shall be healed.
We invite everyone—no exclusion. No
blocking or shutting out.
Do you think you would want Jesus to go
or to stay?
In chapter 19 we see that the people noised
abroad, who were they telling about the Saturday night session of stake conference?
And they worked all the night and did labor exceedingly all that night. I haven’t gone forth from a meeting like that
and worked all the night laboring exceedingly.
I can do more. I should do more. I will do more.
Dad was on Jeju Island attending the Seogipo
branch conference. He left later in the day
Saturday and returned Sunday early evening to go straight to the Busan stake presidency
meeting with the assistants. After that they
hustled home to have a staff meeting here in our mission office that night. Long weekend for Dad.
Saturday morning Dad, Ben, and I got up
early to drive to Ben’s school for him to take the PSAT test. While Ben was taking the test Dad and I visited
one of our sister missionary apartments to do personal study with them and then
share what we had learned. Also I was able
to see a missionary apartment for the first time. Wowie!
Zowie!! I was trying hard not to sound
shocked. I know that this apartment is for
just two missionaries. But my goodness! Their whole apartment could fit inside our master
bedroom. But then we went to see the elder’s apartment. Let me tell you a little about this apartment. It is for four missionaries so it is quite a bit
larger than what the sisters live in (it happens to be one of the largest apartments
we have, I hear). BUT, there is a reason
why the missionaries will be moving into a different (smaller) apartment in less
than a month. Apparently the pipes have been
clogged for months and months.
Today Dad and I went to Costco, typical
of every Monday for us. We saw some funny
car signs/decals on the back of car windows.
One said Baby in Car and had a cartoon baby holding an ax (think Paul Bunyan
as a baby) (Dad didn’t believe me and I didn’t get my camera ready quickly enough
to get a picture-but believe me!). The other
car decal was Baby on Board with baby footprints and a baby bottle and heart around
it—much nicer.
We have seen a sign, up from the walkway
over the big road that says BLESSU (so I think of someone sneezing whenever we walk
by). And a banner was placed over Outback
Steakhouse that said Outback True Steakhouse.
Dad and I have zone conferences on Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week.
I need to work on my talk to make it better and shorter. I used Elder Klebingat’s general conference talk
as my basis and then added different examples to it. Great talk!
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