October 2015 Part 2

Dad, Ben, and I traveled to Jeju Island Saturday morning for the missionary interviews with president along with a fireside that night. We were told by one elder our flight was at 10:00AM but then it was really at 9:10AM. The parking lot at the airport is closed for construction purposed/fixing/idk so I took a picture of these cars parked on the sidewalk across the street from the airport parking. Two lines formed just to enter the parking lot with a man yielding all power to stop and go the cars into the parking lot that has cars parked blocking cross ways and other cars?-CRAZY!! By the time we parked the car and got inside to the CheckIn desk it was after 9:10AM. But for some reason there were delays with the flight so we were able to board our same flight with the plane taking off at 9:28? not 9:10. So that was our miracle for the day!

This was so funny. We had a fun taxi driver take us from the Jeju airport to the hotel. Niki called Dad on his phone/Facetime and the taxi driver wanted to say hello to her, telling her Korean words for mom and dad, giving her hand signals goodbye like OK, thumbs up, etc. Then after Dad hung up the phone with Nik the taxi driver talked about his "blue card" status as a taxi driver and blew his special whistle. He was very engaging and animated.

  

Our missionaries organized a wonderful fireside about eternal families. They started with an activity having each person list seven things they want to do before they die (Bucket List sort of items). Next, a video was shown where people visiting a doctor ‘s office were given a doctor ‘s report of how much time they have left itemizing their daily activities breaking it down to available time of the day allotted to using with familys but not having a disease. It made people think deeply about how they will spend the rest of their lives in relation to their families. Then the missionaries asked everyone to put one more item on their Bucket list. They asked me what I put on my list BEFORE I said I wanted to go on a cruise with all of my family. AFTER, I wanted to share my testimony with all of my childen and grandchildren. One man spoke about his return from being less active, after the car accident death of his wife and mother-in-law, and his efforts using the My Family booklet and doing temple work. Great testimony! Dad had a slideshow of family pictures to show. We showed Steven ‘s family recent video. Dad was the final speaker. So good. I ‘m glad we were there.

Our cute sister missionaries got seats up close for this group meal after church on Sunday. Dad, Ben, and I got seats around the table, too. A big pile of purple skinned sweet potatoes were steamed and piled on a plate, along with a bunch of hard boiled eggs that were set out on the table. If you were lucky you got a slice of a homemade bean quesadilla?-that went fast. It kind of reminded me of the way people sit at the table of a crawfish boil?-eating as you work/pick apart the food with your hands.

 

Most times when we fly to Jeju we do not have any extra time for any other activity or site seeing. This time we made it a point to arrive early enough to see something else besides just the inside of the church building. We went to one of two museums which are across the street from the church. It was fun looking around at the different displays and reading the information about some of the history of Korea.

 

One of the items I noticed in this display is the red clothe covering that the wedding gift is given in. I remember someone bringing us a gift wrapped in a similar clothe covering tied by the long ends. Someone else told me that she was looking to buy some of those silky clothes as souvenirs.

 

A week ago...Dad and I have had a long week with him interviewing missionaries, and I visit with the group of missionaries waiting their turn.  Last Saturday we went to Haedong Yonggung Temple, traveling by city bus near where Ben goes to school, so it took us a while on the bus. I loved the lighting on the second picture, which I didn ‘t see until we got home; no photoshopping/adding color to it. A woman came up to this temple, kneeled down and then rubbed the corner of it with her hands and then rubbing her hands over her hair, back and forth for about half a minute. I don ‘t know what the significance for that was. We didn't notice until after we walked back behind this Buddha that there were many small statues along the back wall, displayed many levels. There would be tiny figurines/offerings placed nearby those small statues. There were small shops there for buying the tiny figurines reminding me of little shadow box size porcelain animal figurines like when I was a child.

There was a long pathway leading up to a huge statue (I guess representing the goddess of mercy). All along the pathway people would say prayers to their statue (like Ben is the year of the tiger) along with try to throw coins onto the statue to make them stick (I didn ‘t see anyone put adhesive or glue or spit or anything on the coins to make them stick).

Earlier this week I went shopping to the Busanjin Market. It is like entering a huge warehouse with vendor after vendor set up in tiny spaces selling their product. We went among the fabrics and found one piece of fabric that we liked from one vendor. Then we left our personal item with her and took her bolt of fabric just an aisle over (within sight of the first vendor) to match the color of that fabric with one of hers, doing that same process back and forth, and including even another vendor. This picture is of one of the vendors. What fascinated me was her money holder (what she kept her money in), a plastic pig! Another vendor brought out an old wooden box; another brought out some sort of other type of box/shoebox. All cash purchases without the use of a cash register; no credit cards or checks. Sister Lee knows just the right vendors to go to!

Long week! Dad finished the last of the quarterly missionary interviews on Tuesday. But Wednesday was already scheduled full with 18 interviews (the longer, more in depth ones) along with all his other work. Tuesday evening the George ‘s, new office couple, arrived at the airport. They will replace the Bowcutt ‘s (financial secretary and office secretary to President) with our next round of transfers in November. To get ready for their arrival the Bowcutt ‘s moved all their stuff to our house to live in the general authority room for the next 3 weeks.

Sister Lee made this delicious dinner for us Friday evening. Sister George voiced it well when she said that "Sister Lee even cleans vegetables beautifully! It looks like a picture on the cover of a gourmet magazine."