September 2015

We attended stake conference yesterday in the same building that a military branch (English speaking) uses for their Sunday services. We ate the meal after the stake conference session and then Dad was looking for the area Seventy who was sitting on the stand for the military branch testimony meeting. We walked into the meeting late and sat on the front row in front of the piano (off to the side/kind of awkward to get around to it). The Seventy motioned for Dad to go sit up on the stand with him. When Elder Jung Tae Gul motioned for me to come up to the stand I declined so I could sit with Ben. I’m glad I did because we were right beside the piano which Megan Hansen played the closing hymn on. Afterward Megan saw my name tag, figured out that I was the wife of the mission president, and then tried to remember who it was that told her to look for me in Busan, Korea. She mentioned that she was from Kansas, but that didn’t ring a bell with me until she finally remembered the last name Kennsington then corrected herself to say Kennington. Megan knows my Uncle and Aunt; Jim and Cristina Kennington from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Fun connection! Normally we never attend that branch so I probably would never have met her if we hadn’t been waiting for Dad to speak with Elder Jung.

These cute women greeted Dad, Ben, and me as we came into one of the classrooms that had been set up with this delicious meal after the Sunday session of stake conference. As is the case each time, we wait for the other stake leaders/men to come into the room after they have taken care of some business that is necessary after the session of stake conference finishes.  The cute lady on the right is the stake president’s wife. The cute lady on the left is the one who prepared/arranged this meal for us.  The lady who is second from the right (with her fingers held up to her face) when asked what the food on the bottom left side of the photo is called she answered Korean sushi (but it isn’t like sushi sweet light brown breaded toe covering of sticky rice inside with no seafood!).

Beautiful flowers were inn the tables along with bowls of soup at each place setting. The soup tasted better than cut grass from a lawnmower! But really, it had a kick from red peppers so I ate just about half of mine.  The lettuce at the top of the table is for wrapping the beef dish that was next in line delicious!  The middle of the table you can see a plate of bbq chicken legs, which is popular to eat. But the difficult/funny thing about it is how they are eaten while using chopsticks. It took me about a year to be able to feel confident enough to eat those using chopsticks rather than my hands. Metal chopstick can be slick eating chicken drumsticks(mini).

Elder Yamashita wanted to meet with the zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders for a short meeting after the afternoon session of the mission tour.  One point he made was that we do not know how God has blessed and prepared someone/people/our investigator to hear the gospel message. It could take someone a very long time of listening to the missionaries before they feel like they are ready to commit to baptism, like Dad’s dad(Papa). Or it could be really quick that someone hears the messages from the missionaries and joins the Church, like my dad(Grandpa Reichenbach).

 

Last Friday evening we took a flight to Jeju Island to attend their district conference, along with zone training meeting, and a few interviews for Dad. We waited until the evening because Ben had to get home from school before we could leave. Normally Ben would have gotten home later than he did, after cross country practice, but they had their first meet of the season on Thursday of last week and therefore did not hold practice on Friday. Ben did great at his meet coming in second place overall and in first place for his school; out of maybe 10 teams. Good job Ben!!

 Dad and Ben jogged early in the morning, before breakfast, Saturday morning on Jeju.

Grocery shopping at Lotte Mart on Saturday during Chuseok weekend (equivalent of our Thanksgiving weekend). The store had many clerk/employees standing around ready to help the customers, dressed in their traditional Korean clothes. The one woman was particularly shy about having her picture taken.

Getting ready for our 5K/10K Sports Day with our missionaries for Chuseok, Monday and Tuesday. Half the mission on one day and half on the other day. I think Sister Lee and the office elders purchased 20 large bags of potato chips; she said she used three shopping carts at Costco. We have 84 hamburger patties thawing on our kitchen counter along with the same number of hot dogs close to the same number tomorrow. Sister Lee is preparing some traditional Korean food to mix in with those burgers and hot dogs.

We had our mission Fitness Day 5K/10K run. We had half the mission come on Monday and the other half come on Tuesday—both during Chuseok holiday which is like our Thanksgiving. Last year we had the whole mission attend on the same day but we found out we are not supposed to gather all our missionaries together on the same day for any mission wide meetings except for a Christmas Conference.

Each missionary was “invited” to run or walk the 5K or the 10K—but everyone was expected to participate.

Last year we gave our missionaries blue t-shirts. This year our shirts are black.