Ping Pong - August 2016

Elder Park Kang San and Sister Park Jin Young (I didn’t realize they were cousins till he told me this visit) came to visit so I planned to have the George’s over for dinner along with them. I felt prompted to cook two extra chicken breasts which were eaten by Elder Oh Guiteak and Elder Suk Dohyeon when they came a little bit later (unplanned). Elder Park and Sister Park presented us and the George’s with t-shirts that they had designed and made (they also presented the Dustin’s with a similar t-shirt with their photo on it)(Look closely to see the picture they put on our shirts). We didn’t tell them ahead of time that we had invited the George’s for dinner; so another prompting worked out. They are so sweet, good young people! Elder Park Kang San ended up sleeping overnight at our home before leaving today to go back up to Seoul. He will be attending BYU Provo this Fall.

Doesn’t this look good!?! It IS good! So fresh and tasty and colorful and healthy for you. It kind of reminds me of shabu shabu as you dip rice paper circles in a bowl of water (does not have to be hot) and then wrap your choice of ingredients up like a spring roll in a Thai restaurant.

A few weeks ago during the week we attended a ping pong activity that our Relief Society president really wanted me to go to because she has told me that she is really good at ping pong. So the George’s and us showed up for a little while. The man playing doubles with Dad is Elder George, the mission financial secretary. The older man who they are playing against was a counselor to the first or second mission president of this mission, many years ago. He is 72 years old! Koreans age very well. Plus, he acts young/in shape. He was very sly in the way that he sat back and watched and kept score earlier in the night/activity. Then after a few minutes of playing against Dad this man suddenly SMASHED the ball! He was very good! And he was instructive kindly telling Dad what to do to improve (like the way he held the paddle, the way to put spin on the ball, etc). And, he was very funny, telling Dad to hit the ball so that it lands on the table (like sliding in safe to home base - Dad had a little trouble with a few of his shots). In the end Dad lost, but he played great for not having played ping pong for years.

Almost two weeks ago we had a few days of our assistants teaching a woman in our home. It was a cool experience. One of our assistants, who was on exchanges with another missionary, met a woman about a 15 minute walk away from our home. They walked and talked with the woman on the way back to the mission home, stood outside our home and called Dad asking if they could come in and teach her right then, and set an appointment to meet the same time the next night in our home. Our assistant was back together with his regular companion, the other assistant, and taught her again, and set another appointment to meet the next night in our home for another lesson. That third night our assistant was on another exchange with another missionary. After the lesson was taught they asked me to share my testimony. That was fine but I had these thoughts racing through my  mind  real quick - that I didn’t understand the lesson taught because I don’t  understand Korean, and I still did not know this woman’s name. She told us her nickname is Mijya, but she still had not told us her family name or her first name. Now the missionaries wanted me to share my testimony  (or  open up my heart and inner most tender feelings) with a woman who has  not  even opened up enough to share with us her name, after three days of  being  taught in our home. So I did share my testimony, and if you know me you  know that I cry easily (if I want to, if I allow myself to open up and  be  vulnerable). It turned out to be good. Mijya came to church on Sunday  (July 3), which was Fast Sunday so I felt like I should share my  testimony  (though I really am a shy person and do not like to be up front in front  of people with all eyes on me). As soon as I got up there I started to cry. But it was good because Mijya was looking up at me and smiling (she could have kept her eyes looking down and ignored me but she didn’t).  So it was good for me to open up and share my testimony and inner most thoughts.   We have had quarterly interviews with our missionaries and I have been sharing thoughts on this and in John 17:6-12, 20-21, along with parts of Elder Zwick’s talk from the April 2014 general conference. Also I have been sharing my notes on the article of the woman trying the Water Diet and notes on kidney stones (as we had another missionary have to go to the hospital with that problem). Drinking LOTS of water HELPS!!