Happy July 4th!

Hello! 

Happy 4th of July(late)!!  Our shipment came on Friday…But as soon as I could, I found the Bundt pan we shipped and made a Chocolate Bundt Cake along with the hot fudge sauce…so we could have a bit of home here. We invited the office missionaries and the assistants to come over around 9:00PM…just before they went up to their apartment for the night. We had invited the senior office couple, the Bowcutt’s, over around 8:00PM so they were still here visiting when the elders arrived. We all had dessert and talked and looked at the family photos on the digital screen Dad had set up in the kitchen. Elder Men (one of the assistants to the president) had said previously that he did not like chocolate…but he meant the candy. He was quick to say he likes cake. We’ve been told they grow pumpkins here in Korea, but they don’t make pumpkin pie (Ben’s favorite)…Elder Men was surprised/perplexed to hear about pumpkin pie. I brought a few small patriotic decorations to put in the planter in the front entryway…but not many decorations. I guess there will be a Korean holiday in the fall (around October??) that they celebrate with fireworks…I told Elder Men to schedule that on President’s calendar along with the Cherry Blossom Festival which I don’t want to miss. Dad just laughed.

Last Monday evening Ben spent some time street teaching with the missionaries while Dad and I traveled to the Ulsan Zone to BangEojin for Dad to interview an older sister/investigator for baptism. Dad interviewed the sister in the bishop’s office. He said that he struggled with the language…but I think he’s doing great. We’ve been here one week and he has worked so hard at the language. When we go to another area, which means we’re in the car driving some distance like an hour and a half, he has Elder Bingham drive. Dad sits in the front with him and studies the language, asking questions of both the elders. Ben and I sit in the back with Elder Men. After interviewing the sister, Dad interviewed the missionaries serving in that area-two sisters and two elders.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we (Dad, Ben, Elder Bingham, Elder Men, and me) traveled/gathered for Meet the President meetings. Each meeting was different…learning more and more as we didn’t know what to do/expect having not done this before. The assistants have been marvelous. They have been assistants for five weeks, each, before we arrived…so they are learning along with us many times. They’re sweet boys. Their personalities are wonderful and they have been fantastic about including Ben in whatever they are doing. So Ben has eaten with them/tried more Korean foods than Dad and I have. Usually Dad and I will just eat cheese (Cheddar-we haven’t found Swiss cheese for Dad yet) and crackers or apple slices late at night. I really haven’t cooked except for spaghetti for dinner Sunday night. Even that was an experience.

At these Meet the President meetings Ben introduced our family scripture (…”as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15) and shared his testimony. I introduced the new missionaries (like how Sister Ashton would have them stand by her and share about them briefly) and told about our family (telling about each of our children’s missions). Dad would be standing for over an hour…going over a few announcements/instructions before opening up the time for questions-any questions they had about our family or the mission or the church or the scriptures. The feeling from each of the three zones was different. The instruction Dad…and we (some questions would be directed to me and Ben as well as to Dad-not many) gave was geared for specific missionaries (I think). The missionaries Dad interviewed the night before in BangEojin were at the meeting on Tuesday. Repentance and forgiveness, humility were mentioned. After the meeting we met/mingled with each of the missionaries. The buildings here are not the same as in the US. They are different from the next one-kind of reminds me of what it was like growing up n Michigan going with my dad to the small branches in northern Michigan-each building is different because it is not standard church paid for. So after the first meeting we mingled in the chapel area…couldn’t have filed out and had room for all of us to talk somewhere else. The elder who played the piano for the meeting was playing random other music like Jon Schmidt’s Waterfall. In the car driving back we discussed how the meeting went and decided we wanted the missionaries in the next two Meet the President meetings to file past us going out of the chapel in order to keep it more reverent. We kind of felt like we were in a wedding reception receiving line at the second meeting on Wednesday…shaking hands and giving hugs to missionaries. We met the Fairhurst’s (the military couple service missionaries) and were invited to their apartment afterward for lunch. They were very kind and informative, fun visit. By the Thursday meeting we felt a little bad for the assistants, who heard us speak at each of the meetings. After our Thursday meeting (which was held here, in our building, we were invited out to lunch with a couple of IT Church employees who were here setting up computers, etc. One of the men is from Seoul and the other is an American from Japan (living there over 20 years). We ate at a nice restaurant…Korean barbecue (lettuce wraps) where they have the cooking pits at each table. It was fun/interesting to watch Dad cooking at one end while the Korean brother cooked at the other end of the table. There were other small dishes of items I didn’t try and something I just closed my eyes to, whatever soup we were eating. After the meal we were talking about the green skinny peppers (looked somewhat like jalapeños) that were on the plate as garnishes (I wondered if they would taste good with tomatoes like a salsa). The brother tried to tell us that they were not spicy/hot, and broke off a piece for me to try…it was HOT!! I’m glad I barely put it in my mouth. The brother from Japan bit into it and then really reacted…then got the hiccups! The Korean brother ate it like it was mild…I wonder what hot is like for him?!!

With travel time to and from these areas, and meetings and other time consuming diversions our days have been mostly filled…so when we get back home Ben and I have gotten other things done (like laundry or organizing) but Dad has had even more meetings in the evenings, and phone conferences and phone calls to where he is so busy!

Friday we had MLCM (mission leader conference meeting) here in our chapel. I went upstairs to the mission office to Dad’s office shortly before the meeting started to meet up with the assistants and Dad…and finalized what my part of the teaching would be. It’s amazing to remember experiences from the past to use in teaching and how it works with the topic…and to have the faith to use it (to me it might have been a small experience or it might have had a different application…but it worked!). I had to leave the meeting early because the movers arrived with our shipment. I had to go back in to get Elder Men to translate real quick before he had to go in to team teach with Elder Bingham. But I was able to figure out the check off list/process. There was an older man (about our age) and a younger man working together. Each time they entered the house they took their shoes off…so they wore flip flop type of shoes. The younger man would carry boxes inside-three piled on top of each other-carried on his back! The whole shipment was fine except for one picture box…which was empty when the man opened it up…SURPRISE! He took a picture of it on his phone. I noticed it was sealed back up with masking tape, not just the gray packing tape. We figured they heard broken glass inside and just threw it away. I think it was the Proclamation on the Family that was broken/missing since we have the companion sized the Living Christ. We will need to file a claims form. We have been busy trying to unpack boxes! Lots of paper and boxes stuff when those movers were here, and also after they left. After the movers finished Dad talked them into coming inside to the MLCM meeting to be taught during role play breakout sessions. Then they ate lunch before leaving. Elder Bingham was happy to report the older man gave him his contact information.

Saturday early morning Papa called us when he had all the family gathered for a barbecue at his house (time difference Friday evening in Texas is early Saturday morning in Korea, 14 hour difference?…I think you are now six hours behind Korea now). It was great to hear their voices and to visit briefly with everyone. Dad had been at meetings(stake presidents, district presidents, area authority Seventy, etc) and was going to meet us at a baptism that night…which the office elders took Ben and me to…but then Dad wasn’t going to get there on time so we just went back home after an hour and a half one way car trip. Elder Suter talks nonstop-so funny. His companion, Elder Heo, is so quiet. Both great missionaries. Elder Suter pulled the mission van around 180 degree turn, up an incline onto a sidewalk, to drive into the church parking lot (I don’t know who would have designed a parking lot entrance like that off of a sidewalk). The church parking lots at each of the buildings we have attended are so small that probably six cars maximum would fit. People walk or take the subway or bus to church. At our church building this weekend there was a scouting activity so that about six pup tents were set up (right underneath our bedroom window-we are on the second floor). So whoever stayed there slept on concrete both Friday night and Saturday night. The activities were held inside the church…good thing because we got some rain this weekend…one of the missionary apartments got flooded and the power was out so they had to go to the church to stay overnight Sunday night. 

Sunday we attended church in BangEojin so that we could attend the baptism for that sister Dad interviewed. There was a wonderful feeling in church. A cute young returned missionary sister translated for me. She reminded me of K. Weaver-cute, petite, stylish dress. This sister served her mission in the Colorado Denver mission and returned home in March-saying she could not speak Korean when she came back. She graduated from the University of Utah and will go back in August to work as a medical lab researcher. I didn’t know until we were leaving that her mother was the sister who made the flower arrangement (I’ll send a picture). It was interesting to have fresh flowers on the stand in Sacrament Meeting…and then during Sunday School Sister J sat in the back of the room with the fresh flowers and made a flower arrangement to give to me. I set it on the table at the front for all the sisters to enjoy as we stayed in that same room for Relief Society the third hour. When we went downstairs for the baptism I brought it down there, too. The baptism was sweet…the son of this sister traveled many hours to baptize his mother. He joined the church six years ago. He spoke before the baptism part of the service-saying that when he was asked to speak he attended the temple to know what he should speak about/impressive. The sisters practiced a hymn during Relief Society to sing at the baptism….so even I participated by singing! 

After the baptism the members had a “break the fast” meal planned. There were three long tables set up with serving bowls set in the middle. At one end was a bowl of watermelon with the rinds still on (slices), a bowl with white rice cakes (round fist sized and shaped) and green rice squares shaped/patterned, a bowl with clear/glass like noodles with a little meat and vegetables mixed in, a bowl with corn on the cob pieces (but the corn was rust/brown colored like Indian corn-very gummy), and then another bowl of watermelon at the other end. There were chopsticks set out…but no plates. So everybody just stood around and started eating. Luckily somebody handed me a bowl and a fork…but Ben was good about eating with the chopsticks…so he was hungry having not been able to get much on the sticks. So FASCINATING!!! Dad was already in meetings downstairs interviewing a missionary from here to go serve in the Korea Seoul Mission, then to set that missionary apart (as the district president he acts as the stake president in setting new missionaries apart). Also, other meetings. Finally drove back home…Elder Bingham fell asleep in the back…poor guy. 

What a week it has been!!!!! Dad is amazing to have survived so many meetings!

Dad and Ben got up early this morning (Monday) to ride bikes with the assistants. They came back with mud splattered on their backs having eaten pig soup for breakfast…they had FUN!! 

Elder Men, Ben, Dad, and Elder Bingham

A memorial was built in a very small area very close to where we live, in honor of the man 
who created seedless watermelons. He is from Busan/this area.

You can see the memorial in the background at the end of this street. This street is very near to where we live. It is small, with beautifully groomed trees along the sides (I think that little old Korean women trim the trees). On our way home from walking to the Lotte Mart to shop. Carry reusable shopping bags. You can see the clouds in the background, down in the mountains where we live…it has been rainy weather the past few days.