Here we are sending off our new missionaries and their trainers to jundo(proselyte) with each other, switching partners four different times in the afternoon. The next day they were assigned their trainer for the next12 weeks. No rain this time! Great weather.

Ben had off of school this past week for Fall Break. We had Transfer week with training meetings most of the week so we could only do some sort offsite seeing on Friday. We visited the Busan Tower which has a Buddhist temple nearby, some park areas for sitting and visiting, art sellers little shacks on the way up these may stairs, statues, and a gift shop at the base of the tower. We took the elevator up (I don’t know how many levels up we were) and saw a great view of the city.

The temple is quite high, to be seen at the different levels as you climb the many stairs, and can be seen at the top. Along the way there is a place to stop the jets out to the side for small park area with exercise equipment that older people often use. It will be fun to visit.

The site seeing we did on Friday was in an area called Nampo. We went there before to the Fish Market. There are other areas of shopping so we found a baking supplies shop. It has some items we can’t find in the regular stores or Costco, but the prices are high. There are outside little vendor carts and restaurants to eat at so we chose a second floor Italian restaurant. This is a picture from their menu. I don’t know if you remember Bear making Nasi-Goreng, fried rice with a bunch of chopped up vegetables and seasoning that she served with French/garlic bread. I always thought the name Bear called it came from Malaysia/Papa’s mom when they lived there. I thought it was a native rice dish from that part of the world. I have never seen it on a menu before but here it is, on an Italian menu. We had a great view to watch all the people out on the streets. There was a young man working as an ad man holding a SALE sign. I say holding when really, part of the time he was flipping and twirling the sign, throwing it up into the air. He would step out into the street and block traffic doing spins and dodges and dancing of sorts. He kept that sign moving the whole time we were seated for dinner. But I don’t think a single person entered the shop because of him.

While we were eating I saw this advertising on a building; two or three or more stories tall. I thought it was interesting how the sign says³American Sports Classic with a model holding a paddleball paddle or handball paddle which is not a Classic American sport.

We are at the train station right before the train arrived to take the outgoing missionaries to Seoul where they went to the temple on Tuesday. The Koreans went home that night. The foreigners flew home the next day.

Saturday night we attended a district choir concert and we have a stake choir concert to attend this upcoming Saturday night. This must be the time of year for the music/concerts. The district president is young with three young children. This darling little girl recognizes Ben from when we have come to this district before. She would come up as close as she dared, smile coyly, and then run away. If Ben wasn’t paying attention to her she would come closer and closer until he would wave to her and off she would run. I think her mother said she was three, in American years. I don’t know how they figure age in Korea (where the cut off is) but generally Koreans age is a year older than Americans age.

November 2014

Sister Lee was getting her face painted when we arrived at our ward Halloween party. She made a big pot of pumpkin soup for the ward members to eat during the dinner portion of the ward party. She used the remaining pumpkin puree that she made from the pumpkins Elder Min brought to us to boil down to make something yummy. I took some of the puree to make pumpkin muffins with a caramel glaze on top. So good. I got the recipe from Sister Rebecca Leland years ago ‘do you remember her? She was the Primary president in the Sugar Land 3rd ward and I was one of her counselors.

At this station a missionary took peoples picture. I don’t know what they did with the photos on that camera but I’m glad I got one with my phone camera. It was interesting for me to watch as a family got their picture taken. The mother and the college age daughter each smiled like they were having fun. The father stood there with a serious look on his face. Today, after Sacrament meeting, a man asked for all the office missionaries and our family to stand in a photo together with him and his wife. This same man who wouldn’t smile at the Halloween party told us all to smile for this picture, today! Koreans love to take pictures and to have their picture taken.

We saw this older woman pushing a stroller to collect whatever her treasures are. I have not asked about the older people we see collecting cardboard, using a bike or a stroller or a wheelbarrow type contraption. But I’m curious as to why they collect cardboard and where they take it and who pays them to collect it? It makes me think of seeing older people sweeping the street in front of their home or business using a whimsy/flimsy type of a broom that would take so long to make any kind of a noticeable difference. It is nothing compared to using a push broom. There seems to be made up jobs for everyone to be able to work. We frequent the gas station across the street from the mission office. The sign there says Self-Serve but the owner often comes out and pumps the gas for Dad. Interestingly, about half the time when the man is finished pumping the gas he hands Dad a small package of napkins (maybe it’s to wipe your hands after you pump your own gas but he pumps it for his customers).  Catch 22.

We had our transfer day meeting, where the returning missionaries shared their testimonies and combined their talents in a hymn.  Our office senior couple did a marvelous job of speaking.  The time was long gone so Dad had me stand up front with him, tears trickling down my cheeks and snuffles held back.  He asked if I was ok (if you remember how he always asks me that when I cry during church meetings) and I gave him my “look”.  Neither one of us had to give our talks so that will be for another day.

We are back to just two assistants to the president and no threesome with sister missionaries.  Our numbers are down a bit.  We have nine sisters going home/staying in our home tonight.  Ben gives up his room again and will be sleeping on our floor.  Only two sisters are coming in tomorrow and staying here with us.

I liked this quote by Neal A. Maxwell, someone sent to me:  “A major point about joy is that joy is obviously of a higher order than mere pleasure.  Pleasure is perishable.  It has a short shelf life.  Joy, on the other hand, is lasting.  It involves the things that really matter, such as being forgiven and forgiving another.”

All the outgoing missionaries have arrived and the evening meal is about to begin.  Sister Lee prepared an authentic Korean dinner for them.  One of the Korean sisters is helping me set the table, asking me about which side to put the chopsticks and long handles spoon.  I don’t know if I’m doing it right!

Ouch!!!

Dad went out running this morning, tripped and fell down, breaking his fall with his right hand. He came back home and woke me up letting me know we needed to go to the hospital/Emergency Room. Really, we hadn¹t done any decorating for Halloween so Dad wanted to get an authentic skeleton picture! Happy Halloween!!

You can see Dad¹s finger is dislocated, only!! Dad didn¹t break his finger like he originally thought. The hospital experience was interesting and eye opening. One of our assistants came with us to the hospital, close to our home, old, not busy at that early time (we were back home by 8:30AM). Dad got an X ray, without wearing a lead apron. Dad received a pain shot, in his behind! Before enough time lapsed for the pain medicine to kick in a specialist came and quickly reset Dad¹sfinger (like grab and pull on his finger while Dad was trying to think of something to say, in Korean, to make the doctor wait for the pain medicine to work). He quickly took another X ray (no lead apron!) to make sure it was only dislocated. Paid. Went home.

The front of our 5K run t-shirts. They say, in Korean: Korea Busan Mission. One sleeve has the Korean flag on it while the other sleeve has a sketch/figure of someone running.

The back of our 5K run shirts has the Seoul Korea temple outline at the top. The Korean words have the name of our church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After the setting, Dad¹s finger is back in place. On the way home he was opening and shutting his hand, bending it back in place. Dad will need to still be able to type and will be able to do so without trouble. Yea!!

This is Dad running at our 5K run on Monday. He ran early in the morning (8 miles, I think). And then during our 5K run Dad did not turn around at the half way mark. He kept running for a while, though I don¹t know how far. He didn¹t tell anyone but said that a few of the missionaries saw him do it and thought he had lapped them (the trail wouldn¹t work for lapping).When Dad ran early Thursday morning and fell down hurting his hand, he did that at mile 2 and then continued running another 8 miles with his hand hurt. Ouch!

A ten year old boy came to visit with his dad, who was traveling throughout Japan and Korea to talk about media/social media use for furthering missionary work. Everybody LOVES our alligator whenever they come into our house.