We stopped by this Buddhist temple to take a family picture. Not many people pass by on the trail so we were lucky to find this woman to take our picture. Behind us people have donated money to have their names placed on the small Buddha statues to have prayed over

On Monday, the 21st of December, our house was all busy with preparations for the Mission Christmas Conference. Sister Lee had the assistants and the office elders peeling potatoes for her to make cheesy potatoes for the meal. She was prepping other food items like the dried octopus stuff along with green salad fixings. I would empty large plastic containers of cut out cookies as fast as I could in order to wash for Sister Lee to use. Elder and Sister Bowcutt were wrapping fudge and helping fill the gift bags for the missionaries with the cookies and fudge and the written message from Dad. Niki and Ben were helping the Bowcutt’s with all of that. Steven was practicing his harmonica playing in a rehearsal with Mary (from English class) on the piano. Mary studied music in college so she has a professional view on how she thinks a performance should go. It was interesting to discuss with her about audience etiquette; bowing before and after the number by her and Steven, and no clapping by the audience. I don’t think she really believed me on that until she heard nobody clapping after she played the piano at the conference. I think there was a level of stress felt by all until late Monday night when the luggage was delivered by the airport employees; now Steven had his church clothes to wear to the conference?yea!  Tuesday morning was a juggle of showers and breakfast around Mom making a huge pot of gravy and Sister Lee working in the kitchen making cheesy potatoes and cooking and then warming chicken breasts, rice, and other foods. The flow of the Christmas Conference was halting with a few technical difficulties like with the video of the Piano Guys (amazing that nobody sitting on the stand even bothered to look that way good thing Steven motioned to us!). Everyone LOVED hearing Kelly say AMEN after the opening prayer. Some of the talents shared by the missionaries was more memorable than others: The Haka, break dancing to Silent Night, the six elders dancing and rolling over each other to name a few. Doing 15 seconds of planks with everyone was fun. Watching short clips from Remember the Titans with lesson synapse was great. Eating a great meal (minus the salad dressing) by Sister Lee was better than last year’s Subway sandwiches. Shaking all the hands of the missionaries reminded me of standing in a receiving line. Watching Ephraim’s Rescue was good. The weather was a little warm for hot cocoa and cider so more water was drunk but the cookies seemed to be a hit. We went a little over time (still need to learn about time management) but overall it was a success. Thank you for all your help!!  After it was all over I had a quick haircut by one of our sister missionaries seemed to shock some of the missionaries to think that I would do that right there in front of everyone. Who cares! That was my first trimming since leaving Texas back in June.

On Alex’s birthday we took the subway to Nampo to visit the Busan Tower, which is about 130 yards high (think the length of a football field) with high-speed elevators that took us up high into the air to get a great view of the city’s port with ships in one direction, the mountains in another, panoramic all around. Dad gave each of us 5,000 Wan (equivalent to $5 in dollars) to buy the craziest pair of socks for a family member in our gift exchange, from the street vendors, without the person knowing. Along the way we bought and ate a few heoduk (pastries). It was dark outside and we were cold and tired by the time we got home to find a wonderful Korean meal Sister Lee had prepared for us, in honor of Alex for his birthday. Right before we sat down to eat Sister realized a big mistake she made when she mistakenly turn the over on to Broil High with two platters full of food in the oven, instead of setting the temperature to warm. The platters broke from the heat leaking oil/grease all over the bottom of the oven ‹that smoked when the food was burned to charcoal black. Smoke was pouring out from the oven and Sister Lee felt horrible but we were fine with it. She prepared so much food that we still had tons left over for a couple more meals. We invited the assistants and office elders over to help us eat Alex’s birthday cake (bright green frosting over a rainbow/tye dyed cake. They sang in Korean with us clapping along. After eating cake we sat around in the living room to listen to Dad read The Cajun Night Before Christmas and then from Luke in the Bible (our regular Christmas Eve tradition). No Fuddruckers this year, a little quiet and lonely without all the friends and family to celebrate Alex’s birthday. The big change was that we didn’t go to the Mecham¹s for dinner and a musical program. We’ve gone to their house for so many years that it was sad not spending that reverent time with them.  Kelly was put down for the night and some of us had some last minute wrapping to do. But what I enjoyed was the time we spent together opening and unwrapping a Christmas box Marianne Mohr organized and sent to me way back in September. She contacted a long list of friends from back home who all sent us Christmas ornaments along with their love. We didn’t have a tree this year but set up around a potted plant/bush one string of colored lights, so decorating the bush with the new ornaments was not an option. But it was fun to pass around the small gift packages for each of us to take turns unwrapping and reading the messages they sent along. I’ll include a list of the friends (since this acts as my journal): Hannah Rath, Kathy Littlewood, Linda Hackbart, Diane Moline, Lisa Butler, Nancy Weaver, Kim Moss, Sherry Grogan, Kahna Cutler, Wendy Markwalter, Angie Haugen, Nancy Alemany, Jenni Kennington, Sheriee Staub, Janice Hansen, Tami Mader, Christy Glover, Marianne Mohr, Kim Leavitt, Susan Palfreyman, Leslie Wasden, April Mecham, Joyce Owens, Annette Hruska, Larraine Nelson, Ruth Jeffery, Janet Harris, Elyse Harris, Mary Ann Goehring, Denise Martinez, Veniece Griffin, and Joyce Messick. Good friends!!

COLD!!!

As soon as we arrived at church today in Pohang (about a two hour drive away) these two cute sisters came up to Niki and me and started talking with us. The first is Sister Hee Young Moon, who served her mission in Hawaii about two years ago. She translated for Ben and I during Sacrament Meeting, but went up to the stand to translate while Niki gave her talk. Then Sister Moon translated for us in Gospel Principles and then in Relief Society. She was very good and very sweet. The second picture is of me with Sister J. Kim, who served her mission on Temple Square about 10 years ago. As we were all talking they asked where we were from to which we responded, Texas. But when she asked further I told her I grew up in Michigan. She told me that her good friend from her mission grew upon Michigan, a Laura Otto. My best friend growing up is Janine Witt Perry, whose older sister is Merrilee Witt Otto. Laura is Janine’s niece. Small World! It was fun to hear just a bit about that mission since they have just sister missionaries serving there the AP’s and Zone Leaders and District Leaders are all sisters. Laura was an AP while Sister J. Kim was a Zone Leader (I think).

Sister Lee prepared a wonderful Korean dinner Monday night for the missionaries who were returning home. I didn't think to take a picture of the other food, but here she is cutting up the kimchee she made. She seemed to think people would want a healthy portion of kimchee. Sister Lee made a delicious lunch of Korean food on Wednesday for the new missionaries who just arrived in the country/mission the night before. They probably don't realize just how good of a cook she is right now, but will soon realize that after they have been cooking their own food for a while.

The temperature yesterday was about 18 degrees F in the evening, COLD! It feels cold because of the humidity in the air. We rode the subway to Nampo, an area of town with the fish market and lots of other shopping so there were tons of people out shopping and looking at the Christmas lights. I haven't seen other areas of town where people have lights out except a random place here or there. I miss going out driving looking at the Christmas lights.  Niki served as our other sister missionary during this jundoing (proselyting) activity until Sister Lee Yeji arrived late that night. We pair up a new missionary/trainee with a trainer for a 30 minute rotation and then switch, for a total of four times during the night. Niki was with Sister Kwon for the picture.  Ben was happy to visit with Elder Suter (second from the left) again, who he became good friends with when Elder Suter served in the mission office.  Elder Hong (third from the left) is an office elder now, and Elder Miller (on the right) is one of our new missionaries.  Dad and I had fun passing out "He is the Gift" cards. Our mission had small cards made for the missionaries to pass out that have an URL code on it for people to pull out their Smart phones and watch the Church video. Many people were out on the street in this busy shopping area taking pictures and selfies so Dad and I would ask someone to take a picture of us using my phone camera, and then give them one of our cards when they handed my phone back to me. It worked a few times (Koreans love to take pictures either for themselves or helping others) so I'm sending you the best pictures of us.  After the jundoing activity we all walked briskly to a restaurant to eat dinner. Along the way there were three young adults (one young woman and two young men) each holding a sign saying Free Hugs. I gave the girl a hug and went to give her one of our cards but she had already received one from one in our group; though she was excited to receive it. I looked and each of the young men had a card, too. Good for our missionaries! As we walked away one of our trainer sisters confessed to President that she was hugged by one of those young men. She didn't ask for it and it happened so quickly/unexpectedly, but she felt bad for it. Dad understood, HAHA!  The dinner at the restaurant was delicious. But I was so impressed with our assistants for finding this restaurant for different reasons. Most of our missionaries could sit down on the floor Korean style (which is fun and good for our missionaries to see and experience), but there were also a few tables with chairs nearby for the overflow, meaning I could sit more comfortably than on the floor, I thought that was so thoughtful of them! Also, the food that we ate was good. We sat down to kimchee and soy sauce on the table, also a small dish with a raw egg per each person. We were served a piece of cow (as they termed it) that looked like a big round piece of hamburger meat sizzling in a pan placed in front of us along with shears for cutting it up into bite size pieces. We could start eating that as they delivered cow soup to everyone in individual bowls that were SIZZLING HOT! (clay pots that are served on wooden platters thingys-small-that keep it all hot. So when the soup came we each cracked an egg into it and stirred it up. A side of rice came with it, to cut the heat. Right near the bottom of the bowl was the 'sweet spot" where it wasn't burning my mouth둨ut had enough heat to warm me down to my knees. I won't say down to my toes because they were still COLD (because I was sitting by the window). Niki was a little worried about some of the new missionaries because they weren't really eating much (they will discover how hungry they really are and what it's like to prepare their own meals).  We rode the subway back to the mission office/bomboo to have a short testimony meeting before sending the missionaries off to bed. Our office senior couple came back from the airport with Sister Lee Yeji, the other new missionary coming form the Philippines MTC. After we fed her and got her situated we had the assistants and office elders come over to our home to discuss what they observed during the jundoing activity. It is helpful to have all of their eyes/what they observed with the interactions between trainees and trainers during their different rotations of working together. Also, Dad looks at the missionaries applications, what their bishop and stake president wrote in their comments about the individual missionary. And our office senior secretary writes to the parents requesting they answer a few background questions to introduce their child/missionary. And, Dad has an interview with each of the new missionaries when they arrive (probably the next morning but maybe into that first afternoon). So there are lots of sources for input for Dad to sift through before deciding who should be with whom as a companionship. Lots of prayer and thought goes into the process.

December 16, 2014

We visited the Fish Market a few days ago. Niki and Ben each had fun holding the baby octopus.

We like eating at this restaurant near our home, making lettuce wrap type thingys. YUM! There is a restaurant above this restaurant that is called Casa Bonita, which sounds like a Mexican restaurant to me. We tried it one time. There isn’t a Mexican thing served there. It’s a coffee shop that serves bread/toast.

As we were walking home one day we came across this set of steep steps leading up to someone’s home, along a little side street. Niki and Ben jumped right in for a picture.

I had Niki get out of the car to take a picture of how tight a spot Dad was driving through. The picture doesn’t do it justice. Elder Bowcutt was sitting in the front seat encouraging Dad to keep going둨ut did tell him he had just a half inch on this side and that ³Now is the time to be real careful.²

Ben was invited and inducted into the National Honor Society! Yea!! I think he is the first of our children to do so (correct me if I’m wrong). Ben was the only young man of the four students. We hustled as fast as we could to get there but the office elders didn’t have the address correct so we kept searching until we found Ben’s school. Ben was worried, waiting outside in the cold for us to arrive. We ran up the stairs to the fifth floor as fast as we could go, then he changed his clothes in the restroom. But they hadn’t started the program without us. The missionaries had dropped us off so then afterward we took the bus home.

Dad, Niki, and Ben made fudge together for FHE this past week. I came right at the end to scrape the pan and taste the finished product! We plan to make three batches in order to have enough to put in small plastic bags, along with other treats, for the missionaries. Thankfully friends sent baking supplies.

We hosted a dinner Saturday evening for all of the stake presidents and district presidents and their wives along with our area seventy (his wife could not attend). Sister Lee made the meal; with fish soup as one of the dishes.

Sitting around the table at our dinner starting on the left side is the Busan stake president Lee and his wife (I do not know her name딮orean women keep their own last name when they marry). Next is Niki, Dad, Mom, then President Lee and his wife. Further down along the left side of the table is the wife and then President Kang땒olding hands (District President in the Ulsan Zone딬 don’t know the district name), then Sister Lee is standing but bent over for the picture. The right side of the table: President Gill (one of Dad’s counselors in the mission presidency) and his wife, Sister Kim and her husband President Cho (the other of Dad’s counselors in the mission presidency), then the district president on Jeju Island along with his wife. They spent the night at our house since it would be too late to catch a flight back to the island at night. Further down on the right side is another stake president and his wife딶resident Lee (I don’t know from which stake딠hangwon or Daegu). And then back to Sister Lee.  Sister Lee prepared raw fish, the yellow stuff is a pumpkin soup (which is somewhat sweet and has a few red beans that settle in the bottom of each bowl), the red stuff is kimchee, lettuce (dark purple with green tips) for wrapping the bean sprouts, spinach, bulgogi and other stuff in, jopjae is the dish with clear noodles that has small pieces of vegetables and egg and whatever else is in it. There was rice and the fish head soup and sauces at each place setting. Sister Lee did a fabulous job of cooking and organizing and orchestrating the meal!

The man standing on the left side of the table, in this picture, is Elder Jeong, the area seventy general authority. This is President Lee’s wife (from the Busan stake). We just laughed when we listened to her. She met Niki and acted so surprised as she turned to Dad and I and said that Niki looked so good땈etter than the both of us! She made it a point to sit by Niki for the meal after which she told us she ate well (like she ate a lot)/like a Korean! The lights in the background are on our “Christmas tree” which is really a plant/bush. I brought one strand of colored lights from home. Then we have another smaller bush with clear lights that we got from the military base, along with a clear set of lights set up over the kitchen sink. It took Niki and me about 10 minutes to set up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. If we were back at home it would have taken us a number of hours to set up our Christmas decorations.