Angels Watching Over Us

Our family held our annual family reunion at Snowbird this week without us. We were able to connect with them a bit using Messenger. My reaction: “It would be good to be in the middle of them, under the pile, surrounded by their laughter. At least there is laughter and piles and games and good food.” They took family names to the Salt Lake Temple so the young people could do baptisms. They hiked and swam and made time to share testimony together. At least we have pictures, notes, Messenger, and the phone to keep us connected.

Wayne had a very fun morning run. His regular Korean buddy stopped to try out his new English phrase and Wayne asked him in Korean, “How are you doing?” His friend acted as though he didn’t understand so Wayne repeated the phrase in his best Korean. Still no recognition so he tried a third time. Then the man’s face lit up with a big smile and he said, “Oh, you are speaking Korean.” There was one younger man who ran a loop with Wayne before he was tuckered out and Wayne tried to use his Korean to communicate with him, too. There were others who greeted him with the standard greeting and Wayne came home beaming with success.

I learned the difference between an umbrella and a parasol. I went out in the rain with a parasol and learned that they do not repel rain. They are made only to look pretty and shade from the sun. Thankfully, it was only a light rain, and now I know I have a parasol to take with me on sunny days so I can be culturally appropriate.

This is a picture I’ve been waiting to share. Our neighbors are moving and they use this ladder with a platform that can be raised and lowered from a truck outside the apartment to move household goods into and out of the apartments through the windows. Pretty fun to watch.

We were able to see Wayne’s niece at the mission conference on Friday. It was wonderful to see her happy, humble, and comfortable in her role now as a missionary.

The conference was full of history of the church in Korea and ideas for sharing the message of Jesus Christ with the Korean people.

These are some of the missionaries from the mission as we wait for a bus to return to our own areas. Wayne is peaking out near the back. We do have elders but they missed being in the picture.  

Sister Kelly on the left is in the office. She and her husband who is behind sisters in the other picture have been a great help to us in our transition. Sister Cannon is our mission nurse. Brother Cannon on the right drove the car from Seoul to Dongducheon in the rain after dark to deliver us to our apartment. Then he drove back the next day to deliver our car to us. Their friend was the only non-missionary at our meeting.

Our trip to Seoul was full of tender mercies: finding the rail schedule on the cell phone (We left without a map.), help when we were lost (We confused two stops with the same name but different numbers and got off too soon.), a heavy rain that fizzled as soon as we left the train station, seats on the train both directions, finding our way onto our train home by ourselves, guidance to move forward in doing the work we have been sent to do. Those were just in one day. The Lord truly watches over us and sends angels to be round about us when we need them. He watches over you, too. Look for Him.​

Exploring the new neighborhood

We ended up doing quite a bit of traveling this week so we took some pictures to share. This is pretty typical of a Korean market street. The things you miss with these pictures are the smells. There is always a very strong smell of garlic and frying oil. Old women sit on the streets and peel garlic that is sold in the shops. You also miss the sounds. The markets employ sales people who try to invite buyers by calling out loudly. The produce beside me is garlic as they pull it from the ground.

 

This market at Uijeonbu was the first we have encountered. Our area is too small for a street market. We only have one small grocery store. The price of a watermelon in our store is $24. The same one you pay five or six dollars for in Costco. We could have purchased a watermelon in the market for $9 but we had a very long bus ride and no way to carry it so we settled for some nectarines, small, yellow melons that taste a little like honey dew, and two very large apples the sales person promised were VERY sweet.

After our zone conference a local mission leader arrived as the meeting ended with three Korean pizzas and three liters of lemon-lime soda. Wayne had a piece of each of the pizzas. One pizza looked like cheese, another, had yellow squash, and the other had something that looked pepperoni. I did see corn on them. Wayne said they tasted like potato and squash. The cheese wasn’t really cheese and there was no hint of tomato sauce. They were not spicy and were a cultural experience that I missed because the gentleman knew they had wheat in the crust.

On Friday we had lots of adventures. Much of the day felt like we were in a mystery book looking for clues to find secreted treasures. I held the map; Wayne the GPS; and we did our best to ask for clues from passing Koreans. We were able to ride the shuttle from Camp Casey to Yongson AFB. Our route took us along a river that was very beautiful with the tall egrets and herons fishing its banks and ducks and cormorants as well. There were parks along both shores as well as a lovely bicycle and walking pathway. The seats were very comfortable and the bus air conditioned. We even managed to do a bit of practice with vocabulary using my new flash cards.

This is one of the bridges across the Hun River. Pvt. Eggers told us his commander said these bridges are expected to be the first targets North Korea will hit if the cease-fire fails and he is to be on the other side of the river before they blow. Lots of seasonal saber rattling goes on here and life goes on. It is a pattern and has been this way for decades.  “…if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:29) It still keeps many of our soldiers on 10-minute battle alert and unable to attend sacrament meeting. While our sacrament meeting attendance has been very low the past two weeks, we have been able to visit with many members as they wander through the food court during our fellowshipping activity on Thursdays. The Lord knows what is happening in Area 1 in South Korea and He is in charge. We just do our small part each day and know that “…by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.” (1 Nep 37:4).​

Joy and Gladness

The big explore this week was a trip to northern Seoul for our first zone conference. Wow! We were so impressed with the elders and sisters who prepared and presented the meeting that we’re excited for the future of the church. It is a zone of about 35 missionaries so it was a good sized group and the missionaries directing the meeting were utilizing almost to perfection the principles of teaching they learned in the MTC. They switched off teaching in English and Korean so it gave us experience listening to the language. Wayne’s niece, Maren Young, just arrived in the mission last Wednesday so this was her first zone conference, too. We have the apartment the farthest north in the zone and hers is the apartment at the very south end of the zone, about an hour by train, but we hope to see her at other zone activities.

The rest of the week was a mixture of activities. We are now in charge of the Monday Family Home Evening at the base chapel and Wayne told a fun story to get the soldiers thinking about choices. We started volunteering at the USO greeting soldiers as they enter and dispensing game controllers and DVDs. The director plans to have us tutoring soldiers in math and reading to boost their score on the military entrance exam so they qualify for more opportunities.

We did more exploring in our neighborhood between rains. We found factories to the north, some with horrible smells of decaying flesh so we’re thankful the wind blows north. The mountains are very close on both the east and west so there is a little housing and some older shops on those sides. Some of the housing is modern and very nice; next to them are small, older and often decaying homes and businesses that speak of a minimal standard of living.

We’ve met most of our soldiers now and finally have a list to contact the others. Wayne gave his first District Council talk today and we went to our first Ward Council. We’ll do what we can to teach the branch members how to build their family tree on Family Search and find their own names to take to the temple. There are lots of great opportunities to serve.

One evening this week when I wrote in my journal, these are the feelings I expressed: I am feeling very happy this evening. I feel the mantle of a missionary and it is very sweet. It is nice to focus on serving and to have so much time to work as a team with my favorite person. In speaking about missionaries in D&C 75:21 the Lord promises, “And you shall be filled with joy and gladness…” Wayne and I are thankful to be recipients of this wonderful blessing.

Monsoon Rains

The monsoon rains came on the 4^th of July. The river through the town which is usually a small stream at best was very swollen and muddy. This little stream was touching the corn on the far bank and over the concrete on the near bank. You can also see the mountains to the east.  Wayne is framed by the mountain to the west. We are standing in about the same spot which should give you a perspective of the width of the valley.

We went for a little explore in our neighborhood between our apartment and the two rivers. We saw an egret and great blue heron near the river and several ducks. We found a piano lesson studio, a school, two auto repair shops, several restaurants and lots of beautiful gardens. I tried talking with a couple of old ladies sorting some sort of herb that looked like chives. They gave us the name for the grass and said some other things in Korean. They think we understand because we try to speak in Korean.

I tried to tell a man, “Beautiful garden,” but he didn’t seem to understand anything I said. He tried to tell me about a flower that they eat the shoots or stems of it. He jabbered on and on, but I didn’t catch anything except the name of the flower that he kept repeating. I can’t remember that now. At least we’re trying.

I was given Elder Holland’s April conference address as a topic for my first talk. He asked us to: “Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing.” And then he added this encouragement: “Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.” (God’s) divine love and unfailing help will be with us even when we struggle—no, will be with us especially when we struggle.” I add my witness to Elder Holland’s. We feel His hand daily in our lives.

Lots of Smiles and Giggles

                The price of one grapefruit at the commissary was $3 so I took Yeji up on her offer to show me how to shop for vegetables at the Korean market around the corner. She met me with her baby and umbrella, to shade from the sun which peeked out at least once since we arrived. I came home with a few vegetables that I am used to cooking and a few she suggested she enjoyed. Now Wayne is smiling because the food I cook tastes more like home.

                We needed to go to Seoul to apply for our foreigners cards so we hopped a fast train, well it was almost that easy. No one in the station seemed to understand what we meant when we told them we were going to Seoul. I’m thinking it is a pretty hard word to mess up and it is the capital of the country. An angel in a red dress who spoke English took us to the train and then had us switch trains when another arrived. Both went to Seoul but the second was the fast train. She told us that you always define your trip by the last stop on the train line which is Incheon if we want to go to Seoul. Another angel in a blue shirt asked us our destination just a few stops before we needed to switch trains and I pointed to the stop on my map. He said, “Same place. Follow me,” so that’s what we did.

                After we applied for our foreigner’s card, with help from another senior missionary, we were told to go visit the sights in downtown Seoul. That sounded easy enough. We had umbrellas and a map and a basic idea of where to walk. We found the old Presidential Palace. The picture is taken from inside the palace looking out to the modern skyline of Seoul. The buildings went on and one with one courtyard after another. The rain increased so we went in the Folk Museum and walked around learning more of the Korean history and culture. The rain hadn’t let up so we walked around a bit more and finally decided to brave the monsoon. We had to laugh because we were both soaked to the skin in a matter of minutes even with umbrellas. At least it was a warm rain and we were able to change into dry clothes at the mission home. We did more giggling as we reviewed our Korean vocabulary words because our pronunciation is so comical, but we keep trying.

                On Saturday morning the Pres. Sonksen insisted the missionaries drop us at the temple. He did not trust our orienteering or the weather. The missionary drove through back alleys, took U-turns that reversed our direction a couple of times and then there was the temple. Our stake president forgot to activate our recommends so our entry wasn’t assured. It took a member of the temple presidency to review the signatures and let us in. It is a lovely small temple filled with the peace of the Lord’s spirit and the session was in English.

Our next adventure was to find the train station and a train to bring us back to Dongducheon. We found a No. 1 train headed north and jumped on. It was a crowded train with lots of interesting Korean people. We were the only foreigners. We watched the train empty as we made our way north. When we reached Uijeondo where the nearest LDS chapel is located but about 20 minutes by train from our stop, the people on the train shooed us off the train. It didn’t make any sense to us until the train reversed itself and headed back toward Seoul. Then we had to figure out how to cross the rail lines to catch the train to Dongducheon. By the time we reached the right platform our train was just pulling out. We figured we had about a 30 minute wait for another train so we watched the children playing on the train platform and tried to ask directions from a Korean couple who spoke no English. We showed them our stop on the map and they kept us from catching the first train that came. The second one brought us home. We were smiling when we entered our own apartment again.

                Sunday was the first baptism since we arrived. The elders had been teaching Andrew Eggers, a soldier, who was our first military friend here; we support each other. This was Andrew’s fourth baptism (fifth if you count that his toes came up the first time and they baptized him again). His father was Catholic so he was baptized Catholic as a baby. His mother was Baptist so he was baptized Baptist as a boy. He was baptized, Non-denominational when he joined the Army, and now he was being baptized again by one having authority. He will only be here a few more months.

                What a blessing to be on the Lord’s errand and to see the Lord’s hand in our life daily. We love and miss each of you. Elder Wayne and Sister Genan Anderson