Christmas far from home

We took advantage of the one clear day to explore the mountains across the river. We ended up at the top of this hill with a nice view into the valley below. You can tell a couple of things from the picture: Even on a clear day the humidity and pollution give you a hazy view; and, there are lots of people living in a small space. I think you can see the high rises and population density. You are also able to see the river I keep referring to as it meanders to the north before it empties into the sea to the west. All the hiking here is pretty straight up and then straight down. We did figure out the hours of our fitness center for the apartments so we have been doing some of our exercise there this week due to rain and snow and cold.

We have had a house guest(s) most of the week. One of the young soldiers’ wives, Amanda, was able to get a buddy pass to Seoul so she has stayed in our extra bedroom. The soldier, Kenny Peterson, was given a five-day pass so he has been here, too, since Friday. The have been able to go to Seoul a couple of times, do some tourist things, go to the temple, and make some memories together. They have only been married a few months and most of those Kenny has been here.  They did their best to begin to create some family traditions.

I made enchiladas for Christmas Eve and invited our elders. Our Fillipino elder is used to eating mostly rice so he was okay with the Spanish rice. You don’t see Mexican food here in Korea so I figured our American elder would be happy for a little Mexican.

The elders were here early Christmas morning to talk with their families. The broad smiles on their faces witness that this was their best Christmas present. 

We met with our little branch for a Christmas program with the story and music of Christmas. This picture gives you a pretty good feel for the mix of soldiers, Koreans, and Africans who attend with us each week.  What a blessing to be able to partake of the sacrament and remember the incredible gift of God’s Son to the world.

Most of the afternoon we spent with our family via Skype. Mary and Connie’s families were together having a Christmas Eve party so we sang carols together, were entertained by the grandchildren, watch the enactment of the Christmas Story, and then watched as they sang Karaoke with Christmas songs. It was not quite as good as being there but pretty close considering the miles. Then we were able to connect with Debbie’s family an hour later in the time zones. They had finished their activities for the evening and took time to visit and share with us. We hope to be able to connect with our other children tomorrow which will be Christmas Day for them. We are thankful for technology to allow us to both see and hear our family while we are so far away.

We pulled together some gifts and stockings for the elders to open because the packages from America arrived mostly empty and the one from the Philippines didn’t arrive until Christmas. When the missionaries came over to open their gifts they stayed to play Bang with the Petersons. While they were playing, Wayne and I attended a Christmas dinner hosted by the director of the BOSS program here at Camp Casey. Mr. Fred. He is the man in the white shirt and red apron on the left. You can tell by the spread in front of Wayne that there was a wide variety of food to choose from. Two of the soldiers from our group were there because they volunteer with Mr. Fred. They said that they are regulars at his parties and this one was a small party. We visited with the other people who volunteer around the base and work with the soldiers.

It seems like Christmas started here early in the month with a series of activities for our soldiers; now it has come and gone. We are thankful for the military community and our church group to help bring the spirit of Christmas to Korea. We were not able to observe any changes in our neighborhood in anticipation of this important celebration. Everyone doesn’t celebrate Christ’s birth.

How thankful I am to know the importance of the birth of this child born in a stable in Bethlehem so long ago. How thankful I am to know that he is God’s Son who broke the bonds of death and offered himself as a sacrifice that we can repent of our sins and have hope. We hope to be forgiven; we hope to live again. We hope to return to our Father in Heaven; we hope to be together forever with our families. How thankful I am for faith and hope as I pray for the gift of charity; to be like Him, to know Him, to be with Him.

The Joy of Serving

We were busy missionaries this week. Suk Harper cooked a whole hog to feed our Camp Casey soldiers as an early Christmas celebration. I peeled 50 pounds of potatoes and diced five pounds of onions plus cutting carrots, shredding four huge cabbages, and peeling five dozen eggs as the cook’s helper. The potato salad and coleslaw were wonderful, made in the true southern style. We served over 200 soldiers on Wednesday.

On Friday we went back to the JSA to do an early Christmas for the soldiers there. We put up more decorations and dressed up a Santa. We set up a table to print photos of the soldiers with Santa and then put them in a small frame they could take to their rooms. There were stockings stuffed with fun things and small canvas bags with more goodies for every soldier. The car dealership gave some kind of swag to every soldier and then there were a host of other gifts that went to almost every soldier. The four largest gifts were 40” and 50” televisions, a laptop computer, and an iPad. The soldiers had a great time as the gifts were raffled. It was just fun to be with them.

Wayne has a soldier who has meet three times with him this week to see if he can improve his score on the math section of the promotion exam. He started foggy on basic multiplication and division and is ready to tackle the tougher story problems. You can tell that it is the teacher having the most fun, but the soldier works for over an hour each time which demonstrates his determination to tackle this barrier to his career.

We now have a schedule for teaching the soldiers as a class. We will have 20 soldiers for three weeks here at Camp Casey in January and again in March and will spend two weeks at the JSA in February working with 15 soldiers there. We’re really looking forward to being back in a classroom again and helping these soldiers move forward in their careers.

We finally turned on our heat to warm our apartment. Our neighbors have kept their units warm enough to keep us warm until now. We have the wife of one of our soldiers coming to stay through the holiday so she can afford to visit her husband. We may not see much of her, but it will give me the incentive to decorate our apartment.

It is wonderful this time of year to not only serve, but watch the joy others feel as they serve. Christ lived his life for us and then he gave up his life for us. It seems only fitting that we find a little time to give to others, too. Our hope to all our friends and family is a very Merry Christmas as we all remember the joy of our Savior’s birth.

Visit to North Korea

           We had a wide variety in opportunities for service this week. On Wednesday we attended the District Meeting with our junior missionaries. They are so well prepared in their training that it is a joy to meet with them. Afterwards I held a sister missionary who needed to cry. She got an ear infection and subsequently lost hearing in one ear. She is going home early to see if the doctors can restore her hearing. She was very emotional and needed reassurance. She speaks as much English as I speak Korean so we had to use the Spirit to help us communicate. This is her smile as we left. She will be fine. The Lord has a plan for her.

                               

We helped serve hot chocolate at the tree lighting at Camp Red Cloud on Wednesday and then again at Camp Casey on Thursday. Santa is a special friend from our branch group so we made sure to have a photo with him this year.

               

We sat down with the director of the Education Office on Friday and scheduled our first two sets of classes for the soldiers. We will have them for about 40 hours in the classroom over three weeks beginning January 9^th. Then Wayne had a single student he worked with in the evening just before our dinner appointment. We were invited to the house of Korean members for authentic Korean food. If you don’t eat their kimchi it’s like poking them in the eye and telling them they have an ugly mother so we ate kimchi.

                Our BIG event of the week was our visit to North Korea via the DMZ. Wayne and I were like a couple of kids waiting to go to Disneyland we were so excited. First, we served the soldiers at the outpost by decorating their mess hall for the holidays. They fed us a nice lunch and then we were given a VIP tour.

Wayne and I are posed in front of the flags of all the nations participating in enforcing the cease fire between North and South Korea.

                This is a picture into North Korea of the North Korean soldier watching us watch him. They call him Bob because he starts to bob if you take enough pictures of him.

                They next had us enter a building that straddles the line between North and South Korea. They had this door on the north securely locked and this armed Korean soldier there to protect us if needed. While we were standing next to him, we were technically standing in North Korea. The North Koreans give the same tour from their side and lock the door on the south end of the building for their guests.

The bridge beyond the blue guard house is called “The Bridge of No Return” because it is where the prisoners were exchanged after the ceasefire. Anyone who crossed the bridge in either direction was then unable to return. Many families were separated at this time and many from the south have tried to negotiate family reunions to unite these families for a few hours. A few family reunions have been held.

            

       The small village around the flag pole is a facade. It is actually a military outpost built to look as though it were a village. From there the North Koreans blare music and propaganda messages to the South Koreans trying to entice them to defect. The noise is especially loud at night.

There are two authorized villages in the DMZ, this one on the North and one on the south with about 200 citizens. To live in the southern village you must have lived there before the conflict with North Korea or be able to trace your ancestry to that village.

                This picture is of the mountains in North Korea in the distance. They have some very interesting granite peaks. The whole DMZ is a nature preserve since people are not allowed to hunt. They have a type of deer that grow tusks rather than horns so they are called vampire deer and lots of birds. They have wild pigs that can reach a weight of 400 lbs. Wayne and I saw three deer in a rice field, several cranes, and flocks of geese flying south.

           

         We had our second baptism on Sunday. Ellis, in the yellow shirt, was baptized by Elder Carmen, the tall elder beside him. Elder Carmen leaves to return to Michigan on Thursday. This was his first baptism. He is such an obedient and faithful missionary that we know the Lord blessed him to share this milestone with Ellis.

Bro. Oto is the African on the right. He is the brother-in-law of Ellis. They are from Liberia, a country with difficult political and economic circumstances right now. They have come here to find work. Bro. Oto had three fingers crushed in machinery at work last month and has not yet been able to return to work. There is lots of manufacturing in this area and they hire the Africans as cheap labor. They are considered temporary workers and not treated well. We see deep faith in Jesus Christ among these African members as they express gratitude for what they have, work hard, and hold onto hope for a better future.

The Lord is always watching.

With the holiday behind us we did our best to find other ways to serve. Expanding our service requires permission from the education office on the post so we tried several times to contact its director. He finally called us to let us know that things were moving more slowly than he had hoped so it would probably be January before we began teaching soldiers through his office. In the meantime, we have been writing lesson plans trying to anticipate how they will flow with the soldiers.

The weather has been crisp but sunny so we’ve ventured across the river to explore the mountains beyond. This week I was brave enough to make the river crossing on the stones all by myself and I did it three times the same day. We made a U-turn at the first bridge to the south to explore a bicycle path on the other side of the river. We wondered where it ended and found it ends where we began. Now we have another path. In walking on the other side of the river we were able to see a Buddhist shrine immediately across the river so we decided to explore it.

While the shrine itself would look like something I’ve already posted, when we ventured to the top of the mountain/hill we discovered this war memorial. It was as large as a Utah cemetery with multiple mounds, statues and markers. Just over the crest we found these cool rocks. We thought this one looked like an elephant on its stomach, leg behind and trunk to the side. It’s like looking at clouds.

Our most unusual outing this week was the USO volunteer appreciation dinner. We were surprised to be treated to an evening at the most expensive restaurant in Dongducheon. The main course was steak and more than we could eat…more than I should have eaten. It tasted so delicious along with the salad. We still tasted the kimchi and other Korean dishes. We had the opportunity to get a little better acquainted with one of the new volunteers from the new rotation battalion. He is a good man who chooses to volunteer rather than get in trouble. I wanted to share a gospel message with him, but he didn’t ask any leading questions. We are not to proselyte on the post so I had to respect his choice. The gospel is so delicious to me that I just want to share it with everyone.

Suk gave us all fleece jackets with the USO insignia and Camp Casey. They are toasty warm and will be super fun to wear. This is a selfie with one of our favorite Korean volunteers. She helps me with my Korean and I help her with her English. She has adopted us as extra grandparents.

We took advantage of the opportunity to attend the temple with our district and enjoyed the wonderful blessing of worshiping in the Lord’s Holy House. Wayne met a gentleman who has been his brother’s neighbor for thirty years. The gentleman is teaching through the Kennedy Center at a university on the eastern edge of China so he had taken an hour flight into Seoul to attend the temple. It really is a small world. We came home before the protests began although the number of people on the train reflected a gathering soon to happen.

The most excitement of the week came today at our meeting at the Camp Casey Chapel. The gentleman Wayne and I met as we came out of the chapel at Camp Red Cloud in October brought his family to church. It was fast and testimony meeting so he took the opportunity to bear his testimony to his wife, small daughter, and teenage step-daughter. We were all so excited we could bust! One of our young families was at that meeting because the soldier, husband had pulled a night shift and awakened late today. It was good to have another family there. The woman is already friends with the branch president’s wife and the husband has worked with the branch president. They live in the same apartment complex. The teenager agreed to be a pen pal with Ashlyn who is the same age. Miracles really do happen. None of us are lost to the Lord. When he was ready to return, the Lord flung open the doors for him.