Post Traumatic Growth

                There was a crisis at the USO on Tuesday. Jieun found three of Suk’s fish floating belly up when she came in. Her stress was so serious and she was so distracted that she let the biscuits and cinnamon rolls for the soldier’s breakfast bake to a deep shade of brown. She didn’t put out any syrup for the waffles. She was certain Suk would kill her when she returned from Georgia. I assessed the situation. The fish were out of air. I fished out the two fish that were not moving and definitely dead and flushed them. Then I replaced the water with water poured from high above to add more oxygen to the water. The third distressed fish began to move around a bit more and was quite perky by the time I left the USO. The breakfast for the soldiers was still pretty crisp and didn’t have many takers.

                The chaplain’s office at Camp Red Cloud sent us a couple of papers to sign, scan, and fax back and now we are officially recognized as the representatives for our church in Area 1. Six months and we are now approved to volunteer and conduct church services and without providing a new set of fingerprints for the background check.

                Our class at Camp Casey for January filled to 22. The education office director couldn’t turn down the appeal of the extra two soldiers whose sergeants had been slow in signing their approval. Our February classes at the JSA are also scheduled and we will teach all 15 soldiers who are eligible for the class there on two separate weeks. We scrambled all week to pull together loose ends and find materials. The office manager said that all the students need is a pencil and paper. Wayne didn’t rest until he had the Smartboard in our room up and operating. It has NEVER been used in the five years it has hung on the wall. We will use it. I need markers, post-its, scissors, glue, large paper, tape, and notebooks so we can “play” with words.

                In the meantime, our Branch President and his family are leaving today and we wanted to honor their service in some way. Wayne used a couple of pictures we took of the branch on Christmas Day and created one where all the people’s faces could be seen. We had it professionally framed with a mat that branch members could sign as a gift. I planned a party for the Army or at least enough food to feed all of our soldiers, Africans and Koreans. In the end, only one African family came, one Korean, and two missionaries plus the Rix family. We ate, we visited, we ate, and the families went home. The missionaries and our Korean stayed to clean up. All the soldiers who are regular attenders pulled duty or were too far away to come so we’ll take the leftovers to our Family Home Evening on Monday.

                Saturday was our temple day and we had two soldiers and one African join us. Sunday, when they called a new branch presidency, the two soldiers who had been with us at the temple were called as branch president and first counselor. We now have an elder’s quorum president and an assistant clerk as well. Our Primary teacher was released, but our only Primary child is leaving. Leaving the parking lot required leaving in the reverse order of arriving so there’s no rushing off after the meeting. The rule in South Korea is that “No Parking Lot is EVER Full.”

                The joy of being gathered in a body of saints was so thick in our morning meeting that people left slowly. In the afternoon we held sacrament service for one soldier although a second one came about half-way into the meeting. We felt the love the Savior has for “the one” and then we began sharing our testimonies. You share differently in an intimate group than you do in a large gathering and those who stood shared their deepest trials and the faith that pulled them through and helped them stand. Your heart melts when a strong soldier weeps under the burden of anger swirling continually around him. 

                Our young elder from the Philippines shared his fears as a boy that his mother didn’t love him because he wasn’t as smart as his older sister. He had been left to be raised by his grandmother when he was too young to remember living with his mother. She was able to return from Japan occasionally, but not often. When his grandmother died he was twelve. He and his sister did their best to take care of each other and then she went on a mission and he was alone. This young man has found such faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ through his trials. He speaks three languages and is the brightest smile in any room. His faith carries us, but I admit to giving him a big hug when the meeting ended. Sometimes a young man can use a “Grandma Hug.”