Teaching and Tutoring

    

            Teaching and tutoring really sums up our week. This is most of the 27 soldiers we worked with. Some were so determined to do well on their exams next week that they asked for extra tutoring sessions in the afternoons and Saturday. They have dreams and goals they hope to achieve and a high score on their exam is one piece.

                We did take time in the evenings to get a little exercise and enjoy the cool breeze that cleans the air and keeps the temperature delightful. As the cherry blossoms fade, there are other blossoms emerging to keep the country colorful.

We noted that they are constructing a retention dam in our little stream to create a small pond and a wetland area. Note the huge blocks of granite they are placing one at a time and four deep at the base of the dam. Korea is granite so they use the stone to build.

My darling grandmother’s in the park were excited to pose for a photo. They brighten my day with their smiles, plus they share their snacks. Yesterday it was rice sticks.

               

                As you can see, our numbers were few today. This is the little group after our block meetings. Wayne and I are still teaching Chika, from Nigeria, the Temple Preparation lessons. Only the four soldiers and Chika are part of our branch. We did have three more soldiers who came to the afternoon sacrament meeting at the chapel on Camp Casey one had a tale of his own tender mercy this week. He flies a drone along the border for intelligence purposes. This week as it was flying he was prompted to check on its flight while the other soldiers were playing video games, confident all was as usual and well. He noted that the drone had dropped in altitude and quickly discovered its engine was failing. It was too far afield to bring it home before the engine stopped but he was able to successfully crash it into a mountainside away from people where they were able to retrieve the full payload unharmed. The shell of the drone is a total loss but easily replaced. He had followed all the prescribed procedures and had no negative repercussions because he had noted the engine problem quickly.

             As I pulled up to the gate to go to our Sunday meeting, the gate guard told me that my car registration had expired so I would need to park off post and walk onto the post. While that didn’t seem like a tender mercy, it was a huge one. Today I could walk a couple of blocks from the parking outside the gate to the chapel. Last week the distance from my house to our classroom was a twenty minute car ride. We have time this week to deal with the paperwork complete with a Korean holiday on Monday closing everything. We can walk the twenty minutes to the USO and administrative buildings. The Lord really does watch over us.

Sharing Knowledge

               

                 We put in a crazy day at the USO in Monday. There was a competition between units happening on the post and the USO sponsored a barbecue for the soldiers participating. Our job was to hold down the fort while everyone else stood in a windy rain serving hot dogs and hamburgers. We still had lots of soldiers in and out of the USO trying to keep dry and warm. We had walked to the post and were doing well keeping dry on the way home with a rain jacket and umbrella until a car sped past right through a large puddle and sent a wave of water over us.

                Most of the week was spent in a classroom with 27 soldiers who were selected out of more than 50 who applied. They all promised to take the learning opportunity seriously and they didn’t disappoint. While they are our largest class to date, they are also the most engaged. We give them practice problems or exercises and they do them right away. If discussion doesn’t slow the minute we begin to speak, someone yells, “Listen up!” and there is silence. They do their homework and return from breaks on time and work hard. While Wayne was helping the soldiers as they practiced a math tool one of the soldiers who seems to be doing well said, “I’ve learned more math this week than I learned in high school. That’s a pretty sad reflection on my high school.”

                Saturday, we needed a break so we headed into the foothills (mountains) to see what we could see. We were greeted by a lovely array of wildflowers and two small deer bounding through the underbrush. We are very thankful for the return of the sun, for warmer days, wildflowers, and leaves. We enjoy watching our neighbors prepare their gardens for growing and the parallel with the missionary work as we try to prepare the hearts of those we meet to receive the beautiful message of God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Celebration of New Life

                 

                 The winter has been cold and long so we have eagerly been looking for signs of spring. This week we saw the beauty in South Korea, we had been promised, occurs in the spring. The first blooms were the yellow forsythia bushes and then the beautiful Magnolia trees. This is a white magnolia near the chapel at Camp Casey but there are also light pink blooms on other trees.

                Cherry blossoms are the signal of spring here. The trees are planted along roadsides and the rivers. Almost every dong (town) has some type of festival to celebrate the blooming of the cherry trees. Wayne and I hiked to Soyosan on Saturday to see what we could find. We were not disappointed.

                The third most common blossom in spring is the light purple azalea that grows wild on the mountainsides. There are a few in the parks and they add color to the season.

We have seen some little purple violets and even some white ones. There are tiny white and yellow flowers that look like weeds blooming. There is a yellow flower that looks similar to the parrot’s beak blooming next to the trail. 

We found that the Koreans have a different definition of weed than we do. As we walked today there were men and women cutting the leaves of low-growing plants and then we saw them for sale at the vendors along the trail at Soyosan. Men were snipping off the leaves just emerging from the buds from a particular bush along the trail and we wondered whether they were going to eat them as a side dish or boil them for a tea.

Korea seems to hold a new adventure around every corner. On Wednesday, my friend Victoria took me by the hand and off I went to wherever she led. It reminded me of the Faith Walks the Young Women do at Girl’s Camp. She speaks only a little English; I speak only a little Korean; and everyone in the countryside speaks Korean.

She took me to a bus stop and we rode a “little” bus to Jeonguk about 15 minutes north. Our first stop was at a market to buy “baby plants.” Sister Kong met us there and helped Victoria choose which plants to buy. She kept asking me what I wanted to buy, but the only plant I recognized was Romaine lettuce and she had already selected several of those.

Bro. Bae (husband of Sis. Kong) picked us up and we rode another fifteen minutess into the countryside until we were near the top of a little valley. There was a wonderful property owned by a Protestant Church where the Bae’s live as caretakers. There were two greenhouses and at least an acre of cultivated fields. We helped Bro. Bae put our baby plants into the soil that he had already prepared. Then we harvested lettuce and then green onions. Victoria dug up two large garbage sacks full of green onions and Bro. Bae sent them all home with us. Victoria sheered off the leaves of several of the miscellaneous plants growing near the onions. They all looked like weeds to me. We ate a simple meal of Korean dumplings, rice cakes, and a white melon before Bro. Bae brought us home.

                Those were the adventures but most of our week was spent in service at the USO mentoring soldiers so far away from their families. On Thursday, we provided support for a campaign to encourage the soldiers to drink “responsibly.” The rest of our time was spent with our missionaries and members.

                Sunday brought the Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The elders brought two soldiers they met last night at their finding activity. We’re looking forward to fellowshipping them as they begin to study with the missionaries. Our female officer was back after almost a month being drawn away by her role to oversee her soldiers who broke rules and were in trouble. I taught her another temple preparation class. She is so excited to look forward to being sealed to her husband. One of our African elders who has been away since Christmas was back so I did my best to encourage him to join us on Monday evenings for our Institute class so he can begin studying while he waits for an opportunity to take college courses. He kills chickens twelve hours a day and has hopes to one day work with his mind rather than his hands. We’re trying to generate a large enough group to begin the Pathways program here in Dongducheon. Easter with the Koreans was a wonderful celebration complete with two kinds of Easter rice cakes.

                Our meeting at the Camp Casey Chapel had a record attendance of soldiers who are actually stationed here. Each soldier enjoys one-on-one attention to share their week. We learned that a Korean soldier died when he turned his tank on its top and all about the shiny new tanks the South Korean soldiers have as equipment. Our soldiers are on 10-minutes to fight alert and expect to be the first deployed if conflict occurs. Protecting us is their job and they are confident in their equipment and skills. Vice Pres. Pence was at the JSA today so they were on extra high alert.

                One of the chaplain assistants who has been working at the Camp Casey Chapel since January asked if she could meet me for coffee this week. She is Italian from the Bronx, complete with the accent. The topic of coffee led to a discussion of the Word of Wisdom which led to her interest in studying different religions. She accepted a Book of Mormon to begin reading this week so we can talk about it when we meet for lunch on Friday. The sister missionaries joined our conversation because they couldn’t leave my sight while on the post and directed her to use mormon.org to find more information on our church. Heavenly Father loves and watches over all His children. What a wonderful blessing to be called as a missionary to share the message of Jesus Christ to those seeking more light and peace. 

Korean Hospitality

           

             This week we did some one-on-one tutoring for soldiers in addition to the many hours we spent greeting soldiers at the USO. Tysha Hart came for help with her writing.

Frank Fykes has a dream to become an officer and is a dream to mentor. He is appreciative of every minute of instruction and returns each week with the homework assigned completed. In the meantime, we are preparing to teach a group of 25 soldiers in a BESEP review course.

                Victoria has come three times for a combination English/Korean study. She helps me with my Korean and I help her with her English. Our goal is to be able to talk to one another without a translator and we are doing well. We are speaking mostly in English but we are able to share ideas and feelings on a basic level.

                On Friday, we were included in the annual High Priest social in the Uijeonbu Ward since some of their high priest’s meet with us on Sunday. Thankfully, Brother Bae picked us up and gave us a ride to the apartment in Uijeonbu. Victoria was there to assist us in communicating and Sister Kuhn (who also meets with us on Sunday) used the more relaxed setting to practice her English. We were able to enjoy a wonderful variety of Korean foods and fellowship with the “Over 60’s.” (I think they told Victoria that the group was exclusive to those over sixty because she just celebrated her sixtieth birthday. Now she just barely qualified to be part of the group. She is such a bright, happy person that she seems easy to tease and joke around with. Most of the humor goes over our heads. We just laugh when everyone else laughs without any clue why.)

                The food was served at low tables with guests sitting on the floor. All the food was in the middle of the table and each guest had their own chop sticks, bowl of rice, and bowl of seaweed soup with spoon. The lettuce served as a wrap for anything you want to put into it. Almost always you include a bit of rice. There was a fried fish, mollusk of some sort, pork, spicy chicken wings, kimchi, hot green peppers, sliced garlic and a variety of vegetables and fried foods. One of the foods was acorn gelatin. We’ve been interested in seeing the actual food they make from the acorns since we watched our neighbors gathering them. We ate slowly and tried to pass the test of being Korean by enjoying the foods in front of us. Wayne ate a chicken wing and told me it wasn’t too spicy. I ate a green chili and found it to be pretty mild. The chicken wing I ate burned all the way down and Wayne drew a chili pepper hot enough to boil water. The meal ended with a plate of wonderful fresh fruit: pineapple, strawberries, and Asian pears.

We both felt like we had enjoyed a taste of true Korean culture compliments of these kind Koreans who know us only as the senior missionaries serving in Dongducheon. They opened their home and their hearts to us and we appreciate their kindness.

The Koreans love to eat together so they planned a meal to follow watching General Conference this morning. They served bibimbap which is rice with lots of vegetables usually decoratively arranged in the bowl and then topped with a fried egg. It is eaten by stirring it altogether. Today we could choose how much kimchi we added and it was really delicious. The Koreans serve fruit for dessert. You can see what I brought. Those two cakes disappeared quickly. We watched more General Conference with the soldiers on post in the afternoon and then another full session of General Conference with our district of missionaries here at our apartment after that. It’s pretty amazing to be able to access the words of the prophets half-way around the world.

Korean Wedding

                We experienced Korean culture on two occasions this week in two celebrations. The USO hosted a dinner for the volunteers at a local buffet restaurant as an occasion to recognize the hours of service we have provided to the soldiers. While Wayne and I tried to find foods that would not make us sick (quite unsuccessfully) the three Koreans at the table next to us boiled shrimp, squid, and     octopi in a soup which they ate.

We decided the reason we keep receiving recognition for our volunteer service here is that there are so few of us. Each was given a The President’s Volunteer Service Award matching their hours of service. It was a nice medallion and certificate. These soldiers and Koreans who serve with us are the cream of the crop as they serve many hours to make the benefits of the USO available to the military personnel.

On the following day we left early to attend a session of the Seoul Temple prior to our attendance at the wedding of the son of our neighbor, Victoria Park. Victoria, her daughter, and a friend of the daughter were on the train platform ready to board the same train. They were also going to Sincheon to have makeup applied and their hair styled. It gave us the opportunity to interact with her daughter a little and begin to become acquainted. Victoria informed us that the venue for the wedding had been changed because of the rain yesterday so it was good we saw them this morning for that reason, too. They suggested that we catch the 153 bus at Sincheon. She drew us a map. We used our phones to translate words so that we could communicate.

With the help of a kind Korean who recognized our name badges and temple bags and identified himself as a member of the same church we found the bus stop for the 153. Another Korean helped us identify our exit stop. We crossed the beautiful Han River.

The Korean National Assembly Building is located on an island in the Han River. Victoria’s son works for the Korean National Assembly so he arranged for his wedding to be in one of the reception centers on the island.

We couldn’t resist noting the unique personality of the Korean lion.

At the door of the reception center are two tables, one for the bride and one for the groom. There is a guest book, envelopes for guests to insert money as the gift and tickets to the luncheon to follow the ceremony. The groom, his sister, and mother were near their table to greet their guests.

The ceremony began when the two mothers dressed in the traditional Hangul gowns entered the hall and each lit a candle. They then took a place of honor to view the ceremony. The bride and groom entered together. There was an exchange of rings and I’m assuming vows because both the bride and the groom said, “Yes,” at a signaled time. 

            There was a trio of a violin, cello, and piano that played Arirang (a favorite Korean song equivalent to America the Beautiful) at the beginning and then as a performance during the ritual. A tenor sang to the couple a song that must have been a love song. He had fun with the couple. Then the bride joined the musicians and played something on a traditional Korean stringed instrument. It was also very beautiful music.

The bride and groom bowed to the bride’s parents with the broom prostrating himself and then they hugged and did the same with the groom’s parents except Victoria had her husband’s older brother sitting with her. Some young children paraded down the aisle and each gave the bride a red rose. A man went to the podium and offered a prayer near the end. It was very formal and very beautiful. Both the bride and groom looked very, very happy. The crowd clapped and enjoyed the ceremony as well. Victoria said that it was a happy day, but also a sad day as she remembered her husband who was not there. She was the only one who shed any tears. She insisted we be included in the large group of family when the final pictures were taken.

While the guests were eating the bride and groom changed into the traditional Korean wedding attire to greet their guests and take more pictures. 

            We were told there was an amazing amount of food at Korean weddings. We were still amazed at table after table of food from salads and fruit to fresh sea food, main dishes of every kind plus specialty foods, beverages, and desserts. We were told that you couldn’t eat even a bite of everything that would be served. I think Wayne tried a little of almost everything that didn’t look spicy. I played it safe with fruits, salad and fresh sea food.

While the cultural experience of the wedding was wonderful, the highlight for me was the opportunity to meet Victoria’s children and other family and develop Jeong with the friends who have asked to learn more about the church Victoria is so excited about and recently joined. Enjoying the peace and revelation of the temple followed by an awesome missionary experience made a pretty perfect day.