Always Learning

This week seemed like a quiet one with time for service and time for reflection. We learned:

Teach the way they learn. Teachers always learn the most. Reviewing the data available we know our soldiers improved the least in their language skills after taking our class. I’ve been experimenting with ways to get soldiers to review words multiple times and read critically. Since we have two soldiers who come for private tutoring twice each week, it has given me an opportunity to experiment with apps for the cell phone and repeated quizzes. We’ve learned that the expectation of the soldiers is seat time. They have other duty that makes doing outside homework and study challenging. If I want them to review the words and read, I need to do that with them during seat time.

The way to a changed heart and full conversion is through the simple righteous routines. Many of our soldiers are in church infrequently either because of extra duty or by choice. Those few who grow spiritually during their time here nurture themselves spiritually by following righteous routines. They never procrastinate their physical conditioning because it is tested every day and they know missing even one day of training will cause them to regress. Some of the soldiers have made the connection with their spiritual conditioning and focus time for righteous spiritual routines daily.

Koreans like American food. Our neighbor continues to give us boiled vegetables and various combinations of rice and beans, kimchi, and hot sauce. When she joined us for a light dinner and tasted raspberry vinaigrette on the greens instead of hot sauce she liked the American way. I also fed her some potato salad, ice cream and lemon pudding. They don’t make sweet desserts, but they love to eat them.

Remembering family stories helps us see our place in eternity. Wayne and I have enjoyed writing short stories about our ancestors for our grandchildren. It has given us the opportunity to go back into our records and read stories we haven’t read in years and become reacquainted with grandparents. We appreciate those who took time to record the stories we have. How our grandparents approached trials gives us insight into their attitudes and faith. We are a linking generation between the past and the present doing what we can to bond the two together.

Marathon Days

 This week seemed like a marathon as the days began early and were filled to the brim until late each night. We are thankful for the health to serve.

Monday opened with a Skype call with three of my daughters and their families. What fun to see them all piled on top of one another. I just wanted to touch them. The day ended with our Family Home Evening with the soldiers. We had a Korean young adult join us and then were surprised when one of the female gate guards came into the room. The sisters had invited her but didn’t understand she planned to accept the invitation. She knew both sets of senior missionaries who preceded us so this wasn’t her first Family Home Evening. Wayne and I gave an institute lesson on the topic that God is no respecter of persons. The investigator seemed to have a wonderful time.

 We walked to the post most every day this week and enjoyed the walk home past the wetland and the yellow iris that are blooming now.

Twice this week we met with two soldiers to review reading comprehension, vocabulary, and math skills. Gabriel came first on Tuesday and as he was sharing the book he was reading he shared his love for learning about science. He talked about the creation and the disconnect between some preachers who claim the earth was created in only 2000 years and the geological evidence we have that it took millions of years for the earth to form. He expressed the concern about the changes people have made in the text of the Bible and how to know what is what God is really like. I used the opening to share that the church I belong to believes in modern prophets and that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith so we know what they are like. It was just a brief exchange and Gabriel was as respectful of my statement of belief as I was of his. He didn’t have any questions.

               Teel-Owen came from her review board on Friday. She passed whatever they were reviewing with shining colors. She was happy. She was also happy because she scored 114 on the GT predictor test she took on Thursday. She had two more weeks to study and is determined to capture a score over 110.

 Thursday was the main adventure. Dr. Mark Peterson from BYU was here to share information with us about the religious beliefs of the people in Korea. He spent the most time telling us about Shamanism and detailing why you go to a Shaman, what the Shaman can do for you and exactly how they do it. He said that no one in Korea admits that they practice the Shaman religion, but 100% of Koreans have some cultural practice that is based in Shamanism. It was interesting that most of the Shaman’s are women who have themselves been helped with a serious trouble by another Shaman. They mentor and teach one another and assist one another in important or large, three-day, ceremonies. They discover which dead relative who died unexpectedly and prematurely is giving the person trouble and then performs the ceremony to contact that relative and convince them to move on and stop causing their poor relative so much grief. These ceremonies include drums and chanting, ribbons on a stick that are waved and pulled, and are expensive. Shaman’s do other smaller rituals that cost less money and take less time. Mostly, Dr. Peterson said, what they do is listen to the worry, give solace and support, pray and the person receives comfort. He said that we share a belief in prayer, an afterlife, and comforting those whose hands hang down.

Then President Sonksen gave the directive that we would all go to the Seoul South Mission home and meet there at 2 p.m. The goal was to practice gathering in case of an emergency evacuation. He told the missionaries to take the drill seriously. We followed instructions, rode the underground train to the designated station, saw nothing but tunnel until we walked above ground to the corner where we were to walk to the mission home. We ate as we traveled and were one of the first missionaries to arrive. We watched as they straggled in, one trainload at a time. The sisters were all there early while some of the elders were twenty minutes late.

We were on the first train out of Seoul and took a different route home than we have taken before. Again, all the new territory was in a train tunnel. We changed trains twice and were near Bosan about 5:30 p.m. We decided to split. Wayne took the elders to the food court getting off at the Bosan Station. I rode to Dongducheon and picked up the car so we had transportation home.

When I went to the restroom to wash my hands before eating, a soldier stopped me to talk. I must have met her at the USO at least once and she recognized me. We talked, mostly I listened. She asked what I was doing and I told her about the Korean class at the CAC; she decided she would join us.

There were five soldiers waiting to be taught Korean and only one was a repeat. Elder Gish did a great job teaching the alphabet and the soldiers seemed to feel they were learning a bunch and having a good time in the process.

On Friday, we worked the USO desk until 2 p.m., did our food shopping, grabbed a bite to eat and went back to the USO where we met with Broady and Teel-Owen again. Shin also came so we had students from 4-8 p.m.  We worked at the front desk because there was no one else to cover the desk. The whole week seemed filled with overlap.

 I remembered to bake a birthday cake for Elder Gish. Shin wanted to help me cook so she did the stirring. I pulled the cake out of the oven as we closed the USO. We came home dead tired again, but called the elders and sisters to join us for a piece of birthday cake and some ice cream. They were here in a jiffy, sang to Elder Gish, ate most of the cake, shared experiences from their week and then were off so they didn’t miss their 9 p.m. curfew. I was thankful for the curfew but it was good to see the happy young people celebrating a milestone together.

Sunday Wayne gave the main talk in sacrament meeting then he helped me teach Chika his last Temple Preparation lesson as he prepares to enter the temple for the first time. He fled the economic chaos in Nigeria hoping to find a way to provide support for his children. He works six days a week, usually twelve hour days at a repetitious factory job. He sleeps on a cot at the factory and eats in the canteen there. Sunday is his day to step outside. Knowing he is a Son of God gives him perspective and hope. He always has a smile even when he’s just come off the night shift and is a wonderful example of gratitude for life, health, family, and priesthood covenants.

Looking for the Son

                Our biggest adventure this week was finding the Driver’s License Office to see if we could obtain a Korean driver’s license. Between navigating the Korean roads and dodging the other cars, Wayne concluded that anyone who drove safely to the office should be instantly granted a license. We did our best to locate the office on a map, but left the car to search on foot when that didn’t work. We found the office because a kind Korean woman walked us through back allies and up a steep hill about half mile away. The Cliff Notes of the story is that we did not have the paperwork needed and we abandoned Plan A and sent my sister the paperwork to secure international driver’s licenses from AAA.

                Our most frequent activity this week was teaching and tutoring soldiers individually, sometimes tag teaming with two soldiers at a time. These soldiers are very focused and dedicated and appreciative of our time with them. Sister Anderson had the opportunity to teach Korean with the elders to a soldier who already speaks six other languages including Japanese. She also was able to share the message of the restoration of the gospel with a soldier who is searching to learn more about God and religion. Wayne had a soldier tell him, “You are an answer to my prayer.” We met two soldiers who have recently arrived in Korea and were looking to find where they could attend church meetings.

                We lost the gardens that were a patchwork quilt in the vacant lot between our apartment buildings. We have watched many Koreans work countless hours preparing the ground and planting seedlings only to have a bulldozer arrive on Monday and clear everything from plants to trellises to fences. Several of the Koreans tried to dig up some of the plants and take away their fencing ahead of the destruction. We mourned with them that they had not been given notice ahead of their labors.

  

              We spent more time with our sister missionaries and elders as they found ways we could support their work. Our sisters now have two investigators to teach plus a new member to support and they are jointly trying to begin teaching English to Koreans at our chapel as a service and finding tool.

                We seem to be a fixture at the USO as we serve there each week. It is about a twenty minute walk and we stop by the wetland at the stream on our way home. They finished what we thought would be a dam but it is lower than the water line now that it is finished and the water flows over it. Our best guess is that it is there to stabilize the stream above the trestle for the train. There seems to be an increase in the number of herons and egrets fishing there so it has enhanced the habitat.

                We didn’t take pictures of our new soldiers so I’m using pictures of the spring flowers this week. I love wildflowers so spring has been my favorite season in Korea. The weather has been dry and most of the week the air was very dirty. The Koreans say that yellow dust blows over from Mongolia at this time of year. On Saturday as we were finishing our shift at the USO the sky turned very black, thunder clapped and the wind picked up. We hurried to make our front door just as the rain began. It was a heavy, steady rain for several hours and then the clouds parted and we saw blue sky for the first time in more than a week. It was a bit of a metaphor of life and the cleansing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ to wash away the yellow dust and bring us hope. What a blessing it is to share this beautiful message with those who are looking for the Son.

Many roles of senior missionaries

                Koreans know how to celebrate. There was a holiday for Labor Day on Monday; a holiday for Buddha’s birthday on Wednesday; and a holiday for Children’s Day on Friday. Next Tuesday will be a holiday for the election so many Koreans took the full ten days off work. That was good for them, but we needed to register our car on post and get a copy of our insurance form from the Korean company to do that. You can guess that we walked to the post most of the week to serve at the USO. On the way we watched the painters suspended without harness from a single rope from the top of a 16-story building sitting on a little seat. He had a spray gun and just danced from side-to-side as he lowered himself down the front of the building.

                We learned that the students in our class made large improvements in their math scores but almost no change in their language scores. Most of the students started with high language scores so they had little room for improvement. We devoted more time to studying math on purpose because we had a range of about 6^th Grade to 12^th Grade in math proficiency. That’s a lot of math to cover. All of the students were very kind in their appraisals of the class and of us as teachers, but we need to make some changes for our next class.

                We spent several evenings working with students one-one one and sponsored the elders on post one evening so they could teach a Korean language class to the soldiers. Above is our dedicated zone of missionaries. This was our first meeting with them since the last transfers. It’s amazing to watch them lead one another.

                Sister Anderson spent one afternoon getting our new convert started in FamilySearch. Victoria was amazed at the Church resources for family history.

                Saturday was our day at the Seoul Temple. After our temple session we ate some snacks and Wayne attended a District Council Meeting while I went back into the temple to do initiatory work. We love being in the temple but also seeing other English speaking missionaries and members we have come to know. We are pretty isolated in Dongducheon. Wayne is the only High Priest and often I am the only woman in our military branch.

                We met with the mission president and his wife on Sunday to do some planning for this area of the mission and they were very kind in their assessment of our efforts. I guess it’s okay to pause once in a while and feel good about your service and then regroup and set new goals.