Smiling Faces

                We worked our soldiers pretty hard this week with two hours of math and two hours of language every day and we did it with a smile. We really love working with these soldiers as they reciprocate with a smile of hope. We had soldiers at the USO every night plus Saturday for extra tutoring anywhere from one to five.

                We had a high number attend FHE with a mix of members, nonmembers, soldiers and African.

Patrick Thielen is an officer and will be the liaison between the officers in his unit teaching the BSEP review to their soldiers while they are in the field over the next few weeks. Eric Anderson is always smiling and the one soldier who almost misses any church meeting.

Colton Mercer and Tyler Lavea are also officers and bring a smile whenever they are free to join us.

Kemekia Hopwood has spent every evening with us since she started our BESEP review class last week. She from Jamaica and is determined to hit the 110 GT score. She is always so bright and happy that we would give her that score if it were ours to bestow.

Shawn Pitcher is a counselor in the branch presidency and Alfred is from Liberia and hoping to go on a mission before he is too old to serve. He works fifteen hour days killing chickens six days a week and he’s been saving the money he doesn’t sent back to his family in Africa. 

Gabe Broady meets with us whenever he is free. His smile lights up the room.

Our Korean neighbors set up a little fair in the courtyard of our apartment complex. It reminded me of a mini county fair complete with games of chance, food, a ride and entertainment. The loud Korean music playing was my clue to look for something unusual.

The food on skewers is an apple cut in a continuous incline plane, deep fried and sprinkled in cinnamon. The most interesting food was octopi with the head on a skewer and the tentacles wound around the stick. It was only 10000 won ($10) for one deep fried.

There was this one swing ride in a pirate’s ship.  

           I hosted the women of the area who speak English to listen to a rebroadcast of the General Women’s Conference in our apartment. We invited all the African sisters and their husbands promised they would be here. None of them came, but one of the nonmember soldiers who came to our Fourth of July activity came with the sister missionaries. It was an intimate group and such wonderful messages of hope and joy as sisters.