Shower of Good News

                There was so much good news this week that I may not be able to remember it all.

•  Aaron, our grandson called to visit and explained to his grandpa that the physics class he is taking is pretty easy for him. He scored 100% on the last test but the class average was 50%. Wayne said, “Good genes.”
•  Bethany, our granddaughter, reported that she can graduate from BYU with a chemistry minor without taking any extra classes.
•  Emily, another granddaughter, got her braces off. She looks even more beautiful.
  
•  Kara, our missionary granddaughter, was paired with a new companion just out of the MTC and they had a baptism that reactivated a whole family.
•  We were able to talk to several of our family members from home and feel their love and support. There was even a LETTER in our mailbox. It was a talk given by Rachel, our Beehive granddaughter, with her sweet testimony.
•  Gabe, one of the soldiers we have tutored for six month, took his promotion exam and scored 124. That’s a jump of over thirty points. He started filling out his paperwork to apply for Officer’s Candidate School (OCS) the same day. He is literally a “rock star” on the post. Everyone seems to know him and what he achieved. They want to be like him.
  
•  Another soldier we have been tutoring who has struggled for every word she’s learned, for every math problem and every comprehension question she answers correctly  jumped eleven points on the predictor exam she took this week and now she can see the goal of a score that will give her opportunity to apply to become a pharmacist’s assistant.
•  We finished another review class with the soldiers and their initial predictor scores are up higher than many had dreamed possible. There is so much joy in being a part of another person’s success.
  
•  Elder and Sister Bowman have picked up the lion’s share of the evening tutoring lifting a weight off our shoulders that was heavier than we were aware. It gave us time for to enjoy the beauty of this fall season and exercise a little more.
•  I was able to greet the harmonies (grandmothers) in our neighborhood as we walked. I love to see their face light up when I stop, bow and give them the traditional Korean greeting. Even their family members who are standing near smile. A simple smile can bring so much joy.
  
• Wayne was able to help one of our African men fill out his paperwork to serve a mission. Just completing the application will be a challenge for him, but he wants to share the joy he has found with others.
• We found a soldier who was baptized four years ago and hasn’t been able to retrieve his membership record over a series of many moves. Wayne has a search out for the record and I have his phone number. He has the time and place of our meetings and we’re eager to include him in our military branch.
• One of the soldiers Wayne was tutoring in math said that he is looking for a religion so he can raise his son with a church. He wondered when we held meetings and if he could join us! We can’t proselyte but we can share meeting times and answer questions.
• Friday, many of the soldiers had the day off. We had finished teaching our class and the USO had too many volunteers. Wayne and I went to the health fair hoping to get our flu shot. The line was so long you couldn’t see the end so we volunteered to help the nurses. Wayne took the paper off the Band-Aids and we put the needles on the syringe and flushed out the tiny air pocket so the nurses could give the shots more quickly. We had such fun. The nurses cleared out the line in no time and then we got our shots, too.
  
• In the meantime, one of the retirees who came for his shot saw our name tags, said he had considered learning more about our church, and he was ready to do that now. He gave me his phone number so the missionaries could contact him and his wife and I gave him the time and place of our meetings.
• While we were helping the nurses we were able to see many soldiers we have worked with either in the church, the education center, or USO and reconnect with them in a joyful way.
• Our missionary district met at our house so we could attend. We have eight young missionaries and two senior couples. We have an awesome district. We sing like the Tabernacle Choir and we love being missionaries in South Korea. We have a message of hope and we invite everyone we meet to listen and pray and read the Book of Mormon.

Napping

                Our approach to teaching the soldiers is an invitation to them to change and to learn. The soldiers come looking for a magic answer to a higher score without going through an intellectual boot camp to hone the skills. That requires that they stay awake, leave their phone in their pocket, solve math problems on their own, read passages that are more than four sentences long, and do homework. Some days we feel like the drill sergeant in boot camp as we try to coax the soldiers to believe in themselves enough to try, to work for knowledge.

                With the Bowmans here to help, we were able to split the math instruction into two sections. We let them self-select into a section that focused only on basic math skills or to stay in the section that would cover all the skills they would encounter on their exam. We were surprised at the number who opted for the easier instruction. We have come to love each of these soldiers, believe in them, and try to help them believe in themselves.

                …And in the afternoon I take a nap and then we go for a little walk to revisit places we have enjoyed and view the beauty of the change in seasons. This group of soldiers has had little time or interest in evening tutoring so we have had a little more open time and a little less stress.

                The USO held a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the Korean meat buffet to honor those who had earned Presidential Awards at any level. The other soldiers we see often in the evenings when we tutor were honored with us as they received Bronze or Silver awards. This was our night to be given the Gold and a reminder that our time at Camp Casey is drawing to a close. It is a joy to serve with the soldiers so far from family and home.

Many Hats

                 

               I stopped to visit with the civilian director of all the support programs for the post while he was visiting the Education Center on Friday. Our paths cross frequently and he was very gracious in offering his thanks for our service to the soldiers. I told him that we were training our replacements so he probably wouldn’t even notice when we returned home. He was quick to rebut that statement and made a comment, “Everywhere we go, you’re there.” I reflected on the many places we have served and they have been varied.

                Wayne is now a regular entrant at the holiday races. Columbus Day it was a 5K. The young soldiers see him as a role model for health and fitness beyond their days as a soldier and the sergeants thank him for his participation with their soldiers. Wayne still manages to edge out about a third of the field even in his Z-Coil shoes. This soldier is in our LDS group. The woman behind him works at MWR and the blond is director of the Red Cross here in Area 1. We see and work with them often.

                We wore our teacher hats as we started a new class to help the soldiers review/learn math, reading, and vocabulary. The spread of skills from about a junior in high school to almost third grade is a challenge, but the joy in helping them learn what they need to navigate life is amazing. We fell in love with these soldiers very quickly. One soldier came to the front desk at the Education Center the first morning with his paperwork to be in the class. The administrator informed him that he was not in the class because that paperwork was due last week. I thought the man was going to cry so I told him to sit in on the class today in case someone dropped. Before class began, a soldier did call and drop the class. That wasn’t a coincidence. He’s the young man looking this way with the pencil. A few days later he confided in me some family problems that were weighing heavily on him. He needs some extra love and support right now with more than his academic skills.

                We still tag team the math and the language instruction so we only teach an hour at a time, but we also have Elder and Sister Bowman with us to provide extra help with the math skills when the soldiers are working independently with the problems. Sister Bowman helps with reviewing the language homework and they see things we are unaware of as they observe our teaching. We are learning as much from them as they are learning from us. We’re thankful they have decided to continue to teach these classes after we leave South Korea.

                We put on our missionary mentor hats to support our young sister missionaries. This was exchange week for the young missionaries and our Sister Rhodes was transferred to a new area with a Korean companion. This will be a great opportunity for her as she hones her Korean language skills, but it was a tearful farewell because this is her first transfer since she arrived. We have become very attached. As a reward, we added Sister Fryer who needed me to call her Mom the first day she was here because we can’t take them onto the post without their Social Security number and Mom’s are the keepers of those important documents.

                Sister Engebretsen needed some documents scanned and emailed to the states so they were here two more days working on that task plus registering Sister Fryer as a volunteer on the post. They taught Korean on post to four soldiers and Elder and Sister Bowman and are already an integral part of our church and military community.

                Elder Bowman volunteered to tutor the one soldier scheduled to meet with us on Friday evening giving us our first evening off for many weeks. Sister Bowman went to the yoga class with the soldiers.

 

We were able to put on our leisure hat and take time for a little hike into the hills before sunset. We found a hint of Fall in the trees. It was a luxury to eat a relaxed dinner and enjoy a big bowl of popcorn unhurried.

               We went to Soyosan and made the hike to the Buddhist Temple on Saturday. We haven’t been there for a year and I wanted to see it one more time before we leave Korea.

Celebrating 70!

                We started the week with a Chuseok celebration for the soldiers at the USO. The Korean employees of the Olleh store that has a desk in the USO dressed in their traditional Hangul clothes that they wear to the family Chuseok dinner to provide an authentic atmosphere.

                We mixed serving with celebrating with fellow missionaries, soldiers, and other volunteers from the post.

The celebration of my 70^th birthday began at Family Home Evening.  Our sister missionaries made me caramel corn with sweetened condensed milk and put Happy Birthday in candles in it so I had a cake I could eat. Only one of our member soldiers was not on duty but two of my favorite students were there to celebrate with me. I am their grandmother in Korea.     

          

On the day of my birthday in Korea we met with the missionaries in a new chapel in Seoul to celebrate the Korean holiday of Chuseok. It is similar to our Thanksgiving with a few additions. It is the biggest holiday of the year so the Korean missionaries call their parents on this holiday rather than our Christmas when the American missionaries call home. Sister Sonksen and Sister Anderson from the mission office made me feel like the whole celebration was for my birthday. It was a day full of fun games, good food, and a spiritual message. We even saw a little more of the beautiful mountains and countryside of South Korea. Since my birthday was a day later in America, I had opportunity to talk with a number of my family over two days. The two elders squatting in front are in our district.

While this was our week between classes, we still met almost every evening with soldiers working to sharpen their skills before taking their exam. We even began meeting with another soldier who came to the USO looking for our help.  It was also a time to prepare for our next class and listen to General Conference. On Saturday we attended the one temple session in English for the month with three of our soldiers and the new senior couple.

The soldier just behind me was in our September class and will be sent to Hawaii in two weeks. He was only here long enough to study with us, raise the score on his promotion exam, and return to his family. Our interactions with those we have met here were not coincidences. The Lord is in the details of our lives. 

Surprises

 

                In April I hosted a viewing of Women’s Conference in my home on Sunday evening and two of the African sisters came. Since these sisters only occasionally attend church services, I thought it would be a good idea to try again and invite them to watch Women’s Conference as a Relief Society group. The sister missionaries and I did our best to invite and prepare nice refreshments. Wayne set up the room and the video. Surprise! We had one nonmember soldier join us. This was only the second time this soldier has met with us so it was wonderful to share the spirit of the meeting with her. We invite.

                Monday morning as we walked into class we had a new student. Surprise! It was a bit furry and very playful. The soldiers shared their breakfast and then one of the female soldiers couldn’t resist the urge to cuddle and pet it. This was a kitten that had been handled by someone so they put it outside before the serious work began.

                We worked the students hard reviewing their math skills, reading comprehension and vocabulary and had soldiers meet with us at the USO every evening except Monday. Kemekia, who met with us every evening for the full three weeks, also joined us for our church service on post and Family Home Evening on Monday. We charged them to sleep on Thursday evening before they took their predictor test on Friday. We’d love to report that all of them scored a predicted score of over 110, but the only soldiers who reported back to us on Friday were those who want more help to reach that mark.

                On Wednesday, our District met at our home to save us the travel to Uijeonbu. When we returned from class there were shoes in our entryway so we expected the sister missionaries had let the missionaries from Uijeonbu inside. There was the right amount of shoes for the number of missionaries we expected. The first surprise was to learn that the zone leaders would be joining us. That’s was great, but Wayne has been planning a surprise treat for the missionaries, a cherry pie. He purchased one weeks ago and I baked it at the USO on Tuesday evening but it was just one little pie and the pieces would now be pretty small. Then we had another surprise as the mission president phoned just before we finished our meeting to let us know he and his wife were bringing the new senior couple over to meet the missionaries. When Wayne pulled out the pie and I cut the seven brownies into quarters, Pres. Sonksen asked if there would be enough refreshments for everyone. My reaction was, “We read about Christ feeding 5,000 with three loaves and two fishes after he prayed over them. We’ve said a prayer and what we have will stretch.” We didn’t have quite twelve baskets leftover, but there was one snickerdoodle cookie the sisters had brought. I was so surprised that I didn’t even take one picture.

                I fed the Bowman’s dinner on Wednesday evening and sent them home with food for breakfast. They came tired. We spent Thursday afternoon helping the Bowman’s get registered at all the places on post where needed and introducing them to the people they might volunteer with.  They did their first shopping trip at the commissary, too.

                Friday, we were back at the USO with another surprise. It was the birthday of one of the Korean women who work at the Olleh (Hello backwards) desk. This is the Korean telephone company and all the soldiers visit it as the come to the country and just before they return to the United States. Her boss brought her a beautiful Korean cake to celebrate. One of the chaplains on post came into the USO and spent almost an hour talking with us about his work and personal decisions he needs to make with regard to more schooling.

                We were back at the USO in the evening on Friday to provide tutoring for soldiers determined to continue studying until their predictor scores suggested they could reach their goal. The Bowman’s rode into the post with us and decided to attend the Talent Show for the Area 1 soldiers. As soon as they entered the venue, they were recruited to serve pizza to the soldiers. They were surprised to be serving and not simply spectators.

                With the cooler weather we walked up to Soyosan along the river. We were surprised to see a cluster of egrets plus one heron in two different places. Usually, they are spread out along the river and not in close proximity. It is usual to see a heron and an egret in the same section of the river. The picture didn’t even capture the full group.

                The fruit of the ginkgo tree are about the size of a sweet cherry and they are a pale yellow. The fruit is supposed to help you improve your memory but its smell is very pungent and acrid, FOUL (combination of vomit and manure). When we walk along the path we do everything we can to avoid stepping on them so we don’t carry the smell with us. Last fall we watched the Koreans collecting the fruit. Today we saw a couple at the side of the trail with a pile of nuts and broken fruit. We were a little surprised to see them gather the nuts and the fruit. As we passed them again on our way home, the man opened his backpack and offered Wayne something he had gathered. I stayed far away thinking it was ginkgo nuts or fruit. Thankfully, the gift was a few chestnuts, 봄, and he wasn’t expected to eat them on the spot.