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.