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.
Sounds like you saw God's hand all throughout your week. :) Love you!
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