Joyful Communities

             

             We had the opportunity to interact with a variety of happy communities this week. Our Family Home evening picture is missing MSgt. Lyse who has been with us on temporary duty for a special exercise that began on Sunday. He provides insight and experience to the young adults who meet with us. Five is a big group for us yet small enough that we love being together and sharing a love for Jesus Christ as we study his life in the New Testament. 

             My neighbors have been making kimchi and harvesting the white radishes. Some of the radishes they use to make kimchi but I noticed large sheets of them drying in pieces that look like French fries and then another set of neighbors were washing and bundling smaller radishes that they might sell. They dry the radish tops and I have no idea what they use them for.

            Notice how the cabbages are cut into quarters to be salted and soaked in brine to draw out much of their water before they put them into the red pepper paste they use to ferment them.  You can get an idea how large the red tub is that they use to mix the kimchi. Our farmer from our Jihang group at church gave us two large cabbages so we could make our own kimchi. That little community of saints that gather together has become very dear to us.             

            This is one of my favorite “harmonies” (grandmothers) with a small dish of cabbage that has been soaked in the brine and then rinsed ready to put in the hot sauce.

I think this is her daughter standing by the kimchi that is still left in the tub. She has been transferring it to the containers that will store it through the winter.

This is a full group shot of one set of neighbors who used the sidewalk in front of their house to prepare the cabbages and make the kimchi. Because kimchi has so many steps and is so much work, they almost never make it alone. It is a family project much like bottling fruit and making fruit preserves that I did with my family in the fall.

I spent most of my week reorganizing my materials so Sister Bowman can begin to teach some of the reading comprehension lessons next week. Wayne was faithful in watching the desk at the USO. We both met evenings with soldiers still preparing to take their promotion exams. One of them took his exam this week and scored 114 which will help him achieve his dreams. He was our soldier from Cameroon.

Our weekend adventure took us to Seoul for a Zone Conference with the community of young missionaries. This will be our last Zone Conference before we return home so we were asked to give, 마지막, or final testimony. My heart started up in my throat and my eyes seemed more like waterfalls when I stood, but then I calmed and was able to speak and share my love for our Savior Jesus Christ and my joy in having this opportunity to be on His errand for a few months. Wayne shared similar sentiments but without the water display. We took lots of pictures, gave lots of hugs, and made promises to keep in touch with missionaries we have served with who are in other areas of the zone and will continue their service for a few more months. They all got smart phones this week so they learned how to be smart with those phones and use them for missionary purposes (and not selfies).

President and Sister Sonksen hosted a dinner for all the senior missionaries in the Seoul South Korea Mission so we could be together one last time as a community of seniors before we return. Sister Robinson, with her hand on my shoulder, and her husband will return with us on December 6^th. They have done a wonderful work as public relations missionaries and live in St. George. There were three couples who are relatively new, the Bowmans, the Ulvestads, and the Whitings, so we were able to become better acquainted with them. The office couple, also named Anderson, will complete their mission only a few months after we return. Our get acquainted activity was to share one thing we had learned about our spouse while we have served with them as a missionary. These seniors who serve as missionaries and then do it again and again are pretty amazing.           

               We stayed the night at the mission home and then struck out for an adventure in shopping on Saturday morning. We got on the bus that doesn’t go all the way to Seoul Station which is a mistake we have done before. It gave us a chance to do a short river walk in the middle of the city where they already have lots of fun displays set up in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympics. These are the mascots for the games doing a little advertising.

                At Seoul Station there is an overhead walkway that crosses this busy street and ends up in a market famous for its bargains. We hadn’t visited it yet so we decided to explore and see if we could find something small enough to fit inside our suitcases to bring home to our family for Christmas. There were so many little shops in a labyrinth of streets that it was pretty overwhelming. I managed to spend every won in Wayne’s wallet in a short period of time. It was a fun adventure in the big city but we were happy to return to our little dong.