Full Circle

                This week brought us full circle back to our home in Orem, Utah. We started the week at the office of the garrison commander. We were scheduled to receive the “Volunteer Service” medal next week from the Col. Newton when he returned to his office but we couldn’t arrange a change in travel so Wayne Johnson and his boss read the formal citation and made the presentation on our last day on post. We stopped by the Education Office to see how our soldiers did on their posttests. Even the soldier with TBI jumped four grade levels. A soldier from a former class had just completed his formal test and was waiting for the results. When he was told it was 105 we were a little disappointed. He said that he was very happy. It was ten points higher than he had before and was high enough to qualify for the new position (MOS) he was hoping to achieve. He wanted us to know that we had made a difference for him.

   

             We had our final Family Home Evening with the soldiers and our African who just submitted his missionary papers came, too. Wayne gave his presentation on creation in the universe and one of our officers was true to his word to free up our Jamaican soldier who has become as close as a granddaughter to us so she could bid us farewell. I didn’t think she would let us go. One other officer was able to stop by and he brought a nonmember soldier with him. That made the number even with two LDS and two non-LDS soldiers. We had good success in having the soldiers from all faiths join us as we studied the New Testament this year.

    

                            Tuesday, we packed our bags, gave the Bowman’s a tour of the apartment, and rode to Seoul with Pres. and Sister Sonksen to finish up final tasks before leaving.

                One of those was a final dinner of black chicken soup. That chicken with black skin was small enough to fit inside a normal soup bowl, was stuffed with rice and flavored with ginseng root. It was quite tasty but a little hard to bone and eat with chopsticks. We were joined by the office couple, Andersons, and the medical couple, Whitings. We enjoyed a quiet evening at the mission home and then had our last sleep in South Korea.

                Wednesday morning was a totally free day because we experienced it twice. The first time, we walked to the National Palace to tour the museum. We learned so much about the palace and history of the empire that we wished we had started our touring here rather than ending. We then walked to one of the most beautiful Buddhist Temples in Korea and looked around. There were three huge gold Buddhas with many people there worshiping. A small processional emerged from one building and gathered near an altar. When they filed out they placed papers in a fire that disintegrated into wisps of white paper blowing in the air. The day was relatively warm and the sky was clear, a lovely day for being a tourist in Seoul. We changed our won into dollars and rode the tour bus one more loop around the main tour district before returning to the mission home for our ride to the airport.

                Sister Sonksen was our chauffer and we enjoyed one last look at Seoul and its beautiful bridges before joining Pres. Sonksen and the Robinsons to begin our check in at the airport to return to Utah.

       

         Now here we are emptying the same suitcases we packed eighteen months ago. Everything is the same and yet everything is different. We are so thankful for this incredible opportunity to serve as representative of Jesus Christ to share the joy of being a member of His restored gospel. We have loved feeling his guiding hand each day and know that it will continue as we begin a new chapter in our lives. God lives and He loves you. He is always near inviting us to return home.

For the last time

                This week was the beginning of events that would be happening for the last time here in South Korea. Even though the most frequently asked question lately is, “When will you be back?” Reality is that we probably will never return especially not as military relations missionaries in Area 1. This question has given us the opportunity to share with those people why we were here. It warms my heart that they want us to return and hurts my heart to bid farewell to people who we have grown to love, to people who have been so very kind to us.

                I refilled a prescription at the pharmacy and we said farewell to the receptionist who has followed our health care and found immediate openings for us to be seen for anything that afflicted us from a suspicious skin spot to potentially serious heart arrythemia. The pharmacist called me the next day after having reviewed all my records to make sure I had obtained my blood thinner at a Korean pharmacy because I hadn’t renewed my prescription with her. It’s easy to see why it is difficult to part with people who have loved and cared for us so tenderly.

                The next “last time” was Dong District Meeting. They came to our apartment so we could attend and to help eat all the sugary snacks that need to be cleared from my cupboards. We have served with many of these missionaries for many months and watched them grow in leadership, missionary, and personal skills. Working with the young missionaries has been one of the highlights of being a senior missionary. There is reasonable hope that we will see all of our missionaries again one day in Utah as they come to Utah County to school or we gather for mission reunions. They are already lighting the world one smile at a time.

                Our next “last time” was teaching our soldiers in their BSEP Review Class. This has been a smaller group and many of them began with lower scores and skills than we have seen in earlier classes. One soldier recently experienced a head injury and had definite signs of TBI. He relearned everything every day. Another soldier was very bright but his family situation required that he drop out of school after the 8^th Grade to provide support to them. He was quick to learn every new thing but had a gap to bridge to his goal. Many of the soldiers have a wife and young children they are struggling to support and class time is prime time to Facetime with their families. Their results won’t be in until after we return to Utah. We will leave our files and slides with the Bowmans and trust that they will experience similar joy in teaching these soldiers.

                MWR (I haven’t learned what all the acronyms stand for) wanted to take us out to eat on our last day of teaching but the office assistant gave us the option of eating her home cooked spaghetti instead. She is a wonderful cook from Russia so we chose her cooking. The director of MWR came with lovely gifts and the other staff at the Education Center came to bid farewell and enjoy the wonderful food.

                We promised to show the Bowmans a wonderful Korean restaurant in our neighborhood that is tucked inside one of the little draws on the West Mountains. They grow all their own produce and purchase their meat locally so the quality of the food is wonderful. We used a Korean with very limited English to help us order. The servers were very solicitous of our experience with their restaurant and food so we had wonderful care as we explored foods even Wayne and I hadn’t seen before. We had beef 볼거기 which is a favorite traditional dish here in Korea with almost innumerable sides.

                Our sweet sister missionaries gave us a book with notes from branch members and missionaries for us to remember on our last Sunday in our final fast and testimony meeting here in South Korea. Wayne and I both took the opportunity to share one last testimony with those we have come to love. We want them to remember that we know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is our redeemer and exemplar, that the priesthood of God has been restored to the earth so that the sacred ordinance can be performed that we can be sealed to our families forever. More than one tear was shed but I don’t think it will be our last before we leave Korean soil.