Who would have thought a Military Relations Mission translates to a CES mission - COOKING EVERY SECOND!

They tell me if you feed them, they will come!  I use to love to cook and I am learning to love it again, now that I have people around who gobble it up!  Our single and unaccompanied people seem to very appreciative of any thing I bring to the activities - I don't imagine it's fun for them to figure out food all the time or to eat dorm food - so we try to have things for them.  I have learned to branch out from just sweet treats but there is a fun store here called Daiso - and if you know- you know!  It's a dollar store on Steroids!  They have these really cute treat bags that seal shut for less than a dollar a package and there's usually around thirty in the bag - so it's made it a little extra fun to bring them treats that way. We have FHE with the branch singles on Monday night, Wednesday night we do a gospel study on the base.  We call it "Come Follow Conference". Those that come bring a conference talk that relates to some principle in the Come Follow Me lesson for the week. On Friday night, we try to keep it geared towards an activity that someone from any faith feels comfortable coming to.  Usually a game night at the chapel on base.  The first Friday of the month, Elder Lowe and I take them bowling.  We are trying to find more airmen who are lonely to join us.  I've been told there is a lot of depression and suicide here  because of loneliness - so we are trying to fill the void. We have made homemade bagels, scotch a roos, sandwiches, pizzas, cookies, garlic rolls etc. Most days we are volunteering around doing various things.  Helping with the Red Cross, USO, Library, or just trolling looking for people who might need a friend, but, we have had a few Fridays where I can just bake and fill the freezer for the next time a treat is needed. The Red Cross needs treats frequently. We have decided that the military relations mission is to support the whole community and each week we seem to be guided to a new opportunity to serve.  We are not allowed to proselyte on the base, so we don't have the teaching experiences of some missionaries - but we are really beginning to see the benefit of having a visible presence.  We may not be teaching with words but we hope our example will touch hearts.

Before I forget - if you read my last weeks blog - you probably wondered why I named it black and white and color all over - I realized when I reread what I wrote that I never explained myself about the black and white. We had been here for six or seven weeks before I realized that most of the cars on the road are black and white, a few silver and tan but if you see another color of car it is generally a foreigner driving it. When I told Elder Lowe about my discovery, he said yes, and I notice it in the way they dress as well.  I mentioned it to one of our missionaries and they said that is the culture here to be conservative and not stand out.  They are counseled to not be to bold in their dress.  I love color, so I probably stand out more than I should, but generally we are on the base, so I think I am ok. If you google "why are there only black and white cars in Korea" there are some interesting thoughts to think about! 

Below is a picture of one our family night groups!  We have been know to have five different languages presented at our FHE's .  The missionaries were doingt the lessons when we got here, but we have transitioned to getting the members involved in the teaching.  The whole purpose of the church states, Member led - missionary supported - so it has been fun to see the members grasp the idea of giving the lesson. It is pretty simple and we use google translate to put it in too all the languages. After the lesson we have an activity of sorts and then come back for treats. We are grateful for the couple missionaries that were here before us for getting these programs up and running.  

So after district meeting one day - we need to help the Elders and the Sisters with some projects - so we took them to lunch first - we like to take the missionaries to lunch, because they have discovered the good places to eat - and they know how to help us order the food. Two of these missionaries have been transferred to another district! We already miss them - they were so much help to us as we got here and worked at getting use to the culture and getting around! They are making their parents proud as they serve - such valient young men and women! We are looking forward to getting to know the new missionaries who have joined our district.

So Thursday mornings have become a fun time for us!  We call ourselves Grandma and Grandpa Osan for the little preschoolers that come to the library for a Wiggles and Giggles class - we sing, dance and throw a couple of stories in the mix. There's anywhere from a dozen kids to twenty or thirty. Some are toddlers and babies and others are a little older - it only lasts about thirty minutes and then the library always has a cute little craft for them to do afterwards. Elder Lowe gets to know the parents and I play with the kids.  Helps me not miss my grandkids quite so much

This is a picture of our Friday night bowling activity! WE may not be the best at bowling, but everyone has a great time!

Elder Lowe and I helped the Red Cross at the hospital event last week honoring Nurses week - It was fun to get to know the people and meet some of the hospital employees! There are some wonderful people volunteering for the Red Crossand we feel honored to be able to help with their events!

I have to put this picture in.  We made our first trip to Costco a couple of weeks ago. The parking lot is massive and you have to go down two levels of escalator like this to get to the store - all three of these were filled with people but by the time i got my camera out to take a picture, it had thinned out - but Koreans love their Costcos.  We can get a lot of the Kirtland Items that we get in the United States and much much more of the Korean items - It's an adventure in and of itself. There is one opening about five minutes from our house on June 12 - I'm excited to say the least! The cool thing about all these stores is they have figured out a way of magnetizing the grocery carts so they don't move while you are on this moving sidewalk that goes up and down - pretty cool!

Last week we were able to go to see the Indpendance Hall of Korea in Cheonan. It's about an hour from out apartment. It's all about the independance movement from the Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 1900s.  It was very interesting and we will need to go back because we didn't really get to see it all.

Below is another opportunity we had to help with the Red Cross. Osan Air Base had an Air Show last weekend and they had thousands of people come. On Saturday, we helped at the Red Cross booth in the morning and the Lost Child booth in the afternoon. It rained hard most of the day, but that didn't discourage the Koreans from coming out in droves!  We froze! The winds were very strong, so none of the aircraft flew that day but on Sunday the Sun came out and it was a beautiful day - we didn't go back on Sunday but the Korean Air Force has a group called the Black Eagles which is the equivalent of the Thunderbirds in the US  and they were able to fly and do a show. It seems as if there is always something going on at the base!

Randy really enjoyed seeing the aircraft - but after living by Hill Air Force Base and the museum - it wasn't super exciting for me - He was funny - and said "Gee I wish I was back in the army!"

The nice thing about being a senior missionary is we don't have rules about when we can talk to our family.  I'm so grateful we are able to visit with our family!  They are growing up so fast and I would be so sad if they forgot us - so we get to visit with them about every day.Thank goodness for Signal and FB messnger which allows us to see them! 

Another Red Cross event!  Korea Air Bases are going from unaccompianied tours to working at everyone being able to bring their families - so this was a family rediness event we helped with. The goal is to have it family ready by 2035. Thist opportunity gave us a nice opportunity to meet and mingle with the folks who work and live on Osan Air Base.

These two missionaries have moved on to other areas - we are SO SAD!  They helped us so much to adjust to Korea - they will be an important part of our lives in our memories!  We hope our paths will cross many times in this life! We have some other wonderful missionaries that we are working with now - it just makes my heart swell and I wonder how much it can hold with all the beautiful people we are meeting!

 On Friday night we went to bed about 930 and woke up at 1230. to be at the base to help with the Four Chaplains Run.  It was a pretty amazing event. We helped with set up and cheering them on. We were there until about 8 am and then we came back to the apartment and crashed!  I took a video of them as they started out - but I can't figure out how to share it to the blog! They all had a ruck sack on their backs with a minimum weight of 50 lbs.  It's pretty impressive that these folks want to be in shape for the needs of the military.  Elder Lowe said it remined him a little bit of how Helaman must have felt with his Stripling Warriors. There were military members from the South Korean Military and the US  - I think they had over 1200 people  in the race. If you have a minute, it's worth your time to look up the Four Chaplains on the internet and read the story of who they are honoring when they do this run.

I feel like there is so much more I could say - but I'm sure you all don't have time to listen to me ramble on much more! We feel blessed to be serving here in Korea - we have had sweet experiences - it's also very hard to be away from our family - but as we keep so busy the time is flying by so fast!  
We'd love to give you all a bit of our hearts for being such a valuable part of our lives!  We feel so blessed with our friends and family and the support we receive from you all!

Keep loving the people in your lives and being a force for good!