Where did the week go!.....

 We have done a little extra driving this week - such a fun tunnel to drive through! I think they want to make sure you are awake while traveling on the roads!                                                                                         

 It seems like I just updated my blog - and I realized it has already been a week!  It feels like the longest week of the mission and the shortest week of the mission.  I have discovered some interesting things this week - please bear with me through my musings and thoughts - but this is the best journal I have kept, so here goes - This past week was full of challenges with the adversary - it seems at every corner we were battling with him.  As a general rule, if one of us gets down and out the other one generally stays very positive, but this week we both hit bottom a couple of times together - but we realized as we evaluated the week that the very low points seem to happen just before we were going to have a very high or spiritual moment. ( And we have been blessed with many this week.). Because I have made this a fairly public post, I won't go into detail with all the sweet moments - I'll just say, the Lord has given us many reasons as to what our purpose in this mission is this week.  When we decided to serve, we felt like our purpose would be mainly to bring souls to Christ through the Gospel of Jesus Christ - that purpose isn't wrong - but the way we are to do it is a much different way than I envisioned and a way that I think we all should live, whether we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or members of another faith. 

I am learning that we are here to minister and serve our fellow man - particularly those who are serving in the military.  There are all kinds of situations where we have felt useful - maybe it's a child who is missing a grandma and just needs to feel a little extra love from a grandma or grandpa figure.  Maybe it's a mom who just needs someone to visit with about frustrations they are having, or just needs a mom figure around to visit with.  Maybe it's a young airman who's never really been anywhere and is a bit of culture shock and needs a friendly face to let him know God is in the details. There are the dads who are halfway around the world from their wives and children who just need some companionship and uplifting experiences. Maybe it's a teenager who craves some spiritual experiences  or maybe it's a missionary who just needs a pick me up or a treat now and then. We have enjoyed all of these scenarios and can't explain how this type of service has blessed our lives.

We have a few things that are scheduled into our regular routine - but each week, we see that we need to be prepared at any moment for a needed experience. We have Family night, we have spiritual come follow conference nights, we have game nights, we hike, we cook and we cook some more - we "troll" a lot looking for people who may be lonely!  We attend our mission district meetings and zone conferences. We try to help where we are asked in the mission - which means, some weeks we spend a lot of time in the car. We volunteer wherever we get an opportunity - and there are a lot of those on this base! Tomorrow,  Elder Lowe is using his ten years 4-H experience to teach a STEM portion of the fair for youth at the Youth Center. I think he's pretty excited to do this. 

Elder Lowe has done a great job of navigating around Korea - he has learned to be a little more dependent on the Satellite programs that help us find our way around. Considering there are around 51 million people in a country the size of Utah - you can imagine that the road system can get a little complicated if you don't know where you are going.  Last week, we were needed to help down in Daejoen.  In Korea they don't have very large ovens - so we take our counter top oven in order to cook the food for the missionaries lunch.  Last week because it was the last zone conference with our Mission Leaders before new ones come in, we wanted it to be extra special. The mission has been split into five zones but we only have two zone conferences.  We needed to feed close to 80 people.  Their were two other senior couples helping us. The sister in charge had very carefully figured out how much we each needed to provide. So in our car, we had one of the two larger ovens, one third of the lasagne, and all the dessert.  We were asked to be there by 8:30 so the drive is about an hour and fifteen minutes - we left at 7 in order to allow a few minutes delay.  Well, we arrived at the church at 9:45 in a panic - it was really a comedy of errors - we went to the wrong building with only one small detour, but this building was on the complete opposite side of the area where the church was we needed to be at. We ended up missing our turns, several times. I think we went through the same toll booth about three times. They have pink, green and blue lanes helping you to know which turn you need to take.  The car talks to you about every little thing you can imagine and many times it will say to you, "Be careful not to take the wrong turn" - well we have been here three months and done very well until last Thursday. Needless to say, we were both pretty stressed by the time we got to the chapel. Randy had been so good at navigating that I wondered if maybe we were detoured to avoid an accident or something, because I think God is in every detail.  But what we both realized was that evening we had a very spiritual time at our study of conference class.  We had one of our less active airman there for the first time.  Whoever wants to comes and shares a conference talk and sometimes just spiritual experiences they have had that week.  We did not want him to feel pressured to participate and just as Elder Lowe was asking for a volunteer for a closing prayer - he asked if he could say something.  He said he didn't know why, but he liked how he felt around us and shared some sweet stories about his life - we all could see that God is trying to let him know of His love for  this young man. It was definitely a highlight of our mission so far.  The interesting thing was we almost cancelled the class because we were afraid we would be late and we were so exhausted from the day and of course, Satan would have loved it if we had cancelled - but we didn't!  Writing this down is hard to explain to you what a great experience it was for us and how it helped our testimony of why we should be here. - but I am feeling so privileged that Heavenly Father is giving me these experiences because it's when we serve and love that we are blessed with a greater understanding of the love the Savior has for us. We are so grateful for the people who have allowed us into their lives!

.       This is a picture of some of the training Pres. Hong gave for our zone conference - a great thought to focus on as we try to meet our missionary purpose                                                     

Elder Lowe enjoying time at the youth center helping out with the 4H Fair.  Teaching them about Lava Lamps - it was fun to watch the kids enjoy this projet!

This is one of my favorite views in Korea - the children are so well behaved and they held hands and walked all the way up the path singing and listening to their teachers - I don't think they were much older than two or three - respect for the elders is clearly taught at a very young age and it shows in their culture all the way through their adult years - We love these Korean People!                                                                             

This was a bird in the rice field while we were out on our walk yesterday - so peaceful!  We loved it!                                                      

Elder Lowe at one of our new favorite places - it's a restaurant at the end of the Buraksan Mountain trail.  You can google Buraksan Mountain and learn all about it - it's a pretty cool place

One of the hard parts of our mission is Transfers - this is the third one we have participated in - these are pictures of our district. The tradition is on the last district meeting before the transfer we go to lunch together.  We have loved working with these missionaries so much - it's a great blessing to watch them as they lead and train each other! We are losing many of them to other districts and zones!  We will miss them so much - but the best part is new ones come and we come to love them just as much!  One of the departing missionaries asked me last night if I was ready for when I go home and I have another 150 or so grandchildren! YES! I love them all! So not only am I Sister Lowe - but I have adopted the new name of Grandma Osan!

Another fun family home evening!

So in our branch we have a missionary member coordinating group! This is the group we have worked with the last five weeks  - Our Member leader is an unaccompanied airman.  His family is back in the states - he has done a great job of coordinating and  helping the missionaries in their finding efforts on the base!  We are losing three of these missionaries to other locations - they will brighten the rest of Korea as they have such a love of missionary work!

All the missionaries signed this flag as a departing memento for the Mission President and his wife

This is the luncheon crew we worked with to feed the missionaries at the last zone conference.  The Meyets - are serving in Kunsan as Missionary Relations Missionaries, The Edens - are serving in Daejean as Member leadership support and we are serving at Osan as Military relations.  The senior missionaries are greatly needed in so many aspects of the missionary work.  We are losing our office couple and we just sent home one of our MLS couples - we haven't heard of any replacements - I have heard most missions in the church are struggling to get senior missionaries - it may be hard at times - but there is also no greater blessing than consecrating some of your time to helping bringing souls to our Savior Jesus Christ!  If you are retired - don't wait until your health doesn't allow you to serve the time you are needed is now!

Our dear sweet and faithful Leaders at our last zone conference!  WE LOVE THEM!

One of the beautiful chapels in Daejeon

• Beautiful flowers lined the street I was walking home on the other day!  So beautiful!
• This was a statue on the side of the road for the International Lions Club! Sweet!

AND.... it's hard to leave your family - but modern technology makes it so you can visit with them every day and see them grow - We love our family and are so proud of the decisions they have made - we came on this mission because we love them and want them to know of our love for our Savior Jesus Christ1 

Love you all!  Until next time....