MISSONARIES AND MORE MISSIONARIES - OH HOW WE LOVE GETTING TO KNOW THEM _

Time is such a strange phenomenon! Some days it feels as if we're not sure what needs to happen that day and other days we can't seem to find enough hours to get in all we want to! I haven't written for a couple of weeks and I'm sure I am going to miss something important but the last few weeks have been full of incredible divine signatures and celestial collisions.  It's so fun to see the Lord's hand in our daily lives.  Sometimes, before I was a missionary and not watching for these tender mercies as much, I am afraid I may have deprived my Spirit from recognizing them - it has been a great blessing of the mission to recognize the hand of the Lord all around us and in other's lives as well!
I will try to summarize some of these moments here, but I know it won't be near as powerful as if you had experienced them right here with me!

When we first came to Korea, it seemed as if everyone we met was scheduled to leave this summer and I was wondering exactly who we would have here in the branch to support our efforts - well, the Lord hasn't failed us yet - we have had some awesome families move into the branch and we are so excited to work with them and their families! If I had fears for the future of the church - this experience has helped me understand that the church is in good hands! Incredible hands, actually! There is a special glow about so many of these families - they are doing hard things and they are doing it with smiles in their hearts. Life is a challenge all around, but the military lifestyle adds a little different dimension to the challenges you face and these families are hitting it out of the ball park! 

I just need to share this little celestial collision we have had here - our neighbor, Mason Clinger in Pocatello served his mission in Korea and his mother's family, the Mannings have been in my families life for many years - in fact there was a moment when I actually babysat Mason's mother (Guess I'm getting old!) We had two families move in this last month who also served their missions here with Mason about 18 years ago. One of them is the new LDS chaplain here at Osan and the other one is the new dentist here. They both have beautiful families and are so fun to have serving here in Osan with us.  Bro Mitchell, (Pictured below) had served his commitment to the army to repay his dental school years but he told the military if they would send him to Korea he would extend. His desire was to further help with the gathering here in Korea.  He is a sharp young man.  He taught Korean at the MTC and has kept up his language skills and is a huge asset in helping us with needs we may have with some of our understanding of Korean Culture - he also feels like I could just adopt their family! Darling wife and eight beautiful kids - Their desire to help wherever they can in the branch has been so uplifting! We and the other missionaries serving here consider him a Godsend!  Such a tender mercy

This is Chaplain Smith - we are also excited to be working with and LDS Chaplain.  He is a go getter and  will get many things done while he serves here. They have four children and their littlest girl Mary makes my day whenever I see her with her sweet 2 year old smile!

We have been very blessed with several new families in the branch this last month!  It's so nice! We were afraid they were all going to move away and leave us here with a tiny branch - but it has blossomed We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 new ym/yw and primary kids!  So fun!

The past 

Zone Conference

The second week of July was filled with service to the missionaries.  Our military efforts needed to take a backseat for a few days. We lost one senior couple and we are about to lose another one in the mission and there is so much work to be done to help the missionaries so they can do their work,  WE REALLY SEE THE NEED FOR SENIOR MISSIONARIES! Please if you are thinking about it, stop thinking and get to work on those mission papers! There is so much work to be done in the Gathering of Israel!  Is it hard? YES - Is it worth it, ABSOLUTELY! Don't deprive yourselves of the opportunity to  serve the Lord and His Kingdom.We had our first zone conference with our new mission president and his wife.  He wanted to have time to meet the missionaries, so instead of 2 zone conferences, we had 5.  There are five senior couples here right now so each of us was able to provide the meal for one zone. Sometimes I feel bad if is miss the zone conference while in the kitchen cooking so this time since we were the only couple cooking for around 30 people - I decided to do a nacho bar.  It was great because I had pretty much everything ready before zone conference and was able to attend most of the meeting.  We had the toppings set out on the table and the chips already in a container so all we had to do was scoop some meat and tomatoes on their chips and they could do the rest!  I think they enjoyed it. I made chocolate chip cookies for the dessert and I have to say I am getting a lot of experience at cooking treats for all the events we sponsor.  It's kind of like if you feed them they will come! 😋 

So I guess you could say I'm a bit of a CES Missionary (cooking every second) Food is my love language and we have enjoyed taking care of the unaccompanied airmen and the families in the branch - and the missionaries,  but I am going to have to learn to not eat what I make and to quit with all the amazing food here in Korea - because I am blowing right back up - and i worked so hard to get rid of all the extra love handles before we came - so .... 

    
We also were busy that week driving around the mission doing apartment inspections. We are called as Military Relations missionaries - but there are not enough couples to go around the world where all the needs are so we double as helpers for the mission office when they need us. We enjoyed going around and doing this as we get to meet some of the missionaries who aren't assigned to work with us on the base.  This mission has been acknowledged by the last general authority they had here as one of the most obedient missions in the church - it's so true!  Our hearts have really been touched to witness their faith and obedience and it showed in how well they took care of their apartments - we did nine apartments and not one of them was in need of attention - they had worked hard to take care of where they lived. 

The first picture is a stone carving representing family. It was outside of the apartment we inspected in Gokbanjeong (Don't ask me to pronounce that yet it's still a tongue twister for me - maybe I will be able to say it by the time I get home) The other two are pictures of us treating the missionaries whose apartments we inspected.  They have an a reward for the winner of most improved and cleanest apartment - but Elder Lowe and I felt like they all needed to be rewarded - we didn't get a picture with everyone but yes, the one with the sisters is Bingsu! Mango cheese!  So delicious!

We have had a few meals with the new families and the unaccompianied airman and birthday parties!  These two elders stayed right with the dishes until the job was done - they have been all about service to the military and also to Elder Lowe and Myself.  Elder Willis is from Colorado and Elder Centano is from the Phillipines. They have been incredible to work with !  Elder Willis has a great desire to get the members focused on missionary work and Elder Centano is so friendly to everyone he meets, the people on the base all know who they are and they have been successful in bringing friends to some of our activities.  They are also helping to teach and befriend a couple of less active and new members. Transfer announcements are on Friday and we so hope we get to keep these two sets of missionaries we have for one more transfer.

TABERNACLE CHOIR 5000 Broadcast!

A very special experience for our family was when they tabernacle choir did their 5000th broadcast. They spotlighted my daughter Rachel's son Caden and the experience his father Brad had while going through the pain of watching and wondering if Caden would get better. One particularly hard day, Brad was able to find comfort by going to the broadcast and hearing the Choir sing "Consider the Lilies of the Field" I was so sad to be clear across the world when this event took place - but I had a sacred experience as a result.  In our apartment over the piano - we have a picture of the Savior! We had to stay up until 1230 am to watch the broadcast.  While I was watching the broadcast, with tears and a bit of a heavy heart  because I wasn't there - I felt the eyes of my Savior on me telling me we don't have to be physically present to be spiritually present!  I knew my family knew I was there with all my heart!  The next morning when I woke up Rachel called me and said "Mom, you didn't know that you were at the broadcast this morning did you?"  She then proceeded to tell me of an experience she had had which made her feel like I was there. A few minutes later, I received a text from my neighbor at home who had been sitting behind them during the show.  There was another hour of the program that day besides the thirty minutes we were able to watch and it was during this time that they had Rachels family stand up - well my neighbor was able to take their picture and send it to me and also record part of the choir singing my favorite song that they sing - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

It had been a childhood dream of mine to sing in the Tabernacle Choir - one that I never accomplished but that dream just made this all the more special to my heart!

They had invited all the former choir members to come up and sing. This was a witness to my soul that God had not forgotten me and rewarded me the best way he could by feeling of His Spirit and my family able to feel my Spirit at this most sacred experience.  It's hard to put into words, but hopefully, if you are reading this, the Spirit can testify to you of the love of the Savior and how he takes care of his missionaries, but more importantly, his missionaries families.

The picture below was another group of elders we took out after doing their apartment inspection. This is the oldest restaurant in the area and we got to sit on the floor!  I wasn't sure if I would make it back up but never fear I did!  It was a fun experience and we just got a few more elders to love!

We love, share and invite while were here! A whole lot of love sharing and inviting!  Every Friday night we meet at the chapel on the base and have a game night and treats or the first Friday of the month we take them bowling - the young missionaries get involved and they try to get to the gym and play sports and look for friends - best way to help people understand we are just people who love life and have a great joy we want to share!

On Mondays after our lesson, the missionaries usually come up with some form of an activity!  This one was great! You had to try and figure out what the person on the other side of the room was saying while wearing headphones playing music.  It was pretty funny!

They finally turned the water fall on outside of our apartment just in time for us to move to the other side of the complex!  I will miss walking out and seeing this - but I am so grateful that we are still in the same complex.  We moved in the apartment right above the sister missionaries. It's a little smaller but still a very nice apartment! We had a week of very heavy rains, but then the hot hot summer hit! Very quickly it went to feeling like you were walking not just into an oven but an oven with a built in shower!  Luckily, we have good air conditioning and a car! The young missionaries do a lot of walking outside in the heat and they don't complain to much - I really am impressed with their attitudes!

 The third week of July - this was a rough time for me - it seemed as if everywhere I looked I was met with a little bit of discouragement, nothing in particular just not the best attitude on my part - well on Thursday I look forward to doing storytime at the library  - well, this week the kids were all over the place and by the time I finished the last book, there was no one left listening! If that wasn't bad enough, afterwards the librarian came up to me and Said "Sister, I am so sorry to tell you we can't have any religion taught in the library story or singing time". It caught me off guard and I said "of course, I understand that". Then she continued to look at me and I asked if I had done something wrong and she said well you sang Glory Glory Hallelujah! My Jaw dropped, because I always considered that more of a battle cry not necessarily religious. We weren't singing the battle hymn of the republic, we were singing "She waded in the Water" about a little girl who finally gets her swimming suit wet - well the chorus has glory glory hallelujah in it.  I do know hallelujah means Praise God, but I didn't even think about it having a religious meaning in this context.  She was very kind about it and told me I was not the first one to make that mistake, but it still was upsetting to me, as I try so hard not to do any proselytizing while on the military base.  Well, the next day things got a little worse! We went up to take the Korean's Driver's License test and I failed by one question! Elder Lowe passed, so that was great!  But, it just sent me into a tailspin!  Let me tell you, we may be set apart with special blessings from the Lord as we try to do His work and spread His love - but the adversary doesn't stop trying to bring you down!  So I just need to say that the prayers that are offered all over the world on behalf of the missionaries are so needed and appreciated!  I picked myself back up and went back to work, but I'm not sure I could have dug myself out of that whole without the aid of prayers on our behalf!  I thank you for your love and kindness but most importantly for you prayers and notes of encouragement!

I have put off writing this for so many days as we have been so busy trying to keep up with assignments, moves, tests, red cross certifications, cooking etc. - that there's just been a ton of stuff I want to blog about - but I think I have rambled on long enough for this post!

We love hearing from any of you who have a minute to give us updates about your lives! 

We have been on our mission for nearly five months!  Somedays it feels like we left just yesterday and other days it feels like an eternity before we will see our family again!  But I would not trade this experience for anything mainly because of the people we have added to the foot prints in our hearts!  Whole crew of new "Adopted" grandchildren and children!  

Stay well - love share and invite! Share especially the joy!

Relationships are the only thing we get to take with us when we die!  There's never a Uhaul following a hearse!

Love you

Elder and Sister Lowe