Tis the Season for Hail and Farewells!..

I'm just going to say right up front that this blog is not going to be chronological and it may be full of gibberish - but I will try my best to have it make sense!😂

Oh, and just so you know if you want a bigger view of the pictures, you just click on them one at a time.

We had a wonderful farewell/branch party this week. We had nine friends (what we use to call investigators😉) there and a few less active - we were saying goodbye to a great family in the branch and to our dear friend John.  He is our friend who has been married to a member of our faith for 15 years and they have agreed to not let religion come between them.  Well, while he has been her at Osan Air Base this last year, he decided to put the doctrines of our faith to the test.  He has studied harder than anyone I know and has been such a great example to us of developing faith in the Lord and His gospel.  We are very sad to see him leave us, but also very happy for him to be reunited with his family - he has waited to be baptized until they are back together.  We are so happy for his family, pretty sure they have been praying for this for a very long time.

My sweet new proxy daughter here in Korea helped us so much as we planned the party for them.  She put together some "Minute to Win It" games and we played a Kahoot game to see who knew John or the Moore family the best. It was such a fun evening and very well attended. Many brought snacks and treats and we had a meat and cheese tray and going away cake for them.  Such a fabulous time in the mission! We do love this branch - they are all very busy young families - but seem to be very caring and loving to one another!  Grateful we have had the opportunity to be here to have our lives cross with them!  Lots of new footprints on our hearts!

If you know me very well, you know I love Indian Restaurants - after setting up for the branch party, we were all hungry so we took the Elders to lunch to our newly discovered Indian restaurant  near the church.  As we were walking to the restaurant, we ran into the elders that serve in the Korean Ward that meets in our building and we had them tag along!  Look at the size of that Naan!  It was very good - even Elder Lowe, who only goees to Indian Restaurants to humor me loved the food! And we were both happy that it was served with knifes and forks ane not Korean Chopsticks 😂

Above are our dear friends from the Library!  The lady in green is out in the room helping to organize the activity programs put on at the library and the Gentleman and the lady in the pink and red shirt are the head and assistant librarians.  The gentleman has been so kind to us every since we moved here.  He brings us our Korean Lessons each week - now if we could just find some time to study them.  I think he appreciates that we are trying to familarize ourselves with the culture and the language.  Not super successful yet - but baby steps!  He took us out to lunch on the Korean Side of the base last week and it was some of the best food I have had yet in Korea. It was fun to see that side of the base.  It's pretty cool to see the American Military and the South Korean Military working together on the base to keep the freedom for this country.   I get homesick on a regular basis - but my love for this country and the people here grows more and more each day! 

When we got our call - I wasn't quite sure it was where I was supposed to be, I just knew that I was willing to go where we were called - but my heart and eyes have been open to many different reasons about why this was just the mission for us!  The people we have met and worked with will forever hold a place in our hearts - their footprints in our lives are a very special gift from God! Both the Koreans, airmen and their families and the young missionaries we have the privilege of serving with.  In our last mission, being in the office didn't really provide me with the opportunity to be out in the field with the missionaries - and I wasn't sure that was ever something I wanted - but it has been so rewarding and wonderful - and we were told by one of visiting general authorities that this was one of the most obedient missions and from what I've seen that is absolutely true!

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These sweet sisters left us at the last transfer! Sister Morrison has been with us almost since the beginning of our mission and sweet Sister Rivera is from the Philipines and we couldn't love her more! We really do do more than eat but we took them to the Korean BBQ by our apartments before they left for their new area

Elder Lowe and I try to go to the temple the first Saturday of every month, it's when the English sessions are held.  We have to be up and to the train station by around 6 in order to make the 9 am session.  We take the subway because parking can be a bit of a nightmare at times in the big city. By the time we get lunch and head back most of the day is gone.  This last time we went, I was wearing a dress with lots of color as you can see in the picture - I looked up and down the cars on the subway and realized most everyone was in darker conservative clothes and I felt like I really stood our in a way I didn't want to - but I love color!  The other picture was while we were in Suwan and some Korean girls had gotten dressed in some of the traditional Korean Clothing - in Japan they wear Kimonos and in Korea they wear Handbok - it was fun to see them!

This is just another picture of me on our favorite hiking trail! We were warned that in July and August it's very miserable here and you don't go outside near as much - well they weren't kidding.  Today was July 1  and we walked out of our district meeting this morning and the hot air literally took our breath away and our glasses fogged up the second we set foot outside!  I think our walks will be limited the next few weeks!

Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, Elder Lowe gives the briefing at the newcomers seminar for the Red Cross. every hour the airman come to the different tables with various organizations at them - we run the Red Cross table with the help of the junior missionaries.  This last time, the Chaplains were giving out Osan baseball caps - the guys were all excited to have a new baseball hat even though they won't be wearing them much until they return home.

The Costco by us opened on June 12.  We waited a week or so to go because it was so crazy!  People waited in line on the road for an hour in a half to two hours just to get in the parking lot on opening day! It was pretty fun to go to  - they have some of the Kirkland Items from America and a whole lot of Korean items.  This lego palace of one of the Korean Palaces was awesome - I had all I could do not to buy it for my grandkids~

 These are pictures of the fireside and dinner we had for the farewell of our Sweet Mission Pres. Hashick Hong and His wife Sister Park. Some of the missionaries who were closer to the mission office were able to come and sing a song to him - it was Awesome! Our New president has hit the road running!  We haven't met him other than through Zoom yet but I can tell he will be awesome as well!

Today we went over to the base to say farewell to the Moore family.  THey have done such wonderful work on the base and for the branch!  There were a lot of tears in the bond these ladies have!  So happy to get to know them all - I feel like their mom and they all treat me so lovingly!

Well we lost our sweet sisters only to gain two more just as cute and sweet! We had our district meeting over by Camp Humphreys today and it's a long bus ride compared to us giving them a ride so we took them on the base for some good old fashioned American Texas Roadhouse after our meeting.

It was pretty sweet - if you look closely you will see all the American flags in these pictures - they are getting ready for a fourth of July celebration this week.

Our son and his wife are coming to visit us tomorrow for a few days so they can experience the fourth here at  Osan - it's closer for them to come visit us in Korea, since they live in Thailand.  So the mission president has authorized us some time to spend with the this weekend.  We plan to go up to the DMZ on Saturday. We'll tour around Seoul tomorrow and Thursday and be back here on Friday for the 4th.  Anyway we are excited to show him a little of what we are doing on the mission.

All is well here and we miss and love you all! We love letters and emails and enjoy hearing what's happening at home.  Technology is a wonderful thing as we are able to visit with our family daily or whenever they have a moment in their busy schedules  - the church is true and the gathering is happening at a tremendous rate - don't get left behind!