THE HEAT GOES ON.....la de da de da...

This last week has been a little bit slower for us.  All the airman on the base are having a big exercise so their schedules are like twelve hour shifts so needless to say they aren't able to come to our activities.  It has been nice to regroup a little. This is the week I have to cook for zone conference, so this was a good week to slow down a little.  I must say though I like it much better when we are super busy because it doesn't give me time to think about what I'm missing at home - this week has been a little bit harder to be away.  I just found out my oldest living granddaughter has put in her mission papers - we are so excited for her to have this experience, but it means we will miss another important event in her life.  She just started the semester at University of Utah and I think it will be great preparation for her mission. She put her availability date in January - so that will extend the time until we see her again - but she has kept in touch with us and we love her so much!  My sweet niece, Brooke Harmon. just got engaged and will be getting married November 13! That is also hard to miss because the older my family gets the less opportunities we have to be together and weddings are definitely a time for that - I told Elder Lowe I was going to fly home for the wedding - but he doesn't think thats a good idea!😞  Every once in a while it's easy to think - what am I doing here - and then something happens to show you that it's not about you but about the people you can help and I think the real benefit of helping others is that is most often when you find yourself and despite the complaining nature of this blog, we have been blessed in ways we never would have experienced if we stayed at home and just met our needs!  The military families, unaccompanied airmen, and the missionaries have really brought a new dimension to our lives, not to mention our interactions with the Korean people themselves.

On our last mission, working in the office gave us a chance to meet the missionaries but it was more in a capacity of taking care of them and helping them with their problems.  This mission is a whole new focus - we work side by side with them - they cheer us on and we cheer them on. We have loved watching their leadership in district meetings. Both experiences are a blessing and are needed in the church - but it's fun for us to work a little bit more intimately with the missionaries this time. These are relationships we will treasure for an eternity! BUT! That doesn't mean that the adversary doesn't try to inch his way into our lives! I think we're pretty good at sending him on his way!

I do have to say that I really miss the fresh peaches, raspberries, and blackberries! Tomatoes, green beans, and fresh baby potatoes out of our garden! 

Korea is the land of food though - everywhere you look there are little or big gardens - restaurants and very tasty food!  I have been told this is one of the best food capitals of the world and my brain and my waistline are starting to agree with that sentiment!

This is a picture of one of our game nights!  As you can see I am quite frequently surrounded my handsome, energetic young men! Some are here away from their families, some are YSA(Young Single Adults) and some are our friends of other faiths.  We hope they will feel the joy we feel with our testimonies of Christ and have a desire to further search for ways to have His Spirit  in their lives. For those of you that know me well, you know I enjoy playing games of all kinds - Elder Lowe does not. When we were first married we would play many games together but over the years he felt like they were just getting contentious and too competitive. I think being here in this mission he has been able to see they can be a fun way to pass time with others - I haven't heard him laugh as hard as he does at our game nights in many many years! I am hopeful that he will be able to enjoy some evenings like this with his grandchildren when we arrive home from our mission so they too can see he has a fun side and a sense of humor

On August 11, all the senior couples in our mission met at the Texas Roadhouse at Camp Humphreys to say goodbye to our office missionaries, Elder and Sister Bodine from Smithfield. We were sad to say goodbye because they have been such a blessing to the Korea Seoul South mission. Evidently there are not enough senior missionaries stepping up to the plate to serve, so we have lost two sets this summer, with no replacements in site. This required our sweet MLS ( member leadership support) couple, Elder and Sister Eden to move up from Daejon and serve as the office couple.  We have every confidence in them to do a fantastic job - but many are sad that they needed to leave their other assignment without a replacement. Part of Sister Eden's job entails keeping track of the young missionaries passports. When the missionaries are assigned to work at a military base, they need their passports so the below picture is the first time Sister Eden received them back from a couple who have left the air base.  As you can imagine it's a heavy responsibility - so we took her picture so she could remember them when she got back to the office.  Look at that smile!  She is such an amazing and gentle person!

The next picture if of Elder Eden training Elder Lowe on how to run the English Connect Zoom class.  They have been teaching several English classes in their MLS assignment, but due to the fact they will be the only couple in the office with help from another single sister missionary - they will be very busy! This meant we needed to step up and help take  one of the English classes off of their plate.  You may ask what does teaching English when serving the American Military on a base have to do with our mission purpose - we asked the same thing - but their has been a lot of success with the english classes here in Korea and we have learned that just because we are assigned to a Military Relations Mission, it doesn't mean that we can't step up and help where we are needed in other areas to lessen the burden of the Mission President and office staff.

We had a little fun while shopping at our mega Costco - yes! There are Halloween decorations out in Korea! The Costco is pretty massive - it's nice that it is only about ten minutes from our house, but we still spend most of our money at the Commissary on base and the local food market. They call the market by us the 4/9 Market.  This means if the date ends in 4 or 9 then the farmers and vendors will be out on the streets at the market rain or shine!  The produce is quite cheap at the market. However, I can't find russet potatoes here but I was jumping for joy when I found a bag of russet potatoes at Costco the other day - I don't even want to think about what I paid for them, considering I could but fifty pounds of them for pretty much the same price at home this fall.

This food wass probably my favorite yet!  It's called Rosette Donkatsu - basically a breaded pork cutlet with an amazing sauce! My second time back to this place!  We took our district leader Elder Broadbent and his companion Elder Byeon from Daegu, Korea.  He let me record him saying some Korean phrases that I have been practicing - but I am realizing I am getting older and the grey matter in my brain is getting bigger and stuff goes there to hide only for me to pull it out at the grey matter's discretion(LOL)

Elder Lowe just wanted me to take a couple of pictures of the streets we walk - usually they are filled with high rises but when we went to Anseong for our district conference last week it's an older part of Korea and looks more life this!

We have been trying to learn the Korean alphabet but we have been pretty busy and in our spare time we are doing our scriptures or cooking but every once in a while I work with this.  The first picture is what Elder Lowe found and wrote the next picture is how Brother Mitchell helped us undertand how it all goes together.  I have some Korean friends that we are spirit friends, but we haven't learned how to communicate without the help of translators, whether it's the junior missionaries or the phone - so I am really hoping that I will be able to juggle time in our schedule to get better at this in the next year! I can't tell you how special the Korean people are.  When they decide to trust you there are no more loyal or true friends on the planet!

Another meal - this one not quite as successful!  This is Elder Ainsworth and Elder Webster.  Fun fact, Elder Webster's sister was in our mission in Pocatello, Idaho.  They are the elders who work in the Korean Ward that meets in our building. We do Family night with them on Mondays with the people from their ward and the singles from our military branch.  Elder Ainsworth was the tech elder in the mission for awhile so he came over to help program our car for us with all the apartment addresses and necessary mission locations that we need to drive to - as a result Elder Lowe wanted to take them to dinner,  We do enjoy taking out the elders  - it gives us a minute to get to know them and we know they are living on a shoestring so we like to give them a nice meal.  This particular meal wasn't the best!  They were trying to help me find a seafood restaurant and the one we  found was interesting.  The waiter made a suggestion and said it was their most popular dish.  It was a fish soup - needless to say there wasn't much fish in it but a whole lot of large fish bones and a meat item they call tripe, which we have learned is pigs rectum.  I don't think any of us will be heartbroken if we don't make it back to this restaurant! So as a consolation to the not so wonderful meal - we took them up the street to our favorite Bingzu cafe and had dessert - I think it more than made up for the meal! 

After five months in Korea, we have finally figured out what we need to do to access the fitness center in our apartment.  The problem is Koreans are not early risers, some grocery stores don't even open until 10 a.m. Our fitness center doesn't open until 9 and usually we are up and out the door by then.  This last week we have been able to made a few visits to the center - we are definitely out of shape.  Now that we have a better idea of how to schedule the needs of the mission, we hope to make this more of a habit. As we left the fitness center today (The fitness center is right by the old building we were in and we have now moved across the complex) we walked over and saw that the beautiful landscapes now have the fountains turned on - kind of sad we don't see them out of our window anymore - but it's not that far to walk over it's just hotter than an oven and the oven has what feels like a shower in it!  However, we think the weather is about to cool off and we are told the fall is amazing here!  I am so excited to get back hiking our mountain across the street.  Right now it has been way to hot for this old grandma!

 

These are pictures of our ride to Daejoen.  We have gone there a few times for zone conferences.  This is one of my favorite tunnels in Korea - there are tons of tunnels and bridges - but there is usually something in the tunnels to help keep you awake if they are very long and I love this rainbow of lights in this tunnel.  Very fun! It's a pretty long tunnel!

This is Sister Kwak Chae Rim - Our new mission leader - She is a doll - very young and beautiful and still has some boys at home to raise!  We love her! Plus, she is tall like me and there are not very many tall Asian women. There are tall Asian men - but the women are not as plentiful!

We went down South to help with the zone conference there because they have lost the two couples that were down there to help prep the meal - This is Elder and Sister Meyet from Boise area (Fun fact - they are friends with people we knew in our very first military assignment - Ann and Ben Shelton - just another celestial collision) They are the military relations missionaries at Kunsan Air Base.  With us is Elder McBride he served there and with us for about 12 weeks!  We have a friendly competition of who should come to which base!  They are delightful people and Elder McBride is a fireball!

This is sweet Sister Andrade from the Phillippines!  We haven't had a chance to serve with her but we have gotten to know her at Zone conferences.  She goes home in September and we will miss her sweet smiling face!  I have to say all the Filipino missionaries we have had the pleasure to work with are so awesome - happy - friendly- intelligent and have great testimonies!  What a great experience this has been for us.  It's a little extra special because it help me think of my dad - he served in the Phillipines during WWII snd he had some mementos in his things from some of the people there.  I can tell why he must have really loved them.

After the zone conference we took the time to go over to the National Cemetery in Daejeon.  It was amazing!  We will go back when it's not so hot - every headstone had flowers on it - it was such a sacred place!  Korea is a country that has had many people try to conquer it - I assume because of it's ports but they have lost many loved ones in battle and they are stronger people as a result!  This is such a beautiful place!  There really are no words to describe how we felt as we walked this cemetery. Except I would like to say that it increased my testimony of Heaven - because you could feel the spirits at this sacred place

I notice at every cemetery and museum they have this tower structure.  There were some people at the cemetery doing some maintenance and I asked them what the symbolism was of this structure and they said it represented the tower taking them to the afterlife

This last picture is of my dear dear Sister Bae. She comes to our English class after church on Sundays and she has taken me into her heart!  She wanted to take me to the market in Pyeonteak last week.  I took the sisters with me to help translate because her English is only a little bit better than my Korean but our Spirits have made a deep connection.  We thought we were just going to discover the market but she took us to this restaurant and told us to sit down. She proceeded to order entree after entree!  It was delicious and such a fun experience, - but she said - no this was not good - I want you to come to my house so I can cook for you and you can have real Korean food. She also wants me to come to her home so she can show me what she does for work.  I guess she is a massage therapist and acupuncturist.  She doesn't want me to come to her shop because then she would have to charge me.  She is such a sweetheart!  I have never had anybody show as much excitement to see me as she was that day!  She jumped up and down - ran to me and gave me a huge hug and then grabbed me by the hand and took off and a very fast pace.  She's short but no grass grows under her feet!  I will try to get a better picture of her to share - she has been my wonderful gift from Korea - I look forward to having more experiences with her!  Koreans take on Christian names for Americans , since we sometimes can't say their names - her name is Rachel - sweet!

Well, if you have made it this far, I must apologize for rambling on but this is just a slight glimmer into the experience we are having!  We love and miss you all! We look forward to hearing from you when you have the time. And as usual, I must put in a plug for Senior missionaries - if you are considering a mission - DON'T WAIT!  Remember it's the best way to bless all those beautiful family members - if not in this life then definitely in the next! Who better than you to take care of your family? - The Lord's angels!  And I promise you - He will send angels in so many forms!

Until next time....

Now from Elder Lowe's perspective