Testimonies are better gained on your feet sharing them than on your knees praying for them!

So in June of 2023 we had our family gathered around and we said a fond farewell to our son Jordan and His wife as they embarked on a journey to work in Thailand for a few years. Caden, our grandson whe had been suffering with cancer was starting to do better and we were needed a litte less by their famiy as they worked to get things back together after a long battle.  We were starting to think it was time to consider submitting mission papers again as my health was also much improved. We talked a little bit about it and knew that we would eventually serve but we weren't quite sure the time was right...Then October rolled around and we listened to Elder Ronald Rasbands talk entitiled, "How Great Shall be Your Joy" - if you would like to listen again to this amazing talk I'm including the link - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/28rasband?lang=eng

It was then that we realized it was time to get things together to be ready to serve - it took us about six months to do the paperwork and all of the doctors appointments and to arrange financially to make this decision to serve and then we received our call the next August and had to wait 7 MORE LONG MONTHS to make this happen!  We wondered just for a minute why - but quickly reminded ourselves that the Lord had been in every detail of our life up to this point so why should we think this was any different? 

If you have been following my blog, I think I have been pretty honest about the hard times as well as the good. When we first arrived I cried a lot and not always happy tears. Each morning I woke up and counted how many weeks I had left to fulfill this "obligation" I remember asking Randy one morning if I would ever wake up and not count the time until I got to go home?  I told my daughter Rachel how I was feeling one morning when she called and she had just come from a Sacrament Meeting where a senior couple spoke about their mission and described the same feeling but by the tiime it was time to go home she had really learned to love it - so Rachel told me "Mom, it's normal, just hold on, you probably won't want to come home when your time is up" I laughed and said , 'Never, I will always want to come home!

Well, we just hit our six month mark and I can still say I will always want to go "Home" but I have  quit counting the days - and have learned to bask in the daily joys we are receiving! I have not done the best job of keeping track of all of our experiences - but they are daily and sometimes multiple daily moments of joy and recognition of why we needed to be in this country at this exact point in time!  We have had so many "Celestial Collisions" and Divine Signatures". This last week I came to the realization that I haven't been counting the weeks and I can't remember when I stopped, but the people God has put into my life are eternally a blessing! The young missionaries, the Senior Missionaries, the branch family, the Red Cross volunteers, the library staff, the storytime kiddos, the people here just for a moment and I could go on - but the joy is truly great!!!

We have a friend now who has been in our life pretty much since we got here and has decided to do some further investigation into the church.  He is taking the lessons, coming to church, and coming to our weekly scripture session.  Last night he bore simple testimony about his journey to get Christ back into his life - this is GREAT JOY! Another friend being raised in the church but not sure where his testimony is has also been joining in - it has been such a delight to see the Light of Christ in their lives and to see them let us all love them!  This truly is a gospel of Love. Sometimes we get caught up in our thoughts of what we think others are thinking or maybe someone has hurt our feeling and it creates wedges between us and the Lord. People all have the basic need of feeling loved no matter where they are in their journey of faith,.  Anyway, I think maybe I have rambled on long enough!  Just trying to put my feelings in writing somewhere - but it's so hard to express what I truly feel!

This is our friend Kyce Hurdsman on his 20 birthday!

I really wanted him to feel special, because he's away from home for the first significant time. He and Elder Lowe have bonded over hunting stories and I feel like the missionaries and the other airman have made him feel a part of something! This was also our FHE night I had made cream pies for everyone - but we had to bring a little cake as well!

This is not going to be very chronological this week because my pictures ar all over the placethis is a picture aftr our district council Tuesday.  We went our to have the military stew with the Elder wearing the glasses.  He returns home next week and he has really been a great asset to the mission. Anyway the other senior couple who was with us said she couldn't resist taking this picture.

For those of you wondering what military stew is - it goes something like this - during the Korean War the American GI's and the Korean ones got together and put together what they had to make a stew.  It's full of spam, sausage, hot dogs, and veggies - it is pretty popular here - I can take it or leave it. But Spam is a delicacy here and you will see it in gift packages everywhere,

The pictures above and below are from a zone P-day activity we had.  It was great fun1. We had lunch together and then went to the church in Suwan for painting and games.  Everyone tried to paint the Seoul temple!  I think Elder Lowe found his passion - he did a great job - on the other hand, I did a great job of painting a temple that looks like an F-16.  Painting has never been my talent,  I was surprised at how many of the missionaries did such a great job!  I think it was relaxing for them and gave them some much needed time with each other.

Every first Friday we go bowling!  I actually bowled ok this time - but I certainly don't bowl like I did when I was younger.  I really enjoy it when we do this - I always feel a little bit of dad with us while we're there. He was on a bowling league and I use to go with him when my older siblings were off at mutual. 

The pictures below are just a couple I took when I have been out walking.  It has been way to hot to do a lot of hiking and walking but this is just some right here by our apartment,  Despite all the high rises around us - I can't help but see the beauty all around us as well!

Here is another trip to the Texas Roadhouse at Camp Humphries.  This set of missionaries work there by Camp Humphries, but neither of them has been so we took them after our district meeting, Sister Canlas is from the Phillipines and Sister Ganano is from Clearfield, Utah. They are both darling hardworking sisters.

I took a break from my normal routine and went to Seoul with a mommy from the branch who has 8 children,  She needed a break and I enjoyed getting to know her a little better.  We saw "Wicked".  It was pretty fun to see a broadway show in Seoul, but even better was getting to know Sister Winston a little better! 

A couple of weeks ago, I got a wild hair and decided to make donuts for our Friday night activity, it was a little crazy because this new apartment has a much smaller kitchen - but I said probably not again here - well, then I got myself roped into making them for the library on Halloween  - but the home school club leader who we support on Wednesday afternoons said we could make them at her home

We took our monthly trip to the temple on the Subway last weekend and it was very nice and rainy!  When we went to go home we made it to the transfer station and then we got on the wrong train three different times!  It served me right because I was wondering why people were having trouble with the subway - well - we learned why! All is well, we made it home only about 2 hours longer than usual!

The above pictures are on the way to the temple.  I thought it was fun to show the skyline out the window - and that's just one of many! We still had smiles on the way up - we weren't hot and sweaty and rained on and tired and sore feet - I should have taken a picture on the way back to give you a taste of the REAL experience! (LOL)

For the fifth Sunday we had a fun opportunity at church to do a "Members and Missionaries" presentation for the branch,  We hope we inspired them to understand that without them missionary work is not nearly as successful! I think it turned out well!  And hopefully, we all become more comfortable in our efforts to love share and Invite others to feel the JOY of the Lord through the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  We live in a world that needs that now more than ever! With all the shootings and escalating violence it's comforting to know who wins the battle in the end,  I hope we are all getting better at seeing the big picture and thinking about life Celestially!

We love you all and miss you! Please keep in touch - we love hearing from you!

 I can't end this blog without telling you some very exciting news!  Our granddaughter received her mission call to Virginia Richmond this past week.  That is exciting all by itself, but the sweetest part of this is that is the mission her Grandpa Randy served in nearly fifty years ago!  Diving Signature right there,  and the frosting on the cake is her new mission president served his mission here in Korea!  Sweet!  And with that, I will sign off until the next time I find a break in the action!  Sending lots of LOVE to you all!