DIVINE COORDINATIONS - Our new understanding of Celestial Collisions!

 

So I sat down a few days ago to work on my blog, and thought I would wait until after our baptism to tell you all about it and now it's been nearly three weeks since our Friend Evelyn was baptized!  Time is such a crazy thing - one minute it seems like it drags on and the next minute it's a whole new month.  I feel very slothful in my communications seeing as it was the end of September for my last update - since I'm a little slow in getting back to the computer, I will just tell you this will be a long discourse.  Please feel free to sign off whenever! But, if you're interested - we have had a very exciting month!

 We have told you a little about our celestial collisions with people - as our branch has become on fire with member missionary work, we are seeing a lot of coordination with Heavenly Father to help us meet and love others and help them to understand their divine nature and worth.  It's so amazing to see what can happen when you all join forces to love, help and serve one another. So our new saying is Divine Coordinations.  We are noticing how many different people have celestial collisions with the same person to help them feel loved - we have decided the angels are working hard in heaven to coordinate these collisions which then become coordinations!

Before coming on our mission, the doctors gave me a clean bill of health and we were working hard on daily exercise and diet - while serving here in the food capital of the world (So I've been told) we have been a little slothful.  Our gym opens after we are already out and doing things and we pretty much fall into bed when we get home.  As a result, the long lost pounds are finding their way home. But - we are trying to be a little more aware!  I share this as I have had a hip issue since we got here and it comes and goes - well this week my knee decided to join in the fun. As a result, I stepped back from a couple of our classes this week and let Elder Lowe cover for me.  I'm not telling you this to complain, but to share a lesson I have been thinking about.  I told Randy the other day that I have been telling Heavenly Father in my prayers that I need to be able to walk and work to finish this mission - and he said to me the thing he always does (which irritates me at the time but when I think about it I know I need to give it some serious thought)  "Well, what do you think He wants you to learn? 

It's interesting that this trial escalated right about the time we are having the lessons in Sunday School about the trials the early saints went through and looking for the lessons and learning to be strengthened through the hard times. I am reminded of the refiners fire and how important it fis or the silversmith to hold the silver over the heat for just the right amount of time in order to refine the metal until he can see his face in the silver.  As we know, this is a great analogy of learning to let ourselves go through hard times and not be discouraged until we become the person that others can See or come to Christ through. 
I've also been giving some serious thought to the scripture in Ether 12:27

27.  And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they ay be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I feel like I am being taught many things - I share this with an invitation to you to ask yourself how are you responding to your trials or weaknesses? What can you do to make sure you are being strengthened by them and not giving in to the adversary?  As a missionary, the adversary is very busy working on us to stop the good work we are all trying to do. I think the lessons I am learning from this latest trial is to be more willing to call on God and others for help. I try to do everything by myself and forget that together with others always brings a better solution than doing things on our own.   It's important to let others know when you need help and to give them the opportunity to gain blessings from their service!

This is why I entitled my blog DIVINE COORDINATIONS.  Celestial Collisions are great as we meet the people God puts in our paths - but what we do with them is even more important - and that is that we reach out and get all involved in the lives of each other - being here in Korea has helped to realize much more fully that we are ALL the family of God.

The picture above shows a beautiful garden I went to this week.  My intent was to see the pink grass or the Muhly grass as it is called.  The pink grass was amazing and I will share some more pictures, but this view with all the colors and variety of flowers was my favorite and is a perfect illustration of what I am trying to share about Divine Coordination.

Ok now that you have read my sermon - I'll get on with the fun stuff!

Meeting Darren Lunt's Wife Allison

                At the end of September Darren Lunt's wife came for a visit!  It was so fun to meet her and get to see Darren with the love of his life.  It was if we had known each other forever!  We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to introduce her to some of the Korean culture as it is possible that they could be stationed here one day.  Their follow on assignment is to Eilson AFB, Alaska - so you can only imagine all the advice that Elder Lowe has heaped upon them!

                                                                Eveleyn Reyes Baptism

Evelyn has been such a sweet blessing in our mission experience. She was dating one of the single airman here who was a member of our faith.  She would come to church with him on occasion and after he left for his next assignment - she approached the missionaries and said she wanted to know more - after a few short weeks of studying the doctrine she accepted baptism.  It has been sweet to see the Light in her eyes as she has studied the Book of Mormon daily and received answers to many of her questions.  She came to our home for to watch a session of conference.  The ten hour conference sessions can be a little overwhelming to the new converts. 

Below is our sweet mission President and his wife with the awesome junior missionaries that we work with here on the base. Tonight is transfer announcements and we are wondering if we will get to keep working with any of them!

                                                         Zone Conference during Chuseok

The mission president and his wife took care of ordering subways for our meal at Zone conference this transfer. It was nice to be able to attend the zone conference and not worry about the food for a change.  We are happy to help but this was a nice break.  It wass Chuseok week which is a very big holiday in Korea. It's a harvest holiday somewhat like our Thanksgiving, but it's also about returning to family and remembering your ancestors.  Most of the Koreans try to go back to their hometowns so the roads are very busy!  This year Chuseok happen to coincide with two other holidays, so it ended up being pretty much a ten day holiday,

Helping USO during Chuseok and two other holidays

         

Because the USO employess here at Osan are mostly Korean - they needed to have time to be gone for the holiday - so we spent a couple of days helping out there, One of the volunteer coordinator name is Sunni!  (Pictured above) She is such a delight!  No matter where she sees us on base she always has a smile for us and seems so happy to see us.  She is a joy to work with,.  On the first Friday of the month they do Friday Franks and celebrate peoples birthdays.  We were able to help with that.  Fun times!

Chuseok with the Cliftons

     

We have a couple in our branch that have been in the branch for 28 years. He is from the United States and his sweet wife is from Korea.  Because he is retired military - his two children live in the States so they had no one coming home for the holiday - they invited us and the Elders to come and have Chuseok meal with them. It was a treasured event for us and so special to learn more about the Korean Tradition.

Missionary Experiences while doing Apartment Inspections

We have lost two senior couples since we have been here in Korea and they haven't been replaced so when it was time for apartment inspections this quarter we all had to pick up a couple more apartments and drive a little farther to do them.  The mission still has the apartment in Daejeon waiting for a replacement to come in - so since it was vacant we were able to stay there overnight while we did the inspections to keep us from driving back and forth.  The furthest apartment was probable about two hours from us.  We really enjoyed doing this because it gives us a chance to meet the missionaries that are here that we don't get to see often.  We like to take them out to lunch or dinner when it works out because they have discovered the fun places in their areas and also we know they don't have a lot of money so we enjoy spoiling them a little!  I do share a lot of food stories, but I am told we are in the food capital of the world😀

We are also learning that sometimes the way to the heart is through the stomach.

 The pictures below are of a restaurant that serves Dom Katzu - more of a Japanese food than Korean - but the Koreans have added their own flair to it!

The middle picture is of the robot machine that served as our waitress.  Pretty fun! AND the food was superb!

These are a few of the apartments we inspected - such great missionaries - they do a marvelous job of getting their apartments clean - we are so proud of them!

     YES! Burger King does exist in Korea along with many other well known fast food experiences!

                    McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, Baskin Robbins, and Subway just to name a few!

District Councel Lunch 

This week after our district council in Camp Humphreys, we discovered a Texas Style BBQ place!  Elder Lowe was very happy about that! As you can see I am often surrounded by a huge amount of Testosterone!  I said this must be what being a boy mom feels like!  I love it!  They are all so kind and fun to be around!

We discovered Malatong

We discovered this after our zone conference in Anseong a couple of weeks ago, I know it looks very interesting but it was one of our favorite meals here in Korea.  You basically go to the wall and get your vegatables, protein and noodles and then take it to the counter and tell them the spice level you want and they cook it for you -- So Tasty!  We had been told about it - but it didn't sound all that great to us- but we were wrong!  It is a Chinese food and very good! If anyone comes to visit us - I am sure we must take them out for Malatong!

                                                            Miscellaneous Adventures

Elder Lowe tood this picture of the garage - It doesn't capture the fact that nearly all of the cars are black or white. If they are a different color, it's usually a foreigner driving it.  The little bongo trucks however tend to be a blue color.

The middle picture is of our friend who helped with a Zombie run.  When he walked into our activity I was sure he had hurt himself. He will be leaving us next week to come to Hill Air Force Base - we hope to be able to stay in touch with him.  He is very young and just joined the church last December.  The last picture is the writing on the small building we go to in Anseong for district councils on occasion. Bet you can't guess what it says!

Farewell or one of the Chapel Staff

                                                    The above picture is of the office staff that helped us many times since we have been here.  She is moving to Travis AFB and we will miss her!  We felt very honored that she specially invited us to come to her going away luncheon.  She said she didn't have family here and she wanted us to be there.  It was sweet!

                                                 The Muhli (pink grass) with Wendi Wilson

The pictures below don't require much explanation - in the fall in Korea it a big deal to go find the pink grass - Muhli Grass and take your pictures.  This little spot was only about twenty minutes from us and it was so fun!  The first picture is a persimmon tree. There were people there dressed in the traditional hanbok, some getting engagement pictures but my favorite was the picture of the dogs below.  They posed and when the cameras came down they knew they were done and jumped right off and went to their owners.  The people here really love their dogs.  They are in baby carriers of all kinds and strollers and dressed up.  Korea is struggling to get people to have children but the dogs seem to have taken over that.  There are so pretty dang cute kids here though! I just love watching all the Korean Kids  - they are just a beautiful people!

    

                                                    STORYTIME- and - Homeschool club

I can't send my blog update without a few pictures of our \library experiences,  We have had some very tender experiences at the library!  We may not have baptized anyone yet from the library but we have made very dear friends.  I am officially known as Grandma Osan.  Next week, for Halloween, I will be making donuts for the library!  Wish me luck!

                       FITTING SESSION FOR MY CUSTOM MADE HANBOK - SO MUCH FUN!!!

OK - I wasn't going to do it - but I decided it would be one of the best souvenirs!  The traditional dress for Koreans is the Hanbuk (In Japan they have kimonos) They don't wear them often except for special holidays and events. I decided to have one custom made.  Our dear friends the Rounds are serving at Camp Humphreys and she found a seamstress who would custom make her one so she took me there last week and we took the Sisters so they could interpret for us!  It was such a delightful experience.!  The hats were a hoot!  Sister Rounds daughter has cancer so she wanted to take one of these hats home to her as she is being released next month - but we started trying them on and had a great laugh!

Picing out the fabric, the purple one that Sister Glauser is holding is the color my skirt will be.  The top will be Turquoise with cherry blossoms hand embroidered on it - I will get it next Tuesday!  I am excited to have this souvenir, even though it may be in a shadow box!

I could go on and on but I imagine most of you haven't even made it this far!  We love you all and miss you and we are having delightful and difficult situations all wrapped up in one - but isn't that just the way life goes!  I have learned that nearly every experience that means a lot to me comes with some hard times and efforts!  We love hearing from you! Keep up the good work!