"HEART AND SEOUL" April 25 - May 1, 2005

"HEART"

The first Sunday we attended church at our Seoul English Branch, a young Korean women with her seven year old son came up to us in church and sat by your mother. We at first assumed her to be a member of the church because of her friendliness and charm. Upon continued discussion we found her to be a Korean fresh from Australia with a desire to learn more about the church. She specifically came to our branch because even though she spoke good English, she wanted her son to be exposed to English culture. Her brother is a member of the church but attends a Korean ward with his family. Because of her recent divorce, she felt the need for her and her son "to have for them what her brothers family had".
Your mother that same day introduced the primary for her son, Relief Society for her and ask if she wouldn't like the missionaries to come to her home...there was a special spirit about her and her positive response to missionaries was no surprise. Speaking with the missionaries & Pres. Sellers (Mission President) they started teaching her...even though it was a set of missionaries far from our branch. A cute story about her son when ask: "How do you like primary" His reply was: "I love primary but I don't like to come because I get too hungary". We found out they came by subway which took two hours to come, three hours at church and then two hours to return home...from then on, his mother packed him a lunch. Moon Jeong-sun was baptized this past Sunday, May lst. Because of your mothers fellowshipping she requested your father to baptize her and your mother to give the baptism talk. She will make a great member of the church and in a few months time her son will be baptized. With the support of her brother (whose family is solid in the church...Korean ) they will be a great strength in the church here in Korea.

"SEOUL"

After the exciting weeks one and two of our close-down, wisdom would have suggested week three be used to rest but instead nearly every day was filled with interesting activities. We began the week inviting Tile setters from America to have dinner with the temple missionaries. Having spent two weeks with Big Macs, they were grateful for a home-cooked meal. Of the five Tile setters, one became quite a good friend since he was from St. George and his children were mutual friends of Mike and Susans...( Deloy Merrill has since gone home and already paid a visit to Susan and Mike).
One day was spent visiting the Changdeokgung Palace which has been in continual use by Korean Royalty right up to the recent 1980's.
Another day was spent at the Ganghwa Island which at one time housed the capital of Korea and is now primarily a Visitors Center with fortresses and Budhists temples.
The Korean celebrate Parents Day, which is a combination of Mothers Day and Fathers Day and we found out shortly before the special dinner and program that we were suppose to sing a sextet which we did and it was alright but nothing to compare with the entertainment provided by the employees of the Church Administrative Offices. They were literally professionals.
The climax of our time-off was the military district conference wherein Elder Kikuchi was the visiting authority...every speaker was excellent. In between all of these activities we were hosted at dinner at least four times and hosted the Pecks from Beijing (teachers @ Beijing University) so it has been a great prelude to our returning to the temple today.