"HEART AND SEOUL" July 3 - 10, 2005

"HEART"

Col. John Madsen is a career servicemen and works as a legal officer of the army. He is also the President of the Military District in all of Korea. He and his wife Annette have become good friends and have accompanied the missionaries a time or two to the Dragon Hill Hotel where we occasionally enjoy special nights out to dinner. A typical assignment for servicemen in Korea is 1, 2 or 3 years so Pres. Madsen and his counselors are constantly kept busy trying to keep the branches and the district organized. Annette and their children enjoy during summer months the opportunity of returning home to Utah while her over-busy husband serves the demands of both the military and the district. Tomorrow night he will join the missionaries to their monthly trip to Dragon Hill. He is one of the many servicemen who have touched our hearts here in our mission.

"SEOUL"

Missionary opportunities are continual. Yesterday a young man by the name of Blaine Grunewald from Calgary, Canada came to the temple for an endowment session. He is a student in Shang Hai, China where he is studying Asian Law. We became acquainted and he ask if he could attend church with us this morning. He brought with him a tall, very Chinese college student attending school here in Korea. How did they meet? He overheard her speaking with a friend wondering if he were an American and he in return answered in perfect Chinese, to her surprise, that indeed he was. The conversation evolved into an invitation to attend church with him the next morning. Her name is JoAnn (Americanized) and she not only had never been to an LDS meeting but never a Christian church. She was thoroughly delighted with all three meetings and even later attended a single adult fireside. She ask if it she could keep coming to this outgoing and extra friendly Branch until she returns to China in August.

We have witnessed so many times where Chinese are taken out of their homeland to be introduced to the gospel where seeds are planted for the future opening of the gospel in China.
We certainly have had our fair share over the years of seeing this happen. China is truly a fertile field when the Lord decides the time is right.