HEART AND SEOUL Nov. 20 - Nov. 27, 2005

HEART

Dear Family,
We mentioned in September that the Koreans have a holiday they call Thanksgiving which shares many of the traditions of our own Thanksgiving. It was a major holiday and the temple even closed for one of the three days.
President Lee upon hearing of our Thanksgiving gave us an appropriate greeting and suggested we take off an hour early from our temple duties to prepare for our evening dinner. That dinner was held Thanksgiving evening at the mission home and was attended by all senior couple missionaries which included ourselves, Hess, Kastendieck, Quinn, Chon, Farnswroth, Johnson, Gammon and President & Sister Seller's. Most everyone brought a preassigned dish and we had a traditional turkey/ham dinner. Add all that to delightful conversation and you will know we didn't suffer for lack of the holiday except for - being around family and loved ones.

SEOUL

After many weeks of practice and preparation, the Seoul West Stake presented their JOSEPH SMITH Commemorative Program tonight. It consisted of music by a forty voice choir, narration and computer picture. Interspersed with the choir were some outstanding vocal soloists and instrumentalists. Though we didn't understand a word, we felt the spirit of the meeting and understood the message exactly. The Koreans rarely do anything less than professional standard and it becomes more interesting to us as we have become better acquainted with so many of them thru our temple service. The Elder and Sister missionaries were there in full force. Many of whom brought investigators who surely must have been impressed.
This has been another touching experience of our Korean friends love of the gospel and testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.