HEART AND SEOUL April 21 - April 30, 2006

HEART April 21 - 30, 2006

Dear Family,
This past week has brought news of many exciting events in the lives of our family. To begin with, your Uncle Jerry & Aunt Edith have received a call to serve an 18 month mission as Public Affairs missionaries in Bankok Thailand. In response to this news Jeff sent an interesting account of his experience with Thailand while serving his mission in Cambodia, which is adjacent to Thailand, expressing the fertility of this nation to receive the gospel. You may recall Mike, Susan and children spent a few days in Thailand at the completion of Jeff's mission.
The happy news at the beginning of the week was the announcement of Curtis and Deseree Dearing's wedding date of June 29th, the wedding anniversary of both his parents and grandparents (Payne). We were fortunate to become acquainted with Deseree before our mission and she is a lovely girl. Way to go Curtis!
Dan & Ann sent a fun email describing their experience with the daughter of one of our Korean friends. Jinsook arrived Monday and has spent the week with them. They reported what a talented, pretty and intelligent young women she is and have enjoyed sharing cultures, language and music before taking her to the dorm. at BYU Saturday.
After assisting in the baptismal commitments of several people, Tyler will be on his way to continue his mission in Madrid, Spain this coming Tuesday. His parents have received several well written accounts of his missionary experiences including miraculous conversions in the familiar city of Caldwell, Idaho and he leaves with bitter/sweet feelings an area and it's people that he has grown to love.

SEOUL

We happily returned to our duties in the temple this past week. Though it never appears unclean, the temple undergoes a semi-annual thorough cleaning and this spring the exterior walls were washed as well as cleaning inside. As if to say, Thank You, the grounds outside have blossomed in all of their splendor with magnificently colored blossoms and flower beds.
Building projects which will be concluded after we are gone includes a large apartment complex currently under consturction west and adjacent to the temple grounds. The Budhist religion owns a piece of property to the east and adjacent to the temple with plans to build a large Budhist temple/house of worship. On the north exists the old mission presidents home which is scheduled for demolition. On the east exits the present ward house and MTC which eventually is thought that the complete area surrounding the temple will be changed so that there will be a new temple presidents home, more adequate parking and other needs. When these projects are all completed, this area will be a jewell in what use to be a run down part of town with only the temple being the outstanding feature.
Yesterday and today were District Conference's. The church does not own a building large enough in Seoul so a large theater on the Yangsan Military base was rented for the Sunday meeting. Elder David F. Evans of the Area Presidency was our visiting authority. His mother Joy Evans, served with us in Preston, England and we have since retained a relationship with her through our Preston reunions held each Monday after General Conference. Elder Evans seemed quite pleased that we had such a high regard for his mother. As always conference leaves us on a spiritual high.