Feb 02 - Feb 08

An exciting week!  It was the Busan Zone conference on Tuesday and it was also the Korean's New Year.  So all of the missionaries dressed up in the traditional Korean clothing which is called "hanbok".  It was really cool.

Elder Metcalf

Elder Aubrey

Can't remember his name

Nor theirs either.

Sisters Dickson and Kim

And here is the whole zone

We didn't eat lunch with them but went down for the dessert that Sister Kim was making.  They were called "hoe duk".  And they were so good.  Some kind of rice dough that was very sticky.  you took some and flattened it in your hand about the size of a baseball.  Then you put cinnamon sugar in the middle and folded the sides over.  It was then placed on a griddle and cooked on the one sided.  It was turned over and you smashed it down with a spatula like instrument and cooked it more.  Flipping it over many times.  then they folded it in half and served it to you in a paper cup.  It was so good!

Tuesday night we were invited with the President and Sister Kim to a member's house to celebrate the holiday. 

This is how we sat - on the floor.  Sister Kim is to the right.  And I didn't get the president in the picture very well, but he is to the left of her.  Then our host - can't remember his name.   But he was a bishop twice and works in the Seoul temple.  Then the president's children are in the corner.  The son just came home from a mission.  So on the table is grilled beef, fish onions, kimshi, spinach, roots of some kind of plant, grape leaves and potato dumplings.

We were served fruit for dessert.  So it is oranges, persimmons and the big round fruit is a pear.  Which by the way are very good.

Wednesday night we were invited to dinner with the elders in the office and the two sisters in our district.

Our hosts - Bishop Wong and his wife.  And Elders Oh and Scow.  They were signing a song in Korean as part of our spiritual message.

Sitting on the floor again.  They have a mat that we sit on that they plug in to heat up, so you're not sitting on a cold floor.

Elders Oh, Soffe and Lee.

Couldn't forget Elder Scow.

Sisters Lee and Dickson

Basically, the food was the same as the night before.  They served us a rice soup that was good and then the traditional rice drink.  It was so sweet, I couldn't drink all of it.

Bishop Wong and his wife sang us a song to show their appreciation for us coming.  It was Nearer My God to Thee.  And they sang in harmony.  It was beautiful.

We all bore our testimonies to them and left about 8:00 pm.

On Tuesday night on our way to dinner, President got a call from the IFR (which is the person in Salt Lake City that is the President's go between him and the First Presidency).  Anyway he said that a missionary would have to be sent home.  And he did not want him to go alone.  So President asked Elder Durrant if he wouldn't mind flying home with him.  Of course we said yes.  So our Thursday at 4:00 pm (your midnight on Wednesday) Elder Durrant got a plane, flew to Seoul and then to SLC with a connecting flight in Seattle.  He arrived in SLC your Thursday night at 7:00 pm (our 11:00 am Friday).  Tim came to pick him up and brought him back to the airport on your Friday at 6:30 am (our Friday at 10:30 pm).  He will be arriving tonight (our Saturday) at 9:00 pm (your Saturday at 5:00 am in the morning).  I don't think we will be going to church on Sunday.  Hopefully Wayne can sleep most of the day.

So I spent the day on Friday alone.  The Elders were off doing a service project.  I did have some visitors from the Seoul Area Office over "Histories".  They came to do some training.  Elder and Sister Brower from Pocatello.

That's all for this week.

Love you and miss you all.