24 Jun - 30 Jun

Zone Conferences this week.  Ours was on Tuesday.  The Zone Leaders led the discussion on Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel.  It was on baptism and how to prepare your investigator.  They did some role playing on how to teach about baptism and then asking your investigator if they are willing to be baptized.

Then Sister Kim talked about how many had been baptized since January and how they were located - by member, on the street, or coming into the church from the street by themselves.  She wants us all to read 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon everyday and to pray as a mission for help in finding those that will accept the gospel.

President Jeong talked about dedication and what that should mean to the missionaries. He wants us all to rededicate ourselves to service and loving those around us.

Our lunch was some dish (Pad Kee Mao) with a whole bunch of vegetables, glass noodles and chicken.  The chicken had the skin, bones and all the fat and of course, it was spicy.  You will have to look up glass (silver) noodles on the internet.  They are clear in appearance, hence the name.

Our phones weren't working very well, so we have mailed them back to our son to see if he can get them to work here in Korea. Didn't know how hooked we are to our phones.

Always a smile on Elder VanWart's face

Reciting the Missionary Purpose and Section 4 of the D&C.

Baptism Demonstration

Role playing - Sisters Motto and Kim

Wayne and I got into it too.  

Here's our Zone.

Elder VanWart sang, Sisters Park (violin) and Kim (flute), and Elder Joung at the piano. Did a medley of Primary songs.  Very good.

Love and miss you all.

17 Jun - 23 Jun

We are getting prepared for the Daejeon Mission to be dissolved and some of the missionaries coming here to Busan.  Some of them will be going to the Seoul South Mission.  We got a list of the apartment complexes, but that is all.  On Wednesday, President Choi, Area President, came to Busan to talk to the Zone Leaders about what we should expect and what we need to do as a mission to make them all feel welcome and needed.It will all take place on the 2nd of July.  Now President Jeong will have to travel about 5 hours to get to one of the new zones for conferences and interviews.

The Area Offices are in Japan.  He spoke English very well.

On Saturday, Wayne and I decided we would take the subway to the beach in Busan.  So we got on the subway and had to go to the very last stop on the train.  As each stop came and went, the amount of people on the subway got less and less.  We were wondering if we were going to be the only ones on the train.

This is the car we were on.  

Anyway we had to go to stop no. 95 for Dadaepo Beach.  We started at stop no. 126.  It took us an hour to get there.

The beach was wonderful.  Very clean and many people enjoying the day, having picnics and swimming.

They also had a walkway that took you over to a cove.

This is looking back towards the beach.  Those apartments are probably very expensive.

We still aren't good at tasking selfies!

This is the flooring to the Dadaepo Sunset Fountain.  It doesn't go off until 8:00 pm at night.  We will have to come back and see it.  It says it is the largest in the world.

On Sunday, we had another baptism.  Brother Kim was baptized by Elder Kim.

And afterward, of course they had food.  The watermelon is actually very good here.  So we ate a lot of watermelon.

Pieces of chicken and chips.  The yellow sauce in the bowl is very spicy.  It was to dip the chicken into.

Well, that's it for the week.

Love you and miss you all.

10 Jun - 16 Jun

We had a busy week this week.  Missionaries coming and going and a Korean wedding.

Sister Fisher talking to Elder Soffe.  She wasn't too excited to be going home!

Sister Darrington talking to Elder Seung.  Her parents came to pick her up.  She was excited!

Our new missionaries arrived about 9:15 pm Tuesday night.  They get them up bright and early on Wednesday to start training.

These are the new sisters meeting their trainers.

These are the new elders meeting their trainers.

And this is Elder Durrant training them all.

And this is all of them.  Ready to get proselyting.

In English class, we thought that we could read with them the fable of the "Lady and the Tiger".

We did finish the story, but a lot of them didn't understand it nor did they understand some of the huge words.  But most of them did tell us what door they thought the young lover opened.  I think the romantics won.  they didn't want to see the young man die.

On Saturday, we were invited to a wedding for one of the members of our ward.  It was beautifully done.  The couple will be moving to Canada and will go through the temple there.

The mothers of the bride and groom wore the traditional Korean dress.  They went up the aisle first and lit the candles on both sides of the podium.

And then they bowed to each other.  Signifying their approval of the union.

The groom walked up the aisle next.

Then the father of the bride walked her up the aisle and bowed to the groom.

The Stake President did the ceremony.

Everyone clapped at this moment.

It was a beautiful ceremony.  We didn't understand too much of it, but knowing the Stake President, I am sure he gave them some wonderful wisdom.

They had a buffet after the ceremony.  We chose our food carefully.  What we did get was very good. 

It looks like we will have a baptism next week.  We hope so.  Elder Soffe will be going home in July and I know he would like to get one more.  

So Happy Father's Day everyone.

We love you and miss you all.

3 Jun - 9 Jun

Getting ready for transfers this week.  All the welcome packets are done and everything is in order.
Elder Seung brought in some cookies that he bought.  He said they were very good and all sugar.
He opened his and ate the whole thing really fast.  So here is the one he gave me.

A couple of bunnies on it.  And before I could open it, it broke.  So it tasted like burnt sugar and that is exactly what it was.  I threw the rest of it away.

Also we had District meeting on Wednesday.  Our last one for this transfer.  Don't know who will be here new until Sunday.

These are Sisters Urbano and Evans.  And Sister Seol is in the background.  And the Elders are Scow, Guthrie, Soffe and Birrell.

We have a great time with these Elders and Sisters.  Hate to see any of them go.

On Saturday, we went to Nampo again to do some more souvenir shopping.  We went to the largest shopping center in Korea.  It was huge!

There were people all over the place.  Very nice and clean, also.

On Sunday, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting.  The Bishop asked me to speak for 5 minutes.  So I only had to prepare a 2 1/2 minute talk so that my interpreter had time to interpret.  I had Elder Seung come up with me and he did a good job.  He understands English more than he speaks it.  But all went well.

So Elder Scow will be leaving the office.  Elder Clark will be taking his place.  And we will be getting another Senior Couple.  They are both nurses, so we probably won't see too much of them.  

Well, gotta go and get things done.  

Love you and miss you all.

27 May - 2 June

It's almost time for transfers again.  Next week, we will be very busy.

On a sad note: we sent another missionary home 7 weeks early because of depression.  He was such a delight to be around.  Never would have guessed.  We all wished he could have made it through for the 24 months.  But the President has the last say and he said no.

He is struggling to say goodbye.  We all wish him well.

On Wednesday after English Class, one of our members said he wanted to take us out to dinner.  We tried to think of something to say so we wouldn't have to go, but we didn't want to hurt any feelings either.  So off we went and ended up in a Japanese restaurant.  He ordered for us so we just waited to see what came.  And actually, everything was very good.  Forgot to take a picture.  But I will describe as best I can.  There were 3 dishes - one was kind of sweet and sour pork (very tasty); another was noodles with this black sauce over it with small mushrooms and onions in it (it was very good also); the third dish was a very spicy fish soup (burned my mouth).  Needless to say, neither one of us ate the soup!

On Saturday, we took our normal walk and there were a lot of things going on.  It was very busy and very hot!

These women were dancing and singing in their traditional dress.

Really don't know what their were doing.  It was all in Korean.

I think this was a talent show.  These women and 3 men (in white in the back) were singing.  They were very good.

The girls out front were jump roping and the women on stage were kind of hula dancing.

They were good also.  We didn't stay around to see who won.  And there were several more acts than the ones we took pictures of.

Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting.  One of the families in our ward lost her mother this past week.  She gave a very humble and sweet testimony.

They then had the Stake President and some of his family get up and sign a song for that family.  It was a very touching meeting.

The Stake President has 2 daughters and 9 sons.  They are one awesome family!

So that's it for this week.

We love you and miss you all!