Mar 4 - Mar 10

We had a good week this week.  For our English class we had a little history lesson and highlighted the Seven Wonders of the World.  We think they all enjoyed it.  They sure asked a lot of questions.

Wayne went to the bank all by himself on Thursday.  He was nervous, but he did it.  And the people at the bank were very helpful.  They don't send out a bank statement, Wayne has to take a little bank book with him and they stick it in a machine and then all of the week's transactions print out on that book.  Then he has to bring it back to the office and match those printed transactions with the actual paperwork he has accumulated.

Here's a copy of a bill that Wayne receives.    Too hard for him to understand.  Good thing the missionaries are here with us!

I started the Mission history on Thursday for the year 2019.  They want lots of pictures and verbiage of what has been happening in the mission.  It keeps me busy.

Friday was Elder Oh's birthday.  President Jeong and Sister Kim invited us all over for lunch.  We all sang happy Birthday to E. Oh first. 

He made a wish and then blew out the candles.

So we had goat, chicken, crab, and vegetables cut up into small pieces.  And a very spicy sauce.  You took a rice tortilla thing and held it in water until it was soft and then filled it with whatever you wanted.  It was like a fajita, but the rice thing was very sticky and no taste.  It's simply amazing what everyone can do with chopsticks.  Everything was very good.

Saturday afternoon, we went to our favorite pizza place and bought a pizza and some chicken wings.

He's making our pizza.

Little shop, but it is good.

Here's the pizza.  There were chicken strips on it.

Chicken Wings - a little spicy.

And their version of Sprite.

Saturday they had a Family Home Evening night at the church and the missionaries did magic tricks.

Elder Soffe was pretty good with the cards.  He impressed everyone.

He's shuffling the cards behind his back after someone had pulled a card and then put it back in the deck.

All of a sudden in showed up in a hymn book.

The Sisters gave four people a bowl of water and then poured pepper in it.   They talked about the influence of the Holy Ghost and then put a drop of the dish washing soap in the water.  And of course the pepper went to the sides of the bowl.  I don't think anyone had seen that before, because they were all amazed.

There were quite a few people that came.  It was fun.

Here we are in the grocery store down the laundry aisle.  Wondering if you recognize any of the brand names?

This was our fast Sunday because of Stake Conference last week.  When we got home, this is what we had for lunch.

Roast beef - thinly sliced, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus and rolls.  Oh and a small cup of yogurt.  It sure tasted good!

Have a good week.

Love you all and miss you.

Feb 25 - Mar 3

I want to make a few observations about Korea and its people.

All of the women look the same to me:
1. They wear their hair the same and if they wear glasses they all wear the ones that look like Harry Potter.
2. They all wear black clothing.
3. They all have black hair unless they color it and then it's a real subtle red.
4. The teenagers and young adults are always looking at their phones - walking down the street, sitting in a restaurant, and at home.  I guess it is like that all over the world.
5. They drive crazy!
6. It's just building, after building, after building.  Just streets separate the buildings.  I'm sure there is a park somewhere here and we are going to find it.

On our walk on Friday we figured out how many buildings and apartments are in our complex.
There are 20 buildings - 3 entrances to each building - each entrance allows opening to 60 apartments.  So there are 3,600 apartments in our little complex.  And they are building more apartment across the street.  WOW!

English class went well this week.  We got two new students.  However, they both said they had been there before.  Some of them talk very well and others we really need to pay attention.

We had Stake Conference this weekend.  We did not go to Saturdays session because we didn't think there would be anyone there to translate for us.
But Sunday was awesome.  Presiding was Elder Wada of the Area Presidency.  So we had Korean, Japanese and American languages spoken this weekend.  It was awesome!  And the youth sang for the choir.

They sang primary songs, but it was very good.  And the young man they had playing the piano was awesome.

The chapel filled up and they had the stage filled with chairs also.  Wonderful people.

After Stake Conference, we had the Elders over for dinner.  It was Elder Lee and Elder Oh's birthdays.

So from the left - Elder Scow, Elder Soffe, me, Elder Oh and Elder Lee.  Very fine young men.  Assistants and Office Elders.  

That was it for this week.

We love you and miss you all.

Feb 17 - Feb 24

Guess what we found and where we ate last Saturday?  Wayne got the chicken tenders and I got a cheeseburger.  The tenders were quite spicy.

And of course, no one spoke English.  It was fun nonetheless.

Sunday at church one of the sisters asked us to join her for lunch on Monday.  The Office Elders joined us. We had to sit on the floor again.  And we had some pork soup.  It was very thin slices of ham and they leave all the fat on too.   It amazes me that these people can eat soup with their chopsticks.  But there was noodles and cabbage in the soup also.  And of course rice.  Because I shake so much, I can’t eat with chopsticks, so they ask for a fork for me.  Anyway, it was good.



The Office Elders joined us too.

Elder Oh and Elder Scow

Wednesday night we teach English.  We just have conversations with them so they can practice.  We brought some riddles and idioms so that they could read them and try to figure them out.  It was fun.  This is our class.

Starting on the left is Mr. Bae, then another Mr. Bae, Roger, then me, Anna, Rosa, Mary and Tom.

In order to get to the class, we walk under the street for about a mile and this is what it looks like.  They have benches to sit on, bathroom facilities.  It's like a whole new town under the road.

Saturday afternoon we had a baptism.  Such a wonderful young man.  If he stays true to the gospel, he will be a big asset to this ward.  His name is Brother Kim.

There were a lot of people that attended.

The missionaries sang one of the baptismal songs from the Children's Songbook:

And afterward, of course, they ate:

It was a good day.   Everything is going well.  It's hard because of the language, but everybody just wants to help us in anyway they can.

Sunday was Ward Conference.  The Stake President is wonderful.  After RS and Priesthood, everyone went upstairs for some more food.(Lunch).  We did not go up.  So we don't know what they had to eat.

Love you and miss you all.

Feb 09 - Feb 16

Well, Wayne made it home safely about 9:30 pm.  Made him a sandwich and talked for a little bit.  Then went to bed.  We did get up and go to Sacrament meeting.  Wayne slept for most of the afternoon on Sunday.  Tracy was able to send some chocolate chips with him and some powdered drink mixes.  Should be set for a while.

Wayne had a lot of catching up to do with the missionary receipts that accumulated while he was gone.  Then Tuesday, Pres. Jeong interviewed all of the Busan Zone missionaries.  It was fun to meet everyone in our zone.  They are so full of energy.

Everyone was gone from the office on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Zone conferences were held for the other 3 zones.  So it was very quiet.

On Thursday, Valentine's Day, we went to the Busan Immigration Office to get our Foreigner Cards.  That allows us to stay in the country for 1 year and then we have to renew them.

Mine went really fast.  I was done in about 10 min.  But when Wayne went in to get his, they rejected his application because his 90 day visa had been voided.  Because he left the country, they couldn't give him a residence card.  So now we don't know what's going to happen.  We have contacted the Area Office in Seoul for them to work it out.  We are hoping with all of our trust and faith in the Lord that we won't have to go home!  We were meant to be here. 

So we had to take the subway to get to the Immigration Office.  It was so crowded on the train.


No place to sit.  You just have to hold on.  That's Sister Kim right in front.  The sisters went with us to the immigration office.  We would not have found it by ourselves.


When we walked back to get on the subway we noticed a street that they called China Town.  So we walked down it.  There were shops and a lot of places to eat.  Didn't have time to stop.

We also went to the bank to do some of the church work that Wayne has to do.  So we got on a bus and hoped we chose the right one.  We did.  Made it there and back with no problem.  New adventures everyday.


We found a Krispy Creme place this morning.  We just had to buy two of them to see how they tasted.
Just like the US!  Amazing!

Well that's all for this week!  I will let you know what happens with Wayne's Visa.  Hopefully good news.

Love you and miss you all!

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.

Transfer Week Jan 28 - Feb 01

These are pictures from the first restaurant we went to.  The upper left is the cold noodle soup.  The upper right is just a picture of the restaurant.  And to the left is how the meat was cooked.







So this week was very interesting.  Elder Durrant was alone to figure out the finances and what gets paid or not.  Very difficult, because everything is in Korean.  He was very frustrated.  Can't learn a new system when you only have training for maybe 3 1/2 days.  And the missionary that could answer some questions was busy with all the meetings and transfers.

When we got to the office on Monday all of the missionaries going home were there.  The Korean missionaries leave Tuesday by 9:00 am and just take the train to their home town.  The American missionaries were taken to the airport by 5:00 am to catch their flights home. On Tuesday at 9:00 pm, the new missionaries from the Provo MTC were picked up and brought to the mission home to get some rest. 

This is Sister Redd and Sister Chambers.  They were excited to be going home.

Wednesday morning the training began and it lasted for three days.  The new missionaries were trained by the assistants and the office elders. 

New missionaries:  Elder Jong, Elder Lee and Sister Kim.

After that they all went out to start teaching the gospel.

We had lunch with them on Wednesday.  We tasted kimshi that was very,very spicy.  No more for me.

All I ate was the beef.  

Elder Durrant tried some of the other things that were in our individual containers.  I'm certain there was seaweed and anchovies there.

On Thursday, Elder Metcalf (trainer for Wayne) came back to the office to help him go to the bank.  Thursday night, we had dinner with all of the District Leaders and their companions.  Same kind of beef and side dishes.  And lots of rice.

Friday was training for the Zone Leaders, MLC and training for the STLs.  They invited us for lunch again but we had brought our own lunch.  

So it is Saturday today.  We went shopping at Lotte.

It is a nice big store with plenty of things to see and buy.

This is the produce section.

If you can't tell, this is baby octopus.

This is the cereal aisle.  Same kind of packaging as in the US, but all in Korean.

Walkway to the subway station and a medical building in the background.

We went for a walk today also.  There are cars everywhere

I guess we are glad we don't have a car.

Going to make some zucchini bread and snicker-doodles.  We are having District Meeting tomorrow after church.

We love you all!