Week 2 in Seoul

This is the view out our apartment window.  Can you see the orange lanterns?

These are the lanterns at night.  This little alley is lined with small cafes and shops.  We walk through here to get to our apartment building.  There are also some residences next to us.  All you can see is the exterior doors unless someone happens to have their door open.  It opens into a little courtyard and then into their home.

The street that the lantern street opens up to is a main street.  With shops like this:

Dunkin Donuts

Baskin Robbins and Popeye's Chicken.  Around the corner from Baskin Robbins is a Subway shop.

Our Japanese friends will be happy to know that Daiso is here too, next to Dunkin Donuts!

As we go up the street, we can see the mission office at the top of the hill.  The building used to be used as a chapel but is now the mission office.

This view is looking back down the street.  We finally had a day that was clear enough to get a good shot of Seoul Tower.

This one was taken from the mission home next door to the office.

This basketball court is next to the mission home too.  President Sonksen remembers playing ball here when he was a young missionary.

For several days this past week, we had missionaries at the office for training.  The majority of the districts are close enough that they can come in for that.  The Sonksens will be going out to the other area this next week.

Alan and President Sonksen and some of the elders walked up into the area above the office.  This property is also owned by the church.  Lots of church history in this area.

We had a dinner at the mission home for the senior couples who could come to say good bye to Elder & Sister Kelly. We also had some former missionaries come by.  Sister Sonksen had made a video of the Kelly's time here.  It was fun to share in their memories!

And the office elders were very happy about getting some leftovers!

Elder Kelly has done such a great job of showing us around Seoul.  On one of our forays, I came across a street with several cities displayed in the sidewalk.  I noticed Sydney, Tokyo, Hanoi, Washington DC

 and, Astana!  We were so happy to hear that the Area Office in Moscow has approved our friend's humanitarian project in Kazakhstan.  The work continues!

On Saturday Elder Kelly took us to the Seoul Arts Center.  It is a huge campus with a concert hall, museum, outdoor arenas, etc.  We listened to a concert of traditional Korean instruments.

Lots of upcoming events.  "Wicked" in Korean anyone?

The girls at the theater wore these cute hanbok style dresses.

They were setting up for an outdoor concert later that evening.

I liked this boat artwork

We had a wonderful time at church today.  One of our speakers was a young man from Viet Nam who joined the church a year ago.  And we had a young woman from Philadelphia who is of Korean descent and has been living here for several years.  She is returning to the states.  We also had a returned missionary.  He grew up in Seoul, so this is his home branch.  Even though he has red hair and doesn't look like a Korean, he served a foreign mission to Colorado!  We have quite a diverse group here.  

The branch president asked Alan & I to come to speak to the Aaronic Priesthood.  I think that's a first for me!

We wish the Kellys well on their return to the US.  We're on our own now.  We'll see how that goes!