October 9, 2016 - Transfers

We had a great group of 17 missionaries arrive from the MTC the last week of September.

But in exchange, we had to send 15 missionaries home.  Three to Korea, and the rest to New York, California, Arizona, Utah, Australia.

The new missionaries started their training, met their new companions, then were off to work!

We did a little exploring after work one afternoon.

This restaurant had fresh fish

Lots of choices in this area

We even found this Taco Bell with an auto ordering system.  We kept walking to the nearby mall with a food court.  They had all kinds of interesting Oriental foods, like Spam and kimchee fried rice and something called "Well Being Chicken" ??

We opted for something a little more familiar to us! (Panda Express)

These berries fall from these trees that line the sidewalks all over the place.  Whatever you do, you do not want to step on one.  They not only make your shoes sticky, they are also stinky! Yuck!

This is a moving company loading some furniture into an upstairs apartment.

There's a platform that raises the stuff up to the window.

We found the Seoul Flea Market.  Didn't find anything to buy,

But I did like this turtle.

We found some cute children's hanboks

We also have been looking for some kitchen supplies for the missionaries' apartments.  This is a sign post for the restaurant supply district.

Hundreds of stores with pots and pans (new or used).  We found one girl that spoke English.  We asked her how long it would take to fill our order for some pans.  15 minutes!  After we ordered, a motorcycle pulled up with our goods from the nearby warehouse.

We have an agent looking for a new apartment for some of our sisters.  This is a new construction that looks like it will work out nicely. 

She drove us in her car.  It was nice to go someplace and actually see where you're going!  She treated us to a lunch of chicken soup.  The whole (little) chicken is cooked with rice inside it like a stuffing.  Along with the usual sides of peppers, onions, garlic, kimchee and ginseng drink.

Not too far from the chapel, but it seems like it's uphill both ways!  Good thing they're young!

On Friday, we decided to go find the Ikea for some knife sharpeners.  One of us printed a map, but it turned out to be to the wrong location.  We did finally get the correct directions from an information booth.  She gave us some good directions for the subway, then the bus to take, then where to walk.  So, five hours later, we came dragging home.  Another semi-success!

We found this taco shop near the tie store.  How about a Korean Mexican hot dog?  Thinking of you, Sam!  We passed on this.

We had a pretty successful day finding ties and "Granny Pants" and pots and pans.

After we got home from our shopping excursion, we heard some music outside.  They were having a little concert by one of the cafes near us.  It sounded like someone was doing a rain dance.  By the time we got there, a different group was singing.   They gave us a schedule so we'll know when the next one is.  And they offered us free beer too.

We hope everyone got to enjoy General Conference.  On Saturday evening, Alan went to hear the Priesthood Session at someone's apartment complex.  They had pizza and root beer floats.  Outside, the fireworks started going off to about the same time that President Monson started speaking.  They're celebrating National Hangul day or something this week.  Any excuse will do to set off some fireworks!