Party Time all over the Place!

We had a couple of lucky finds recently.  After we left the temple one day, we saw this cafe "Taco Loco".  We had to give it a try and it was pretty good.  Not too much to look at but tasty.  The lunch special was a burrito, soda, and ... french fries!  Why not?

This little piece of Cache County found its way to my freezer!

One Saturday evening we were headed to a devotional / dinner for the temple workers.  The crowds were beginning to form.  It's been more like a celebration recently because the president has been impeached.  Still not removed from office, but the crowds are getting smaller.  But our bus never came due to the streets being closed, so we had to take a different route.

At church, we had a special Relief Society meeting last week.  We had some talks and music by the members.  It was focused on giving service.  There were several nativity sets from all over the world.  Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Hawaii, etc.  Our members have traveled to and come from all over the world.

The Sonksens had another open house at their home last Sunday.  Here are some of the shoes of the people that came.  There were lots more shoes outside the door.  Alan and I were making hot chocolate as fast as we could!

Someone gave these cakes to Sister Sonksen, so we had a treat for our staff meeting.  These beautiful cakes actually tasted good too!

This past week was transfers.  We picked up 11 new missionaries, all from the US this time.

Places like Kansas, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Utah.

And we sent 15 home!  So it was a busy week.

This Saturday we had another party!  The senior missionaries from both Seoul missions were invited to Elder and Sister Black's apartment.  We all found our way there and had a great time together.

This "Gangham Style" dancing Santa was in my possession during the White Elephant game for a while, but he ended up going home with somebody else.

Sisters Park, Grey, Nielsen, Black, Robinson, Cannon and Anderson.  Two of the couples will be returning home soon.  Elder and Sister Park work with housing in the South Mission, Sister Grey works in the temple and her husband is also the mental health representative for the area.  The Nielsens work in the temple.  The Blacks work in the South Mission office.  (Sister Black got a new hanbok dress for Christmas.)  The Robinsons are public affairs missionaries for Korea.  Elder and Sister Cannon are working in Military Relations plus she is our mission nurse.  And we work in the Seoul Mission Office.  We're a pretty diverse group.

Here are some of the goodies at the Open House.  The Sonksens opened their home three Sunday nights in a row, plus a Saturday morning one.  The Koreans enjoyed learning about Christmas traditions, seeing nativity sets and nutcrackers.  And eating cookies!

And how do you like this amazing ginger bread house?  Sister Sonksen has great skills!

Our Arizona kids were able to get together this weekend for a Christmas party.  Here's our three daughters!

Light The World

This chapel is next to the temple in Seoul.  We had Zone Training on Wednesday and were happy to see this huge banner on the building.  It's nice to have a reminder of the reason for the season!

This is our Seoul Zone.  We love these missionaries!  They are planning their activities for December to share the light of the gospel and Light the World.

The missionaries had planned a special surprise for Elder and Sister Cannon to show our love to them.

After our meeting we rode back to the office with the elders.  After they delivered some Book of Mormons to an area, we noticed that traffic was slowing down.  So, we got out and walked the rest of the way home.

There was a small group of protesters coming up the street.  It seems that the police were prepared.

 Police buses lined the street to keep anyone from getting closer to the "Blue House" or President's Mansion.  The buses were very close to each other so no one could get past them.

These buses had stickers or notes all over them.

We did hear some noises from the street that night, but it didn't go too late.

We were a little concerned about going to the branch Christmas party on Saturday afternoon.  We saw some crowds beginning to form.

But when we got into the subway, there were mobs of people coming out to join the crowds.

We had a nice time at the Christmas party though.  There were service projects and crafts for the kids then a nice dinner.

We left before the program ended because we wanted to get off the streets before it got late.  When we came out of the subway, there were mobs of people going back in plus many more coming out.

This is the same intersection from a few hours earlier.  Now they had torches and were marching up the street.  So, we went home and stayed inside.  At least they're peaceful!  It was interesting that we saw much more police presence on Wednesday than on Saturday.

As a service for the members, the Sonksens had an open house for the Seoul Stake Sunday evening.  Everyone enjoyed seeing the Christmas decorations and having cookies and hot chocolate and learning about different Christmas traditions.  They wondered if anyone would come, but lots of people came!  It was fun to meet some more of the Korean members since we usually are with the English branch.  Alan even got to use his Japanese!

This cute little girl's name is Song Ye.  Her English name is "Sunny".

We told her parents that we have a daughter named Sunny too!