April 23, 2017

Apparently it will soon be Buddah's birthday.  We're seeing the Chinese lanterns around the city, especially at the Buddhist temples.

My mobility has improved enough to be able to get around more easily these days.

The lanterns all have lights inside.  It is probably very beautiful at night.

Not so beautiful, but an interesting sight at an apartment that is being remodeled out by an apartment for sisters. 

All the trash is put into bags waiting to be hauled off.

In case you can't read it, it says "Warning: Steps ahead!"  No kidding!  Thanks for the warning!  We're already halfway down anyway.

The day before Easter, the stake young adults had an activity at the mission office.  Just as we were getting ready to start, a group of tourists came up the hill to visit the area.  Part of this property is church owned and part is city owned.

A name is carved into the rocks here of a man who was a resistance fighter during the Japanese occupation.

It didn't bother the egg hunt very much.  Some of the tourists helped the kids find the eggs.

The "golden" eggs had clues for Easter symbols inside.

Then a little jumping and a meal to share.

On the way home from church, we saw this group of drummers.

We went out with the Cannons to deliver some things to some elders one day.  We've had some rainy days with some beautiful ones in between.  Luckily, Alan got a garden planted before it rained the other day.   This has to be one of the most narrow roads ever.

We couldn't go forward, so we had to back out!

This town (Chuncheon) is famous for its dakgalbi, a Korean stir fry dish.  The elders said to look for the big golden chicken.

There's a burner underneath, so it cooks at the table.  Then they come by and scrape the burned stuff off the pan after the main course, then they fry some rice for you.

There will be a presidential election here in a couple of weeks.  (Nice that it's shorter here.)  These people stand by the subway entrances to encourage you to choose their candidate.  The Red team has #2 on their sashes and hats.  The Green team is bowing and behind a guy, so it's harder to see them. Each person running has a color and a number.

There are 15 candidates!  We normally see people representing #1 through #5, but there are banners for all of them.  Our Korean elder asked how many colors we have in America.  Um, two I guess, red and blue!  Oh, and a Green party.

The Cannons were invited to a dinner and church service with VP and Mrs. Pence when they were in Seoul on Easter.  Our branch president's children were in a photo of the Pences with children of embassy families.  Our embassy friends in Indonesia had photos of their children with the Pences too.

It was our district conference this weekend.  Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita of our area presidency came.  Our district president has been transferred back to the US, so a new presidency was called.  One of the speakers said that many people are sent on "missions" compliments of the US Government.  We have military and embassy people here besides employees of Korean companies.

Elder Yamashita talked about his favorite candy, M & M's.  (Member and Missionaries working together.)  He took time before and after the meetings to meet and chat with the members, especially the children.  Part of his talk was directed to the children, about the lion that was raised with the sheep.  He asked the children to think about if they are children of sheep or of a lion to remind them of their divine nature.