Seoul Folk Museum

We were sorry to say good bye to Elder and Sister Schwieger this week. (Sister Cannon was working as I took a sneak photo of them.)  The Schwiegers have worked very hard out in the Gangneung Zone.  They both served missions in the Seoul West Mission when they were younger.

We also had a new couple arrive this week.  Elder and Sister Ulvestad will replace the Cannons as Military Relations.  The Cannons were their replacement two years ago.  It's nice that they are already familiar with the assignment.  They recognized many people at church today!

Alan and Elder Cannon were planning a visit to an apartment that was in need of some repairs.  On our way home from the office we stopped at our local hardware store for a few supplies.

We just had to show her a few pictures of what we want and she was able to find it somehow!  There's no room for shopping carts here!

We walked past the presidential compound on our way to the Folk Art Museum

This is the "Blue House" where the president lives.

This museum is in the back corner of the palace near our apartment.  We didn't go inside this part when we came here before.

Lots of people were enjoying the day.  These carvings are of civil leaders.

This is a play area where children can play with toys from the old days.  These girls are trying to roll a metal hoop.

This was a grist mill that was turned by horses or oxen.

These are old wooden shoes and traditional men's hats.

Lots of glare on this one, but it is representing the beautiful fabrics used for their dresses.

An early printing press and binding machine

Cable car

Barber shop

Comic Books!  This is probably dated after the Korean War 1960s?

Old time street

Inside were displays about how the people lived in the old days.  This is a depiction of a traditional marriage.  The couple did not meet each other until the marriage.  Hope your parents chose well for you!

This is a bier which was used to carry the deceased to the burial plot.

And we learned that they have traditional performances every weekend.  And all of this is free! This dancer has a long ribbon on his hat.  He turns his head to make the ribbons swirl kind of like a rhythmic gymnast.

We saw that the "Amazing Race" TV show came to Seoul.  They missed a lot of fun cultural things they could have done.  They had them stack cups, make kimchi (done that) and play video games.

At home this week, we had four kiddos that finished Kindergarten!  Plus one going into middle school and another headed to high school.  Add that to our high school graduate and our college graduate.  Our kids are getting old!

The Great Comeback - Park Sangyoung

At our zone conference, we talked about this fencing match in the 2016 Rio Olympics.  Korea was losing, but he said 할 수있다 (I can do it) to himself.  And he did!

May 21, 2017

We had another temple day last week.  Here's Sister Sonksen with her selfie stick making some memories!

Afterwards we stopped by our favorite Mexican food place.

We had a senior service missionary come to our mission.  His calling is to take photographs of missionaries in different cultures that can be used in Church publications.  Here he's getting a shot of some elders teaching an English class.  He said to watch for the photos, but don't expect to see them.  But maybe someday we'll recognize them.  What a fun mission he and his wife are having!

We've been preparing for our mission wide zone conference.  It was this Thursday.

It's a pretty big group when we have them all together.

We had been asked to make sure everyone has a 72 hour kit.  Previously, we had one backpack per companionship, so we had to get some more backpacks so they can divide up to have individual ones.

We had a guest speaker from BYU, Mark Peterson.  He spoke about Korean culture and how we can relate better to the people regarding their traditions and religions.

Then, President announced that we were all going to go to the south side of the Han River (which is out of our mission) as an exercise in the event we ever had to relocate.  It was a big surprise to the missionaries!

We got on the bus and saw these elders on their way.

Everyone made it, some were a little bit later because they had to wait for their train.

Since we were on the other side of town, we took the chance to see the new Lotte Tower.  It is 123 floors, the 5th tallest building in the world.

Elder Cannon said it was just about a mile, but it was more like 5 miles!

This lovely park is next to the tower.

This looks like a Cinderella carriage with all the Disney stuff.

On Saturday, the Sonksens had a "Chinese" BBQ.  It was American food but the missionaries brought Chinese members and friends.

It was a beautiful day for a BBQ.  Then they watched "Meet the Mormons" in Chinese.

As we walked home through the farmer's market after church, we saw this man pounding on some  sweet rice.  They pound it with these big mallets until it turns into a paste.  In Japan it's called mochi (もち).  I don't know what it's called in Korean.

On the train today, this lady was pretty chatty with me.  I did my usual smile & nod (I don't understand you!)  But I told her my husband speaks Japanese, so she started chatting in Japanese.  (I still don't understand you! But I like you!)  We had a good laugh and enjoyed ourselves.

My new friend!

Gotta give a shout out to our grandson who graduated on Saturday!  We're proud of you Jacob!  We're so happy we could watch the graduation on YouTube.

Golden Week

After our staff meeting Monday, we met our friend Jake and his wife Shannon who is visiting him this week.  We showed them where the temple is and had lunch with them.

Tuesday morning was Mission Leadership Meeting.  After that, we went out to look at some apartments for the missionaries.

Pretty nice view from this one!

I loved the daughter's play room and library!

We found one apartment that is very close to the church and seemed perfect.  It even has a dishwasher!  But I don't know if we'll be able to get it because now we hear that the owner has died and to change ownership is quite a complicated process here.  Hmmmm.

This truck across the street has a large screen showing a commercial for the red party's candidate.  Sometimes we see them drive up and down the street waving to people.

Every other day this week has been a holiday of some sort.  Monday was Labor Day, Wednesday was Buddha's birthday, Friday was children's day.  This coming Monday is parent's day and then Tuesday is election day.  It's been nice to have less traffic.  Alan has had to plan his bank trips to make sure it's a day they're open.  We missed seeing the flying fish flags like they have in Japan for Children's Day, but we did see that children were having fun everywhere we went.

On Saturday we went to see the Korean War Museum.  It is a massive museum like the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC.

This monument is in front of the museum.  It signifies the struggle that divided a nation and families.

This black and white mosaic is inside

The flags represent the nations that supported South Korea during the war.

When the north invaded, the south was ill prepared to defend itself because Korea had been occupied by Japan until the end of WWII.  This represents the way the south dropped bombs in the beginning of the war.

Later on they received more support and better equipment

This is the first armored car in Korea.  It was a gift from the US to the president of ROK

This car was a gift from USSR to the leader of North Korea which was somehow acquired for the museum.

I'm not sure what this (Turtle) Dragon Boat has to do with the Korean War, but it is pretty neat!

This graphic shows the GDP of the north versus the south over the years.

It was a very difficult war up and down the peninsula which technically has never ended.  There has never been a peace treaty.

I'm not sure who these guys are, but they lined up, so I took their photo!

There are boats and planes and helicopters on display outside.

We stopped at the store for a few things on the way home.  We got treated to a little "Shopping Cart Roller Derby" and some kind of political rally too.

Sunday it was fun to meet some sweet Russian saints from Siberia and Mongolia who have come to Seoul to attend the temple.  (We hear that they brought a thousand names to work on.)  We had to take a photo to share with our Novosibirsk friends.  The whole branch enjoyed the spirit they brought and shared their testimonies and love of the Savior.

One little girl was too sleepy!

On the way home from church was a little performance of an old Korean drama.

Someone gave us a program to explain the characters, but I still don't get it!

Also this week, we met a family from Utah that was visiting Seoul.  The father, a son and a daughter have all served missions here and were touring.  We also met a member from Hawaii and another member from Japan.  Alan has also run into a returned missionary that served in the Seoul South Mission.  On the subway the other day, I ended up sitting next to a man who had been drinking.  This sweet lady across from me took my hand and had me move to sit by her.  She noticed our name tags and told us that her husband is a Presbyterian Elder.  She was very sweet to us.

Brag Alert!

We're so very proud of our son Seth who graduated from Utah State University on Saturday!  Hooray!  He is heading back to Arizona.