Busy Week!

After our staff meeting on Monday, we met some of the other Senior Couples for lunch and showed the new couples around Itaewon.  This is near the military base and has several American and many other ethnic restaurants and shops.  There is a shop there that sells Korean style nativity sets.  How did I not take any photos?  Anyway, we had fun.

Sister Black shared her photos with me.  This is E/S Nielsen (temple), E/S Robinson (PA) and E/S Ulvestad (military).  Up above is E/S Black (Seoul South), Sisters Hwang and Pence, E/S Hinton (temple)

On Tuesday, we went with Sister Sonksen to clean an apartment that was in need of some help.  We worked until we had cramps in our hands and made that place sparkle.  Earning our keep!

We saw this truck with hundreds of cute baskets, hats, bird nests and anything you can think of!

On Wednesday Sister Sonksen made a peach dessert for us to share.  One of the elders said he didn't like peaches, but this changed his mind!

Later that day we had some visitors drop by

Our new Area President and one of the counselors.  Elder Gay and Elder Choi.  It was nice to get to meet them.  Elder Gay is from Ohio and knows Sister Sonksen's family.  He was her parent's home teacher!  And we got to visit with Elder Choi a little bit.  Turns out that he studied at USU, so we talked about Cache Valley a bit.

Friday morning we went out to take care of another apartment.  We had ordered some curtains for them.

I think they turned out quite nice.  Now they can sleep in until 6:30!!

And we brought them some pop up mosquito net tents.  They can pretend they're camping.

On the fourth Friday each month, the SESA (Seoul English Study Association) invites someone to speak to their group.  This time Elder Robinson spoke about his experiences in international businesses.  He worked for some shipping companies and for The Gap.  They have lived in Korea and in London besides California.  He spoke about the economies of countries and population trends and what it may be like in the future with more automation in manufacturing.  

On Saturday Alan went with the young elders to work on the yard at a house we rent for elders.  The weeds were a foot high all over.  I didn't go along this time.

Today in church we had the Seoul Temple President Min and Elder and Sister Nielsen as speakers.  President Min told about one of the early Korean saints.  He had been a Protestant Elder and when he joined the church, he had to give up his post.  It was a difficult time.  He had a chance to meet President Kimball. He told President Kimball about the many family names going back many generations and how he wanted a temple in Korea so they could do all of their work.

Speaking of temples, our grandson Jacob who is preparing for his mission went through the new Tucson Temple Saturday.  What a wonderful blessing!

Olympic Kick Off

We had to say good bye to another elder this week.  He left a little bit early due to his schedule at home.

I wanted a photo of these cute girls on the train.  Love their dresses.  Too bad the ride is a bit bumpy.  They know how to pose!

We went to the big clothing markets (Dongdaemun) to order some curtains for apartments.  We saw this little shop where they make patches.  Those machines can embroider 6 or 7 at a time.

We saw more hat shops than we could count.  I guess it's hat season!

My favorites are the cute children's hats!  And I scored a few new clothes!

On Friday, we went with the Sonksens to visit some apartments while President did some interviews.  Now we have lots more action items to take care of this week.  We'll be hunting for apartments again.

We noticed that they were setting up something downtown.  So Friday night we went to see what was happening.  They were building a huge scaffold structure.  Someone told us they were making a big water slide for the kids to go down.  What could possibly go wrong with that?  Turns out that it was a kick off for the Olympics.

It was 300 meters long!

This elevator took the tubes back up to the top.

There were also beach chairs in a big shaded area on the grass where you can watch the slide or watch the shows.

There were several different performance groups.

The Olympics Mascots

In these igloos (yurts?) different events were represented.

The bobsled rider has on virtual reality goggles like you're riding it for real.  The girl looked terrified!

These kids were trying out curling

and hockey

The Olympic Torch

Bobsled in the city

This guy was making bubbles

Lots of kids playing in the water

Air Rifle

And lots of food trucks.

We had our District (Stake) Conference today.  Part of it was a broadcast to all the stakes in Korea.  Elder Bednar was one of the speakers and our new Area President, Elder Gay.  They spoke about being obedient so we can have the light of the gospel to dispel the darkness of the world.  We were counseled to have faith and to not be overly concerned with the troubles around us in the world.

We are so happy that the Tucson Temple was dedicated this past Sunday and that many of our family was able to participate.  Arizona skies are beautiful too!  We couldn't make it to this temple, but we were able to spend some time at our temple in Seoul!

And to top it all off, our sweet Abigail has turned 8 and was baptized Saturday.  Love my family!

Tucson Temple Celebration, Seoul Tower, Snow Sculptures

The Tucson Temple celebration was Saturday night (Sunday morning here).  Here are two of our grandchildren who were in the Folklorico dance.  Waiting for more photos!  Our grandsons got to shake President Uchtdorf's hand!

On Monday afternoon, some of the missionaries came to have a choir practice.  A new stake center for Seoul Stake will be dedicated in September, so they're practicing for that.  They sounded wonderful!

Then on Tuesday I got a nice surprise from the office elders.  Even though they had to photoshop one of the elders in!

They also delivered this ice cream cake to me from the Sonksens.  The a/c blew out the candles for me!  Our little lunch plates came in handy after all.  And note that I have the MVP award!    

On Friday, I was surprised when we went out to go to dinner and the Sonksens came by and picked us up.  (I thought we were waiting for a bus.)  We met some of the other couples at the Original Pancake House in Itaewon. It is an American restaurant!  It was fun!  They had been planning all this behind my back.

When we go to the bank, sometimes the door man gives us these little drinks.  It's about a two ounce yogurt drink.  The bankers are real nice to us.

Even though my husband teases the teller and makes her practice English!

We saw this restaurant the other day.  Thinking of our Chelsea back home!

Since we had a pretty clear sky on Saturday, my husband said it was time to go visit Seoul Tower.  We waited for the bus here.  (Instead of walking up the mountain.)

You can see the Lotte Tower in this one

Apartment buildings as far as you can see

The President's Blue House is at the base of the mountain.  Our neighborhood behind the tall white buildings.

There are thousands of "Love Locks" up here.

You can see the towers up close here

Part of the old city wall

Beacon fires were build here to warn of enemy invasions.

They also had a toy museum and kid's areas  (Hello Kitty).  Any Iron Man fans out there?

Then we waited for the bus to ride back down.  Maybe we'll hike it when the weather is cooler.

On our way home, we saw all these little tents covering blocks of ice.  We figured out that they were doing something at 6 pm, so later we walked back to check it out.

There were over 250 sculptures.  They each had a styrofoam model to try and reproduce in the ice.  They had various tools to work with.  No chain saws.

A thumb?  Or big toe?

Is he ready for the judges?

This event was sponsored by an ice cream company.  They were giving out treats if you wanted to wait in line for them.

It was kind of nice and cooler with all that ice.  We loved seeing the blue sky.

A good time was had by all!