Christmas Eve

We were invited to join a local ward for their Christmas Eve Camping party.

They rent a nearby by condo outside of Daejeon and a bit up a mountain side.

This is the main room of the condo. It has a sink and cook top with several cabinets.

That is all. The two bedrooms have a closet that hold these big pink blankets which will serve as our beds. Everything is done on the floor, talking, playing games, cooking, eating.

It really does seem to make sense to Dad and I. Koreans do not devote any space to pieces of furniture that take up floor space. A coffee table would seem foolish.

Unlike this condo, a typical Korean home would have a small kitchen (that is on one wall of the main living area, a small kitchen table, a couch, a simple entertainment center to hold the TV, and one wall of bookshelves full of books especially for children. Those things would be in a main room like this.

This is a ward member who rode up with us. He taught at an university in USA so his English is very good. He was very much a part of the activities all night. He likes, almost insists that he be called Old Fogey. This is dinner. They BBQ their meat over a large grill, and eat outside in tents with plastic walls. It was so cold.

After dinner entertainment was Karaoke singing for the adults. The children watched movies downstairs, teenages played UNO in a room, and the adults sang. The lady in front is Sister Jong. She is my translator when I speak in the Daejeon area. She is delightful and very thoughtful to me. When I first met her, I was taken back by how beautiful she is. Several songs would come up on the screen in English so Sister Kim (who is just outside of this next picture...but is who I am pointing to) got me to sing Dancing Queen with her. You can see the reaction of everyone. I told them that I can be quite silly in my own language. The program scores you on how well you do. We scored 100.

Missionaries are in the habit of bed at 10:30, and this party was going strong, so we thanked everyone for a great evening and excused ourselves and drove home. My nice warm soft bed felt great.

Merry Christmas

Osaka

Food vendors outside the palace

The palace outside our hotel window

Temple

Back the Jennings from Pusan and us

Front Elder and Sister Choi & Pres. & Sister Lee from Seoul

This monk was just finishing reading his prayers

Shinto Temple at Nara

Members of the Area Presidency and staff from Tokyo I am standing next to Elder Stephenson, the Area President

part of the thousands of lanterns

Sister Jennings from Pusan. They will finish in July. She was realy fun to be with, and we plan on spending a day shopping in Seoul. Her son was the big Jeoperdy winner a few years ago.

Buddhist Temple

This covers a large wooden Buddha Most of these people are mission presidents, wives, and area presidency

Guards of the Buddha

Buddhist Temple Deer

The legend is that the emperor came riding into this area on a deer. They now keep herds of deer on the grounds. Elder Choi

They seel little waffers to feed the deer

Osaka, Japan

The palace by our hotel

This moat was to protect the palace. It is feed by four other rivers that flow in. We did a small river curise around this area Typical....Mom dressed as if it were mid winter.

MISSION TOUR

I love this picture of Elder Bischoff bowing. Koreans still do this to show respect. Dinner at the mission home with the leadership from our stakes Elder Choi spent the evening instructing them. Our senior office missionaries came to the dinner. I asked him how he did since the entire evening was in Korean. He laughed and let me in on his secret. When meetings are in Korean, he chooses a topic and composes and sermon in his head. He said he did a very good job that night. This is the Elder that shared the story about his interview with Elder Choi He had asked what was hard about his calling as a general authority.

Wonderful experience for our mission

Fish Market

Dad and I went exploring to the local fish and produce market

You choose the one you want

while it swims in the case This looks tasty Or these for dinner

We went home empty handed and ate salmon from Costco The sweet lady in the background gave Dad hot red peepper spice, but she didn't want her picture taken My Korean cooking class uses red pepper all the time. I use 1/4 of what everyone else uses I still do not like the spicy foods here in Korea

BAPTISM DAY

Elder Choi asked Dad and I to drive down to see this man baptized. It was a friend of his for the past 30 years.

A sweet sister in the ward asked us over to dinner. They live in a beautiful high rise on the beach. Notice the kitchen table with chairs in the kitchen area. I was hoping to sit there but that is not KOREAN style

Wonderful day