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.