Korean Countryside, Jeju Island, and Typhoons - Letter 2 from Letters from The Land of the Morning Calm

Korean Countryside, Jeju Island, and Typhoons

Hello Beloveds,

안녕하세요!

We lived through our first Typhoon. It was deliciously scary! It made a real racket.  It was certainly a troublemaker.  We watched it during the middle of the night.  The power went out for a bit. We saw the power lines blowing mightily in the wind, and the heavens were opened.

Dad instructed all the missionaries to stay inside until noon the following day. All of our obligations were postponed (oh darn!) It felt like school being cancelled.  It was wonderful! I hope we get another one soon. 

Korea is beautiful!  We have been doing interviews all week so we have traveled many miles through the countryside, which is stunning.  There are big, green mountains everywhere.  It's almost hard to take it all in because it's so pretty. And it's consistently pretty.  We have seen the ocean and many rivers, bridges, etc.  The Elders took us to a beautiful beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous with posh high rise buildings along the beach. 

Our first big event was Zone Conference.  We arrived at the meeting early so we could be there when the missionaries arrived, but they were there before us, waiting expectantly for us.  A big group of beautiful, dark-haired Korean missionaries, the first time we had seen them. 

It was actually very touching. We stood in the doorway and just stared with teary eyes as they all stood. Many of them had tears too. They were ready to give us their love, and we immediately loved them in return.

We have been able to meet with the missionaries one on one.  Dad interviews, and I play a game with them where they draw questions out of a hat.  Things like - "What is your favorite memory?"  What was your scariest experience?"  It's a very revealing game. By the end of it, we are friends because I share with them my experiences too.  It's a great way to get to know each other. 

The interviews are Dad's favorite part- one on one time with these missionaries is where he is at his best.  He has given several priesthood blessings and has become great friends with all of them. He always leaves a prayer and a blessing (sometimes in Korean) as we leave their apartments. 

 It's also fun to see where they live. They all have their little rice cookers going at all times. It's so cute. Speaking of food, the Kimchi here has enough kick to knock your socks off. 

Some of their apartments are quite nice, and others....well, they could use an upgrade. 

So we have almost done all the things now - Zone Conference, interviews, training, etc.  Now it will be like Groundhog Day, and we will do it over and over again.  We're glad to have this round under our belts.  We feel like we can do it. All we can be is us.

I will now try to explain the humidity.  Pretend you are in a steam room and someone comes in and wraps a warm heating pad all around your body. And then....this is where the bacon gets extra crispy... you get to put a mask on, and your glasses fog over.  It is what enduring to the end means. True Suffering.

I hope I don't make the news -"Utah Mother Dies of Heat Exhaustion on Faraway Continent". If I go, I go. It can't be helped. I will miss you all. Hats off to a subtropical humid climate in August. Hotter. Than. Hades. Truly. Don't be worried about me.  I'm fine (on opposite day). 

Here's a special experience.  We went to some Elders' apartment.  They were so so so nervous to meet us.  It was pitiful actually.  Dad took the one Elder into one room, and I began talking with the other Elder in another room.  He was a Greenie and just barely on the mission.  

He was so unnerved that it was heart-wrenching.  I finally stopped and just looked at him and said, 저는 이해해요 which means, "I understand."  I told him that we were brand new too. He put his head in his hands for a minute and then made gestures toward his heart and my heart. We were both touched.

There may be a language barrier here, but there is a language of the heart.  Thank goodness laughter is all the same language.  We will be forever friends. 

Our Assistants take us to all the interviews (for now, at least).  They are so helpful and ever-present and prompt.  They are also amazingly talented singers.  They have powerful voices. We love listening to them sing.  They aren't shy with it at all.  It's their way of life.  

When we travel, we always stop for lunch and have a big Korean lunch.  When it's time to order, we say 보스입니다 which means, "You're the boss." And they always order something delicious and interesting. We are blossoming under their tutelage and vicey versy.  Win-Win. And I am getting better at using chopsticks.  Thanks for asking.  

They are hungry, hungry boys, and food means everything to them. One day after a big lunch, they were still hungry and wanted to go get dessert. Well, dessert turned out to be big, deep-fried hotdogs. We were astounded and couldn't believe our ears, but we calmly said, "Okey dokey." We ate with them. (Like I do with everyone at home). We were fuller than almighty full.  

We call our Assistants Jason Bourne and James Bond (they love movies) because they run our lives, drive us around, protect us from harm and foe, and do everything for us so capably.  They book our flights.  They arrange our rental cars and hotels.  They find restaurants and make appointments. We gladly accept. They order us food. They get our dry cleaning, and the list goes on.

They are pleased with their new names.  We always call them "Elders", but sometimes Dad will say when we're driving, "Good job, Jason", or I'll say, "Flip a Uie, Jason."  They laugh every time.  Apparently, Dad has Korean humor, they say.  They feel like they are meant to be with us, and we feel the same way too.

We taught them the expression, "Home, Sweet, Home."  So after a long day of traveling and visiting, we pull into the mission home, and they say, "Home Sweet Home."  It's such a blessing to have a night in between.  

Every night at 10:00 p.m. on the dot they text us and say, "President and Sister -all missionaries home and safe." One night they added, "And our love for you safe too."

Some of the Sisters call and sing to us at bedtime so we can go to bed on a good note.  They found out we love, "Abide with Me" so they sang that one.  We loved it. They are all so musical.  

We have one sister who has a scholarship to BYU's music program.  She is an opera singer.  They also text us goodnight messages.  "I can't help but love you" is a common one. We smile.  

Oh, an update on our brick.  Our slab of granite has turned into a more pliable form of balsa wood since we have the mattress topper.  We are not sleeping in the Taj Mahal, but we are comfortable. We are too tired at night to really care.

My favorite sentence now to say is, 저는 배읍니다which means, "I am learning",  My next favorite is, 증임니다which means, "That is so amazing." It makes me sound cool, and I need all the help I can get.  It's awesome to be learning (and hard too).  Brain Damage!

Dad is doing really well with the Korean, and we get by. By dinnertime though, we are toast and have to clock out. No more Korean words. Nada. Zip.  We are too tired from the whole day of trying to remember them.

Elder Jung, (Jason) our driver, is the one that picked all the missionaries up and took them to the airport to go home because of the pandemic. He's an electrical engineer.  He is very tenacious and has a lot of experience. He is an expert driver and such a kind and happy missionary. He is learning English. The sentence he learned yesterday was, "The sun is shining. There is a cool breeze. It's an ideal day for a picnic." So funny. 

He remembers picking up Mack Skousen.  He remembers the day and told us how they all felt about what was happening.  He made trip after trip to collect the missionaries and get them to the airport. He started at 4:00 a.m. and got them one after the other, all day long. 

It made us feel tender feelings, and our hearts were full.  Love you, friends!  I miss you and your scissors, Jolynn.  I haven't worked up enough courage to get a haircut here.  In a few more weeks, things are not going to be pretty. Putting scissors in the hands of a non-English speaker is a risk I'm not willing to take until I'm downright desperate. 

Every time we leave and then travel back to Busan and cross the river, we are awestruck by the vastness and magnitude of the city along with the beauty of the hills.  It's a pleasure to see it every time.  It's mind- boggling to see the massive amounts of apartment buildings.  So many people, and beautiful brown eyes everywhere.

We are trying to manage our time and days so we don't get burned out.  We are trying to keep it fun. I keep remembering what Einstein said, "There's a better way to do it; find it!" We are trying to find those ways. Our goal is to treat it like sewing. "Quit before you're aggravated" is what my mom told me. That advice is coming in handy.

We have mask Nazis over here - watching for any desperate nose that has the audacity to peek out for air.  Sigh.  How I miss breathing.  I've grown accustomed to it.  Biggest pest of all = Covid 19.  

On a cheerier note, Dad drove us around for the first time. He drove like Bond, James Bond.  Double 07 put those mitts on the steering wheel and away we drove into the Asian sunset (with a little bit of traffic in between.)

Moving on. Something tragic has happened. They have taken pizza and done something funky with it.  They put pudding in the crust and try to make it into a pastry/pizza.  First bite. Pure sadness. You all know how I dream of pizza. Woe is me. 

We went exploring and found the most magnificent walking trail which goes up one side of the mountain and then down the other side, all shaded. We thanked our lucky (Korean) stars. It is a wooden walkway that goes on for miles.  We will use it when the weather cools off.  We hear the Fall here is incredible, and we can only imagine with all the mountains.  Fall, blessed Fall. 

Elder Rasband of the Seventy and his wife, Mary, came and spent the morning and had breakfast with us after a three hour training meeting with Elder Gong via Zoom.  Two men that work for the church came and spent hours setting up the technical equipment.  I kept thinking, "This is serious business people." 

Sister Gong had a special break out session with the sisters afterward where she shared some neat experiences and stories.  (Adam and Heidi, the Rasbands live in Nate and Nicole's old mission home in Seoul.)

We are starting to prepare talks in Korean.  Enter Google Translate, our new best friend.  Our hands write the Korean characters with ease now, and we can read it well. Learning the grammar is fun. It's like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. We just have to build our vocabulary now and try to speak the same language they are speaking.  Just kidding.  But not really.

Dad is doing the "Sweetie" thing every day and forgets to call me "Sister Killpack" for which I'm grateful.  It's made headline news around here and turned into a big hit. The Sister missionaries love it, and our Assistants think it's hilarious and are now calling each other "Sweety" in the office.  That is how they spell it.  

I guess Koreans don't use endearments or hold hands, etc.  They say, "President Killpack is a romantic and our role model."  Haha.  Chick Magnet. The big man has done it again.

They took us to eat at a restaurant where you had to sit on the floor under these little tables.  I almost ran out when I saw what awaited us. Misery! We sat down, and as you can guess, it didn't work out well for Dad's itsy bitsy legs or his itsy bitsy wife.

He could barely get a shin underneath let alone one massive thigh.  He was in a contorted position that looked painful. He was encroaching on my already tortured space because I, alas, was sitting on his foot.  Super comfortable and soft.  Loved it. We couldn't figure out what to do with it. I told him we were going to have to cut it off if he didn't move it:). 

Our boys could see our predicament. They laughed and went and found us a table.  I love people who have mercy on others especially when the others are us:) We've never been more grateful for chairs.  I patiently explained that we had one big American man on our hands.  Pity us.

This was the restaurant where we almost had to take my tongue to the emergency room. So spicy.  Not only is it spicy, but they eat it right off the grill, sizzling hot. It almost sizzled my tongue right off.  Not a great idea because I need said tongue to speak Korean.  

They have these tiny glasses too which give you about four swallows of water. Hot tongue, no water. Perfect combination. Sometimes I wonder if we're of the same species. 

We had the opportunity to go to 제주도( Jeju Island) which is a big beautiful island south of the Korean Peninsula in the Korea Strait.  It is the Hawaii of Korea. It is so amazing.  It's volcanic. 

The flight was awesome. We could see all the little islands that people live on.  It's something else over here. We're definitely in Asia. It was nice weather for us, but unfortunately, Jeju is even hotter.  Imagine two, not just one, heating pads on you while in the steam room. It is a sure fire way to get fussier than a budget and crankier than a hornet. 

We have two Sisters on the island.  They were so happy to see us.  They get kind of lonely so we tried to buoy them up.  They were waiting at the airport for us (only an hour's flight) and were holding up a welcome sign they had made along with paper leis.  (See picture below).  

They are 25 and 29 years old and highly evolved humans.  They sang for us with their guitar.  They harmonized beautifully.  (We shared the link below. Forgive the first part.  They were tuning their guitar.) 

We drove around the island to see some of the sights, and Dad asked them to sing for us again in the car.  The Elders joined in and we hummed along.  Really special experience.  They didn't want us to leave and walked us all the way to the gate. We promised them we'd be back soon.  

Weston, you're crawling. Yay for the cutest baby ever.  Can't believe you're one year old and such a big boy. 

Hope the birthday celebrations went well, Al and Tory.

New favorite scripture is Psalms 121:1 - "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."  We tell this to the missionaries who are in their apartments all day and need His help! 

There is a saying here.  항상 꼿 길을 만 걸어           

It means, "Always walk only the flowered path."  This is our wish for everyone!

We love and miss you so much.  You're everything to us and more.  We love the Marco Polos.  Keep up the good work.  

사랑합니다

Mom and Dad

(Senior and Junior Companion:)

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