2nd TRIP TO SEOUL KOREA

We guess that you will have to scroll down to start our blog entry of our 2nd trip to Korea. This blog thing is strange to us still. We post an entry and it starts at the bottom and pictures add on top of it!! Enjoy, however you choose to read it!! our love, E/S Sartori

Ancient Korean guard attire at the gate of the Palace grounds.
Sister Sartori showing family pics to some cute young ladies who came up and started talking in English to us. We pulled out our pictures and when we showed our grandson, Andy, they asked how old? She said he is 16 years old - they squealed and said, "Phone number please!" Don't worry, Andy, you are safe! We don't remember your phone number!!!Okay, this is on the Palace grounds also. This is where we missed our grandchildren!!! We sat down on the benches to rest and Sis. Sartori began feeding the pigeons. Small children began to gather one at a time and watch. We shared pieces of bread and with gestures showed how we were feeding them. What a delight.... we then sat back and enjoyed the children and birds. What a treat to see their smiles, their delight at a bird catching their crumb and sharing with their little sister or brother the fun! Yes, we missed our grandchildren!!! Palace grounds with the modern city in the background. It kinda reminds us of Central Park in New York City! We found this Palace on some beautiful grounds that had a museum and other artifacts on display with it. A cute little Korean man came up to us and offered as a volunteer to tell us about the history of this palace. It seems that it dates back to 1300-1400. Unique architecture. WE FOUND COSTCO IN SEOUL, KOREA !!!! Elder Sartori got a little homesick when we went in this Costco. This Costco is three floors high or low! We put the shopping carts on an accomodating escalator and rode to the next floor. Elder Sartori and Elder Magill had an interesting ride as they tried figuring out if the carts were held in place with magnets, grooves or both!!!?? !! FASCINATING! Here is a nice image to share. This is an older structure of obvious architectural beauty and it is in the middle of modern Seoul! We loved it!!! This river is in the middle? of Seoul. Elder Goff at the temple said that when he was in Seoul 40 years ago (?time) this was an open canal of sewage. Look at the improvements! Wow! South Korea is doing well. The church members are growing and doing well. They use their temple. Sister Peck said that they come by bus, some start at early hours just to come and work in the temple all day on Saturdays...twice a month. They were so respectful, so humble. I loved walking by the people and bowing to them...what a nice gesture of respect. This is our bus taxi to the plane. Wow, we had beautiful weather! Hot and humid, but beautiful!! This is Elder and Sister Magill from Wisconsin. They are our "VISA BUDDIES". They are wonderful!! Totally wonderful!! Notice we are standing by a bus and see the airplane in the background? - the bus is going to load us up and drive the few hundred feet, we get off and board the airplane! Total Russia. We have a hidden blessing!! Russia has us leave the country for Visa renewal and it is a great blessing!! We fly a short 2 hour flight to Incheon Korea Airport and then ride a 40 minute bus to the Seoul Korea Temple dormitory. We are blessed to stay in this beautiful place..the dormitory is actually downstairs and down a hallway from the Temple Entrance so it seems like we are in the temple!!! Heaven!! We're in Heaven every time we go there. Pres. Pratt gave us permission to stay two extra days, so we will share our adventures. Of course we did temple work, but also visited some of Korea. Seoul is huge!

More YM/YW Conference

Before leaving Vladivostok on the train to head back up north to Khabarovsk, our youth were able to participate in 'Sports Night'. We also hold this in our Khabarovsk. This is a great time to let people know we are normal folk and when we get tired from playing Ultimate Frisbee, we can sit and talk about gospel principles and introduce people to the church. The missionaries love sports night and we have it all summer!!

To continue writing about our YM/YW Conference... We had a talent show, a fireside, a service project, uplifting speakers and a dance. We decided to share this fun picture of the dance. All the youth loved dancing when they began this dance! In Russia it is called ручеёк. It is nice to see such great activities for the youth. We rode the train all night to arrive in Vladivostok for this conference. It was a great time for the youth to get re-acquainted or to make new friends.

Vladivostok YM/YW Conference

These are the three young people that we took to Vladivostok for our YM/YW Conference. Left to right: Kristina has been investigating the church and the Spirit definitely has touched her. Dasha wants to be baptized, but her Mother says no right now. Sasha is a member and just yesterday was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. These were delightful young people and it was such a great blessing for Elder Sartori and I to be their chaperones. The conference included about 12 other young men and young women from Vladivostok, Artyom, Nahodka, Usserisk, Sakhalinsk, and our Khabarovsk.

MEETING OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT !!

Pictures make life so memorable. This is our Missionary Zone Conference. Great memories, wonderful counsel and love shared by all. We are so blessed to be able to serve with these fine young men. Heavenly Father has blessed them in their diligent preparation to come to Russia to serve their missions. We are in awe at their leadership and spirituality. We agree with President Gordon B. Hinckley when he said that the future of the church is in our youth and they are so capable. The Lord indeed has Valiant Servants!!!

This is the evening that Pres. & Sis. Pratt and Elder A. left on the train from Khabarovsk. Elder A. going to the MTC. His Mom and 'Granny' are so proud of him and justly so!

July 17, 2009 President and Sister Pratt arrived in Khabarovsk, Russia! They came to our home while waiting to check into their hotel and we had the marvelous privilege of having them visit, attend missionary lessons to investigators and have lunch with us. What a delight! President and Sister Pratt are such great examples of love - Christlike love - and we were so blessed to spend a few days with them as they led us in our Zone Conference. Our Russia Vladivostok Mission has another wonderful leader. We are so blessed. Since we are only branches and saints meeting together in our mission, President Pratt is our District President also. Sunday night, July 19, 2009, we had the wonderful privilege of having Pres. Pratt set apart a missionary in our home. Евгений Геннадьевич Абубакирова was set apart to serve in the Russia Rostov Mission. This young elder represents our Khabarovsk Branch very well. He is in Utah right now at the Salt Lake Temple, Temple Square and the MTC. He will be another great missionary!!!

SPORTS NIGHT IN A PARK

Gleb rode his bike to the park one night and his mom, Lena encouraged me to take a spin. It felt really good to be on a bike again!! I normally take pics, but Elder Sartori has joined in and played Ultimate Frisbee!!! We meet a lot of new people at sports night and it has been really nice to be involved in this missionary effort also. A lot of our English Club-bers come to sports night and everyone has lots of fun. Pres. Hinckley always encouraged us to be happy in this journey of life and share this happiness and sports night is one way that we are fulfilling his counsel!!!

Now that summer is here, we have a "Sports night in a park" and invite members, investigators and friends. They play basketball, but mostly they love to play Ultimate Frisbee. This frisbee game involves a lot of people and they love it.

Hawaiian Activity

Yelena and Elder Temus enjoying fun and food. Hey you guys...did you eat too much of the PINEAPPLE?? The food was delicious and everyone had fun!!!

The group who came to have a good time...members, non-members and investigators.

Старейшина Сартори и Сестра Сартори cooking for the Khabarovsk Branch Hawaiian Activity. Good thing we made plenty!! We had 50 + people come. A spiritual program was first shared, then we played games, line danced and ate "Hawaiian Haystacks". Thanks to all the practice in Relief Society with fixing dinners and ward parties...we had a great success.

A SPECIAL FAMILY

NOTE: PLEASE START AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS GROUP OF PHOTOS AND WORK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP. SISTER SARTORI ASKED ME TO DO THIS POST, AND I DID IT UP-SIDE-DOWN. OH WELL, WE STILL LOVE RUSSIA.

Guess who made the ruble fall into the flour? This is elder Spencer. He is the ZL, here in Khabarovsk. I was really praying that the coin didn't fall when I was cutting the flour. (see, prayers really are answered)

Can you see the value of this beautiful boy and the light in his eyes? God love him so much that he sent us to bring him, with his family back unto the fold. Wow, what a great privilege it is to an insturment in the hand of God.

This is a picture of a wonder family in our branch. "The Chetvergova Family" They had been less active for quite a while. We had visited them many times to encourage them to come back to Chirst. Then one time, the spirit was just right, and we painted for them a word picture about life. We told the that life is like a river, and that we all are swimming in the river of life. We told them the river was dirty and poluted, and that bad people had put things in the river that were dirty. We also told them that we all are floating down stream in the river, and across the river is a bridge. As we float down stream we can see that Jesus Christ is standing on the bridge. He is reaching His hand down towards us and saying "Come unto to Me, and I will give you rest". We explained that in order to get the help from the Savoir, we needed to reach up and grab His hand. If we don't reach up and just float by, He quickly runs down to the next bridge and reached toward us and says again, "Come unto Me". We explained that the way we reach up to Chirst is to say our prayers, study the scriptures, and go to church. The spirit taught them that day. They showed up to church the next Sunday and have been coming every week now. The above picture is when we visited them again this week. We are playing a game with flour and a ruble coin. Each person takes a turn and with a knife and slices a portion of the flour away. The person who makes the coin fall has to get it out of the pile of flour with his nose.

THERE IS NO GREATER JOY THAN TO HELP OTHERS COME UNTO CHRIST....