새해 복 많이 받으세요

Seh heh pok mahnee pah duh sae yo!

"New year's blessings please receive." 

 

Our first night in Daegu.

This is a common Korean New Year's greeting, and I love it. The shift in sentence structure creates a subtle but significant shift in meaning when translated from Korean to English.  To me it means - this new year will be filled with blessings which we are invited to receive. Heavenly Father has great blessings in store for each of us, but we must make an effort to recognize them and receive them. I love a new year. Clean slate. Blank page. Fresh start. What will the new year bring? I can't begin to imagine what new opportunities, changes, challenges or trials may come. I hope to see the blessings offered and accept the invitation to receive them.




A bird's eye view of our
temporary home town.

2013 was very eventful! Okay, that was an understatement. It was in many ways a life changing year for us. We began the paperwork process for another full time mission in January. We were as surprised as anyone else about that turn of events. It was at least seven months ahead of schedule. In fact we had nearly talked ourselves into waiting until early 2014 to begin serving a second mission. We spent Jan & Feb traveling to see family before we left at a still unknown time to our mission in San Diego. Then an unexpected phone call came and our mission suddenly also became "to parts unknown". The end of March we received the stunning and exciting news that we would serve in the Busan South Korea mission. Never heard of Busan, hardly knew anything about Korean. Except that North Korea was threatening nuclear warfare. Charming!

  

Some of the foods we
are learning to love.

A few days after receiving our mission call we left for the rest of our "goodbye to family" trip, or our "farewell torture tour". This round of our travels included a three week trip to Sao Paulo Brazil to visit Jake and family. It was one of those "pinch me" experiences. We had a wonderful time.

 

The series of goodbyes took it's toll on both of us. So many tears! Yet we were also looking forward with great anticipation to our Korea adventure. We have had one blog worthy experience after another in the six months we have been here. Meanwhile back at the ranch... or at least back in the USA... our family members have had their own adventures. Some trials, some changes and countless blessings. The most notable changes have been the migrations. This is actually a repeat of our first mission. While we served in Colorado six of our seven children moved. Two to different houses, the rest to different states. Since we left home for this mission on June 13th, two children have moved into different houses, one to another city and two more are changing jobs which will require them to move to a different state. Coincidence? I think not. At least they let us know their new addresses!

 

This is the year we go home. This is the year our mission is completed. We should be home surrounded by family next Christmas. I love that thought, but I am not trying to rush this year. We love our mission and especially the people we serve. We have 11 months of adventures left here, and I want to cherish each and every one. We have a Korea specific bucket list, which I may share with you soon.

 

We hope for a happy and healthy new year for all of you.

May we all recognize and receive the many blessings the new year brings.

All of them!

Whether they are gifts of prosperity or lessons cloaked in challenges,

may God bless us with a joyous and adventurous new year!