Tokyo Chandlers: Korea

We had a wonderful few days in Seoul, Korea this past week. It was the annual mission presidents' seminar which I (Gary) am in charge of planning and setting up. Fortunately once we get there we don't have to do anything but just enjoy the meetings and activities. We flew to Seoul on Tuesday morning. Seoul is very different from Tokyo. Where Tokyo is calm, orderly, quiet and clean, Seoul is vibrant, colorful, noisy and a little dirty. It is at the same time more Western and more Asian. More western because of the wide streets, all the American food chains, lots of tall new buildings, and they drive on the right side of the road. More Asian because of the markets and foods on the street that you don't see in Japan. We stayed at the Millenium Hilton Hotel which is sort of in the heart of Seoul. Seoul is a very large city--the largest in the world inside a city limit (more than 10 million) and the second largest urban area in the world with about 26 million people. That makes is second only to Tokyo. There is a massive redevelopment program going on which is requiring that we relocate most of our churches. There are literally hundreds of tall buildings under construction everywhere you look. Seoul has many more tall buildings than Tokyo and much taller buildings because they don't have earthquakes there. There are 80-90 story buildings under construction. Traffic is about the same as Tokyo--terrible. We had three days of wonderful meetings with the area presidency and David F. Evans of the First Quorum of the Seventy and twelve mission presidents and their wives. It was a great blessing to us to hear their messages about the Savior and salvation and the encouragement to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. The dinners and activities were also wonderful. We learned how to make kimbap which is much like a California roll that was later delivered to the homeless. Our contribution to the work is meager compared to the dedication and commitment of the general authorities and mission presidents but we do the best we can. They are all far beyond us in spirituality and abilities so we just sit back and try to absorb all the wonderful messages that we hear. And we did try kimchi for the first time. There are many kinds of kimchi made from all kinds of vegetables including cabbage (fermented and the most common kind), radish, cucumber, hot peppers, and who knows what else. Some of it is very spicy. Overall I don't plan to rush out and open up a kimchi restaurant and if I don't eat any more while we are here I won't feel bad.