On this particular outing, we visited a place right here in Daegu. One that many of us had never heard of before.... it's a sacred area where there are many tombs. Buried far under these mini-hills were the remains of ancient royality buried from centuries before.
Sister Morisse and her daughter with Sister Hugo waiting to hear the story of this entire area.
It was a pleasant walk through the area, larger than I had thought at first. Here are some of the group simply 'following the leader....'
One of the fine ladies on the board for DIWA, Bibianna, her American Catholic name she chose, translates to the group the information provided by the Korean man who is one of many that care for the tomb areas and the upkeep of them. He tells us we should come back and visit during the summer as these mounds are completely covered with beautiful small yellow flowers. It must be beautiful to see.
Here's a close-up of one of the mounds. Each mound has a plaque in front identifying, in Korean of course, the person entombed there and the century they lived.
Elder Howerton just ahead of me on the trek. You can tell better in this picture, the size of these mounds!
Here's an area from some distance that gives you an over all view of the land.
Besides touring, everyone needs a little fun now and then! We were broken into groups, in rows, to compete and demonstrate our ability to actually AIM and then to actually HIT something; yeah right!
As I have absolutely no talent whatsoever, I thought I'd best watch the others to see if I could uncover a clue.....
I love my husband... he tries it all, and proceeds to win!! He was the only man on this tour. Did it bother him? No.... he walked and talked to the ladies and he thought it was great! He makes friends 'cause he's open to everyone. The women all loved that a man came along with them and that he won a prize!
Below is another day that we toured a gallery. They were having a luncheon and a sale for benefit. We found some great things at good prices. Some were better than others, depending on the amount you wanted to 'contribute'. There were some great art pieces completed by one of the noted local Korean artists living and working in the Daegu area. While the prices were good compared to the original price, the one I liked was still over $500. This is a picture of our DIWA group that attended the function.
The picture below was something I'd never had the pleasure of hearing. I've known only a couple of folks in my life that played the harmonica but NOTHING like these sweet people provided! They about knocked us all over! Such music! The two ladies did songs together, the man with them at other times. It was quite impressive. I wish I could share it with you. Is this a lost art?
This woman had a beautiful soprano voice and sang for the group while we had our lunch.
We have a wonderful young elder who happens to be a marvelous tenor himself; Elder Harman. I found myself wishing he was there that day to hear this Korean tenor that is a professional singer in Korea. He would have enjoyed him, I know. This man sang several songs in Korean. It's amazing when you hear a song and think to yourself; 'I know that song..' and can't for the life of you recall the name because it's being sung in a different language! That happened to all us!
Another day in the life of DIWA.... the Korean president of DIWA at a luncheon to say good-bye to our vice-president and good friend Melissa Nisiewicz. Melissa and her family were moving back to the states after her husband's tour of Korea was completed.
Here's Melissa giving her farewell thank-you talk and speaking of her love for DIWA. She was a blessing to the group as a whole and to us as Americans to make sure we all felt welcomed and loved.
It was a day to celebrate Melissa. She is a joy and will give love and leadership wherever she goes. She is missed! You can tell the Koreans just loved her...
Then the opening of gifts.......
Melissa with Niki Hugo who is our new vice-president. Niki is extremely talented; artist, crafts/sewing... She brings a lot of talent to this position and has jumped in with both feet!
This is a beautiful Korean jewelry box that the president gave her on behalf of the Korean ladies in DIWA. It is bejeweled in Mother of Pearl; lovely!
And a close-up of a beautiful pin they gave her. Melissa was very happy and sad at the same time, of course. As Melissa is a talent herself, she actually had home-made gifts for everyone there! She made a wall mount of a mini quilt for each of us! Two hearts made of various materials with a message from her personally sewn on to each and every one. I was impressed.... DIWA is a composed of such a great group of ladies working hard to make the Korean community better than they found it, while providing such an opportunity for us 'foreigners' to get to know, and learn about, and grow to love our host country.
These were 3 events on one blog. There is so much to do here, to see, and to learn about. Sometimes not speaking the language is quite a challenge, but for us on the military side we learn to get by! Many of the locals speak - or understand - English. The rest, we just play a lot of charades!
I am posting this now, will notify all on my list that it's there. However, I have 2 others to post ASAP, and I mean 'like today....' perhaps! I will work my best to get them to you. Thanksgiving is next and that's a lot of missionaries for all you parents and family, then a day spent just yesterday in Busan with our two other senior missionaries; Elder and Sister Carpenter and Elder and Sister Allred.We have some great pictures of a fun day all together! See you soon- What makes this all work? The gospel. I thank my Heavenly Father each and every day I'm here for this fantastic opportunity. How blessed we are to have the fullness of the gospel in these, often scary, latter-days. May God bless each and every one of you.
