Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Korean Exchange...



About a month ago my dad got an e-mail from one of his mission companions who is currently a mission president in Korea. He asked my dad about a woman who thought my dad had baptized her while he was on his mission in Korea and she wanted to get in contact with him. My dad okay'd the release of information and soon heard from Sister Koo. He didn't recognize the name at first but after some more information he started to remember. After more information my parents found out that her husband was a general authority so they were coming to Salt Lake for general conference. Sister Koo wanted to see my dad and so my parents came to Salt Lake for conference. (Now this has a double bonus for me because it means homemade cinnamon rolls for me....not that everything is about me...) Before they came up my parents went through the cedar chest in our house and dad got a good reminiscing moment with all of his mission things. One of the most treasured things he found was a Bible he had everyone that was baptized while he was a missionary sign. He looked and found Sister Koo's name and then was sure that he had in fact baptized her.

Friday afternoon was the day appointed to meet with Sister Koo. I picked up my parents at my sister's house in Farmington and we headed to the Marriott Hotel in downtown SLC. There have been very few times where I have seen my dad get this nervous/anxious/excited. It was pretty cool. When my mom saw her in the lobby I felt such a surge of joy. When she saw my dad both of their faces lit up. My dad doesn't look much like he did when he served a mission so I think she had a hard time recognizing him at first. In the e-mails she talked about the sparkle my dad had in his eye and once she saw that I think she knew.



It was an amazing experience to see my dad relive part of his mission. Being the youngest, I didn't hear much about his mission. It was so far away from the time I was born. I had looked in the cedar chest a few times and seen the things in there and sometimes he would tell stories about how he only had to knock on 7 doors his whole mission and he got in every single one. He never said much about the people who had come to the church because he taught them. In that moment I felt so proud of my dad and his decision to serve a mission. After Sister Koo was baptized the rest of her family was baptized (her brother was a member before she was). She then helped fellowship her future husband's family into the church. Elder Choi (her husband) is a member of the area 70 in North Asia.

On Sunday we were able to go to a fireside that the Korean ward in Provo had for all of the Korean General Authorities. I didn't understand much of it seeing as it was in Korean and sometimes the translation wasn't the best but the Spirit was amazing. Sister Koo pointed out my dad (it was a bit of a delay because of the translation....kind of a funny moment) and you could see those missionary feelings come back into his heart.

I am so grateful I was able to experience this with my parents. My dad talked about how as a missionary he didn't have the ability to really keep up with the people he taught. It's not like today where everyone has facebook and can contact you. Sister Koo looked for "her missionary" for 40 years. The timing of her finding him couldn't have been better. Everyone likes to know they've done something to help someone else. Truly a once in a lifetime experience!!!


Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Not so Crazy Life.....

So the title of my blog has become a bit misleading in recent months. I find myself with more lazy days than crazy days. When I graduated last April I gave myself a year to figure out what I wanted to do with my life....that year is about up. In two weeks I'm supposed to have my life figured out....not likely to happen. I applied to grad school and so far have been rejected by all but one....not a pleasant feeling. So while I wait for the final word from Utah State I spend my time working and hanging out with people and hanging out a lot by myself.

This sounds so depressing....I'm really not depressed about life...more just sick of waiting for answers that I have no control over....so to put some spunk back in I should go into what I have been doing over the past few months since blogging has not been one of those things.

In February the whole family headed home to watch the musical Wicked....I was a bit concerned that because of all the hype it would not be as good as I anticipated....luckily it was that and more. I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised that I like it given my love for all things musical and cheesy. It was fun to be with the whole family....a bit overwhelming but fun nonetheless. We did the normal family things while we were home....taking family pictures, eating at all of the ABQ hotspots (ok just our family hotspots), watching sports with the guys (explaining sports to my mom), and other moment of general merry-making. Our family is basically chaos when we are all together. I don't know how families with more kids handle all of the noise and activity....

In March we took our annual MWC tourney trip to Vegas. I've decided that March Madness is the best invention ever....okay not ever but it's a very good use for the month of March. So basically this is how this trip goes....wake up, eat, watch basketball live, watch basketball on TV/nap, eat, watch basketball live, sleep and repeat...can you say best trip ever?? This trip was a bit of a different one because it is the last year BYU will be in the MWC. I made sure to savor all of the fans from the different schools. Each has it's own unique personality and fan base. It was a little sad to think this is the last time we would play some of those teams but once they started booing our team I became less sad. This was also the year of the Jimmer. I will not go into too much detail about the Jimmer now but will instead save that for a later post which I have committed myself to write. Pretty much he is amazing. Watching him score 52 points against UNM and break Danny Ainge's record is something I will not soon forget. The rest of March was filled with watching more basketball. BYU made it to the sweet 16 and was just a point away from reaching the elite 8....what a great time to be a Cougar fan!!!

The month of April is pretty much a post in itself so I will have to save that for another time...one thing I did this semester that I thought I would never do is play on an intramural basketball team....thanks to my cousin Kaylee I had the chance to put my sharp basketball skills into play (ha....sharp....). It was one of the funnest things I have done in a while and I am so glad I got the chance to do it....we'll see if I can sneak my way onto another team next year if I'm still living in Provo....

Well that's a good wrap-up....more posts about specifics in life coming soon!!!