Saturday, February 4, 2012

Seoul Temple

Brandon and I were able to visit the Seoul Temple yesterday with our branch. We chartered a bus that drove us there for $20 per person. That is a lot cheaper than taking the KTX (bullet train), the slow train up there, or even driving. It is about a 4 hour drive and we haven't been since we've been here we decided that we needed to start learning to find our way around other places here than just Daegu. We had an interesting experience as we were getting closer to the temple. Our driver was refusing to listen to a woman in our branch who is Korean and could communicate with him about how to get to the temple. He said that he had been there a year earlier and knew where he was going. He also had a GPS that he wasn't following. The woman in our branch told us that Korean men don't like to take orders from a woman and so he was refusing to listen to her. At one point we let the youth get off the bus and just walk, so they could make their baptisms. The driver also stopped the bus and got out and left for about 10 minutes. We were wondering if we should just get out and walk ourselves, or stay on so that we had a ride home. The driver finally took the woman's directions and we made it to the temple. The first picture is a road that the bus had to go up to get to a parking area by the distribution center close to the temple. The cars can go either up or down the road. But it looks like a typical road here. We get out of the bus and walk up about a hundred yard more up the steep hill and come to another steep hill that leads you onto the the temple grounds. At the bottom of the hill leading to the temple is a house that families can stay in overnight and during sessions. Our youth and a few adults stayed with the children of some of the members in our branch who brought them up. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the snow. It has only snowed in Daegu once since we have been here, and it was fun to be able to see a little bit of snow. What a great day! The bus left at 5am (5:35am due to people in the ward being late) and arrived home at 7:40pm. We had a great day!!