Here are some photos of the house taken this past week. We had our final inspection this Tuesday and should start drywall within a week now that all the rough-in (electrical, plumbing, etc.) is in place. Stucco will start shortly and after that we'll be putting up the slate roof. It is shaping up pretty nicely at this point -- things are coming in on budget. Probably be substantially completed by end of April.

Above is Kitchen Bay for Eating Area and Below is the Master Bedroom Fireplace.

Lauras letter 2/24/10

Funny thing this week. The weather has started to get warmer, but I have still been wearing my winter coat becasue I still think its cold. However, our local crazy lady has made it her goal and mission to make sure I do not wear my coat anymore. She is so hillarious. I usually only see her once every week or so, but this week we ran into her 3 times. its so funny becasue out of the three of us (Me, the native Korean, and my trainer) I of course speak the worst Korean, and yet every time I see her, she comes up to me and ignores everyone else. This week she has taken to hitting me very hard and telling me to stop wearing my coat. "It's spring!" she tells me in her little rambuncious way. I always just say its cold and Ive got to go and do mission work and then she nods and tells me I can go. FInally I decided I would forgo the coat and ever since she has stopped hitting me. So progress is being made in the area I suppose... :)So, yesterday was zone conference. I love Zone conference with all my soul! It is like my battery charge up every month. This transfer we have 15 missionaries going home...so many considering how many are in the mission. My trainner sister moynihan is in that group. Yesterday at conference I got to sit and listen to the testimonies of all the departing missionaries. It was so amazing. It reminded me of how much growing and work I have left to do. One thing every single one of them said was that the mission was the hardest thing they had ever done, but also so worth it. Ive pretty much heard that from everone who has ever served a mission. Now I am begging to actually understand. The ups are so high and the downs are so low. I love it though. I am so thankfull that I still have a year left here. few. It seems like I have no time at all.Ive been reading in alma this week and I was on chapter 6 (Or somewhere around there) and was reading about how Christ is our sheppard. I love that so much, thinking about how he really does go after the one lost sheep and he uses me and you to do that...then later in that chapter it talks about how Satan also is a sheppard, the bad sheppard. He never stops calling us either. he will also go after the one lost one, and he wants all of Gods children to become a part of his fold. The cool thing is, both of them are offering us everything they have. Christ-eternal life, happiness, and so many blessings. Satan-Worldly Satisfaction, self gratification. Everyday we choose whose voice we will hearken to. Whose flock we will be a part of. I love being a servant of the Lord. I love helping people undertand and differentiate between the voices of the two sheppards and I love more than anything else seeing the joy that comes from following the voice of Christ. The battle is so real and both sheppards are calling. Make sure everyday you are a servant to the right sheppard. Sorry that was kind of dramatic, but hey I a missionary and I am allowed to get intense like that.I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you all do to support me!LoveKelley 자 매

laura's letter 2/18/10

So it was the lunar new year this past week, which is a pretty big deal here. (It's like as big as Thanksgiving or Christmas). It was so fun to have dinner with a bunch of different families from our ward and join in the Solar cheer!It was a bit of a tough week though. Our inverstiagator (김 진 희, Sister Kim) who had a baptismal date for next week told us she was moving this week. Her husband's job with the goverment causes her to have an unstable living situation. We were absolutely devestated. My comp has been teaching her for the past 5 months and I have been teaching her for the past 2 1/2 almost. So, we were pretty attached to say the least. She is such a phenominal person. She has such a great testimony, and yet we are afraid that this move could put her behind on all of her recent progression, especially since we had finally gotten her to say yes to a baptismal date. There may have been many tears involved...but the work must go on and hopefully wherever she is moving to will have missionaries. (We will be looking into all of that) Also I have been very sick all week. So annoying. This time I decided not to take medicine, because last time it made me so tired. It's hard to speak Korean and do work when you are tired, so I figured I'd rather just be more alert and let it run it's course. Uhg. It was funny though, I lost my voice so I sounded kind of scary. People already get scared and uncomfotable when this random foreigner comes up and is speaking Korean and talking about a restored gospel. So, this week I thought we would just top it all off with a scary monster voice. It was pretty funny. Also for some reason our water heater is broken, which does not just mean cold water...our house is heated by water pipes in the floor, so it's been a little chilly. I tried to go out and fix it but all the directions on the heater were in Korean...haha. Whatever. I still love it all. I wanted to talk a bit about patience and love. Since coming on my mission I have learned more about these things than I have in like the past 20 years of my life. I have come to realize that they go hand in hand. It is so much easier to be patient with the people you love than it is to be patient with those you don't. Living in a 2 person apartment with 3 people, one of whom has a totally different cuture than mine, can cause some issues with patience. But what I have realized is that you just have to learn to love everyone. Focus on loving people and patience will come. Patience gets hard when you are having problems with fully loving someone. I still need a lot more work on this, but I just thought I may as well write this all down, in case someone who reads this is having patience issues...maybe it could help.I love you all so much. I love being here in Korea making a fool out of myself everday with my horrible Korean. I love the people we are teaching. And I love this church with all my heart.Happy Valentines!

laura's letter 2/10/10

So, this may not be that Big of news to those of you who have not served in Korea, but to us it is huge!They are combing the Seoul and Seoul West Missions into one! (Now you may say that, that has been in prediction for several months now...but heres the kicker...) The Daejeon mission is getting one of the Seoul mission areas! We get the 수 원 (Soo-Won) steak! So our borders are expanding, not that they werent already big enough :). Also we get 12 of the Seoul missionaries. This is all happening at the end of this transfer so it will be way fun to see all the changes. I have been thinking that I will proabably be transfered out this transfer, so maybe I will end up north...who knows. Otherwise it was a great week. We had President Huffaker (One of the members of the Presidency of the 1st Quorum of the 70) come to tour the mission this week. It was a great conference! Elder Choi also came with him (Another member of the 70). He spoke alot about the purpose of meetings in the church. That everytime we meet we need to be edifing eachother. I deffinately think that applies to meeting with out investigators too. I've really been trying lately to have the courage to say what I need to to our investigators even when I think I will end up messing the Korean up. The spirit was so strong in that room that I dont think anyone could have doubted that those two men were special servants of the Lord.We got a new investigator this week who is just the sweetest. I absolutly love her. Her name is 김 민 영 (kim-min-young). She lives with her mentally handicapped sister and is the sweetest girl ever. She shows so much potential for accepting the gospel.Well sorry I didn't have any fun or crazy stories this week to tell, but I have no time right now, we are on our way to bowl with our district! (At this sketch dollar bowling alley...haha..I love korea). Anyways I love you all and I promise I will make my e-mail more exciting next week!-Kelley 자 매

Regans newly painted rooms

This coloring doesn't really look like the actual color. The actual color is a bright avacado green.

Nellies new jammies

Noelle picked out these jammies at Walmart and given the choice of many cartoon characters she chose Buzz Lightyear. It was funny because she was telling Pete the night before that Buzz was her very favorite character. I guess she really meant it, because these are little boy jammies, but she insisted they were for her!

Susan Betz/Hansen with little Grace