Korea will never be the same

Caleb called from the Seoul Airport. Everyone with calling cards were trying to use them. I called my calling card company and they gave me some extra access numbers for different kinds of phones in Korea. I gave Caleb a detailed sheet on how to use it and it worked. Most missionaries didn't sleep on the plane, they arrived at 7PM Korea time or 4AM our time. On the airplane they couldn't listen to music as they are not allowed ear phones, they must have speakers. Earplugs aren't even allowed. They had screens on the chairs in front of them and the missionaries found a chess game they could play with each other on the screens. It was a 13 hour flight. They thought it was cool to fly over Alaska with the high mountains and the Bering Strait, across Russia and down to Korea. Caleb said it is Surreal. They will arrive in Busan in time for bed and will sleep well I am sure.

My dad said 55 years ago today he started his mission to the USA Great Lakes Mission and that experience changed his life.

Janae's post: Caleb called from the airport on his way to Korea!!!!

(SLC Airport: Caleb is treated to a burger by Elder Singleton's dad, The Elders in the airport)

Caleb was allowed to have a calling card and call from the airport. Caleb is the trip coordinator for his group of 13 going to Busan Korea. There are about 40 all together going to Korea. A trip coordinator has his name on the top of the list of missionaries... usually starting with an "A." Very distinguished. We are so proud of him.

He wanted to hear all about Paul's funeral and I had just written up my recollections so it was fresh in my mind. Many tender mercies involved with Paul. He also had recollections of Phil Shumway who passed away this week. Before Caleb's mission, Phil called Caleb to come over and gave him a picture of a work horse pulling an extremely hard load and told him, this is how hard I want you to work on your mission.

I read a Pusan Korea missionary's letter his mom sent to me saying he will be one of the trainers. He said his new missionary will be conducting sacrament meeting and giving a 15 minute talk. While we were on the phone Caleb put out the warning to his group. Hopefully they will all prepare a talk on the airplane! Caleb said they all ready have a talk they have given so hopefully they are ready.


I saw Sister Kyoung Suk Lee from Inchong Korea, she used to be in our ward until boundaries split. She is in the USA until February, with her children, studying English. She said she saw Caleb at the MTC and spoke to him in the hall. "Very good pronunciation" she said to me. I got out of that, he can repeat the language. She said he has President Monson's nose. He could be President Monson Jr. she said!

Korean humor: Sitting at the dinner table someone may say "the food is so good if someone next to me died, I wouldn't even notice"

LDS Conference Center

The last MTC letter/ MTC Choir at the Priesthood Session of General Conference

October 7, 2008 the last letter/ MTC Choir experience the Priesthood session of Conference

This week has been quite the exciting week but I only have 30 minutes to write about it so I will try to be quick.This last week we got our flight plans!!! It was quite the exciting day for our zone. We fly Delta the whole time and fly from Salt Lake to LA to Seoul to Pusan. Getting those flight plans was so exciting. We are actually going to do this thing and go to Korea. We have been here since July and I think we are all about ready to leave the MTC. This week I also had the amazing opportunity to sing in the MTC choir at the priesthood session of general conference. Some people have asked as to how they selected so I will tell you: pretty much random. I was sooo lucky and grateful to get in but it was not like I was a better singer than those who did not get in. There were a whole ton of people wanting to get in so they had us all fill out a paper slip with what kind of choir experience we had (I had none). If you had any choir experience you pretty much got in but for people like me it was random. So that is how we got into this choir. It was such an amazing experience that I will definitely never forget.

There were 364 members and they had to take 7 charter busses to get us all up there. We right before the Saturday afternoon session but we got to listen to half of it on the way up. When we got there they ushered us into a random stage with seating that we could practice in. There was so much anticipation it was crazy. We practiced there for a while, got to eat a little lunchable, and then went into the actual conference seating. I never realized as to how huge that place was! I was sitting pretty far left facing the audience. I literally could not look at all the seating at once, even with my peripheral vision. Not to mention all the people that were going to be watching it on TV. Singing there was just so amazing and spiritual. We were sitting within an extremely short distance of all of the church leaders. It was pretty fun to point out the back of general authorities heads. Ha-ha. I felt that the singing went amazing. Any problems that we had previously dealt with didn't show up and I could just feel the spirit so strong. In my personal opinion I think that singing is the fastest and one of the strongest ways to feel the spirit. There is so much power in the songs that are sung every week. After we were done and conference was over many of the general authorities waved at us and complemented us. President Thomas S. Monson turned around, waved, and gave us a thumbs us. We all kind of chuckled. Everything that day was just so amazing. We ended by getting back at 9:45PM and went to bed. I am so grateful that I had that opportunity to sing in the conference center. Sorry I did not really tell anyone about me going. With only 30 minutes you forget some things. Thanks for the support. Pray for me if you will, I'm going to need it this up coming week.Elder Anderson

MTC pictures Busan Korea Group leaving in a week!

Caleb and Elder Singleton

Mom's post- I crashed the meeting

from mom. I couldn't stand it and went to the Priesthood session of the LDS General Conference because Caleb was singing in the choir. Jamon wrote to me and said he was an usher at the Marriott Center and he always saw women there watching the choir. I didn't go to my Stake Center, I didn't want anyone to see me there. I told Kay he could go to our building but he decided to come with me. We walked down to the Institute behind our house and were in a chapel all by ourselves for most of the session. We had a few really good sightings of Caleb! It was worth going for. He leaves for Korea on the 13th of October. Janae

Caleb is singing in the MTC choir at the Priesthood session on Saturday