Dale W. Rasmussen
Memories of Northern Far East Mission (Korea) 1958-1960
Called to Northern Far East Mission - July 1958, released January 1961.
Called from Burley, Idaho.
Married to Karen Hayes Rasmussen. We have seven children and 30 grandchildren.
Occupation: Welder (retired)
Like most of us, I hesitate to write after reading some of the great reports.
I am sure that those of us lucky or blessed enough, felt that being called to the Korean district of the NFEM was, indeed, a blessing.
When I arrived in the mission I was sent to Sendai to work with the Japanese people, but my heart wasnt in it like it should have been. In 1957 I was in Korea with the Army, and the year that I was there, I learned to love the humble Korean people.
Two months into my mission we had a district conference in Tokyo. We had to go to the mission office for some reason, and while there I petitioned President Andrus again to let me go to Korea. He said, Do you really want to go? and Elder Gundersen said, President Andrus, Elder Rasmussen prays every day to go to Korea.
President Andrus said, Come back tomorrow and we will get started on your visa. At that time the Korean government was not letting missionaries into Korea, but because of strenuous effort on the part of Dr. Kim Ho Jik I was able to get a visa to go. As I say, what a blessing!
My first companion was Elder Taylor and he helped me to learn some of the language. Elder Anderson had recently made a booklet to teach missionaries how to speak Korean. I dont know how other Elders felt about the little book, but it was a great boon to me in learning.
While I was in the Army I thought I studied pretty good to learn some Korean words, etc. That year of study amounted to about three days in the mission. I know that all the Elders were blessed with the gift of tongues, especially when compared to others that struggled with the Korean language. The very least of the Elders could speak better Korean than other foreigners who might have been there for many, many years.
February 7, 1959
Elder Till was my companion. I was still struggling with the language. We had taught a young sister, Lee Youn Ohk. Actually Im sure that Elder Till did all the teaching. Anyway, this cold, cold February day I was to baptize this young Sister. She had been taught that we baptize by immersion, so she knew that. She had never witnessed a baptism and, somehow, it had not been explained quite how it was to be done.
The water was only two feet deep, if that, but it was next to freezing. I went down into the water and Sister Lee followed, except before our eyes she just kept going down, down into the water. Well, I was so green and dumbstruck that I had no idea what to do. Finally someone explained to Sister Lee how it was done. I was finally able to get her baptized properly. What faith that kid must have had! My feet were blue from cold. I have no idea how she ever survived that ordeal, other than by faith.
In a way, it was comical, but only in Korea could things be so pathetic. How some of those poor souls ever survived is more than I know.
One winter day, Elder Maw and I went tracting in the Seoul West Branch. I think I had every article of clothing on that I owned, and it was cold. We came by a canvas house, which was common enough, but outside stood two little Korean children with nothing on but short Tee shirts and rubber shoes. Well, I guess thats one of the reasons I loved the Koreans so much. They were so humble.
What a great blessing to be able to say that I was one of the first [1958-1959-1960]
Love to all my old companions and those who werent, but whom I was able to associate with.
Dale W Rasmussen
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