9 NEW MISSIONARIES ARRIVE

They all arrived safe and sound but very tired and excited to finally be here.
Hot soup and a cold night.

The next morning was spent in training. We split them into 3 groups. I kept one group at our house so they could be interviewed by their Mission President and E-mail their families telling them they arrived and all is well. Mission Moms love getting those kinds of E-mails--I know!!!! After 45 minutes, we rotated groups until all three groups were given all the information they needed to get started. While their trainers were receiving some training, I kept all 9 and we just talked and answered questions they had. They all told me about their families. It was a great time to get to know them better.
Elder Merkley is from Mesa. His Grandparents are Larry and Erlene Richardson.
At lunchtime, they met their trainers for the first time. There was lots of excitement and electricity in the room as they met and started talking to each other.


Gary enjoyed just listening to the chatter and laughing of getting to know each other. What a wonderful few minutes they were.
Elder Sanders of Greenacres, WA.
Elder Chipman of Apple Valley, UT
Elder Saunders of Meridian, ID
Sister Mukaitani of Kanagawa, Japan
Sister Bohnet of Orem, UT
Elder Merkley of Mesa, AZ
Elder Kano from Highland, UT
Elder Mead of Price, UT
Elder Christensen of Anchorage, AK
Before loading them all in the vans to go to the bus stop where they will leave for their new area of service. Aren't they an awesome group!! We love them all already.

TWO COUPLES ARRIVED THIS MONTH

The Morris' arrived on the train at 10:30 PM and were very tired. The AP's, Thomas' and Jahana's came with us to welcome them to the Japan Sendai Mission. Afterwards, we all came to our home where I served them a bowl of soup and bread and sent them all to bed.
The next day after the Morris' were trained, fed and ready to leave for Kooriyama.

The Tsuchidas are from Fukuoka, Japan. He has been a Mission President, a Temple President (Fukuoka Temple) and President of the Japanese MTC. They are in their mid to late 70's but wanted to serve a mission. They will be fabulous. The day they arrived--after feeding them and they had gone to bed, we got an E-mail from the Area President telling us that the brethren in Salt Lake had decided that NO missionaries, young or old, should be placed in Kooriyama, Iwaki and Fukushima. We had just placed the Morris' in Kooriyama and the Tsuchidas were leaving the next day for Iwaki. That is a moment of panic. Now where do we place them and where will they live? How do we tell the Branch members in Kooriyama and Iwaki that they will not be getting missionaries after all? Will they feel like they are not loved or cared about by the mission or the brethren in SLC? Lots of thought and prayer went into that night but by morning the decision was made to move the Morris couple to Yonezawa, an area that was in the Red Zone that has had no missionaries since the big Earthquake. The Tsuchidas would go to Morioka. They would live in a hotel until an apartment could be rented.

After a morning of training, we invited the Thomas' and Jahanas for lunch and picture taking before the Tsuchidas left for Morioka.

FAMILY FAVORITE PIZZA FOR THE ZONE LEADERS

The mission does service on Tuesdays which brings 1/3 of the mission into Sendai. We try to schedule Zone Leader Council on Wednesday to minimize the travel of the Zone Leaders. That means that all the Zone Leaders stay in the AP's apartment next door on Tuesday night. They are all very hungry and tired from the day of service so I decided this month I would make our family favorite Pizza. Japanese and English Elders all loved it.

Theses 10 Elders ate 8 very large pizzas. I was able to get sausage and pepperoni from the American Air Force Base in Misawa (northern part of our mission). Ham is easy to find in the grocery stores as well as pineapple and white cheese. Tomato Sauce is not quite the same here but I made it work and it was good.Zone Leader Council meeting.

October FHE at the Mission Home

October's FHE at the Honbu fell on Halloween this year. Wards and Branches often have Halloween parties complete with decorations, but the tradition of a lot of costumes and trick-or-treating is not done in Japan. The AP's prepared a lesson on the Plan of Happiness. The Thomas' had a fun game of "pin the facial features on a pumpkin". The blindfolded person was to listen to the directions given by the crowd. It was a funny game and everyone had a great time. The Jahanas' prepared the treat. Gary and I didn't have to do anything except Gary conducted the meeting.
Everyone loves Elder Lay, our AP. The gal sitting the the chair is Bishop Sitoh's daughter who has been living in Utah. She has been less active for the past few years but since coming back to Japan, she is attending more. We were glad she came to FHE.
Singing the opening song.

The lesson by Elders Lay and Narita.
These are non-members who came to FHE. They accepted a Book of Mormon right in the middle of the lesson.
Sister Kumagai had a pretty good lookin' pumpkin by the time she was finished.
Our non-member friend had a great time playing the game.
Elder Aiura trying hard to listen to instructions from the crowd.
We laughed at his funny looking pumpkin.
I love this picture. Sis Sugawara (Sendai Stake President's wife) was shutting out the noise in the room to hear the steady voice of her husband who was telling her exactly what to do. We love the Sugawaras and appreciate their attending FHE every month with their Stake members.
President Sugawara.
Sister Sugawara
The treats were beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. Sis Jahana is a Japanese flower arranger and has an eye for beauty. The treat was Jello with fruit cocktail in the bottom of the cup decorated with a chunk of banana and kiwi, whipped cream and chocolate sauce drizzled on top. It was a fall treat for sure.
Later that Halloween night, Elders Ellis, Taylor and Cannon made a visit to our front door before bedtime.

FERRY TRIP TO SADO ISLAND

We try to go to a different Branch of the Church each Sunday that we can. We decided to go visit the Branch on Sado Island which is a 2 hour ferry ride on the Sea of Japan from Niigata. Sisters Yoshizawa and Yoshida go to the Branch once a month to support and teach lessons to anyone the 7 members prepare for them to teach. Bless their hearts. They get up at 4 AM and ride their bike 45 minutes to the port in the dark to catch the ferry. Once they arrive on the island, they take a bus to the church which is 30 minutes away. It makes for a very long and tiring day for them.

On the ferry, everyone takes off their shoes and sits on the carpeted floor and talks or sleeps. We brought a breakfast for the 4 of us to eat from our hotel. We enjoyed traveling with these two sweet sisters.


To take up time on the boat, we found this photo opportunity and took advantage. Silly, I know!



This is the total active branch-except the Branch President wasn't at church this week because he had some training obligations at his work. The wife of BP is on the back row in green. She is such a nice person and spent time with us driving to and from the port. She also spoke in Sacrament Meeting and taught the Sunday School lesson that Sunday.
After the two hour block of meetings, this lovely pot luck lunch appeared. The table was set up in the little one room chapel and we ate a delicious meal together.
It was fun to do the dishes with the sisters in the Branch.
These two men (plus the Branch President) are the only Priesthood holders. One is a counselor to the BP and conducted Sacrament Meeting and the other blessed the sacrament.
Two of the ladies in the branch with Sis Yoshizawa. Both have physical handicaps but are so friendly and happy.
This is the little chapel. It is very tiny but the spirit was still felt in the meetings.

RICE FARMERS IN IZUMI

Our mission is relatively rural even though Sendai has 1 million people and the larger cities are several hundred thousands of people. Still, as we travel throughout the mission, we see thousands and thousands of rice fields. Gary has challenged himself to understand all about growing rice in Japan. Our Stake President introduced Gary to this rice farmer, the KUMAGAI family (not a member) and we have become friends. Gary goes to their home every month and is discovering all the steps these farmers take to keep their fields in top condition to grow rice.

The KUMAGAI couple and Gary the first time they met.
This sweet little lady is the mother of Mr. Kumagai who lives with them. She is 93 years old and is mentally sharp, loves to talk and is a story teller.
The second visit their home, Gary took me with him and we sat around this table on the floor (the space under the table where you hang your legs is heated and feels really good in that big drafty farmhouse) and talked to her for hours. I couldn't understand a word she said and Gary could only understand about 1/2 of it, but we fell in love with her just the same.
We took picture next to the rice. We were actually not preparing for a race but rather just trying to get closer to the rice.
We met this lady working in her rice field and stopped and talked to her for a time. She took her hat off to get her picture taken. So cute!!

Gary always endears himself to everyone he meets.
They are writing konji on their palms to explain what her last name means.
This was the third visit to the rice field. This visit they were turning over the ground before winter.

Mrs. KUMAGAI working in the fields that day. They gave us homemade miso and mushrooms from their garden.
This is a HUGE!!! statue of Buddha in Izumi where the rice farmer lives.