Beautiful Honbu Flowers and Plants

Every Summer after the plants have all bloomed, the yard around our home is beautiful.  I had to take pictures of the yard to remember.  I wish these pictures did justice to the yard but they don't.

 This picture was taken outside the Dining Room window.

 Outside the Living Room Window looking towards the office

More of the area shown in previous picture.

 The patio between the house and the office.

 The front porch and door.  There is always an umbrella holder by a front door. 

 Everyone uses one rain or shine.

 Off the porch ~ the planter next to the house inside the patio area.

The continuation of the planter area (above) but outside the gate near the street.

Wedding Reception of President Nagase's daughter

The Nagamachi Ward had two of their young adults marry in the Temple.  The bride is the daughter of Pres Nagase who serves in the Mission Presidency with Gary.  They are on their way to BYU-H to go to school.  This wedding reception is not like one we would attend in America where we would come and go in the evening.  Rather, it was a come and sit and stay the whole time as their "story" was told and gifts of gratitude were exchanged between the couple and their parents.  We didn't realize this was the tradition and came late (I know, classy, huh)  We took pictures of what we saw.

 The Bride and Groom each expressed love and gratitude to their parents.  They were emotional in this picture--not sad!

The special gift they presented each set of parents was a cute white Teddy Bear.  Each bear weighed exactly the birth weight of the their child (the Bride or Groom) Cute idea!

 As they left the room they walked to each table and bowed to each of their guests.

 Lovely, but simple decorations. 

Those attending the reception--mostly Nagamachi Ward members.

SHOPPING AT THE HONBU

In the spirit of the law of conseration, we have asked the missionaries to give any clothing to the Honbu they don't want or can't take with them when they transfer or go home from their missions. The apartments were full of old clothing that no one knew who it belonged to.  I asked them to box it all up and we would pick it up the next time we were in their area.  The closets in the extra bedrooms in the Mission Home has become the storage for all of this clothing that looked good enough to keep.  If Elders need a white shirt, a suit, a tie, baptismal clothing, socks or coats, we have quite a selection.  The Shimai can get a blouse,  skirt, dress, nylons, socks, shoes, boots, coats, sweaters--just about anything they need in many different sizes. 

This day, the Sakomoto couple brought Maria and the two Tagajo sisters to the Honbu to do some "shopping",  Maria just received her mission call and is from the Ishinomaki Branch where the Sakamotos live.  She needed clothing to take on her mission and I was happy to provide a few articles of clothing to help her. 

They brought their own lunch to eat before the shopping spree.

We took out all the drawers of clothing and opened the closet doors and let her "go to town".

Sister Bohnet and Sister Takatska were having too much fun!

They each found bags of treasures.(Sis Bohnet and Maria)

The girls with Sis. Sakamoto.

Talking the the President before they left.  I think they all did OK for themselves.

SUNDAY IN IWAKI

We were anxious to visit Iwaki Branch.  They still don't have Missionaries serving there because of the radiation problem so they are always happy to have us come.  A companionship from Aisu go to the Branch often on Sundays only.  Sister Mauriyama from Iwaki send me a box containing many nice things she wanted me to have.  Among the items was a red skirt that was hers.  I wore it this Sunday to show her how much I appreciated her thoughtfulness. 

Visiting the Branch this day were 2 couples from south of Iwaki who brought a box of framed pictures drawn by Primary children from a ward in Idaho Falls telling the families in Tohoku that they have not been forgotten.  Everyone was thrilled to get them.

 Sister Igari and her two daughters posing with a picture.

 The Branch picture of the day.

 This is Sister Mariyama who sent me her skirt.

I wish I could remember their names, but the mom in the middle is a friend with the Primary President in Idaho Falls who sent the pictures.  This lady also baked Brownies to hand out to everyone.  The recipe was from her friend in Idaho. 

Trip to Zao

Sister Konoko, a single adult of the Izumi Ward and a good friend works at her family restaurant in Zao, a rural area about 30 Kilometers from our house.  She invited us to come out to eat and see her family farm.  We took a day and drove there and loved the quiet beauty of that little community.  It reminded us of Idaho where we grew up.

We sat outside to eat.

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 Inside the small restaurant, her grandma displayed these quilts she made by hand.  They were spectacular works of art.

 Konoko Shimai and Gary by the cheese factory next door to her restaurant. 

 On our walk to the cheese factory we passed this beautiful rose garden.  Pictures don't show how beautiful it was.  Every kind and color imaginable was represented in this garden.

 Gary and I have commented many times that we never have seen a cow on our mission even though we  live in a rural part of Japan.  Behind the cheese factory, we saw these cows and got kind of excited about it. 

A typical drive through Zao.  Beautiful place!

Service With the Oyster Fishermen

The church has been so helpful to many of the fishing Co-ops who lost their ability to earn a living when the tsunami hit their villages.  The co-op we helped today was one we helped last year also and we saw then the total distruction of their buisness both physically and in their faces and eyes.  Today we was new life breathed into their business mostly because of the church.  We saw thousands of new ropes, buckets, many new computers (7 or 8 ) for their office, a row of port-o-potties that are clean and nice, new boats & trucks.  The humanitarian fund we as members of the church donate to is really working and a life saver to many in Japan.

 Waiting at NHK (Television Station) for our bus to arrive to take us to the seashore where the fishing village is located. (2 1/2 hour ride)   Elders Akiyama and Elkins.

 Sisters Chikamori, Kitade and Tada.

 Sisters Asato, Kimura and Yoshida

 Sisters Collins and Oman

 Elders Elkins, Oikawa, Holbrook and Akiyama (back)

 The missionaries love to see each other on these service trips.  They always greet each other with a hug which is quite amazing considering most Japanese don't hug each other as a general rule.

 We ate lunch (bentos or box lunch) in a break room used by the fishermen.

Sisters Yoshida, Asato, Kimura and Oman.

 Elders Yoneda, Tanaka, Ikeda, and Bro So (soon to be baptized member from China)

and Sisters Asato and Kimura.

 Sisters Furukawa and Yoshikawa, Yoshida eating their bento lunch.

 These are some of the newly donated ropes by the church to the fishermen. They are attached to a machine that loosens the twist of the ropes.

 The Sakamotos and Gary are placing a shell with oyster eggs attached into the twisted rope.

 This picture is of the shells that were previously attached to a long metal rod and placed in the ocean where eggs of oysters attached themselves.  This load was just pulled out of the ocean.  We unstrung all of these shells and placed them in buckets (see the picture above of Gary placing the shells in the rope).

 A close-up of the shell being placed into the twists of the rope.  The ropes are then twisted again to secure to shells.  The ropes are then taken out to the ocean and dropped in where they will stay for about two years before they are harvested full of oysters.  We were told about 50 oysters can grow on one shell.

 Some of our group of Missionary Helping Hands with the fishermen.

We become good friends with those we work with.

 Pictures taken on the bus ride home along the seashore.  This is such a beautiful area.  It is hard to believe it has had so much devistation in the last 1.5 years.

 This huge tank held oil before the tsunami when it was pushed to this spot and crumpled like a piece of tinfoil.  There was talk in the community of Ishinomaki of leaving it there as a reminder of the disaster but I believe they have decided to remove it.  It has become quite a popular site.

I was thrilled to see this welcome sign of rebuilding some of the homes destroyed.  There is hope again in the lives of the people.