Sendai Japan Mission 2011-2014

Thursday, June 28, 2012

BASEBALL IN IWAKI

One Saturday morning, Gary and I got up early and drove 2 1/2 hours to Iwaki to watch Aron and Elijah Igari play baseball with their Jr High Team. They are the sons of the counselor in the Iwaki Branch Presidency.

The team bowing to the spectators after the game. (before this picture was taken, the two teams lined up and bowed to each other. Then to the umpires.)

The team bowed to their coach and stayed gathered around him while he talked to them after the game. Notice their hats are off and they are very respectfully listening to him.

Sister Igari talking to Gary.

The Igaris have a good relationship with the other parents and seemed proud to introduce us to them. They seem to talk openly about the church with others. The other parents were all so nice to us. This mom's son plays on the team and goes to Seminary once a week with Aron Igari. (Note: She is obviously afraid of being in the sun. The Japanese women don't want to have dark skin from the sun. They prefer light skin. I see bleaching agent in face creams here.)

After the game was over, the team was asked to line up and greet us as we were introduced to them.

Aron (far right), the team pitcher and captain of the team.
He is a good kid and a great leader!

Bro Igari and his two boys. The job of the younger boy was to rake the field after the game. His age group is sort of an apprentice to the main team.

We enjoyed our day with the Igari family watching the game and were very impressed by many things we saw. However, we came to understand better the very big influence the schools have on this young generation. It became apparent that the school are raising the children in Japan. The really sad thing is that many of the parents, in and out of the church, like it that way. These boys go to school every morning for a 7:30 start time. They finish class work at 3PM and then they go to their after school activity (all the children are required to be involved in a club or sport, etc) and get home about 7PM. They eat dinner, do a little homework, take a shower and go to bed. Saturdays, students are at school all day. They are involved in their clubs or sport. The day we were in Iwaki was a Saturday and they boys had come to the school to practice at 7AM for a 9 AM game and an 11 AM game. After the games were finished, the team would stay at the school and continue to practice until 5:30 PM. Sunday was another day of games. These two young boys can never go to church because they are obligated to their teams. Our Missionaries tell us the same story about themselves so we can see this is happening everywhere in Japan. How do we teach "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy"? How can families have FHE? How can parents teach their values to their children? Somehow, someone needs to stand up and say to the schools, "enough is enough." We want our children back ~ but who?

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

ELDER & SISTER MORRIS LEAVE THE MISSION EARLY

Sister Morris was having back problems and Elder Morris developed allergies that put him in the hospital with pneumonia 2 times. They finally decided they should return home to California. The Branch in Yonezawa will miss them.

Elder Morris is in the background negotiating an over-sized carry-on bag at the airport.

FHE in June with 50 attending

Elder Christensen and Elder Mizuochi

Sister Chikamori with Date Shimai of the Kamisugi Ward

President Tanaka and his children. He is in Stake Presidency.

Sis. Sugawara (Stake President's Wife), two investigators and Sister Kitade

Gary conducting the meeting. I gave the lesson tonight with the help of Elder Juchau who translated for me.

Elder Juchau-AP

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Sister Yoshida of Nagamachi Ward

Sister Yoshida came to celebrate my birthday with several ladies from the Nagamachi Ward shortly after we arrived in Japan last September. We became friends from that day on. She has cancer and was told she had 6 months to live 2 years ago. Since that time, she has worked hard to be an active member of the church. She never came to church or to a church activity alone. She always had a non-member friend with her. She loves to do missionary work. She was told recently that she has 2 or 3 weeks to live and has been admitted to the cancer hospital. Gary and I went to see her on our way out of town last weekend. She has no fear of death and is even anxious to get to the other side where she can teach the gospel easier. She is planning her funeral and wants it to be her biggest missionary effort of all. She has written her testimony and made 100 copies of it that she wants handed out along with a Book of Mormon to all non-members who attend her funeral. She is an amazing woman and an angel who will surely go to the Celestial Kingdom.

Sis Yoshida gave to the Mission Home her Hina Doll set that we had displayed in the living room in February for Girl's Day when Elder Oaks came to visit the mission. Before we took it down, we asked Sister Yoshida to come and see it.

She came with her Mother and her sister.

May FHE at the Honbu

FHE is a fun night and we always have a crowd-even when we don't think anyone will come. Notice the smiles on everyone's faces. They love to be here and many come from quite a distance to attend. We had about 10 non-members out of 50 people who attended.

The AP's taught the lesson.

The Jahanas' did a fun activity.

I was in charge of refreshments, Root Beer floats. Because root beer is not a favorite taste to the Japanese, we also had Fanta orange soda and melon soda. The melon soda is very popular in Japan but it is almost impossible to buy root beer. I had to special order it.

Interim Mission Presidents' Seminar in Tokyo

We took the train to Tokyo and after checking into our hotel, we went to the Temple where we met several other Presidents and wives.

Pres. & Sis. Gilbert (Korea Busan) Pres. and Sis Evans (Sapporo) and Pres & Sis Mecham (Micronesia Guam).

After the Temple, we rode the subway to a station where we met Bro. Sakioka, a great man Gary taught and baptized 40 years ago in Tokyo.

Bro Sakioka is a cook at a school and has been a bishop. He and his wife have 8 children.

Taken outside the Sanno Hotel before dinner. This hotel is very nice and is owned by the military. We had to show our passport before we could enter the building.

With President and Sister Baird of the Nagoya Mission

To get an idea of how BIG Tokyo is, these are pictures taken outside our hotel room.

Though it may not be appropriate, I took this picture of Elder Nelson sitting by Elder Ringwood (his son-in-law) and Yamishita.

Elder and Sister Yamishita Mission Tour in May

Waiting for the train to come in from Tokyo with the Yamishita's on it. Not very many minutes go by without a phone call to Gary.

Elder Yamashita interviewed the office couple and the AP's before dinner. Sister Furukawa prepared a Japanese dinner that they loved. They have lived in SLC the past year and real Japanese food is the thing they missed the most.

Elder Yamashita is a member of the Seventy who was recently made the 1st Counselor to the new Area President, Elder Ringwood. He and his wife were so nice and kind to us. We enjoyed our days with them. After dinner, we loaded into the van and drove to Morioka where we spent the night and prepared for the Mori-Mori (Aomori and Morioka) Zone Conference the next morning.

As we arrived at the church, the missionaries were singing in their places ready for the group picture to be taken. After the picture was taken, each missionary filed by to shake the hands of the Yamishitas and Elder Nishihara, our Area Authority.

Sister Tanabe

Elders Fukuta, Saunders, and Fitzpatrick. (Elder Fukuta graduated from High School at Westwood in Mesa. He lives in Japan, however.)

Elder and sister Tsuchida, who are serving in Morioka, are good friends of the Yamishitas. They are all from Fukuoka where Elder Tsuchida was the Temple President.