Elder & Sister Oaks & Elder and Sister Hallstrom visit to Sendai February 23-24 (and 25th) 2012

After weeks of preparation for a living Apostle of Jesus Christ to visit Sendai, the day and the hour for their arrival came and we were ready. It has been 10 years since a member of the Council of the Twelve visited Sendai. Their itinerary while in Sendai included visiting places that were affected by the tsunami almost one year ago, holding a missionary conference with all the full-time missionaries in the Japan Sendai Mission and holding a member meeting for all members of the church in our mission boundaries. The two days they were here couldn’t have gone better. We were thrilled with almost every detail of the visit and I think our visitors will remember they were here. It helps that Sister Oaks was excited to come back to her mission of many years ago.
Thursday, Feb 23 (Visit to Ishinomaki and dinner at Hotel Metropolitan)
Three vans were ready to pick up our visitors which included the Area Presidency and their wives today, plus two interpreters. We drove to the eki where they were to arrive on the shinkansen about 11:30 AM from Tokyo. The Assistants to the President also drove a van that all the luggage would be loaded into and they would drive the luggage to the hotel. As we waited at the eki, more and more people from the Stake arrived unexpectedly who wanted to greet the Oaks and Hallstroms. Finally the train came in and 20+ people got off in their entourage (Church News photographer, electronic technical people, interpreters, etc), so you can imagine the mob of people that were trying to greet each other as graciously as possible. It was kind of a “mess” but we tried to get the Oaks and the Hallstroms and the Area Presidency into the vans as quickly as we could. Once we were on our way out of the eki, things were great. The Relief Society sisters in the stake provided a bento lunch for everyone that we ate in the car as we drove. It had been previously decided to visit several areas in and around Ishinomaki. Some of the areas we saw had not had too much cleaning up done yet. We saw a huge ship that was on the land, homes that were half standing, and piles of rubble. As is always the case when we visit these areas, the talk in the car almost quits and everyone gets very quiet. It is a sobering experience to see what remains in these areas. It is reflected in the faces of the Oaks and Hallstroms in the attached pictures.
We returned everyone to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours. At 7PM, Gary and I went back to the hotel where we were invited guests of the Oaks and Hallstroms for dinner. Also included in the dinner were the Area Presidency and wives plus a few guests from Sendai of Sister Oaks who she taught when she was a missionary 40 years ago. To her credit, she has kept in touch with them all these years. One of the ladies was 90 years old. Her Home Teacher is the stake presdent, and he and his wife made arrangements to take her out of her care facility for a couple of hours so that she could see Sister Oaks. It was a very tender moment when the two of them met for the first time in many years.
Friday, Feb 24 (Mission Conference & Luncheon at Mission Home)
Our responsibility today was to transport the Oaks, Hallstroms, and Aoyagis from their hotel to the Kamisugi Ward building. We decided to first meet President Seza at the ward building. He is a counselor in the Sendai Stake Presidency and is also the Director of the Helping Hands in Japan. He drove the other van. Because we were early, we decided to see how things were going in the church with our missionaries before heading over to the hotel. We walked into the building knowing that the Sendai Zone was practicing their special musical number for the conference, but I wasn’t prepared for the spirit I felt in that chapel when I entered. It was an overwhelming experience to listen to these missionaries sing and to see the members of other Zones sitting quietly in their seats reading their scriptures and preparing themselves for the day. We have never been more proud of our missionaries.
We received permission from Elder Oaks to have a mission picture taken with our visitors before the conference began. (Apparently in other mission conferences it has sometimes been disorganized and ended up burning lots of time and really distracting from the spirit of the conference. But we lobbied hard to get permission to have the picture taken by one camera before the conference even started.) Our wonderful Assistants prepared a standing/seating chart for the mission with empty chairs on the front row so that when we arrived with Elder Oaks et al, we could walk into the cultural hall, sit in the chairs, get a picture taken and be done quickly. Elder Oaks loves to shake hands with everyone, so we formed a receiving line so that each missionary could file through and shake hands and then go to their assigned seat in the chapel. What an experience for these young missionaries to shake the hand of a living Apostle/Prophet. They may forget what was said, but they can always remember shaking the hand of Elder Oaks, and for some, feeling both of his hands on their shoulders and looking directly into his eyes.
(NOTE: Gary has recorded in his journal some of the highlights of the talks given at the conference and E-mailed it already. )
After the final AMEN, the missionaries stood in respect as Elder and Sister Oaks, Hallstrom and Aoyagi and Gary and I filed off the stand. We loaded into the vans and left for the Mission Home where lunch would be served.
There were 9 for lunch (Oaks, Hallstroms, Aoyagis, Rasmussens and an interpreter) so it was a more intimate occasion where we were able to talk and enjoy the 2 hours together. A couple of highlights of the day were the following:
1. The Japanese Doll Festival (Ohina Matsuri) or “Girl’s Day” is held on March 3. Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants and musicians in traditional court dress. Families generally start to display the dolls in February. A sweet lady in the Nagamachi Ward, Sister Yoshida, has a big display and offered it to the Mission Home for the Oaks’ visit which we accepted. It is a beautiful fifty year-old set that had been given to her by her mother and really can’t be replaced. It was quite a hit when the visitors walked into the room and saw it. We took several pictures that I will include. (Note: Sis Yoshida has cancer and is in the process of giving away many of her belongings. She asked that the Mission Home permanently keep the display and put it out every year for the missionaries and guests to see. Apparently here daughters and granddaughters to whom it would pass don’t have room in their homes for it. One interesting side note is that the tradition is that if the hinadan is not put away by the evening of March 3, the future wedding of the daughters in the home could be delayed by many years. So all of our sister missionaries want us to be sure to put it away on time! )

2. When I heard Elder Oaks was coming to the mission, I began talking with Sister Jahana (senior missionary couple in the office) about a simple gift we could give them from the mission. She came up with the idea of making origami dolls of the Emperor and Empress (Girl’s Day Doll Festival) out of some beautiful Japanese paper. A couple of weeks ago, I met some ladies at the church where we made these intricate little origami dolls and the origami envelope to carry them in (see pictures). It was the perfect gift: small, not heavy or bulky to get home in a suitcase and very Japanese elegant.

3. Sister Jahana is a professional flower arranger so I asked her to do the centerpiece for the dining table. It was beautiful (see picture)! As part of the table decoration, she added several little dolls that are famous in the Fukushima area called Okiagari-Koboshi (get up little priest). They are about 3 inches tall and are made of paper mache’ and painted like little men. They are weighted on the bottom which makes them impossible to tip over. You can throw them around or roll them around but they always land on their feet. The current application of the significance of these little dolls was described on a laminated card attached to the flowers. This is what it said: “The Tohoku area was greatly damaged by the big earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster on March 11, last year. Our Heavenly Father sent an apostle, a new mission president, 78 missionaries and so many volunteers for Mormon Helping Hands. We are grateful to Heavenly Father and to them. Tohoku people are like OKIAGARI-KOBOSHI. It’s a symbol of “Never give up” and of “Resilience”.
“Because of the Savior’s birth, life, and atonement, there are no unsolvable problems. There are temporary tragedies and difficulties, of course, but they need not be permanent or unconquerable…He always has a solution that will advance our eternal progress. That is both the reason for and evidence of the Atonement. That is why Mormon said, “Ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ.” (Moroni 7:41) -Elder Tad R. Callister
Each person was able to take one of the dolls home.

4. The food was prepared by the gal (Furukawa) that does cooking for me for bigger groups like Zone Leader Council and transfer week. It was lovely and delicious. I’ve included some pictures of the dishes. I think everyone enjoyed the afternoon. Sister Oaks said a couple of times that she had always wanted to come to the Sendai Mission Home and now she has come. She was particularly thrilled to be in Sendai and I think she will always remember her time here.

Saturday, Feb 25
The weather this weekend has been varied. Thursday it was raining while we traveled to Ishinomaki but it quit about the time we got out of the vans to look around so it wasn’t a problem. Friday was a sunny day and even a bit warmer. Perfect! Saturday was the day to drive them to the airport so they and Gary could fly to Sapporo for a Priesthood Leadership Meeting. They also had two stake conferences to do on Sunday. When we woke up on Saturday morning it had snowed all night and was still snowing pretty hard–in Sendai, where snow is seldom a problem. The roads were covered and slippery so they left in plenty of time to go slow and make it to the airport in good time. When they arrived at the airport, they could see that flights were cancelled due to the weather and their flight was one of them. They saw another flight leaving about the same time and arranged to get on that flight. After boarding the plane, it was announced that it would be delayed. Almost 2 hours later, when the flight had not taken off, it was decided they would never make it to Sapporo in time for the meeting and it would be better to stay in Sendai to do the teleconference. How would you like to be the technical guy who had to make this meeting work in all church buildings in the Sendai Mission and Sapporo Mission with an hour notice? Somehow, it all worked. I feel badly for Sapporo who had planned and prepared for an Apostle’s visit—only to be disappointed. Gary breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everyone was on the shinkansen going to Tokyo Saturday evening.

We were thrilled to be involved with this historic visit. The Hallstroms and Aoyagis were so kind and wonderful, also. The day before they arrived, one of our missionaries lost his mother to cancer. He had made the decision to stay on his mission and finish rather than go home. Our visiting authorities were informed of the situation and they made a special effort to seek him out and talk to him which was a great help and comfort to him. We were grateful.

On the home front, we have been blessed with two new grandsons in February. Brad and Lindsey welcomed Mason Jesper on Feb 8 and Brian and Amy welcomed Spencer on Feb 27 (Monday). We get to see them on Skype which is better than not at all. They are handsome boys and we are thrilled to have them join our family. This makes 26 grandchildren for us!!!

I’m sorry for this letter’s lengthy nature. All of this detail is for my benefit so don’t feel badly if you skipped the middle. Sometimes it is most interesting if you lived it rather than reading about it. We still love to get updates from anyone who wants to send them to us.

Love to all,
Pam