Neighborhood Matsuri.

A block from our house is a nice little neighborhood park where kids play. Saturday night a Matsuri was held at the park for the neighborhood. This is the time of year for Matsuri all over Japan. They are like a carnival with some old traditional entertainment. Many of the little girls were dressed in kimonos which was so cute.




In an effort to keep old traditions from dying out with the new generations, some of the older women performed this dance that was beautifully and gracefully done in a circle. Some of the little girls got in the circle and tried to mimic the older ladies to learn the dance but it was plain to see that this tradition will die soon because the little girls were not familiar with it at all.




It was drizzeling rain that night but umbrellas are very common in Japan.

District Leader Training

We had training for about half of the District Leaders in the Mission at our home. (The other half came last week) We feed them all the pancakes they can eat to start the morning.
Gary and the APs gives them such uplifting training and they always leave full of new ideas and enthusiasm.
The day after the training meeting, Gary and I attended a District Meeting and watch these great missionaries put into practice all the things they had been taught the day before. It's nice to know the "water is getting to the end of the row". Aren't they a great group of Missionaries?

Sports Bags Donated To Hashiura Elementary School

This is the Hashiura Elementary School outside of Ishinomaki. This school survived the tsunami but two other elementary schools in the area did not. All the remaining children from all three schools now attend this school. The school wants to take all the 5th and 6th graders on a camping trip in September. The Church's Helping Hands organization learned that the children needed bags to pack their belongings for the field trip. The Professional baseball team in Sendai arranged for the bags and the church paid for them. Gary was asked to present the bags to the school at a school carnival they had on Saturday.
One student from each of the three schools were presented a bag in behalf of all the 5th & 6th Graders.
All three Principals, now Co-principals, were also presented with 3 Helping Hands T-shits. It was a nice occasion and Gary was a great presenter.
The community enjoyed the day inside the gym because it was raining outside. It felt like a school function at any school in America; kids running around while the parents all talked together. We enjoyed it.

A group of student who are very good at the drums entertained parents and grandparents.



A group of boys playing a game in the corner.
Notice how everyone takes their shoes off before entering a room. The gym floors were sparkling clean even though it was muddy outside from the rain.
One of the Principals met us in a 1st Grade classroom. He described to us how the school was doing since the tsunami. The school has only 175 students because so many families have moved away from the area because they had no home nor jobs. About 12-15 chidren were lost in the tragedy. They were children who were waiting at the school for their parents to pick them up. One child's body has never been recovered.

New Arriving Missionaries

We were happy to welcome these three new Elders to the mission early in the month. We met them at the MTC and spent an hour with them there. They are all three great additions to the mission and have proven to be hard working Elders already.
Elder Preston from Leighton, Alabama
Elder Everett from Syracuse, Utah
Elder Tillemann-Dick from Denver, Colorado

The Best Service Day Yet!

These 4 Shimai came to Sendai on a bus from their area many hours away the night before the service project and stayed with us at the honbu (Mission Home)They arrived late and were very tired so I fed them a little spaghetti and sent them all to bed. The cute Shimai in front with the white T-shirt was in Ishinomaki when the earthquake and tsunami hit. She described to us that she initially felt like it was the Second Coming and thought she would probably die. But her second thought was that she would just go to the other side of the veil and continue doing missionary work. She is very sweet and humble. She was interviewed by the church and her story was featured in the Liahona (Japan version) this month with her picture.
Our group of missionaries met at the Kamisugi Church where we walked a short distance to load up the bus that took us to Ishinomaki for the project. We love each one of these fine young missionaries.
A look at the project today and everyone working.
Tehei Shimai, Dotson Shimai and me. We worked together on inserting shells into the twisted ropes for the oysters to attach themselves to in the ocean; and may I humbly say we were a great team and could do it faster than the fishermen themselves--and had lots of fun doing it.
Gary worked on untangling rope and preparing it for the fishermen to use in the oyster farming. I was amazed how many ropes they were able to salvage.
The fishermen wanted to take a break every 30 minutes so we had to break with them. This picture was taken during a break. Gary with Dotson Shimai.
I'm talking to Elder Thomas who works with his wife in the mission office. We love and appreciate the Thomas'.
This picture was taken at the end of the day after we had worked hard with the fishermen and the other volunteers and laughed together and truly had a warm affection for one another. One of the men there related to Gary his experience the day of the tsunami. He is the fellow in a blue shirt right below me in the center of the picture. This is the experience taken from Gary's journal. "Perhaps the most gratifying part of the day was when 41 year old Kimura san approached me and told me (unsolicited) about the day the tsunami hit. He and his colleagues were far out at sea. He described the tsunami as being as tall as the mountain but that the ship went up and over it like it was slow motion. There was no damage or even alarm created by the tsunami as it was related to the ship. But then when they returned home, he saw his home destroyed and learned that his wife and oldest son (17 years old) were killed. They had been in the car on their way to the hospital in nearby Ishinomaki. The son's body was found in the car but the wife's body was not found for about 5 weeks. He expressed relief as he told me about the closure that came when her body was found and identified. He is left with two little girls, 8 and 10 years old, and his parents. They all live together in a home in this little fishing village. I told him that I loved him and embraced him, and he said the same to me. It was really very tender as he was able to share such a tragic experience as part of his grieving process. He went on to say that the help of the volunteers has given him and the others the courage to continue on and not give up.
He later spoke to one of our Japanese missionaries, Elder Narita, and said he really wanted information about where his wife and son are now. Doesn't that get to the core of what all of us wonder: where did we come from, why are we here, and after we die, then what? I know that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ answers these questions. What a blessing to be a missionary in Sendai Japan!"

SECOND SERVICE DAY

Gary and the missionaries ready for our instructions for the day of service
Sisters Beaven and Yoshida
Elders Watanabe and Robbins and Sisters Sumikawa,Sato, Yoshida & Beaven
Untangling rope. (This is even worse than untangling christmas lights)
It rained hard today and we didn't get pictures of the huge pile of shell sorting that we did and also filling bags with gravel that will act as weights for the oyster ropes in the ocean.
Taking a lunch break. We took a sack lunch for the missionaries to eat.
Lunch break

The volunteer center sent us to the same spot again this week to a little fishing village north of Ishinomaki called Kobichihama. These pictures were taken from the bus but they are typical of what we saw in the area.
Boats overturned and houses still floating in the bay
See the boat in the back yard of this home
Houses gone or barely standing
Along the water front
A destroyed neighborhood.
So many homes and were destroyed.
Rubble piled high.

The Devastation is Hard To Describe

.The tsunami had such terrific force. This house was not on the ocean front. It was a few blocks away
Most of the homes we saw this day were large and lovely homes 4 months ago.
This boat was quite a distance from the ocean.
You can see how lush and green the countryside is but this also shows how the trees are beginning to die from the saltwater.
Trees bent sideways with rubbish everywhere.
More rubbish which is found everywhere you look.
This is a common sight showing foundations to homes destroyed. It is hard to imagine that just 4 months ago families lived in lovely homes that stood on these pads of cement.
Gary and I took a little walk around the fishing village and this is what we saw. People are still living in the upstairs of some of these homes.
Piles and piles of rubbish. Where will they deposit all of this?
A wall to protect the area from water obviously wasn't adequate. There is still lots of debris in the water-floating and sunk to the bottom. I saw cars in the ocean and boats on the land.