Kurakawa and Nishio Choros, first to try the new recliners.

This has been a very busy week (13 -20 Mar 2011). Monday we had the missionaries come over and email their homes. The chairs we had ordered for the apartment were delivered while the Shimais and Choros were here.

Sister and Brother Ikegami

We shopped to get other items for the apartments and we went to family home evening at the ward. Tuesday we went to our district meeting in the Tsuboi Ward, had lunch with the 1o missionaries, took Johnson Shimai to get her hair cut at the Beauty Shop of a less active member, who gives free cuts to missionaries, (Tom survived sitting in a beauty shop waiting for 2 hours) and barely made it back in time to eat with the Ikegami Family that night at 6pm. The food was so good! Brother Ikegami is a councilor in the Kumamoto Ward.

LiGang, Wang Ying, Barraclough and Johnson Shimais

Wednesday we received a call from President Margetts, who told us that the Mission was receiving 43 missionaries from theTokyo and Sendai Missions. He said the Church was closing those missions until a future time when the missionaries would be safe. We invited Li Gang to come to the house and help fix some computer problems. He worked about 2.5 hours on them and got some fixed. He had a hard time reading the English in the programs. We were also able to meet Li Gangs wife Monday night.

Thursday we waited to receive a call on what Missionary changes were being made. We had a member, Maiko Fukumori, help us order drapes. That was quite a process. We had to measure twice and go back to the store. It took about an hour to fill out the order form after we decided what we wanted. Good thing Maiko was with us, the order form was not English and neither was our saleswoman!

Friday morning about 6:30am we got the call to pick up three new missionaries at noon at the Jietaimae bus stop. We were taught an hour of Japanese lessons before we left to pick up the two sister missionaries, a member helped our Choros pick up the new Choro. TheShimais are assigned to the Yatsushiro area, about 40 kilimeters South of here, but no one knows where the key to the apartment is. We took them to the Shimais apartment here in Kumamota where they will stay until a new key is made. March 25th is the guess as to when. We took them shopping for what they needed. One sister did not have sheets and they both needed food. We then went to Sports night at the Middle School and watched a great soccer game staged by our District Missionaries. Tom went on splits with Kurakawa Choro to teach a 10 year boy who's mother is a member and father is not. They made it back in time for the young boy and Kurakawa Choro to play. Bess was the cheerleader and wallet holder for the two teams. There were 6 or 8 investigators there to play.

Saturday we went to the Shimais apartment for Japanese lessons and lunch. Both were good. The bathroom light does not work, so we spent the afternoon looking for apartment repair items. One can not get anywhere fast in Japan. There is unimaginable amount of traffic and most of the roads are less than one lane wide and are used by traffic both ways. That evening we took the two Choros from Omuta to the International Center to use the computers. The parking was amazing. We pulled into a very small area and the car was rotated, the outside mirrors were collapsed, the garage attendant closed the metal door and we walked away wondering where our car would be. It returned when we came back! They lower the cars into an underground parking, it takes them less than a minute to retrieve it when you want it back.

We then took the missionaries to the the very large and newly expanded to recieve the "Shinkansen" (bullet train) Train Depot for their return trip to Omuta.

Sunday we attended church for 5 hours and then a baptism. Church is always interesting depending which of the missionaries are interpreting for us. Each Sunday the Sacrament meeting is made up of at least 5 if not more speakers. We had 9 missionaries at both the Kumamota and Nagamini wards. Because LiGang does not speak any more Japanese than we do they have called Brother Rogers, who is from the States, to teach an English Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class.

Koide Bishoppu (our Nagamini Bishop) read a letter from the Asian Area Authorities today asking us to fast next Sunday for the Japanese people affected by the volcanoe and tsunami disasters. They need to be able to find peace, also many have lost loved ones, are injured, have no home, food or clothing. There is no gas, because of broken lines, to keep them warm and it is still very cold up north. We have been asked to give what we can to the Church Humanitarian fund or Fast Offerings. The Spirit is so strong and the members are so loving that is an honor to be among them.. We know the Lord has sent us here to learn to be more humble, kind, patient and loving. Now to find out why else and who else we are to serve!!

New picture for Aikaiwa (English Class)Flyers

Nishio and Kurakawa Choros
Tom and Bess
Barraclough and Johnson Shimais