On Monday the missionaries emailed, we went grocery shopping.
Tuesday, Sister Nozomi Aoki came to the house and gave Christensen Shimai a massage. The massage worked alot of the kinks out and she feels a ton better. We also went for a 4 km walk in the evening and saw the moon for the 4th time since we've been in Japan. It is usually too cloudy the see the moon. We have not seen the stars yet, but we know they are out there. Of all the people we passed and said Konbonwa (good evening) to, only about half returned the greeting. During the day we have about 90% return the greeting and some even smile. People here do not like to look directly at you.
Wednesday we picked up Tobias at the Kumamoto University and went to the Tsuboi Church to teach the Temple Lessons to Kawabe and Matsumoto Shimai. The lesson went very well, thanks to Tobias and his ability to teach and explain it in their native language. They asked us if next time they could bring a friend. When Christensen Shimai asked if she was a member, they said not yet. Hope we can meet the friend.
When we were getting into the car outside the church, we saw an old lady who could barely walk down the street. Christensen Shimai was sending a quick prayer up as the lady fell face first onto the pavement. Not quite the answer she was hoping for! As we were picking her up, Brother Oyama pulled into the parking lot. We took her inside the Church and Christensen Shimai cleaned up the wounds on her face, head and hands. As Oyama Kyodai (brother) talked to her, she said she was heading for the Pachinco Parlor (gambling) when she fell. She did not want the ambulance. She lives alone and her cooler works, but her refrigerator does not. We got some ice and cooled her off and gave her two glasses of water. We then decided she needed to go the hospital to get her wounds cleaned up a little better. We called the ambulance and when it arrived we found out that they knew her. She has been in and out of the hospital many times. She was told not to walk today in the heat, darn gambling habit. They took her away and she refused our offer to pay the small amount for her ambulance ride. Oyama Kyodai cautioned Christensen Shimai to be careful of the lady's blood as he was afraid that the condition she has might be something we wouldn't want to deal with later on. We then dropped Tobias off and returned home just in time for Christensen Shimai to go to her sewing class planning meeting and Christensen Choro to work with an inactive man that wants to help him improve his Japanese.
Eikaiwa was fun Wednesday night and well attended. We are planning a Luau for 17 August. We will have the two wards both involved, which will help with missionary referrals. The Maui and Sofu families will help with Island entertainment. Tobias's wife and 3 year old twins will be here the 3rd of August to join him.
Christensen Shimai, Rogers Akari and little sister, Sueyoshi Kaneo, and Maffia man (we still don't remember his name.)
Thursday, we inspected the apartments of Kumamoto Elders, Shimizu/Tsuboi Elders, and Nagamini Sisters. The Shimizu/Tsuboi inspection was good and they were prepared for us.
Clements, DeFreitas, Buckingham and Everett Choro. Celestial without having to baby them.
They even fed us lunch!! Clements Choro is holding a bottle of Japanese mayonnaise.
The other two were not prepared for us and were not where they needed to be to stay healthy. This was a big disappointment! These are the Elders and Sisters we work with daily. We do all we can to support them. They thought, in error, that we would not hold them to the same high standard that we hold the other missionaries. They had to work hard and long to finally pass Celestial.
Ito, Ito(Itu), Yamada and Barraclough Shimai when they finally made Celestial!
Our class that evening with the Nakagawas was interrupted, Christensen Choro had to run to the train station and pickup two Shimai from Yatsushiro that had come in for the Zone meeting on Friday. Traffic was not too bad, so Christensen Choro got back to in time to visit with Nakagawa Shimai and Kokoro before they left. Karine has been busy practicing for her Brass Band performance this Friday and Hanna was practicing her guitar with her dad.
Friday started with a 6 am High Priest Service project. The High Priests wore Helping Hands vests and cleaned up along the road in front of the Church.
We had French Toast for breakfast and went to the District Meetings before the zone training. The meeting just got started when Christensen Choro had to run to the bus stop and pick up the Nobeoka and Oita Choro for the meetings. We had an enjoyable time and got to see one of the Elders we flew in with. We have been worrying about Fontenet Choro since we saw him in Saga a couple months ago. He seems to be doing much better and translated for us for most of the meeting. We ate together at Joyful restaurant and took the Oita Choro back to the bus stop.
Front row: Baba, Kim Choro, Sakamoto Fufu, (couple) Yamada, Tsutamori, Ito, Itu Shimai.
sorry this was not a good setup for a picture.
Sports night was split Friday. Some were at the Church for ping pong and the rest of us were at the elementary school field for soccer.
Little Maui Ron waiting not too patiently for his dad to play soccer. He is so scared as he does not understand any language but the Tuevala that his parents speak.
Shiyake (rice cake with salmon) from the 7Eleven. Good snack!!
Saturday when Christensen Shimai got up, the bathroom smelled again. She cleaned it and the entryway before doing anything else. She found many more dirty crevices in the bidet toilet seat and a water reservoir in it. The seat did not work, so she took it off and we bought a standard toilet seat and installed it. The only hard part was plugging the hole that hooked the water into the seat. We found a plug at the store and fixed it with only one problem, it leaked! Installed more teflon tape and fixed the problem. Now we have a very short toilet. (Japanese height)
Smells much better!
After the toilet, she tackled the fans and the kitchen stove vent. Yuk!!!!
Christensen Choro has learned to iron his own white shirts and decided that was a lot more fun to do than all the other stuff. We even make our own spray starch!
We went to the Stake Musical Fireside that night. It was the best with many different instruments and people participating. There were a dozen nonmembers there and was really fun.
Sign outside the Church announcing the Stake Musical Fireside.
Sunday, we went back to Tsuboi Ward for the English Sunday School Class with the two sisters. They brought their three children. One 17 and one 16 and a 15 year old, all non members. The Ward member welcomed them! Matsumoto Naoko is our teacher. Very good teacher.
Back at the Nagamini Ward Atu Maui passed the sacrament for the first time! He had a white shirt, tie, shoes and pants on, (he always wore the traditional island skirt) this was at the request of the Koide Bishoppu. It is hard for these Islanders to keep their sandals on during Church! We think we all could learn a lesson about comfort from them.
We are just waiting for the Super Typhoon that is threatening to hit Japan in the next 24 hours..The wind has been wild all day and even though the storm tracker is telling us that Typhoon Ma-On is turning a bit to the east we are still supposed to get a lot of wind damage and rain. We will let you know next week how it is if it actually hits us.
We know that now is the time for each of us to set ourselves right before our Father in Heaven. We would like to share a scripture that is so true for each of us;
Mosiah 2:36-37
36And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved---
37 I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God: therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples.
Love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Tom and Bess
Elder and Sister Christensen
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