Bess and Tom: The Week that was? 10-16 Oct 2011

The week started at 3:30 Monday morning. In Japan when there is a holiday on Monday, the Temples open during the day so people can attend. The Kumamoto Stake took a 5o person bus and many cars so the members could attend the temple. We took our three Shimai; Blau, Tagawa, and Ito to the Temple. Our Choro rode the bus.

Ichikawa and Iino Choro, Tom and Bess, Ito, Tagawa and Blau Shimai at the Temple.

We had an enjoyable day and we were even able to stop at Costco on the way home. We thought that the San Diego Costco the night before Thanksgiving was busy until we went to Fukuoka on a holiday!

Finally we found a nativity set that we like. Not sure how we are going to get it home. It barely fit in the trunk.
Tuesday was Iino Choro's Birthday. Bess made banana cake, his favorite, and we celebrated at District meeting.

S. Okada, Abe, and Iino Choro.

Tagawa and A.Ito Shimai, Takaku, Fontanet, S. Okada, Stirland and Iino Choro. Tagawa Shimai's birthday was on the 9th of October.

We had picked up a couple of copies the October, Liahona while we were at Honbu on Monday. It is a special addition on the Book of Mormon. It is a great reference! We dropped the copies off to the Maui family and Li Gang on the way back to the apartment. Tuesday night we had a special treat, Maesawa Kyodai brought his daughter with him to teach us Japanese. She has just returned from her mission and is a very lovely and talented young lady.
Wednesday, we traveled back to Fukuoka and checked apartments on the way in.

We checked the Kurume Shimai, Hattanda and Furusawa.

Statue going into Kurume.

Maebaru Choro,Ward and Bushman.

Fujisaki Choro, Thayne and Kanaida Choro. Forgot to take a picture there.
All three apartments, Celestial!!
3 Nephi 20:41 ...... be ye ^cclean that bear the vessels of the Lord.
We usually spend between two and three hours with the missionaries at their apartment, cleaning, training and shopping for supplies and ice cream. It is so much fun to get a spiritual lift from these spiritual giants that are here in the mission. We feel like Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita said in Conference this month, " I am thankful that missionaries are called by the Lord, that they respond to that call, and that they are serving throughout the world."
We stopped by the Mission Home to drop off De Freitas Choro's retainer that he left behind when he transferred and were rewarded by going to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner with President and Sister Margetts and Elder and Sister Rogers!

Thursday we checked the Shimonoseki, Ube, and Yamaguchi apartments. We took Zone Leaders Peterson and Hiratsuka Choro of the Yamaguchi apartment to dinner, what a treat!

Kano and Munro Choro, Shimonoseki.

Sato and Uno Shimai, Ube.

Peterson and Hiratsuka Choro, Yamaguchi Zone Leaders. New stove and supper!!

Yamaguchi was absolutely beautiful with flowers everywhere. They are having Japanese Summer Olympic games there this past week.

Friday we checked the Hufu, Tokuyama, and Yanai apartments. All the apartments this time are well maintained. We also took Allen and Tanaka Choro to dinner. What a great experience to get to know these Missionaries. When we eat with them they also help Bess get the food she needs. On the way back to the Hotel, we drove through a terrible rain storm. It was pretty scary in the dark with all the traffic and lights shining in our eyes. With a lot of prayer we made it back safely.

Hofu Choro, Cottle and LaMare.

Tom and Peterson Choro fixing the air conditioner/heater at Tokuyama, Peterson was on a Junkai (splits) with Koyama Choro.

Koyama and Peterson Choro. Tokuyama.

Allen and Tanaka Choro, Yanai.

Saturday we were barely able to get out of bed and drive home. We made it and are looking forward to two more weeks of travel before we slow down.