Rain! June 13 - 19, 2011

Yes it rained all week! Need to see the sun. Missed a full moon also. Darn, but a ray of sunshine....within the next two weeks the Kumamoto and Tsuboi/Shimizu Districts will have four baptisms.

Monday we washed and ironed, studied, bought groceries, and provided a place for the missionaries to email their families.

Tuesday we traveled to district meeting and learned about helping investigators accept commitments and recognize the blessings that come from obeying the commandments. We went to lunch together and enjoyed a wonderful lunch.


Wednesday we studied most of the day and went to Eikaiwa. Christensen Shimai's class was especially fun. There were 5 students and we all enjoyed learning together. Yes, Sueyoshi San gave us a most delicious melon.

Thursday, we woke up to the longest thunder we've ever heard. We studied most of the day again (maybe we just hid from the rain). Two of the Nakagawa family came to English class that night. It was fun with just two and we laughed most of the hour.

Friday it did not rain all day! Did not see the sun, but the day was lighter. Christensen Choro woke up early, 5:30 to be at the church for a service project cleaning up the sidewalk in front of the church. 20 minutes and 6 bags of garbage later he was home. He was surprised at all the garbage. Christensen Shimai went to get a haircut at Shimoda Shimai's hair salon, she got a head and neck rub, received a totami place setting, a very good hair cut and they wouldn't let her pay a dime. Her hairdresser, Shimoda Kyodai showed up to church on Sunday, first time we've seen him there...probably just checking out how the haircut looked! He got a phone call and left in the middle of the meeting so we didn't get to talk to him. We studied most of the day, went for a long walk and attended sports night. Christensen Shimai played bad mitten. She was terrific.!! Ha!


Ito Shimai and young Maki trying to beat her. Yes, this is in the church foyer.


Masuda Shimai whopping Christensen Shimai. Yep, no net...it was being used by someone just to the right of us.

Saturday we woke up to morethunder. We studied, went to the store and walked in the rain until the umbrellas started leaking inside. We ate with the other missionaries at the Aoki home. Aoki Kyodai (Brother) is the Stake Patriarch. The food was the best ever. Especially the raw salmon. Aoki's two youngest daughters were there, Miyuki and three week old son and Nozomi who just returned from the US, New Jersey, where she has been trained as a Massuesse (sp).
She says missionaries get free massages.


Miyuki and baby, Nozomi's feet.
Sunday, Fathers Day, got a card, an email, and a call. Great day! Got a call from the Shimizu Bishops wife. She has a American friend that wants to learn more of the Gospel. She will make an appointment with her and let us know. Looking forward to this opportunity.


Father's Day dinner, pumpkin, broiled salmon, parslied, buttered potatoes and tomatoes.


Our front door apartment label.


Fire escape just outside our front door. We like those spiral stairs and take them daily. All eight flights of them.


These are the other stairs. We try to take them daily also.


Umbrella drying rack just outside our door. Hospital in the background. Sirens all the time. We found a fan for white noise so that we could sleep.


Our entryway, shoes are left here. Toilet room, good thing we are not bigger than we are.


Drying wet shoes. This is the extra bedroom where we dry clothes in the rainy season.


This is the laundry room, shower room, and bathroom sink. More of our extra bedroom.


This is "Wally" our oven. He is going to be replaced this weekend when we get to Sasebo. This is potato starch, could you guess? It makes a delicious crust on deep fried chicken and fish. We took this picture and found some at the store.

The message that keeps coming to us is Charity and obeying the commandments. The first commandment is to Love the Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, Might, Mind and Strength. If we can do this we will have charity and obey the other commandments. We are going to continue to improve on this commandment and if we do the rest will fall into place.

Love,
Grandpa and Grandma
Dad and Mom
Tom and Bess

PS Bishop, that community garden sounds great!!

Two Zone Conference June 6 - 12, 2011

This was a week to prepare for Zone Conference and enjoy the rainy season.
Monday we had our weekly Ward Missionary Coordination meeting and Christensen Choro enjoyed a sick day. We also took Tsutamori Shimai back to the Hospital with a promise that she would come to Zone Conference Thursday.

Tuesday we had the Oyamas come up to the apartment and we called Kit Wareham to finalize their trip to Utah next week. Thank You Kit! They are excited about the places, people and things (ping pong) they are going to see.

Wednesday we were able to bring Tsutamori Shimai home from the hospital. Hope she will not have to go back for a long time.
We did more paper work and transported Kagoshima Zone missionaries from the bus stops to the apartments they were staying in that night. We knew some of the missionaries, but got to make many new friends doing this.

Little girl throwing a tantrum as her mother sent her on the way to school.

Rain does not stop people of Japan. It does slow down the Bicycles and Scooters though.

Thursday began early transporting missionary across town back here to the Zone Conference. There were two Zones attending, Kumamoto and Kagoshima Zones. We were trained about a new program given to the Mission Presidents. Elder Aoyagi and Sister Aoyagi of the Second Quorum of Seventy also instructed us on being good missionaries. It lasted until 4:30 pm with a break for lunch. Christensen Shimai was given a gluten free lunch by the people that prepared it! The people here are so thoughtful!

Gluten free angel!

After conference we spent the rest of the evening transporting missionaries back to the bus stops.


Martinez and Baba Choro

Hirst Choro

                                        


Kim and Hirst Choro waiting for Tom the Taxi man

Friday we began early again transporting the two Nobeoka missionaries to their bus stop. The traffic was the worst we had seen for a while. It took an hour and 15 minutes hours to get to the bus stop and 15 minutes to get home. Lucky we left early. In the afternoon we traveled with Kim Choro to a hospital in Ushiro to see Brother Matsunaga. He has been in the hospital for a couple months after he had his bike accident and broke a leg. He is doing great and looked fit. He will get out in four days!


Biggest smiles and goofy pictures as requested by the APs.



Atu Maui and two sons at Sports night
Atu and his wife Simone have set their Baptism date for the 26th of June!!!
On Saturday we woke up to the hardest rainstorm and thunder yet! We had bought a few things to take to Ligang and Wang Ying but were hesitant to head out in the storm. So we got the wise idea to scrub our front walkway in the rain. Bess did the scrubbing and Tom ran the bucket brigade to wash the black off into the parking lot below. What a difference it made...we just wish we had stayed with it and finished a little bit more.


Walk toward the "light"

We just thought that the rain on Saturday was bad. Sunday we had rivers for main roads and everyone was drenched as we walked into Church.
Bess gave the Relief Society lesson on Charity in English with Barraclough Shimai to translate! When the closing prayer was said the dear sister said she didn't understand much of the lesson but she felt the Spirit very strongly. After all that hard work! The RS shimai are trying so hard to help us feel welcome.
We are trying to find a way to reach the less active and nonmembers, Kasada Shimai, our RS president said she would like it if we had an English class and Bess taught a sewing class to them.
Now to find easy things to teach without having to translate much.
Sunday evening we had the older Single Adults over for a potluck dinner. There were about 10 plus the two Choro. Good food. Very interesting conversation. Japanese plus Japanese sign language for Masuda Shimai. Thank Heaven for Kim Choro who knows both.


Higashi Hikaru, Masuda, Takahiro Murakami, Yasunori Furuta, Obayashi and Kim Choro, Christensens, Yukito Furusho, Ku Tani Tomomichi (the other Tom) and??? The others left before we got the camera out.
Last, but not least, we received a call this afternoon from Pres. Margetts and our Temple President (lost name, will tell you later), we have been called as Ordinance Workers to serve on the fourth Saturday of each month starting in July for an English speaking session. We will go up on the 25th of June and be trained and set apart. Another Blessing!!

We love you!!
Thank you for your support and prayers.

Love,
Grandpa and Grandma
Dad and Mom
Tom and Bess

Catch up Week May 30 to June 5, 2011

We slowed down and caught up on reports and apartment cleaning this week. Monday we took Takayama Shimia to the Kumamoto Airport so she could fly to Tokyo and live with her sister. She was a good missionary and a joy to be around. Good luck and God Bless.

Airport soldiers

Harada and Takayama Shimai.

When we got home Christensen, Kim and Obayashi Choro spent the afternoon picking up Eikaiwa posts that were posted a couple of weeks ago. Put 95 km on the car doing this. Christensen Shimai learned to make rice balls and went shopping with the Shimia and Takahasai Shimai. She found new stores, new skirts and tops and had a great time.

Ito, Harada and Christensen Shimai and rice balls??

On Tuesday we finalized reports that were overdue and visited Tsutamori Shimia in the hospital. She is such a trooper. She had a stuffed animal her parents sent her. She called it her new companion.

Barraclough and Tsutamori Shimai and pink-striped new companion!


Traffic backed up at a green light.

Wednesday, we and the Choro and Shimia helped Ato Maui and his family move to a different apartment. It is a little bigger and it is close to the college where he is going to school. During the move the two year old son was playing with a broom and swung it at Kim Choro. The metal handle had sharp corners and opened Kim Choro's palm wide open. Christensen Shimia used her firstaid skills to put it back together and clean it up. She also cleaned the blood from the wall and walkway. Not sure what we would do with out her.

2 little Maui's, Obayashi Choro, Simone Maui, Harada, Ito, and Barraclough Shimai; front row
Christensen Choro, & Shimai and Kim Choro; back row

Thursday, we were going to call Kit Wareham and finalize the Oyama's travel to Utah, but the translation did not work and we were at different locations at the time we were to make the call. Christensen Choro talked to Kit and got caught up on Cedar City. Kit seemed excited to sponsor the Oyamas!

Friday we went to District Meeting and met the new missionaries from the transfer.

Shimada Choro--Omuta

Clements and Jeffrey Choro--Shimizu

Buckingham and de Freitas Choro--Tsuboi

We also went to Li Gang's work and visited with him. We had not seen him in a while. He is needing a different job. His employer doesn't pay him the amount promised and he hasn't been back to church since he started this job.
Sports night was fun. They divided the floor in half and played basketball and badminton. We played badminton and really enjoyed ourselves.

Harada Shimai and Kasada's granddaughter

Saturday we finally had enough of sleepless nights and bought a memory foam topper for our Nihon no beddo.

Sunday we traveled with Kim Choro to Omuta to attend church there. The Branch is a fun branch.


Graveyard, road and Shimada Choro in Omuta. This is really a road for cars and trucks.

In Omuta it was announced that a Japanese couple is arriving on the 18th to serve a mission. We also had a Japanese couple start their mission in Isahaya a month ago. We now have 7 couple missionaries in the mission plus President and Sister Margetts.
Couples are very badly needed.
That evening we went to dinner with the Takahasai family. The food was out of this world again! Raw Salmon in a rice salad with avacados. They are great friends!


Rei, Taizou, and Miharu Takahashi, Obayashi C, Christensen S, Kim C and Christensen C.
Kim Choro and Chris the Lab.

One of the things we are continually learning is that we need to have Charity for everyone. As President Erying quoted President Marion G. Romney this April Conference, "You cannot give yourself poor in this work." And then he quoted his mission president, Melvin J. Ballard, this way: "A person cannot give a crust to the Lord without receiving a loaf in return." Charity is a gift from God. In the Preach My Gospel manual page 118 there is very clear description of Charity and Love. This description may amaze you as it did us, it fortifies us and helps us. As we read and study this wonderful PMG manual along with our Scriptures we feel more peace and strength and know that this Gospel teaches nothing but truth. May each of you study and search for your own peace and the strength that the Lord is waiting to give you!

We love you all!!!

Grandma and Grandpa
Dad and Mom
Elder and Sister Christensen