Fussa Chapel

Here's our little chapel that houses the Yokota Military Ward (English speaking) and the Fussa Ward (Japanese). It's a very nice building, large by Japanese standards, and it has a parking lot -- which outside of the base is an amazing thing to see! It is a center of operations for the young missionaries -- there are ten in our district. Four elders and two sisters are assigned to the Fussa Ward, and two elders and two sisters work with Yokota. They all speak Japanese, but may be transferred to serve in English on any one of the three U.S. military installations in the Tokyo South Mission. We are so impressed with these missionaries here. It's inspiring to watch them conduct Eikaiwa (the English language classes they offer weekly), and set goals and encourage and support one another in district meetings. And to hear them sing hymns in Japanese moves us to tears. They also offer a weekly Japanese language class which we haven't yet been able to attend, but hope to do so. 

Saturday was the birthday of one of the elders, and he wanted to use the birthday money his mother had sent him to host a pizza party for the district and their investigators. We arranged to get American pizza from the Pizza Hut on base, and I made a couple of cakes (one gluten free for one of the sisters and she said it was delicious!) and we met at the meetinghouse. There were around 10-12 investigators, a few members, and the missionaries, and it was a party! I didn't take pictures, but here are a few the missionaries shared with us (they air-dropped these pics from their iPad to mine, pretty amazing!).

Elder Strain, the birthday boy who orchestrated the whole thing

No explanation needed, just "Yum!"

Elders Pesce, Loi-on and Pena

New convert Ayumi, left, with friends

Sister Sorensen and Sister Powell

Sister Bybee and us

Sister Bybee and Sister Jolley with their Chinese investigator -- we found gluten-free pizza at the commissary for Sister Jolley. She said it was the first time she's had pizza in ages and that it was pretty good!

The Fussa sisters, above, had a lesson to teach, their investigator met them at the church, so they left the party early. The next day they told us more about this investigator. She is from China and speaks little Japanese, she actually speaks Cantonese. Sister Jolley, the senior companion, speaks Japanese well. Sister Bybee is brand new to the mission and speaks English well! And a ward member who speaks Mandarin but understands some Cantonese came to help. So that's how they taught -- in four languages! They love this investigator and are very happy with her progress. But she's going back to China and they're all concerned about her future in the Church -- the nearest Church unit will be about seven hours away. These folks are really pioneers!

I'll close with this video of Ayumi and her friend drinking "marble water". This fizzy drink has a marble inside, which is quite a novelty. You can see what happens when these girls release the pressure. A member of the Fussa Ward brought these drinks, everyone had a good time with them, and there was a boy about 6 years old there who was only too happy to collect all the marbles afterward!