Missionary Work!

Our first district meeting -- do I have a picture? No. But I won't forget it. We have six elders and four sisters serving in our district. Two sisters and two elders serve with us at the Yokota Military Ward, speaking English; the others serve the Fussa Branch, speaking Japanese. Except one of our Yokota sisters is from Mexico and while she learned Japanese at the MTC and continues to study it, she has been teaching in Spanish most of her mission -- she has been greatly needed. And guess what -- her name is Sister Toshida -- from her Japanese great-grandfather. So fun to meet her, read her name tag, assume she's Japanese, and then listen to her beautiful Spanish accent as she talks to us in English. She's actually going home this week and has such mixed feelings about that. I'm happy and sad for her, and just sad for me, that we won't be able to work with her and get to know her better. I just love her already!

The other sister assigned to Yokota Ward is Sister Sorensen from upstate New York. She's the youngest of ten children and has two sisters who previously served in Japan!  The rest of the missionaries in our district are from Utah, South Carolina, Hawaii, Japan, and I can't remember where else.

I was so impressed and moved at this district meeting. Elder Loi-On, from Hawaii, is the district leader, and he conducted the meeting with confidence and respect for the missionaries and energy and a fun sense of humor. Elder Watanabe presented a lesson from Preach My Gospel, and as he struggled with it in English, the other missionaries were so supportive and helpful to him. He was so humble and did such a good job. A ward member had come to translate for Sister Obeyashi, who speaks little English. The zone leaders were also there, they come by train to district meeting each week.

The best part for me was the closing hymn -- "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today", one elder playing it haltingly on the piano and all of them singing boldly in Japanese. I couldn't even sing, it was really powerful. Bruce and I didn't have much to contribute to the meeting, but it was great to be there -- and we did bring donuts (which we bought on base), and they were a hit. One of the zone leaders said "I can't remember when I last had an American donut!"

Saturday morning we helped at a Seminary Super Saturday activity, about 40 kids from Yokota Air Base and the other two military installations in our mission. Quite a drive -- I think I was told nine hours for some, so they combined it with a temple trip to do baptisms and had a really packed couple of days. I helped with breakfast, then we sat back and enjoyed watching the activities.

These cute T-shirts say "Yokota Seminary 2014-2015

The curtain behind the screen hides the podium, seating on the stand, and the sacrament table. So this room on the third floor doubles as a chapel and cultural hall

This was a relay where the kids opened their "mission call", ran to another station to put on a skirt or tie, ran to the world map to point to where they were going and get their picture taken, ran to another station to learn a scripture in Japanese (that was the MTC), ran to another station to fold a paper airplane and fly it to a designated spot on the carpet that represented their mission. Very high energy!

The kids then divided into groups and rotated through different scripture mastery activities and games. That's when Bruce and I ducked out to pursue a more serious activity: driving practice! We went on base, finally managed to get some shopping at the commissary done (our cupboards were pretty bare) and just drove around, trying to get our bearings and get used to driving on the left side of the road. 

And driving through this kind of scenery, that can't be too tough a chore, right?

Sunday we were so pleased to walk into the chapel for sacrament meeting and find the sister missionaries playing prelude -- Sister Toshida on the cello, Sister Sorensen on the violin, along with two ward members on another violin and a stand-up bass! I wanted to run to the little electronic piano and join them, but I refrained. They were playing hymns, it was just lovely! Our first Sunday here was fast Sunday, as we'll be watching General Conference next week (due to the time difference). The bishop handed us a ward list with photos of the members, so we were able to put a lot of names and faces together. We love our ward!

After our meetings we were invited to a member's home for Easter dinner and had a delightful time, including a missionary lesson on Easter and an Easter story from a bright, energetic six-year old. The four sister missionaries were there, too, and we missionaries were asked to express our thoughts and testimonies of Jesus Christ on this Easter Sunday. I shared what Tara had recently told me about Addie -- Addie had told her mother that her happiest day was when Bree was born and she became a big sister. Then she said Bree was her favorite person..... No, wait, her mom was her favorite person, and then Bree.... No, wait, Jesus was her favorite person, then her mom, and then Bree. I think Addie is not only adorable and funny, but also very wise -- and Jesus is my favorite person, too! 

Today, Monday, we're lying low because Bruce is battling what seems to be the same cold, sinus congestion, and sore throat that I fought before and during the MTC. I'm so sorry he's got this now, when we really want to be out, getting acquainted, doing things. But we sure don't want to pass it on to anyone else, which means I have time for this long blog post! Hopefully this bug will be short-lived for him.

So we're doing well, getting aclimated, slowly recovering from jet lag (they tell us it takes about two weeks), and anxious to be anxiously engaged in hastening the work!  For now --

さようなら

Sayōnara