Random Interesting Stuff

Sunday, May 3, 2015. Dinner with Bishop Barton and his family. The bishop and his wife are converts from Alabama, they have two returned missionary sons, a 16 year old daughter, and an 11 year old son. We had a wonderful time, and learned that they lived in Colorado Springs about five or six years ago. Sister Barton, Linda, was involved in stake youth events and knew and worked with Gary Christensen, Ryan's dad. Small world yet again!

Monday, May 4, 2015. P Day for the sister missionaries and Sister Jolley needed help. A couple of months ago she purchased a beautiful, rather large shadow box (for lack of a better name for it) with Japanese dolls and is now trying to figure out how to get it to her home in Salt Lake City. Elder Adamson to the rescue -- Bruce is going to build a box to ship it in. (He went through the training at the hobby shop on base and passed the test, so he's all set!) Yokota Ward members are looking for someone who's flying to the states in the next few months to see if anyone can take it with them. It'll work out. :-)

I don't know what day this was -- the sister missionaries left this at our door. We sure love these missionaries and are just going to cry when they get transferred away from us!

We parked next to this van in the commissary parking lot. Thought some of our readers might enjoy seeing this...... :-)

Beautiful blossoms on a vine that was wrapping itself around the stalks of a rose bush. I'm guessing a clematis?

We spotted these beautiful beads while volunteering at Airman's Attic. I took this picture to share because I thought Dave and Angela might want them to decorate their light fixtures. I'm sorry its a bit out of focus and you can't tell how lovely they really are! :-)

A member of the Fussa Ward is an egg farmer and recently gave many dozens of eggs to the missionaries, some of which they passed on to us. Notice the deep orange yolk. My research tells me this is the result of chickens eating more food with high carotene content. It does not mean the egg is healthier or organic. Eggs here are pasteurized, do not need to be refrigerated, and are safe to eat raw. For the record, we still refrigerate and cook ours.....

Just driving around. These folks are not sacrificing their hedge for whatever that red box is. All they need is access to it.

There is nothing happening in the above picture. And nothing is what happens on the Air Force Base every day at 5:00 p.m.  The P.A. system on base plays The Star Spangled Banner and everything comes to a halt. We were driving on this particular day and pulled over, along with everyone else, to respectfully wait until the song was finished. If you're walking, you just stop where you are and wait. Bruce has been on other military installations where the custom was to get out of your car and stand at attention (saluting if in uniform, otherwise with your hand over your heart) until the song was over. We haven't seen that done here. But just coming to a stop, listening and waiting, is a reminder of the message of that stirring anthem. Given our mission here, the third verse is particularly poignant: "Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust!'"

Can you see it? Look closer -- this is from the roof of our apartment building. We finally managed a clear enough day to see Mt. Fuji. It's in the center of the picture, just to the left of the utility pole. I'll try to zoom in next time. Since we've been here, Mt. Fuji has reminded me of Mt. Rainier, particularly its shape and its elusiveness. So I googled "Do Mt. Fuji and Mt. Rainier have anything in common?" And learned this:

Relationship between Mount Rainier and Mt. Fuji

More than a hundred years ago, many Japanese (Issei) immigrated to Seattle, Washington. When they saw Mount Rainier at the first time, they were amazed by the mountain such shape and sacredness looked like Mt.Fuji. Therefore, they nicknamed Mount Rainier “Tacoma-Fuji” for a long time with a feeling of nostalgia. In 1935, a National Park friendship started between two countries, and they exchanged rocks from each mountain; Mount Rainier and Mt.Fuji. The rock from Mt.Fuji has been displayed at the entrance of the Headquarters of Mount Rainier National Park. It is in a wood box made from the “sakura” or cherry tree, which is the Japanese national flower. The rock from Mount Rainier displayed at Mt. Fuji visitor center in Yamanashi prefecture, Japan."

 http://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/education/upload/finding-sim-and-diff_lp.pdf 

Now when I say, "The mountain is out", you'll know what I'm talking about! 

We found this American flag clock at the BX and just couldn't pass it up. So it hangs on the kitchen wall set to Mountain Daylight Time, directly above the clock set to Tokyo time. Hopefully this will prevent us from calling you at 3 o'clock in the morning (which Bruce already did to his poor sister). But you can feel free to call us anytime -- really!!