Updates

Business as usual in the office this past week. We had a mission leadership conference on Thursday, which means I'm helping in the kitchen and Bruce is eating well, we fed 40 some missionaries breakfast and lunch. We have 20 missionaries going home today and 9 more on August 19th. Those are big days as they come to the mission home for breakfast, turning in their iPads, emergency 72-hour kits, bike bags, helmets, settling their mission debit card account with Bruce, etc.,etc. They've had their final interview with President Wada already; after breakfast and the business are taken care of, they'll take pictures (which I'll email to them later) and then get on the but to go to the airport. Then tomorrow, Tuesday, 7 new missionaries arrive; they stay in the mission home two nights, have training all day Wednesday, then Thursday their new companions come to the mission home to meet them, more training, and Thursday afternoon they go their assigned areas. Thursday is transfer day for the whole mission.

We had our senior couple family home evening on Monday at the Asia North Area Office, where we met the new counselors in the area presidency. Elder Scott Whiting is the area president, he was formerly a counselor to Elder Ringwood. Elder Whiting's counselors are now Elder Yamashita, who is Japanese and has six children and lots of grandchildren, pretty unusual for a Japanese family, and Elder Choi, who is Korean and most recently served as president of the Washington Seattle Mission. The Tokyo Mission has a new president, President Nagano. He and his wife were living in Provo when they were called to this assignment. Their youngest son is currently serving in our Tokyo South mission -- we joked that now when he's released he can just go home on his bike!

We went to the temple Tuesday morning with two zones of missionaries -- they go to the temple once every transfer (six weeks) and are so grateful to be able to go that often -- they know that doesn't happen in every mission! We were in a Japanese session again (the only English session is Friday night and we haven't made it to one of those yet) and are getting used to those headsets. We were the witness couple for the second time, that's been a special experience.

My favorite missionary, taken on the temple grounds.

These two sisters serve in Kichijoji, so we see them often. Sister Fuggle, left, is from Australia. Sister Law is from Utah and is a granddaughter of Vernon Law, professional baseball player from Meridian, Idaho, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s and 60s. He was nicknamed "Deacon" because of his membership and activity in the Church. He lives in Provo now and is still involved in BYU and high school athletics there. I remember hearing of him and it's been fun to talk to 

Sister Law about him. 

Here's the office elders, taking pictures and horsing around. Elder Murakami is from Japan, his English is amazing and he works hard at it, adding new vocabulary to his list on his iPad every day. Then Elder Dunn, from Ohio, whose father is a college professor at Ohio State (I think?) but who bought a run-down house on acreage so their family of six sons and one daughter (sound familiar?) could have work to do. They turned it into a raspberry/blackberry farm that provides an opportunity for those boys to work and pay for their missions - at least that's how its working for Elder Dunn, who is the oldest. Then Elder Naganuma, from Japan, who just turned 24 (an old man compared to some of these missionaries!). He is a college graduate and physical therapist, and worked in that field for one year before going on his mission. He speaks very little English, which is our loss, because we'd love to have a good conversation with him about his education and experiences. And then Elder Moua, who is from Georgia and whose parents are Hmong, from Laos. He fully expected to serve a Hmong speaking mission, as have other missionaries in his family, and was completely surprised to be called to Japan!

Wednesday evening I went with the missionaries to Eikawa, which is the English class they teach at the church every week. This is done throughout the mission, we have close to 500 students who come to the various locations each week. It's a free class, a service to the community, and they don't talk about the Church or religion at all, although we do open with prayer and there have actually been a lot of convert baptisms where the initial introduction was through Eikawa. We helped with Eikawa in Fussa every week but haven't been going in Kichijoji because 1) there are plenty of missionaries and we aren't needed, and 2) we're generally brain dead by the end of our work day. But this week I went (Bruce still had work to do so he stayed in the office) and helped with the advanced class. We did improvisation ("Who's Line Is It Anyway?" style) and some of the scenarios were: driving in a car getting pulled over by the police, being interviewed for a job, having someone take care of your pet while you're out of town and coming home to find out the pet has died. I was the pet owner in this last one, my pet was Taffy, and it was hilarious. One of the Japanese guys had announced at the beginning of the class that he was a Led Zeppelin fan, so when I was frantically asking what had happened to Taffy, he said, in broken, Japanese-accented English, "Taffy has climbed the Stair way to Heaven!" We all laughed and laughed! The evening ended with a rousing game of "Do You Love Your Neighbor" and lots more laughs.

We went to Fussa for the weekend and enjoyed being there. Transfer emails were received by the missionaries on Saturday, so we had the Fussa and Yokota Districts over for lunch and to use our wifi to open their emails. We had sub sandwiches this time -- no using the gas grill and having the fire department get involved! It as fun to see their responses to where they were going or staying. The mission is downsizing; there were over 200 missionaries when we arrived in Japan. The increase in numbers from the announcement of the age change two years ago is leveling out, and the numbers will gradually be reduced to about 160 by the end of this year.

Seated: Sister Jolley, Sister Bennett, Sister Pugmire 

Standing: Elder Pena, Elder Watanabe, Elder Laird, Elder Okada, Elder Yamamoto, Elder Larkin, Elder Graul, Sister Norris, Bruce, and me

You may be wondering about Sister Norris. She has alopecia, which causes hair loss and is believed to be an autoimmune disorder. She seems quite healthy and functions well with the physical demands of  missionary work. 

I came in to the office early one morning to see this lovely creature on the counter next to my desk. (I put the Sharpie marker next to it for perspective.) At first I thought the missionaries were pulling a prank, but it was very real -- and thankfully, very dead. Turns out President Wada had left it there, he discovered it as he'd been leaving the office late the night before. He wanted to be sure we knew if you see one, there are others and to be sure to keep the office immaculately clean and cool. So we now have permission to leave the air conditioning on all the time.  So creepy!

Checking out the space blankets in the emergency kits -- yup, they work.

This coming week will be even busier than usual at the mission home, but then it settles down for a couple of weeks before the cycle begins again. If we are going to be in the office much longer, we are going to have to figure out how to carve out some free time somewhere, because there is too much to see and do here! We do manage to take a break some days to browse restaurants and shops in Kichijoji, which is fascinating -- just not enough! We are already planning to do a little traveling in this part of the world when we are released, before we go home. We want to go to Okinawa, Singapore, and maybe New Zealand? Anyone care to join us then??? September 2016!