Dear Family & Friends,
Sorry this is late this week, but I will explain:
Last week was pretty normal until Friday. We left work at 3:00 that afternoon to go to the temple, where we did 2 sessions, eating dinner in between, and not getting home until 10:30 (it takes about an hour to get there on the subway).
Saturday we did office cleaning and yard work, apartment cleaning and laundry. I spent the afternoon at a Stake Relief Society Enrichment activity where I learned about two things: organizing storage of food and how to do good stretching. Then Jim & I went to Shinjuku to the Tokyo City Government building. There we met our friend, Harold Carey, from Payson, Utah. Because he is here visiting his son at Yakota Air Force Base, he has been on a great sight-seeing tour of Tokyo and has seen more things than we have. It was through his encouragement that we went to see Ueno Park and some of the museums there last week (our photos are now on our blog and we hope you enjoy them. Go to http://hartzellline.blogspot.
Sunday I taught the Sunday School lesson about preparing for the Second Coming of Christ. After church we were invited to Yuichi’s house (he is in our English class) where we visited with 5 Japanese English speakers and one fellow from China. The subject was “Communication with Your Father”. Apparently this is quite a problem here in Japan and other places because of the long hours that the father works and the children have no relationship with him. Each person had completely different experiences and it was very interesting the share ideas. They were quite impressed with the emphasis our church puts on family togetherness—family dinners, Family Home Evening, family prayer and scripture study, and involvement of the parents in the activities of the children.
Monday we visited with some of our children on Skype, then had Staff Meeting, then worked the rest of the afternoon in the office until about 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday we worked in the office in the morning, then I went with Sis. Hill to Costco. It takes over an hour to get there in good traffic, 1 ½ hours in bad. It was a holiday (Fall Equinox) and the store was packed. It was so hard to get around but we managed!!! After arriving home, we had our friends, the Josens, a young couple we double-dated with before to the movies, and Brother Hamilton and his date, over for dinner (they taught me how to make Okonomiyaki which is like a pancake batter only with vegetables in it including a sticky potato that, when grated, looks like paste!!) and we went to the movie theater to see “The Dark Knight.” It was a really dark movie, but well done. However, we did not realize that what we have in America is unique. Apparently the rest of the world does not have G, PG, and PG13 movie ratings and it shows in the previews they were showing. We heard more bad language in the previews than we have heard for years!! And when we asked our friends, they said that the Japanese don’t have many swear words so it doesn’t matter to them. So I guess we can only go to G or PG movies and hopefully not hear movie previews that are so bad.
Wednesday we had a more normal day and Eikaiwa (English class) that night. Yuichi was there and told us how much everyone had enjoyed talking to us on Sunday and that he had even felt the Spirit a little. It made us feel so good that we can be doing God’s work and helping people feel how much God loves them through us!!
So, that has been our busy 6 days!!!
Our new word is: daijobu (dye joe boo). It means “hunky dory” which is what I say most days when I am asked how I’m doing.
We love you all—
Jim & Pat
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