Nov 16, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week was Transfer Week and things went very well. We had 1 Japanese sister, 4 American sisters, and 4 American elders go home. They were some great missionaries and will be missed!! Coming in we had 1 Japanese sister, 2 American sisters, and 10 American elders. Though tired from the long trip on Wednesday, they did well at the training on Thursday and looked ready to go to work. Of course, we enjoyed the breakfasts we had at the mission home on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and the luncheon on Thursday, too. This is a bittersweet week—lots of good food and corresponding weight gain!! I need to walk more and eat less!!!!!

Friday we worked all day to take care of all the stuff from everyone coming and going. It was a harder weak because poor Elder LeSueur had the flu and was only in the office 1 ½ days total all week, but he is better now and no one else has gotten it so far (knock on wood).

Yesterday Jim & I had a dai bo-oken: we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. This is a wonderful museum, built in 1993, with a very modern look on the outside, and a lot of large-scale models of villages and enormous castle enclaves of the Edo period (1660 to 1867), the Meiji period (1868 to 1923), the 1923 earthquake and resulting fire that changed the look of the buildings to much more European/American, the Pacific War time, and the post-war technology boom. There were lots of artifacts from the earlier times and scale models of things, and photos from the later times. They had some dancers and musicians who put on a really good show. We spent 5 hours there and enjoyed every minute (and were so worn out when we were done!!) Check out the photos on our blog. Then we went to the temple and had some nice quiet, reflective time.

Today was a quiet Sabbath and we feel ready for the doings of the coming week.

Our thought for the day is: “Therefore, strengthen your brethren in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings.” Doctrine and Covenants 108:7. “Do not indulge in put-downs, in pessimism, in self-recrimination. Never make fun at the expense of another. Look for virtue in the lives of all with whom you associate.” President Gordon B. Hinckley. Good words to remember.

Our word for the day is: “tai yaki” which is a bean paste pancake shaped like a fish and “dora yaki” which is two small regular pancakes put together with bean paste in the middle so it looks like a pancake sandwich. They are really quite good, though Jim doesn’t think very much of them. Anyway, fun to try new things.

We love you all and pray you are all doing well—

Jim & Pat