It has been quite a while since I prepared a posting, so here's a new one composed of both mission and neighborhood items. Our ward is continuing to have baptisms, with the 5th person being baptized since we arrived 2 months ago. It's great to see them embrace the gospel. The last to join was a young woman in her early 30's. Hansen Shimai got to sit in on her last lesson.

We had a great zone conference and afterwards, the Elders and Sisters all lined up their cameras for me to take the pictures. I hope they turned out as I only snapped each one a single time. Ours turned out ok so it's here for your review.

We spoke in church on July 27, and were called and set apart as teachers - Mom to teach Relief Society and me to teach Gospel Principles one time each month. It will be interesting to see how well we can communicate since our Japanese is still rudimentary. Well, at least we can give it a try. Mom went visiting teaching with a ward member who took her to lunch. They went quite a distance out of town for one of their visits. I think they really enjoyed it, and so did the people they visited.

A chapel is being dedicated this weekend in Misawa, a city at the very northern end of our mission. President and Sister Tateoka invited us to go, so that is a great treat for us. We leave on Saturday and don't get back until next Tuesday. We'll inspect missionary apartments as well as participate in the branch activities.

Now for a few community items. Notice how the cars are backed into the parking spaces. This is the standard practice. In fact it's rare when you see one facing into the parking spot. We had to practice before we could do it well, but we're getting just like the natives. My companion is even getting the knack of driving on the left and backing into the parking spaces. Here is a picture of a spider web in the top of a bush. It is so humid that water clings to the spider webs makes it possible to photograph them.

We're enjoying our mission and appreciate all that you do for us. Congratulations to Matt and Hailey on your baptisms this coming weekend. We wish that we could be there, but to quote your Uncle Ryan, "My grandparents didn't come to my baptism, and it was still valid." We love you and hope everything is going well.

Love Grandma and Grandpa Hansen

New Priesthood Leader

This blog is kind of fun. I haven't kept up like I should, but will try to do better. I noticed the posting recently where you talked about changes to mission rules with the new president and changes in approach. This was a fascinating thing for me to observe with the changing of stake presidencies. I came to the conclusion that the Lord prepares different people in different ways based on the life experiences and perspective that each has. While one is called to serve, the Lord uses this person's personality and perspective to accomplish his work and then when it's time for another perspective, a new priesthood leader is called. It troubled me at first, but as I thought about it more, it made lots of sense. One is not necessarily right and the other wrong or one more efficient than the other, the body just has lots of members and different parts of the body respond differently to different members. Pretty interesting to me.

Making the shift as a support person in the kingdom can be quite challenging. You're in an interesting perspective because you were only with the prior president for a short time. The missionaries, on the other hand, for the most part will be a different story. Change is hard for most people. Good luck as you work through this change.

Eric

Daniel bearing arms

Daniel is practicing for his concealed weapons permit.

Well, here goes probably nothing. Dad says it's my turn to write the blog. I thought I'd send you a close up of the chapel in Koriyama. Dad included one showing more of the church last time. The building is nice, but quite different than most of ours. In their chapels they may have only 4 benches on either side. The rest is folding chairs that they set up. They have really neat dividers that run in tracks on the floors and in the ceiling and they make them into rooms. There are actual doors in them, etc. We'll have to show you a picture of them some time. It's kind of awkward to take your camera to church.

We went for a long walk the other night and climbed up a hill at the end of the road. There was a cemetery up there with no way into it. I talked Dad into climbing down the other side of the hill to the road down below. We walk about half a block down the road and turned a corner. Right in front of us was some kind of Buddhist shrine. This guy was on one side and another like him on the other side of the entrance. The cemetery that was on top of the hill was right behind this shrine place. We walked up there and took some pictures and then came back down and went on around to the back of the cemetery and found a paved road that took us back up to where we had started. So, we've discovered a way to walk to the grocery store if we ever need to. It was just a few blocks farther than the shrine.

This has been a hard week or two for the missionaries in our mission. They have been asked by Elder L. Tom Perry (via our mission president) to give 20 gospel discussions per week. Some of the areas are having a very difficult time doing that so are discouraged. President and Sister Tateoka are going to the different areas to meet with the missionaries and do regular zone conferences to try to buoy them up. They are great missionaries and if they can just have the faith, I know Father in Heaven is preparing people to receive the message of the restoration.

Dad has done some photographing of the flowers around our neighborhood. There are so many beautiful ones. Here is a pretty one. This is just around the corner from our apartment by the side of a little shop on the way to the office. We have passed retaining walls that have literally dozens of these blooms.

We went to the Sendai City Wild Plants Garden with the Tateokas on Pday. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera. President Tateoka took some amazing pictures.

I am preparing for Eikaiwa for tomorrow. Dad usually teaches so he said it's my turn. The elders and sisters won't be there tomorrow so we'll have beginner and advanced. I'm doing some idioms and riddles for them. I will throw in a few to see if some of you grandkids know the answers.

How do you go on a Japanese diet?

Why is a baseball game like a cake?

Which is richer, a cow or a bull?

There were two ducks in front of a duck and two ducks behind a duck, and one duck in the middle. How many ducks were there in total?

As I was saying before being interrupted, it's not easy to find chapels in Japan. They are usually 2 or 3 stories high and squeezed between many other buildings about the same size. Often the chapel is on second floor and most of the class rooms are on third floor with only the foyer and a few rooms on the first floor. In quite a few instances there is room to park 5 or 6 cars under the end of the chapel. Most members come to meeting by train, bus, bicycle or on foot so they don't need too many parking spots. At the stake center in Sendai there is a parking lot big enough to accommodate conference parking, but it is located two blocks from the chapel.

In our travels throughout northern Japan, we went north from Sendai for 3 1/2 hours to Morioka and then south for 2 1/2 hours to Koriama. This is a picture of the chapel in Koriama. Japan is green and pretty. We passed quite a few stands of bamboo in addition to many plant species that are familiar at home. The zone conferences were great and it was fun to meet the missionaries. They welcomed us warmly and talked about issues important to the church in Japan. Most of the ones that have been here for 3 months can speak enough that they can teach and greet people in the Japanese language. We've discouvered that almost none of the English speaking missionaries can read and that's the thing that we both need the most since almost all correspondence that comes to the mission home is in Japanese. It's always fun to find a sign like this one that has English with it. This is where we're supposed to assemble if we have a devastating earthquake so that they know who's ok. Maybe that's why it is in both Japanese and English. I've started to work on the Chinese letters. Yagi is goat and yama is mountain. The character just above the word and to the left of city is the one for Sendai.

We, along with the Tateokas, have discovered that there is a major adjustment when a new mission president arrives. Here is one of the quiet moments when the APs and President are working closely together as we wait for our Japanese lunch in Morioka.

President Miyashita was quite lenient and gave the APs lots of voice in how things were done. President Tateoka feels that the missionaries are being moved too often which causes baptisms to come slower than they should. He also feels that the mission rules are a bit lax. It's interesting to watch the dynamics unfold, but somewhat painful as the adjustments begin to take place.

The second week of July has been very busy as we received 10 new missionaries and 12 finished their missions. The ones from the Provo MTC were one day late in arriving and that caused some unexpected pressures since the adjustments were already in progress to accommodate the changes. Fortunately Br. Osako, the head accountant in the Tokyo PBO, was here to help me. We managed to get everything done so that the transfer could keep moving to a conclusion. One of the elders that came from the Provo MTC arrived with a visa that is only good for 2 months. His visa also does not contain a permanent address while he is in Japan. We couldn't open a post office account for him and have not been able to get any help yet from church headquarters. We told him that we'd put money in his companion's account and keep him posted on our progress.

Well, enough for this time. We hope you are doing well and send our love to our family. We miss you but are enjoying our experiences here.

Love Mom and Dad

We haven't posted for the last couple of weeks - too much happening. We welcomed the new mission president, Reed and Shauna Tateoka, and said goodby to Pres. and Sister Miyashita. This photo is in front of the Komisugi Chapel as every one arrives for the members to say hello and goodby. (from the left - your mother, Sister Tateoka, Pres. Tateoka, Sendai Stake President Onuma, and Pres. Miyshita. We had two days to introduce Pres. & Sis. Tateoka to mission life and then we accompanied them as they went throughout the mission to meet all the missionaries. It is not easy to find chapels in Japan. They