Too much rain in Sendai

You get a variety of pictures this time and maybe also the words. First, a flower. Northern Japan is so green, there's always an opportunity to take a picture of the greenry or of the flowers. Here's a morning glory-type flower that I photographed on one of our morning walks. We try to get a half hour of walking at least 3 times per week. It's been especially difficult this last two weeks since it has rained almost continuously, sometimes a drizzle and sometimes a down-pour. However, it's supposed to end in early September so maybe our weather will change.

This couple, the Matsunes, are students in our English class and we had them here for dinner.
We invited the office missionaries and had quite a good gospel discussion. The Matsunes have been espescially friendly since, so we need to get another one scheduled.

We've both been teaching in the ward, but it's difficult since we must use a translator. It is also difficult because we can't ask a question and expect to get an answer in any brief period of time. They have to think about it. No is not in their vocabulary, and sometimes yes isn't either. To get around this inability to communicate, the gospel teachers divide the class into small groups of 3 to 4 students each and give them 5 minutes to all discuss the same question. Then they have
a spoksman for each group report on the answer
to the question. Well, we'll figure out how communicate with them better as time progresses.

These are water towers on the hill up behind our
house. We hiked up there one day and were surprised at how huge they are.

We've been having the sister missionaries in our district give us two lessons per week on the Japanese language. We're getting so that we can say simple sentences and our vocabulary is growing. I'm not sure that we'll ever be fluent, but the ward members really appreciate our efforts even as small as they are. One of our biggest problems is that they still speak too fast for us to grasp many of the words, even if we
know them.

We have fungus growing on everything. Dad got out his winter boots to check them for mold. The outsides had mold growing on them. He cleaned them off and polished them--hoping that will deter further growth. Time will tell. He hadn't worn his pjs for a few weeks because it was too warm. He got them off the shelf and they were moldy.

We discovered mold growing on the inside of the tub in our shower room. It was on the inside closest to us and we hadn't noticed it. We never use the tiny tub. Just the shower. We'll have to check more carefully from now on.

This is a picture of the top of the block wall behind our house. The rain has been great to boost the growth of the algae and fungi.

Dad always wants me to finish up. I don't have anything to add. He does a great job--if we could just figure out how to get it published like it looks when we write it. If any of you have suggestions of how to do that, please let us know.

Japan is a neat place! We'd love for all of you to be able to see it. Our walks are an adventure each time. Tonight we saw three towers that were each lighted with different colors. It was quite a sight.

August update from Riverton Hansen Family

It's been awhile since we've updated the blog. Sorry! We really enjoy reading what everyone else is posting. It's great to see the pictures from Japan. In this post, we're updating some activities from the last few weeks.

First the guinea pigs. Not sure if we'll be able to keep these, but they sure are cute. Ashley's pig, Buddy is being held by Anna and Alli's pig, Fluffy is held by Janny. If any of you are interested, we would love to give them to you. Dad seems to be pretty allergic to them.

Next are pictures from Zach and Anna's first day of pre-school. They were so excited they wore their backpacks all morning (school starts at ~ 12:45 pm).

Finally, a couple of pictures from Ashley's 11th birthday party. This is the first time Ash has had a friend party in about 13 years. Hopefully, they had a good time.

Our work and thoughts have been heavily centered on mission activities this past two weeks. Last weekend we had uploaded a blog posting that stated there was going to be a complete change of the office staff. After we posted it, we realized that it disclosed information that was not yet published so we deleted it. We've been so busy that we are just now getting around to making another posting.

The missionaries met a rice farmer who had brought some of his vegetables in to Sendai. On the evening of his first discussion, President Tateoka was hosting a retired university professor for dinner and after it was all fixed, the professor canceled. So, the president called the missionaries and told them to bring the rice farmer to dinner. When they arrived, the farmer felt very out of place and was extremely nervous. He was in clothes for delivering produce and we were in our suits with the table set for a banquet. As the evening progressed, he became more comfortable and at the end he told us he though he was going to be robbed. He came back for a second discussion and brought the Elders a watermelon. We just hope that he continues to be interested since the missionaries who were teaching him were transferred. When he found out that Pres. Tateoka and I both grew up on farms, he became even more friendly. He has invited me to come out to see the rice harvest in a few more weeks.

We have a couple in our advanced English class who have had some of the missionary discussions. We've invited them, Elder Shurilla and Elder Narakino for dinner tomorrow. We'll see what we can do to advance their understanding and acceptance of the gospel.

Yesterday, Elder Stevenson from the Area Presidency spent about 2 hours with us. He met the new office Elders and than gave us a lesson from the D&C on obedience and diligence. Missionaries from the left are Elder Vaughan from Draper, Elder Kusaoka from Hokaido, Elder Shurilla from Milwaukee, and Elder Narakino from Fukuoka down at the south end of Japan.

Towadako National Park in northern Japan is an undeveloped area that is very scenic. It is located in and around a large volcanic crater that has spectacular views. The lake is probably 6 or 8 miles across with inlets and small photogenic islands around the edge.

. This waterfall is on the river that drains from the lake. There were lots of these spectacular spots with almost no turnouts to stop for picture taking.

We don't seem to be able to control where the pictures go so we type around them as they show up. We've helped a lot of missionaries get moved this week but things should settle down now.

We feel like Noah. I think we need to build us a boat. It has rained and rained. I feel like my Grandpa Wheeler felt when he used to visit my uncle Rulon in Salem, Oregon. When he went there he said he felt he needed webbed feet like a duck . I love the rain--it's driving me insane! (Do you know what that comes from?) We really don't mind it, except it makes it hard for us to get out and walk and Dad really needs the exercise for his lungs. We had a short walk this morning and had hoped to have a longer one tonight. It has been raining too hard to walk very far.

Keep smiling, work hard, love the Lord, and life will be good. We are very blessed as a family and we are grateful to all of you for everything you have done, are doing, and will do for us.

Love,

Mom and Dad

(Dad did the blog. I just added my 200 yen)

On Saturday, Aug. 1, 2008, we went to the northern end of Honshu Island for the dedication of a new chapel in Misawa. This is the largest and nicest chapel north of Tokyo. There is a US Air Force base there with about 250 members. They don't speak Japanese so they have an English-speaking branch and there is a second branch of Japanese members with about 30 active participants. The dedication was well attended and the main talk was given by Elder Yamashita, a member of the Area Presidency. The architects and builders were present and he gave a very nice talk for non-members about the Savior, on what the Church is, why it is important, and how the building will be used. He also gave the dedicatory prayer.

While we were in northern Japan, President Tateoka interviewed the missionaries and we inspected their apartments. We met with 5 sets of missionaries in 4 cities - Aomori, Misawa, Hachinohe, and Hirosaki. In general, the missionaries have very nice apartments and are doing a good job of taking care of them.

Because it takes 5 or 6 hours to reach the upper end of our island, we really only had two days there. However, in addition to spending time with each set of missionaries, we stopped a few times to see some interesting things. Aomori was having a big summer festival and they held an evening parade with lots of floats and Japanese drums. The floats were made of wire mesh that was covered by paper and had a theme of ancient warriors fighting tigers or dragons. The parade was held after dark so the inside of each float was filled with lights. Each float was pulled by as many as 20 or 30 men. A large number of local people (maybe 20,000) also dressed in Japanese costumes and participated in the parade, marching along behind the drum corps and many of the floats.

We passed a Buddhist Shrine and stopped long

enough to snap a few pictures of a 5-tiered pagoda. It was built into the side of one of the many mountains. Northern Japan has lots of tunnels, some as long as 4-5 miles to get from one city to the next.

It was great to get away, but now we're trying to get caught up on office assignments, getting back to studying Japanese, and trying to meet our responsibilities as missionaries.

We appreciate all that you are doing for us and send our love. We're glad that Hailey and Matt had enjoyable baptismal services. We also rejoice in Eric's new work assignment and wish him well. Keep us informed about things at home and we'll keep working.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Hailey's Birthday and Baptism

Hailey had a fun birthday-she got to be queen for the day.

The Dress

Before

After

Hailey's baptism was very nice. It's hard to believe that she is already 8 and now baptized!

P-Day in Japan

We received some interesting video of Grandma & Grandpa on their P-Day. Looks like you are having a good time.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/eH1JxGCLgoZVnsop

Eric's new job - July 2008

I didn't want to duplicate content, so I wanted to let you know if you weren't already aware that I have a personal blog for content not related to mom and dad's mission. It's located at http://eric-h.blogspot.com

Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers during this "exciting" time for our family. Things are looking really good.