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