Idea

Hello everyone!
I know that Grandma and Grandpa are coming home on Friday, but I was thinking that we should still have a family blog to let each other know what's up. Just a thought for you.
Love,
Racquel

The Last Post of Marvelous Work in Japan

We're racing though a series of lasts as we end our mission and like the rice harvest that you see in progress here, we to are trying to put everything in place preparatory to leaving.

We've told Kayo san, our tutor, goodby--are completing our last transfer this week, and have held our last gospel discussion with Br. Uchiyama with a promise from him to come to church next Sunday.

We've seen the sites of Sendai, with these two pictures being of the burial site of Date Matsamune, his son, and grandson located in a quite grove of trees just below his castle site

This past week we've experience Typhoon Melor but because we're in the northern part of Japan it was mostly heavy rain and gusty winds of about 40 miles per hour. We helped the elders in Joetsu move in the middle of it, so we wore rain suits and hurried through the rain to keep the apartment furnishings as dry as possible.

We have enjoyed the many tunnels of northern Japan as we've crisscrossed the mountains. As you can see here they are sometimes so close that you leave one tunnel only to enter another.

The Sudweeks arrived last night and we will spend the next few days helping them get started before we board the plane heading back to Utah.

We can truly say that this has been a marvelous work for us. We just hope that it has been of some value to members here and to the missionary effort. It has reduced our age as we have associated with so many wonderful missionaries and local people who are so much younger than we are. We've increased our spirituality as we have constantly tried to be of service in addition to spending more time studying the gospel. We have made many wonderful friends through this experience. It will be hard to leave. We have come to enjoy the politeness of the Japanses people, the safety that we feel when we have a pocket full of money or make trips alone after dark, and we have felt the love of the Nagamachi ward. In spite of being illiterate in the Japanese language, we've been able to communicate and create wonderful bonds of friendship. We hope you are all doing well and we'll see you soon.

another injury thanks to the monkey bars

Here is Isaac's cast. He really wanted a camouflage cast, but the office was out of it, so he settled for green, hoping maybe we could color it to look like camouflage (that is what the dr. suggested). Isaac couldn't wait to get back to school and insisted that I take him there on the way home from the doctor. He has already learned how frustrating it is to have an itchy spot under the cast and not be able to scratch it. The cast may be annoying to him, but I have a feeling that it won't stop him from doing anything he really wants to do.

Northeast Coast of Honshu

Japan is a beautiful place with lots of hidden spots to stop and snap a photo. Here are a few that we took along the rugged coast of northern Honshu where the rocks meet the Pacific Ocean. A short time ago, we cleaned and repaired missionary apartments in Hachinohe and Miyako. We did what we've been doing for at least 25 apartments before these - cleaning windows, floors, curtains, and bedding as well as repairing whatever is broken. Our pictures were taken between these two isolated cities where the road runs along the edge of the island high above the sea. The Pacific is a big ocean and the bottom drops away quickly as it dives to the place where the ocean floor is spreading. We've experienced quite a few earthquakes as the Pacific Plate slides below the Asian Plate.

The shallow water here is very clear and the blue color makes for a spectacular view. We came to places where the road was high above the surrounding terrain and spanned deep canyons on narrow bridges that made you wonder if it was safe to venture across these narrow ribbons of road. We just hoped that we didn't meet too many cars and that this Saturday was an earthquake-free day.

As we approached Miyako, we found a spot where we could reach the shore along the rocky coast adjacent to the inlet that served as the harbor for a large fishing fleet. There were some white rocks that jutted from the ocean and served as anchors for a few tenacious trees. The ocean flowed between the rocks in many places.

This was a peaceful brief interlude before going on to clean the last apartment of the day and then get home by 11:00 p.m. so that we could be ready for another busy Sunday. I had the opportunity to confirm Duc a member of the church on Sunday after we returned and since then, we've learned what a sacrifice it was for him to be baptized. He will finish his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and then he will return to Hanoi, Vietnam, to face a less than certain future. Christians are looked on with disfavor in this communist nation where you can be arrested and jailed for no apparent reason. His wife and small daughter are home with family while he makes the final push to finish his degree by April or May of next year. He is a voracious reader and is quickly learning about the Savior and His teachings, as well as how the church is organized at present.

As we stood on the rocky beach (no sand here, just lots of small to medium sized rocks), we could even see the likeness of animals in some of them. Does this one remind you of a camel?

The President is doing an amazing job with the missionaries. We've had 50% more people join the church this year than we did last year. The gray that has appreared in his hair has all appeared since they arrived last summer. They start every day at 6 a.m. and are still going strong until at least midnight almost every night. He teaches the missionaries by example and is often found studying with them in the morning, out finding new people to teach, and going to discussions with them. He attends their baptismal services, goes to district and zone meetings, and helps them when they have problems. They have worked with us in doing the cleaning and repairs that are hard for missionaries to do. It has been a joy for us to work together and learn from them.

We are now down to only 4 short weeks until we return home and are busy trying to squeze in more activities before we fly home on the 23rd of October. Our tutor came today and asked if we could please go to a Japanese restaurant with her and her sons before we leave. She said she couldn't cook for us at her home because she is not a good cook. I doubt that is true, but as a whole, the Japanese people are very humble. We have loved studying with her. She is really a gem.

We pray that all of you are doing well and that the Lord's tender mercies will continue to be showered upon you. We love you very much.

A look back

I was in Wisconsin this past week so I stopped by our old house. Took a couple pictures. Things have changed a bit... The trees were so big it was tough to get the photo of the house. Also took one of the pond down the street. Can't believe you only have a month left!

Yonezawa

In the mountains of northern Japan about 2 1/2 to 3 hours drive southwest of Sendai is a beautiful isolated city of about 94,000 people called Yonezawa. We have a set of elders there who were having difficulty installing a new clothes dryer so we went with the Tateokas to see what we could do. While there we took a few pictures of this secluded spot.

Just as we arrived a the local park, a wedding celebration was in progress so we stopped to snap a photo or two.

This park is the site of a famous castle that was ruled by Kamisugi several hundred years ago. It's a beautiful spot, but the castle is long gone.

Not all of the chapels in northern Japan are beautiful modern church-designed facilities. This one is a typical small store that has been turned into a chapel. In spite of looking like a store, it seems quite functional and the church is growing here. Missionaries have had good success
recently.

We found a delicious lunch about midafternoon when we were finished working with the elders and then as we passed through the mountains on the way home we stopped at a fruit stand to buy large delicious white peaches.

As you can see by this photo, we succeeded in installing the dryer! The elders were glad that we came. We washed the drapes, cleaned the windows, eliminated the mold, relpaced the burned-out lights, and hauled away a van load of garbage. They had 3 quart-sized containers that contained used cooking oil. We had fun saponifying it so that it turned solid and could be thrown away. Out of the 30 plus apartments, we have cleaned all of them except 3 or 4.

President Tateoka is doing a great job and the number of people who are joining the church is about double of what it was last year. We've had more baptisms in our ward since we last posted and we are keeping very busy in all aspects of our assignment. It's hard to realize that we are down to the last 5 weeks before we come home. We're trying to get everything done, but assignments seem to pop up faster that we can dispatch them. I guess that we will finally just turn the work over to those who come to replace us. We will do one more post before we finish our mission.

This has been a great experience and we're very glad that we came. We've met a lot of very wonderful people, have experienced a new culture, and we've come to greatly admire the hardworking young missionaries that are the heart and soul of the mission. We've learned to get around in Japan, but are far from being fluent. In fact, we are more reluctant to speak Japanese than when we first came because we now know how easy it is to make mistakes.

We send our love and hope things are going well for you.

Love Mom and Dad

Exciting Sunday in Sendai

Today was a special day for all of us. Duc has been taking the lessons for a couple of months now. We have had the opportunity to help with his lessons because he doesn't speak much Japanese and preferred the lessons in English. Hamamoto kyodai (who has helped us with our Japanese for most of the time we've been here) was asked to baptize Duc. It was his first time to baptize anyone. He has just been a member himself for about 2 years. He was nervous but did fine. It took three tries to get Duc under because he kept putting his foot behind him when he went down and the font wasn't big enough for him to do that. Dad gave the talk on the first principles of the gospel and I introduced Duc to the ward and told about him.

We have been assigned to teach him the "after baptism" lessons and to be his home teachers. He has also asked that Dad confirm him next Sunday. This is a very special treat for us! He is a bright young man with lots of questions but one who has promised Heavenly Father that he'll follow Him and serve him.

This is Dad when we were on Kinkasan with the Uchiyamas and the Tateokas. He's wearing the Hawaiian shirt that Brother and Sister Furukawa brought him from Hawaii. As you can see below, there are beautiful flowers in Japan. Every week we see a new one we haven't seen
before. I'd like to bring some of the seeds for the beautiful plants home with us but we can't.

We had a very busy day yesterday. We left at 7:00 a.m. to drive to Aomori on the north end of the mission. We stopped in Ichinoseki on our way there to take some new futons to our elders. It was fun to see their area as we had not been there before. We then drove an additional 3+ hours to Aomori. We helped our elders there take up some ugly, dirty carpet squares from their kitchen and study area and hauled away some old desks and things they needed to get rid of. Then we went to the sisters' apartment and helped them get rid of some things. It was a long day. We returned home at 8 p.m. and worked on our lessons and talks for today. We certainly haven't been lacking for things to do. It is wonderful to keep busy in the service of the Lord. We do hope that we are doing what He sent us here to do.

The members of our ward are so loving and kind. Today, one of the sisters brought a bag with a few treats for Dad. She told me they didn't have any sugar so she wanted him to have them. They are very giving and so appreciative of everything we do.

We love hearing from all of you and hope you know how much we appreciate your thoughts and prayers. We know that this is the work of the Lord and we are so grateful we can serve.

Ruth's Surgery, Kinkasan, and more

Everyone is probably wondering how Ruth's surgery went and how her face is healing. I talked her into a picture which is not flattering and would not normally be posted, but one that shows how her incision is progressing. After her 5 day whirlwind trip home, she's been back a week and is already caught up. Her stitches were removed 3 days ago. Her carcinoma was bigger that we had though that it would be and the incision is about 1 1/2 inchs long. Fortunately it did not get into her eye lid muscles, eye socket, or down far enough that it will affect the muscles of her upper lip. It still must heal a lot, but we are grateful to all who helped: the Japanese doctor, the Daynes, the doctor in Provo, and our children. We say a big "thank you" and are glad to be living at a time when miracles still occur, when technology advances have solutions for such problems, and for a great support team.

We have had a busy and productive week that ended with being able to see some very interesting parts of Japan that are less than 50 miles away. First, the month of July has been a great month for missionary work. In that one month we had one-third as many baptisms as we had for the entire year of 2008. We currently have 33 baptismal commitments for August and that is outstanding for our mission. Having said that, you probably wonder what this picture of an old sailing ship has to do with our current discussion. Well, the mission president went with us to spend a little time with a couple where the wife is a strong member of our ward but her husband has not shown much interest. We've had a gospel discussion and he agreed to serve as host for an outing. Above is a picture of the restored San Juan Bautista, a 400 year old sailing ship that made a round-trip from Japan to Mexico starting in October of 1613. It is 55.3 meters long and 48.8 meters high with the main mast rising 32.4 meters. There were more that 180 people from northern Honshu on board, with most being businessmen. It is located in a bay at Ishinomaki about 40 miles north of Sendai.

It's an amazing ship for that period of time and is complete with a dragon on the bow.

The other thing that we did was visit an Island called Kinkasan which has been a protected island for many years--where the trees cannot be cut nor the animals disturbed. It is out in the Pacific Ocean just a short ferry ride from the coast of Japan. These deer had no fear of people and you can even pet them if you have food that they like.

The island rises about 1000 feet and in the summer the summit is covered with fog and clouds. This photo of the Uchiyamas was taken on the summit.

As you look into the distance, this if how cloudy and foggy it is. We saw places where visibility was even worse. If we could have seen into the distance, we'd have been looking at the Pacific Ocean eastward toward the U.S. What an adventure! It wasn't raining but the humidity had to be 100%. Water dripped from the vegetation as it condensed from the air. One down-side was the presence of aggressive leaches about 1 inch long that quickly latched on as you walked through the grass or near a bush. We all came back with a few bloody spots.

In spite of the fog and leaches, this was a great other-world experience. The locals call it God's Island and we'd have to agree that it is a special place. We stopped under a Zekova tree that was about 800 years old. That's impressive! The above photo is a picture of the ferry that we rode. You can sit in the mesh enclosed area on the roof or there are indoor seats for about 30 people.

This photo was taken of Kinkasan as it rises into the mist in the far distance. We are enjoying our last few weeks here and are trying to squeeze as much as possible into a short period of time. We changed our accounting system for the mission last week and also had a zone conference on Thursday of this week.

We send our love and will post again soon.

Sado, Tsuruoka, and One Companion

A lot has happened during the last 7 days. We've seen much of the southern end of the mission, have given our testimonies in Japanese, and have seen Ruth safely back to our home in Utah. First lets talk about the mission. The above picture is of the chapel in Aizuwakamatsu. Many of the chapels in Japan are two-story like this one. The parking is underneath the building and in a small lot behind. The Chapel is on Second floor and most of the class rooms are on third floor.

When there are fewer members, as with this chapel in Tsuruoka, the church is only one story.

We really enjoy meeting the missionaries and helping them with their apartments. We especially like the happy ones who work hard and keep their apartments clean. We visited several apartments and came home with a lot of "stuff" that needed to be repaired or discarded. Since it's almost impossible to throw anything away in Japan, I spend quite a lot of time making repairs - like chairs. Ruth and Sis. Tateoka clean the drapes, then rehang them with new drapery hooks and in many cases they also tailor them to fit the windows. These young missionaries keep us young and it is a pleasure to assist them when possible.

Last Sunday we caught the 6:00 a.m. ferry for a two hour ride across the Sea of Japan to Sado Island where we attended church with the 7 or 8 faithful members who come each week. We had our first bus ride as you can see here and in the following picture. These faithful saints really appreciate visitors since we no longer have enough missionaries to put a set on Sado Island. Ruth and I were asked to bear our testimonies in Japanese which was a first for us. Our speach is slow and disjointed but the kind members told us that they understood.

The front end of a Japanese bus - The small black sign above the windshield displays the amount that you pay when you get off. A 30 minute ride was about $10 each or about 1,000 yen.

We've had a very rainy week and I couldn't resist a picture of the neighbor's flowers with a clear umbrella protecting them from the hard driving rain that we've had. Today, the humidity has been above 90% and the temperature has been close to 90 degrees F.

Here you see only one missionary. My companion had a biopsy of the spot on her cheek bone. The results came back on Thursday and the doctors informed Ruth that it was cancer and that it needed to be removed soon since it was fast-growing and had already penetrated through the epidermal layers into the tissues beneath. The doctors didn't want to do it here since they felt that she would need medical attention beyond the remaining 3 months that we will be in Japan. As a result, President Tateoka called the missionary department and Ruth left for home about 36 hours later. Hopefully the spot can be taken care of quickly so that she can come back. We greatly appreciate our children and the Daynes who are taking care of her until the sugury is complete.

Our mission is changing accounting systems this coming week so I'll be very busy, but lost without a companion. I had invited a couple to come this Wednesday evening for dinner and gospel discussion. The husband is not a member but I really like him. Br. Uchiyama is a cabinet and furniture maker who does outstanding work. President Tateoka suggested that we meet at the mission home and then the President asked me to do my part in Japanese. That will take some work for me and a lot of kindness on the part of our guests as we meet with them. When members of the Nagamachi Ward learned that Ruth would leave for medical treatment, we had a constant stream of phone calls and visitors until she left. Today at church, everyone wanted to know how she is doing. What wonderful, caring people! We will miss them a lot when these last few weeks are gone and it's time to return home.

Where will we find Daniel next?

One day I was doing laundry and had taken a basket of clothes to put away. From inside my closet, I heard a little voice yelling "Mom, help me out! Mom, help me out!" When I got back to the laundry room, the only thing I could see was a pair of little legs sticking out of the dryer. Don't worry, after I took these pictures, I lectured him on the dangers of climbing in the dryer. Really, where will we find him next?

Hanging with GG

GG Interview #2

"Katie Couric" Interviews Life Legend Ruth Hansen

Ryan & Kristi spent over an hour interviewing Grandma Hansen. I will post a couple of short edits from the entire interview. I was very impressed with the life experiences shared by Grandma Hansen. We had a lot of fun visiting GG (great grandma)! We had a picnic, discussed covered wagons & pioneers, saw pictures from the farm, enjoyed a performance from the Starlight Dancers, ate blue popcorn, walked through the cemetery, golfed, went out for lunch, laughed, cried (mostly Daniel) and picked up pine cones.

Sendai Mission in Summer

The Pacific Ocean is a big place. The northern coast of Honshu Island is very rocky, but there is a spot by Iwaki where there are sandy beaches. This past Wednesday we went with President and Sister Tateoka to visit the missionaries in Iwaki and when we were finished about 5:30 in the afternoon we drove along the coast as we started home.

It was a quiet scenic spot with lots of sand and a few scenic rock formations. We had enjoyed participating in discussions with the Elders and then working on their apartment for about 3 hours. Ruth and Sister Tateoka hemmed curtains, cleaned floors, removed tape, etc. We came home with a load of garbage for disposal. It is very difficult to throw anything away in Japan if it won't fit into a regular garbage bag. Therefore the big items just accumulate and finally we get them and then hire a disposal service to take them away

This home backs up to our apartment and it has been built while we've been here. I'm sure it is a million dollar home, especially the way it has been built. It seems the builders didn't have many blueprints, or perhaps the owners have excess money that they don't need. As each part of the home was finished, if the owners didn't like it they did it over. That was especially true of the front yard. The following pictures represent the culmination of at least three revisions. In the first version, the car was parked sideways in the front yard and took up most of the space. Most of the decoration was a narrow sidewalk, a sign in the corner of the yard, and a few potted plants. In the second version the sidewalk was widened, a concrete fence was added across the front, and the car was parked facing the house.

In the 3rd version the concrete fence has been faced with brick, the marble drive was modified, and the decorative iron gates were added.

When Kristi was here at the beginning of May we thought that maybe they were almost finished and that she could take pictures of it. But, they weren't. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there are more versions to come.

This is our Japanese tutor, Kayo san, who comes faithfully each Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. to help us with our language skills for almost 2 hours. We are making progress and it really helps to have a tutor. She doesn't speak much English, but enough to really help us. Our understanding is increasing and we wish that we had found her sooner. She is very friendly and patient. We enjoy her a lot.

This week we are going back to the southwestern side of our mission to check more apartments. We will go to Sado Island again to attend church while there. It will be a long trip but probably one of our last, so we'll enjoy it as much as we can. We are busy, too, getting ready for our next transfer. It begins with the arrival of our new missionaries (5 from Japan and 2 from the MTC in Provo) on the 21st. On the 23rd we send home 8 missionaries to the States. There is much to do in preparation. We will be very sad to see some of our missionaries leave. Elder Asai is one we will miss a lot as he worked with us in the honbu for 4 transfers.

The last week of July, the accounting program for our mission will be changed. The standard program for the Church is iMOS, but Japan has only recently gone on it. Our mission is the very last one and it will keep us out of trouble figuring it all out.

We are having an opportunity to meet in joints with the elders and sisters and that helps us feel like we are being useful. This Thursday we have two appointments, back to back, and we went with them this past Friday night. All in all, the work is progressing and we are grateful to be part of it. Heavenly Father knows and loves all His children and we hope we can help share this wonderful gospel with many of them here in our mission.