The Boots

I've been telling you I would send pictures of the boots, so here they are. They go everywhere. Daniel prefers them over anything else. I've been wanting to practice taking pictures since I went with Stephanie and this is what I started with. Sorry to have to post them on the blog, but I wanted you to see them Mom and Dad, and the files are too big for email.

We had to have treats so make this happen.

Pictures from Kristi's Visit in May 2009

One of the places we visited with Kristi was the "Site" of Sendai Castle. There are many "sites" of castles in Northern Japan, but not many castles left. This was taken just as we were hiking up a path to the area where the castle was once located.

This is in the same area as the above picture. We are at the bottom entry way to the castle site.

Children in Japan (and everywhere--really) are just beautiful. Kristi took lots of pictures of children. We saw this little girl when we visited one of the small islands at Matsushima.

This home is in our neighborhood. They celebrated "Children's Day" while Kristi was here. The carp hanging on the pole let people know they have boys.

We took this picture at the airport when Kristi first arrived. Matsumune Date was a famous lord in Northern Japan. He is the man who built Sendai Castle and many other things in this area. He had a huge estate at Matsushima.

Speaking of Matsushima, we've posted pictures from here before. There are over a hundred small islands in this bay and it is one of the favorite tourist sites in Japan.

This is on the boat ride out among the islands. We had a beautiful day for our visit. It wasn't too hot or cold. It was fun to treat Kristi to edamame ice cream while we were in Matsushima.

Earlier in the week our friends, Nezele and Susumu Matsune, took us to a craft village near the beautiful Michinoku Park. Dale is making friends with a bear we found there.

We loved having Kristi here to see where we live and what wonderful opportunities we have to share the gospel with people we meet. Last week we had the chance to invite some of our friends and acquaintances to hear the BYU Wind Symphony in downtown Sendai. We were pleased that our tutor and her husband were able to come with us. Also, Ito san (one of our older English students) and his wife came, and then several others from our English classes. The concert was very good. The audience was a little too polite in the first half of the concert, but by the second half and the end, they were clapping and clapping. We were amazed at how many people, after the concert ended, wanted to have their pictures taken with the members of the group. Dale spent quite awhile taking pictures for people. All in all, it was a very good missionary tool.

Time is flying by. We've been in Japan now for over a year. We've grown to love the country, the people and sharing the gospel. We can't teach full lessons by ourselves but we avail ourselves of every opportunity to help with people who speak English or to have our testimonies translated for us. Life is good. We miss all of you but there is truly no other place we would rather be right now. Heavenly Father is mindful of all of us and we feel His tender mercies in our life and know they are in yours also.
Next time, Dad will post, but I don't want you to think I don't have things to share with you. He does all the photography, for which I'm thankful, but I get the benefit too. We love you all and hope you know how much we appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Trip to the East Coast Part 2

I hope that you can make sense of these pictures, because they are all scattered. I'm still not sure how to make things the way that I want them. Blogging is kind of hard!

Okay, as you can tell, the one at the very top left is the Statue of Liberty. We got to go up in the pedestal. It was pretty neat. Next to it is Independence Hall. I had to take a picture of that, especially because it was in National Treasure 1! Up above is the Signing Room inside of Independence Hall. To the left of these words is the Liberty Bell. We went there before Independence Hall. Underneath is a picture of a beautiful flowering tree in Central Park. If you've seen the movie Enchanted, then you should know the building below. It's the one where they're on the roof, and it's really steep, and they're sliding down it. Below that is Emma, Molly, Maeve, Joseph, and Benjamin on some rocks in Central Park. Emma had to pose for the camera alone too. Beneath that is Molly, Emma, and Maeve on the Staton Island Ferry. Underneath that is Emma buried in sand at the Jersey Shore, and a picture of her and Molly is beneath that one. There was a huge Toys R Us in New York City, and there was a huge lego Empire State Building (pictured down) as well as a lego Statue of Liberty. The store was one of Benjamin's favorite parts, besides seeing Joseph. We also ran into my Young Womens president and her family at a gift shop in Philadelphia too. Benjamin was excited for that, because her son is his friend.

Kristi Comes to the Land of Samari Warriors and Flowers

We were excited to have Kristi come to visit us for a week beginning May 2, 2009. We hardly gave her time to get over her jet lag before we began to catch up on the family and life at home. Then we exposed her to life in the mission offfice, as well as to members, investigators and to numerous sights in Japan. We were very surprised and pleased when the Matsune's came to church last Sunday since they had been transferred to Tokyo about a month ago. They had returned on vacation and took us to see traditional woodworking in Japan and to a beautiful large park. Only a few of the photos from that outing are included.

Kristi became a pro at office work and then we were invited by Sis. Furukawa to come to her home for a photo session in traditional Japanses summer attire. What wonderful members we have here! When the photos were finished, Sis. Furukawa gave Kristi the kimono as a gift.

During the latter part of the week we went to inspect missionary apartments and along the way had a chance to see a reconstructed castle that had originally been built hundreds of years ago.

This castle is in Aizuwakamatsu in the south central part of our mission. We had great visits with the missionaries as we helped them with apartment improvements.

On Saturday before our English class, we went to the west side of Sendai to see a 325 foot tall Buddha. Afterwards, it was great to take Kristi to meet our English students and although she said that she didn't want to say anything, she willingly participated in the class.

After church this morning we drove to the Sendai airport so that Kristi could return to her family. She is now crossing the Pacific Ocean and should be home in time for her children to wish her happy Mother's Day.

Dad has done a great job, but he wanted me to add my thoughts. I just echo what he has said about our visit with Kristi. She has learned first hand how thoughtful and kind the Japanese people are--especially the members here in Sendai.

I want to thank all of you, our family and friends, for the thoughtful things you do for us and for your support and prayers. I've enjoyed the calls from family for Mother's Day and look forward to hearing more from all of you. It was wonderful to have Racquel post pictures of their trip to New York/New Jersey. The time if flying by so rapidly that we, too, will soon be returning home. It will be bitter sweet. We will work hard this remaining 6 months to try to share the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ with the people here in the Japan Sendai Mission.

Hansen Family Trip to the East Coast, Part 1

My dad asked me to work on putting pictures on the blog from our trip to the east coast, so here I am. These pictures are of Benjamin and Emma at the airport, waiting for the shuttle; the view from the airplane, Benjamin and Joseph spending time together on the Gallagher's trampoline, the graveyard at Sleepy Hollow, and Emma with her doll (Mia) at the American Girl Place in New York, where we had brunch.


These next pictures are of a) the ball that they drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square, b) the
Broadway street sign (we actually sang on Broadway too- Happy Birthday to a little girl, but it wasn't really her birthday. The tour guide was just making it so that we could say that we sang on Broadway :) ), c) a memorial (the fence with stuff on it that you can see above) that school children put together in honor of those who died on 9/11, d) the sign at Ground Zero (the whole thing was under construction, so we couldn't
see very much), and the view that we saw (I don't know where it was that we were though.) I'm going to have to do a new post to put everything else on there that I want, so see ya soon!