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.
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