More from Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Here are a few pictures taken from Eric's blackberry. They're not great, but a little something to remember the race by.

Look how warm Ryan was. :)

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Here are some pictures after the race. Too bad we don't have pictures of our faces during the race - they would tell all. I also added a family pic that we took at Grandma's house.

Missionary Life in Japan

Because our seasons have changed slowly, each tree species changes color at a different time. This week the ginkos are a golden yellow. However, we may see our first frost this week since the forcast is calling for snow on Wednesday.

We haven't shown many missionary pictures on the blog because you don't know them and would quickly tire from seeing endless pictures of missionaries. However, tonight we are going to tell

a few missionary stories and add a few pictures.

During our time of serving in Japan we've seen some outstanding examples of dedication and service from various missionaries. One young missionary's mother has cancer and is fighting for her life. He has remained focused on teaching people about the Savior and has served as an excellent trainer to a new missionary who just arrived. The mission president just made him a zone leader and he is now out working on the problems in the zone.

We have a young energetic missionary who has sinus problems. His medicine failed to arrive and pressure began to build in his ear so he had a local doctor make a hole in the ear drum to relieve the pressure so that he would not lose time as a missionary. His medication came one day later.

We have one junior missionary who was assigned to work with a senior companion who's feelings had been hurt and he almost stopped doing missionary work. The younger elder, instead of letting this problem get him down, worked on his language skills harder. When transfers came, it only took him a short time to get a baptism and he and his junior companion have lots of people who are being taught.

About 2 weeks ago, one of our elders was hit by a car and was taken in an ambulance to the emergency room. When the doctors checked him, they could find nothing wrong but a few bruises. He went back to teaching the gospel and except for a few scrapes his bicycle was ok too. That was not true of his helmet. It was nearly cracked in half, but he was prepared to keep using it if needed. We are getting him a new one.

The conference picture was taken at one of the zone conferences when Elder Evans toured our mission. He made many crucial comments that have helped the mission to move forward. We see more lessons being taught and more people serious about the church than we've seen since we came. It's great to see the enthusiasm among the missionaries.

Here are 3 pictures of our office elders - Narakino, Vaughan, and Porter. The 4th elder, Elder Edwards, just arrived and we don't have his picture yet. Two of the 4 missionaries are converts and the only members of their families who have joined the church.

They don't let that bother them, even though they get less mail than most of the missionaries. They have a young man who is progressing well and should be baptized soon.

Last Friday after transfers were complete, the president called a meeting of the office staff and told us that they wanted us to lead the mission by example - by hard work, by teaching and by having people join the church.

The last two elders are the assistants. Both of them are diligent and follow the counsel of the mission president. They are trying very had to fulfill their responsibilities.

In an earlier posting we told you about the Matsune couple, but have not said anything since. Elder Vaughan and Elder Porter are helping us and progress is being made. We have faith and confidence that this family will make the decision to join the church. They've been unable to have children and are going to Vietnam in two weeks to attempt to complete an adoption.

We want you to know that we are thoroughly enjoying our experiences and are glad to be here. It is a joy to serve our Father in Heaven as we labor to assist the younger missionaries.

We miss all of you, but this is where the Lord wants us right now and it the place we most want to be. It isn't often we can dedicate all of our time to the Lord's service. It is a wonderful feeling. We hope to be able to do more. We love the gospel and know that the only way we can be truly happy is through keeping the commandments and following the prophet. No amount of worldly possessions can bring happiness. Those possessions can be gone in a second. Only things of eternal value will last. Heavenly Father loves you and is watching over you. I know this to be true. Keep smiling and share your testimonies at every opportunity. Be bold, but not overbearing!

Love,

Dad & Mom (Dale & Ruth, Elder & Sister Hansen)

Birthday Pictures

Sorry we are slow in getting some birthday pictures of the twins uploaded. Some of the pictures show them opening some of the gifts you got them.

If I were making Japan

If I were making Japan, what would I change?

Hummm! (that's the answer that you sometimes get when you ask a question that requires thought.

I might make houses with central heat, with insulation, with double paine glass, with enough circuits and electrical outlets that you can run the toaster and microwave at the same time. But, you would not have a kerosene heater with an indoor fuel tank if you did.

I might make seasons that change more abruptly. We couldn't see any colored leaves because the temperature went down about one degree per week, and we'd go out hoping to see fall colors and nothing. Then one day there they were, right before our eyes!

I might make people who could say words that I could understand, rather than sounds that don't make sense. But, come to think of it, we'd miss a new exciting culture and wonderful people. This food is an example of boxes of stuff that show up on our porch during the night with no notes or expectations.

I might make streets without power poles in them, and make them wide enough for two cars to pass, rather than make them so narrow that you need to drive carefully to get one car through.

But if they were changed, we'd lose some of the beauty and character of Japan.

After thinking about it, I might put a little patch of bamboo on a corner here and there and leave it just like it is.

We are loving our experiences in Japan and are extremely happy to be here. Every week there are new experiences, new interactions with people, and new challenges. What a blessing it is to be missionaries. This is definitely one of the high points of our lives.

Halloween

I didn't get very many pictures of the kids in their costumes at our little Halloween gathering. That means I'm leaving each family responsible for posting pictures of their own family. Here are the few I have and then some of the Bartholomew Halloween.

This is the pop the balloon game-too bad it was really hard to get the balloons to pop.

It all came down to two sisters-it was a hard fought fight, but Ashley prevailed.

I'm not sure who ended up winning the donut eating out of the big boys-I was too busy taking the pictures. Too bad we didn't get any of the kids eating donuts.

Since Daniel got sick just as the party started, so he didn't get in on any of the action, but luckily he felt better pretty quickly. This is only 2 days after the party.

In case you couldn't tell-this is Eragon (Dragon Rider).

Joey would tell you this is Anakin-not Obi Wan (not sure of the spelling of these characters).

EHS is East High School from the High School Musical movies.

From Sea to shining Sea (West Coast to East Coast)

We have now been to both coasts of Japan. My visiting teaching partner, Nukui Shimai, says that looking out over the Pacific Ocean reminds her of Japan's future and looking at the Sea of Japan reminds her of its past.

We went to the Pacific Ocean with the Tateokas on Thursday of last week. We went to Matsushima Island. It is a group of many islands, most of them quite small. We had hoped to see the fall colors but most of the leaves were still green. We did get a couple of pictures of trees that had changed. In the picture of us with the
Tateokas, we are sitting under an umbrella in a

beautiful garden at a National Historic Site. There are some Buddhist shrines and many statues and tombs throughout the gardens and also an art museum.

The picture of the lady taking a picture of the house and the leaves is very typical. Many people only use their phones to take pictures.

The shrine was very ornate and the workmanship was amazing. We had to take off our shoes inside the shrine, so we took an extra pair of socks to wear because the floors were cold. Our feet still froze and the floors were made of wood. I can't imagine how cold tile floors would have been. These buildings were all built between 1200 and 1600 AD, so they've been around a long time.



When we came out of the gardens, there was a little ice cream shop. It was a very cold day, but
when we saw the flavors they were advertising,
we decided we had to try some. President and Sister Tateoka and I all had edamame ice cream(the green one). It was served in a waffle cone and was really quite delicious. They also had sweet potatoe ice cream, vanilla, and chocolate swirl.





We took a charter boat out into the bay between the islands. We rode out through several of the major islands and saw the nets that the fishermen had put out to catch oysters. It was amazing to see how the sea had carved caverns into the sides of the little islands. Each one was unique. There was one small island that had only one small pine tree on it.
The day was very overcast, so the pictures have a different look. I think they are neat pictures but Dad thinks they're only marginal. You'll have to see the rest of them some time. We can only seem to put 5 on the blog at a time.

The picture looking out through the trees was on a little island that has not been restored. It is in it's very natural condition--dirt paths and not much of a touristy nature. We like it and thought the view from there was pretty.






I'm not the writer in the family, so the descriptions are not what you've been used to, but we hope you'll enjoy seeing a part of what we were able to see. Japan is a very beautiful place.

We saw all of this in just half a day. We hurried home so we could do our shopping before going to a rehearsal for a song we're singing in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Elder Kusaoka is going home on the 14th of this month, so the ward asked us to sing in Church tomorrow. We had practice and then attended our District Meeting with the young elders and sisters.

Today, we had dinner at the home of the Matsunes. They are the couple who had come to our home a couple of months ago. (Their picture is on the blog from an earlier entry.) We had a good meal--ate yellow chrysanthemums, some kind of Thai salad, Malaysian vegetables, miso soup (very traditional Japanese food), rice, meat, noodles, etc. Dessert was a yummie cheesecake. We shared some insights from the Book of Mormon with them and challenged them to read in 3rd Nephi. Our missionary efforts are not what we'd like them to be, but we are trying to improve. We know the Lord sent us here for a reason, so we will try our best to be what He wants us to be. We know He lives and loves us and wants the same joy that we enjoy for all of His children. We are grateful to be able to assist with that.