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.