More Mission Fun - Nov. & early Dec. '11

We travelled up to beautiful Mt. Takau for Family Home Evening. There are several old homes that have been brought in and turned into restaurants. The setting is just beautiful as you can see. Moss growing on the roof of one of the restaurants...

Entrance sign...

Look how magical it looks in the dark with the lanterns glittering.

This was in front of a museum that had lots of old items to look at. I'm glad I live now!

Suits of armor in the museum ...

Rulon looking at some artifacts ...

The famous open and closed mouth dragon dogs ...

Looks like this drum has seen its day ... Masks ...

Looking into the attic ...

Mallets to pound the rice ...

Oars ...

Grinder ...

In the attic, there was a place to raise silkworms!

It was the end of November and there were still some beautiful leaves.

Here is our table all set up - our feet go into a pit in the ground.

This is the floral arrangement that is placed under a scroll on one wall.

Donahoes and Grames ready for dinner.

Sister Watabe, Richs and us ready for a traditional Japanese meal.

Here it comes!

The meat was cooked right here at the table.

This red bridge was one of several that crossed the stream to other cottage/restaurants. I don't suppose we will ever have such a memorable Family Home Evening again!

After Institute, some of the women stayed to make obi balls as Christmas decorations for those in temporary housing up north. The goal was 100 but I think they surpassed that. They are quite intricate and require a lot of patience!

However, I also had a quilt to tie and a couple did that.

This was on the door of the chapel! Never know who may want to come into the church!

Here is our latest acquisition! He is supposed to be the 1st emporor. I know the boys are going to love looking at him!

We put our our little Christmas tree!

This is a group of RS sisters and Primary children who went to a nursing home to sing.

On the first Saturday in December we went out to the school that most of the kids in our branch attend for WinterFest. It was a fundraiser for the school sort of like the Pumpkin Festival but with various vendors selling items. There was also lots of food from different lands to buy.

This is Megan Hershi who sang a solo in on of the entertainment rooms.

The Benfell boy was part of this drum group.

This is Monique Herrman who also preformed . We enjoyed our trip there - about an hour by car. The kids take a bus and go an hour to school and home. The education is superb though with most graduates entering universities.

Kobe Mission Visit November '11

The first zone conference we attended in Kobe provided this incredible lunch for us. Look at the Japanese flower arrangements!

They had so many different choices of food.

This man and little girl were making tako balls - octopus is in the middle of them.

What a cute little helper!

Some of the people who helped with the lunch.

As Sister Donahoe and I took a walk one afternoon, we saw these bottles around a tree. I understand that they are to keep cats away from trees and vegetation.

Here are the bags of carmel corn that Sister Zinke made for Thanksgiving treats for the missionaries. The Tim Tams are favorites and were given to those having a birthday during the past quarter.

The beautiful tree in our hotel.

Our traveling companions - the Donahoes.

Us ...

and the Zinkes!

The orchid that was given to the Zinkes by the ward. We had to travel with it for a couple of hundred miles!

At Okayama we had a great surprise! Sister Neki who had served in the Tokyo Mission was there helping in the kitchen! We had good hugs from here. She was one of our favorites.

Here she is with her mother.

The Relief Society sisters who made another great lunch for us.

Another great surprise - this is an elder who served in Sendai as an assistant. We traveled around with him when we visited there. He is now home and attended the zone conference because he is now the Branch Mission Leader. What we remember most about him was that he
always said, "I love pizza!". It was one of the few things he could say and we teased him about it. What a great smile!

We walked over to this store during the afternoon while the missionaries were having training from the zone leaders. I thought the name was great!

Hello Kitty and Opanman - two favorites of children in Japan.

This is the quilt that Sister Zinke made and has the missionaries sign when they first arrive.

The dragon dogs that were at the entrance of a shrine.

I loved this sign!

Scenes from the little shrine.

This is a very poignant story - this is a boy who has cerebral palsy. He wanted so badly to serve a mission but it seemed impossible. President Zinke called him on a one year mission during a District Conference just like Brigham Young used to call missionaries during the conferences. He was so excited! He will live at home and his job is to pray for the missionaries daily and to attend any meetings that he can with his darling mother. This zone conference was the first time he was able to attend. They stayed the whole time. What a dream come true for him and his family.

Enjoying the associate with other missionaries.

This is the helper for the Zinkes. She has been at the Kobe Mission Home for several sets of mission presidents. The Robertsons and McIntyres love her. So do the Zinkes!

What a face!

These are the the office couple in Kobe. Their name is Prediss and they are from Wyoming.

We enjoyed our time in Kobe visiting the missionaries and seeing that wonderful part of Japan.