Daddy Shot Them All Last Night . . . Except One!

Ken came home from his walk the other morning and showed me these pictures of fresh bear track.  I assumed he had walked up on the mountain.  But no, he walked down on the river that day.  The river runs right through Tsuruoka.  This bear was in town- and the tracks were fresh! 

Many people in Japan who walk in the wilds wear little bells on them.  The ringing warns the bear so they aren't surprised and then attack. I have tried and tried to talk Ken into wearing a bell.  He says no.  He says they're not warning bells, but "dinner bells" for bears! (and they scare away birds)  Sigh. 

The Lost Are Found!!!

This is Miharu.  One dark, cold, snowy night about a month ago, we came out of the church after eikaiwa to find her out in the mountain of snow recently pushed off of the parking lot.  She had a flashlight and she was digging, obviously looking for something.  We went over to inquire.  She said she had lost her car keys on Sunday and figured she must have dropped them in the parking lot.  There was a huge storm the day before and the snow plow had pushed all of the snow off the lot.  There was a mountain of snow.  We could only assume her keys were somewhere in that mountain.  We searched and searched.  It was dark and cold and it seemed hopeless. 

For the next couple of weeks, every time we were at the church during the day, we searched.  We talked to her about it several times.  She said it was okay, don't look anymore.  She said she had prayed about it and was told that she would find them, but not right now and that she should just use her spare key.  But there were many other keys on the ring and it was troubling her.  We kept searching. 

Then, last Sunday, she opened the drawer in the Relief Society room, and THERE WERE HER KEYS!!!  WAHOO!  How did they get in there?  We have no idea.  Did someone find them outside and put them in there?  Maybe.  We don't know and probably will never know.  But we were all so thrilled and rejoiced together. 

The next evening, just as we were preparing our dinner, the doorbell rang.  There was Miharu and her husband with a lovely gift of apples for us- huge delicious, sweet apples!  She wanted to thank us for helping and caring about her keys.

She said it reminded her of the parable of the lost coin.
8 ¶Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

 9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

She said that we helped and rejoiced with her just like in that parable.

Because of her insight to compare it to the parable, I've thought a lot about that since.  That is our purpose here- to help others and to look for the "lost coins".
 10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

I can only imagine the rejoicing in heaven when one is found!!

Making Lip Balm and a Japanese Tea Party

Our February Relief Society activity was very fun.  We gathered in the kitchen at the church.  I recorded part of the opening song.  I love hearing my sisters sing the hymns in their language:

Rizumi then taught us how to make "lip cream."  We would call it lip balm.  Now, if you know me, you know I LOVE lip gloss, balm, etc.  So this activity was a hit with me!!

We measured bees wax and then added grape seed oil.  We melted them together and added a drop of essential oil.

Our beautiful teacher, Rizumi.  I think she gets tired of me telling her how beautiful she is!

We then poured our concoction into little tubes to harden.

See?  See?  She's gorgeous and such a sweetheart.

Ta Da!!!!!!

Rizumi wrote the instructions for us.  She added English and pictures so that I could follow along.

After we made our lip creams, we had a Japanese tea party.  We had mugicha- wheat tea and several Japanese snacks or treats.

I especially loved the dried squid (front left.) Next is shrimp cracker, then something that is like a molasses covered corn puff.  Then a flavored cracker and a octopus cracker.

The whole group.  How I love these dear sisters.

A steamed cake in the top left. 

This was a sweet, bonding afternoon in the Tsuruoka branch Relief Society.  Lip balm and a tea party- two of my favorite things!!!!

Valentine's Day Parties

Last week, we hosted Valentine's Day parties at our eikaiwas.  I probably shouldn't even do a post because I forgot to take pictures.  When we're hosting those parties, we are so busy that we don't think about photos until it's too late.  But we finally have this party thing down.  We had a good mixture of sit down activities with movement activities.  We had them make Valentines for their family members, danced the electric slide to "Achy Breaky Heart," had them each take a card with a Valentine word or phrase on it and make up a sentence in English, played "Do you love your neighbor?" and then ate ourselves silly.  In Tsuruoka, a lot of them played ping pong, too.  I think everyone had a lot of fun.  Here's the few pictures I remembered to take:

Making Valentines

We brought sugar cookies, brownies, jam sandwiches with hearts cut out, chocolates, and chips and salsa.  Many of the students brought treats as well.  It was a crazy good feast!  I took this picture before half of the food was on the table.  The table was covered with all kinds of delicious things.  That chocolate torte up in the corner was to die for.  One of our students owns a bakery and her husband made that torte special for us.

Only one more party to go!  We just have the Easter party left!  Wahoo!!!!  Happy Valentine's Day!

My Favorite Things- Natto. Really????

Natto= Fermented soybeans.  Very Japanese.  Natto is kind of the litmus test to see if you are truly immersed in the Japanese culture.  Japanese people love to ask, with a grin on their faces, "Do you like natto?" If you answer no, you get a sympathetic smile.  If you answer yes, you get as close to a back-slapping celebration as a Japanese person gets. 

I guess I have immersed because I love this stuff. 

It is slimy, frothy, sticky, stinky- really stinky (it smells a lot like dirty socks or garbage or BO or all of the above,) and gooey.  But I love it.  Why? you ask.  I don't know, but I do.  Our daughter, Kristen served a mission in Japan and she also learned to love this stuff. 

This is my favorite way to eat natto.  On a piece of buttered wheat toast. 

It comes in little Styrofoam packages, with three in each bundle. 

This is how it looks before you mix it up with the sauce.

You take the Styrofoam lid off and remove a plastic wrap covering.  It is sticky and slimy and stinky. In the top is a little package of soy sauce and a little package of mustard to open and put on the natto in most varieties. 

You take off the waxed paper

And mix in the soy sauce and mustard

It gets foamy and frothy . . . .

Ooey . . .

And gooey . . .

And slimy . . .

Look delicious???

Oh, so delicious!!!

But this is my favorite kind.  You open it and just crack the lid to release the sauce onto the natto.  Then you mix it up.

Natto is very nutritious.  It is full of vitamins and is low calorie.  It also is a good source of protein. It also is a pro-biotic.  It is Japanese super food.  I eat natto every day.  One day I ate three of these packets and that night my tummy didn't feel so good.  So now I limit myself to one a day.  It truly has become one of my favorite things.  I know I will really miss it when we go home.

Natto:  One of my favorite things!!!
If you want to read more about it, this is a good article about it:

Young Single Adults

This might not look like much of a young single adult group to you, but this is huge progress for this little branch.  When we came here, there was only one young single adult in the branch- the young man in the center.  But, then Remi and Rizumi (not pictured) moved back home after living in Tokyo for awhile.  Then Ruka and Mami moved here (their mother married a man in our branch.)  Then Ryohei was baptized.  Then Nui was contacted, after not coming to church for a long time.  And a beautiful, active young single adult group was born.  They are fun and happy( though you can't tell by Katsumi's face!) and have a great time together.  Remi has been called to be the leader and she is doing a great job.  We are so grateful for these wonderful young people that have added so much to the branch.

The Reprieve Between Storms

One Sunday, I noticed out the window(between meetings) that the sun was shining!   What?  So I hurried out and took a picture to document that we did, indeed, see the sun in between storms! 

Our First Cold

Ken joined the Japanese culture last week.  He wore a mask.  It is perfectly acceptable here to wear a germ mask.  People definitely wear them when they have a cold.  They wear them to prevent colds.  And they wear them for no reason at all.  It is just part of the culture and no one thinks anything of wearing a mask. 

But Ken wore one because he caught a cold.  It wasn't fun and he was pretty miserable for several days. 

But it made us realize how blessed we have been on this mission.  This is the first cold either of us have had in over a year.  We are grateful for that blessing . . and for Ken's return to health and work this week.  Now let me go and find some wood to knock on! 

A Scary Trip Over the Mountain For a Wonderful Conference

On Thursday, February 2nd, we had a special conference in Sendai.  Elder Whiting (a member of the 70 and our area president who lives in Tokyo) came to speak to us.  We had to be there by 9:30am, which meant leaving here before 6:00am.  Ken had a terrible cold and felt miserable.  It was a terrible day for driving.  We have to drive over Mount Gassan to get there.  Mount Gassan is called suicide in the winter here.  Now we know why.

I took this picture because it documents that we could see the sun for a moment.  We couldn't see the road, but we could see the sun!

This is not a blurry picture.  This is a white-out.  At times you simply didn't know where on the road you were.

It got better as we got on the other side of the mountain, but still very treacherous road conditions.  It was white-knuckle driving!

We got there just barely in time.  We were both frazzled and exhausted.  But we soon were so grateful to be there as the conference was so wonderful and inspiring.  Poor Elder Whiting had a terrible cold, but he still taught with power and the spirit.  The conference went all day, with a break for lunch.  It ended at 3:00pm.  The way back was even worse.  The snow was coming hard in Sendai and driving conditions were terrible.

The windshield was covered with ice and the snow coming hard.  We took a much-needed break and went to Costco in Yamagata.  After that, it was better for a little while.

At times it would clear and we could see pretty well.

But then the windshield and the wiper blades started icing up.

We were looking through a thick sheet of ice.

You can see the ice on the windshield as we enter this tunnel.  The tunnels are welcome, blessed relief when the snow is coming hard.  There are several in the mountain area.

There simply was no place to pull over and clean off the ice.  So we just kept going. We were grateful that Ken's side was more clear than mine.  When we finally stopped at a toll booth, I jumped out and started scraping.  The ice was over an inch thick and very difficult to get off.  The wiper blades both had thick blocks of ice on them.  Ken has made friends with the toll booth operators.  This one came out of his booth and helped us clean off the ice.
When we finally reached Tsuruoka, we were so very grateful.  I had noticed a marked change in Ken from how he was on the way over versus how he was on the way home.  Ken grew up in southern Utah and has never really driven in winter conditions much except when we were at BYU.  Winter roads are one of his worst fears.  On the way over, he was anxious, scared and how he usually is in those conditions.  But on the way home, he was calm and peaceful.  I commented, as we drove into Tsuruoka, that knowing him the way I do, I was very surprised at his calm.  He explained that, while at the conference, he had the strong impression that our missionary work in Tsuruoka is not finished- that we still have much work to do.  That assurance gave him peace and calm.  He compared it to when Abinidi in the Book of Mormon has to answer his accusers and he is very calm.  I said, "Ya, but look how things turned out for Abinidi."  We hope we don't have a burning ahead!  When we got home, before we even got out of the car, we said a prayer of thanks.  We most definitely were guided and protected that day.

Now that you've lived through the drive with us, let me share a little of what made it worth it to go.  I'll share just a few of the notes I took at the conference:

This is Elder and Sister Whiting

He talked a lot about enjoying, not just enduring our mission.  He said missions should be hard.  That is what changes us- going through hard things.  It is a privilege to endure hardships for Jesus Christ.  He said we have to "receive the Holy Ghost" over and over again.  He said every morning we should start our day by saying, "I am going to receive the Holy Ghost today."  He said to not be afraid to act when we feel we should.  If it just our own thoughts, the Holy Ghost will stop us if it is wrong.  Our missions are not sacrifices.  They are offerings.  He told the missionaries to be the kind of missionaries their mom thinks they are.  He said when you go back home, some will try to pull you back to what you used to be.  Don't give in to that.  You've given too much to go back.   Move forward.  He said to always keep your eyes fixed on the prophets.  Groom and dress yourself the way they do.  He told the cutest story about going to buy a suit in Hawaii when they lived there.  They found one they really liked, but then he noticed it had three buttons instead of two.  He said to his wife, "I've never seen the prophet wear a three-button suit.  I'd better not buy it."  So they left without it.  Shortly thereafter, they got the Ensign magazine.  On the cover was a picture of the prophet in a three-button suit.  You'll notice in the picture above that Elder Whiting obviously then went and bought a three-button suit.    His point was to keep you eye on the prophets.
Well, that gives you a small taste of what we heard.  There was much, much more.  It is such a privilege to sit at the feet of an especial witness of Christ.  It is one of the great blessings of serving as a missionary.  We are so excited to go back to Sendai to hear Elder Jeffrey R Holland later this month.  We pray for better roads that day!