Week Ending November 9th

Next week is transfer week and we will be welcoming 5 new Elders. This week was largely spent planning and preparing for next week, preparing talks and training and generally catching up on things in the office. We closed an apartment in Osaka and rented a new one in Okamachi for Sisters. Below is our rented moving van and missionary movers. Elders Christie and Nicerio who are our office elders, Elders Rasmussen and Murayama my assistants and Elders Steele and Johnson who serve in Okamachi pose below. Elders Rasmussen and Nicerio got to drive for the first time in Japan and did great. Everyone looks quite different in work clothes! Elder and Sister Wade also helped greatly with the move, but were back still cleaning the old apartment while we unloaded at the new one and took this picture. Sister McIntyre and I attended Kyoto Stake Conference in Shimogamo on Saturday and Sunday. Below is a shot of the stake center there.

After the conference on Sunday, we took a picture with President and Sister Tamaya of the Kyoto Stake. It was a wonderful two days of conference. I was asked to speak in the Priesthood Leadership session on Saturday afternoon and Sister McIntyre and I both spoke on Saturday night in the adult session and both again on Sunday in the general session. One of the focuses of conference was unity. We also had the chance to speak about sharing the gospel and growing the church in the Kyoto Stake. After conference we took a picture of most of the missionaries in the Kyoto Zone. Below are Elders Swartz, Goesch, Moore, Edfrennes, Obata, Maeno, Shoaf and Tibbs with Sisters Glenn and Kogawa.

We also had a chance to walk over to the Sisters apartment (a rented house very near the church) to inspect their living quarters. They live in this very nice old house and have lots of space! The boys have started their basketball seasons at school and we had fun Saturday juggling going to both their games and then trying to make it to stake conference in Kyoto. Thank heavens for nice expressways throughout the mission boundaries. We spend a lot of time driving on them.

It has turned pretty cold the last few days and winter will be here soon. We are starting to turn on the heaters in the mornings and evenings. Erika said it is very cold in Sapporo and they already had some snow. It will only get colder there! I am glad she prefers cold over heat.