New Office Couple - The Pypers Arrive

On May 19th, Elder and Sister Pyper arrived in Kobe as our new office couple. After a few weeks in the Provo MTC, they spent two days working with the Painters here in Kobe before taking over officially. We are so happy to have the Pypers back with us in Japan. Yes, back in Japan. The Pypers served in Kobe Japan in 2001-2 as the office couple. In fact they were the office couple at the time of the closing of the mission with the mission realignments of 2002. Elder Pyper remembers the day when he closed the mission office door for the last time and locked it. It was a sad day. But what a blessing now to be back in the reopened Kobe Mission!

Here are the Pypers with our family. In between serving in Kobe, they also served an office couple mission in Guatemala. So I believe this is their third mission together. I did not ask Sister Pyper her age, but I will tell you Elder Pyper is 78 and seems ready to serve three more missions! These senior missionaries (all of them) are my heroes. What a blessing it is to serve with them and learn from them and their fine examples.

For about three days we had three senior couples in the mission. The Wades, The Pypers and the Painters as seen above. We are now back to two as the Painters finished their service and returned home.

The night before the Painter's departure, we had a dinner with the outgoing and incoming office couples and finished off the evening with testimonies. It was a wonderful experience. If you are able, my advice is to serve a mission. And then, serve another one!