Shingu Branch Conference 2010

Sunday the 21st we held the annual branch conference for the Shingu Branch. This is one of the, if not the smallest, branches in Japan. It is administered over by the mission.We had 12 in attendance but a couple had to leave after sacrament meeting. One couple, the Wada's could not make it this week or we would have had about all active members there.In sacrament meeting, Elder West spoke, who is the branch president, on the importance of temples. President Iwaki, my counselor, spoke about why we have conferences. I spoke about the joy of the gospel and the fruits of living the gospel. Brother Tsuboi gave the Sunday School lesson on the Holy Ghost. After the meetings we had some refreshments prepared by Sister Iwaki.It was a beautiful day so we took the coastal route home and stopped at Kushimoto. Last trip to Shingu, in Kushimoto we met a man by the name of Hotta, who was a fruit vendor. We referred him to the Shingu elders and they have taught him a few lessons and he is reading the Book of Mormon and even came to church once. It is a pretty good distance from Kushimoto to Shingu and the elders cannot make it on bike so working with Hotta san is kind of hard. But we were able to stop and say hello to him as we drove through. He gave us some fish cakes and oranges and was very friendly and glad to see us. We also took some pictures at Hashiguiiwa which is right next to his fruit stand.

This is a very pretty part of Japan and the elders loved seeing the countryside and ocean. The scenery was better than the traffic as it took seven hours to get back to Kobe.