Elder and Sister Aoyagi of the Seventy toured the mission in October. We held conferences in three locations. Kobe, Okayama and Abeno Osaka (Above).
Okayama
Kobe
Sister Aoyagi knows Sister Murdock's grandmother who is from Japan and so we visited the sisters and got a picture to show grandma! Sister Gyobu is pictured with her companion Sister Murdock.
Yard work service project!
Hike up the mountain to the river campsite.
The group up at the river.
Enjoying the marshmallows and hot dogs.
Rock throwing contest. Don't ask how this got started, but most everyone took a try.
Yes, even President and Sister McIntyre gave it a try!
Training and testimonies.
Sammy loved the day as well. Lot's of friends to play with.
Japan has some rather large spiders and snakes and other wildlife besides the elders.
We think this was one of the non poisonous types. We did not try and find out though.
The best smelling tree on the mission home and church property! Blooms every fall and the whole yard smells great! Little orange flowers. Sits right on our patio. Another tree is located down by the chapel as well.
Stain Glass image of the Tokyo Temple in the old Osaka Mission Home. We currently use the home as missionary quarters in Hirakata Osaka.
Recent road trip to Shikoku with the Assistants. We stopped to visit the Sisters in Imabari. We were on our way to Priesthood Leadership Meeting in Matsuyama.
Between Sessions of General Conference we have a tradition of holding a pot luck meal right outside the church. The missionaries bring their investigators to conference and we all meet them and get to know them at lunch time.
Conference is broadcast here in the local languages the week after live conference in the US. We have done this now at least 5 times. This time the weather was great as usually.
We got to see many dolphins being trained. They let us go right up to the pools. You can even get in the pools with them during free play time.
On our recent trip to Wakayama and Shingu we stopped at the controversial and famous Taiji Village, home the "The Cove." It is a beautiful place and we did see a lot of dolphins. I took some video, but did not get many good photos of the live dolphins. These statues were cute though.
One of my favorite spots in Kushimoto.
Happy Birthday Elder Pyper! He got a face cookie last year so this year Sister McIntyre gave him what he really needed, a Japanese Drivers License! OK - It is a cookie, but it looks just like a Japanese license!
We love you Elder and Sister Pyper!
The Wada family was baptized two years ago. They are now ready to be sealed in the temple. We have seen 4 baptisms in Shingu the past two years (and all are still active) and the reactivation of a few less active members. It has been a wonderful blessing to see this small branch we once considered closing growing and blessing the lives of these members. Thank you to all the wonderful missionaries that served there! You know who you are.
Elder Childs is currently serving in Kobe so he was lucky enough to get a face cookie from Sister McIntyre.
