Awaji Island, Sumoto Branch Baptisms - We Love Sumoto!

While the work in Japan might have been interrupted a little by the recent earthquakes in some parts of Japan, the work continues to move forward in the Kobe Mission. This past Sunday, the mission saw more convert baptisms in one day than any other day in the past several years (probably decade). This month will also be a record for us.On the little island of Awaji, which lies between Honshu and Shikoku and home to the Sumoto Branch of the Kobe Stake, two wonderful families were baptized. The Tachibana family and the Ebisu Family. The Tachibana's were baptized in the morning and the Ebisu family was baptized in the afternoon after church. Both families are pictured with us above at the beach where the baptisms were performed.Elder Knight preparing with Brother Ebisu while Elder Moffat looks on.
It was a great day in Sumoto.
President Kasai and family with us after the baptisms. He is a very happy branch president. He can no longer fit all his members in the current rented church building. There have been 12 new baptized members added to his branch since we re-opened it about one year ago. More if you count children under eight. They are all active and attendance at the branch has increased dramatically. This has been a wonderful thing to watch. The members have been great at working together with the missionaries and this has made all the difference.

See blog entries February 5th (Re-opening Awaji) and 14th (President's Journal) 2010 for related content about Awaji and Sumoto missionary work.