Tonight we had all the Stake Presidents in our mission and their wives over for dinner. We also had my two counselors, Presidents Iwaki and Yamaji, the district president from Fukuchiyama, President Tada and Elder Ishii, our Area Seventy and their wives. It was a big group. We did this to build unity in the mission and let everyone get to know our family and each other better. We had each of them share their conversion story. It was an amazing thing to hear each of them (and their wives). I believe it helped them remember the the feelings they had about missionary work and the missionaries when they joined the church. It was like a testimony meeting and everyone felt the spirit and left with a renewed fire to lead out in sharing the gospel in the Kobe Mission.
Stake Presidents: Kobe - Pres. Oshima (not pictured) Kyoto - Tamaya, Osaka - Yokou, Osaka North - Kido, and Sakai - Sugimoto.
Here we are with President and Sister Swasey. We had the chance to speak in all sessions and meetings and very much enjoyed meeting the members and sharing in the Spirit felt.
We met many old friends and even some of the families of some of our missionaries. Here are the brother and sisters of Elder Iwasa. His home ward is in the Okayama Stake which used to be a different mission, but is now part of the Kobe Mission.
We met Sister Yoshihara and her son. She and her husband served a mission with President McIntyre in Tokyo nearly 30 years ago. Her oldest son is currently serving a mission in Tokyo.
We loved seeing Brother and Sister Christie, who both served as missionaries here with us and have subsequently returned home and married. They will be off to BYU Hawaii the first of the year and are now living with Sister Christie's family (former Sister Notsu) in Matsue.
