Happy Birthday Julie!

Julie's birthday was June 12th at the end of a busy transfer week. We had a chance to have some cake, go out to dinner and go bowling. I am sure she loves this picture! Julie turned 19 and will be going back to BYU for Summer Term this coming week. She will take the boys back with her and they will attend summer camps in Utah. of course Of course Rika and I will remain here on our mission!

Ricky enjoying some cake while Julie opens a present.

June 2009 Transfer Week - This was a Big One

We welcomed 13 new missionaries to the mission this past week. It was the biggest transfer of the year and it followed a District Conference and Stake Conference in consecutive weeks as well as having the boys finish school and Julie here with everyone getting ready for summer. It was a busy week to say the least. This was also a unique transfer as we had more Japanese missionaries than foreign enter the field. 8 Japanese and 5 foreign.

Here are the new missionaries front row sitting left to right Elder Novak, Sister McIntyre and Sammy, Sister Hayase, Sister Kobayashi, President, Elder Buerger. Standing in back Elders Kodama, Imi, Iwasa, Kimura, Matsuki, Shinozaki, McBurney, Homer and Akina. Breakfast in the morning one transfer week. Elders Pyper, Andrews and Fishler.

Elders Matsuki, Kodama, Kimura, Soloman, and Sisters Hayase, Kobayashi and Pyper. Below: Elders Matsuoka, McBurney, Iwasa, Buerger, Homer, Shinozaki and Novak.

We saw 12 missionaries return home. We lost a lot of great missionaries! We had a few parents meet their sons this time as well. Missionaries in this group are Elders Beecher, Christiansen, Kondo, Fruean, Bohman, Thompson, Goodey, Bahr, Howells, Badger, Bushman and Openshaw.
The final breakfast in the mission home. We were able to spend about a whole year with this group (12 of their 21 months in Japan). For most of them that was more than half their mission as they were in the MTC for three months. We have seen them grow as men and in their testimonies. We have watched as the Lord worked through them to bring souls unto Christ and raise the standard, vision and results of the Kobe Mission.

Baptism Pictures from the Field

Some recent convert pictures from the field. These are some of our converts so far this month. Yamaguchi Shimai with Elders Fukui and Steele in Akashi, Kobe Stake.

Hirakata Jun Kyodai with Elders Rasmussen, Bohman and Fishler, Kobe Ward. He was baptized by Brother Hamaguchi, who was baptized eariler this year himself!

Eri Tanaka with Elders Beecher and Latimer in Sekime Ward, Osaka Stake.

Elders Sorenson and Ashmore with Takase Kyodai from Takatsuki Ward, Osaka North Stake.

Micheal Ono with Elders Kunihiro and Obata in the Sakai Ward, Osaka Sakai Stake.

Elders Bahr and Murphy with Kinoshita Kyodai from the Hirakata Ward, Osaka Stake.

Elders Bushman and Maeno with Hashizume Shimai who was baptized in the Higashi Osaka Ward, Osaka Stake.

Middle School Dance - James and Friends

School is out for the summer! The kids held a dance near the school on Rokko Island last week and James got all dressed up with his friends to attend. That is James in the middle with the pink tie he bought especially for the dance.

They tried to see how many different girls they could dance with. The fingers are how many at that point. There were too many to post on the blog!

Not sure what they were doing here in James' room, but it looks real strange...

Very cool Jimbo!

Elder Solomon is Doing Great After Bike Spill

Elder Drew Solomon took a spill on his bike two days ago and broke his collar bone. The separation was wide enough and misaligned so we were advised to have it repaired with surgery. With the operation he will be back working in less than two weeks. Without the operation he would have been laid up for several more weeks waiting for the bone to heal.

Not the best picture but he was just out of surgery and still had the oxygen mask on. He will be released tomorrow, the day after the procedure, just in time for Sister Yumisashi's baptism, one of his investigators. Elder Solomon has made friends with all his roommates and nurses at the hospital. He has not stopped working as a missionary even from his hospital bed. Bike accidents are scary. We encourage the missionaries to slow down, but accidents happen even when missionaries are careful and obey the laws and rules. We are glad Elder Solomon is going to be just fine.

June Birthdays in the Office

After a district lunch in the office this week, we had some cake in honor of our three birthdays. Julie, who is still with us for a few more weeks, and Elders Bohman and Rasmussen all have birthdays this month.Sister McIntyre made the traditional look alike face cookie for each of them.The elders got another treat from Sister McIntyre. She made them APW aprons which they are proudly modeling below. APW stands for Assistant to the President's Wife. Not an official mission term, but I think she is jealous because I have three assistants and she has none. Elder Fishler is looking for his apron soon I suppose. Elder Bohman goes home next week and we figure he can use this at school. If nothing else, it will certainly make him popular with the co-eds at BYU.

Prom 2009 - Ricky and friends

This past week the Canadian Academy, the international school the boys attend here in Kobe, held their Junior Prom. We had several of Ricky's friends meet up at the mission home for pictures before heading out.The awkward part of pinning on the flowers. Ricky went with Nanao, who is in his class at school.

They had a good time and it was the first prom for Ricky and most of them.

Mom helping out with the wrist corsage. The dinner-dance was held at a nice restaurant up on a hill overlooking Kobe harbor.

The school was closed the prior week because of the swine flu scare. The kids came prepared.

Making Pottery in Kyoto

President Tamaya of the Kyoto Stake is a well known potter and artisan in Japan. His works are beautiful. He lives in the mountains outside of Kyoto in a wonderful picturesque valley along side a little stream. He built a workshop for his pottery next to his house and Rika and Julie visited him recently and were able to create some art of their own.
Soon there will be fireflies in the hills and Rika looks forward to returning to see them.Julie with President Tamaya in front of his home.

Rika at the wheel.

Julie took some classes in pottery and enjoys creating useful and decorative pottery. They look forward to visiting again sometime. We are grateful to President Tamaya for letting them have some fun at his wonderfiul home and workshop.

Recent Worthy Converts

We cannot attend all baptisms, but we get pictures sent in for many of them. Here are some recent baptismal pictures.Above is Brother Tanida of the Akashi Ward, Kobe Stake with Elders Steele and Andrews. Below is Sister Uraguchi of the Miki Branch, Kobe Stake with Campbell, Edfrennes and Nielson. Sister Ou and Brother Miyake in a double baptism in the Hirakata Ward of the Osaka Stake with Elders Bahr and Murphy.
Brother Nakase of the Amagasaki Ward, Kobe Stake seen here with Elders Shoaf, Edfrennes and Christie. Below, Brother Saito with his family and Elders Wintz and Merrick in the Akou Branch of the Kobe Stake.

Another double baptism above in the Wakayama Ward of the Osaka Sakai Stake. Brother Hiraiwa and Brother pictured with Elders Fishler and Christiansen.

Sister Tanimura was baptized in ward Katsura of the Kyoto Stake by Elders Williamson and Cook. The work moves on! I will continue to post these as I can get pictures and have time to post them. This is proving to be a wonderful year for the work in the mission.

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!

Elder and Sister Painter Return Home

This past week we said goodbye to Elder and Sister Painter who have spent the past year and a half serving in Japan as our office couple. The office couple serve as our office secretary and financial secretary. They also can engage in proselyting, help with English classes and in training the missionaries. There is a lot of back office support that goes into running a mission, and they make sure it happens. Here they are with our family (minus Erika) their last night in Japan.The Painters were wonderful and served so diligently. When we arrived they had already been here for about 6 months. They made sure things kept moving smoothly during that transition and beyond. Ricky said Sister Painter always greeted him with a big hello and smile! She was just so happy all the time. Although the language was a challenge at times, you would have never known. Elder Painter has his own company back in the US and he handled all our mission finances without any trouble. It was truly a blessing to have them serve with us.

With children and many grandchildren left behind at home, it is a great sacrifice for these couples to go to a far off land and serve for all those months. But they would tell you it was well worth it. In their final testimony, they shared their feelings about how they have grown closer through serving together and how they have learned to love Japan and the people here.

Hope you had a great reunion with your family. We love you!