Zone Leader Council and Pictures from the Field - Jan. 2010

Right after January transfers we held Zone Leader Council in Kobe. This transfer we will focus on finding and obedience. Elders Andrews and Slater had a baptism in Shingu on Christmas day. Here they are with Sister Takamaru.

The Sisters in the Iwade Branch had a great month right before Sister Kurashita finished her mission and went home. This is Sisters Kurashita and Kina with Brothers Sato.

Here they are with another convert, the 9 year old son of a part member family.

And here they are with Brother and Sister Ishibashi who were both baptized.

Okinawa Sister Power! Haisai
More updates soon!

Interviews in Wakayama

Here we are with Sisters Kina and Kurashita. They are working in the Iwade Branch. They had a great baptism last week, have two schedule for Sunday and another one on the 23rd. Both these sisters are from Okinawa. Kurashita shimai returns home in just a few weeks. Great, happy missionaries! After missionary interviews we met with and interviewed Tomoko Takahashi who is scheduled for baptism on Christmas Day. She has most recently been taught by the Wakayama zone leaders, Elders Cutler and Burton.

After the interviews we returned to Kobe and had the Kobe missionaries gather at the office so we could celebrated Elder Shinozaki's birthday with cake and cookies!

Elder Shinozaki loved his cookie!

Our Reason for Being Here - Rounding Out Transfer Week with Baptisms

Christ is the reason and our purpose is to invite all to come unto Him and repent by receiving baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As transfer week ended with the returning missionaries leaving on Friday, on Saturday (after watching James' basketball game) and Sunday we travelled to Kawachinagano and Wakayama respectively to see some wonderful people come unto Christ through baptism. Above is a picture of the attendees for the baptism of Sister Morimoto and her son Keigo. He is 16 years old and a wonderful young man. The baptism was held in Wakayama church, but they are members of the Iwade Branch. Iwade does not have a font so everyone travelled to Wakayama for the service. This was Elders Mauai and Wintz's first baptisms and the first baptisms in the Iwade Branch in four years. Needless to say the members were excited. Nothing excites the members more than to have new members join them. Nothing breeds missionary spirit better than the fruits of missionary work. We heard many testimonies today from people remembering their own baptisms of many years ago as they expressed their gratitude for the missionaries that found and taught them.

Above are the Elders with the Morimoto's and us. Elder Baldridge who returns home next transfer found Sister Morimoto in the Area Book and contacted her earlier this year. She had been found several years ago and lost contact with the previous missionaries and had had no contact for about three years. Elder Baldridge started teaching her and was transferred a couple of months ago. He was able to come back and attend the baptism with us.

We also attended a baptism in Kawachinagano for Sister Kamimura.

Above- Elders Jorgensen and Andreasen with their newly baptized member, Sister Kamimura. She was found and taught because a member (Sister Soga) started a conversation with her at a bus stop. If we can just get the members to work with us by simply opening their mouths and letting people know they are members of the church, we will see many more baptisms like Sister Kamimura.

Sister Kamimura is sitting between Sister McIntyre and Sister Soga. This was the first baptism for these two elders as well. Oh how we want all the missionaries to have this choice experience. This will not be accomplished without the help of the members. We have 100 missionaries and 22 million people in our mission. We have been called to preside over the mission and missionaries, but more and more I am feeling we need to and can have a great impact and influence on the members here. We speak every week somewhere and have many opportunities to teach and inspire the members and local leaders. It is a great blessing and help to have Rika speak with the members with me as a Japanese member and leader. She can testify as a Japanese member that what we share is not something from America, but something the Japanese can do as well. More and more members are catching the vision and trying to do more to share the gospel. Our belief is that there will be a great change in the hearts of the members here in Japan and that change will bring about a great miracle among the people of this country. Our mission is in part to help that change occur.

We are also just mom and dad to a couple of young men here though. We have to balance our time accordingly! Ricky was away at an overnight basketball retreat on Awaji Island, but Saturday James had a game at the Canadian Academy.

James is #8. They won this week. He is the point guard.

As usual, next week is already planned out and will be another busy one!

Last Week of October 2008 - Halloween, President and Sister Budge Visit and Interviews

This past week Sister McIntyre and James attended the Kobe Eikawa (English class) Halloween party. The missionaries teach free English at the Church once a week and they love to celebrate American holidays. The missionaries have better pictures we can post later, but Sister McIntyre had someone take this one with our camera. She is the M&M in case you can't tell. I had a meeting with one of the stakes in Osaka that evening and couldn't attend. Later in the week we visited Iwade church to interview the missionaries in that part of Wakayama. The branch meets in the building below on the 2nd floor. It is a small branch, but we have a mother and her son scheduled for baptism on the 16th of November. Elders Mauai and Wintz are very excited.

This is the sign in front of the Iwade Church building. Sister Mac is again pointing to the church name, second from the bottom.

We also had interviews with the Osaka North Zone in Ibaraki this week. Below is a picture of the zone missionaries. We have Sisters Kurashita and Meyers and Elders Johnson, Steele, Ito, Campbell, Akagi, West, Baldridge and Merrick. Later in the week we attended a baptism in Okamachi Ward from this zone and last week the Senri Ward, also from this zone, had a great baptism. They are working hard and we are seeing many blessings in this zone.

The missionaries asked us to join them in a pot luck meal that day before interviews started. Sister McIntyre made Sloppy Joes, a treat in Japan, and the missionaries came up with among other things, some lasagna, fried chicken and enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feed the entire mission. It was delicious!

Earlier in the week we had the chance to meet and visit with President and Sister Budge from Toyko. Todd was recently called as the new stake president in the Tokyo South Stake, our old stake in Tokyo. We served as bishops at the same time in that stake. Their son, David, has been called to our mission and is currently in the MTC. We are excited to pick him up at the airport on December 23rd! Elder Capener, who is currently serving here, is also their nephew and David's cousin. I miss playing basketball with President Budge in the mornings. President Daniels, now serving as mission president in Sapporo, used to play with us as well. Those were the days my friend!

Ricky and James both started their basketball seasons at school. We look forward to watching their games, although I will be away for some of them. They are doing great and have made many new friends. Ricky went back to Tokyo this week as school had a break and saw his old friends there too.

Time is flying by. We have now been here 4 months. While it really does seem like a lot longer in many ways, it has gone by quickly. Missionaries often express the same kinds of feelings. I always encourage them to make wise use of their time because if they are not careful, they wake up one day and realize their time is short and they have not progressed personally as far as they thought they would or accomplished all that they had hoped. We need to realize and work everyday as if time was short. We need to go about our work with a sense of urgency. We are not just passing time. We are inviting all to come unto Christ. What could be more urgent and important than that. We are talking about the salvation of God's children. Let us hasten the work.