Sister Erika McIntyre MTC Photos

Erika sent us her camera chips with lots of photos. As you know she is now in Japan serving, but here are a few pictures from her MTC experience. The one below is her with her companions I believe. This is Sister Tong I believe. Nori Mason's mother!
Here she is with Elder Monson, who I believe will be arriving in our mission next month.
This next one looks like her MTC district before heading out to Japan.
This is nice shot her and Elder Henry Eyring. Henry was in our stake in Tokyo while his father served as Mission President there. We hoped Elder Eyring would come to Kobe but one of the other Japan missions got him!
It looks like she met up with Mika Sawada at the temple before departing.
Here she is with Sister Glenn who is one our newest missionaries to arrive.And last of all here she is with her little sister, Julie at the Provo Temple!

Erika is doing great, but we miss both of our girls!

Arrival in Mission!

After a wonderful 5 days in the Provo MTC where we were counseled and taught by the prophets and apostles, we had one quick night at home to pick up the kids and visit grandpa before departing for Japan. Our good friends, the Fowers, picked up Ricky as he will stay behind for a month or so in Utah to attend summer camps. The rest of us were up until about 2am with final packing and preparation. Then off to the airport at 6am! Jeff Evans was kind enough to pick us up and take us to the airport.

Japan Bound New Mission Presidents with Elders and Sisters Walker and Stevenson of the Seventy. (Left to right -Daniel's, Tateoka's, Isa's, Brother and Sister Pincock, McIntyre's, Walker's and Stevenson's)

We arrived in Tokyo on Friday the 27th of June. After a wonderful dinner at our hotel with the other new mission presidents in our area and the Area Presidency (Elder Evans, Elder Choi and Elder Yamashita - and their wives) we had a long awaited good nights rest!

James and Sammy on the Bullet Train! On Saturday morning we had additional training with our Area Presidency. The kids went to pick up Sammy. And we were on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kobe by early afternoon.

We were greeted by President and Sister Tucker on the platform accompanied by the Assistants, Elders Hanna and Ahmu, and the Kobe Stake President, President Oshima.

The mission home is only about a 10 minute drive from Shin Kobe station. Upon arrival we were greeted by the two mission home staff elders, Elder Christie and Elder Kunihiro and the Sisters, Sister Bensen and Sister Webb. They had made a big welcome sign for us. We were already exhausted! But our mission was just beginning!!!

The rest of Saturday was spent getting oriented and unpacking. (It has taken us all this week to finally get unpacked with all the other activities and things we have been doing. But it is starting to feel a little like home.) Sunday we attended the Kobe Ward and the Kansai (English) Branch. We had the chance to introduce ourselves and share testimonies in each. After some meetings with President and Sister Tucker that afternoon the mission was officially transferred to us and they left! The mission home is on the right (you can only see a corner). This is the church next to our home.

Monday we held our first Zone Leader's Council. All the missionary leaders came to the mission home for meetings. It was a wonderful experience to finally start to meet these great missionaries. We have 100 in total. We have now met every one of them. This week we held zone conferences and our family had the chance to speak to the missionaries and share our vision for the next three years. The kids all introduced themselves and Erika participated in the conferences as she prepares to start her mission soon.

We felt a desire to create a spirit of unity in the mission and Sister McIntyre made a beautiful Japan Kobe Mission Quilt for each missionary that serves with us to sign and then date it when they return home. The missionaries love it!
Take a look at some of our wonderful missionaries!!

We have another 60 or so just like these! They are wonderful.

Today - Sunday July 6th -After sacrament meeting in Kobe, we traveled to the Sekime Ward in Osaka to attend a baptism for a 90 year old sister we met on Saturday. It was a great meeting and she was so excited to get baptized and follow Christ. It just goes to show you it is never too late!

Sister Tsuji is next to Sister McIntyre. Elder Allen got caught with his eyes closed, but Elder Ring is wide awake! They are the Elders who taught her and the Zone Leaders in the Osaka Zone (Stake).

MTC Experience - Our first little miracle

The past two days have been amazing. We have heard from the First Presidency and met and been instructed by many of the members of the twelve and the seventy. We have made many new friends with the other mission presidents and their wives and ate many meals with the presidents and wives going to Japan and the Asia North Area.

Our good friends, the Daniels, who are called to preside over the Japan Sapporo mission still think the brethren got our calls confused. We took this picture pointing at their mission as if it was ours! President Daniels served in Kobe and hoped to return there as president. But they are happy and excited to be the frozen chosen of Sapporo. We are happy to be heading for Kobe!

Tonight we had the chance to meet with all the missionaries going to our mission currently in the MTC. There are 12, 11 Elders and 1 Sister. We spent about two hours with them getting to know each other and sharing our testimonies and stories. We already love these missionaries. They are wonderful. In this group alone we have missionaries from Australia, Brazil and the US. Many had fathers and/or siblings that served in Japan. How lucky we are to lead them.

The last few days as I pondered what to talk about with these missionaries in our first meeting, I had the very distinct impression that I needed to speak with one of them. I felt strongly I needed to let this missionary know that Heavenly Father loves him and that the right decision was made in coming on this mission. This missionary's name stuck with me all day today and I felt this was a prompting from the Spirit. As we went around the room and greeted the missionaries, I told that missionary what I felt and that I felt the Lord wanted me to share these feelings. Later as each missionary introduced themselves and told us about themselves, this missionary shared with us and the group as tears flowed that his father had passed away two weeks before entering the MTC. I then knew why the Lord had prompted me to share those feelings. We then had a mini lesson on following the promptings of the Spirit as missionaries. For Sister McIntyre and me, this was one of the first miracles of our mission. How grateful we are for revelation and the promptings of the Spirit.

MTC Day!

We have been busy the past few days preparing to enter the MTC. Today we reported. After dropping the boys off at our friends home, we drove down to Provo and Erika and Julie saw us off.

Here are some pictures!

The badge Ceremony!

Day one was short and mainly orientation. Tomorrow, Sunday, the seminar starts and we will hear from President Monson and others. We are looking forward to it.

As part of our orientation we toured the MTC and had the chance to visit the Japan bound missionaries. In addition to meeting all 12 missionaries going to our mission (which was really exciting), we had a chance to visit with Elder Sellers and Elder Parks, both former members of our stake in Japan. I was Elder Parks' bishop several years ago and his father served in the bishopric with me. Elder Sellers' dad served as bishop in the same stake with us.

It has been a busy day and a busy several weeks. The mission has begun! We felt a wonderful spirit today and are grateful for the chance to be here.

We ate dinner with President and Sister Daniels and President and Sister Tateoka, who are going to Sendai. More later when we have chance!