A Japanese Cat O Lantern
Some of the party attendees
The Sisters with Pippy.
The president's new mission vehicle.
The biggest head of cabbage I have ever seen.
Preparation day in Kyoto with the Pypers.
James and friends attack the food left over from a missionary meal.
Elder Oshiro earned an apron for his service in the office.
The Fab 4 and their aprons from last transfer!
Office staff and Kobe district.
Elder Hobson's cookie from Sister McIntyre
We hit Mister Donuts in Abeno after lunch during our interviews. Elder Escalante shows of his strawberry bear donut. President McIntyre loves donuts!
On a recent preparation day we went downtown in Osaka to Umeda with the Pypers and ate crab and shrimp at the New Hankyu Hotel. Great as usual. They also served the famous poisonous Japanese puffer fish which we ate and fortunately survived.
At our recent interviews in Mikunigaoka, former Elder Kunihiro showed up to say hello. He will be off to BYU Hawaii in a few weeks. Now Brother Kunihiro!
Got a shot of mom with the boys the other night. They are both bigger than her now and almost bigger than dad (well Ricky already is). Rick is still trying to decide between BYU Hawaii and Provo.
We thought this would look like a Mormon Family photo. We got at least three generations in there! It was a nice long log. Just long enough for us to all sit on.
Elder and Sister Pyper looking on as I handle the BBQ.
Elder Matsuoka's mother made these I Love the Japan Kobe Mission shirts and sent one to each of us. Here Sister McIntyre shows hers off with Elder Matsuoka.
Eating and playing catch.
Eating!
Elder and Sister Pyper dish up some lunch, but did not know they were caught on film.
Here are a couple shots of the line and tables. Above is James (on the right) and Sister Yamamura with her two children (on the left). Sister Yamamura was baptized later that evening in the Akashi Ward. Below is a picture of Sister Meyers. She is completing her mission this week.
After conference, we drove to Akashi for the double baptism of Sister Yamamura and Brother Yanase. They were both taught by Elders Fukui and Shinozaki also pictured.
He had a birthday this week and Sister McIntyre made him a big face cookie. The missionaries made a cake and we all surprised him with a happy birthday song.
They are a great missionary couple and do a wonderful job helping run the office. We would be lost without them! By the way we can use more couples!!!
Here is a nice picture of the office staff, Sister Ise (our house helper), and the Kobe missionaries.
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!
