Sister McIntyre's Birthday 2010!

August 17th was Sister McIntyre's birthday. Everyone in the Kobe District helped celebrate it with her.The office elders and assistants snuck into her office and did a great decorating job. She was totally surprised and loved it.They made her a face cookie as well. She makes these for so many missionaries. Too bad the one they made for her did not really look like her (it actually looked like a Halloween cookie), but she loved it anyway! Very thoughtful of the elders.She also got little things sent to her from many missionaries. She draws all the missionaries' faces for their birthdays. One elder, Elder Uehara, drew her a picture for her birthday. Priceless! Mom and Ricky on her birthday. He gave her the nice summer hat.Mom and daughter in almost matching tops.

James and mom on her birthday. She loved the cool shoulder bag he gave her.
Happy birthday Rika!

No More McDonalds for President - Just for Fun!

Unless they get rid of that clown, President said he will never eat at McDonalds again! And for a good reason. Sister McIntyre looks a little too happy with that guy! Needless to say the missionaries love this shot. Thanks Sister Kina for sending it to us. This was taken earlier this year.

Kobe Flower and Bird Park

The boys are back in school so for preparation day we took a few hours and went to a great bird and flower park on Port Island in Kobe. The flowers were beautiful, but we enjoyed taking pictures of all the exotic birds. We start a busy transfer week tomorrow so this was a nice way to relax. Enjoy the pictures!

Now that is a Lily pad. These were really cool. If the weight is evenly distributed, they can support up to 100 kilos. We decided not to try though.

This one kept poking me in the side.

Ever wonder how ducks can walk on water? It is easy when you step on the fish.

The ducks were a little annoying. They followed us around and pulled on our pant legs until we would feed them.

Rika made a lot of friends.

This was her favorite duck.

There were many more kinds of birds and gorgeous tropical flowers hanging from the ceilings. We were surprised it was so nice and that there was such a wide variety of birds. I did not post any pictures, but they had an owl collection that was quite impressive. Owls from all over the world, 30 or 40 different kinds. Enough about the birds. Back to the missionaries!

Happy Birthday 2009 Sister McIntyre!

This past weekend we spent a few days in Korea at a mission president's seminar with Elder Cook of the Twelve and Elder Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy as well as our Area Presidency. At dinner Monday night, Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Sister McIntyre and they prepared a birthday cake for her. She was so surprised and happy that she cried. She then had to use this big knife to cut it!

Upon arriving home from Korea Tuesday evening the boys and the elders surprised Sister McIntyre with a cake and other gifts. They sang happy birthday and shared a short video they created for her. Ricky made the cake and mom was pretty happy with all the love shown.

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.

Kobe YSA Outreach Center Launched at Kobe Stake Center

On January 31st the Kobe Stake, in conjunction with the Kobe Mission and the Church Institute, launched a young single adult Outreach Center in the Kobe Church. The Outreach Center is open everyday and supervised primarily by Sr. Missionary Couples in the Kobe Mission. It is place for the singles to come and hang out and participate in various spiritual and fun social activities throughout the week. Below are President Ooshima, President McIntyre and Brother Yoshino at the ribbon cutting ceremony.Sr Missionary Couples (the Painters and the Wades) greet several YSA on opening night. After the opening talks and the ribbon cutting, they held a dance and ate a lot of food. Below Elder Wade is teaching a social dance move with the help of Sister McIntyre. The young adults enjoyed themselves. The missionaries brought many of their friends and we had about 15 non-members there.

Kobe YSA and friends.
The missionaries from Miki invited several of their English Class students and they were able to associate with the members and had a great time. Of course, Elders and young Sister Missionaries were excused from dancing.

We are very excited about the Outreach program and the role the mission is playing. Bringing the gospel to the younger generation is a charge we have been given in Japan by President Packer. This program is one tool that will help us accomplish this task. We will be opening Outreach Centers in three more stakes within the mission over the next few months.

January is Mochitsuki Time

Pounding rice into mochi is a very popular Japanese tradition. We have found that most wards have a mochi party sometime in the month of January. Here is Sister McIntyre taking her turn at the Kobe Ward Mochitsuki Party.
Wet rice is pounded with the mallet, and everyone takes a turn, until it turns into a sticky stretchy ball. It is then divided up into several smaller balls or pieces. You can then eat it in many ways or it can be dried to extend its shelf life for future consumption.
Mochi balls are good in homemade Japanese soup, stuffed with strawberries or Japanese red bean paste, both sweet treats, or baked/microwaved or fried with soy sauce and/or cheese. The Kobe ward had a big turn out and the missionaries had several investigators and friends attend. Everyone enjoyed the food and it was a beautiful January day for the activity.