Returning with Honor - To Tokyo!!!

This morning we returned 24 missionaries to the Tokyo Mission via chartered bus. The bus started at 6am in Okayama and moved through the mission making stops in Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto before heading to Tokyo at around 11am. The missionaries were very excited to get back to Tokyo and their work there. They are all outstanding missionaries and we will miss them here in Kobe. Although making the adjustment to Kobe after the disaster was a little difficult for some, everyone did a wonderful work here and learned to love this mission like Tokyo. It turned out to be a bitter sweet day for most.
Boarding the bus in Kobe.
Elder Tsukiyama had a bike accident last week and spent the past few days with us in Kobe. We felt bad about sending him back wounded! He is a great missionary and never complained. His wrist is broken and he has stitches in his head and hands.
The group boarding in Kobe.
The group in Kyoto.
The Osaka Group
And the first two to ride from Okayama.
We are proud of each of these missionaries and honored to have had them serve with us in Kobe! We still have 17 missionaries from Tokyo serving with us. Their return to Tokyo is still pending.
Just received word that the missionaries have arrived in Tokyo safely (about 7pm today).

More Pictures of Tokyo and Kobe Missionaries in Kobe

It was a very busy few days as we welcomed 42 missionaries from the evacuated Tokyo Mission into Kobe. Meals, sleeping arrangements, transfers and new assignments needed to be worked through, announced and implemented with little or no preparation time. Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful experience. For many of the missionaries it was a sweet reunion as they were reconnected with their friends from the MTC and even home. To witness the love and support these missionaries have shown for each other has been a wonderful blessing.

Elder Priddis, one of our senior missionaries, goes through the apartment keys for a group of missionaries heading out to their new area with new companions. Tokyo missionaries arriving and greeted by Kobe missionaries.

Happy to be in Kobe!

Missionaries reunited who were together in the MTC.

Meal time.

All 42 missionaries are now settled and working in new areas in the Kobe Mission. Most of the Tokyo missionaries are now paired with a Kobe missionary. Amid all the confusion and inconvenience, there are some real benefits and blessings that will ultimately come from this mixing of missionaries. I see this as a unique and great opportunity for the Tokyo and Kobe missions to share best practices and ultimately strengthen both missions. As these missions are eventually put back to their original structures, they will both be filled with missionaries with new insights, ideas and experiences to draw upon. The benefits of this synergy will be exciting to see in the coming months and years.