New Office Couple - The Pypers Arrive

On May 19th, Elder and Sister Pyper arrived in Kobe as our new office couple. After a few weeks in the Provo MTC, they spent two days working with the Painters here in Kobe before taking over officially. We are so happy to have the Pypers back with us in Japan. Yes, back in Japan. The Pypers served in Kobe Japan in 2001-2 as the office couple. In fact they were the office couple at the time of the closing of the mission with the mission realignments of 2002. Elder Pyper remembers the day when he closed the mission office door for the last time and locked it. It was a sad day. But what a blessing now to be back in the reopened Kobe Mission!

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!

April 2009 Begins with Visit to Otsu, Shiga Prefecture

April 5th, Fast Sunday, we fasted as a mission to show our thanks for the wonderful converts we have seen so far this year and to help us find and ask the Lord to lead us to more people prepared to hear and accept His message. Missionaries also fasted personally to help further develop Christlike attributes. We invited the members to join in the fast as part of their normal fast day. In the afternoon, we travelled to Otsu in the Kyoto Zone to see the baptism of the Olivera family. Otsu is a wonderful city in Shiga prefecture along the shores of famous Lake Biwa. The Olivera's were baptized into the Omihachiman Ward, which does not have a font in their rented church building. The Otsu church is very nice and stands on a hill above the lake. You can see the lake a little below on the left in the picture above. Otsu is about 30 minutes by car from Omihachiman.

The family of three was baptized together. Brother and Sister Olivera are from Brazil, but have lived in Japan for nearly 15 years. She is Brazilian Japanese. Mayke, their son, is 15 years old and was born and raised here. They were first contacted about 9 years ago by the missionaries and have been studying the gospel ever since. Brother Olivera said he wanted to be sure before joining and now he is looking forward to their next goal of being sealed in the temple in one year. Elders Magidman and Thompson were the latest to teach them, but other elders still serving in the mission and pictured here also taught them the gospel including Elders Obata, Fukui and Monson. Elders Magidman and Obata are also from Brazil. The 5th was also Elder Wade's birthday. We had cakes made by the missionaries and cookies designed by Sister McIntyre.

Earlier in the week we had a chance to stop by the church in Miki and visit with the elders there. It is rented building and looks a little worn outside, but it is quite nice inside. The Miki branch is up the mountains just above Kobe in the Kobe stake.

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.