Dear Family,
Near the end of each month we host an end-of-the-money dinner at our apartment with the missionaries in our district and those they are teaching. Attendance has ranged from 10 to 17 over the 14 times we have done this. Crowded into our small apartment, language is no barrier as we pray together, Pat puts on a great meal, we enjoy good fellowship, the missionaries present a spiritual message and sometimes we play a game or two. On June 28 Elders Carpenter and Nakomoto were streeting (greeting people as they walk on the street) when they first met M- san, a down-and-out man in his 50s, and he and they joined us for dinner that evening. In general the Japanese are not a cheerful people, but rather subdued and grim in appearance. Matsubara san seemed blown away by the good cheer and sheer joy evident around our dinner table. Whenever we greeted him at church on subsequent Sundays, he beamed with recalled pleasure and was profuse in his expressions of gratitude for our brief dinner encounter. Last Saturday we attended his baptism and then on Sunday watched as he, spiffied up now in a suit and tie, received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and was sustained as a new member of the church. He’s still Japanese through and through, but there is something new and unusual about him - it seems he can’t stop smiling.
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| 30 new missionaries this week! |
One can hardly describe the surge of excitement, enthusiasm and utter rejoicing that radiates from a crowd of missionaries just arrived to serve in the field. This week we greeted 30 of them still retaining the glow acquired in the Mission Training Center. The morning after their arrival, it was our privilege to participate in an orientation session with them, and then in the evening, Pat and I shared a table at the Hamakatsu Restaurant with 10 newly arrived sisters, fresh from practicing their missionary skills for the first time streets of Fukuoka. Their excitement was palpable and it was contagious. We were amazed at the connections we discovered. Some of the 16 new sisters brought greetings from our grandson, Matthew, in the MTC en route to the Japan Nagoya Mission. Sister Williams lived across the street from our daughter, Natasha in Alpine, Utah. Sister Heaton’s sister is roommate in Boston to our granddaughter, Megan. The next morning in a flurry of unbelievable organized chaos, they all departed via plane, train and bus for locations ranging from Hiroshima to Okinawa to meet their new companions and begin their service. We marvel at how much they know, how confident they are and what great missionary instincts they possess. We will see them again on down the road a bit and will marvel anew at how seasoned in the Spirit they will have become, how matured in the ministry and proficient in the language.
Happy birthday to Heidi and Daniel. We just had a great birthday celebratory dinner with Dan and family this afternoon. If we weren’t that we are constantly growing older, all of these new missionaries and the lively grandchildren would make us feel younger.
Yet we remain, your elderly, faithful far-eastern correspondents,
Mom and Dad
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