Transfer Week Again!

We knew going in to this week that it would be a busy one and we were right!  By Monday afternoon, we thought we had it all in order, but we got a surprise on Tuesday morning.  We found out that one of the elders we expected to arrive Tuesday evening was not coming.  He was going to stay in Provo for a few more weeks to work on Japanese and will come the next time.  So, a few changes were made to the plan and we were set again.

Just as we were heading off to the airport, another issue surfaced.  One of our senior couples was not able to get their Japanese driver's license in time.  The international license was expiring in a few days, so, President Smith decided to change the assignments for our new couple, and the other couple would move to the other location which is nearer to their church location since they will be walking or riding bikes now.

But the missionaries arrived safely and on time.  It is always an exciting time to greet the new missionaries!

Here is our new senior couple, Elder and Sister Mower.  Elder Mower served in Japan back in the day.  One of his former companions is our stake patriarch, so they were happy to get reacquainted.

These four elders have all served as Assistant to the President.  It was fun to have them all together.

Everyone looked a bit more refreshed the next morning.  After their training, they were off to their areas.  Here are the new missionaries with their trainers and the APs.

We had new missionaries assigned to Tagajo.  We have one new elder and two new sisters.  We met them when we went to English that evening.  Some of our missionaries needed rides to the station  after English to prepare to go home, or into the office for training.

The next morning, we loaded up the Mowers and their bags and took them to their area.  

The Hills gave us a quick tour of the meeting place in Ichinoseki.  It is a former 7 11 building.

They even have a pay phone outside.

And a persimmon tree near by that's showing signs that fall is coming upon us.

We helped the Mowers get moved in and took them to a grocery store and left them to try and recover from the jet lag.

Then, back to Furukawa to help the Hills get settled.  We went back to the second hand store for a couple of items.  The Hills had some great snacks to share!

Dehydrated fish anyone?  It was nasty!

Elder H showing off his dollar store purchase.

So, we made it back to Sendai in time to help get the returning missionaries checked out and ready to go the next morning.  We had to cancel our trip out to Kakuda, just couldn't make that one happen.  I think we went to sleep about 8 pm!

Early the next morning, it was time to take some of the missionaries to the airport.

We had a variety of travel plans this time.  Three of the missionaries were being picked up by their parents, (two of those went to the train station with their parents) one traveled alone by train, and three left by plane.  So it was a little bit complicated.  We drove into the train station two times.  It was fun to get to meet the parents that came.  And a little bit sad to say good bye to our missionaries.

Sayonara Sis H!

On Saturday, we had to do a little R & R.  Alan worked on some bikes and got caught up on office work.  

We were able to watch some conference on Sunday.  We still had our regular meetings at Tagajo Ward though.  We think we're ready for another week ahead.  It should be a little more calm!