October's Over?

We're kind of happy that last week is behind us.  There have been some interesting things happening.

We started out the week OK.  Monday was our Family Night at the Mission Home.

We were in charge of getting a musical number.  Our little sisters pulled through for us.

There have been a couple of broken arms, a missionary with a wisdom tooth giving him problems, a slipped disk, and various illnesses including a case of the mumps (!)  It's been interesting to see how things worked out to get the problems taken care of without interrupting the work too much.  Our elder with the slipped disk ended up needing to go home for surgery.  But an elder that went home a few months ago for surgery for his wrist will return to the mission this week.  We're happy he is going to come back.

Speaking of broken arms, our Danno has his second cast of the year.  Good thing his daddy can make them look cool!

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning was Mission Leadership Council.  These are great young people.

We have also had to deal with some lost train tickets, a lost passport, and a forgotten wallet.

The train tickets were found.  They had been forwarded to the missionary instead of held at the office.  So, the replacement tickets needed to be returned for a refund.

The lost passport meant that one of our missionaries coming from Provo was not going to be able to come with her group.  So, different plans had to be made for the upcoming transfer.  Then, lo and behold, they found the passport so she will be able to come after all!

The forgotten wallet was the elder we were driving to the airport.  About half way there, he realized he had left it.  So we called for help and had the Taylors bring it to the airport while we were getting him checked in.  (They also brought his scriptures.  Oops!  He hadn't realized he was missing them!)

We had a visitor from the US this week.  Brother Ogaard served in the Sendai Mission 40 years ago with Sister Shitami.  She knows everyone!  He runs a website for former Sendai missionaries.

Someone said they never see photos of me on the blog.  Well, here you are;

Apparently, I'm giving some free advice at the moment.

We had an extra activity on Friday.  The missionaries planned a fun Halloween party for the Tagajo Ward.

Our Tagajo missionaries and friends.

How about this cute little family?

And, since I'm a grandma that loves to show off her cute kids:

Sunny & Sam's kiddos

Will & Sandy's little angels

The girls with the squinty eyes!

Heather and Nate's little princesses

Chelsea & Lamar's boys

And I didn't get any photos (yet? Ahem) from Nolan & Keree, but they did find their baby in an interesting place this week.

Somebody's learning new tricks!

Our Will learned a new trick this week too.  Got his deer!

Another challenge we've been dealing with is Driver's Licenses.  If you get an international driver's license from AAA before you come to Japan, it will be good for a year.  But most of us are here longer than that, so the drivers need to get a Japanese driver's license.  This is where the scary music should be playing.  

Anyway, we've had a few successes.  One of our senior missionaries got his license on the first try!  Another senior elder made it on the second try.  And thankfully, our young AP got his on the second try.  Which is a huge blessing since he has to drive all over the place.  Plus, when he took the test it was the only time he had to practice driving with a right side steering wheel, since he came without having an international license.  Most of the Japanese elders do not have a driver's license.  It is very expensive for them to get one.  They have to go to a special school for it and many people can get around just fine without a car.

Another of our senior elders had his international license expire before he got the Japanese one.  So he is going through the process.  They tell us it was a miracle that they approved his paperwork.  Because he had renewed his US license just before he came to Japan.  So he had no proof that he was in the US for 90 days before coming to Japan, or driving that long.

We have three people scheduled for driving tests this coming week.  For two of them, it will be their second try, for one more, it will be the first.  We're crossing our fingers!

Next week will be another busy one.  We have six missionaries coming from Utah.  One of them is a returning elder.  And, we have 12 sisters going home on Friday.  One more sister goes the following week.

Today was Sister Luk's last Sunday in Tagajo before she returns to Hong Kong.  We had a little celebration after church today.  But no food, since it's Fast Sunday.

Brother I. practiced his Mandarin on Sister L to help get her language back in practice.

Watching daddy translate!

And, here's a little shout - out to all our Southern Arizona friends from McDonalds - Japan!

And, as a bonus, here's some photos of some equipment designed to fit into small places.

You can see that the operator is almost as big as the equipment!  This little truck is a four-wheel drive!  These are used all over by the farmers harvesting their crops.