Apartments in Odate, Hirosaki; Fourth of July Parade

How about these cute little girls that came to English this week?  Three sisters and their mom plus a friend.  Even little sister wanted to participate.

You can tell how the rice is growing and filling in the fields.  You can see green fields that go on and on.  It's hard to see the water any more.  This was taken on our way to Kakuda for English.

On Friday morning, we left early to go to set up some apartments.  We have a group of sisters coming soon (!) so we need to get ready for them.

First, the elders here had helped Alan load the van with some stuff we had here at the mission home.  Then we stopped in Furukawa to pick up some stuff that has been in storage for a few months.

Then we went to Odate.  The apartment we had used for the sisters previously was still available, so we were able to get the same place again.  The elders there helped us move the stuff out of storage there and get it moved back in to the apartment.

Once that was getting organized, we had to re-load the stuff that was for the next place, Hirosaki.

We spent the night and then the next morning, we met the elders in Hirosaki.

The apartment is on the 7th floor of this apartment building.

Thankfully, they do have an elevator!

It has a pretty nice view

And there's a nice park on the other side of the building.

The elder's apartment had an extra set of bunk beds, so we moved a set over here for the sisters.

You have to put them together wrong a couple of times to figure out the right way to do it!

They should be pretty comfortable here.  They even have a couple of rooms with carpet.

I thought this was going to be the week with nothing interesting to post.  But after we left Hirosaki, we went back to Odate to pick up the rest of the stuff left in storage there.  We got back a little bit early, so while we were waiting for the elders to come .....

This group of kids walked by

Then another group

Snow White?

Captain Hook and the crocodile and Smee

Pirates

Toy Story

Zombies!

Prison Break

So, we had a July Fourth Parade after all!  We think it was a school activity.  You don't see that every day!  The kids saw us and said "Hallo!"  They liked posing for photos.

And the elders did make it in time to help load up the van again

Then back to Furukawa to pick up the rest of their trash.  We came back to Sendai with almost as much as we took in the first place!  Time for another trip to the dump!

While we were driving across beautiful green Japan, we read about the miracles in the final battles of the Revolutionary War and how George Washington gave thanks to God for the victory over the British.  This was a favorite topic of my father and we are reminded of the blessing of being Americans.

We were sorry to hear of President Packer's passing this weekend.  He gave so many memorable conference messages.  We always enjoyed his sermons.

And, Happy Birthday to our favorite Brazilian DIL Gabriela!