Conference, MLC

We were able to watch some of conference on Sunday after church and the rest after we finished at the office on Monday and Tuesday.

We were happy to hear of the new apostles called.  We were able to meet Elder Rasband and Elder Stevenson when we were in Moscow at the beginning of our first mission.

This photo is from 2012 at a conference in Moscow.  Sister and Elder Christofferson, Elder and Sister Rasband and Elder and Sister Stevenson.

There were actually several ties to Japan during this conference.  As noted by Sister Rasmussen, two of the prayers were given by members of the Asia North Area Presidency (Elder Yamashita and President Whiting.)  Elder Aoyagi gave his final talk as a member of the Seventy.  He spoke about the great Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011.  And Elder Stevenson was formerly the Asia North Area President.  Shortly after we arrived in Sendai, there was an area wide conference.  Bishop Stevenson spoke in Japanese for that conference.

Last March, Alan and I had the opportunity to drive Elder Aoyagi and his wife to our mission conference.  They spoke very kindly of the people in Tagajo and asked us to give their regards.  He told us that some of our Tagajo members were found and baptized when he was president of the Sendai Mission.  You will never meet a sweeter couple.

I "borrowed" this from one of our former missionaries.  It was a time that Elder and Sister Aoyagi visited Tagajo about two years ago.

We also had some connections from our first mission.  Elder Lawrence was the Europe East Area President while we were in Kazakhstan and he and his wife visited Astana and Almaty.  Also, Elder Bennett from the Europe East Area presidency spoke and Elder Klebingat gave a prayer.  He was a mission president in Kiev when we were on visa trips and we met him several times.  We even were invited to his wife's birthday party!

Anyway, we've enjoyed some wonderful opportunities meeting some of our leaders.  Everyone should go on a mission!  You meet the nicest people.

And, wasn't conference amazing.  Two talks in particular were very meaningful to me.  And now we have a new word "Ponderize"!

Tuesday, Alan and the Tagajo missionaries went to help Sister Sakomoto harvest her sweet potatoes.

The missionary leaders came to Sendai for MLC on Tuesday and Wednesday.  That is always a joy for us.

Transfers will be next week, so we have had some preparations to do, including arranging for baggage to be shipped to the new locations, or to the airport for those returning home.  We received word that one of our elders that was supposed to come next week has a broken foot from playing basketball at the MTC, so, he will not be coming this week after all.

On Saturday, we drove to Yamagata to take some bedding and a bike for a new sister arriving next week.

Our sweet three-some is having some changes this next week.  Aren't they cute?  They were on their way to the church to watch Saturday conference.  We also dropped by the Izumi and Kamisugi chapels and caught up to some missionaries and members who were also watching conference in those locations.

On Sunday we watched the Sunday sessions with the Tagajo members and missionaries.  In between, we had a lunch break.

My cute watermelon popsicle got photo bombed by the elders!