Zone Conferences and a Wedding!

How cute is this?  A little girl helping her mother with the shopping!

Tuesday, we made a quick trip up to Akita to deliver some bikes.  It was raining when we got there, so we dropped them off, waved to our missionaries and headed home.  It was a little bit tiring!

We had a pretty good sized group at Eikaiwa this week.

We went to the Sendai South Zone Conference on Thursday.  The Yamagata sisters did a beautiful job on their musical number.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to the missionaries with birthdays in October through December.

This is a game to say the English phrase in Japanese.  The districts competed against each other.

We were taught by the missionaries and by President and Sister Smith.  Our last zone conference focused on The Plan of Salvation, This time was focused on The Atonement.  I enjoy hearing the messages from our young missionaries.  One of them talked about the enabling power of the atonement.  "We can make excuses, or make results.  If you think you can, or you cannot, you are correct."  Another of our new elders talked about perspective.  He acknowledged that he was just a young man new to Japan, but beyond that, he is an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and is entitled to His guidance.

We had the opportunity to share our testimonies since we will be home when the next zone conferences come around.  As I looked out at them, I realized only two of these missionaries were here in Sendai before we came.  We picked up all the rest at the airport.  Including President and Sister Smith. We sure love them!

On Saturday, we attended the reception for our friend Sister Kaneko and her new husband.  They were married a couple of months ago and her former ward threw this great party for them.

The youth from their ward were busy serving.

And singing.

It was great to see them so happy and having fun!  They're dancing to a music video (in Japanese).  Everyone seemed to know it!  Except us!

At church today, the Relief Society sisters sang in Sacrament Meeting.  Alan would have taken a picture, but I was using the tablet for my cheater song book.  (Easy to read version.)

Happy 2nd Birthday to our little Dylan Lamar Innes!  How about those baby blues?