Halloween Part 2; Transfer Week!

First things first, here are the rest of our little angels.  Nolan & Keree's cuties.

On Monday, Sister U. asked me to come to her home for her English Class' Halloween Party.  The children had memorized some verses to recite.  (I was supposed to judge them.)  Then, we went out Trick or Treating to the neighbors, who had been warned to watch for and be prepared for them.

It was a lot of fun!

Since this was transfer week, we had to make a few arrangements for the missionaries.  We left Sendai early in the morning on Tuesday to make our rounds.  We drove down to Aizu and picked up a couple of bikes, then took them to Iwaki for the new elders being assigned there.  It was a beautiful morning as the sun came up and lit up the colorful mountains.  We even saw snow on the tops of the big mountains and a couple of rainbows in the Fukushima Valley.

It looked better than the photo.

Anyone recognize this place?

It's not the Big Boy you may remember, but the little man looks the same.

And we got to spend a little time with some of our favorite missionaries!

We made it back to Sendai in time to go out to the airport to pick up the new missionaries just arriving from Provo.

And our missionary that went home for surgery has returned!

They all looked a little more rested the next morning

The Smith's and the assistants

After a morning of training, the missionaries were sent off to their areas, just in time for Eikaiwa.

Thursday there was training for the new Zone and Sister Training Leaders.

We got to go to the clinic for our flu shots with the Nagamachi missionaries.  This is what we get for having a doctor for our mission president.

It took three of them to hold me down.  Most of us were pretty brave.

At our English group in Kakuda Thursday, we were talking about different places we've visited.  One guy told about driving down to Disney Tokyo, spending the day with his family, and then driving home that night.  Everyone else in the car got to sleep, but he kept on driving.  He said the next time they go, they're going to stop and sleep someplace!

I told them we had been to Aizu to get bikes and then took them to Iwaki.  They said, "You rode a bike all the way to Iwaki??!!"  Well, NO! We had them in the van!  Do I look like I could ride a bike 150 kilometers??  Funny guys!

The returning missionaries arrived at the mission home to prepare for their farewell dinner and travel home.  They were traveling to Honolulu, Portland, Idaho Falls, Denver and San Diego besides four  places in Japan.

Here are most of our returning sisters.  Didn't get a photo of all 13 sisters together.  (I'm missing the four Japanese sisters.)  I told them if they leave, we'll just have to pick some new favorites!

We had different travel arrangements this time.  Five sisters went to the airport with President and Sister Smith at 6 am.  Three went to the airport with the Assistants at 10 am, two were picked up by their parents, and we took the last three.  Two left by train, and one is not going home until next week when her mother comes to pick her up.

So, we had a little time to spend with these two

They helped us find this place:

She's huge!  She's standing on a dragon.  Apparently she is the goddess of mercy.  I put her on our blog thinking she represents Sendai, but hardly anyone visits her.  You can see her from far away, but she's a little bit hard to get to.

There are hundreds of statues inside.  The big dark ones are the Asian Zodiac characters.

Photos are OK!

One of the Asian zodiac creatures

These two are often at the gates.  Elder Whiting explained about them.  One has his mouth open and the other closed.  Like the first and last letters of the Japanese language, or Alpha and Omega.  All things testify of Christ.

There are about 12 floors that we got to climb up.

Each floor has 12 of these statues.  It is the 108 buddahs.  They are all different and all amazing.

This is how high we were able to go.

They love the happy buddah.

And the view from the top.

When we went to the Izumi chapel, look what we found!  Looks familiar, only with Japanese instead of Russian writing on the back.

Saturday morning we got to go deliver a couple more bikes.  This time to Yamagata.  It's about an hour away from Sendai.

Some more beautiful color on the mountains.  One of these times, I'm going to make my DH stop for a real photo.

Can you see what they're warning us of??  Luckily we did not see any baboons!

The elders have a pretty nice place in Yamagata.  We may have to visit them again.  They're building a COSTCO(!!) in Yamagata!  It should be open next summer.

And when we got back to Sendai, there was a new car waiting for us!  Only 17 km on it. 

Another great week in the Japan Sendai Mission is behind us.

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.