A Very Busy Week

This week has been a very busy week.  We did our regular volunteering for Navy Marine Corps Relief Society stuff on Monday and then the traveling began.

We headed to Ube (117 km) on Tuesday for specialized training from Mission President Egan and Sister Egan.  The training by Pres. Egan was very practical training for the missionaries on budgeting,  or how not to run out of money before you run out of month.  It was taught in a very loving yet serious manner, helping the missionaries to understand that the funds for their mission are sacred funds and should be used with wisdom as such.  He reminded the missionaries that they were not there on vacation and their funds were not provided for them to buy souvenirs and other things that might distract them from the real reason that they are there.   Interesting point.

Sister Egan followed up with a talk on the joy in serving the Lord.  It was a nice adjunct to the talk Elder Bednar gave at the devotional on Sunday night.

There were also some lighter moments from a Mission President that loves his missionaries.

The we began our first set of missionary apartment inspections, starting with the 4 Elder apartment in Kitakyushu (182 km), then a 4 Elder apartment in Shimonoseki and then a 2 Sister apartment in Ube.  It was a really long day, from about 6:30 AM until after 6 PM. 

The next morning, on the road at 7 AM for Yamaguchi (93 km) and a 4 Elder apartment, then down to Hofu and Tokuyama.  Not too bad a day with us being home by about 3 PM.

Friday was the easiest day with a quick trip along the coast to Yanai (32 km) and then back to the 4 Sisters and 2 Elders in Iwakuni, getting back early in the afternoon, in time for us to go to meet with the Red Cross for the Hero Welcome flight.

In all total, we covered 935 km or about 580 miles in the 4 days.  Not really that bad, and a good chance to see what the area looks like.

While we were at the Red Cross office on Friday afternoon (2:20 PM to be exact), my Japanese cell phone went off like it was possessed.  I found out that this was an earthquake warning and to take cover.  Japan's west coast was hit with a 6.6 Japanese scale earthquake, but by the time it reached us it was only 3.3, so no damage here.  A nice reminder of where we live.  To keep things in perspective, Japan has had (M1.5 or greater) 3 earthquakes today (10/21/16), 7 earthquakes in the past 7 days, 54 earthquakes in the past month, and 644 earthquakes in the past year.

Saturday we helped with the Red Cross Zombie Run, a 2 mile fun run to point out the importance of emergency preparedness.  We had zombies on the course and all the runner had flag football flags.  If a zombie pulled your flag, you had to answer an emergency prep question before you could continue on.  It was fun but would have been better had it not been 65 F and raining.

Saturday was finished out with Stake Conference Leadership and the Adult meetings, with the general session this morning.  Stake Conference is interesting here because the stake runs from Misawa in the north to Iwakuni in the southwest, a span of about 1500 km.  Obviously it was all done via internet conferencing.

I also discovered my new most favorite place to eat and that is Hoto Moto where you can get great katsudon less than 500 yen (about $5).  Yum yum!

I know I have mentioned this before, but I am so impressed with the hard work and dedication of these young Sisters and Elders and the joy that they always express every time I see them.  I know this work can be discouraging at times but in looking into the eyes of these missionaries you see nothing but love and joy in doing the Lord's work.

They also know how to have fun on P-Day.  We had a chance to take them bowling and it was good fun.  The bowling alley offers a 1 pound hamburger, which was no match for the Elders.

We all had a great time!