First I want to apologize for not updating my blog any sooner. but I have been busy, and a bit lazy.
I first want to report that the sweet Sister that I reported on in my last blog has made a full recovery. We all could see the Lord's hand in the entire process and are so grateful that this Super Sister will continue serving the Lord, in this part of His vineyard.
As we moved into the Thanksgiving season, we also found opportunities to serve. Sister Struempler and I, along with Sisters Page and McNaughton (yes, the same Sister that had surgery the previous Friday) had the opportunity to help serve a pre-Thanksgiving dinner to about 600 Marines and some Navy personnel assigned to the Marine Air Logistics Squadron (MALS).
The amount of food provided seemed unending, as did the line of Marines and Sailors filling their plates to capacities like I haven't seen since the MTC.
Carving the Birds
The line went on and on and on and on and on...
You'll never find a sweeter serving staff that these two Super Sisters!
AKA MALS Maids!
and on and on and on and on...
MALS Maids and the T. Rex!
I played the role of the referee! Much safer that way!
The rag-tag group of hearty footballers!
As always, plenty to eat!
Elder Malone hates anything green (except his tie)!
Elder Owens eats anything any color!
A gentle giant who can consume amazing quantities of anything
and a credit to the Marine Corps!
Still water runs deep and especially with this great member of the Branch.
Some people just can't handle the pressure!
As we move into the Christmas season, Sister Struempler thought it would be a good idea to build a gingerbread house to add to the festive decorations. Considering the results of my last attempt at this sort of project, I decided to go with a minimalist approach, conserving both time and effort yet meeting the strict definition of a ginger bread house.
Sister Struempler felt that a more traditional approach to the effort was needed and after two days and many hours, came up with what she felt was a more acceptable version of the classic gingerbread house. I will let you be the judge as to who did a better job.
No blog is complete without some reference to food. Following a District meeting, we found our way to Coco Curry where I had some amazing curry with ton katsu (port cutlet) and pork strips in the curry. Yum yum!
After Thanksgiving we were invited back to an English class at a restaurant near our house. It was fun to get to know everyone and we ended the class with us all singing Christmas carols, both in English and Japanese.
Sister Page played several Christmas songs on her violin, which were wonderful, and I also introduced them to a little Mexican culture with having everyone singing "Feliz Navidad" to my ukulele. Great fun!
Our last district meeting before transfers found us all eating again! This time it was a gyoza (a fried port dumpling) restaurant where we packed 13 of us into a room made for a party of 8. Have you ever seen a happier group of people with so much food. The guy on the lower right is not a surgeon late for work, but someone with a "cold". The wearing of masks like this is very common in Japan.
I will close this blog with a teaching tool that was sent to me from one of our Elders. It is a simple presentation of the Plan of Salvation in Japanese. A very useful tool for the missionaries here. Even without understanding the writing, the meaning seemed very clear to me.
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