Historic Blood Drive

As missionaries we are always looking for opportunities to provide service.  March 7th provided such an opportunity as the Elders Sisters were able to assist a joint blood drive between the American Red Cross, the Japanese Red Cross and the U.S. military at Iwakuni.  This event was historic because this was the first time there had been a cooperative effort between the U.S. military and the Japanese Red Cross.

The service that the missionaries provided was as interpreters, to help the American donors complete the required Japanese blood donation forms. Over the period of about 8 hours, 72 donors were processed with 59 units (400 mL each) of blood were collected.  This was considered a very successful blood drive.  It turned out so good that they are planning on doing it again in August.  A great unanticipated benefit was that the Elders and Sisters got to spend a lot of time with each donor, and while they couldn't proselytize, there were a lot of questions about who they were, why they were there and how it was they could all speak Japanese.  It was a lot of very positive contact with the missionaries and the Church.

No blog entry is complete without our latest gastronomic discovery.  In this case it is Pete's Tex-Mex Restaurant.  It is the best Japanese-Mexican food we have had so far.

We also discovered a new "Shabu-Shabu" restaurant.  This is a style of cooking where you have given a pot of boiling water.  To that you add tofu, onions, carrots, dandelion greens, mushrooms, and just about any other vegetable you want.  You let that all simmer for a while and then you take very thinly sliced beef or pork and dip it into the boiling water just long enough for it to turn brown.  You take it out, dip it in a meat sauce and eat it over a bowl of rice.  It is called "shabu-shabu" because that is the noise that is made when you wash your clothes in a tub of water.

As another service project we helped the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society move into their new offices.  The Elders were a big help here.  We had a file-cabinet safe that was delivered to the 3rd deck, but with 6 of us we couldn't even budge it.  On closer inspection we discovered that it actually weighed 1035 pounds.  We decided to let someone else move this.

It was a good day of work however.  Big thanks to the Elders Lotti and Weaver!  They are great!