The Big Bang

This week was a good week and interesting.  It started with our normal volunteering for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.  On Wednesday there was a Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony recognizing the efforts of both the civilian and military volunteer workers on base.  Our own Sister April Rosales (Bridges) was recognized as one of the three civilians who had donated the moist hours.

Here we are with our three favorite bosses, Kim from American Red Cross. Melissa from Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and Reba from USO.

Wednesday night we met again with the Franke family.  This is a part-member family that we have been working with for at least 7 months.  Up to this point we have had them involved in the Resiliency and Reliant Family training program from the church.  The last time we met with them they agreed to have the missionaries over to teach the Gospel discussions and we had our first lesson with the Sister missionaries (Sister Vogelsburg and Sister Gotheg).  The spirit there was great and we had a great lesson, with a return appointment in a couple of weeks.  We are supper excited about this.  They are such a great family.

On Friday, I was invited to play in the NMCRS fund-raising golf tournament at the Iwakuni Country Club.  You could not have asked for a nicer day to play golf.  It was beautiful.  We played a 4 man best-ball format so naturally the scores we all really low.  When turned in at 57 on a par 72 course.  Unfortunately the winning team shot a 48.  Not really sure how they did that, but all the money went to a great cause.  I think they raided a little over $3000.  It was also the first time I had ever seen a 4 man golf cart.  The cart was allowed on cart paths only so I got in a fair amount of walking.

 There were 20 four man teams and a shot-gun start.  It was nice to swing a club again.

Saturday while working at the USO, I got a telephone call from Elder Weaver telling me that someone had run into the church building.  After a couple of telephone calls we headed over to the building. 

At about 1:30 PM a Japanese male drive, driving north on 188 near Minami Iwakuni train station, lost control of his vehicle and ran into the street side of our building.  The Sister and Elder Missionaries were inside the building and heard the crash.  The Elders went outside and looked around but didn’t see anything, but then didn’t check the street-side of the building.  The police arrived a few minutes later and let them know that the building had been hit.  The driver was an elderly gentleman who was accompanied by his wife.  Neither of them appeared to be injured and did not complain of any injuries.  The police made a report of the accident.

Here are several picture of the building damage and the vehicle.  The driver's insurance agent was already there talking to the police and handling the claim.  The damage was not severe enough to warrant canceling any meetings and the insurance agent said the repairs would be made following Golden Week.  President Carter, who was there, was OK with that delay in the repairs.  The broken window was sealed pending repairs.

As the driver and his wife were ready to leave, they both bowed very deeply and offered a extended apology for the problems that they caused.  In addition to the building being repaired I would not be surprised if they at some point delivered a significant "gomenasi" (I'm sorry) gift.  It's what the Japanese do.

The Elders had nothing to do with it but wanted their pictures taken with the wreck!