EVENTFUL WEEK!

Earthquake!

On Monday at 5:30 a.m. we were rudely awakened to a 6.4 earthquake centered closeby!  This was the biggest quake we have felt.  The quake itself was not as bad as I thought it could be and didn't really do any damage or knock anything down.  It lasted about 20 seconds (or at least that was all we felt--it could have been longer but we were asleep!) and the biggest concern I had was, "How long will this last and is it going to get worse?"  Our cell phone immediately went off and told us we were experiencing an earthquake (in case we missed it I guess) and our AP's (missionary assistants to the mission president) texted us and asked if we were okay. 


Typhoon

So then on Tuesday evening we were headed to our English class and there were speakers blarring outside and someone saying something we couldn't understand.  When we got to the Church, the students told us that there was a typhoon headed our direction and it was scheduled to hit Ishinomaki later that night!  No one seemed all that concerned (some had ridden bikes to the class) but our phone rang a couple of times during the class but we didn't answer it because we were teaching English class (no one ever seems to call us with something that important).  Come to find out it was our district leader calling to tell us we HAD TO head home because the typhoon was coming!  We got home around 8:30 p.m. and within a half hour the winds began to howl.  It was extremely loud throughout the night and we didn't get much sleep.  The rain didn't seem so bad but I wondered if the windows would hold up against the wind.  The next morning all was well and we woke up to the sun coming through the clouds and not a sign of any wind damage!  Apparently Ishinomaki where we live had 10,000 residents evaculated from their homes because there was flood danger but I don't think anything really came of it.  But we were right in the path of this typhoon.


Zone Conference and Family English Class

Thursday we had zone conference in Sendai.  It was fun to see all of the young missionaries (and some not so young) and get a shot of enthusiasm in us.  When we have zone conference a nearby Relief Society usually provides lunch and this time they had taco salads!  Well, sort of taco salads.  We worked our way down a long table which began with a large scoop of rice, then taco meat and cheese, then lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, and then a few tortilla chips.  But I'm not complaining,  it was really good (especially since I passed on the rice).

We left just in time to go to our family English class.  We were having an indoor picnic.  We had sloppy joes, p-nut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, fruit, and some desserts:

Some of the older students (notice pinata hanging above them):

And then we played some games and broke the pinata.  This is the egg on a spoon relay (the kids were really glad that we boiled the eggs because they ended up on the floor more than once!):

All in all it turned out good.  We learned that almost all of the kids are living in temporary housing because their homes were destroyed and this was a real treat for them.  So now we are that much more excited to teach the class.  Plus the sloppy joes were such a hit!  The mothers were asking us where to buy the "meat sauce" and we explained to them that we made it from scratch and they were kind of disappointed but when we explained it was just ketchup, water, curry powder, chili powder, and mustard basically, they said, "oh, we have those things, we can do that!" so that was good.


Eye Problems

This past week I have been seeing flashes of light to the side of one eye.  I googled it and it said that it could be a detached retina!  Anyway, to make a long story short there was a doctor at our zone conference who said to go see an eye surgeon so we did.  He did a thorough check and said there was no detachment and not to worry about it unless it got worse or I became concerned again.  Also he checked for macular degeneration which is common in diabetics but he assured me there was no sign of that either.  WHAT A BLESSING!  And also, since we have Japan insurance (which costs us about $100 for the whole time we are here) we only had to pay $30 for the doctor visit!


Street Signs

I realized for the first time (I know, we have been here for this long and I am just figuring this out!) that Japan has NO street-name signs.  I mean, not just neighborhood signs, but ANY signs that tell the name of the street you are on.  No wonder it is so hard to figure out where we are going.  We just use our GPS.  People do have addresses but I haven't figured out what that means.  These are the signs on the highways that point the way to towns or cities or major highways or where the freeway is:

Sunday

Today was stake conference so we headed to Sendai again (we are in the Sendai Stake).  We took with us two members of the branch.  Calvin actually spoke in last night's adult meeting and did a great job.  Anyway, today's stake conference was a satellite broadcast made especially for the people of Japan so we were able to listen in an overflow room in English!  It was really great.  The speakers included President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks plus an area authority and the General Primary President.  There are only about 125,000 members in all of Japan so it was amazing to hear the General Authorities talking right to these people and telling them what to do.  Their basic message was to get more converts and especially to reactivate members, especially the priesthood holders.  Also they want more young men to serve missions so they can be a strength to their country.

So what do we do on Sunday after stake conference instead of chatting for hours at the Church?  Well, we went to one of the member's houses and had lunch and then we played Japanese dress-up:

And Calvin got into the act too (this is his looking-manly picture):

They are trying to make us both more Japanese:

And the four of us girls:

And For You Skeptics

A while back I said I had made some "norens" which are room-divider curtains.  Carolyn wrote and said they looked like oversized pajama pants with no elastic.  So I decided to show you a photo of one hanging in a member's home which is actually really nice.  It is an embroidered sheer with some flowers on it and the back curtains are tied to make it look really nice:

What an eventful week!  Stay tuned for more this coming week.

MORE ADVENTURES!

Oyster Service

Yesterday we spent the day doing oyster service.  Interestingly enough, this was in Omotehama where we went to a thank you ceremony a while back.  The Church donated (among other things) some rope.  Then a week or two later we were back and Calvin was cutting the rope into lengths.  This week we were back again and this time we were using the rope to help with growing oysters.

It was a cool, drizzly day but we were prepared with light jackets, boots and gloves. 

We began with rope and some shells that had oyster eggs on them:

And yes, they are as gross and they look!  The egg part looks like a big glob of snot with little specks in them.  Not being an expert on oyster reproduction, I can't really tell you how those eggs got on those shells except that they were in the ocean and somehow the eggs attached themselves to the shells. 

Next, there were long lengths of rope that were first UNWOUND a bit:

And then we placed the shells with the eggs on them every few inches apart in the rope:

When we had placed the shells into the rope, the rope was REWOUND by the same machine that went into reverse.  After that the ropes and shells  were stacked on a pallet:

From there they were taken on a boat out into the bay (not too far away but far enough we couldn't really tell what was going on) and somehow tied to something where the oysters will grow for two years!  The shells act like rocks and the oysters cling to them and grow.  Maybe in the fall we will be a part of the oyster harvesting.  Who knows?!

At any rate, I am now even more interested in the "all you can eat" oysters in the fall and winter.  The oysters here are supposed to be some of the biggest and best.  Also, I am a fan of shellfish so this should be right up my alley.  When we were on our cruise last fall, I probably ate escargot 8-10 of 14 days we were on the cruiseship!  Okay, so snails wouldn't really be considered shellfish, but you get the picture.  I do like mussels, clams, and scallops . . . and oysters, although my history of oyster eating has been limited.

We finished the day wet (it started to rain pretty good by the end of the day),  dirty with debris from the shells that was flung in our direction when the machine wound the rope, smelly and tired.  But it was an experience not to be forgotten!


More Foliage

So this time up the mountain, we realized how green and lush everything has gotten:

And not only that but the purple lilac-looking trees were gone (my brother Brian said he thinks they were chestnut trees) and now there were white flowers on large bushes next to the road:

Mission Call!

Marie (pronounced Mar-EE-AY) in our branch has had her mission papers in for six weeks or more and finally got her call!  We were in institute class on Wednesday night when her mother called her and said it had come but it was at the post office (8:00 p.m.).  So she couldn't get to it until the next morning.  But she promised to let us know the next morning.

The next morning at 9:00 a.m. she called and asked if she could come over with her call.  We said SURE!  She was here within a minute and a half.  And she had NOT opened her call yet and was going to open it with us in our apartment!  We asked about her family being there and she said no, they couldn't get together until the weekend so she was opening it at our place!  Here we are with her call (both crying):

She is going to the Japan Kobe mission!!  She is so excited.  And actually that is a great mission.  It has Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Okayama (where my ancestors are from) and other great places to go to!  Our district leader was saying tonight that Kobe and Tokyo were the missions everyone wants to go to in Japan.


Church Today

Church today was also an adventure.  We usually have around 30 at our sacrament meeting and today we had 74!!  The reason:  a young adult group from Tokyo was in the area doing service this past weekend and came to our branch for Sunday meetings.  We actually thought they were only coming for the sacrament meeting (last hour) but they showed up for the entire three-hour block.  We barely had enough chairs for everyone.  They were all wearing their Helping Hands service t-shirts and after the services we had a dessert bar set up and they lined up chairs and gave everyone shoulder massages:

Notice how much Calvin was enjoying his!  Apparently for their service, these young adults, among other things, gave massages to some people in the temporary housing units.

Also Marie was able to announce her mission call to everyone at Church (she kept it a secret to everyone except us and her family).  And she even knew some of the young adults from Tokyo!:

And may I mention that our branch knows how to do a bang-up job of a dessert bar!  Tons of food and so good!

Not much else in the way of news but we have a full week of activities scheduled (zone conference, stake conference, English classes, and a discussion, among other things) for this week.

Hope this finds you all well!

10 JUNE 2012

This week has been a little slow, but I will have to qualify that.   Calvin was recovering from his backache so he was glad for some "home" time.  But we did have two English classes, an institute class, a sewing project at the Church, and linger longer after Church (always an event not to be missed).  Also, I was glad not to have too much to do because I was asked to give a 15-20 minute talk next week (on the blessings of Paul's missionary journeys!) in sacrament meeting  and then we were asked to take up 15 minutes in district meeting this week on setting goals.  Both are to be given in Japanese!  So yeah, we had PLENTY to do! 

Scary?

Just as a random thought, I thought I'd show you what is just outside of our apartment (and all around Ishinomaki):

There are at least 25 wires coming from this one pole alone.  Also they go every which way and and a bunch go directly into the apartments and there are other poles closeby.  I wonder what happened when there was 3 feet of water here during the tsunami.  Why didn't people get electrocuted?  So far (knock on wood) we haven't even had a power outage!


Making Curtain at Church

Friday we went to the Church and helped make norens which are curtains that hang as room dividers in Japan.  We made these as a stake project for the temporary housing units.  They hang on a rod as you enter the homes or as room dividers.  Being the seamstress that I am I have to say, that Sister Usui (standing in blue) just bought this Juki machine and it must be pretty nice.  It has a zillion different stitches and is electronic.  Mine (which I don't have any objection to) only does a straight stitch!

This is the finished project but unfortunately it is not being held straight so it looks like it is pulled funny.  It is not.  It just hangs from the top.  And it hangs down straight.   I hadn't really noticed them before in the homes but since we started making them I have seen them and some of them are pretty nice--like curtains and some even have sheers behind them and ties to make them look cute.  I have plans to make more in the future since the branch has a ton of fabric and they said I could have it!

Mr. Donut Strikes Again

I know I talked about Mr. Donut last week but we were at the grocery store this week and there was seriously this huge commotion and sometimes 10 people in line at the Mr. Donut stand (it must be a traveling phenomena).  I was AMAZED at how people were drawn to the line!:



The only other line that rivels this is the line at McDonald's at the food court!



These are the stacks of "dozen boxes."  The special price is that they are on sale for 100 yen (around $1.25) but they are normally around 136 yen I think (around $1.60) and if you buy a dozen they are 1000 yen ($12.50).  The workers were very busy!



Church in Ishinomaki

I took a few pictures at Church today.  Our Relief Society lesson (Notice the writing on the board--can you tell what the lesson was about?)   Today was actually a real treat because there were four of us sisters who spoke fluent English (one from Washington, one a sister who was born in Japan but has lived the past 40 years in Boise, one from Tonga, and me).  So when we broke up in groups to discuss parts of the lesson (we did have some English manuals!) we had an English group and that was so much easier than usual.  And we had an English group in Sunday School as well.

And the shokuji (meal) afterwards:

It was actually REALLY good today.  We have this once a month and the men and women take turns bringing the food.  Today it was the women's turn and there was curry/rice, noodles, chicken, pickled veggies, lot of other goodies and tons of desserts.  It's basically a potluck lunch.   The men were first in line because they were celebrating Father's Day (yes I know if it not until NEXT week but who's keeping track?):

And the sisters next:

Notice that the sisters know how to REALLY dig in!


Obsessive Compulsive?

So I mentioned at the beginning of this blog that we were asked to give a 15 minute presentation on goals.  One of the hardest things since we have gotten here for me has been setting goals.  NOT because I am not good at setting goals but because I can get obsessive about setting goals and so at home I don't usually even make a daily list of things to do unless it's really urgent because I get so uptight about completing the list.  So I find it better that I just list a few major items or not make a list at all.  Here in the mission, they want you to plan everything.  You get a daily planner, weekly goals, monthly goals, district goals, zone goals and mission goals.   Not to mention listening to General Authorities, Church leaders and others tell you what to do.  I already try to get everything done without setting goals.  Take for instance last night when I was baking cookies for Church today, while listening to the scriptures we are supposed to read for this week's institute, and crocheting hotpads at the same time!

So I thought I'd leave you with this quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard on setting goals and let you be the judge, am I compulsive for not?:

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.  When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life."

JUNE ALREADY?!

It's true.  The days, months, and years fly by.  Not just this year.  It seems like only yesterday . . . well that's another story.  Anyway, June is already here and I am already dreading the heat of summer (and here it includes humidity!).


Service One Again

On Thursday we again found ourselves at a service project.  One of the districts in our mission had a project to clean up an investigator's yard--well what used to be her yard.  She lived in a very heavily hit area of the tsunami.  We have been to this area before and it is pretty much totally destroyed.  When we got there we found a lot with not much rocks, pieces of tile and glass, and a few weeds and other small items of trash.  There was another group of people also helping and we ended up putting in about 4 hours of service clearing out the above-mentioned items.  Kind of as a sidenote, I have really come to love the ceramic tile roofs in Japan.  The one in this photo is on a house across from our church.  I always think it is so beautiful:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are also ornate tiles on top of the triangular arches on the roof and the tiles are really thick and heavy (ceramic).  So I have come to see the power of the tsunami when we pick up pieces of tile like these:

(You know, you love the hat!)  Anyway, many of the tile pieces are this size.  Many are much smaller, and some larger.  Hardly any survived whole.  Notice the ground.  By the end of our day, the lot looked really nice, or at least was free of debris. 

Here we are having lunch:

The lady that we were helping provided a great lunch (rice, marinated cucumbers, salad, drinks, jello cups, etc) and some of us brought a few enhancements that added to the food.  We are the yellow shirts.  The blue shirts were another group who came to help.  The house was completely leveled except the genkan (tiled entrance) was still there--the floor, not the rest of the genkan.  But it is only a tiled flooring about 3x4 feet.  But I did find a few things lying around still in tact:  a child's toy car, a bag of marbles, and a cereal-sized bowl made of glass!  Really I don't think anyone else found much of anything--I found them kind of hidden in some bushes.

And true to any Japanese service project or whenever you get together for that matter, you MUST take a picture before you leave of EVERYONE:

The only downside to this service project was that Calvin has a hard time letting the young missionaries do the heavy work so he has been recovering from a backache ever since then!


OUTDOORS

The rest of this blog is going to be bits and pieces that I can't figure out how to connect.   First, remember how I said the hillsides were full of sakura (cherry blossoms) a few weeks ago?  Well, this week something new came out.  I am not sure what they are but they look like lilacs but are trees.  They are all over the hillsides growing wild:

And next to the roads (especially farther away from the city), there are tons of rice paddies.  And they are under water!  The two fields farther away:

We will keep you updated as they grow!


Breakfast

We thought we might go out for breakfast this past week because we thought it sounded good (you know, pancakes, eggs, omelets, etc).  We could only find one family restaurant open at 7:00 a.m.  This one is open 24 hours I think because it is next to the gambling halls.  Anyway, our breakfasts from a breakfast menu (about 5 choices) served only 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  Calvin's:

And mine (I doubt it would help if I mentioned that it came with a RAW egg that I dumped into the rice with some soy sauce):

So much for breakfast . . . .


Mr. Donut

One of our members came into institute class last week very excited.  She had found Mr. Donut donuts at the grocery store and they were ONLY 100 yen apiece!  They were actually really good except that the chocolate frosted ones aren't really frosting.  More like a waxy cocoa that is not sweetened that the donuts are dipped into--but they look really nice.  And there were some that were called "churros" that were just that churros but bent into kind of a triangle shape the size of donuts.  Apparently Mr. Donut used to be a big thing here but the tsunami wiped it out so this was exciting news that Mr. Donut was back.  And they were the best donuts I have eaten in Japan:

So you may wonder how much these two dozen "inexpensive" donuts really cost?  Well, my calculator tells me that in American dollars they cost just over $30!


English Class

I may have mentioned that we have a new English class which includes children and adults.  I have to admit I was a little skeptical about this at first but things are looking up.  The kids are getting used to us and vice versa.  Plus last week we had about 10 kids and 5 adults so we now try to do a combined class for part of the time and then separate for the last half.  A couple of weeks ago we read Green Eggs and Ham which was a hit and then this past week we read Big Dog Little Dog.  We were able to get both the English and Japanese versions so that was helpful!

Last week we talked about families so the kids made "family trees" with pictures of their family on them:

So who couldn't love these little boys?!


In Conclusion

Not much else happening.  The work continues and we continue to be around some of the best people in the world.  One thing that happened this week was in our English class at the Church.  We were talking about the world and I asked what they thought that Americans thought about the Japanese.  One of the men (about 55 years old) who speaks really good English said, "Well before the tsunami other people thought we were just people who ate rice and they really didn't know about us.  Now they know that we are real people, that we are honest, don't loot, and are hardworking."  I saw tears in some eyes as he said that.  They are proud to be who they are and are determined to get back what they have lost.

HERE AND THERE

A Visit From Neighbors Back Home!

This week we spent a day with some of our neighbors back home:  Roger and Barbara Ishino, their sons Zach and Nathan and friends Todd and Janet.  They were visiting Japan for a week and wanted to come to Sendai since it was Roger's old stomping grounds (mission) more than 30 years ago.  We met up with them at the train station and then took a bus to the city museum.  Here is Zach modeling a warrior helmet:

We were running short on time and decided to forego the rest of Sendai (the big city) and go to Matsushima (which we love of course!).  We got on the train once more and within 30 minutes we were there and hungry.  We introduced the Ishinos to our favorite "dive" restaurant.  This is Nathan (who just got off his mission to Korea) deciding what to order from the menu:

Well, so there is no real menu but the offerings and prices are written on pieces of paper on the wall!  It is kind of tricky for those of us who are "Japanese-challenged" but we have learned that there are two kinds of meals:  raw fish and fried food.  They both come with soup, rice, salad and a few other things which are all good.  The raw fish would include your choice of:  tuna, salmon, squid, fish eggs, steamed shrimp or octopus.  The fried would be:  chicken, pork, shrimp, oysters.  I generally go for the fried oysters.  Calvin likes the raw fish.  And for your information, the Ishinos pretty much chose one of each and shared.

Then it was off to the rest of Matsushima.  Unfortunately it was raining but not to worry--many of the places outdoor offer umbrellas!  The gardens of Entsuin which we went to last month were so much nicer--very green and lush.  Here are a few photos:

Zach and Nathan at the caves:

Us with Roger and Barb with beautiful Matsushima in the background:

Notice that Roger has on shorts!  And they think I am crazy for wearing short sleeves.  I think it was just wishful thinking on Roger's part.  It was actually pretty cool weather that day.  Anyway, it was fun spending a day with the neighbors and speaking ENGLISH!


SERVICE WITH THE YOUNG 'UNS

We spent Wednesday doing service with the young missionaries (as opposed to us OLD missionaries).  We drove to Shichigahama about and hour and a half away and had an orientation of what we were to do:

After the orientation (which included tons of bows and applause for everyone who came), we did an exercise routine to music which apparently is really famous in Japan.  Like we needed exercise, when you see what we got ourselves into!  Then we donned rubber boots (it had rained a lot the day before) and gloves.  And went to our worksite:

Yes, it was a large field (the picture above makes it look pretty uncluttered but was really not) and we were to get rocks, debris, etc out of it.  It was really muddy so we were glad for the boots.  But it was a good time for us all and those young missionaries are amazing--never a word of complaint, in fact, they saw the big slabs of cement and rocks as a fun challenge!  We actually spent four hours cleaning up that field (2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon).  After putting the debris in piles (burnable and non-burnable) we put it into bags and took them to the side of the field to be picked up later:

Those bags were amazing.  I never saw one rip and we were filling them with large rocks!   And besides rocks and cement we also found wood, pipe, clothes, and pieces of tile plus a lot of other junk.  As you can see, we were in a lot of mud so we were glad for the boots. 

After lunch, the elders found a sumo wresting amphatheater (leave it to them!) and this is what happened:

After two hours of hard labor--there's always time for a little sumo wrestling!


Other Tidbits from the Week

***We began a new English class last week which was supposed to be billed as a "family English class" but has become a "children's English class" and is quite challenging!  We have around 10 kids ages 8-11 and a couple of adults.  It's quite the class since these kids know almost no English.  But we are learning to be creative.  We got a library card at the Ishinomaki library and checked out Green Eggs and Ham in English and Japanese and read that to them (in both languages!).  We also did a guess the number of candies in a jar type of game and have some crafts in mind for the future!

***A member made some rice (lightly sweetened I think) with whole chestnuts in it!  It was so good!  I may have to butter her up for more of that!

***I am trying to get better at making casseroles in the rice cooker so here was my first attempt:

Yes, it is rice with wakame! (and onions, chicken, mushrooms and soup base).  Not too bad for my first attempt but I think I need to reduce the amount of liquid.

***We went to stake leadership meeting in Sendai yesterday.  We rode with Brother Watanabe in our ward who must not like the freeway because we went the whole way on surface streets.  It was quite an adventure--saw places I've never seen before!  Anyway, I saw something different than I have seen before here.  His car was a stick shift and since the driver's side is on the right instead of the left, you use the stick with your LEFT hand!  It is still the same as far as where the gears are so you end up going closer to you as your go up in gears.  Way too hard for me!

***We are back to teaching our investigator Abe-san.  He works for a nursery and it has been so busy lately that he took a couple of weeks off.   It was so good to see him again (and he came to Church today).  He has had some heart problems lately and was really emotinal as he told us about them and began to cry.  Calvin told him about priesthood blessings and asked if he would like one.  He answered yes so President Onuma (our branch president) and Calvin gave him a blessing.  It was so wonderful.  The spirit was strong and afterwards he felt the peace he needed.  He is going to see a doctor in Sendai this Tuesday.

***A young girl in our ward who has her missionary papers in but hasn't received her call spoke in sacrament meeting today. She talked about missionary work and what she has been doing to prepare.  We took her to a zone conference a couple of weeks ago and then she went tracting with the sister missionaries afterwards.  She said she now realizes how hard it is.  She thought they would just go in houses and teach people and then found out that many people are not home or wouldn't let them in.  Also it was tiring and late into the night (they tracted until 8:00 p.m and it is dark here then).  We have become really close to her and see her several times a week at institute, English class, doing service, and she helps us and comes to our investigator discussions when she can).  But she also helped me to realize that being a missionary isn't always that easy and not what you expect.  But it is rewarding and an amazing experience!

MAY--PERFECT WEATHER!

  Welcome to Ishinomaki in May!  The weather is gorgeous, or at least gorgeous every other day--you just have to be on the every and not the other day.  We are dreading the heat since 70 degrees here is plenty warm and with the high humidity you sweat like crazy.  But for now we can enjoy the weather (they tell us that rainy season is not far away!)

Thank You Ceremonies

So we went to the last of the thank you ceremonies (we think).  This past week we went to Omotehama, Tobu and Ogatsu (for those of you who are keeping track!).  On Thursday we went to Omotehama about an hour away.  The ceremony was outside of a building where the fishermen's coop have their offices:

The bottom floor of the building was completely wiped out by the tsunami (totally gone) but somehow they are using the second floor as office space!  The Church has the vision that they want to help the fishermen (the main livelihood on the coast cities) to get back to making a living.  So here they were able to donate many things, among them:  storage sheds, a buoy light, trucks, forklifts, rope, air conditioning units, and computers.  It is always amazing to see how much they need these things.  Then it was on to Tobu only 10 minutes away.  These are some of the things donated at Tobu:

It is wakame (remember the seaweed stalk?) equipment.   There were wakame washers, dryers, and presses.  Wakame seems to follow us wherever we go!  Anyway, the interesting story here was that the royalty in Tokyo will only order wakame from Tobu because it is supposedly the best wakame in Japan--who knew?!  The Church also donated three large warehouse buildings to this area and the fishermen were very grateful.  They just recently got their power restored (after a year!) and so they are very anxious to get back to work.  Apparently the wakame equipment is quite expensive and their old equipment was wiped out by the tsunami.

On Friday it was on to Ogatsu.  I was not prepared for this.  Ogatsu is a bay that is triangle in shape.  The base of the triangle would be where the bay begins, next to the ocean.  Then as you go in further the bay goes to almost nothing (the top of the triangle).  I think most of the homes and people were closer to the top point.  Anyway, when the tsunami hit, it began at the widest point but as the bay narrowed, the water force became stronger and higher due to the narrowing on the bay.  When it finally got to the end it was with such power and the water was up to 60 feet high.  EVERYTHING was destroyed  We saw about five building shells that were still standing (the large concrete ones).  The rest was just four-inch footings and foundations of buildings which were gone.  These are some of the only buildings we saw:

PLUS that is not just a blurry picture (above) but it was raining.  A lot.  And since there were no buildings we held the thank you ceremony outside under umbrellas.  The fishermen:

And the Church leaders being thanked:

It just seemed kind of fitting in a place with nothing.  We also heard that Japan has not yet decided what to do with Ogatsu, whether to help them or not because there is nothing to begin with.  But apparently the Church is still keeping an eye on the fishing industry hoping at least that the industry survives.  The lady above in the blue dress was the representative of the fishermen who conducted the ceremony.  This was the side of her car which says it all:

Volunteering

On Saturday we went with some members of the branch to do some service.  We ended up in Omotehama!  And Calvin ended up cutting the rope that the Church had donated to use in harvesting wakame!:

We actually met up with a Young Single Adult group from Tokyo who had come on a bus (around 65 of them).  Other activities included making soup for those in the temporary housing units:

And, of course, the ever-popular:  BINGO!

It was an eventful and fun day--and perfect weather.  I guess I need to add this comment:  Some things are the same no matter where you are.  Just before we left to go home I was thinking, "Now in America, we wouldn't just go home; we would stop for ice cream.  But too bad, we are in Japan."  As we pulled out of the parking lot, Sister Usui, our driver said, "Let's go get some ice cream!"  So we went to the nearest combini (convenience store) right around the corner and treated ourselves to ice cream!  Yum!

Sewing--Once Again!

Saturday night the Relief Society sisters met at the Church to sew curtain room dividers for those in the temporary housing units.  It is a project that the stake asked us to do.  Sewing seems to follow me around I must admit.  For those of you who don't know, I worked in a drapery workroom and have done a ton of sewing in my lifetime.  So far we have done three drapery-curtain projects at Church and also a bunch of other things I have been working on since the sisters want some projects to work on.  Here we are at the Church:

Things happen for a reason story:  About two years ago I made a bunch of small make-up type bags with zippers for pretty much everyone I knew.  I put little toiletries in them and other things and gave them away as Christmas gifts.  Calvin happened to bring his to Japan so I decided to make one up using his as a pattern.  I was thinking they would make good presents for the people in the temporary housing units.  Plus our Church has three large boxes of fabric that are perfect for this project.   Plus a ton of zippers!  WELL, this week our mission president's wife just HAPPENED to email me and ask if I would HAPPEN to have a use for some toiletry items she had saved from hotels when they traveled!  It was a humbling experience to know that these were just what I needed to fill my bags.  When we went to pick them up at the mission home this week there were three LARGE bags of combs, washcloths, toothbrushes, razors, etc.!  Who would have guessed that two years ago I was being prepared for this mission!

Wakame Again!

The wakame season is about over or so we are told.  But yesterday some of the young single adults were asked to help with the wakame so they did and they brought some back and gave it to us.  Here is Calvin with the perks of the day:  wakame and a new hat from the fishing coop!

And me at home washing the extremely slimey wakame.  I have been looking up recipes for wakame salad on the internet!

And Finally  . . .

For those of you who complain that there are never any pictures of me on the blog: