Week 53 We are the Wagoneers

 Hello friends and family,

We are definitely embarking on a new chapter in our mission experience. We completed our first year, and now we have begun the last 6 months with the "opportunity" to walk and ride buses and trains just like the young elders and sisters.   We are waiting for the Japanese driver's license division to allow us to take the final step of the driving portion of the test. (see Tuesday)

Monday ended up being the last day we could drive our car because our international license expired. We did some volunteering in the morning and joined the young elders and sisters at a nearby park for games and Oreos. We have a new district with new elders and sisters, so it was fun to get to know them a little better. Afterwards, we drove home and prepared tacos for our YSA. Only two YSA's this time. We enjoy sharing time with them and giving them a place to "land" for a while away from their busy lives. 

On Tuesday, we were driven by a Japanese brother from the Yamato ward to the Driver's License Division. He offered to take us and be our interpreter. We were very grateful that he helped us, as there were many things we needed to know that were all explained in Japanese. We were asked to be there at 1:00 p.m., but the test wasn't until 2:30 p.m. There was a lot of waiting to take a 10-question T/F test that took about 5 minutes. Then, there was more waiting for the results. We both passed and were given a QR code to scan, which allowed us to find out when we could take the driving part of the test. Well, the earliest date is May 29th, so we plan our days around how long it will take to walk/bus/or train somewhere. We are trying to stay upbeat about it. What else can we do?

We arrived home around 6 pm, and there was baking to do for the ACS meeting the following day. We managed to bake a generous amount of cookies and banana bread for all those attending the meeting. Nothing left usually means they liked them. More volunteering that afternoon, and we managed about 9000 steps that day.

And then there was Thursday. We were able to have a Zoom meeting with the Singletons, our replacement couple, who are scheduled to arrive in September. They had some questions for us, and we loved getting to know them a little. They will be such a great couple here. We then walked to post to help with the Red Cross table at the PX and then to the commissary for groceries, pulling our wagon. Afterward, we walked the groceries home and prepared some food for the Celebrate Recovery class.  We then walked back on post for the class and home again. That day ended up being over 11,000 steps. 

On Friday, we took the train to our District Council meeting, and I got to wear my rain boots for the first time. And yes, it was raining. We took sandwich fixins and had a fun lunch with all of them. Many of them had not had access to American foods, so they enjoyed the Wonder Bread and Lays chips and Vlasic pickles. Simple pleasures. Sister Melton brought them some yummy desserts. We had a great meeting with all of them. 

After our meeting, we headed to downtown Tokyo for a one-night stay at the Hilton DoubleTree. We had one free night from our Hilton membership that was set to expire on April 1st, so we didn't want it to go unused. It was nice to see a different part of Tokyo, and we found a delicious restaurant with Hiroshima Okonomiyaki. (see pictures) We had a similar one 15 years ago when we visited Hiroshima. This one was just as delicious, and it was fun to find a place that served them. Japan has a wide variety of foods, and we had not been able to find okonomiyaki. Fun find for us. 

Saturday, we traveled back home on the train in cold, wet rain. We were very happy to return to our apartment and dry off a bit. We still had to go back out to the commissary for some things, and we walked to post with our wagon. Fortunately, while we were in the commissary, the rain stopped, and we were able to walk back without the groceries getting soaked. 

Sunday, we were very blessed to get a ride to church by one of the members. We co-taught a Resiliency class with Elder Melton and also got a ride home with one of our YSA's. A day of rest from walking. A little more baking for our trip to Camp Fuji today. More on that next week. 

So we are now the "old people with a wagon" whenever we go on post. Maybe we could call ourselves the Wagoneers? Anyway, this is where we are at this stage of our mission. We started the whole driver's license process back in November. Who knew it would take this long? We're doing our best to stay as positive as possible and hope and pray that our feet hold out. 

Love to all, and if you want to pray for our feet, that would be nice. 

Week 52 Lots of baking, and other stuff.

We can't help but count how many days of driving our car we have left...not many, but while we can and this week we could, we made the best of it.  

On Monday, Sister Nelson found herself working for Army Community Service and then attending a "Turkish Breakfast" event for a Sister in our Branch whose family will depart soon as her husband retires. (We can remember doing that). Meanwhile,  Elder Nelson was teaching a follow-up Family History workshop from a class given previously.  He will do three more classes in April.  In her spare time, Sister Nelson had lots of baked goods requests to shop, prep, and bake for.  Elder Nelson had lots of lots of photo and video editing to do from the previous week's Oliver production.  So, spare moments that were actually spare were indeed very rare this week; however, we also had time to feed a couple of our YSAs a nice dinner.

We made our weekly trip to the Tokyo Temple on Tuesday and had a wonderful time as we always do. It is quite refreshing to spend time serving others in the Temple, seeing the young missionaries, and also some of our fellow Senior Missionary friends. We also saw a very nice red Ferrari getting a ride into Tokyo.  When we got back home Tuesday, the baking and some more photo editing tasks were waiting.  This time, it was mostly about baking for a big Red Cross-sponsored Coffee Cart service for the Japan Engineering District HQ.  

Wednesday morning early we brought our baked goods - Oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and some green marshmallowy treats made with cornflakes (actually were very tasty and popular). The Red Cross office brought the coffee and another volunteer brought a cute little doggy for petting,  It was a magic combination and the JED people cleaned us out in an hour.  Later, Elder Nelson worked at Army Community Service and Sister Nelson helped at the Zama Occupational Health clinic (both being our normal Wednesday gigs. 

This Thursday was another Camp Zama Newcomers Orientation event (every other week) and that ties us up from 0700 until lunchtime.  It is a great event for "showing the badge" and meeting people.  Afterwards, you guessed it, time to stock up on groceries, bake some more, and edit more pictures. Except today, we also jumped in to help a member of our branch who was flying out on Saturday, to clean his rental home so he could leave on time. This little "service opportunity" was not on our schedule or radar until late Wednesday night.  We made a bunch of calls and texts to line up more help and we committed to helping after our morning-to-noon volunteer commitment.  We helped scrub, sweep, mop, and more until nearly  1630 then we had to get home to get set for our normal "next."  Since we missed our planned baking window, Elder Nelson went solo to Celebrate Recovery and Sister Nelson tied on the apron and baked and baked some more. 

Friday morning we delivered our baked goods to the Zama Aviation unit that was having a special day of training. We provided the goods to go with the coffee provided by the Red Cross.  The unit commander was both touched and impressed with our service efforts on their behalf that he gave us one of their unit "coins."  See photo. After we snuck out of that event we headed into Tokyo to the Temple annex to provide a special delivery of candy to one of our Senior Missionary couples who planned to do something special for all the young missionaries in our entire mission.  While we were in town, so to speak, we stopped at the New Sanno Hotel for lunch and made a reservation for the weekend of our Stake Conference in May,  Friday was not over yet.  We had to hurry back so Sister Nelson could get a scheduled pedicure.  Elder Nelson made a post-office run and then helped our young sister missionaries move an extra Futon (Japanese bed) over to the young elders, who after transfers (today) were now a threesome.  That all made for a lot of extra driving and time...(good thing we have a car).  

On Saturday, our Stake had planned a special event for the not-so-young single adults.  A sister in our branch wanted to go and wanted Sister Nelson to go with her...so they did, and Sister Nelson hopped on the train for the trip.  The event was poorly attended, but all you can do is smile sometimes.  Later, this particular Saturday was supposed to be a special event at Camp Zama.  The annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  It is an open-post event, meaning all the local Japanese that wish to come onto the base with no paperwork and enjoy the day which includes lots of food vendors, live music and of course, the stunning Sakura blossoms...except this year, the Sakura (Cherry blossoms) didn't show up. Colder than normal weather delayed the scheduled blooming to maybe sometime this next week. We both helped at the Red Cross tent which provided snacks and drinks for the local Japanese First Aid station manned by the Zama Fire Department.  It was another long day.  But no baking was required. 

On Sunday we had our regular church services.  Our good Japanese friend from the other (Yamato) ward gave Sister Nelson a very nice Lacquerware box. He enjoys giving gifts and is just a genuine saint all the way around.   It was to be a relatively easy day; however, Sister Nelson discovered that the newly transferred young missionaries (Elders) did not have any place for dinner, and our day suddenly got more interesting.  We ended up making an emergency (ox is in the mire) stop at the commissary for a few things and managed to whip up a dinner for the missionaries at our apartment. This was followed, almost immediately by a monthly Zoom meeting that the Stake has with all of us Military Relations Missionaries.  The difference this time is that Camp Zama Nelson's are now the Senior of the Senior Missionaries, so it was our job to set up the Zoom and Elder Nelson's job to set the agenda and then keep the meeting flowing along with its 60-minute time.  

Sunday ended with two Military Relations Missionaries who were very tired, but in a good way,  Next week promises to be yet another amazing adventure.

Week 51 "Please sir, may I have some more?"

Hello out there. Let's just say we saw Oliver more than enough times this week. And poor Oliver never got enough gruel. (More on that later)

Each week brings new and different experiences. Never a dull moment around here. A couple of weeks ago the mission SMS (Social Media Specialist) asked if we would make a short video for Facebook. He provided the message we should share and said we could do it however we liked. So, we tromped up the hill to a local area with one blooming cherry tree and filmed ourselves presenting the hopeful message that God is always there for us. It has been submitted to the church SM department, and maybe someday you will see two old people in front of a Sakura tree in Japan presenting the hopeful message. Glad to have that assignment over. 

We enjoyed our first week back at the Tokyo temple. The session we helped with was entirely made up of missionaries this time. It was inspiring to see them all sitting and learning in the House of the Lord together. Elder Nelson took a picture of the three mission cars the Military Relations Couples drive. All three couples attended the temple that day and parked right next to each other. The 3 Amigos. We love our missionaries. Two of the sisters from our district needed a ride home from Tokyo, so we headed home. Their dinner appointment fell through, so we treated them to an awesome ramen. Needless to say, we got home kind of late that night. Bedtime felt great.

Did you know it's Red Cross Month? Well, neither did we, but we did help sit at the Red Cross table at the PX promoting the things the Red Cross does here at Zama. Some lucky people were able to spin the wheel for some Red Cross swag, and if they did a mini version of CPR on Charles, then they got their name put in for a free CPR class. Elder Nelson and I took that class last summer, and it is a very good course. We learned a lot. Call us CPR-certified missionaries. Woo hoo. 

Now comes the Oliver part. We had been asked to help with ticket sales and ushering for the local production of Oliver by Zama community folks. Elder Nelson was asked to video it and take pictures so we attended the dress rehearsal and watched it 3 more times before we finished volunteering on Sunday afternoon.  I think I can sing most of the songs now. The Zama community is relatively small, so a good portion of them came out to support those participating. We love Camp Zama and the folks who live here. 

District Council found us celebrating two missionary's birthdays. One of them wanted chocolate cake, and the other wanted Razzleberry Pie. Fortunately, we can get the pie at the commissary, and Sis Melton made the cake, and they all love mint ice cream. It may be a while before we can make full lunches for them because we are losing our driver's licenses next week. We will resume when we get our full Japanese driver's license....whenever that is. 

We took the two elders and two sisters from our branch out for sushi on Saturday. It is a place that has what we call a sushi-go-round. You order what you want, and it comes to your table with a little song on a conveyor belt. Before we were all finished, we had 41 small plates and several dessert bowls. One elder had 6 different desserts. It was fun to sit and talk to them about their mission and share time with them. I've said it before, young elders and sisters are the best. 

We have finished our trips up to Camp Fuji for now. The one marine who was there has been redeployed back to Okinawa. We do enjoy our trips up there. Meeting with our marine was the real highlight of that whole experience. I hope he can continue to attend services at his next duty station. 

Moving forward into this next week, it looks busy as usual. We are looking forward to the Sakura Festival on Saturday, but it's been quite chilly lately, and the blossoms are holding out. We shall see if they spring forth by Saturday afternoon. You know Elder Nelson will have his camera ready. 

Thanks again for all the love and support we receive from so many. We are staying happy and healthy and hope you are too. 

Love,

Elder and Sister Nelson