Wow. What a week. As we sit here on a Monday evening, after an especially long day, we reflect on how exhausted we are, but in a good way!  Sometimes we ponder whether we are doing enough and other days we remind ourselves that we are both in our sixties and are not expected to keep up with the young missionaries. Several weeks ago, our Mission Leader (President) asked us to give him our thoughts on whether we could use another pair of Senior Missionaries like us (Military Relations) to help us.  We wrote up what we thought two sets of missionaries could do here if we divided up the workload of Camp Zama, NAF Atsugi, and shared the effort at Camp Fuji. He agreed and so did the powers-that-be in Salt Lake City.  We had a phone call with Elder and Sister Melton, presently from Herriman, Utah who had just received their mission call to serve as Military Relations Missionaries in Japan, at NAF Atsugi.  They expect to be here in November. We are super excited to welcome them to share the work with us.  

 It is now officially the "rainy season" in Japan and Tuesday, when we made our trip to the Tokyo Temple was no exception.  We drove and it rained buckets all the way there and back. Still, we had a wonderful experience in the Temple with many of our mission's young Elders and Sisters there.  This next week will be the same with many of our young missionaries attending, especially those from our own Zone and District. It will also be the last Temple session for our current Mission Leaders.  President and Sister Node will leave soon and make way for our new Mission Leaders, President and Sister Tueller. We meet them on July 4th.  We will dearly miss the Node's, but I am sure we will grow to love the Tueller's. 

One of Sister Nelson's Mother's Day gifts finally made it through the mail system.  She was excited to wear it this week while, with "Fran's" help, making and baking cookies to share. She shed tears our first week or so over how awful the oven was, but she has mastered it and bakes and bakes and bakes for all the places we serve. She would give any of the Keebler Elves a run for their money.

One of our special friends, a young single adult in our branch, Hosea turned 22 and we took him out for dinner with one of his friends (Moka). They took us to a new, but nearby, restaurant that was really fun and had some great food. We enjoyed our time with them, and they enjoyed being treated to a nice meal. 

Our weekly District Council (and lunch) was special this week because we had two birthdays to celebrate. Sister Nelson also had a request for Mac and Cheese!  She spent some time researching and experimenting to find an awesome recipe.  She succeeded and the Mac and Cheese (was Shells and Cheese), with emphasis on the Cheese.  There is no such thing as too much cheese... we added hotdogs to the meal and it was great.  For the birthday dessert, we found Marie Calendars Razzleberry Pie.  Along with Ice Cream, that too was a big hit with our District's 13 missionaries.  

The Camp Zama community put on the "Junior" version of Willy Wonka this week featuring a couple of folks from our branch, so we couldn't miss that.  Afterward, we did our favorite Sushi-Go-Round restaurant for dinner.  All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Our previous P-Day was cut short last week, so this week we made the trek by train to Kamakura to see the "Hydrangea Temple."  It is really the Meijigetsu-in Temple, but because of the amount of Hydrangea blossoms it boasts during June, it earned its nickname.  It is a popular spot and there was no shortage of visitors walking through the grounds and garden while we were there.  Fortunately, it was also a great weather day.  It had rained buckets that day before, so it was nice to enjoy clear blue skies and the beautiful gardens as well.

We have struggled to get the right amount of communication exposure for the services we hold each Sunday at Camp Fuji.  We have been waiting and waiting for the chaplain there to help us.  We finally took matters in hand and produced our own.  We got the chaplain's blessing and we happily posted them in some spots that we hope will help get the word out more effectively.  This past Sunday we were blessed as two non-member Marines came in.  One of them we had shared cookies with the previous week and so he came back for more, but let us have a short church service with him first.  He also had invited his Lieutenant to come along.  Both were interested in what we had to say and after some earnest answers to their many questions, we gave both of them a Book of Mormon and our testimony. A special day for us as we have continually prayed to be able to reach someone at Camp Fuji as we go week after week. 

We had our fair share of Red Cross volunteering and other things as well during the week, but a couple of especially meaningful events make for a memorable one and help us get ready for the coming week.