Week 39. Driving in Japan should be easy, or so you would think.

Every six weeks, the Mission has a "Transfer" to rotate missionaries around.  For some, it is time to return home.  For others, their missionary experience begins as they arrive; for others, it means a new area or companion.  As for us "Senior Missionaries," we are mere bystanders since we just stay put.  This week our transfer cycle came on Monday vs the usual Friday.  So we said goodbye and welcome as we continued our routine.  Meanwhile, 'tis still the Season, so we contributed a fair share of cookies and such to various activities at Camp Zama. 

Monday for our YSA activity, we had a good turnout and did a little Pizza and Pool at the Atsugi base. It is great to have Elder and Sister Melton working with us and we also are getting a few more Young Adults out. We always enjoy being with our YSA's.  Lots of energy and in need of some friendship and attention too. 

On Tuesday, we made our weekly trip to the Tokyo Temple and, as we always do, enjoyed our interactions with the other Temple Workers and the young missionaries who attended. Serving in the temple continues to be a real blessing for us, giving us a break and a spiritual uplift once a week. We also get to drop in and say "howdy" or "Konichiwa" to our friends in the Mission HQ office.  

On Wednesday we did a little Red Cross Service and I volunteered at Army Community Service.  Sister Nelson does the same on Mondays.  We also planned a "Christmas Fellowship" at Camp Fuji for later on Wednesday.  We made a bunch of frosted sugar cookies to hopefully greet some Marines with.  As it turned out, we had a less-than-wonderful turnout. The Chaplain, his assistant (on his insistence), and one young Marine.  But, the nice thing is that this young Marine is also a church member who came looking for services from the Fuji Chaplain.  We were able to meet him Wednesday and made arrangements to return on Sunday and provide sacrament services.  Meeting him made it all worth it. 

Every other Thursday we support setting up and signing in everyone coming to the Camp Zama New Comer's Orientation. We enjoy doing this because we do get to see everyone new coming in and they get to see us... "show the badge."  We never know when a new member (active or otherwise) might wander in.  This takes up a good part of our morning until just after lunchtime.  Afterward, we had to make our run to the commissary to get what we needed for Friday morning's District Council and Lunch.  

So, Friday after we did our District thing with another birthday for our elder from Australia, we drove into Yokohama to find the prefecture Drivers License Center.  Why?  Well, our AAA International Drivers License expires in March and before that, we MUST get a regular Japanese Drivers License.  And as it turns out, that is quite the process and a process that is taking an extraordinarily long time of late.  Before visiting the DL Center, we had to get our Utah DL translated, get a residence address verification from Zama City, pictures, and take our Utah Driving Record, passport, etc.  So, we did all of that. And, naturally, I had a bad address so our first stop was at the Kanagawa Prefecture Police HQ...and they redirected us to the Drivers License Center...about 30 minutes away.  We got there and managed to find the right office and line to stand in.  We eventually were seen and fortunately, we had all of the right paperwork!  The bad news was that the earliest date we could take the WRITTEN test was March 25th....and then, IF WE PASS THAT, we could get a DRIVING TEST maybe four to six weeks later.  

So, for you who like math, if our current DL expires on 24 March and we can't complete the new process for a Japan License for six weeks, how many weeks might we have to walk, find a bus, take a train, or ride a donkey?  We are hoping for a tender mercy to come our way in the form of an earlier testing date. We are not really sure how that would happen, but we could use your prayers.  Not that we mind a little more exercise, but some things we do are beyond walking distance away...and our feet are not as young as they once were. 

Anyway, to finish the week, on Saturday we went again (by car) to the Temple to help with a special session that a family from Yokosuka arranged for.  It was a nice experience and we made our trip back home by way of our favorite Sushi restaurant.  Oshikatta!  On Sunday we enjoyed a short 1-hour church session and later made our way back up to Camp Fuji to have church services for our young Marine friend we found up there.  A good way to end the day and the week.