Hello, family and friends,
After four days in the apartment "resting," Sis Nelson was ready for the new week. I haven't stayed in bed for that long, but amazingly, I got better. It's good because we had a hectic week ahead of us.
After a short morning volunteer shift at ACS (Army Community Service), we headed over to our chapel in Yamato for a Mochi celebration. The Japanese members of the Yamato ward invited us to come join the fun and learn how mochi is made. They did it the traditional way. They soak the rice overnight, and the next day, the men steam the rice over hot coals in wooden bandboxes. Then, the rice is placed in a hollowed-out stump and pounded with a mallet. That's the part everyone gets to help with. Then, the women put the rice on a cornstarch-covered table and roll it into small balls. Some of the balls have bean paste placed inside, and some are just dipped in soy sauce and rolled in seaweed. Another version was rolling it in soy powder sweetened with sugar. The women were very excited to teach Sis Nelson how to do the rolling. Elder Nelson helped with the pounding. The little children also get to help pound the rice with smaller mallets. It was really a lot of fun and a fun cultural experience. One of the pictures below is of Elder Nelson and Bro Akasaka. He is in the Yamato ward and recognized Elder Nelson the first Sunday we were here. They both served in the Hokkaido mission at the same time. He is such a nice person. He is always making us little gifts.
That night, a few of the Young Single Adults met us at the community club for some Karaoke. They chose some pretty fun songs, and we all sang along. Elder Nelson looked for some Jimmy Buffet songs, but they didn't have any. The Meltons joined us, showing us all their moves on the dance floor. It was fun for all.
Temple Tuesday was wonderful, as always. Towards the end of our shift, my assignment was at the recommendation desk. A couple was coming out of the temple, and I thought they looked familiar. Sure enough, it was the Sharps from Abu Dhabi. They were here on a short vacation and happened to be at the Tokyo temple on our day. They are still living over there. Small world.
On Wednesday, we did office duty at the Red Cross, and it was very quiet, so we did some studying and reading. The afternoon was Occ. Health and ACS volunteering so that filled up the rest of the day. That night, the Melton's had asked if we would take them to a sushi-go-round, so we picked them up and brought them to one of our favorites. We showed them some of our favorites, and they tried some of them. I remember my first experience with sushi and they were much more adventurous than I was. The next thing they want to try is an authentic ramen. There are ramen shops everywhere.
Thursday dawned bright and early as we helped with the Newcomer's Orientation on Zama starting at 7 a.m. They are generally every other week, but with the holidays, there hadn't been one since early December, so we had a large group of new folks. We helped with the sign-in and answered questions. Elder Nelson did the Red Cross briefing, and then we both helped with the break-out session representing the Red Cross. One of our friends, Rob Zuckerman invited us to join him at a most delicious Chinese restaurant nearby. The fried rice was amazing. We now have a new place to enjoy authentic Chinese food. We also supported the Celebrate Recovery program that night. Bedtime looked good after a full day.
For Friday, we feed the missionaries at the district council meeting. One of our Elders from the Philippines had his birthday and requested breakfast burritos. Transporting them to the Fujisawa chapel and keeping them warm was challenging, but we managed. We served them with tater-tots that the missionaries were excited about. Sis Melton made a yummy raspberry pretzel jello, and Elder Santillan, whose birthday it was, requested Snicker Doodles instead of cake. That I could do. He said he loved it all. Just bringing a little joy to those hard-working missionaries.
Our next stop was the Kanagawa driver's license office to help the Meltons submit their Japanese driver's license paperwork. We also had a friend from the Japanese ward come and see if she could plead our case to move our test date from March 26th to an earlier date. But, alas, not so. Still hoping and trying to discover if and how we can change it. Otherwise, these two old folks will be walking until we can get through the licensing process. We have been driving on an International driver's license, but it expires on March 25, and we are no longer legal to drive until we get a Japanese license. So we shall see. We can walk to post where we do a lot of our volunteering. We will need a ride to church and we can take the train to the temple so we will manage. The full-time elders and sisters walk everywhere, we can too!?!
Saturday seemed like a good day for Pday, so we cleaned up the apartment and headed to Ebina. It is only two train stops away, and there is lots of shopping and an Outback. We finally got another key made for our apartment and walked around the area. We enjoyed a steak dinner at the Outback, and it was pretty much the same menu—including the Bloomin' Onion- but we just had the Bloomin' Petals.
Sunday, it was our turn to go to Camp Fuji to offer sacrament services to one of our Marines there. This time, we had the Garrison chaplain and one of our young adults from Zama join us. It was nice to have the company, and everyone enjoyed the brownies at the "Linger Longer." I told Oakley (the one marine) he was welcome to take the brownies back and share them with the guys in the barracks. His response."Oh, they aren't getting any of these." I take it he likes brownies. We love going up to Camp Fuji and spending some time with him. He is a great guy.
We jump into another busy week. We are doing our best to stay focused on the many ways we can serve. We have some new things we are hoping to start, and we love all the people we meet. Each week, the work is so rewarding. Show the badge and serve with a smile, anyone we can.
Elder and Sister Nelson
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