We enjoyed another busy week of activity across the spectrum and scope of our missionary sojourn in Japan. We did a lot of concurrent and incremental prepping for a very busy Easter weekend. It seems that time is accelerating, even though our walking pace has not. At least we are enjoying some beautiful spring weather to walk with.
On Monday, Sister Nelson helped out at Army Community Service. Later, we worked Monday -- ACS, made a commissary run for FHE. FHE was going to be just two. One of them bailed out at the last minute and then there was just one or so we thought. The latter was a surprise, but we had a great visit with our one YSA who came, and felt comfortable enough to bring his mom who was visiting from Hawaii. We love our YSA's!
Tuesday, we had our weekly Tokyo Temple day. We have the bus and train routine down pretty well now, and if the trains are not crowded, and we can sit, the commute is almost as fast and pleasant as driving. We have learned to not join the evening commute home with the Tokyo working masses. As we have mentioned before, Tuesdays are special because it is the day the missionaries from both Tokyo missions can attend (once per transfer).
On Wednesday, Elder Nelson had his second (of three) Family History class, and Sister Nelson pitched in at the Red Cross office. A special highlight was seeing one of the Family History students successfully establish a FamilySearch account and, for the first time, be able to see nearly five generations of his family line that he had only heard about before. Later, it was Elder Nelson's turn at Army Community Service while Sister Nelson helped at the Occupational Health clinic. After a long day, we headed home and had our sights set on our recently discovered local restaurant, only to discover that they were closed that day...blah...SO, we went looking for another one and we found it! It was a "Yakitori" place. That means they grill stuff on little skewers...everything you can imagine, but mostly chicken. It was awesome and our experience was very Japanese! We will go back to this place.
On Thursday is was Camp Zama newcomers orientation again, so our day started at 0700. It was a relatively small group this. The PAO (Public Affairs Office) sent a nice lady to videotape and interview us for "Volunteer Celebration Week." That was fun, but none of our interview and only a few shots of our "volunteering" made the cut for the published video. I guess that the Army and Camp Zama are still not ready to overpublicize what we MRM missionaries do for them. Alas, sentiments change slowly. We did meet a gentleman who just arrived here, but had served before with a lot of LDS National Guard Soldiers...so he knew who we were and had a very positive take on our Church members. We did lunch with our Stars and Stripes Jewish friend, who was doing his Passover thing with salad and an unleavened cracker. He told us a little about his "passover" tradition. We retreated to our apartment for a bit and later returned to for Celebrate Recovery as we do each week. After that, Elder Nelson joined an online video lesson with one of their "friends." It isn't often that we get to help teach Gospel principles to those investigating the Church. Always a special experience for us. Sister Nelson was concurrently getting things prepped for Friday!
Friday was an exceptionally busy day. Loaded up, we headed out to catch our bus, then train, then taxi connection to get the our chapel where our district meets for weekly District Council and lunch. Easter is coming, you know! So with little Easter Baskets in tow, we made the trip, and we had a good meeting and experience. And the "Easter Bunnies" were also well received with big smiles from our young missionaries. Did I mention that Sister Nelson, for about the last three weeks, has been organizing and coordinating our upcoming Sunday Easter program for church? Well, after DC, we had to test the projector, sound, microphones, and such. After that we made it home by bus/train/bus long enough for a 15-minute power nap! Then, back to the bus stop for our bus/train/walking trip to the Temple Annex in Tokyo for a special Easter Devotional put on by the Mission and our missionaries. It was great, but it was all in Japanese, so Sister Nelson mostly smiled and enjoyed the music. THEN, after that, we went out to dinner with some of our fellow Senior Missionary friends from the Mission Office, the Burnetts. They took us to an Indian restaurant that served some amazing Indian cuisine. THEN, we made the train/bus journey home. Long, late, but wonderful day.
Saturday was for catching up, finishing up, and making final preparations for Sunday, along with our Monday, Tuesday morning substituting at the early-morning seminary class. Domino's delivered dinner that night.
Sunday came early! We rose about 0330 (O-DARK EARLY) so we could be ready and make it to the top of the Camp Zama Golf Course for the Zama chapel-sponsored Easter Sunrise Service. Sunrise was 0505. Sun- Sunrise service. We made it, along with a small congregation of faithful folks from our Camp Zama community. The only "person" that didn't show was Mr. Sun. It was too cloudy. We enjoyed some inspired music, spoken words, and prayer to commemorate Easter. After that, we got ourselves back home and got ready for our own Church service later. Long story short, everything came together for a very nice Easter Program that invited the Spirit for many. The only "wrinkle" was that the Young Men's General President and his wife (Elder Steven Lund) were in town and decided to attend our meeting...nothing like having a Church General Authority pop in and join your Easter Program! Still, all was good. We had one more event left, Easter dinner. We had three of our young adults and our partner MRM couple join us for Ham, "Funeral Potatoes, Green Beans, and "Manly Jello." We also had rolls and some yummy cheesecake for dessert. After our guest left, our last bit of energy went towards finalizing our thoughts for Monday morning's seminary lesson.
Good night for now. Remember, He died for us. He is risen. He lives. That is our testimony, along with all the others.
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