BLOG #61 Another week of "IRO IRO".

We had a very "mixed bag" of activities this week.  In Japanese that would be called "iro iro."  Even the weather mixed it up with nice beautiful clear days, blowy windy days, and stormy rainy all in one week. Fortunately it isn't HOT yet, but it is getting that way.  It is a race to see if we can get one working driver's license before it really does get HOT, or the rainy season starts.  

Monday's highlight was playing pickle ball with our YSA group.  First time for these two old people!  Looks like a fun game if we could just hit the ball twice in a row!  We had a new YSA join us this week from one of the Japanese wards that doesn't have a YSA group going.  We really enjoy anytime we can meet together with any of these wonderful young people.

Tuesday was our Temple Tuesday time again. We have the bus-train-walk to the Temple down to a science now. Serving in the Temple is a wonderful and weekly experience that we really treasure.  We hurried home as fast as the train-walking thing would let us so we could drop in and support a Zama Chapel activity for Single Parents at the Bowling Alley.  Not a great turnout, but it is always good to spend some time with some of our favorite Camp Zama community friends who also came out to support the event.

Elder Nelson arranged to take a one-on-one driving lesson on Wednesday that first involved about an hour and a half of bus-train-walking...we do that a lot lately. While he went off and did that, Sister Nelson did some baking and worked at the Occupational Health clinic. We linked back up later for Mongolian BBQ night at the Camp Zama Community Center.  The driving lesson was very much worthwhile and Elder Nelson picked up on some key tips including being made aware of some "wired in" driving habits that wouldn't be good to do during the actual exam.  While waiting to be met and picked up by the instructor, Elder Nelson shared his quick snack with a local pigeon! 

Thursday we had our early morning start for Newcomers Orientation. That is a great service opportunity so we don't mind at all.  We also supported the Tokyo South Mission "Emergency Drill" that they do every so often.  That involves making a call on a Japanese payphone, that allows you to get an emergency message from the Mission Office and also leave a message.  That would be critical during an emergency situation after an earthquake, typhoon, or tsunami...and maybe a zombie apocalypse too. We also are supposed to walk to a designated emergency location (and take a picture that proves you know how and where to go). We have done this drill about four times now.  It's easy when you never transfer.  Later we delivered all of the baked goods Sister Nelson made to the RC and attended another awards ceremony for volunteers.  Our Celebrate Recovery activity was canceled so we had an early evening, but Elder Nelson did get to hop on a Zoom lesson with the young Elders and one of their "friends" (investigators).  

Friday we had Zone Conference. We love Zone Conference.  We did the bus-train-walk routine and got to the Zone Conference location in about an hour.  We had extra baggage with us because we planned to go to into Tokyo afterwards to support a special Temple night by our Stake (Stake Conference is next week and we have Elder Rendlund coming!) So, we hustled (train-walk) to Tokyo, checked in at The New Sanno hotel and made our way over to the Temple. We got done late and caught a late night "snack" at the lounge at the hotel. 

We made it to Saturday!  We are declaring this Saturday P-Day, even if it is really lousy, stormy, and rainy. We decided to press on anyway.  We first enjoyed a nice breakfast at the New Sanno. We were able to meet Elder and Sister Melton for breakfast since they too had stayed over that night.  We took our bags over to the Temple Annex and dropped them off, then we braved the weather and headed into the Asakusa area where we had planned a nice cultural excursion.  Little did we know that we had picked the same day as a major Japanese festival taking place right where we were headed. Yikes.  We arrived and were surprised by ALL THE PEOPLE and ALL carrying umbrellas.  Well, must be our lucky day, we still had no clue as to why the crowds.  Soon, as we huddled under one of the Shrine gates to get out of the rain, we found out. Some people we met explained that the Sanja Matsuri (Three Shrine Festival) was in full swing.  Well, since we already there, we settled in to watch  (See Facebook posting and video).  After a long enough dose of "festival" we wandered towards our next destination.  An area called Kappbashi.  It is famous for being the kitchenwares market - all things culinary --including the famous Japanese chef knives.  Elder Nelson had that on his acquisition list.  We also picked a local restaurant and had a very Japanese style lunch.  Then we started our trek home, by way of the Temple annex to get our bags, and made it back finally to our home base, we skipped the last "walk" and took a Taxi...very tired and very wet.  

Sunday we enjoyed church and a branch "linger longer" activity. That was especially nice because there were a few members that came that had not been for a while.  Also, the young missionaries had a few new friends join us as well. We had barely enough food, but everyone got their fill. Also, one of the wonderful members of the Japanese ward we share the meetinghouse with came over to Sister Nelson and said in her best Japanese/English, "Nelson Shimai! My garden flowers...you...home" which translated to Sister Nelson, these flowers are from my garden, please take them home."  The members, especially the Japanese members we meet are alway so kind to us.  And another nice American member family gave us a a ride home!   Later we listened to the weekly "miracle call" that our Mission has each Sunday evening.  Always a good way to end the week.  Next week starts soon and will bring with it more planned and unplanned opportunities to serve here in our part of this special island nation of Japan. 

Love

Elder and Sister Nelson