Blog #72 Transfer Thursday...but not for us

 Hello all,

The Tokyo South Mission and all of its missionaries are plugging away, one day at a time. Trying our best not to have to change our clothes more than twice a day and hoping it will cool down soon. Not looking good for a while though. Under a heat advisory for the next 10 days. It's strange to get up in the morning and think that, at least by 5am, it will be a little cooler. Not so. Anyway, we knew when we came here that we would have to do two Tokyo summers, and that is what we are doing. The humidity is good for the skin, right?

We started our week with some pretty standard activities, including volunteering at Army Community Service. Afterward, Elder Nelson and I had a one-on-one session with a gal to teach her how to use Family Search. We got her signed up, and she will now be able to enter the information she knows about her family and see where it leads from there. Because she is Japanese, the standard search processes used in the US don't apply. Records here are significantly different. She knows she has some challenges, but we hooked her up with a Japanese sister from our stake who knows all the ways to search for records here. I hope she has some success. She seems very determined to learn about her ancestors.  

There was no YSA Monday night because we had one who was sick and another who was in Hawaii. Hopefully next week. We have a couple of young men who just graduated from high school as well, but they are not sure they are ready to make the jump to be a YSA. We are letting them know we would love to have them join with the others, but they have not come yet. 

Temple Tuesday dawned bright, sunny, and humid. We were able to secure a seat on all of our train transfers, which was nice. Always a plus for these two old people. Elder Nelson and I helped out in the baptistry, and we had some groups who were visitors to Japan. One of the groups was a wrestling team from Vernal, UT. There were about 7 guys and one girl with 3 adults. It's always fun to see where people are from. Only two more Temple Tuesdays for us, and then we will be mailing our temple clothes home and hopefully be able to serve in one of the temples near our home.

Wednesday was pretty quiet with just a couple of volunteer opportunities in the afternoon and a Zoom discussion with a friend in the evening. Sometimes it's nice to have a day that is a little less busy. We did go shopping for "picnic" food for our District Council meeting on Thursday. Usually, it's on Friday, but it was transfer week, so they did it a day earlier. We have a favorite produce shop nearby the train station that we like, so we went and picked up a whole watermelon. Sounded like a good idea until it came time to carry it home on the bus in a bag. Let's just say it had its own seat on the bus. Most Japanese folks don't have large refrigerators and so they buy small watermelons or in slices. One of the ladies on the bus was amazed at the size of the one we bought. 

 The District Council meeting on Thursday was also Pioneer Day (a Utah holiday on July 24th), so we had a picnic-style lunch and reminded the elders and sisters of the day we were celebrating. We only had one sister who knew what it was because the rest were either from the Philippines or not from Utah. Hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, and Sis Melton's homemade chocolate chip cookies made them happy, though. We didn't take many pictures, but we did take one last district picture before some of them transferred the next day. Hard to see them go, but we do get to see them in the temple on Tuesdays. 

Friday, we helped with the ACS (Army Community Service) 60th birthday celebration. They planned a party with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new classroom facility, which would also host FRG (Family Readiness Group) meetings, as well as swimming at the community swimming pool, complete with food, entertainment, cake cutting, and popcorn. Elder and Sister Nelson were tasked to make the popcorn. We did our best and tried to keep the bags of popcorn from blowing away. There was someone taking pictures, but we didn't get one of the popcorn makers. 

Also, that evening, we had the pleasure of going out to dinner with our friends from Celebrate Recovery, John and Stacy Villanueva. They were the leaders of the group and are moving back to California. They have 3 children, and one of them is a sweet, new baby named Madeline. She got to come too, so we got some snuggle time. She's starting to coo and had a lot to tell Elder Nelson when he was holding her. We enjoyed supporting the Celebrate Recovery program and enjoyed the friendship we made with John and Stacy. We hope we will see them again sometime. 

Saturday was a very busy day and one we have been planning for a while. Camp Fuji is a Marine Corps training base located about an hour from here, which we support with services as needed. We had been given some "outreach funds" to use with activities we support. We chose to host a BBQ in conjunction with the Red Cross for the Marines at Camp Fuji. The chaplain there is getting ready to PCS, and the new chaplain had already arrived, so we thought it would also be a great opportunity to say goodbye to Chaplain Walton and meet the new chaplain. We had a good turnout of hungry Marines and a lot of Red Cross volunteers to visit with them. It was a very nice event. One of our biggest challenges was knowing how many to buy for. And as it turned out, we bought too much, but the food will still be used for 3 other activities, so that worked out well. The Meltons helped us with the activity, and we were happy to join together with them. They are always very supportive and helpful. 

Suffice it to say, we were pretty tired when we finally made it home that evening. Mt. Fuji did cooperate and show us her grandeur. We will miss that view, but Elder Nelson has many pictures to help us remember. 

On Sunday, we were able to attend part of our church service, and then we had to hop on the train back to Zama for a mandatory Vacation Bible School training (VBS) meeting. It lasted about 3 hours, and we needed a nap by the time we got home. Sunday naps are nice, but unfortunately, we forgot about a Stake meeting we were supposed to attend. Sometimes old people forget things. It was on our calendar, but we forgot to look at it. 

Sunday evening ended with the Mission-wide Miracle Call. This is when everyone joins a joint voice call-in, and anyone who wants to can share any miracles that happened that week. It only lasts about 30 minutes and sometimes there are so many miracles, it's hard to let everyone have a turn. We love hearing how the "work" goes forward, and sometimes it goes forward with miracles. The faith and dedication of the young elders and sisters are always inspiring to us. They just give you the feeling that you want to do better and be better. We love them so much. 

And so we finish week 72 somewhat tired but so happy. We pray each day that we can do our best as disciples of the Lord. We have been so blessed and are grateful for this opportunity. We would like to thank all of our friends and family who continue to support and love us from afar. 

Love, 

Elder and Sister Nelson