kds kupboard: Week 15-16 May 14-27

May 14, Tuesday – We went to Y-son for a sushi dinner with two of her Chinese friends. I shared the story about the tomato plant from the April 2013 General Conference by M Russell Ballard. I had given her a tomato plant earlier. We showed her pictures of our family and shared our love for each of them. We told her that we are in Japan because of our love for her and the people of Japan and asked if we could come back and share our message with her. She said we could come back.

May 15, Wednesday – We biked to the International Center and parked our bikes in the city parking lot this time. They have an attendant and charge you 100 yen for each bike. It is very close the International Center where we teach English and attend a Japanese class. Our Japanese teacher, KM, joined our English conversation class. We have three students now and enjoying the opportunity to share English with them and practice our Japanese skills.

May 16, Thursday – Today we biked to check the Kumamoto Elders apartment and the Nagamini Sisters apartment. We found six Elders at the Kumamoto Elders apartment. The zone leaders live there and they were having splits with the Assistants to the President. We used the car to shop for needed items for the two apartments. I had e-mail the previous Kumamoto couple to find out were they found the toilet seat they replaced in our apartment. We had not been able to find a simple no water/heat seat for the Krume Sisters apartment.

We enjoyed Elder M’s art work on the wall in their apartment. He illustrated one of his favorite scriptures 2 Nephi 28:30 “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from then that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.”

May 17, 2013 – Friday We had our MTC Skype class with Brother KJ and then headed to Omuta for an apartment check. The Elders had a stove with only one burner working and their air conditioner/heater unit was not working. We had them call their manager to see if the problem could be resolved and found out the church owned the air conditioner so it was our problem. The branch members had bought them a heated rug to help keep them warm last winter. After making the purchases we enjoyed lunch together before leaving for Kurume to replace a long needed broken toilet seat. The Sister at Kurume were very happy with the new attached seat.

Terry and I enjoyed dinner with Sister L and Sister A at a favorite ramyun shop after installing the seat on their toilet.

May 18, 2013 - Saturday We had a MTC Skype Class with Brother AB in the morning. We had study time, then taught Eikaiwa at two p.m. In the evening we took a relaxing bike ride. I enjoyed the beautiful wild flowers along the riverbank.

May 19, 2013 – Sunday We attended meetings in both the Nagamini and Kumamoto Wards and two missionary correlations meeting. A busy day reporting, planning and being feed spiritually.

May 20, 2013 – Monday our district got together for lunch in Kumamoto before a two zone conference with President G the following day. Elders from the Kagoshima District and the Kumamoto District arrived Monday night and stayed at the Elders apartment. Elder M was looking for a service project for the group to do Monday evening. We had them help us update times on the fliers for Eikaiwa at our apartment. It was fun! I made cookies and popcorn for all and we shared our seven year old granddaughter talk about the sweet peas she planted.

May 21, 2013 – Tuesday was the two zone conference. The Kumamoto ward provided lunch which was great. President and Sister G both spoke to us. We presented our zone skits in the afternoon. It was fun to be part of.

May 22, 2013 – Wednesday we taught Eikaiwa at the International Center and then enjoyed learning more about the Japanese language with our teacher there. We taught Eikaiwa again in the evening.

May 23, 2013 – Thursday we got up early to catch the early Ferry to Nagasaki for two apartment checks. Both the Elders and Sister received Celestial ratings. We enjoyed lunch with the Elders but the Sister were busy so we bought them ice cream to enjoy later. We went to a favorite Indian Kerry place. I had Kerry and pan (bread). It was delicious.

May 24, 2013 – Friday we drove to Isahaya where we checked an Elders apartment. They to received a celestial rating so we again enjoyed lunch with great company. This time we went to a place where you choose your own. I tried a couple of different food items but totally forgot to take pictures. We had no shopping to do so got done very early and therefor had time to drive around Unzen before boarding the Ferry for the return trip to Kumamoto.

This is a picture of one of the hot springs we stopped at. It smelled like sulfur and reminded me of sulfur springs swimming pool were I learned to swim. There were places you could get in the hot pools and the area had many older people there.

Here are rice farm at the foot of the mountains and way in the back is a very small looking Unzen. We had a hard time seeing it when we could stop so I took pictures while we were driving.

On a clear day Mt Unzen can be seen from our patio in Kumamoto. Most of the time it is to smoggy/foggy to see it.

Monday afternoon Terry and bike to the Ferry. It was a cloudy windy day. We were blown down to the ferry but coming home was lots of work because of the wind and it is slightly up hill. We saw beautiful flowers.