Week 20 - June 18-24

Because of the increase of missionaries in our district this last transfer the boundaries were rearranged.  We now have a district of ten missionaries, all ten attend the Kumamoto and Nagamine wards (five elders and five sisters).  We now have our district meetings at the Kumamoto chapel which is next door.  We had been traveling to the Shimizu/Tsuboi chapel which is about a 45 minute bike ride for us.

Thursday we drove to Yatsushiro and inspected an apartment there.  The drive was beautiful.  The clouds were low and looked like the trees were steaming.

This is a picture of the apartment building.  

The apartment is out in the country and has many rice fields near.

 This is a flooded rice field with the green shoots coming up.  We have enjoyed watching the rice grow.  The patties are everywhere.  Farms are flooded with a road to the home. 

Saturday we went to a professional soccer game.  It was fun, I enjoy watching the flags.  

The stadium is amazing here in Kumamoto and there was even free parking. 

I enjoyed watching the Kumamon bear at the game.

Monday morning at 7am we had the Elders and Sister from Kumamoto over to watch the worldwide broadcast of “The Work of Salvation".    We watched it live.  A pancake breakfast following the broadcast was a fun treat for all of us.  

The sisters offered to show me how to make sushi, as I had tried and had some trouble.  We used what we had (tuna, spam, and eggs).  Some of the missionaries who were here helped roll it.  I was showed how to make two different types of sushi.  One with the rice and poppy seeds on the outside

 and the other had the rice inside the seaweed wrapper.  

They were beautiful to look at and tasted great!  What a combination of spam, egg and tuna!  They were delicious and enjoyed by all the elders and sisters that were here. 

We experienced our first monsoon this week and it was very mild, mostly rain and a little wind.  Our favorite grocery store was preparing for the storm when we went shopping  Friday afternoon.

The most damage we received was one of my tomatoes broke in the wind.  I taped it back together, staked it better and moved it to a wind protected area of the patio.  It looks like it is going to be fine.  I am glad as it is loaded with green cherry tomatoes.