Yoshino Park

Kagoshima Branch activity to go see the cherry blossoms and have a picnic at Yoshino Park.  It is a surprisingly large park.  They have a playground area for kids.  Fields big enough to play games like soccer, baseball, and football.  Here are 2 photos of vegetations in the park.

There is observation deck overlooking the Kagoshima Bay and of course full view of Mt Sakurajima, our local active volcano.

Got to do a selfie.

Optical illusion.  Is Sister Lee walking down and climbing up?

She is actually walking down.

Apartment Checks

Part of our duties is apartment checks.  This is where we go to each of the apartments of the young missionaries and check how they are doing in terms of keeping their place clean and verify appliances, smoke / CO detectors, etc. are in working conditions.  We divided our list of apartments into 2 routes.  One day we do Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, and Nobeoka.  Nobeoka is 3.5 hours away by car.  This is known as our Eastern route.  Only 3 apartments, but the distance gets me pretty tired.  The other route, known as the Western route, has 5 apartments in Sendai (1), Taniyama (2), and Kagoshima (2).  Sendai is about 1 hr. away and Taniyama about 30 minutes away.  Distance wise is not bad but 5 apartments so that can get tiring too.  The very first apartment check that we did 6 weeks ago, 2 of the apartments needed curtains, so we installed them this time.  We also picked up 5-6 futons from one apartment that are no longer used and because they got stains on them, it was not worth the effort to clean them.  We took them to the local recycle center today.  It is free as long as have proof of residency (which we have - first thing we did when we arrived in Kagoshima - get our residence cards) and keep the total weight of items under 100 kg.  Anything over 100 kg will incur a fee, but even that amount is relatively inexpensive.  Here is a photo of one section of the recycle center where we took the futon and broken chair parts.  There actually was a line of cars bringing stuff.  Inside the building, there are 4 stalls for vehicles to unload.  In this photo, there were probably 4-5 cars in front of me with maybe similar # of cars behind me.

District Training Mtg

Today's theme was on "Love", as taught by Jesus.  So the focus on Him as each of us held a picture of Him.  There wasn't enough room to get everyone in the camera shot so we went outside.  It was a little bit breezy as you can see from our ties and pictures blowing toward our left.  It was a very beautiful sunny day though.

After the meeting, we went back to our apartment and provided lunch for the young missionaries.  We served sloppy joe sandwiches.  Remember hamburger buns are rare items around here but we found sub sandwich rolls so we used that instead.  We also had toss salad and a pasta salad. For dessert, banana bread and chocolate bars.  Sister Lee is well loved here.

Perimeter of Kagoshima Univ. campus

It gets monotonous to keep walking in circles around the 300 meter track every day, so last Saturday I chose to walk around the campus of Kagoshima University.  Here is an interesting building.  The name of the building is at the top left corner of the building.  It is called the Inamori Auditorium.  The sphere sticks out of the side of the building.  Around the corner you can see a spiral walkway around the sphere going into an entrance of the sphere.  Hope I can go inside one of these days to take a look.

Here is a look from the south entrance into campus.  What caught my eyes is that there is a domed observatory near the center of the photo between 2 palm trees.  Next time I think I'll walk through campus to get a closer look.

Imagine that! You don't see too many of these things anymore, what with everyone having a cell phone nowadays.  The younger generations may not even know what it is.  It is a pay telephone booth.

Baptism Today

This is a photo of Daiki with the Elders Arnold & Jacobson, who taught him most of his discussions.  The photo was taken about a week ago.  Today Daiki was baptized by Elder Jacobson and confirmed by Elder Arnold.  Daiki is going to school at Kagoshima University.  He came to English conversation class to learn English.  Prior to going to college, he had a friend who introduced him to Christianity.  He was quite interested in learning more about Christ but when he went off to college, his appetite to learn of Christ was put on hold.  However, coming to English class afforded him opportunity to learn English and once again explore Christianity.  This all started near the end of January and in just 2 short months, he was baptized like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It was a beautiful day, much like the weather seen in this photo.  Sister Lee and I played a little part in Daiki's life these past 2 months.  Daiki would ride the tram from University to the station at the bottom of the hill going up to our church building.  We would pick him up along with the Elders and drive them up to the church.  We noticed Elder Arnold would always bring a white dress shirt on a hanger with a tie so Daiki can wear it for church, because Daiki never went to church before and never had a reason to own a white shirt.  During our last apartment checks, we went to one of Elders' apartments and they had these extra clothing left in a room, clean clothing that other missionaries had left behind when they transferred.  The extra clothing was just cluttering up their apartment, so we took them away to donate to others and to declutter their apartment.  I found 3 white shirts and thought they would fit Daiki.  Sure enough, they fit perfectly.  How wonderful it is to see the Lord's hands to make this all happen.

More from District Conference

Here is a photo of missionaries after the recent District Conference.  There was lunch afterwards and President Mack had some meetings.  With nothing going on, I stepped out briefly to use the restroom so I would be ready to drive the Macks back to the train station.  Lo & behold, when I came back, I found out they had decided to take a photo so I wasn't in this, but Sister Lee was.  I am probably too serious to be in this picture anyway.

More on Zone Conference

Here's a little more information on Kagoshima Zone Conference.  Since we share zone conference with Kumamoto Zone and Kumamoto is about an hour drive from Fukuoka, it is less travel to hold conference at Kumamoto rather than Kagoshima.  To help keep costs down, I get to bus as many as can fit in a vehicle.  With only a regular license, I am only allowed to drive a maximum of 8 people.  Normally, that means taking the Taniyama Sisters, Kagoshima Sisters, and 1 of 2 Kagoshima Elder companionships.  The remaining Kagoshima Elders and Taniyama Elders would take a bus.  To take 6 passengers in addition to Sister Lee and me, we have to rent a 8 passenger van.  We pick up the van the night before conference and park it at the teaching station.  In the morning we walk over to the teaching station and drive to pick up the missionaries at a parking lot of a grocery store near the Kagoshima Sisters' apartment.  With the announcement of a new church building, the teaching station will eventually be replaced by the church building itself.  When that happens, it will probably mean I'll park the van in a paid parking lot just across the alley from our apartment building.  The gathering place to depart will probably change as well because no doubt there will be efforts to find apartments for the young missionaries closer to the new church building.

Remember one of my earlier posts where I showed a photo of our active volcano.  Here is a link giving more information about it.

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4601.html

I mention the volcano again because Sister Lee just the night before checked the wind direction and noticed that the wind is projected to blow toward us from the volcano during the morning.  Sure enough, as we walked to the teaching station to get the van, a speck of ash got into my left eye.  Thank goodness, it was not hot but it was a nuisance for a number of minutes.  When Sister Lee and I occasionally ran our hands through our hair, we noticed black specks underneath our fingernails.  As long as it stays this way of constantly letting off steam / ash, I am OK with it.  Don't want any major eruptions.

Kagoshima Zone Conference training skit

We had zone conference yesterday, Mar. 20, 2019 in Kumamoto Stake Center.  It is a 2.5 hour drive from Kagoshima.  Zone conference is once every transfer, i.e. 6 weeks.  The Kagoshima Zone holds its zone conference at the same time as Kumamoto Zone.  For the most part, the zone conference is combined with Kumamoto.  In the afternoon, Kagoshima Zone does split off from Kumamoto Zone and have its own training session for about 1 hour.  Our training session was on Obedience.  We had an activity where we performed 2 skits, 1 how a certain activity is not "obeying" the proper guidelines and 1 how it is supposed to be done.  Now the skit performed by Kagoshima Elders on morning activities as shown above is "exaggerated via synchronization" to punctuate how it should be done.

Now as the driver of these young missionaries in the morning, Sister Lee and I thought they wanted to have their blankets to sleep in the van when they brought them.  Now we know the real reason.

Kagoshima District Conference

We had a wonderful District Conference this past weekend.  This is like a Stake Conference but since Kagoshima is only a district, hoping to get large enough to be transformed to a stake.  Anyhow, Elder Yamashita, (the larger photo on the left), a member of the 70's came and presided over the conference.  Elder Yamashita is born the same year as I.  I am only 5 months older, yet my head has a lot more gray hairs.  Elder Nagatomo from the Area 70's, (photo on right), also came.  As mentioned in another post, Elder Yamashita announced a new church building with Kagoshima Branch combining with Taniyama Branch.  Sister Lee and I have hard enough time trying to remember names for the Kagoshima Branch.  Now add more names for the people from the Taniyama Branch.  For the conference itself, I participated in 2 choirs.  First I was among the Kagoshima Elders Quorum which sang the song I'll Find You My Friend, composed by Linda Leavitt.  First I never heard the song in the states and then we had to sing it in Japanese.  The song is in 4/4 time but most notes are eighth notes.  It was too fast for me to read the Japanese hiragana, have my brain tell me what the sound is, and utter the sound at the eighth note pace.  I practiced virtually every night for 2 weeks so I could stay synchronized with the notes.  The 2nd song was much easier.  It was the hymn "Love One Another".  That was with all the missionaries in the Kagoshima Branch.  We sang it in English first and then repeated the song in Japanese.  The tempo was much slower so my brain can handle the transition from one sound to the next.

New Church Building

This morning when we went to the Uearatanomori Park for our exercise, we went further to check out our new church building, that was announced during this past weekend's District Conference.  Our current church building sits up high on a hill and is inconvenient for many people to come to church since there is no bus service.  You either have to drive, taxi, or walk.  Some of the younger missionaries do bike but it would very strenuous to do so.  So in my opinion, this is a very welcome change.  Of course, I am a little bit biased since it is only 12 minutes to walk there and 4 minutes to drive.  Not sure about the parking situation since the announcement at District Conference said coin parking.  There is a pay parking lot about 1/2 block away but this building does have about 20 parking spaces as you can see in the picture.  The gate is on wheels and can slide open.  There is a similar gate in front of the main entrance.  Initially, we will only use 2 floors, so church leaders are thinking about leasing the other 2 floors to other interested parties.

The building announcement included combining the Kagoshima Branch and the Taniyama Branch.  There is strength in numbers.  The only disadvantage I see is members living north of the current church building now will have to travel further to the new building. The members from the current Taniyama Branch will have to travel further.  We will probably need to find new apartments near the new building for the missionaries living at the bottom of the hill close to the current branch building.  Since Kagoshima University is just next to us, most apartments around here are tailored for students (small to make it affordable), so finding apartments large enough to accommodate 2-4 people will be difficult.

Uearatanomori Park

This is the Uearatanomori Park behind the hospital (emergency entrance on the left of picture), very convenient, only 6 minutes walk from apartment, to use its 300 meter track for exercise.

Hospital across the street

This is the hospital near our apartment.  We can see it from our back balcony.  We have gotten used to hearing the occasional ambulance sirens and the occasional helicopter landing and lifting off from the heliport above the hospital building.  There is a park behind the hospital that has a 300 meter track that we use on weekday mornings for exercise.

Last week as I was walking back to the apartment from the track, a helicopter came flying in from the East approaching the heliport.  Here is a shot of it above me.

Kagoshima Branch Member Phone# Verification

Sister Lee spends a lot of time trying to contact branch members to verify the phone numbers listed in the branch directory.  Obviously I can't help her with this task.  I wouldn't be able to carry a conversation beyond the usual greetings.  Here are the usual responses on the phone:

• Recorded message saying the phone # is no longer in service.
• Some person answers but when Sister Lee ask if this is so and so, the reply is "wrong number".
• Parents answers and says son/daughter no longer lives at home but parents not being church members, won't give out new phone number.
• The intended people answers but say they no longer wants to come to church and don't want anyone to visit them.
• Japanese people are very polite in person but on the phone, some feel uninhibited to hang up.

I don't know how Sister Lee can handle so many phone rejections.  Perhaps it is the occasional success that makes all worthwhile, like she made contact with one member and told him about the District Conference.  He said he would come if someone can provide a ride.  Sister Lee relayed the request to Elders Quorum President Maki.  Rides were arranged and he was able to attend the conference.

March 2019 Home Evening

Once a month, we have a branch home evening at the teaching station.  It is a potluck type event.  Sister Lee made her cinnamon rolls, 15 (3 rows of 5).  We thought that might be enough but today a lot of people showed up so I cut up each roll in half to make 30.  I was smart and grabbed the first piece because I knew it wasn't going to last. Sure enough, as soon as everyone had a chance to have some, people came swarming back to get seconds. It was demolished soon thereafter.  If you look carefully, there are couple of pizzas just above the cinnamon rolls. Tiny but sliced into 8 pieces. I hope that wasn't the large size.

2nd transfer

It's transfer week.  So we had an "Open house" at the teaching station to say goodbye to 3 missionaries who have served well here.  Sister Lee is in charge of providing the refreshments, either by assigning others or prepare them ourselves.  This time Sister Lee decided on hamburgers / cheeseburgers.  Since we couldn't find hamburger buns, Sister Lee baked them herself.  Then we went to a store named A-Price and found they sold more US products but they tend to be pricy.  We actually found they did have some buns, but they were like 300 yen for a bag of 5 buns.  That's like 50 cents per bun without the meat.  So we continued with plan A, with homemade buns.  The ground beef was expensive too.  We used a scale to make sure every patty stayed around 60 grams.  We ended up making 32 patties, which was my contribution since I learned that from Montana Café.  Unfortunately I didn't have a Chinese butcher knife to make quick work of flattening the patties.  I was going wait until everyone had their chance of making their burger but then I realized people didn't know what to do.  So I made the first one so people can see how to do it.  The photo above is Tom, one of our English conversation class students.  He followed the example of putting the burger together but didn't catch how to eat one.  As you can see, he got everything stacked on the bun but then started to eat individual ingredients separately, starting with the lettuce.  I then demonstrated to him how to eat the burger in a stack.  Then everyone started eating them in like manner.  We did have three extra buns left over, so 3 people ate only the meat.  Maybe they were the late comers who didn't catch the demonstration.

Here are the 3 missionaries who left.  Sister Shibahara was transferred to Ube. Elder Sueldo, who is Peruvian with 1/16 Japanese, was raised in Japan so he had Japanese down pat, fluent in Spanish as well, and learned English during his mission.  He was my translator when Sister Lee wasn't around.  He served faithfully and well and now is home preparing for university studies.  Elder Howells from Georgia was transferred to Miyazaki, fairly close by so we will still see him occasionally during zone conferences and apartment checks.

McMayumi

It may not be McDonald's, which BTW is only 3 blocks away, this homemade cheeseburger is yummy.  We have a farewell party Wednesday March 6, 2019.  Elder Sueldo is going home and Sister Lee volunteered us as the ones in charge of providing refreshments, either bringing some and asking others to bring.  So since is farewell, Sister Lee wanted this to be memorable.  She thought hamburgers.  Only problem is ground beef is expensive here (we have a limited small budget) and we have yet to find anywhere that sells hamburger buns.  Hence the photo is an experimental burger with real homemade buns, 50 grams of ground beef.  Our oven is a dual cooker, a microwave and an oven but the size is small, so Sister Lee can only bake 6 buns at a time.  Well, happy to report, the experiment went off without a hitch.  I sampled two and they were delicious.  I am naming them Mayumi's My Yummies.

Happy Valentine Cards from America

Here are some cards that we received from one of the Highland 29th Ward primary classes.  We appreciate the support from across the sea.  You will have to zoom in to read the notes and see their names.