Week 21 - June 24-30, 2013 Japan Fukuoka Mission

Monday June 24 we suggested to the Kumamoto District leaders that we could meet at our apartment at 7:00 a.m. (which is Sunday 4:00 MST in Utah) and watch the worldwide broadcast "The work of Salvation".  They took us up on this and we got to listen along with family and friends in America.  Afterwards we had a fun pancake breakfast. 

Afterwards the sisters had invited Luetta to make sushi rolls and she was happy to be able to learn how to do them just right from a native Japanese sister.  Here are the ingredients (egg, fried spam sticks, carrots, and cucumbers) and starting to spread the rice on the sea weed wrap.

Adding the ingredients to the rice layer.

To wrap them you put a layer of plastic wrap on a bamboo mat then roll them such that the 1" of sea weed that you didn't put rice on overlaps onto other side of the sea weed.  That way they stick together with the help of the sticky rice.

Then you slice them.  Here is the finished product along with Salsa and Chips that we ate for lunch.  A Japanese/Mexican lunch.

Here the wrap is on the outside.

And here the wrap is on the inside with the rice exposed and covered with sesame seeds.

The entrance to the Kumamoto Stake Center had a large rolling iron gate and high walls that made it virtually invisible from the street and not very attractive.  Recently it was redone with grass and a low wall, it is very inviting.

It is such a wonderful improvement that as the missionaries contact people in the area they hear how glad they are that we "fixed" it up.  It may be con incidental for planned, but it will be great for the new policy of having church building tours in all the church building around the world announced in the Worldwide broadcast.

Thursday and Friday we inspected apartments in Saga and Sasebo.  Sasebo in on the far western side of Kyushu island that we are on.  It is a fairly long trip.  After the Saga inspection, we got to Sasebo before dark and went to the Kujukushima National Park, which consists of numerous small islands and is very beautiful.  Even though there was a cloudy overcast we got some good pictures.  First from the Kujukushima view platform.

Then at the Saikai Pearl Sea Resort, sort of a water theme park, with a dolphin stage, which was closed and lots of water activities.

There was also a dive shop here, I suspect there is some awesome scuba diving here in the park.

They have some awesome large ships you can take tours of the islands on,

as well as host of other smaller crafts such as kayaks, etc. that you can rent.  I was so wanting to try one out, oh well.

On the way back to the hotel, in the rain, on shot of the large commercial shipping cranes in the bay.

When we got back Saturday we had one of the worlds smallest watermelons:

It tasted great and the price was right.

I came across the awesome poster and I loved it.

It is truly awesome, that God loves us personally and individually.  How it can be I don't know but I know it is true from the witness of His spirit to me.  I know science has discovered some wonderful things about the cosmos, but I feel there is much more to be known and ultimately correct revealed religion and fully discovered science will in fact describe the same thing.