Baptisms

I haven't mentioned much about baptisms, which is the goal of every missionary.  Japan doesn't have a huge number of baptism, but in the past couple of months, there have been five in the Meito Ward where we attend church.  It's been really fun, because the missionaries who teach these people are the missionaries we work with, and the people who join the church come to our ward.

The first one in this group was an older gentleman, possibly in his 70's.  The second and third were young men, both about 20.  One of them had been taking lessons for over a year, so it was pretty exciting when he finally decided it was time.  The other joined rather quickly for a Japanese person, learning about the church and joining in about a four-month period.  His father is a Buddhist Priest.  Both are so cute and really add to the fun that the young single adults have together.  There's quite a large group of them.

The fourth one was Ing, a darling girl who has moved here from China.  She was introduced to the church by one of our favorite people, Liu, who is also from China.  She is always happy and out-going, and since she also speaks English, I get to talk with her often.  She is managing the weekly English classes that are taught at the church for free.  We have a children's class, a beginner's class, and an advanced class.  Lee and I teach the advanced class and really have some great discussions.  It's a lot of fun and our students are so good to us and enjoyable to get to know.

Two old geizers on the left, then Elder Hara (our awesome commissarian), Ing (about to be baptized),
Elder Clark (our recorder and the one who will baptize her, also from Cache Valley like me)
Elder Ellsworth and Elder Schade, our two assistants to the president.  We love these people.

Sister Yamada on left (one of the sweetest, most patient and loving missionaries ever),
Ing, Sister Takatsu (just about to finish her mission) and Liu (You can look at
Liu's face and see the love she has.  She is a joy to know.

We always have lots of people come to the baptisms.  So many good people.  

Then last week, we were very involved with the baptism of Yuri.  We first met Yuri several months back when she came into the mission home asking for our opinion on a letter she had received from a friend (male friend.)  She seemed nervous, but really wanted our input on the underlying meaning of something he had written.  We tried to help her the best we could, and the friendship began.  She began taking the lessons, then stopped for a while.  But after a month or so, she started taking them again, and decided to join the church.  Her English is excellent.  Her family lived in the US for about three years. Yuri was only age 2 to 5, but they have encouraged her to keep studying, and she's very bright.  Her dad bought her a lot of good English story books.  She shared one with me that I liked so much I ordered it to be sent home so my grandchildren could enjoy it.  Yuri is now translating from Japanese to English at church for us.  And last week, because of transfers, Lee and I couldn't teach our English class for the four 12-year-old girls, so Yuri went and did it for us.

This is Yuri.  I got to speak at her baptism.  In Japan, the baptized individual also speaks,
and she did a fabulous job.  Elder Clark baptised her, and  Elder Hara helped teach her with Elder Clark.
She was also taught by Elder Berrett and Elder Koesashi, but Elder Berrett ended his mission and went
home and Elder Koesashi got transferred.

From left:  Sister Yamada, Sister Adachi (both amazing missionaries and women), Sister Barney, Liu,
Yuri, Elder Clark, Elder Hara, Elder Schade, Elder Ellsworth, and Elder Olsen, our new recorder who
has now replaced Elder Clark.

Yuri and Yours Truly

Liu, Keizen, (recent convert whose father is a Buddhist Priest) Yuri, Elder Kervinin (now a returned missionary, but he came back to visit from Finland, and was here for the baptism--one of my favorite missionaries and was an
assistant to the president, so we got to know him pretty well) and Yoshiki (recent convert).