Visit from Salt Lake City

 (This blog is written by Lee.  Yeah!!)

Don't we look cute in Sister Baird's aprons?

We had visitors from Salt Lake, Sister Dalton, General YW President, and Sister Stephens, First Counselor in the General Primary Presidency. along with Sister Stevenson, spouse of the Presiding Bishop, Elder Yamashita (a Japanese GA who spoke in General Conference) and Elder Oishi, an Area 70.  We helped fix dinner for them.  Apparently since arriving in Japan they have been eating sandwiches because of their tight schedule. They even had chocolate covered potato chips for breakfast.  

Standing from left:  Sister and Pres. Baird, Sister and Pres. Komiya, and Sister and Pres. Urasa
Seated: Elder Oishi (Area 70), Elder and Sister Yamashita (1st Quorum of the 70), Sister Dalton,
Sister Stevens, Sister Stevenson, Brett Stevenson (son).

When they arrived on Tuesday, and saw a table set for Japanese food, they were excited.  

You see a lovely table set for dinner by Sister Baird.  I see a million dishes that will need washing.
(It was five dishes each for 20, plus serving and cooking dishes.  That equals a million, right?)

The gyoza prepared by four Japanese sisters was the hit of the dinner. Little did the guests realize that except for the Gyoza (pot stickers -- it is funny to me that this is actually a Chinese dish) and dessert, the rest of the meal had been prepared by two Americans.  We cooked teriyaki chicken, a Japanese rice dish Ilene and I learned how to cook (but we put in Crab and Ham--things Americans like), and a veggie tray of veggies Americans like, a fruit plate of pineapple and strawberries.  The food was selected so an American would like it, with nothing too strange.  

Sister Baird standing, with the sweet ladies who worked so hard on the gyoza.

Interestingly, Ilene and I worked for about 3 hours on food prep and 4 Japanese sisters worked for 4.5 hours on hand making the fresh gyoza.  It was fantastic.  The Japanese sisters commented on it being the first time they stood back and watched an American make the Japanese rice dish.  Ilene used snow peas on the veggie plate, and they said it was the first time they saw snow peas used raw.  

All in all it was fun serving these leaders and helping the mission president and his wife.  We have told them, a big part of our role is to help them be more effective.  This was just one way we have been able to help.

This really is as fun as it looks.

 While the General Authority and board members had dinner in the dining room, we ate with the sisters who helped, and with the two translators.  The one at the head of the table is Megumi Yamaguchi.  She has been wonderful to us and really helpful to Ilene, especially when we first arrived. She took Ilene shopping and showed her foods to buy and explained how to cook them.

Sister Dalton came into the kitchen after dinner and gave us all a hug.
So special for all of us.