Brace Yourself.
It's been three weeks since I've had any time to post. But now I will be posting quite often, at least for the next week or so. I have a lot to say.
I love Japan. There are many cultural differences, and it has been really fun and interesting to find them and enjoy this new adventure. 
In our first "home" in Japan, the room where General Authorities stay when they visit. President and Sister Baird were so sweet to allow us to stay here for the first six days in Japan, until the Oldroyd's, the couple we replaced, went back to Utah.
Our first ekaiwa class (English Conversation). We will be helping to teach English here on Wednesday evenings. But our first class was a party! A sad goodbye to the Oldroyds, who have been here for two years, and a happy and kind welcome to the Barneys. The Japanese know how to party. There was tons of good food. Our class is surprisingly large--this picture is only about 2/3 of the group.
I'll be you can't guess what little piece of information about ourselves got the biggest response.
Twenty-two grandchildren. Surprise.
This is Sister Baird, the mission president's wife (I love her!) on the left, Sister Oldroyd (the senior missionary sister who taught me everything I know about being a mission secretary and one of the kindest, wisest ladies I've ever met, on the right, and Sister How-Am-I-Ever-Going-To-Remember-It-All/Smile-And-Pretend-You-Are-Calm Barney in the center rear.
