From Kumamoto

Kumamoto is cold and beautiful. While 7 degrees celsius may sound warm compared to below freezing temperatures, it feels a lot colder here. The humidity makes the difference. However, the people here are warm and friendly and very kind.  We have been assigned by our mission president, David Iwaasa from Raymond, Alberta, Canada, to open an Outreach Center for Young Single Adults. There is a real concern here that the young adults are not staying active. Europe has successfully started this program and we are copying their pattern.

Our center is in the Stake building, which happens to be right next door to us. Our apartment building looks right down on the church parking lot. We are on the 8th floor (the top floor, in fact) and have a balcony that faces west. I really love sunsets so am quite happy that we get to watch them from our front room. 

Our apartment is amazingly large for Japan. Everyone who visits is amazed at its size. In fact, our bedroom here is a little bit larger than our bedroom in Salt Lake. We have a bedroom. a study, a kitchen, a laundry/bathroom, a dining/front room and a large hallway with a genkan--that's the area where you take off your shoes before coming into the rest of the apartment.

We are slowly acquiring furniture and other necessities such as pans and towels. Our latest purchase is a set of shelves that fit over the washing machine. It is good to get all of the laundry supplies off of the floor and onto shelves. I'm hoping that I can send pictures soon. Perhaps the next posting.

Each room is individually heated. When you leave for the day and when you retire for the evening, you turn off all of the heaters, including the hot water heater and then you have to turn the heaters on first thing in the morning. The hot water heater is some miracle machine that delivers hot water within minutes of you turning on the heater and then delivers hot water as long as you need it. Apparently you cannot run out of hot water once the heater is turned on. The washing machine is not hooked up to any hot water, though; so if you want to wash with hot water, you have to bucket it from the bathroom sink. This is not as hard as it sounds, just time consuming. The dryer is the old fashioned kind--clothes lines. Everyone has an elaborate set-up of poles on their balcony to dry clothes. There are also drying racks that can be used indoors when it rains. Which it does almost every time I decide to wash. My clothes dry so gently that they are mostly wrinkle free. Keith's white shirts we are sending to the laundry which just happens to be right next to our apartment building. 

The members of the church here are really wonderful. The relief society have decided that I should speak Japanese, so they are taking it in turn to coach me. I meet with a different sister every day except Sunday at 10:00 at the church. Another member of our ward (Nagamine ward, Kumamoto stake), Brother Rogers, is a returned missionary from this mission who has lived in Japan for the past 10 years. He has loaned us two textbooks that I read from every day. The sentences are only in Japanese--hiragana, katakana and kanji--so everyone, including me, is impressed when I can read them. We have read about 10 pages so far. Reading the Japanese and working with our relief society has actually resulted in some spontaneous Japanese coming from my mouth--some of it even correct! I was able to bear a short testimony yesterday in a discussion that I knew that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. Perhaps I can say more the next time.

Tomorrow--Saturday, Feb 2nd, our outreach center has its grand opening. Since the hour is late and there is still a lot to do, I will close now with my love for you all and my love for the Lord for giving us this amazing opportunity.

Love, MOM, Grandma, Kandie (pick whichever one fits)