Family History Week-end

Yesterday the Kumamoto ward relief society asked us to talk about our ancestors, relief society, pioneers and anything else up-lifting we wanted to talk about that would fit into 30 minutes total. Since filling 30 minutes with Japanese is still quite a struggle, we handled it this way. Keith prepared a power point presentation with slides from St George and clips from Legacy of wagon trains traveling through desert and sagebrush. He also had a section of his family tree to show his connection to the grandmother he was talking about. I wrote Uncle Jeff and had him send me some of the pictures of the Swiss church and village where Elizabeth Trachsler Boshard lived before she was baptized. I also spoke about Christina Charlotta Pehrson Olson from Sweden. So my power point slide had their names and dates on it. Both of these great grandmothers were widows with children who traveled to America because of the church, so it was fun to talk about their similarities. (This is really baby Japanese still, so it sounds a lot like a 4-year-old's primary talk.) 

Dad gave his entire presentation in Japanese including the story of the Indian grandmother who knocked on Grandma Sophie Rusch Mathis' door begging for food. I gave (read) the first few sentences and the last few sentences in Japanese and had an interpreter for the rest. I gave her a copy of the talk ahead of time so that she would feel more comfortable in her presentation. The two languages are very hard to translate back and forth. A sentence in Japanese turns into almost a paragraph in English and vice-versa. It's probably the same with other languages, but I only have experience with French and Japanese. It really seems that English and French were just a matter of getting the word order correct, but the basic thought was still the same. Not so in Japanese. The whole sentence has to be rethought and maybe many more sentences added to get across the same or similar meaning.

We were asked to introduce ourselves first. It has taken us some time to understand what this means--introduce ourselves. In America, that means list your accomplishments--job, family, awards etc. Here they want to know what your favorite color is, what your hobbies are, what is your favorite food, where your hometown is--among other things. These questions have thrown us for quite a loop until we figured out what was happening. So this is what I said, "We are from Utah and Idaho. Our favorite food is Japanese food. My hobbies are reading and walking (two acceptable hobbies here) and my husband's hobby is memorizing kanji (this was greeted with a lot of blank stares so I'm pretty sure this one did not translate correctly). We have 5 children and 10 grandchildren. We are very happy to be here in Kumamoto." 

I did not say what our favorite colors are because we are not sure what to say here. Since all colors are great and Dad tends to want to say things like, "We are from the moon. My favorite color is chartreuse..." Our presentation was well received, but anything from us is greeted with such kindness that we really don't know if it was good or not. We always have a grand time.

One of the questions that they asked afterward was this, "How did you get to come to Japan for your mission?" We explained that we had always wanted to come here and had really been planning this for 40 years. But the main thing that happened is that last year in March, the Lord told us, "I want you in Japan in January." We began to make all of the preparations--with a lot undone as Kathy and Donna can testify--but here we are. This fact is still amazing to me. Every time I walk back to the apartment from the church, I think with total amazement, "I'm in Kumamoto and I live on the 8th floor right next to the church and I get to teach the gospel every day. How wonderfully amazing is all of that!?!"

I ordered a Japanese/English dictionary from Amazon.jp.com. In tracking the package I see that it is coming from the Tokyo area to Kumamoto by SHIP! Now, how about that? Of course the last bit has to be by rail or truck, since Kumamoto is an inland plain, but that amounts to a two hour drive only. Most of its way, the book is coming by SHIP.

This whole posting is actually about ancestors. It becomes clearer and clearer to me the more we get to talk about family history, that our ancestors are very close to us and care about us deeply. They really do want us to know about them. They know all about us. I have a feeling that they feel as proud and pleased as any other grandparent when it comes to their own grandchild. So here is a little challenge. Take some time this month to find out a story about a grandparent. Take one to the temple if they haven't already been. Learn a name and a date and a place so that you can start connecting some history together in your mind. Be happy that they are your ancestors. They're happy that you are their children.

Love, Mom, Kandie, Grandma

for pictures, check out our web-site  <prisbreyfamily.blogspot.com>