Look who is enjoying the cherry trees!

We went hiking today on Mt Kin Boh. It is cherry blossom time so the hike was particularly beautiful. We can see this mountain from our balcony. There was such a haze today that we could not see our balcony from the mountain. We will try again when it is clearer. It was my favorite kind of hike--you drive to within a few feet of the top and then walk up the stairs and paved path to the summit. Since this is Japan, there was a temple, several shrines and three big TV towers at the top. You can see the TV towers from our place. And lots of trees--kind-of like hiking to the top of Moscow Mountain and finding that all you could see was trees. They did have some cleared areas so that you could see the ocean and Nagasaki to the west and Kumamoto city and Mt Aso to the east. Very beautiful. Come visit and we will gladly take you hiking:)
Love, Mom

Illiteracy.....

Here is a note that Keith sent to his cousin, Cathy Van Skyhawk

As part of our proselyting mission Kandie and I were assigned to open one of the first two Young Single Adult (YSA) Outreach Centers in Japan, and now we are Sr. Couple 'Zone Leaders' over nine. These are like the Institute Centers associated with American Universities, and were described in last month's Liahona (in Japanese). We open and man ours six days a week, and have grown to well over a hundred participating YSA.

The first picture below is from our recent Valentines activity. Here Valentine's Day is for the girls to do something for the boys. Then on March 14th, (White Day), the boys are to return the favor. Our boys have been planning something for weeks. The girls' half, Valentine's Day, was well attended and enjoyed by all.

You might notice everyone sitting on the floor with chairs carefully stacked along the walls. However, we do set up a few and put our bags and books on them. In Japan what are chairs for, anyway? The next pictures below are of Kandie in a local bookstore purchasing instructions on how to sew matching skirts for our coming all-Kyushu 'Jitterbug Dance'.

Along with sewing activities, we now practice dancing each week, which pleases the sisters and traumatizes the brothers.

Kandie and I are steadily progressing a little beyond total illiteracy. We study language together, and then leave our apartment for the day's next surprise and adventure. J

Love, Keith and Kandie Prisbrey (living by the ancient Kumamoto Castle, Japan)

Notice the total lack of any English on these books. We found two with good directions (eg. lots of clear pictures) and have loaned them out to those wanting to sew skirts for the conference.

starting sewing

After a lengthy search, we bought a sewing machine. We looked at Japanese machines (some top names here), but were continually encouraged to buy a Singer. So there it is--a basic Singer, made in Taiwan, on sale for half price and the few basic stitches that it does, it does beautifully.

Here I am with the Sister Missionaries in our district, sewing Book of Mormon covers for their new baptisms. Apparently the blue dye on the Japanese Books of Mormon and Triples comes off on your hands, so everyone has cloth covers for their scriptures. I even made a set for mine, even though they are leather and impervious to almost everything.

Notice the sunlight streaming through our front windows? Just another reason why being in Kumamoto is a good idea in the winter:)

The Sister Missionaries, starting at the left, and Sister Motegi, Sister Bunya and Sister Endo. They are great!

Love, Kandie

Keith and Kandie's Liahona article

For those of you who do not get the Japanese language pages in your Liahona:), scroll down to the bottom of this page and see who was featured. We are pretty pleased. The other couple with us are Brother and Sister Oyama, our local counterparts. They're actually the ones that do the talking. I smile a lot and Keith has learned to tease.

The whole article was about outreach centers and took about 6 pages. At that time, our mission was the only one with outreach centers. Now several other missions in Japan have them. The centers are several years old in Europe.

In the year that we have been here, we have seen increases in temple marriages as well as people wanting to be married, mission calls, reactivations, young people who have remained active and a good stream of Young Single Adult baptisms who stay active. Retention is up. Fellowship is up.

We rejoice every day that we get to serve the Lord here in this beautiful part of His vineyard.

Love, Kandie and Keith