December 14, 2003

Sun. Dec. 14, 2003
Dear Family and anyone else who might read this:
I can’t believe how near to Christmas it has become. The Japenese merchants are surely on to squeezing every yen they possible can out of a holiday that isn’t even commemorated by the Japanese. There is Christmas decorations and Christmas music everywhere. Yesterday we saw a shop loaded with Christmas nick-naks with a sign, “Happy Silent Night”.
We had Bus tickets to go to Fukuoka to the Temple. But when I got around to checking them out, they had us scheduled for Friday, instead of Sat. So I went back to exchange the tickets and they said the Bus for Sat. morning was full and sold out. So if we wanted to go and get there for more than one session, we decided to take the shinkansen (train). The price is overwhelming, but we made it down in one hour. (Mom noted how it took ½ hour to get from the train station to the Temple by bus.) Anyway we had an enjoyable day at the Temple. The first session we attended was full (they had to bring in extra chairs). But there were only about 15 people in the next session.
They had one American working in our sessions. We talked to him after and he said he has been in Japan 13 years. He originally served here on a mission, married a Japanese member and has six children (none of them speak English). He said he is originally from Ohio and now lives about ½ way between Nagasaki and Fukuoka and works in the Temple when he can. He is employed by a computer Co. and can’t afford to go to the States very often. We can’t imagine how that would be!
Friday morning Pres. Banks called all the Mission Home Elders into his office and announced that Elder Carter who is down in Takamatsu is sick and he was sending Elder Hollis down to take his place so Elder Carter could come up here and recuperate. We all tried to not act overjoyed that Elder Hollis was finally going! He told Mom: “I’s goin to the states some day an when I do I’s fa shu goin to stop in Ceda City and see ya all.” Mom said, “Don’t forget –and don’t forget how to speak Australian,
either”. He didn’t leave until late in the afternoon. He said it would take him all day to pack. But after ten minutes he was all packed and back in the office with nothing to do until he left, so it was a long day. But you can’t believe how quiet it is around here now!
We talked to Dr. Kiribayashi in church today. He said he had picked up two doses of flu serum and would give us our shots next Sunday. We were afraid we might miss out this year.
Tonight we went out to the Takasu Ward to watch the replay of the First Pres. Christmas devotional. We really enjoyed it. It seems amazing how those three brethren can give so many great talks! They are certainly inspired.
It has been nice to hear from many of you this past week. It sounds like so far, everyone is escaping the flu. I hope that continues. Until next week---
Love, Gary and Shirley