July 13, 2003

Sunday, July 13, 2003
Dear Family and Others,
It is time again to write. We have enjoyed communication with many of you this past week. We hope everyone is well, especially the new mothers-to-be. Pres. Banks said he saw on the Internet Friday that it was 103 in SLC. That sounds typical for this time of year. Here, we are still in the rainy season (two or three more weeks), but the temperatures seem to get warmer every day.
Yesterday, Bro. & Sis. Gollaher invited us and two more families in the Ward (a Bro. and Sis. Martinez an their three children from Brazil; the Hughes, a former missionary to Japan from Canada, who married a Japanese girl and their two little girls) to go to Hamada to the Iwami Seaside Park. It is located exactly across the Island from Hiroshima on the ocean on the other side. When we left Hiroshima it was raining and we wondered if we would be able to do anything but look at the ocean from the car windows. But we hadn’t much more than left when the rain stopped and that was the last rain we saw until we got back to Hiroshima.
The park located on the ocean had all kinds of facilities -swimming, volleyball, trails that led to different landmarks, picnic areas etc. Bro. Gollaher said that the Brazil Bro. was in charge of the cooking. You wouldn’t believe how much beef, pork, and sausages he had. They had a lot left over, so Bro. Gollaher bought the rest and they invited the Elders over for dinner, today. The meat Mom and I had was so tough we couldn’t chew it, but we enjoyed most of the rest of the lunch. Bro. Gollaher said that it was just like the picnics they had in Brazil while he was Mission Pres. there. While we were eating, there were several big hawks that would swoop down and try to steal the meat. They were huge, brazen and daring and we had to guard out plates or they would be gone. Before we left, Bro. Martinez would throw food in the air and watch the hawks retrieve it. Very interesting.
After lunch we all went down to the ocean to swim. It is against mission rules for us to swim (I didn’t want to, anyway) but Mom did get permission from Pres. Banks to wade along the shore. We took sunblock but I couldn’t see any reason to use it because we didn’t see the sun all day. Well, when we got home my face was bright red with sun burn. Mom used the sunblock and was in pretty good shape, except on her neck and where her thongs didn’t protect her feet from the sun. Seems I always have to learn things the hard way! The Japanese women are so particular about their skin color. Nearly every women wears a hat, has long sleeves and uses an umbrella so their skin won’t become darker, they like white skin. Sis. Hughs ( who is Nihon) told Mom last week that she guessed she wouldn’t go with us Sat. because she couldn’t be out in the sun. But a few minutes after getting home she called and told Mom she had changed her mind, and would be going. We got back home about 6:30 PM so it was an all day event, we were glad we went.
Last Sunday in High Priest Quorum Meeting, the teacher ask all of us our age and then wrote it on the chalkboard to use with his lesson. I thought it was interesting because I was the oldest at 69 and Bro. Hughes was the youngest at 29. Sis. Hughs told us that everyone told Bro. Hughs that they thought he was at least 40 (because he is a little bald). Sis. Hughs said she was 30 and everyone thinks she is about 18 or 20 and she said everyone was shocked that I was that old. Mom thought that was great The Japanese have this funny thing about age, and don’t mind asking people their age and then commenting on it.
Tonight we have a family of four that are being baptized here. They are from a Ward near here but don’t have a font and will do it here. It is a happy occasion when a whole family like that comes into the Church. We are planning on attending it. Mom is busy getting a talk prepared for Sac. Meeting next Sunday on Eternal Marriage. It will be good (I hope they don’t have so many on the program that everyone has to shorten their talk so they don’t run out of time).
Next Sat. we are planning on going to the Temple in Fukuoka again, for Mom’s Birthday. We will probably ride the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) so it won’t take so long. We would like to go to the Temple each month.
Until next week--- Gary & Shirley