November 23, 2003

November 23, 2003
Dear Whoever Reads This:
It will soon be Thanksgiving, although the Japanese don’t recognize it as one of their holidays. Sis. Banks has invited all the missionaries in this immediate area to have dinner in their apartment. Her and Mom are working out the details and everyone that comes will help with the dinner, so it won’t be hard on one or two people, there will be about 25 of usfor dinner. It should be a nice day. We miss not being home with our family but this will be second best. We hope all of you will have your families together and have an enjoyable time.
This past week was new missionaries coming in, returning missionaries going home and transfers. It was hair-raising! The 11 new miss. were supposed to arrive here Tues. evening; but just at the last minute, Pres. Banks got a call from SLC that there plane was late because of bad weather and they would not be able to leave until the next day. That would put them here on the same day that the Elder’s going home would be coming in. So Pres. Banks decided to rush the orientation for the new miss. so that they could leave for their new areas on Thurs. afternoon.
The new miss. were an ‘up-tight’ bunch. They got through with their orientation just before 1:00 PM and some of them had to catch the train at 1:15. They had to gobble down the nice lunch that Sis. Banks had prepared and headed out for the train station. On the way 3 of the missionaries turned up missing and Pres. Banks had to stop and look for them. One new Elder was waiting up in the Bank’s Apt. and thought he had been left and he started hyperventilating ( fortunately his train didn’t leave until 2:30 PM.). They all made their train connections but one of the new Elders got confused and didn’t meet his new companion until 10:45 that night.
Meanwhile, The two AP’s were supposed to stay in the mission office and answer the calls from the transferring missionaries and direct them to their new areas. The AP’s had disappeared (I guess helping Pres. Banks with the new miss.) and didn’t show up until later in the day. The phone kept ringing with questions from the transferring missionaries. The regular office Elders were on their P-day and only Mom was here to answer their calls and help them with their questions. She didn’t know their schedules so they just had to wait and call later when the AP’s finally showed up. Anyway, I think even Pres. Banks had a headache by the end of the day. By Thurs. night my finances were so bald-up that I was into the next day before I could get the books balanced. We did attend an excellent testimony Thurs. evening with the Banks and the returning missionaries. I guess that all’s well that ends well.
Yesterday was our P-day and we went over to the Hyaku-en store (nothing priced higher than 100 Yen, about .85, our money). It is an amazing place to shop! We came back loaded.
We were tickled to get pictures on the internet from Matt and Jen. We have them made into prints now and Mom has them all arranged in her photo albums. She has a nice collection. I guess it is time to close. We appreciate your calls and internest messages. Until next week---
Love from the Ropas Senkyoshi