We made it to Japan🎉

The immigration at the airport was much easier than expected. It took 1 1/2 hours instead of the 5 hours we were expecting. There was an Area Authority on the plane with us. He stayed with us until all of our needs were met. We can feel God watching over us.

We had a wonderful reception into the Kobe Mission Office. The missionaries were hiding when we arrived at the Mission Office with a surprise donut party for Fred's birthday. Then President and Sister Halvorson took us to dinner to celebrate Fred's birthday that night. We had delicious tempura with a few new items to try. I just closed my eyes and ate it. What a wonderful way to spend your birthday. Happy Birthday, Fred!!

We received the news that the missionaries are coming soon. We have arrived just in time for the excitement. Our EnglishConnect for Missionaries will become even more important as the mission fills with missionaries from the States. We are excited to be part of the mission and to work with these amazing valiant missionaries. We found the butaman shop (pork filled rolls) yesterday. We went there over 20 years ago when we lived here. Fred's sense of direction is incredible. We had to take the train downtown to a busy city with multiple shops and people. Yet he found the same little shop from when we lived here before. The dough can be seen from the window rising on the counter. The workers carefully weigh the dough and the meat filling to ensure each roll is uniform in size. Then they place the rolls in wooden boxes and steam them until they are cooked. The dough is slightly sweet and the onion/ground pork mixture makes them so good. 😋 The shop must still be famous for the line to purchase them was super long.

We are finally here after all that waiting. The waiting makes the arrival all the more sweet. God is good to us. We are blessed. We even made it in time to see the cherry blossoms.