Fred and Paula’s Most Excellent Adventure

This week is Golden Week in Japan. It is a series of 4 holidays closely spaced together. If workers take 2 days of vacation, they get off a week and a half from work. Families spend time together similar to our spring breaks. Children's Day is one of the holidays. Japan decorates with fish flags. This is a picture of a river near where we live. The flags are spaced along the walk making it look so festive. We often walk along the river. You can walk all the way to the ocean. Kobe has mountains and ocean. It is a beautiful green place. We had a large rain storm one day so the orange lights were flashing, warning people of flash flooding along the river. You should not walk on the path if the warning lights are flashing. This week was also Golden Week for me because we had a Zone Conference with our entire mission. I was surprised at the overwhelming feeling of love that I had when I saw all these missionaries. I have been working with them for over a year. I knew almost all ...

This week we assisted the mission by picking up and delivering bikes to several distant locations. We also looked at several apartments in preparation for the new missionaries to arrive on Saturday. We spent 2 days driving to many different places in Japan. This blessed us with opportunies to remember how to drive in Japan. The steering wheel is on the opposite side and you drive on the left side of the street. It is a real brain twister. We also got to drive through the mountains. The mountains in Japan are steep and covered with trees. I love the surprises like small temples/shrines when you least expect it or a beautiful Japanese garden among many houses and buildings. The azaleas are blooming so Kobe is a beautiful place. Conveniences: The toilet at my apartment has a hand washing station on the tank. The water that fills the tank can be used to wash your hands then drains into the tank for the next flush. My kitchen is 7ft by 7ft. That includes the refrigerator. It is diff...

Spring has sprung here in Japan. We find beautiful cherry blossoms, the Japanese maples are a bright spring green, the flowers along our walk are well cared for by a Japanese woman each morning. Spring reminds us our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has over come death through the resurrection and spiritual death through repentance. Our prophet taught us last weekend at General Conference, "Discover the joy of daily repentance. Satan delights in your misery. Cut it short." During the week, we work in the Mission Office. Saturday is our day off. We went hiking in the mountains yesterday. We found one cherry blossom tree in full bloom among many other trees. It was beautiful. We hiked to four waterfalls. There was a small ramen shop on the mountain with a window that faced a waterfall. There was a group of older Japanese people eating at the ramen shop. They welcomed us to their table and gave us small individually wrapped treats from their bags. It's called an omiyage...

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 th...

Happy News!! We have our visas. We will be going to Japan next week. Maybe there will still be some cherry blossoms? We are busily packing and weighing our luggage. I feel like a pioneer trying to choose what can come and what cannot. We have a lot of last minute tasks that couldn't be done until right before leaving. We have enjoyed our time here in Utah. We are grateful for the time we have been able to spend with our family after 34 years of living away. We have been able to participate in many wonderful events. We have been able to serve in the Church History Library. We have read many journals of the early church. When would I ever have read historical documents for 6+ hours a day? It has given me a better understanding of where we have come from as a church. I see the maturity of the church as God continues to reveal His will. We have been serving in Japan remotely so we are comfortable with the duties of the office. We look forward to getting to know our missionarie...

We received the excellent news this week that the travel department has sent in our passports to receive our visa. This is a good sign that things are moving in the right direction. Yay!! We feel our time is short in Salt Lake City. The MTC finally stopped my Japanese lessons after 1 year and 5 months. I am so grateful for the language lessons that I have received. Most of the time I was taking lessons twice a week. I continue to study at least an hour a day. Fred and I try to speak in Japanese on our walks. Shortly after our arrival in Japan, we anticipate young missionaries that have been waiting like us to come to Japan. We will be busy setting up apartments, moving furniture, and running the office while the President will be very busy with these new missionaries. We still have a year left on our mission. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers coming. We have high hopes that we will make it this time. In the meantime, we continue to count our blessings. We attend the temp...

I had a great continuing education medical meeting this week. Once a month, doctors present 2 hours of medical issues that effect our missionaries throughout the world. One of the topics was on "Addiction Medicine". These addictions can include substance abuse, social media, gambling, video gaming, movies, pornography, arguments, high fructose containing food, extreme activities and multi-tasking. Hmmm...I recognize myself in some of these activities. The doctor shared several studies that show a dramatic increase in these addictions since COVID. When a person participates in these activities dopamine is released in our brains helping us to feel better. Some of these are not necessarily bad but can lead to addiction. As stress increases, our dopamine stores are reduced. Our brain starts telling us, "Hey, I'm out of dopamine over here." We begin have a physical desire to return to these dopamine producing activities. Treatment for these addictions d...