weekly email

Things in Tsu last week wrapped up to about three people

Koji 

Our apartment leaks during typhoons, and the commisarian called a guy to come fix it. The guy came last Tuesday. I don’t know what we were expecting, but it was actually a good thing that our apartment leaks! 

Several surprises. So Koji, the handyman, isn’t a member. He's actually a local shop that came for the repairs. Koji made the business himself. 

When Koji walked in to looks at our sliding doors, he looked over at the bookshelf in plain view to the left. His first comment was something like, “You have a lot of BOM's in here!” 

And then he had something to keep conversation going, and kept referring back to something connected to BOM. Thus, he kept asking about us, our job, our beliefs, and such as he worked. No problem from us there. 

Well, it turns out that Koji also loves Jesus Christ! He wouldn’t call himself Christian, but he reads the Bible everyday and even has seminars for Japanese people on it. He has been to Jerusalem 18 times, and proofed it with several magnets and pictures which he kindly gave to us. Koji is what you would call a saint. 

And before he left, we asked if he knew anything about Christ's ministry in the America’s, and he replied no, but was curious about it, so we ended on a gift exchange of magnets for one of the nice BOM he first saw. 

Koji generously fixed a giant pothole in the parking lot on the way out, without saying a word to anyone or asking for any thing. He is seriously the most interesting, generous man I know.

Frederiksen 

We have a new couple moving into our Branch boundaries. The brother is Danish, and his wife Japanese. They bought a traditional, 100+ year old Japanese house for free and were told that the only thing they were responsible for was the possible renovation costs. This house was literally built before WW1! 

Well, we got a nice tour of the spacious grounds (it was a RICH house) and there are a lot of mistakes made over the years of the people who “upkept” it. The water isn’t draining, the grounds are flooded, neglected holes in the roof of the secondary house threaten the bearing beam, the neighbors are encroaching on the property, the porcelain outhouse just isn’t doing it for the wife, the animal stalls and silkworm farms are nice but old fashioned, the traditional garden's sculptured boulders are positioned perfectly too close to the house and are hindering... etc. 

But, anything that the last grandma left behind are their inheritance! Lots of old treasures, and nice bedding included. 

We are helping them move in, but it may be a bigger project than just moving a piano and fridge. On the upside, 

 I learned all about traditional Japanese house construction, and that was cool! 

Maegawa 

This week we were all around getting things prepared for this lady's baptism next Sunday. It’s been a long time, and many people have forgotten all the protocols that go behind a baptism. There's a lot of work to be done! 

But I had the opportunity to interview her this morning, and I cannot deny that she is prepared and fully willing to take upon Christ's name. What a wonderful woman.

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon