Tokyo Japan Temple!!!

The Hansen’s had called the temple in the morning asking them to hold the 2:00PM session for us, which they were graciously willing to do. We arrived with just enough time to dress and make the session, on time! Part of that is because the Hansen’s told them our clothing/shoe sizes so that all would be ready and waiting when we arrived.  It was wonderful to finally sit down and slow my breathing down as we had been rushing for hours to travel/arrive all for this moment to come. One of the other mission presidents lives on the floor below the Fukuoka Temple, so they get to attend and feel of the spirit of the temple always.  I was so looking forward to attending the temple when coming to the seminar, but then when we saw the flight arrival times, travel scheduling, etc I was disappointed thinking we would not have an opportunity to attend. Since we do not have a temple within our mission boundaries we have to receive special permission to leave our mission boundaries to attend the temple-takes more planning than what I put into my weekly trips to the Houston Temple. When the Hansen’s were here for our mission Transfer Meeting they offered to help us get here! Wonderful!! I had Sister Hansen on one side of me and Sister Graham on the other side of me and other mission presidents' wives behind me and in front of me-I felt almost like I was going through for the first time, escorted.  The stained glass in the Celestial Room of the temple was beautiful, my favorite part, bright colors(surprise to me).

On Thursday as we were being instructed the topic was Meetinghouse Priorities.  It is so fascinating to learn about the master planning of buildings in the Asia North Area with its qualifications and standards, local designs and conditions (like size of parking lots will not be determined by stake conference attendance-once a month meetings).  This discussion prompted President Zarbock to send me a picture of one of the “parking lots” in the Micronesia Guam Mission at a district conference meeting-so different from what we are experiencing.  Talking about self reliance we learned that as of March 2015 the Asia North Area has 2055 missionaries, in the area with 600 of those missionaries, from the area.  That means that we, in this area, need help from the Church or else we would be having 2055 of those missionaries from this area.  We were told we are at Level One on self reliance meaning our tithing contributions pay for our meetinghouse operations.  But Level Two self reliance pays for missionaries and temples, too.

When I clicked on the link to the video (which I copy and pasted from the Church website) it would not work. But just go to that general conference  talk and watch the video-it’s good.   Thursday afternoon we had a Sisters Session led by Sister Rosalie Ringwood with the theme: Feed My Sheep. Each of the area presidency wives spoke. There was this wonderful display and then at individual place settings we received the sheep treat (Cheerios like Rice Krispy Treats), packet with a copy of their talks, small statue of Christ. It reminded me so much from the previous seminar we attended in November, if you can remember the heart locket Sister Ringwood gave to each of the wives/display table set up with a picture of Christ?something Bekah would likely use for a YW lesson. Sister Ringwood started her remarks with a video clip (the first six minutes or so) from a general conference talk in October 1989 given by Jayne B Malan:  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/10/the-summer-of-the-lambs?lang=eng&query=jane+malan+summer+of+the+lambs#watch=video 

After the Thursday sessions of the mission president seminar we all walked, in groups, from the Area offices to the New Sanno Hotel, which is a naval base hotel so we needed to present our passports in order to be admitted on base. Dad and I walked over to the hotel with President and Sister Smith, of the Japan Sendai Mission. President Smith was explaining about the meaning of this “forbidden” sign, which was placed on the fence in front of some trees that were not to be disturbed or cut down. Here is his journal entry that he emailed to me as a description:  Sister Barrow, Here is a quote from my journal describing the components of this kanji (Chinese character) as told to me by Brother Abe from Akita, Japan. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do. It is wonderful to be allowed to serve with you! Sincerely, Jeff Smith Japan Sendai Mission  The bottom part is the kanji 示 which means “to show” or represent. It actually represents a desk or alter. The bottom part shows blood being shed at the altar. Brother Abe feels that this symbol is representative of the atoning sacrifice of the Savior which is the heart of true religion. He said this symbol was inherited from the Chinese.  Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese understand this significance, but Brother Abe feels, as do I that the Japanese are one of the lost tribes of Israel. This is evidence of the truth they once held millennia ago. Another interesting example is the word “kinshi” which means to prohibit or ban:  禁止 . The left character shows 2 trees over the kanji for “shimesu.” The two trees represent the first two trees: the tree of life and the forbidden fruit. This is coupled with the “shimesu” as described above: the altar with blood. This refers back to events in the Garden of Eden where a choice was made that required a Savior or sacrifice. Partaking of the forbidden fruit was forbidden/ “kinshi” and required a Savior to redeem us from the choice. This is fascinating. Once again, these symbols come from the Chinese. Neither Chinese nor Japanese understand the significance or true origin of these symbols.  One day it will be brought to their remembrance.  We had a wonderful dinner while seated next to the Whiting’s on one side of us, the Graham’s on the other side of us, with the Budge’s of the Japan Tokyo Mission―leaving this year. Elder Whiting talked of the Because of Him Easter video campaign in Japan―how they switched the Youtube banner line to say What does Easter Mean?(something like that) because He in Japan (from Because He Lives) would not be understood by the Japanese as they are a very unChristian nation. They received 760,000 hits/touches on the banner when they expected maybe 20,000. It was way more successful than anticipated. But then what? That’s what I asked Elder Whiting. They need to develop some sort of technology that will allow those hits/touches to be directed in a way that will interest the people enough to look at more.

Thursday evening, as dinner was finishing, we were pleased to be audience to a violin soloist, Scarlett Olivia Aalders, playing A Poor Wayfaring Man  Of Grief. Scarlett started playing the violin later in life, at age 9, after listening to someone play a musical item in Sacrament Meeting and being so touched she leaned over to her mother and with tears in her eyes whispered, ³That’s what I want to do². She is in middle school now, about  age 14. She was amazing to listen to; wonderful. I really liked this arrangement of the hymn‹never heard it before. If you want to hear more let me know‹I’ll send the rest of it. Scarlett’s father is the area DTA, Director of Temporal Affairs. He was the one who led some of the discussion about meetinghouses.

As soon as the mission president seminar was finished Dad and I were hustled off to catch a taxi, with Emi Miseda 땚ne of the secretaries to the area presidency. Emi handles our travel for the last seminar in November.  The taxi system/directions would have been too complicated for me (maybe even for Dad) so Emi traveled with us by taxi. We took a short cut땗iterally as the taxi turned left down a short tunnel that only the taxi’s could fit through as they were shorter cars. I saw some of the pedestrians walking through the tunnel hunched over so as not to hit their heads on the ceiling.  We arrived at the train station where Emi purchased our train tickets, walked with us through this HUGE train station, and even waited with us until we boarded our train for the Narita airport. After we sat down in our train seats we looked out the window to see Emi waving goodbye to us땗ike how we send our outgoing missionaries on the train. We followed the signs at the airport up to the 4th floor (I have no idea what the other floors are used for) to catch our flight back to Busan. We were the only couple attending the seminar who traveled through Narita airport. It was so nice of Emi to take us as far as she did.  Last week we had a missionary go home because he had injured his ankle playing soccer (the doctors described his ankle as being blown out). This morning at 4:00AM we took another missionary to the train station to go home, early/not with the rest of his group. That missionary is the one who Katie gave a workout to to prepare for college football practice starting June 1.