Baptisms in the Ocean- and finding a GRENADE!!!

There is a place called Toguchi Beach on the West side of the island where most of the baptisms are held. It is also one of the most photographed places on the island. Unfortunately I can not currently locate any good pictures of this site. Maybe I will find them later. Anyway, after a baptism a member was poking around in the rocks on the waters edge and found something interesting--an unexploded grenade from the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. We notified the Military Police from the nearest installation and then left it there for them to dispose of properly. Of course, we had to get some pictures before we turned it over to them.

June 2011 - Half way through our mission

It's hard to believe that we are halfway through with our mission. We arrived at the Mission Training Center in Provo on September 6th. I understand the last half may seem to go by more quickly than the first. There are always adventures to look forward to.

During the month of May and a bit of June we stayed in the apartment with a very nice couple, Alan and Donna Wykle. It was located just outside of Gate #2 of Kadena Air Force Base. We connected up with the manager of the Kadena USO office and offered our services to help in any way that we could. She was excited to have us help with the United Through Reading program which offers deployed servicemen the resources to read a book in front of a camera and then send that recording to their children while they are away.

The rest of the month of June we stayed in a little beach house while the a member, Sister Cherry and her two children went to the states. It was about a half hour drive away from where most of our mission activities occurred but it was quite peaceful. The Pacific Ocean was just a few yards off of the deck of the house.

We were able to spend some time with my cousin's (Janet Holland Hall) daughter, Shalynn Hall, while she visited here to attend a Navy Corpsman Ball with a friend, Casey Mortensen. It was nice to be able to share our island experience with a family member.

We teach the advanced English class (called Eikaiwa) on Thursday evenings. We have enjoyed getting to know many Japanese people during this class time and also have the opportunity to learn more of the Japanese language and customs along the way.

May 28 - Super Typhoon Songda

It just seems that natural disasters seem to follow in our wake. After leaving mainland Japan in March in March following the 5th strongest earthquake in recorded history (according to Wikipedia) followed by a tsunami and then nuclear plant meltdown we thought coming to Okinawa would be a nice respite. We should have known typhoon season was just around the corner. Actually typhoon season doesn't even officially start until the 1st week of June. Typhoon Songda was upgraded to Super Typhoon status on May 26th. Elder Arnell and I stayed in all day Saturday awaiting it's arrival but nothing seemed to be happening--not even much rain, just overcast cloudy skies. About 8:00 PM though the wind started picking up but not much rain. By 10:00 PM the windows were rattling and wind was screeching through every opening it could find. We lost electricity soon after that. Almost all of the buildings on Okinawa are built of concrete so they are pretty sturdy. We are currently staying with a military couple on the 4th story of a 7 story apartment building. Other than worrying about the windows blowing out I felt pretty safe. Sunday morning came in bright and cheery. From our apartment window we couldn't see much damage or trees down. When we went to church in the early afternoon though we could see much more damage. At church we found out that more than one military base was still out of electrical power and some had received extensive damage. The Military Branches that were on the 9:00-12:00 time schedule were cancelled and the members were told to go out and try assist with damage control. The afternoon branches (1:00 - 4:00) held Sacrament meeting and then were released to help with the cleanup. As far as I have heard there were no deaths on Okinawa due to this typhoon. All of the missionaries are safe but some are still without electrical power. The phrase that keeps popping up in my head is "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear".