Melton-Japan-Mission

In Japan New Years is a big deal. They prepare their homes by deep cleaning showing a fresh start for the year. Most businesses close early and there is no activity for a couple of days. Some go to Shrines or temples in homage but mostly it is very quiet in a sacred way. No fireworks in Tokyo but bells are rung at midnight. With the New Year there are opportunities to start fresh again, to improve ourselves and have a better outlook on our lives. It sounds a lot like repentance. That is another type of new beginning. Japanese New Year's wreath outside of Post Office We put together gift bags for our apartment building between Christmas and New Years. There are eight floors so we made 30 packages of banana breads or other treats. Depending on the timing, we labelled them either Merry Christmas or Happy New Year in Japanese and English with our name. We simply placed them outside of each door. Since we are the only foreigners in the building, it was not difficult to identify us. One ...

We were surprised when we first arrived here how many foreigners with different languages there are here in Japan. They come from Brazil, the Philippines, and parts of Africa. Many of our younger missionaries are Filipino or Brazilian. so, as we have been going through the Christmas Season, it is interesting to see how these diverse cultures view Christmas. Many coming from areas of the world seem to have a good understanding of the Holiday and what it represents. The Japanese, a very non-Christian country, still have an appreciation of the season and recognize it at least as a world-wide holiday, and capture many of the commercial practices of decorations, Santa, and Christmas Trees; though the 25th is still a normal work day for almost all of them. Yet at the same time, we have given out baked breads as gifts to neighboring apartments, and they have all been gracious and understanding of the significance of the holiday to us. Two Santas Comparing Notes During this period we served fo...

                                     A new friend Sister Melton met at Camp Fuji We took a few extra tags off the Angel Tree this year. It feels good to be able to give to those who may not have much. The toys or items are given to children with special needs or who are in an orphanage. It is truly better to give than to receive. It has been nice to spend time serving in the temple twice a month. We look forward to turning the time we have done this service into time to serve our small branch more.  Since the branch is losing more members through retirement or PCS, our branch president asked a special fast to ask for more active members to join our congregation. Besides fasting the first Sunday we picked an additional time during the week that we would fast again. President Jaggi felt confident that our prayers and offerings will be answered. We had a well produced Branch Christmas dinner...

Thanksgiving Day "Live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." (Alma 34:38).  These last two weeks have been very eventful in both activities and in planning upcoming activities through the rest of the year with the upcoming holiday. Service has mostly been with the Chapel, the American Red Cross, and community service through the Public Affairs Office. Working with others with a wide range of backgrounds has been a blessing in seeing the good nature and humanity of others. The Atsugi Chapel has always been a pleasure to work with and have been some of the most joyful times on the mission.   One morning we helped distribute food items as they came to the base chapel. Sorry, for privacy purposes and personal dignity we did not take pictures of the actual event. You may wonder why would military families may need such assistance, remember that while the federal government was shut-down, there were government employees still expe...