All God's Children

Time has flown by this past two weeks, and we almost lost track of it in preparing this blog entry. The theme for these last two weeks may be how we are all God's children, as we have worked a few projects engaging with many of his children from the organizations we work with to the one-on-one experiences we have with individuals.

One of the biggest things we have been supporting with the Atsugi chapel has been their Vacation Bible Study (VBS). We've been participating in the planning and participation of these over the past few weeks, but this last week we started in earnest as each day our group was busy finishing the decorations and gathering food items and materials, and decorating the chapel. This week will be the VOS for the Catholic community on base. The theme, True North, uses the northern tundra as the layout as they focus on following Jesus and the Saints. The event takes place this week and the two of us will be heading up the snack area known as Tundra Treats. One thing that we see time after time is the devotion of these organizers to instill their faith and belief in Jesus to their children. We are anticipating 25 children this week, Monday-Friday from 9:00-12:30. But after this next week, we will start redecorating and setting up for the Protestant VBS which will be held the week after that. So there is about a month here where a lot of our focus will be on serving both communities with the Chapel. We will have more on this as time goes on.

The next big thing in our busy lives continue to be supporting the soccer program of the Child and Youth Programs (CYP) on base. The schedule still calls for two practices and one game each week. We are over half way through the season now with these 7-9 year old kids. Coaching this team of 5 boys and 5 girls have been fun, especially working together as head coach and assistant. We have been adapting as players take off on family vacations, and as a couple of families are moving this summer. For this age group we focus on developing basic skills and having fun. Although all come from Navy backgrounds and families, you really get a feel for the differences that set each one apart. 

On 3 July we attended the Independence Day celebration at NAF Atsugi. As always, we wore our name tags during the event to identify ourselves, though it seems like on this small installation, everyone knows who we are. The young Sister missionaries attended with a young couple who recently moved to Japan with the Navy. The couple also came to church the next Sunday for Fast and Testimony meeting. It was interesting that the wife felt impressed to share her testimony of Jesus Christ. They were curious when they learned one of her family members recently joined the church in Virginia. Such interactions, regardless of the outcome, are inspirational and we greatly appreciate these opportunities.

During the Independence Day celebration, a young girl walked up to a young family crying saying she could not find her mom. We saw a Japanese family struggle to talk to her, although very sympathetic, could not communicate very well. Sister Melton, in her usual loving way, walked over to the girl, asked her name and comforted her. Donna then escorted the child up to the tent where the DJ announced the lost girl. We immediately saw the mother running up to the tent. We also saw the faces of the Japanese family expressing gratitude for Donna stepping in.

On 4 July we made several desserts to give to our working teams at Atsugi which included the US Security Forces and the Japanese EMS responders.

Brian got a new baseball cap with a Y on it for BYU. One organization on base who supported our wearing the name tag, we're told by their lead folks from Guam, who we met at a training session, they didn't like us wearing our name tags while working. Thus, the cap is our way of showing who we are as most people know what the Y stands for. The enclosed photo at the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society shows us without name tags, just before my hat arrived in the mail

We did our monthly Post Office Volunteer work, this time the Tuesday after 4th of July. They really appreciated our help as this day was when not only did a lot of people catch up on picking up packages, but the package flow was heavier due to people moving in and out over the summer.

Every few months the mission has an emergency evacuation exercise, where we call into the mission office. This time we had just gotten back from working at the temple, so it was later in the evening but we still got it done.

We had another opportunity to make rice balls for a local children's home. Unique this time was that we were invited to stay for dinner and got to meet many of the staff and children.

An interesting moment was when I lost the car and apartment keys. It was about 10:15 pm when the lock smith arrived as Donna's keys were locked inside the car. We greatly appreciate the sacrifice given by others! The keys were eventually found and delivered to us again. We called it a late date night.

Finally one of our favorite events was presenting a new picture to the chaplain of a portrait of General Patton's Prayer during the Battle of the Bulge. They plan to hang it in the chapel hallway near one we presented several months ago of Elijah.

There is a lot still going on, and it is a dynamic, fun environment even with its challenges and obstacles. We hope that you are all well and that the Lord continually blesses and watches over you.

Elder and Sister Melton

Passing out treats at the Catholic VBS

Catholic VBS opening program

Independence day with the Sisters

Independence Day Fireworks

Providing snacks on 4th of July 

 to Japanese EMS personnel on NAF Atsugi

Supporting NMCRS 

Another busy afternoon at the Atsugi Post Office

Making our Emergency Exercise call

The Rice Ball Making Team together again

Date Night waiting for the Locksmith

Presenting painting of General Patton's Prayer 

outside the Atsugi Chapel