No One Sits Alone
“Living the gospel of Jesus Christ includes making room for all in His restored Church. The spirit of room in the inn’ includes no one sits alone…No one sits alone also means no one sits alone emotionally or spiritually” (Elder Gerrit W. Gong, October 2025)
On a simple note, the 4th of July occurred during this period. We kept it simple by attending an event at the base. More importantly this period, we continued to be active in reaching out to church members to ease burdens, serve their needs and comfort those going through difficult times.
Sister Melton has continued to walk with a sister every other week to help give her a break from a hectic schedule as a full time mother and being recently called as a counselor in the Relief Society. The walk is just a few moments to reflect and share feelings and thoughts. Our new Relief Society President comes from a part member family. Her son was recently baptized but we were out of town. We were able to meet with her and her family in their home and gave a couple of small gifts to the young boy.
We have now met three Spanish speaking individuals who are interested in learning more about the church. It is wonderful to serve them along with the Sister missionaries. The first one is from Peru. She has attended church four times now, though not every week. Her mother just passed away last week back in Peru and it is difficult for our new friend who won't be able to go. As she is mourning, we are giving her some space and remaining in contact. We have sent text messages expressing the love the Savior has for her and the nature of eternal families, The second is her 14-year-old daughter who has come with her a couple of times. We have given both a Book of Mormon. The third teaching friend, is from Mexico. Sister missionaries were approached by her as she expressed interest in returning to religion after a 30 year absence. She was raised Catholic but seems very open to the church.
Our District Council Meetings are held every Monday evening, switching each week between two different chapels. When they are held at our building for the Zama Branch, we provide some type of dessert or snack. This last time, Sister Melton made beautiful Jello Salad that included raspberries and crushed pretzel, giving a nice combination of salty and sweet. The weeks in the Atsugi building, the Singletons bring something nice as well.
One of our weekly Area Orientation Briefs (AOB) was moved from the normal Monday to Tuesday due to the 4th of July weekend. Not realizing this early on, Sister Melton had another appointment, so Elder Melton filled in for her at the Red Cross table. Afterwards Elder Melton went with our friend, Rob, from the Stars and Stripes, to lunch. Sister Melton caught up with the two a few minutes later. During our lunch meeting, Rob shared some of his successes and frustrations with work. So often people just need to talk to a sympathetic ear without judgement.
We took our member and good friend Memory to lunch one day. She has been to our home so this time we took her to the mall for a change. She recently moved out of her brother's apartment and has a small place of her own. Her work schedule recently changed, so she has been able to attend church on a more regular basis.
We met for the second time a member at Camp Fuji who is there on a one year assignment. He recently married someone of a different Christian denomination. This member helps support two young boys from his wife's previous marriage. He has been reading his scriptures more faithfully and trying to become more active. However it is difficult to make it to the branch because of the distance and his work schedule. So we will continue returning to see him about every couple of weeks, administer the sacrament, have a spiritual discussion, and see what we can do to serve him.
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Serving the Marine at Camp Fuji
Other members we visited during this period included the Vincent family who recently arrived to NAF Atsugi. A wonderful couple with a one-year old daughter and another on the way. He is a helicopter pilot who will likely deploy in the next few months, but hopes to be here when their second child is born. He was out when their first child was born. We are still awaiting the arrival of another young sailor coming from San Diego. We have been told that he was soon getting married, though no one seems to be sure if it will happen before he gets here, or after. He is due to be deployed fairly soon after arriving.
We had a visit from another beautiful senior couple, the Akasawas. They are responsible for inspecting the missionary apartments every few weeks. For the Senior Missionaries, the inspection is only once just a couple of months before we leave. We had a great time getting to know them better. We picked them up at the train station, took them to Costco after the inspection, and dropped them off at the train station when they left. So we got to bond with them quite a bit. They gave us a reminder to ask our replacements if they would like us to leave any of three items that we bought or were given that we wouldn't take back to the US (TV, printer, sewing machine). The other item we asked about was suggestions on getting rid of some hard water stains a shower wall. Later President Tueller said he heard we passed our inspection with flying colors. He laughed when Elder Melton told him of course we did, we drove them to and from the train station and to Costco. How could we not pass?
Our replacements, the Proudfits, were excited to take all three items. It would not have been hard for us just to donate them to the base thrift store, but it's nice to know they will all be of good use still in the mission. There was another item that we purchased that we would not be taking home, an inversion table. Fortunately Sister Melton found a woman in one of her Atsugi women's groups who was excited to take it. So now it will have a good home.
During a recent Women's Bible Study, the meeting went much longer than normal as some of the women opened up about challenges in their lives. Sister Melton felt fortunate to be there and show compassionate listening skills and helping support those challenges whether having to do with family, military life, or personal doubts.
It looks like for the time being we have settled in on holding our Family Home Evenings (FHE) with the Single Adults (YSA) on Wednesday at 6:00. We are moving the locations between NAF Atsugi, Camp Zama, and our apartment. The last two weeks were at Zama, with one week at the Zama Bowling Alley, and the other at the Zama Community Center. The missionaries are asked to invite their teaching friends, but if the friends cannot come, for them to come anyway. We have a couple of YSAs who are making some important life decisions, and the influence of the missionaries has had a tremendous impact on our small group of YSAs. We were just told by the Branch President that two of these YSAs are being asked to take the Temple Prep Course from us. That would be another great blessing in their lives, that we didn't think was very likely just a couple of months ago.
Bowling with the YSAs at Camp Zama
And yet another YSA is also asking about taking the temple prep course with his fiancee. This is wonderful news as they are wanting to be sealed on 3 September. They have a lot to do to get ready, and we fill blessed to be part of that process to keep them moving forward.
As we get closer to the end we realize that "hey, there are places we never got around to seeing here in Japan!" So we are conscientiously visiting places while we are still here. Elder Esplin, the Area President, has encouraged the Senior Missionaries to experience the Japanese Culture, and although we have been to a lot of places, we realize we need to be a little more practical. During thees past two weeks we have visited a couple of places. The first was the Shibuya Sky, a high rise building with a beautiful view of the Tokyo skyline. We have been to the two main towers in Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Skytree. We have also been to Shibuya a few times. But this building is a fascinating structure with open views all around. While there we also took a 90 minute walking tour of Shibuya which gave us a greater understanding of the history of downtown Tokyo.
View from the Shibuya Sky
The second trip was to Odawara, where we have been a couple of times before. Only this time we not only visited the Odawara Castle again, but also had some fun shots dressed as a Samrai Warrior and Geisha. We also took time to visit and have lunch at the Odawara Fish Market. In both of these trips we were joined by another wonderful couple, the Dawsons, who are serving in Yokosuka. We commented that it is not just the places you go to, but the people you go with!
Odawara Fish Market and LunchWe attended our next to last Zone Conference. We were asked to participate in a Mogi where missionaries role play a scenario. Elder Melton played the role of the Doseki (a member helping with a lesson) and Sister Melton was asked to play the friend (investigator). The Zone missionaries asked for obstacles the missionaries had in giving a baptismal challenge. Then the Zone Leaders would act as the missionaries while we played our parts. Elder Melton even hit on a point that President Tueller would discuss later in his presentation about finding similarities between the Church and some of the Japanese religious perspectives, such as eternal families. Towards the end, Sister Tueller commented that she thought the Doseki looked like he was flirting with the friend. It was a lot of fun to discuss practical ideas of teaching in a relaxed atmosphere.
When we are not busy with other responsibilities, we attend the EKaiwa and JKaiwa lessons the Elders give to those interested in learning English or Japanese. Elder Melton was asked to pick up the actual lesson at the last one we attended, which seemed to go very well. Although there may only be two other people attending, it is another way to serve that is definitely appreciated. Direction was recently given to teach the lessons using the English Connect text which brings in gospel doctrine into the lesson. It is also encouraged to use a native English speaker, so we have offered our service to teach the lessons going forward. We're still waiting to see how the district leader would like to proceed.
Last Sunday we hosted dinner at our home for the four teaching missionaries in our branch. Sister Melton made both chicken and beef enchiladas. She also made a banana pudding dessert that was a big hit. The missionaries asked for her recipes for all three which she gladly passed on. Afterwards the missionaries did all the dishes, which were quite a few with all the cooking that was done. The missionaries were wonderful in sharing spiritual messages and we were deeply moved by the Spirit they brought into our home.
Of course, even with a lot of movement with working with individuals in representing and sharing the gospel, we still had a couple of our regular service activities which we love doing. One was again volunteering at the Post Office. We know they could get along without us, so we try to go a couple of times per month when we know they are going to busy. But always providing cookies or brownies always help them to tolerate us. The are a great group of people to work with, and we always have positive experiences interacting with the customers in finding and handing out packages.
The other experience that we love is still working with the Red Cross in serving snacks, coffee and hot chocolate to others, this time at the Fleet and Family Center. Again, providing homemade cookies is always a highlight of the snack that are always the first things to go. Also with the Red Cross, we attended a seminar on emergency preparedness with other members of the community. They had a drawing for some gifts, which Sister Melton won. Just before her number was called she said "I hope they don't call me." She gave the gift to another volunteer who was saying she hoped to get that one. Such small gestures is just another example of reaching out and reflects our gospel message of serving others.
Giving a Gift at the Emergency Prep Seminar
Ensuring that everyone feels included and loved in the Church of Jesus Christ is such a great blessing to the receiver and the giver. This entry lists several of the opportunities we had to reach out and serve others, though not all. We have been learning over the mission to be better at reaching out to others. We know we probably miss people, but we try to do our best. Although sometimes we may feel we could have done more, accepting the Grace that comes through the Savior, helps us realize he is always there.
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