Baptism and Snowflakes

One thing I love about living here in Japan is the exposure for me and my children to a different culture.  I will admit, I have never felt any draw towards any Asian cultures in the past.  I don't have anything against them, I have just never had any desire to visit them or be a part of them.  I think Heavenly Father must have known this and he thought, "Bethany, I am going to bless you and give you an opportunity to soften your heart and go see the beauty and come to love this culture."  It is easy to stay on base and not involve myself with the culture, but that defeats the purpose of being here!  Luckily I have many things that encourage me to go out and participate, and one of those is the gospel.  There is a Japanese girl who has been investigating the church for over a year that we have come to love.  Lena speaks English very well due to her father going to work in Australia for 3 years when she was young.  Otherwise she was born and raised in Okinawa.  She likes to attend our branch sometimes, and has come over with the missionaries to dinner on several occasions.  My kids absolutely adore her.  This last Saturday we had the privilege to see her baptized.  Baptisms are unique here because most of them are done in the ocean at Toguchi beach.  It is a beautiful area (actually it is the spot where my "modeling" pictures were done from my last post, so you can get an idea of how beautiful it is).  There were many Japanese members there, and a handful of us from the English branch.  Right when we got there, as I guided my children past the park, and down the trail to the beach a sweet Japanese woman there to support Lena started trying to talk to me.  One funny thing about a lot of Japanese people is how they will tell you in perfect, clear English, "I am sorry.  I do not speak English."  It's not, "No English"  or trying to communicate through hand motions that they don't know English.  So we tried to talk, and she would say a little English, and I even less Japanese.  (I can't even say "No Japanese" in Japanese.  I know, it's sad.  My vocabulary here consists of thank you, yes, cute, scary, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, excuse me, please and "it is good?")  Any time this sweet woman would see any of my kids struggling a little bit she was there in an instant offering anything she had to help them be happy and would repeat over and over, "No cry.  No cry." while patting their head.  It was so sweet.  After the baptism I let the kids play at the park for a little while.  There were several Japanese girls playing there, and they were equally as sweet.  I took Lucy over to go down a slide since she loves slides.  As I got her to the top, several girls ran over to me yelling "No!  No!  Water!"  I was confused until they reached me and pointed out that the rain that morning had left a little bit of water on the slide and they were concerned about Lucy getting wet, or going to fast.  A couple of the little girls ran and found a towel and started wiping all the slides off on that piece of equipment so Lucy could safely and dryly slide down.  They fussed over her, repeatedly telling her how cute she is.  It then started to rain again, and while I tried to run with each child back to the car, these girls ran and found an umbrella and ran to Celeste who was looking for her shoes.  They gently took her by the hand, and led her to where they had noticed she had left her shoes, helped her put them on and kept her dry with that umbrella.  And that is how these sweet people are here on this little island of Okinawa.  They help, they smile, they encourage and are so sweet and understanding.  

The baptism itself was beautiful and the spirit was strong.  Beautiful hymns were sung, testimonies were born, and we watched as Lena was immersed in the water and baptized into the true gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.  It was truly a beautiful day.

To finish the day off strong, we went home, turned on Elf, and made star wars snowflakes.  (And of course by we, I mean I made star wars snowflakes as my children barraged me with, "Is mine done yet?  Are you doing my next?  This sure takes a long time, huh?")  And here are the results.  Not too shabby for using a box cutter and kitchen shears.  :)

 Chewbacca Snowflake

 Princess Leia Snowflake

 R2D2 Snowflake

 Rebel Pilot Snowflake

Yoda Snowflake

Today Hyrum was released as the second counselor in the branch presidency.  Because he is deploying for 6 months, and our branch president is deploying around the same time, they released the presidency today.  Hyrum loved serving the branch, and while I will be more than glad to have him sit with me and the kids on Sunday when he is here, I actually felt a little weepy when they released him.  It was a funny thing, because it didn't feel like a weepy day to-day, but as soon as the district president got up and started releasing Hyrum, my eyes suddenly got a little moist.  So we not only had them released, but we had branch boundaries adjusted, one whole branch dissolved into the others, and a new branch presidency consisting of the branch president from the dissolved branch.  Lots of changes, but I suppose that is the nature of a military branch.  We still have an amazing branch and I am grateful to be a part of it.

That is it for us this week, and now I am off to bed.   Until next week...