Wednesday, October 24, 2012

October 2012 Sisters Conference
"Filling Our Wells"







Friday, October 12, 2012

Ten new missionaries arrived in October 2012 and received their new companions.  After a full day of orientation they headed for their new areas with their new companions to teach their first English class.
We bid farewell to 5 wonderful missionaries in October 2012.

Sunday, September 23, 2012


The missionaries surprised Sister Budge with a "heart attack" in the mission home on her birthday.  Each heart had a message from the missionaries; they gave her flowers and made a wonderful cheesecake.  It was very thoughtful and a lot of fun.  Sister Budge will treasure these messages and the memories forever.


Sister Budge's homemade cinnamon rolls were a big hit at the zone conferences.

Mission Tour




Elder and Sister Aoyagi of the Second Quourm of the Seventy toured the mission from September 17th to September 20th, 2012.  They met with all the missionaries in three separate 3-zone conferences.  From the top:  Fujisawa, Yokohama and Machida zones; Nakano, Musashino and Chiba zones; Saitama, Kiryu and Matsudo zones.  Sister Budge celebrated her birthday on September 20th, the last day of the mission tour.

September 2012.  We have learned not to teach lessons about the relative merits of cooperation versus competition by using an arm wrestling metaphor when training at zone conferences!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012


August 2012.  The new missionaries arrive safely and are assigned their first companions.  Each transfer begins with the sorrow of bidding farewell to the returning missionaries we have grown to love, but ends with the joy and excitement of welcoming new missionaries into the mission.
We bid farewell to another group of wonderful missonaries in August 2012.  They will all be missed.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Last Sunday (August 12, 2012) we visited this group of Portuguese speaking saints who meet in Oizumi which is about two  hours North of Tokyo by car.  Sister Budge spoke for 15 minutes in Spanish and they loved it.  Oizumi in Japanese means a big spring of water, so I made reference to the Waters of Mormon and referred to the place as Morumon no Oizumi.  There is a great spirit there and a bright future.  We have 4 missionaries there now who speak Portuguese and Spanish.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

All Mission Conference Photos

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All Mission Conference Album, a set on Flickr.  August 10, 2012.
Everyone enjoyed traditional Japanese Bentos for lunch, and catching up with their fellow missionaries.

Friday, August 10, 2012

The All Mission Conference

August 10, 2012.  If you look closely I am sure you will find your son or daughter here somewhere.  We had a great conference today with all the missionaries in the mission.  The theme of the conference was unity.  We introduced a new mission song, and held 8 different workshops centered on uniting and focusing our faith, prayers and works on Bringing Souls to Christ.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

July 2012.  Safely Gathered In!  Our first group of new missionaries straight from the MTC.  What a great looking group of servants of the Lord!

July 2012.  Our first group of missionaries to leave the mission.  Congratulations on a job well done!  It was very sad to see them go....

Sister Budge and our son Dan sign the quilt.  Also, some longtime stalwart leaders in Japan now serving a mission in Tokyo sign on to the Cause!