Ma-ku-ru---ah or How to Say Our Name in Japanese

I thought that it would be fun to show our name tags.  The Japanese say things backwards, so it’s “McClure President”.  The first 5 symbols are Katakana for Ma-ku-ru---ah.  The Kanji (or more detailed symbols) say President or Kaicho as they call him here.

If I counted right, we did 35 interviews this week.  They were close, so we didn’t spend much time traveling, but hour upon hour sitting in interviews.  These initial interviews are L-O-N-G!!  But it is fun to get to know each one.  Russ interviews one missionary, while I visit with their companion.

 Here’s some pictures of our happy missionaries:

On Saturday afternoon our ward had a ward party--A Summer Festival.  It was pretty great.  First they had food—LOTS!  Then they had a little talent show followed by MORE FOOD!!  They dressed me in a yukata (an informal summer kimono) and ended with a little traditional Japanese dance.  

This was just interesting--kind of like a rain gutter regatta.  Water went down the tubes with noodles.  You caught the noodles with chopsticks and ate them.  As would be expected, the young boys were mostly eating here.

Sister Von Forell (also in black) is our Office Secretary

My kind of party!

Finally, here are two amazing links--videos of the Sapporo Temple.  The first is almost 4 minutes and shows pictures of the inside of the temple.  The 2nd is longer (10 1/2 minutes) and explains the symbolism used in the architecture.  I recommend both!

Sapporo Japan Temple

Architecture of Sapporo Temple