Week 2- In Japan!

We flew out of Salt Lake Monday morning for LA, then Narita, and arrived in Fukuoka Tuesday night after what seemed like a never ending flight.  We were fortunate to run into a recently returned missionary from Fukuoka, Brother Koyama from Sapporo who helped us get from one terminal to the other with six suitcases in Narita as we changed airlines.  Truly an miracle angel, among others that night.  We were met by President and Sister Gustafson in Fukuoka and taken to the mission home to a very welcome and beautiful bedroom.  We trained with them and the office staff for a few hours on Wednesday and then were off in our car following the assistants in a van to Kagoshima, a four hour drive.  We arrived late at our home and were taken out to dinner by the district president and his wife, the Sano’s and then went to bed. 
Thursday we attended a zone training meeting by the zone leaders and then unpacked and tried to figure out how to work things in the home.  Friday we ventured downtown in the car to do our alien registration and register at the post office.  We were blessed with another miracle as we met a young woman  who walked us through it all and translated for us.  She went way out of her way. 
Saturday we taught English class in the city volunteer center and went shopping, another adventure on the winding and very narrow streets.  Sunday we were at Church for about six hours of meetings, were asked to speak in sacrament meeting and introduce ourselves (mom did a wonderful job in Japanese), and met many wonderful saints.  It has been a great week number 2 of our Mission. 

Sakurajima Volcano

Home Sweet Home

The airport welcome

The welcome basket in our apartment from the branch and district.

The Mission Assistants, Zone Leaders, and District President Sano and his wife.

Melody's Miracles:

Things were so busy, getting the house ready, finishing shots, moving our daughters family in and I had to repack our suitcases about six times to fit things in. We had some little miracles:  they didn't charge us for our second suitcases, none of the suitcases were over the 50lb limit.  The flight was long, leaving our house at 6:45am Mon Sept 15, and arriving (3 planes later) at 9:00pm Tuesday night (and all the time zones).  Miracle:  landed with good weather, had a good visit with our mission president overnight, more good weather for Glenn to drive us on the left side of the road, unload our luggage in the house.  It's been raining for days.  Kagoshima is pretty hilly.  We live 6 to 10 min from the church and walk down the hill, passed a couple of blocks, then up the hill to the church.  We choose to walk because the neighborhood streets are very narrow and winding.  The people are really nice and patient with us.