Highlight…

Another amazing trip to Tokyo to go to the temple with a new convert from Wakayama! Tuesday before we left - literally 6 days before we left - we accompanied Beau to the temple. He later wrote the nicest letter ever and talked about his experience of joining the church and then attending the temple. One of the coolest things he wrote was that he had never understood the importance of the priesthood until he baptized Ron in the temple. He said the whole experience was overwhelming and peaceful at the same time. What more could you hope for than that?

A Day in the Life

There comes a day in the life of every missionary when it is time to go home. The week leading up to our July 20th departure included a testimony meeting with all 30 returning missionaries and a fun dinner with all of them at the mission home. The next few days were full of packing and cleaning, getting rid of stuff like bikes and a TV we bought to use while in Japan, before heading to the airport.

We were greeted by our family at the Salt Lake Airport who joined us at home for a fun evening together. Geralee had bought Japanese summer pajamas called jinbe’s for all of the grand kids.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

On our way out, we took these pics of our Japanese apartment- Geralee called it her motorhome kitchen, but the rest of the space was pretty nice and comfortable.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Brother Morimoto and Sister Fujino have showed up countless times in these posts already, because they showed up consistently throughout our mission for everything. 3 - 4 times every week! They are a great support to the missionaries and great examples. They treated us to a really fancy, nice goodbye lunch with just the 4 of us. We love them and will really miss them.

Friends

Our friends from Wakayama!

Lessons Learned

During the past year, we’ve learned that serving a mission as a senior couple can be hard. It can be hard to miss family back home, it can be hard to learn a language, it can be hard to navigate a foreign country culture and practices. But we have learned that it can be fun, rewarding, worthwhile and very much appreciated by the local people we served. It was an adventure of a lifetime filled with miracles. We have learned that the Lord is in the details. We have learned that there is a place and a mission for everyone that has a desire to serve. And we have learned that those serving, like the teacher who prepares the lesson, are actually the ones who gain the most from the experience!

We aren’t ready to turn in a second mission application and head right back out this week - there are other things we also want to do - but like the country song says, “You’re gonna miss this, you’re gonna want this back, you’re gonna wish this time hadn’t gone by so fast. These are some good times. You may not know it now, you’re gonna miss this.”

We hope everyone reading these letters takes the chance someday to serve a mission together as a senior couple.

Sayonara!

Elder and Sister McArthur

P.S. We will be speaking at our sacrament meeting on Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 9 am. 1244 West Chavez Drive in South Jordan. A Zoom Link is available.

Highlight…

One of the fun highlights from last week was Geralee’s photo shoot at the Wakayama Castle as she posed for the local kimono rental store for their 2027 catalog. She looked amazing as you can see and a lot of fun dressing up in the traditional kimono. The one she is wearing was given to her by a friend here and is a quite expensive style/material. It was a beautiful day, beautiful girl and will always be a great memory of our time here. Everything’s true except the part about the catalog :)

One of the things we have worked on while here has been finding “lost” or “less active” members. Remember there has been a huge loss of population in the rural areas of Japan, and so a lot of people have left the Wakayama and surrounding areas and moved to bigger cities. Addresses are challenging here. The members had done a lot of canvassing before we got here, but in some cases we still needed a few steps to finalize decisions about what to do with records, or confirm they had for sure moved out. So over the year, we have plugged along at confirming addresses and information. As we prepare to leave we have been working on finishing all the record updates and consolidating information we have gathered over the past year. This past week, after reviewing everything with the Bishop, we have officially moved out 99 records of members confirmed to no longer live here. We have also located accurate addresses for 10 people whose addresses were unknown. And we have learned death dates for 6 members. While sadly there have been 3 people who requested to have their names removed from church records. There is still pending information to confirm, but all in all, the official records and information about the families and members here is in much better shape than a year ago. It hasn’t been our highest priority or taken a huge chunk of time, but we feel like it is an important accomplishment that we hope will bear long term fruit and create more Church member unity.

A Day in the Life

We helped with a Primary activity last Saturday. They had planned an activity of “Having Fun Learning English Together” and asked Sister McArthur to “help”. She played a bunch of games and songs in English and we think the leaders enjoyed it as much as the 2 kids. At the end they wanted to take a picture and INSISTED that we sit on the two small chairs in front - SO FUNNY. We LOVE Primary, children are special worldwide, “…for such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We are a year in, and still finding interesting things in Japan that are SO different than what we see in the US. This top picture is a “Changing Board” that is in a public restroom that you can use to stand on if you need to change your clothes, so you don’t have to let your clothes touch the dirty bathroom floor. A very thoughtful touch.

The photo on the left below is a 24 hour unstaffed store. Completely on your honor. On the right side are prepared box lunches (Bentos) people grab before getting on a train typically and at the back of the store is a wood box with a slit in the top to place your cash to pay for your lunch. Its a way to keep costs down and deal with the shortage of labor. The box lunches cost $3 to $5, consist of some rice, meat and veggies! These stores are not uncommon. They even have one that is a small COSTCO outlet type store that does the same thing with COSTCO products broken down into smaller quantities. The bottom right picture is from Osaka a busy metro area - it is a picture of the UPS Delivery Truck, or actually Yamato delivery…

Friends

Last week it feels like we started saying our goodbyes. We spent a day doing social media ads in Sister Casingal’s area to see her before we leave, and then Elders Potts and Wayas joined us for lunch. It was like the good ‘ol days for all of us who served in Wakayama. Super fun day, we love them.

There is a group of members who get together every month and invite friends and missionaries to come to some activity - just to socialize and have some fun. Last Saturday they hosted a “goodbye” party for us and Sister Bodily who is also returning home this week. To be honest, it was a little embarrassing as they had a few people “speak” and who said way too nice of comments about all of us, but the most embarrassing thing was they INSISTED that we dance like it was our wedding dance or something. And then they all stood around and recorded it. They treated us like celebrities. We did enjoy the Karaoke, with Geralee hitting her go to “Let it Be”, and Ron helping on “Kitaguni no Haru”, or Spring in the North Country in English.

Lessons Learned

From Wikipedia:

The finger heart, also called the Korean finger heart, is a gesture that was popularized in South Korea in the 1990s, in which the index finger and thumb come together like a snap to form a tiny heart. The gesture was popularized by K-pop idols, who would often use the gesture to express their love and gratitude to their fans.

It is represented in Unicode with the codepoint U+1FAF0 🫰 as “Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed”.

The missionaries LOVE this finger heart, and accompany it with an enthusiastic “I LOVE YOU”, “Aishitemasu” to everyone. It still feels a little funny to hear the Elders telling ladies and girls “I LOVE YOU” as well as other guys. But in the end, isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing? It all starts with LOVE. The church has been teaching us all of our responsibility to Love, Share and Invite in recent years. And we do like this emphasis because it reminds of the order that makes sense and works. It doesn’t do any good to go around “inviting” or telling others what they should be “doing”, until we first learn to LOVE them, get to know them, meet them where they are at, etc. And even then, we first share the principles, how we can learn and know for ourselves, and share why things are important to us, how we learned for ourselves. And following the LOVE and SHARING true teachings, THEN it makes sense to INVITE people to act so they can receive promised blessings. But we also like this three point emphasis, but it teaches us that merely LOVING is not enough. When we really LOVE others, we will naturally want to SHARE what we know will be a blessing in their lives, and therefore we will want to INVITE them to take actions that are required to obtain those blessings for themselves.

It all starts with LOVE (🫰) but it leads to and is completed by action chosen by each individual one at a time.

Mission Report Time and Place

We have been asked to provide a brief report of our mission experiences in Sacrament Meeting at our ward in South Jordan on July 26, 2026 at 9 am. The address is 1244 West Chavez Drive, South Jordan Utah.

For this, what will likely be our last newsletter (we fly home on Monday), we would love to hear from you about what you have enjoyed or learned as you have followed along on our 1 year adventure in Japan. We hope you will take a couple minutes and share your thoughts, impressions, or feedback by leaving a COMMENT here. We will be using the Newsletter “blog” to print a book as our own keepsake. We would love to remember each of you as part of our mission experience.

Leave a comment

Highlight…

When we got off the plane in August of 2025 and met our mission president, one of our first questions was, “Would it be OK for us to go to Shikoku to meet Nakajima Choro a mission companion of Ron’s from 40 years ago?” President Sano was all for it, and we were excited to make that happen. But Nakajima was busy in the Fall, and then his Father’s health was a problem. His dad passed away in December. Things would calm down for him after February, but that is when we started having a lot of visitors ourselves. As our last visitors were coming to a close, Ron’s mom passed away and we went home in May for the funeral. After returning and catching up a bit, we finally were able to plan a time that worked to visit Nakajima in Shikoku and Noda Choro and his wife from Kumamoto drove up and met us as well. Nakajima was Ron’s companion in his first area, and Noda Choro was his companion in his last area.

For 40 years we have had a copy of the local “Liahona” magazine - called Seito no Michi at the time in Japan. This copy featured an article that Nakajima wrote about his time in his last area where he was companions with Ron and even mentions “McArthur Choro”. We gave him the article and read it together, including his testimony where he had written that he was grateful to have served a mission where he was able to meet friends from the pre-existence. Ron told him that he was one of those friends.

This was especially meaningful because Nakajima has not been going to church since he got married about 20 years ago. We know we sparked a few good memories and feelings in his heart that will hopefully grow into something more.

We went to some property he purchased a couple years ago where he is planning to build a resort type property for tourists to enjoy the natural beauty of Shikoku. It was a beautiful setting, but a very ambitious plan - he said when he dies he wants Ron to come finish it for him. LOL.

A Day in the Life

Last Thursday we officially met President and Sister Kerr! Holy Cow they are awesome. We could feel immediately their love, their enthusiasm, and their consecration. It’s funny how you wonder how will the mission survive without President and Sister Sano, and then you meet the Kerr’s and you instantly know that the mission is in good hands. We will miss being able to serve with them for more than a couple of weeks - but not enough for Geralee to extend and give up seeing her grandkids at the end of this month!!!

You Know You’re in Japan When…

Besides the meaningful visit with Nakajima in Shikoku we were overwhelmed with how beautiful the island was! It was a long drive with a ferry drive, so we broke it up with a hotel stay on the way out and back which gave us a little time to see a few local stops a long the way. If you have visited Japan once, you’ve probably been to Kyoto and Tokyo. Next time go to Shikoku. See the Kazurabashi bridge, Oboke Gorge and Iya Canyon. Stop by the Young Peeing Boy statue just for fun, and look for the waterfalls and enjoy amazing views all along the drive. Geralee kept saying, “This is more stunning than the Road to Hana!” Pictures don’t do it justice, but even the pics are beautiful, right?

On our way out of town, we stopped by the Matsuyama castle. It is similar to many of the castles built in the early 1600’s, but they all have their own unique look and feel. We liked the contrasting dark wood against the white walls and eaves. It sits on top of a hill with great views.

The bottom right photo above is our first stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage of 88 temples. We bought the souvenir book used to stamp and sign a page for each of the 88 temples you visit. It’s a pretty cool history for anyone interested checkout Shikoku Pilgrimage 88 (Henro).

On our way back home we spent a night in Fukuyama on the Seto Inland Sea. The Seto Islands we crossed from Shikoku to Honshu were so picturesque. In the morning we woke up to the surreal view above - of course, pictures don’t do it justice, but you get the idea- lush green steep mountains, calm waters, low clouds and fog and an occasional fishing boat.

Get out of the cities and come see THIS JAPAN!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

During our road trip to visit my former companions, we stayed in 2 different Ryokans, or traditional Japanese inns. They are known for providing set menus of traditional dishes along with hot spring baths. The dinners are optional, but the breakfasts are almost always included. We found some nice places that had western beds which we prefer but all the other traditional experiences. Some of the food served is “interesting” but never bad - just different. It’s a little funny when they tell us we are to eat the whole fish- all of it. Tons of small servings brought out over about 6 courses is pretty typical, so you get to try a lot of small dishes, and if you don’t like something there is plenty of other options still to come.

Friends

As we near the end of our mission here, we are particularly mindful of all the friends we have met. Young missionaries, their teaching friends, members in the ward (both active and ones less active), English class members, and even people like the guy who cuts Ron’s hair. The people make it fun. So although the specifics won’t mean much to most of you, here are the some of our friends we saw last week.

Lessons Learned

One of the several lessons that the Kerrs taught us last week was the need for, and blessings of being fully consecrated. There are many aspects to it, but one that immediately comes to mind is obedience, and always looking for ways we can be more obedient and thereby qualify for the promised blessings. It reminded me of the story of the rich young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to gain eternal life in Mark 10. Jesus answered to keep all the commandments and then listed several. The young man said he had done all those things since his youth. We sometimes forget this part; he is a good obedient man who wants to do the right thing. He has a history and pattern of doing the right thing, like the missionaries here, and like most of us. Jesus then tells him to sell all he has and follow Him. We are told that he went away sad because he had a lot of possessions. That is where we usually stop the story, but it actually continues. First, the following scriptures pertain exactly to this young man and Jesus taught that while it is hard, nothing with God is impossible. We fail to tie those two together usually. And so one lesson is that we each may have something holding us back from being fully consecrated (in fact I would guess most of us have several), but if we seek Jesus and sincerely ask what we can do, he will both teach us what it is we should work on next, AND provide the help to make what seems impossible, possible. And that is the second untold part of the story… we don’t know what the young man actually did. We are quick to condemn and criticize him just because he went away sad. However, the point is that it was difficult, not impossible, and not that he failed. Making difficult changes in our lives can take time, and sometimes we aren’t immediately ready. Aren’t we glad that God gives us both time to figure things out, AND second chances. I think the rich young man figured it out, sold all that he had, and followed Christ.

To be consecrated is to completely yield your will to the Father. None of us can do that quickly and easily. But we can all get there eventually. We might as well start sooner rather than later. But like our amazing road trip through Shikoku and finally meeting up with Nakajima, the important thing is that you take that road trip. You’ll be so glad when you do!

Highlight…

We had a great visit with one of the members this past week who has started coming back to church after about 15 years. It’s difficult to concisely share the progress he has made in his understanding, interest and desire. We have come a long way in so many areas. He comes to church about once a month when he has a Sunday off of work and meets with us about once a week. We have covered probably 99% of the missionary discussions. Two things make this week’s visit with him our highlight though. First, he was so engaged - more than ever before. He was reading with us, sharing what he thought, and joking around. He also prayed with us and said he would keep praying on his own. So overall, it was just a real solid discussion. But the real kicker came when the other member said something about quitting smoking. And our returning member said he stopped this week and he was on his 3rd day of no tobacco! Our approach with him has been that there would come a time when he would be ready to stop, and it is up to him to choose when that would be. Obviously, its a tough task to do, and there may be rough times and setback ahead, but he is ready to start. A couple of months ago he said that he wanted his soul to “be clean”, and he knows that this is one thing that will help accomplish that.

When we chose to go on a mission, we very much wanted to be assigned to work face to face with individuals, as opposed to serving in an office, etc. Our hope was to be in situations like this where we can have front row seats to the gospel in action in people’s lives. Our MLS assignment has been perfect and we love these opportunities to see the Holy Ghost work in individuals. Sometimes it happens quickly and other times it takes months, or even years. We can all play a small role in helping those chances come into other people’s lives- and what a blessing it is when that happens!

A Day in the Life

But not every day is filled with great face to face meetings. We spend a lot of time looking for people, or even addresses. We leave a lot of messages or small gifts at people’s homes who we miss. We have also sent out hundreds of letters and now a second round of post cards to contact as many people as we can. Obviously the most important purpose has been to invite everyone to come back to church, and a handful of people have reconnected and joined us at Sacrament meeting. But it has also helped clean up local ward records of some who have moved out or passed away. We have identified about 6 members who passed away and about 85 whose records belong somewhere else. The last big “record” task we are working on is working with the Bishop to reduce the list of members on an unofficial “Do Not Contact” list down from about 65 to 10.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

Geralee checks the mailbox several times a day. She isn’t expecting any Lottery winning announcement, and her Amazon orders are all too large to fit inside the mailbox. But she is always hoping for another letter from her grandkids with a picture or two, and hopefully a “heart” or “I Love You” somewhere on the page. Everyone already knows that missing the grandkids is one of the hardest parts about serving missions for Senior couples. We can only tell you that it is true.

Out with the Old - In with the New… Mission Leaders!

President and Sister Sano left the mission two days ago and headed home to Kyushu Japan.

President and Sister Kerr arrived in Kobe the day before with three of their boys to start their 3 year mission service. We will meet them this week on Thursday. (The two “young men” in tan suits are the Assistants to the President, and they are amazing. Do they look young or what?!)

Above is pictured Sister and President Sano (WITHOUT a tie), resting peacefully on their way home on the train. They sent their final “official” goodbye message. They will be missed, but we know that great things are in store of the Kobe Mission under the leadership of President and Sister Kerr! Someone was here before President Sano, and someone before that… Like Al Steward says, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Friends

One way to make new friends, of course, is service. We have a lot of widows in the ward and so it is a natural things to help offer to take care of things around the house for them. Some refuse, but fortunately a some take us up on things. Sometimes it is as simple as changing lightbulbs in hard to reach places. And other times it is more involved like repairing water damaged cabinets where we called on Elder and Sister McGale as reinforcements from Okayama to help out, since he’s got tools. It was fun to work on that project together with them.

Lessons Learned

Mölkky is a Finnish wooden pin throwing game. We played it for District Council meeting and after each throw we drew slips of paper with Christlike Attributes from Preach My Gospel (our missionary resource) written on them, and then taught each other about that attribute. It is fun to learn from the young missionaries who are consecrating their lives right now to develop these important traits: Faith, Hope, Charity and Love, Virtue, Integrity, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence, and Obedience. A few things they shared include:

“The more we know, the more we can help others.”

“Patience is more than just gutting it out, it includes enduring it well.”

“I think I’m really good at being humble”

“Diligence isn’t just for our mission, we need to keep working and serving God our whole lives.”

“Obedience is how we qualify for blessings and gifts from God. If we want to see more miracles on our mission, be more obedient.”

With twelve pins set up, you earn points by either counting the number of total pins you knock over, OR the value of the pin when you knock over just one pin. Sister Bodily took the lead when she somehow managed to hit the “12” pin and knock only it over- an amazing toss that made the crowd go wild. On the final round, however, in a come from behind dramatic finish in the last toss of the game, Sister McArthur nailed the “12” pin AGAIN and Team McArthur beat out Sister Bodily and Sister Moore to not only win the game, but also the coveted pack of Tim Tam’s as the Grand Prize! With first place going to the Senior Couple, and second place going to the Sister missionaries, the three companionships of Elders simply sat quietly in their seats.

Highlight…

It’s not right to call it a Highlight, but the “biggest” day this week was saying goodbye to our beloved President and Sister Sano. We had our last zone conference and interviews with them on last Wednesday- they will go home to Kyushu this coming Saturday morning. At 5:05 pm we were the last scheduled interviews they had that day, so we suggested that we shorten the interview and go grab some dinner together on their way home! We felt very lucky to have a little extra time in such an informal and nice setting with them. We are looking forward to their visit to Utah for a reunion this Fall. Some of the two best people we have ever met! They radiate love and goodness. Ai shite imasu! (We love you).

Sister Bodily and Sister Moore were still at the church when it came time to leave so they were also able to join us for a dinner - which is only appropriate since they are also two of the best sister missionaries we have ever met! Sister Bodily is in her last transfer in Wakayama and Sister Moore is in her first!

A Day in the Life

In some missions it seems that Senior couples spend a lot of time with other Senior couples. And some of our office missionaries may do that, but we have only spent one afternoon doing something fun with one other couple the whole year. Before we left we wanted to get together with a few that are reasonably close (within a couple hours). So last Saturday we invited any that wanted to come to join us in Kyoto at TeamLabs. Check out Team Labs website to learn more, but it is a 3D virtual art experience kind of place that was pretty cool. We enjoyed getting together and wished we had done this sooner! All these Senior couples are wonderful, remarkable and making a difference in their areas. Thank you for your boundless, amazing service! Ai shite imasu!

Firths, Micklesons, Mishimas, Dukes, Budges and Barths were all able to make it. After lunch a few of us also went to Kiyomizudera and walked through the pitch black underground tunnel under the shrine to a special stone - we were told to make a wish while touching the stone. This was Ron’s favorite pic of the day!

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We are coming up on a year in Japan, so many things that may have surprised us at first, or seemed funny, have now become normal. Few things catch our attention as unusual or different. And although many people still ask us about driving on the left side of the road, the real challenge isn’t driving, its PARKING! A year in, and we finally have the parking figured out, for the most part. But this week it still caught my attention…

Once you finally find a place to park, you pull in and a backup over a metal plate. The plate will then raise and create a barrier that you can’t pull over to exit. That’s all fine until it’s time to use the kiosk to pay. Some kiosks seem simple, but with all instructions in kanji, so they are never actually simple- we are always faking it here. Others like the one in the picture below have huge screens and usually offer English menus, which should make it simple. But somehow it is still complicated. In the example below there are three different places you might be able use your credit card to pay; nothing on the “help” screen tells you where to put it correctly, and in order to actually activate the correct credit card insertion point, you have to press on the small lower screen that is only in Japanese! When you do get some English prompts, they are often like the example below on the right.. What?

With all the globalization, and influx of foreign workers it is baffling how poor the English still is. It is nonsensical and full of spelling errors for even the simplest words. Below is a signage picture on a busy store in Kyoto which is full of foreign tourists, and no, the store has nothing to do with flowers. It is pretty amusing, and all around us so you hardly notice it at all. On the other hand, if I translate this back into Japanese, it still doesn’t make sense!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Almost everyone loves Japanese food. In addition to sushi, tempura, shabu-shabu and Kobe Beef, they have really great “everyday” food, like curry, katsu-don, and ramen. But they can be a little unusual in our eyes about the gristle and fat left in all of the meat served! What we think of as quality meat is not fatty enough for them, and they prefer to leave all the fat, gristle and skin on everything. You can even buy the grilled chicken on a stick (yakitori) with JUST chicken skin! Here are some offerings at the local 7-11 convenience store as pre-packaged options as examples that would never fly in the US.

Friends

Our friends at Game Nights, English Class and missionaries at zone conference continue to be the best part of our mission. It is all about the people, and we spend a LOT of time with a LOT of people. Last week we brought a new member with us to a coffee shop owned by another new member. Both had a great time getting to know each other better on an informal casual level. While there, we also met a Japanese couple who worked in Italy and were interested in our English class - they came on Friday night. Missionaries love connections, and view them as miracles, because we are often told, “We were just wanting to meet someone like you!” The Lord is in the details, forever and always. Ron likes to say, “The Lord sends prepared people to missionaries who are prepared to teach.”

We try to spend time every week with each of the new members and encourage them in whatever the next step is for them. Sometimes that is getting to the temple, and sometimes it is still just getting to sacrament meeting. We try to meet them where they’re at and help them in their journey. One member arrived in our ward a couple months ago after recently joining the church in Germany less than a year ago. When he arrived Ron was surprised to see on his record that he was not yet ordained to any office in the Aaronic priesthood. Ron asked the previous Bishop to contact our Bishop to discuss any concerns and he quickly sent back a glowing, complimentary recommendation- no issues. We began talking to him about Aaronic priesthood. Short story, he was ordained last week and passed the sacrament for the first time. He was so excited and happy and he said on Sunday, “I have to buy a nice suit now to wear to church.” He was so happy, just beaming, and we were, too.

Lessons Learned

Today for P-Day we were able to talk to Ron’s dad and wish him a Happy Father’s Day. We are looking forward to seeing him again in 4 short weeks. He is always thinking about serving in the temple. He is a sealer at the Jordan River Temple still, at 89, sometimes 2 afternoons a week. We love his wisdom and insights.

We fortunately were also able to talk to our children today, and wish the men in our family a Happy Father’s Day. They are all marvelous dads, husbands, brothers and friends. We are very proud of each of them. After their thoughtful messages to Ron, he wrote them all back, “To all you dads out there, not to take anything away from mothers, BUT, there really is no mother without a father. It’s always taken two. You fathers are just as important as each wonderful mother. Never buy into the all too prevalent husband/father bashing or belittling. You can and need to make a difference-as I know you all recognize. Happy Father’s Day to all of us! Including the women who are lucky enough to have such good men in their lives!”

And lastly, we are infinitely grateful for our Father in Heaven. One of Geralee’s favorite scriptures is in the Book of Mormon, “…all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44). Geralee mentioned today how grateful she is for her dad that taught her to love studying the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. If you knew him, you’d love him, too. And we know we will see him again in heaven. “Till we meet at Jesus’ feet.” (Hymn: God Be With You Till We Meet Again).

And until next week!

Highlight…

We missed sending out our Newsletter last week for the first time - for days we kept saying “we need to do that tonight”… But never made it. The truth is that since we came back from Ron’s mom’s funeral we have felt a need to sprint to the end and finish up so many objectives and projects. It’s fun to wrap things up. One of the highlights we have been looking forward to has been planting rice in Brother Torii’s field - it is such a blast to work side by side with The Legend!

A Day in the Life

We have been busy, but not all our time is grinding out on missionary duties. Last P-Day Geralee said today we need to do something fun and epic so we headed to Nachi Waterfall - the tallest waterfall in Japan - and made a day road trip out of it, and it’s in our area! As we left we started getting tsunami warnings over city loudspeakers, on our phones, and from texts from several people making sure we stayed safe. The tsunami warning was following the 8.2 earthquake in the Philippines that same day. The road to the waterfall was along the coast so we did check the details of the warning… And then headed out for our road trip. The picture below shows us parked at 12:30pm waiting for the tsunami to hit, hoping for some dramatic impact. Unfortunately, it looked more like a few rough waves than anything worthy of warnings!

Our road trip included the monument at the southernmost tip of Honshu, some cool rock formations jutting out of the ground right on the shoreline (in Kushimoto), and a stop at Shirahama where one of the 3 oldest hot springs in Japan is located (Saki-no-Yu Onsen).

This is probably our last video we’ll do here for social media ads, and it is one we’ve wanted to do since last Fall. We were in Shirahama once before and the Onsen was closed and blocked off, so we were glad we were able to get this one done before we left. We don’t know if it will “work”, but we’ve showed it to a couple of people here and they say they really like it. Here is the translation of the message:

• For 2,000 years, Japanese people have been coming to the “Saki no Yu” hot springs in Shirahama to cleanse their bodies.

• But it’s not just our bodies that need cleansing—our spirits need cleansing as well.

• That is one of the missions of Jesus Christ. Through the power of Jesus Christ, our spirits can also be purified.

• Let me explain this in more detail so that you can experience the blessings and joy it brings.

• Click here, and let’s meet!

You Know You’re in Japan When…

Planting rice was a blast… for about an hour. Then the rice planting got hot and hard. We can’t imagine doing this for weeks every June! But one day was just right. And the outfits that Sister Fujino and Brother Watanabe wore were also worth coming to see. Good day!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Geralee has a funny food story, but she says we can’t share it here….

Friends

One of the things we have worked on all year has been finding addresses of less active members and cleaning up records for those who have moved, which has been MANY! We had a lot of notes, and updates that needed to be consolidated and before meeting with several members reviewing these lists to confirm we hadn’t missed something. That is a big project that we HAVE to finish before we head home. We think there will be over 100 records that we will move out when we are done. Obviously, the best outcome is to find, invite and help people come back to church, but it is also helpful to remove some of the clutter of inaccurate and outdated records so we, and others who come after us, can focus on the people who are actually here.

Lessons Learned

We also spent an afternoon at Wakayama Castle gardens recording and editing Sister Tanigawa and Sister Bodily singing “Consider the Lillies” (Matt 6:28) in English, Hawaiian and Japanese. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. It’s message can be our Lessons Learned for today!

Highlight…

This may be the funniest highlight of our mission, but both of us LOVED cleaning the church for the BIG SPRING CLEANING! Geralee loved the sweeping and wiping to deep clean the dirt, and Ron loved throwing everything out! There was a shed we cleaned that had camping gear in it that hasn’t been used for 15 or more years, probably. We unloaded it all, kept a few tarps, some charcoal and 2 tents. The rest went back in the shed for the Church’s FM (Facility Management) group to come pick up and throw away in a week. It became the first “dumpster” we have had access to in a year!

The members (about 20) were awesome and all helping to wipe, wash, clean, vacuum etc. But once we started throwing things out a handful of them got into it too, and we decluttered so much stuff. It’s good to put some new eyes on things every once in a while… We now have about a week to finish filling up the “dumpster” with more stuff from the full closets inside the church!!! It was so good be here to help clean. Best day ever!

A Day in the Life

We don’t do it as often as we should, but one thing we have enjoyed is recording ads with the young missionaries to post on social media. Their camera phones are pretty bad, so they are always grateful to have access to our nicer phones and mics to help them look and sound better. Sister Bodily and Tanigawa were a lot of fun and made a few videos at the beautiful grounds outside the Ganko Restaurant in Wakayama. The gardens are pretty enough to justify a visit for lunch or dinner just to see the gardens!

We always try to do one or two videos as well, just so they know we are willing to put ourselves out there and look silly in front of the camera too. It does make you appreciate skills of actors and actresses who memorize scripts and get it right! It isn’t easy for some reason…

You Know You’re in Japan When…

Are we really providing little stuffed Pokémon toys as a reward for learning the language? Funny, but yes. They love their “stuffies” here, and hang them on their purses and backpacks. So we are bribing about 10 sisters to study a language grammar book they call Pikachu (because it is yellow), with a little Pikachu stuffy when they finish. Ron created a study guide that summarizes the 180 key grammar points in the book, and provides a place to write their own sentence(s) using the new grammar. When they finish the 23 page study guide they get the stuffy!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Here we are at Ganko’s with the sisters after they finished a perfect apartment check, and before they recorded some social media ads in the restaurant garden. Super fun day with Sister Bodily and Sister Tanigawa. They are Sister Training Leaders and work with up to 5 other sister companionships - they are awesome at what they do, and super busy all the time!

Friends

We really have several groups of friends here. We often think of the friends of the missionaries who are learning about, or just joined the church. But for us, we also think of the young missionaries as our friends, as well as the ward members of course. They all play an important part of our mission experience. P-days with the young missionaries can be both fun and funny. Sometimes attending weekly game nights and English class can feel like Ground Hog Day, but in every case there are those moments that are meaningful, impactful and make it all worth it.

Last week at game night we had a ton of people come which is awesome, but with “no room” at the table, Ron was happy to sit off to the side and eat some of Geralee’s brownies! When he did, one of our favorite ward members came over and sat down next to Ron and they just talked for about 30 minutes. At the end of the night he said he had been hoping to be able to talk about some things with us that night, and how glad he was. Nothing monumental, just a nice visit and a chance to be heard. It’s a good example of just one of the friendships we have been able to enjoy because we have been here. We will miss a lot about Japan, but mostly the friends we have made here.

Our mission leaders, the Sano’s go home at the end of this month and have started their farewell tour around the mission. They have been incredible mission leaders in every way, always so happy and faithful. We hope to stay friends with them in spite of being on the other side of the world. We enjoyed their family farewell fireside on Sunday in Osaka, and also finally met up with the Dukes who are from our home stake in South Jordan and started serving here around February! They are doing super well, working hard, and mastering the language!

Lessons Learned

Since returning to Japan after Ron’s mom’s funeral, we feel we are ready to sprint to the finish line of July 20! We have been setting goals to finish up big projects we have been doing for the last 10 months: Contacting less-actives, updating Church membership records, helping the young missionaries get better at Japanese more quickly, and completing social media ads, as well as the on-going work of helping our new members, encouraging the young missionaries, and serving the Wakayama ward members wherever needed. We feel so much satisfaction in these areas, and realize it really is all about the people. As fun as cleaning and de-junking is for Ron, we know that how we treat people and help them is what matters most. When we leave this world, we won’t take anything with us except our relationships and what we learn through our experiences “here” - like these unforgettable mission experiences, memories and relationships. Consecrating our time and efforts here has hopefully rubbed off and polished some of our rough edges. Peter said it well on the Mount of Transfiguration in Mark 9, “Master, it is good for us to be here”. So true, it IS good for us to be here.

Highlight…

Go to Shinden means “Go to the Temple”, and that’s exactly what we did on Saturday.

There is no question what the highlight of the week has been! We were able to go with Azusa to the Tokyo Temple on Saturday to do baptisms, and it was a great experience. It was actually a ward temple day, so there were several ward members there as well, but we all travelled on our own. We picked up Azusa at 5:00 am, flew to Tokyo and then flew back home in the evening at 8 pm. She was super happy about coming, and said it was “extremely touching and impressive”. One of the best aspects was just to spend an entire day visiting and talking, with much of the discussions centered on the temple, the importance of families, and God’s plan for each one of us. It was a good day for all of us.

A Day in the Life

One of the activities we have done is to help make some social media videos. This week we started to work on making some new ads to share. The one of Ron below basically says that there are a lot of other people in many other countries who believe in Jesus Christ and if you’re interested, even just a little, about why that is, we’d love to give you an introduction about it.

In this video, Sister Larsen and Sister Davis share that Jesus Christ taught us how to find happiness and offer to teach more about that. “Click Here and Let’s meet!”

We will edit a few of these, transcribe the words in Japanese to make it easy to prep the captions and then send them to a contact in Salt Lake to run the ads on YouTube and Facebook. We heard that four of the ads we did several months ago are still running throughout Japan and working. One of those features Ron, which surprised us. We had always done an ad or two of us with the younger missionaries just to show we are willing to do what we are asking them to help with. But apparently there are some old Japanese widows on Facebook that like Ron’s ads. Actually most of the likes are probably Geralee who likes the ad every time it crosses her feed!!! hahaha

You Know You’re in Japan When…

After the temple we visited the Imperial Palace with Azusa and Ron’s niece, Micah, and her family who were visiting Japan; we found out on Friday that they were going to the temple on Saturday, we were really lucky to be able to meet up and spend some time with them!

You know you’re in Japan when you get cornered by Ron, at practically any historical site, who then starts telling you about the site’s connection to Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the Shogun at the end of the 1500’s who is credited with uniting Japan. Which of course, actually means conquering all of Japan’s feudal lords and bringing them under his rule. The imperial palace, which now is the home of the Emperor, was the Shogun’s palace/fort in Tokyo from about 1600 until late 1800’s when the control of the government was turned back over to the Emperor by the Shogun. For 285 years, the Tokugawa Shogunate controlled Japan- all descendants of Tokugawa Ieyasu!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

After our video recording session, we went to lunch with Sister Larsen, Emig and Davis. We tried a place in Kobe that was actually really good (K-Pasta Sooin, 〒657-0044). They have a lot of karaage (fried chicken) in Japan, but although it is marinated with soy, garlic and ginger, it is in reality pretty plain. K-Pasta offered “karaage” with some Korean sauces to spice it up. It was really good, if for no other reason than to provide some variety. As a bonus, we found out as were leaving that the owners of the shop are Christian and attend church on Sundays. The Kobe sisters are looking forward to going back to talk more.

Friends

As we said above, it was our ward temple day. But because we are so far away it is difficult to get there and everyone ends up arranging their own transportation. Some fly, some take the train, and some even drive. Those that drive leave Friday night and drive through the night, maybe stopping to sleep in the car at a rest stop for a couple hours. After the temple, they drive home Saturday afternoon. It is a crazy schedule, but many of them do this. At the temple it was fun for us and Azusa to keep bumping into many people we knew from our ward. And then we also saw others, including the Firth’s, another Sr missionary couple serving in Kobe, and our niece Micah and her family! Ron made some new friends with a ward temple group from Otsu Ward, also in our mission, who asked him to take their group picture - they didn’t know what they signed up for when they asked… They got such a kick out of him laying on the ground in order to get the angel Moroni in the frame that they asked if we could transfer to their ward next!

Lessons Learned

“Shinden ni ikimashoo!” (Let’s go to the temple!!)

One of the blessings of attending the temple from the perspective of a new member in Wakayama is that you see that you are part of something much bigger than just an isolated congregation of 60 saints. There were so many people bustling about at the temple, at the visitors center, at the distribution center next door, in the patron lodging area etc. We saw many people we knew and even more people we didn’t know. The building themselves, and the beautiful grounds, provide a message that not only is this sacred and important, but that there many, many more people just like you and me who believe, support, and help move the great work of the gospel of Jesus Christ forward. In a country where they are accustomed to being homogeneous, having a sense of belonging is even more important than some other cultures. When they come to the temple they feel a part of something big, and a sense of community that instills confidence, faith, and belonging.

Highs and Lows…

Ron’s mom passed away on April 28, 2026, the day after our last update. So we will try to catch up on the highs and lows from the past few weeks. (We apologize in advance if this is a bit long- and if it doesn’t load you may need to click the button above to see the whole thing.)

When we found out about Ron’s mom, we actually had 7 other family members in Japan heading our way to visit - it turned out to be a huge blessing to have them with us as we prepared to head home for the funeral. Of course, that also came with its own challenges of getting 9 flights figured out to get home…

But going home was a wonderful blessing and we were so happy to see everyone and be together. We were especially happy to see Louie King McArthur who was born in February and who we got to meet for the first time! Bryant and Taylor were kind enough to arrange his baby blessing while we were there, which was also really nice.

There were actually many blessings and small miracles over the past few weeks, that seemed to confirm to us over and over again that God is in the details of our lives; simple things like being home on Mother’s Day, attend a mission call opening, and even timing that allowed Ron to fix a solar panel that has been a problem since before we left. And there were a couple of really big miracles during our time at home for which we are very grateful.

One of the nicest things we were able to do was to just spend time with Ron’s dad after the funeral when things started to calm down, like the day we went to lunch with him along with Tyler, Jared and Bryant (sorry you missed this one Rex). We were still in Japan while most of the arrangements were made and “work” was getting done. And we were lucky to just have some time to visit with no critical tasks to get done. Although there is no replacing my mom, with 6 kids living nearby, 4 doting daughters, and 25 grandkids, it seems that my Dad will have plenty of company and support.

A Day in the Life

When we consider serving missions, one of the things everyone worries about is missing important family events. And while we couldn’t be there to help care for Ron’s mom while she was ill, there was never a question at all about whether or not we could return home for the funeral and support our family at home. We had to scramble to get flights for 9 of us back from Japan; Julia’s family returned one day early, and Jared/Mallory came home 3 days early from their trips. Donna has a posterity of 113 (so far), and all but a few came. Funerals can be some of the best meetings in the church; we often leave a funeral feeling a greater desire to be good, to try harder, and reset our priorities to insure we achieve the things in life that matter most. All 7 kids spoke at the funeral and honored her for her extensive teaching, unshakable testimony, lifetime of service, and for just being “mom”. She lived well and really has been a solid example to so many people, in so many ways. After dealing with cancer for almost two years, its hard to be sad for her. We know she is in a better place and know that because of Jesus Christ’s victory over death, she too will be resurrected- never to be sick again!

Geralee sang with the daughters and granddaughters (0:32:45) and Ron spoke (1:07:40) if you’d like to hear them at the funeral service.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

With our grandkids visiting lately we realized how crazy the playground equipment is in Japan. The kids love it, but the parents are worried the whole time if they are going to fall on these bars and land on the concrete below! This would never fly in the US. Geralee is doing her squats at the park- maybe teaching the kids how to use the Japanese toilets. Speaking of which, there is NO DOOR on the boy’s toilet for some reason (not uncommon), you can see straight into the urinals!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

This restaurant in Osaka has seating that is shaped like a boat, and you can actually catch fish in tanks outside the boat which they will then prepare for your meal. The sushi in front of Jared was swimming in the tank only minutes before we ate it for lunch.

Friends

Three years ago when Geralee was serving in YW at home, she was very involved in supporting a young women learn about the church who was then baptized. The secret sauce in her conversion was absolutely the amazing group of young women, many who are pictured above, and several of them also have mission calls! Geralee was right there with them as an excellent role model, leader and support. During those two or three years, there were three young women who were baptized. We were blessed to be home for the letter opening and to congratulate her on her mission call to serve in Quito Ecuador. It was also a great chance to meet and catch up with other ward members including Andrew and Julie Allman pictured on the right (OK Andrew, let’s see if you really are reading these letters…)

Lessons Learned

One might assume that our lessons learned would be about the resurrection and the reality of eternal families. And while we certainly thought about that a lot the past few weeks, that is something we already knew. Like Ron’s mom has said about it, “There’s no doubt in my mind”.

Instead, the experience of going home during our mission and then returning to Japan has taught us something else. I think we have better understood the principle to Be Present.

Certainly, it was important for us to Be Present at the funeral and to participate. It will be important for us to Be Present for Ron’s Dad in the coming months and years. But it has also been important, and felt right to Be Present in Japan serving our mission. While at home, so many people asked about how it will be going back to finish our mission. We can now say, “We are glad to be back, and ready to get to work”. We want to Be Present while serving and not long to be somewhere else; and that is where we are at. Geralee said this morning, “Let’s plan our week and get to work, we have a lot to do”.

At times, to Be Present, may require us to go somewhere else. like returning home for the funeral, or to physically Be Present with others who need our help wherever they may be. But usually, to Be Present is simply doing what you can where you are right now.

While we were at home we LOVED being with everyone, holding new babies, playing with grandkids, having lunch with Dad and even stopping by the office. We loved sleeping in our own bed, and being in our home, seeing neighbors, and driving our F-150 on wide roads. We also enjoyed so many opportunities to help and serve while we were at home. One thing we really enjoyed was helping Bryant clean the whole house (while watching two of the kids) for Taylor’s Mother’s Day gift. Louie was born 3 months ago and so house cleaning has not been at the top of their priority list. We helped clean for 6 hours on Saturday and the place looked amazing when we left. We were so glad to Be Present when Bryant needed our help to give Taylor the one thing she wanted for Mother’s Day - a clean house.

But now in Japan, we are equally excited to be here enjoying the hot baths, bidet toilet seats, convenience stores on every corner and especially the work of getting new members to the Tokyo temple this coming weekend, coordinating with the Bishop about chapel spring cleaning on the 30th, creating new social media ads with the young missionaries and scheduling apartment checks for Wednesday and Friday. It feels great to be back here, just like it felt great to come home.

We can all Be Present in the lives of our family and friends, and in our wards and communities. Longing to be somewhere else, or wishing for different circumstances, or pinning our happiness to some pending change is never the right answer. There is service to render and joy to be found wherever we are. We have 9 weeks left in our mission and we plan to Be Present for every day that remains, and when the time comes, we will Be Present at home.

One of our Mission Highlights…

One of the best experiences on our mission has been enjoying so many family and friends visiting Japan and spending some time with us while we are here. You may wonder, like we have, is this REALLY OK?

We try to write our weekly letters, in part, while thinking of what some of you may wonder about when you think of serving your own missions. So today, we thought we would summarize what we have done, and what we have learned about visitors coming to see us while we serve our mission.

A Day in the Life of Senior Missionaries

Many who came stayed for just a day or two, others were a week or more in total. Most were visiting sites in our mission boundaries, but we also went to Hiroshima one day, and to Tokyo twice. It has been especially fun when we were able to combine visits with missionary experiences, like we have mentioned in earlier posts. But in any case, we have worked to “stay on top of” our missionary work while we travel, which of course is both difficult and exhausting. It’s like we are trying to fill two roles - one as a tour guide/traveler and second as a full time missionary. We wouldn’t have it any other way, but truthfully, there is a little sigh of relief when the travel ends and we go back to just one role as missionaries. Still, it’s sad to see people leave.

Visitors become both a welcome break to the normal routine for us, but also a bit of nostalgic reminder of the connections, friends, and family we have left behind in order to serve our missions. Sometimes, that can also be hard to readjust back to missionary mode. We heard second hand that one mission president had told a senior couple to remember they are missionaries allowed to travel, not travelers allowed to be missionaries. Like most things it is a case of finding the right balance, which will be different for everyone, including within your companionship!

Pending Arrivals - Jared and Mallory McArthur and Scot Safford

As you can see, there has been a huge concentration of visitors in March - April - May. That is due in part to the cherry blossom season in Japan and trying to time the trip to see the cherry blossoms. Another factor is that we are only serving for 12 months, and we think many planned their trips after we left. So no one came for the first 7 months we served. If you were serving longer, it would likely be more spread out. We aren’t expecting any visitors after May 10 until we return July 20 - but hey, if you want to make some quick plans you are welcome!!

Lessons Learned

One thing we have learned as we have spent time with visitors is that, like this newsletter, hosting family and friends is also a part of our missionary service. Some of our visitors are not members of the church, some are not currently attending church much, and some are attending, but a little churchy shot in the arm never hurts any of us, right? Our grandkids who visit are thinking about serving a mission of their own someday, as are many of their parents and many of our friends. To travel to Japan and also be exposed to, and think about missionary work is a great opportunity. It has been good to share how we feel about serving, our faith, and our experiences with everyone that comes. At first, we probably viewed visitors as a break from our missionary service, and to some degree wondered if it was really OK or not? Or at least, how do we manage it so that it is OK. But in the end, we feel very differently about having visitors come now. We consider it a great opportunity for anyone to come and see how the work keeps moving forward throughout the world in small and simple ways, day by day, even by our small efforts and contributions. We don’t stop being parents, grandparents or friends just because we are serving a mission, and so it is natural and right to share these experiences up close and personal to all who are able and interested to come and see. If you are considering serving your own mission as a senior couple you should definitely look forward to sharing those experiences with your family and friends who can visit! Some of our visitors have even said that their visit to our ward in Wakayama, or getting to spend time with the young Elders and Sisters was a highlight of their trip. “Come and See”.

There are so many great memories we have created through these visits, like the creation of Ron’s new go-to sticker/emoji for all texts in the future. This would never have been possible if Karl Palmer had not come to visit us. Thank you Karl!

Highlight…

We actually had a lot of things that could have been our “highlight” for the week, but we really just needed a place to share this picture of Mt. Fuji! We took this picture when headed back from saying Goodbye to Rex, Emily, Steve and Karen at the airport in Tokyo. Beautiful view. We hiked to the top in 1998 with our good friend Lori Sturgeon whose husband was stationed in Japan at the time. Great Memories!

A Day in the Life

We love helping our ward members and friends here with (almost) any projects they have. We were able to help trim a tree that was too tall for the Sister to do herself, and we love to be outside DOING things. Fun morning.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

You know you’re in Japan when you keep having family and friends show up to enjoy this amazing country, with fun culture, and great food. The Shumway’s stopped by and stayed with us for one night on their way to the Hong Kong temple to join some of their in laws attend the temple there for the first time. We were able to fit in this Sumo lunch/show that was pretty fun and a great intro to Sumo wrestling by retired professional Sumo wrestlers. They taught about the history, the rules, the styles of wrestling and then held a short tournament before letting some of the audience try to wrestle against them. That was the most entertaining of all. These guys are way more muscle, and more solid than you think. No one could move them, think brick wall.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

We’re always surprised how good the sushi is at even the most basic sushi restaurants that send the sushi to your table on conveyor belts. Its funny, but worthy of your last night out when visiting Japan.

Friends

Joe, Maryan and Elias Shumway all stopped by with us to see Beau at his cafe on Friday before we went to the airport. By chance, the sister missionaries had also just stopped by to say “Hi”, and Elias actually served in the cafeteria with our Sister Scott! They both recognized and knew each other instantly which was really funny. Sister Scott remembers people details like no one we’ve ever met and she reminded Elias about a conversation they had about baseball teams! Beau was also doing well, and his banana chocolate muffins were amazing!

We also spent some time with Azusa this week and she gave us a tour of the neighborhood she grew up in. Her Dad was the Wakayama city mayor and he created a couple of parks where they planted a bunch of Sakura (cherry trees), so he named it AzuSakura Park. It was fun to see her walking down memory lane - we took her to the “lot” where her house used to be and she was surprised to see that her brother has recently built a new home on the property. We were lucky enough to bump into him and visit. he invited us back to “hangout” some time. She was super happy.

Lessons Learned

The power of the black tag! While playing tourist recently we were stopped by people who wanted to talk more about the church. Of course many were members and asked about serving a senior couple mission, which as you may guess, we highly recommend. It’s fun to see how excited people are to meet any missionaries and how excited they are to talk about their own missions when they were younger, or their hopes for serving soon. It is a good reminder about the simple joy that comes from looking outside ourselves. We spend so much of our lives in the routines that are focused on ourselves like careers, finances, planning/saving for the future, household duties etc. It is a great blessing when you are able to set those things aside for a time, and really focus on things that matter more in the long run. Obviously, you can’t ignore the responsibilities of life, but when you are able, it is a lot of fun, and something to look forward to and worth the effort to make happen.

Many other people who asked about our tags were not members of the church. Often the conversations are short and simple. But others show real interest. One server at a restaurant had worked with church volunteers at a food bank in Tokyo and was very impressed and complimentary of both the individuals and the organization. She wanted to know more about what we do, and was grateful for the humanitarian contributions of the church. We talked with another family at our hotel three different times. At first, we simply introduced the church and what we do as missionaries. The next time we saw them they made the connection to the Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon”, which they had seen. We told them that an actual free copy of the Book of Mormon with the “accurate” explanation about it is in the drawer of their night stand! They said they would take a look.

Geralee suggested that all members wear black tags - think of the conversations that could be started, and the doors that could open. Or maybe we should learn to open our mouths without the tag? Naahh, the black tag has special powers - we should all get them :)

Highlight…

Easter Sunday was one of the best sacrament meetings we have had since we came to Japan. There are probably several reasons in addition to the simple fact that it was Easter. Our district of 10 missionaries set a goal a week or so before to invite 100 people to Easter Sunday and explain how important Easter is when we do. We hit the goal and the result was that we had a couple of less active members come that have not been to church for years, an active member invited a non-member neighbor, an English class “student” came for the first time in about 15 years, and all our new members came except for one who had work and one who was sick. Plus two special guests from the US! It seemed like the invitations and talking with the members about it really helped.

Sister Tanigawa played the ukulele and Sister McArthur, Sister Scott, and our visiting Sister McArthur (aka Karen) sang I Know that My Redeemer Lives - including both Japanese and English - GO KAREN!!! It was really good. The picture below is when they practiced on Saturday night.

Another highlight would have to be the Cherry Blossoms that were in full bloom as we were lucky enough to visit some touristy places with Rex, Emily, Steve and Karen!

A Day in the Life

The week was Zone Conference week and we were asked by President Sano to teach the missionaries on the importance of Marriage and Families. President Sano asked us to do it in English to make sure all the missionaries fully understood, so Sister McArthur was happy to take on the English assignment so I would have to do the Japanese assignments that come. Kind of a funny topic for missionaries, but Sister McArthur did an amazing job making it “not weird” at all. She shared key points from President Oaks’ recent conference talk, as well as classic advice from other prophets, and added practical and personal advice from our kids about the importance and blessings of both marriage and families. It was very well received and we were so happy!

The Sano’s always take pictures together with the new missionaries holding a gold shovel used at the ground breaking for the Osaka Temple - but they forgot when we came last August, so Geralee was excited to finally get her picture with the shovel!!! We want to come back for the Osaka Temple Open House in a few years! It is highly anticipated by all the members here, giving Japan 5 temples.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

If you’ve been reading our newsletters since we arrived, you are probably getting tired of us talking about the bathrooms. Some may even think we are a bit obsessed with them for whatever reason, but to that we say, “Well we do have 2 Japanese bidet toilets at home… So you may be right.”

But that doesn’t explain the irony and inconsistency we see inside the public restroom stalls where detailed diagrams are provided about how to sit, and not stand, on the toilet seat are provided, along with details about where trash belongs . . . .

. . . BUTT no explanation or instruction is provided about operating the multi-key control pad that controls the high pressure water jet stream aimed at your underside, that has pressure AND heat controls, in addition to position control. This one offers “privacy” but it doesn’t explain that means it plays music to mask any unpleasant noises. Some offer a blow dryer along with night lights, and you’ll just have to play with it sometime on your own to learn what the magic wand button does.

Well, at least you know not to stand on the toilet seat - not even if you take off your shoes!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

You can buy special rice/wheat crackers at Nara to feed to the deer who roam the area freely and are not only protected, but cared for at the Deer Hospital when necessary. They are trained to bow to receive the crackers - which works sometimes. Other times it just becomes a free-for-all and the scramble for the crackers. Here is Rex and Emily enjoying the sacred deer encounter.

Friends

Our best friends are our family members, and this week we were lucky enough to have Rex and Emily as well as Steve and Karen visiting Japan! We were able to spend a couple days playing tourist together, including Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nara. We also met up with Sister Larsen who used to be in Wakayama with us which was also really fun. Rex and Emily were the best travelling companions, and always one step ahead of us on train routes and mapping - not surprising. Super fun to be with!

It was nice to have quality time with Rex and Emily and also Steve and Karen. Some of the best experiences together included Easter Sunday at church with Karen singing in Japanese, and Steve helping me do home repairs for a member.

Lessons Learned

We both talked a lot about the Marriage and Family topic for zone conference and concluded that we really liked President Oaks’ choice of words when he says we should not “intentionally delay” marriage or family. Intentionally delaying God’s promised blessings of marriage and family because you think you need more money, need to establish your career, or need to see the world first is just silly, at best. But there is no age, or timeline that is prescribed for marriage or to start your family. One mistake we have seen is when young adults simply marry whomever they are dating at the time they reach some particular age. “Delays” may happen in your life, like not finding the right person, or not being emotionally ready, or …., but don’t put off moving down the covenant path for things of far less value.

Here are a few gems we learned from our kids:

1. Bryant said, “The right time for you to be married is when the Lord speaks to you, and don’t get in your own way.”

2. Mallory said, “I knew I had to trust God and trust God’s timing.”

3. Taylor mentioned, “Choose a partner who lives their life so that they are worthy to call upon the power of the Priesthood at any moment…it has been my greatest blessing and has saved our family.”

4. Julia said, “Don’t be so picky that it stops you from progressing…Bumps are normal. Red flags or manipulation or guilt trips are not.”

5. Tyler’s pointed out- “Every year that you delay having children is one less year you get to spend with them.”

6. And Allae said, “I never knew joy the way I feel joy in being a mother. Words cannot express the absolute PRIVILEGE it is to be a mother…Can you believe that we are that loved? I cannot. I stand all amazed.”

After spending even just a couple days with 2 of our kids, and 2 siblings after being mostly on our own for 8 months, we can testify that family is what really matters; and as President Oaks said, the family is central to God’s plan for us. Thank God for family.

Highlight…

Sakura season is finally here - and it won’t last long. But the whole country comes alive and is excited. There is a new spring energy that comes when the flowers start to show. We are also super excited for the flowers, but also for the warmer weather to be outside, and the upbeat feeling on the streets! Spring time is awesome in Japan!!!

A Day in the Life

With the warmer weather, we have stepped up our own outside game. We’ve started making better efforts to get out and find/ meet/ invite members we haven’t met yet - along with some we have met. When we visit and no one is home, we leave small flyer we made that invites them all to church, stick in on their door with a magnet that has a picture Ron “created” with a Book of Mormon photo he took combined with a NASA shot of the earth - The Book of Mormon gives light to the world. And we write a short message. To top it off and increase the chance of a return contact, Geralee fixes little baggies of chocolates we leave with them. At least that way, no one is mad we stop by.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We joined a gym like everyone else in January and have made it back a few times since we joined. When we do, we have to bring a second set of shoes to wear inside and change into our street shoes when we leave. Our gym shoes MUST NEVER be worn outside.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Finally got some good Mexican Food - The Taylor’s had us for dinner and hosted a great home made Tex-Mex dinner! Zack was baptized last year and is originally from Texas, so he appreciates good Mexican food. His wife is Japanese, but an excellent cook! Geralee brought refried beans she also made from scratch. It was a great night!

Friends

We made it back to jail this week to visit our new friend who we met last week. She asked for a Bible and we offered to bring her one along with a Book of Mormon. She was once again so grateful and inspiring. We love visiting with her, but of course, we both said that we hope we don’t see you again. She thinks she will be able to go home soon, but nothing is certain. We talked to her about prayer, God’s plan, prophets and how they can help us in our daily lives. We left, again, feeling like she helped us as much or more than we helped her. We don’t know details of her current story, but we know she is a sweet, sincere, humble young lady with a big heart and desire to do good. We hope to meet her again… outside of jail.

Lessons Learned

Our missionary district consists of the missionaries serving in our ward (6 of us) plus two more sets of Elders serving in nearby Sennan and Gobo for a total of 10 missionaries. We have meetings with them almost every week. Last week we set a goal for our District to invite 100 people to come to church for our Easter service. And we are happy to report that we reached our goal. It was a lot of fun focusing on invitations about Jesus Christ. Many times when meeting people for the first time, the missionaries will lead with invitations to come to English class, Game Night, or come to church to see what it is like as well as invitations focused on Jesus. But this week we all talked to everyone about Jesus, the Resurrection and coming to learn more about Jesus at church. One sister shared in her testimony what a difference it made! She said while normally there might 5 people or so a week that share their contact information with them, this week they got almost 20 new contacts. And it felt more meaningful.

We have been thinking about that experience. It is often said that Japanese don’t like religion; that their image of church is not good. This is mostly due to some negative incidents that have happened in recent years by those associated with religious organizations. However, when asked if they have interest in Jesus Christ they tend to be more open to learning about the person vs. the organization.

After hearing the success of the Easter invitation challenge, our zone leaders gave the entire zone a new challenge of using a new Christ focused flipbook to introduce and invite people to learn about Jesus Christ. We are to extend 500 invitations in the next 3 weeks using the Christ focused flipbook. It is an interesting twist on things when others have been having great success by inviting people to church (the organization), we will be working to invite them to come learn more about Jesus Christ (the person). Obviously, we are still inviting them to the church to learn, but I wonder how this little change will help.

Stay tuned. We will keep you posted on what we find…

Highlight…

Not only is it true that we went to jail last Tuesday, it was the best part of our week! We loved it. To be honest, when President Sano asked us in a short cryptic text to go visit someone in jail we could tell he didn’t know much about the situation. We knew even less. But he said it would be a huge help if we could do it for him. So we met with a sister in our ward who is a pharmacist at a prison and tried to learn the right vocabulary and more about the Japanese prison system so we would know what we were getting into and what questions to ask. It helped a lot, but until we got there and were finished, we were a bit nervous about how it would go down.

It turned out to be quite easy. We met with a young girl from the US whose aunt is a member and had requested someone from the Church to visit her niece. We talked about Christ and that He is there for her and will be there if she lets Him. Geralee had just taught the lesson about Joseph in the Bible who was imprisoned, and it all felt so relevant. She told us that “Joseph King of Dreams” was one of her favorite movies as a child, and she began to teach us. She told how she has been praying 20 times a day and what a difference it is making. She talked about gratitude and being grateful for some money her mother sent that allows her to buy better “hot meals”. She said she was grateful to take a shower which is only allowed twice a week, and to simply see a ray of sunshine hit the wall from a small window. She was grateful for us to visit, and then said, “I’m really glad they sent a couple. You guys look so happy, and I love “love”. She was very sweet. She said they have no Bibles to read, so we told her we would come back to bring her an English Book of Mormon (which we have on hand), and will try to find a Bible in English for her as well.

This time, we are excited to go back, and not nervous at all. And we’ll continue teaching each other.

A Day in the Life

Speaking of nervous, somehow we got roped into speaking at a small language school called Mikuni International College in Kyoto last week for their weekly devotional. The school was started by one of Ron’s BYU Japanese professors, Watabe Sensei, to help Japanese members learn English well enough to pass the language test so they can attend church schools like BYU Hawaii, Provo and Idaho, and Pathways. Watabe Sensei also taught our son Jared at BYU after his mission to Japan, so he got 2 generations of McArthurs! He also helped Ron find his first job at Yokogawa Denki in Tokyo where he worked and we lived after graduating BYU, and Jared his internships in Japan. The school itself is patterned after church schools with religion classes and church standards. They have a campus in Mikuni, which is the mountains near Tokyo, but there is too much snow in the winter, so they hold their winter semester in Kyoto. They all live in a house together, and attend class at a church. I think the space is limited by the housing in Kyoto, so there is only about 16 people in person for the Kyoto semester. However, there is about 100 people online for the devotionals. To make matters worse, they promote it heavily, talk it up, and raise everyone’s expectations, so it all felt pretty intimidating. Ron spoke about gratitude and compassion and Geralee talked about marriage and family. Geralee gave some very good, practical advice. Everyone was so kind to us, and a big thank you to Watabe Sensei for all he does to help students all over the world for many years! He’s incredible!

Unlike young missionaries we still have some things at home we need to take care of like income tax filings and some business matters. Last week we spent a few days taking care of those as well. Internet, email, and cloud storage has made all those tasks much easier to handle remotely, but it still takes time of course. It always feels good to send off the income tax packet of docs to the accountant!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

On Friday we went to a local Acai shop with one of our new members. It was Fabulous - mostly due to our conversation and experience with the new member. It is fun to see people embrace the gospel and become good friends over time. She is very excited about the gospel, and when we told her we were going to Tokyo next month to meet up with our daughter and family we invited her to come a day early with us and go to the Tokyo Temple to do baptisms. She lit up and got so excited. She has her recommend already, so it should be an easy thing to make happen. Then she told us about a friend that she is wants to introduce to the missionaries. And on Sunday she brought her friend to church, and he said he will come again next week and is interested in being baptized. New members are awesome and she is special and full of childlike faith and goodness. To know her is to love her.

Friends

A few of the ward members host an activity every month to invite friends and missionaries to attend. They try to make it fun and always have some food together. This month, they planned volleyball, soccer and tennis at the local park. The parks here in Japan are oftentimes covered in gravel, where people come and play everything from ultimate frisbee and baseball to Seniors who gather for Tai Chi in the mornings and bocce ball. Geralee found cheap pickleball paddles at her favorite dollar store (DAISO) and we hijacked the tennis activity and turned it into pickleball for part of the time. It was all fun. A few bystanders at the park got in on the fun and joined us for games and and a delicious homemade lunch. It was a good time and we ARE SO HAPPY that spring weather has arrived in Wakayama!!! We LOVE the members here so much. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to help us and move the “work” forward.

Lessons Learned

More than anything, it seems that this week has been a theme of gratitude and we realize how good God is to all of us. Even when we may not see it immediately, when we pause and think of what God has done, and is doing for us, we can always see it. Gratitude prepares us to receive the Spirit and revelation. It brings us comfort and joy in a jail cell. It helps us to see more clearly our reliance on God, and to be more humble and more teachable. Geralee talked about being grateful in our marriage and how that helped us to be happy even when we are young, poor, and struggling. And ultimately, how grateful we are for our family, for our 5 kids, their 5 wonderful spouses, for 10 fun grandkids who do and say the funniest, and also the most profound things.

We are also grateful to be here serving our mission, and we’ll repeat here what we told everyone in our devotional talks this week. If you are young and thinking about serving a mission, as long as you’re healthy and well, you should go. And if you are no longer young, and thinking about serving a mission, you should go while you are still healthy and well! In either case, you will not regret the decision to serve.

Senior missionary service is the best of everything it seems. You generally choose for yourself what it looks like, and what you do. Your mission will be different than ours. In fact, Ron’s mission is different than Geralee’s. We are convinced that God loves freedom and agency. And so do we. It lets us do a lot more than if we had to serve a mission that was designed to fit every senior couple that ever wanted to serve. Our experience is that the 7 different senior couples in the Kobe mission are all serving in ways that are appropriate and fulfilling to each of us. And for that freedom, we are very grateful!

Highlight…

On Monday we coordinated a District P-Day outing with Tyler’s family and all 16 of us went to Koyasan by bus together. It would have been a great day either way, but combining the two and having the kids spend a day with the missionaries was so much fun. And the missionaries really liked having the family around too. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery and well preserved town at this area known for its spiritual roots in the mountains not far from where we serve.

A Day in the Life

After Tyler’s family left on Friday that week we were back to normal - eating out with the missionaries again. Sometimes it seems that is all we do. This time was because it was the end of the transfer and Elder Lambert is leaving, and we also celebrated Chris graduating from Wakayama Japanese Language school.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We don’t really have anything to say. Left speechless by the funny attire we saw at Universal Studio Japan by BOTH guys and girls!!

Harry Potter World was well done and Allae said the lunch at Harry Potter World was the best meal in Japan. But the crowds were really outrageous, and the lines were crazy long. This is not how I would recommend you spend your time in Japan, for the record. But there were moments that the kids were thrilling and had fun. They were actually very good sports about the long lines and waiting.

We’ve fed the deer before in Nara, but never with 5 year olds. It was hilarious- Hannah couldn’t get enough. But once the aggressive deer starting biting at Allae’s purse and then her pants, she clearly had enough!

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Grandma babysitting at the Minion Cafe.

Friends

Ron was glad to be able to attend Chris’s graduation from Wakayama Global Business College. It was a 2 year program mostly focused on language skills for foreign students. He has come a long way and speaks very well now. He is looking forward to starting a technical school here in Japan.

Lessons Learned

Being with the family on the mission was a real blessing. We always expected to feel it would be a blessing for us, but it was also good for our kids and grandkids to see us serving. Allae has not served a mission yet so she now has a better idea of what goes on; she will be a great missionary someday. She said that being with the missionaries at church, at English class, and on our District P-Day activity was her favorite part of the whole trip. We think that Hannah and Henry will remember it as they prepare for serving in the future too.

To some degree, we expected that this would be the case and the experience would be helpful to our family. But we were happy to also realize that it was a good experience for the missionaries and the ward members. Both really enjoyed meeting and getting to know the family a little, and for some of the members seeing a 3 generation church family is a rare experience, but also a good reminder about the church being a family centered one. We have no regrets about the family coming and are now looking forward to our next family visitors who arrive soon!!!

Highlight…

This week Tyler and his family arrived in Japan to visit us. Unlike young missionaries, we have been told repeatedly by many different people that it is perfectly OK to have family visit us during the mission. At least in our case, it has felt that visits are more than just “allowed”, they are “encouraged”. Apparently, it is good for family to see in person their parents/grand parents serving missions. To be honest, as we have travelled around a bit this week, it did feel a little funny—like we were “getting away with something” while at the same time it also felt like the right thing to do. We are very fortunate the places we went, Osaka and Kyoto, are in our mission. However, when attending church together today and meeting everyone there, we started to understand why we have been so encouraged to have family come. So for us, the highlights of this week have been the arrival at the airport and attendance at church with our family.

A Day in the Life

We won’t bore you with all the details, but these letters are also our own record of our mission, so….

During our three days in Kyoto and Osaka we visited places we have never been before. At first, we were surprised we were in Kyoto without plans to see Kinkakuji (Gold Pavilion), but in the end we think Tyler did a great job planning a Kyoto visit focused on the kids with just enough cultural highlights for the adults as well.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

Hmmmm?

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

It’s always fun to see kids experience new things, and new foods. And when I say “kids” I definitely am thinking of Tyler as much as the grandkids! No one enjoys street food and trying new foods while travelling more than Tyler!

Lessons Learned

After visiting Kyoto, we returned to Wakayama on Saturday and attended our Game Night at the church with the missionaries. Everyone was so nice to us. One of the ladies who lives near the church ran home and brought back stuffed Pokémon characters and other toys to give to the kids. They loved it!

Remember our average age at church is close to 70, so to have 4 young kids come quadrupled the size of Primary today. In addition, we had the blonde factor that adds a level of cuteness in their eyes, so everyone really did think the grandkids were adorable. And they of course, they also mentioned Allae, their beautiful mother, and how handsome Tyler is… well what they actually said is that Tyler looks EXACTLY like Elder McArthur, which obviously meant he was very handsome.

But what really had an impact on us wasn’t that they thought the family was cute. A few people voiced their feelings by saying things like, “This must be what the celestial kingdom is like - to have your family together like this” , “I think this is what heaven looks like”, or “This is testimony in and of itself that there is a God - you couldn’t have what you have right here without a God. This is all the evidence I need”. I think the 3 generations of family together at church is more than uncommon here, it is rare. And seeing the 4 grandkids at once was a big deal. Others bore their testimony (it was Fast Sunday here) about us simply going on a mission as a Senior Couple and the dedication that takes, etc. I’m not trying to make it sound like we did anything special, or that we are special, but for the members here it was a special experience. There was an energy and excitement in people’s testimonies, and most people shared things that had nothing to do with us; but it was one of the best testimony meetings since we have been here. The Spirit was there for all of us to feel and enjoy - it seemed to spread to everyone. We are so glad we had our kids visit us, and join us at church on our mission. It was the best Sunday so far. Family is everything.

Tomorrow for P-Day we are going with all 8 missionaries in our district and Tyler’s family to Koyasan! I’m expecting that will be the best P-Day so far, for us, and the missionaries that come with us. Sayonara until next week for Volume 2! We love you!

Highlight…

We don’t really think it’s a “Highlight”, but we did book our flight home this week. We fly home on July 20, and land in Salt Lake 3 hours before we take off from Seoul Korea. It will certainly invoke mixed emotions when the time comes. And I promise we aren’t getting trunky, but…. what should we do about a car for Geralee when we get back? Ha ha.

A Day in the Life

Geralee has had a little trouble with a shoulder for a few months and tried everything she can on her own. So over the last few weeks she has had a few Dr visits including X-Rays, cortisone shot, “rehab” therapy, and this week a shot of some lubricating acid. It seems that that has finally done the trick for her and she is feeling great again. Everything so far has cost about $100 out of pocket on the Japan National Insurance program. Some parts of the health system here are maddening and we can’t understand why they do what they do; but other things are way better than in the US, and overall its been very good.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We are still working hard on learning Japanese, as are most of the missionaries here. Recently we were at lunch with some missionaries who were really frustrated with the language - most pretty new. So we decided to do a little challenge with them and about 6 others to help motivate and encourage each other to complete a review of a list of basic grammar principles during this transfer. We are treating each of them to a “pizza party” if they finish writing out 3 sentences for each of the 98 grammar principles shown on the card above. We have been sending little updates and notes to each other, and most have reached out for help or clarification on things when they get stuck. We think it’s helping a little. But yes, its still hard.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

The foodies reading this already know this, but for the rest of you here is a little history about the Michelin Tire company.

In 1900 the French tire company, Michelin, wanted to grow its business and sell more tires. So to encourage more driving, and hence more worn out tires, it created a guide of restaurants in France and ranked them with 3 stars. 1 star was good, 2 was very good, and 3 stars was worth a special journey to go to just for the dining experience.

Over the years they have expanded and offered guides in other countries, or regions of the world and produced additional Michelin Guides. They now include a list of good restaurants as well as their restaurants that earn 1, 2 or 3 stars.

It turns out that Birdman Ramen in Gobo city, Wakayama Prefecture is in the guide book and it was the missionary’s choice for lunch after their apartment inspection. Gobo is what they call “inaka” here, which is translated as the “countryside”, but it is still a sizeable city with lots of restaurants, a shopping mall, theater etc. But it is “out there”. So to have a Michelin Guide restaurant was a bit surprising.

And it turns out that it was actually very good ramen, and only about $8-10. So a win all the way around!

To show how little we knew about this before I read the Wikipedia article this morning- we once went to a 3 star Michelin restaurant in Singapore, which Geralee is still talking about, but Ron just kept thinking, “It’s only 3 stars. I wonder what a 5 star place would be like?” Now he knows. :)

Friends

Last week was particularly good for us in meeting with our new members. During the week we were able to meet with 6 of the 7 new members (and the 7th we saw on Sunday). We had good visits, talks, lessons etc. One of the new members who was baptized last spring just came to church again for the first time last week, which we wrote about in our letter last week. We met with him this week to teach a lesson, and he agreed to meet every week at the same time as a standing appointment. We told him either we, or the young missionaries will be there, but either way plan on us every week, and he agreed. He said he will keep coming to church. Yay for nudges and friends!

Lessons Learned

This weekend at Stake Conference in Osaka, we sat next to a couple members in our ward who picked seats on the 3rd row. The lesson we learned was to NOT sit on the 3rd row, because 15 minutes into the meeting, we were both invited to share our testimonies by the visiting authority, Elder Teh. Although she would have been fine on her own in Japanese, Geralee was happy that Elder Teh’s professional translator joined her at the front and she was able to share her thoughts in English. Ironically, only 30 minutes before she had said to Ron, “Did I ever tell you how much I don’t like speaking in front of people?”

To be honest, I [Ron] don’t really know what Geralee said. While she talked I was trying to formulate my own thoughts and my mind was completely blank. I remember praying hard and asking to simply bless me to be able to say something, anything really, that might help someone in the audience, whatever that may be. Ron started talking in Japanese, and while we both spend most of our time here faking it and pretending to understand Japanese, occasionally there are times when things seem to click and the language is clear, easy and just flows well. This was one of those times. It was in sharp contrast to a day recently when Ron felt like he didn’t understand a thing. Circumstances surrounding both experiences made it clear that the difference between the two can only be explained in the context of the gift of tongues and a blessing from God based on individual preparation (or lack of it), and, of course, need. Until that experience of “I don’t understand a thing!”, I had recently taken for granted the divine help provided in communicating here even in our daily interactions like casual conversations, shopping or just getting around. It’s now more clear to me how much the Lord is blessing us in our lives so we can get some small portion of His work done here.

We know the same is true wherever we serve, and whatever our calling. He wants our success in helping His children, and He will always bless our efforts and magnify them to be much more, and much better, than we can do on our own. We probably make the mistake too often thinking that good things happen due to our effort, and not realizing the divine blessings, guidance, inspiration and strength that was provided to us throughout our daily lives and interactions that really made the difference.

We love going home each night and telling each other, “I think we did some good today.” The Lord is in the details, and it’s humbling and clear it’s His work. Sayonara until next week! Stay tuned for The Holladay McArthurs Hit Japan!

Highlight…

Our very good friends, Allen and Jesmine Naylor visited us this week and we were able to spend a couple of days with them. There may be a few too many tourist pics in here for some people’s interest, but we had a great time with them and enjoyed visiting some amazing places and seeing some new things we have never seen here in Japan before!

A Day in the Life

PDay #1

We spent our regular PDay afternoon with the District touring a shrine in Wakayama built in the early 1600’s to honor Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu united all of Japan around 1600 after a long period of civil wars, and ushered in the relatively stable Edo period which lasted about 280 years. His posterity held power throughout the Edo period.

PDay #2

On Thursday we visited in Kyoto with the Naylors and toured the Nijo Castle. Interestingly, in 1603 Tokugawa was formally appointed as Shogun by the Emperor of Japan and he then came to Nijo castle to announce his appointment to the feudal lords. And in 1886 it was at the same Nijo Castle that Tokugawa’s descendent returned political rule to the Emperor and ushered in the Meiji period, which began the transition to today’s modern Japan state. So Nijo castle is where the 260 year Edo period both began and ended. We could not take pictures inside, but it is a must-see if you visit Kyoto.

But our favorite stop was The Golden Pavillion or Kinkakuji. We went when the park opened at 9 am and had nearly still water and beautiful sky. A beautiful phoenix bird sits atop it, and the gardens are legendary.

Kiyomizu temple is famous for its views over the Kyoto valley and Ryoanji is the temple famous for the “Original” rock Zen garden! We packed in a lot in one day, including meeting up with the Lamberts from our home ward at lunch time who hand-delivered a note from their daughter, Lanie, who was Geralee’s ministering companion at home! Thanks Lanie!! Miss you!!

PDay #3

On Saturday we spent the day with Naylor’s in Osaka where they introduced us to Dottonbori and Anime shops! We visited Osaka castle and found the first set of public garbage cans we have seen in Japan! I can’t explain what is up with the center picture below - but it seems to exemplify the way Dottonbori felt to both of us- once was interesting, something for everyone, but no need to go back.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

There may be more to this story but…. just to be clear, Elder McArthur still has a perfectly clean driving record in Japan. But he did have a long conversation with Wakayama’s finest in front of our District leaders and the Wakayama Castle.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

We had some great food this week with the Naylors including sushi at a place in Wakayama that features a “show” on how they cut the tuna. It was great and so was the fresh sushi - although Geralee’s selection from the kids menu (just for kicks) of a Hot Dog sushi is definitely not anything that needs to be reordered. Hilarious.

Our favorite meal this week was Shabu Shabu Onyasai Dotonbori (Osaka, Chuo Ward, Souemoncho 7-7, Hishitomi Building 4F) - for anyone headed to Osaka.

Friends

We have talked about our good friend in the ward, Brother Morimoto who has been SO HELPFUL since the day we arrived. He is a great ward missionary. He is going in for surgery on his knee and will be in the hospital for about 3 weeks. The missionaries got together and did a good old fashioned Young Women’s Heart Attack activity - we had to explain it to the Elders. It was great. He wrote us that he got teary eyed as he read our messages. He is the best and we are praying for him.

Lessons Learned

Early in the week, we visited a member who had not been out of his room for three days because of his challenges with mental and emotional health. Sometimes he will text Ron at 12 or 1 am about not feeling well and wants to chat. We have visited with others with similar challenges, and our hearts go out to all of them. We talked with him about his divine worth and thinking bigger, and Geralee felt inspired to show him the section in the LDS Library labeled “Life Help”. He set a goal to go on a walk outside everyday, and Geralee told him to write it down and check it off when he finished it. He immediately wrote it down like she suggested. Geralee then played for him one of here favorite songs from the 80’s titled, “You’re Not Alone” by Michael McLean.

Then on Friday, we attended our Zone Conference. It was awesome, as usual. And somehow it seems that President and Sister Sano always share exactly what we need to learn about. This week, Sister Sano’s message was all about reinforcing the fact that WE ARE NOT ALONE. She beautifully conveyed to us in nearly perfect English that she loved us all so much and wants us to be happy, to be of good cheer and continue on with faith and remember that Jesus is always by our side. She told us to not compare ourselves to others, but only to ourselves. We are beings of infinite worth, God is our Eternal Father, and nothing can take that away from us. Ever. He is always there for us and reaching out to us to help. Words don’t do it justice here, but we all felt her heart and words of encouragement go straight to our souls. It is a huge adjustment that the young missionaries make as they leave home, live with a companion 24/7, follow structured schedules and rules, often live in a different country and learn a new language. It should be expected to be a challenge for all, and both practical preparation and faith are required to make it work.

Of course, she was thinking primarily about the missionaries, but we were also thinking of our member friend as well. We’ll share her message with him tomorrow. The next morning, while we were in Osaka with the Naylors, he texted us this message:

“Today I got up early and went out for a walk :) The morning air feels refreshing. I appreciate your advice :) thanks. Feeling better.”

We all need to remember these things, do them, and help others with them, too. It’s good to be here, we love the people and can feel the love God has for His beloved children. “…Seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that…[He] may be and abide in you forever.” Ether 12:41. Until next week. Sayonara.

Highlight…

Geralee knocked it out of the park with her crepe cooking class for Relief Society on Saturday starting at 2 pm! The Sisters loved it! She planned for 2 crepes each, one savory and one sweet, but they loved it so much she sent her errand boy (Ron) to the store to get more eggs and milk so they could make more. 8 batches later, she thinks they made about 150 crepes! She had so many fillings and toppings we think they wanted to try them all. They also liked cooking the crepes themselves- we started with about 30 made, and the rest were made by the sisters during the class a couple at a time. Ron and the sister missionaries really helped a lot, from the set up to the crepe making, she couldn’t have done it without them.

Serving good food is the key to any successful activity. We’re believers. One ward member spoke yesterday in church about the crepe activity, and said how much she loved being with the sisters, talking, getting to know them better, and enjoying delicious food. There was a very good spirit there, so much love, and it was Valentine’s Day! We love being here, the people are so good, and they want to connect and learn from each other, and a few people brought friends! All great things!

A Day in the Life

We won’t go through the details of apartment checks again, we know you’ve heard them before, but this week was a marathon of checks. 6 in 3 days, with several 1-1/2 to 2 hours away. We stayed in a hotel the night before so we could get an early start on the apartments that were the farthest away in Nabari.

As usual, the best part is treating the missionaries to lunch! On one day we did three in one day, which means breakfast, lunch and dinner!

You Know You’re in Japan When…

After 6 months of being here, it all seems so normal now. Geralee recently said she doesn’t even think about the roads being narrow anymore, although she did add that it helps if she closes her eyes while I’m driving. Ha Ha.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

At one of our last apartment checks this week, Elder Muse made us sourdough bread! It was delicious and reminded of us Rex making bread all the time at home - and yes, that is a disco light - also reminds us of Rex :)

We didn’t really notice what the apartment looked like here, we were so excited to enjoy the sourdough bread - It’s always about the food!

Friends

On Saturday at 10 am (the same day as the crepe cooking class) there was another ward activity at the church playing soccer in the parking lot, and other games. We were so happy the weather was perfect, and we had a couple friends from English class join us. The missionaries barely escaped eating nato (an infamous Japanese food of fermented soy beans) as the boobie prize for the losing team. When we finished with the games, we enjoyed some classic Japanese yakisoba together. Did we mention that its all about the food?

Lessons Learned

Never give up.

There have been 8 baptisms in Wakayama in the last 8 months. One of the early baptized members has not been to church though for 7 months. All the others are still coming most weeks. We have visited him at his home, we took him and his wife to dinner once, and invited him to participate in our Christmas program playing Silent Night (which he did). He is a great guy, but hasn’t come back on Sunday to church…. until today. On Saturday, the Elders stopped by and visited with him for a few minutes and talked about Pokemon and then invited him to church. To which he said, “Yeah, I could probably make that work. I guess I just needed a little nudge.”

Never give up. Whether you are the one who needs to come back to church and needs one more little nudge, or whether you are the one hoping to help someone come back; in either case, never give up.

We all need nudges once in a while from a friendly face. God is good, God is in the details, and it’s His work. That’s our “why”. We come home tired every night, but feeling like we’ve done some good to help others. Just telling someone that you’re praying for them, that they’ve got this, and we KNOW Christ can help them thru anything, is helping others. Christ told us to Feed His Sheep - and while we spent a lot of time “feeding” people this week, the real food that matters, of course, is love and teachings of Christ. Jesus has “fed” His sheep throughout history, from making the trees in the Garden of Eden, Manna in the wilderness for the people of Israel, to feeding the thousands the loaves and fishes. He never fed them though, without giving a needed nudge, encouragement, and always love.

Highlight…

Because we skipped our Highlight last week, we are going to go back and fill in some details from Sister Yamamoto’s baptism - too good to skip! Sister Yamamoto was first attracted to Christianity as a young student while she attended a Christian private school here in Wakayama. She learned and absorbed so much there, while living in a Buddhist country, for which we are very thankful. She loves Jesus Christ so much, KNOWS He is her Savior and can help her in her daily life. She received a calendar from our Church with pictures of Christ a few years ago from the missionaries and looked at it everyday. It gave her so much peace and joy, that when the missionaries contacted her a few months ago from their area book, she instantly responded that she would love another calendar of Christ from our Church. Before long, she listened to the lessons about Jesus Christ, and His plan for her. We have seen her faith and knowledge grow over the last few months from coming to Church and studying the Gospel. We are very proud of her, and have loved our opportunities to teach her. The most fun part of this journey for us was seeing her so happy at her baptism. When she came out of the water and stood up, she immediately started pumping both fists in the air, and in a loud voice said, (in Japanese), “I did it, I did it, I am so Happy! So Happy!. My new life has begun!” And then in English, “Let’s go!” Then she clapped and everyone clapped with her. It made us think of when we all shouted for Joy about Heavenly Father’s plan in the pre-existence. Probably looked just like this. We will never forget her exuberance that day, and how purely happy and excited she was to be baptized by Elder Wayas and then receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, from Ron. Miracles happen! She is a humble seeker and recognized the truth when she found it. Prepared people are everywhere. It was one of our best days here in Japan on our mission. God answers prayers, and she lights up each room she enters.

A Day in the Life

Or Rather, “A Day of NEW LIFE!” Louie King McArthur was born on February 6, 2026 to Bryant and Taylor McArthur. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 20 in. All went well, and while we missed being in Utah for all the excitement of the birth, video calls and lots of pictures do really help make us feel a part of things. We wish we were there for the next couple of months to help more, but the rest of the family is stepping up to help and we are in awe at how much our family supports each other and us on our mission. They have made our mission possible and stress-free from anything that arises at home. We are so grateful for them, we now have 10 wonderful children and 10 precious grandchildren. We continue to be in Heavenly Father’s debt, and count our blessings everyday. Life is good, and every baby is a miracle.

Bryant and Taylor are really fantastic parents raising 3 boys - all close together and making every day lively and fun. Taylor is a super mom, and Bryant is a hands-on dad. It’s so fun to see our kids have kids! We are very proud of them, and are amazed at their faith and strength. When asked the other day at English class what our favorite word was in English, Geralee answered “Family”. It’s what it’s all about.

You Know You’re in Japan When…

We talked about Elder Gifford’s broken bone last week, and this week was the surgery. Fortunately all went well at the hospital. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, what would have been an outpatient surgery at home was a 3 day - 2 night stay in the hospital here. Ron spent part of each of those three days at the hospital with Elder Gifford. He was able to text any and all updates to Elder Gifford’s parents at home, who wished they could be here for their son. The Doctor was great, the nurses were nice, the hospital was modern and clean. The only thing we wished for was a shorter stay. But he is back at it, and other than a short nap the day he came home from the hospital is back to normal missionary activities! He is a great missionary, and we are glad he was able to stay here in our area for the surgery and recovery! We’re very happy to help the young missionaries, and pay back, if you can, all the kindnesses shown our own children on their own missions over the years. It’s a good feeling and truly a circle of service.

Fabulous, Fun or Funny Food

Our son, Jared, who served his mission and worked two summers in Japan told us months ago that we should try Bronco Billy so Geralee could get a salad bar. This was the first one we have found. Kawachinagano apartment check for the win!! If you are travelling and want an almost American steak experience, try Bronco Billy. Nothing here is Japanese, except the people.

For the record, Bronco Billy Checked all the boxes:

[X] Excellent Steak

[X] Salad Bar

[X] Free Drink Refills

[X] Gelato Ice Cream

[X] Reasonable Price/ Clean Good Service

But, the best part by far of our apartment check lunches is never the food; it is always getting to know the missionaries from all over living in our region of the mission. They are stellar in every way. We marvel at their tenacity to learn a new language, happily meeting many new people everyday, while living in a foreign country with mostly just each other to lean on and solving problems people twice their ages are trying to figure out. We love them. We can’t say enough good about them. We know heaven is cheering them on. It’s a privilege to be part of their lives. We wish we could tell all their parents they have raised really awesome people. Their smiles are real, and their hearts are gold.

Friends

Two new missionaries arrived in Wakayama last week: Elder Lambert on the left with Sister Scott and Sister Tanigawa on the right. We were able to spend some time with both of them this week and are so impressed with both of them. They have really good language skills, super kind, both are very calm and pleasant, and apparently all of them really like cream puffs from Parishuu at the Kintetsu Department Store at Wakayama train station. I mention the location, because if you are coming to visit us, you may want to stop and get one of these cream puffs - Geralee says these are the best cream puffs she has EVER had! They’re as big as baseballs - Ron says they’d be even better with chocolate on top. ;)

Lessons Learned

When you are in a ward (congregation) of 50ish people, you get called on a lot to participate. That is part of the fun here. Ron was asked to speak in Church this week, and he did a top-notch job about our true potential, seeing it in everyone else, and helping each individual we come in contact with realize their potential.

Earlier in the week a new member told us that a fortune teller had once told her that “her destiny is thin”, or in other words, “she would never amount to much”. She didn’t really give much credence to the fortune telling part, but said she thought that the fortune teller was probably right. Of course we told her that was crazy and not true at all, and she smiled and nodded a little but you could tell it wasn’t really sinking in. It made us realize that some of the most amazing doctrine and teachings in the church would take some time to register and sink in with new members. We are literally spirit children of our Heavenly Father, and as such, it is natural to understand that children grow up to not only become LIKE their parents, but to also BECOME parents. Our real potential is to gain all the knowledge, power, understanding, capacity, and desires that our Father in Heaven has, and all that He is.

There is so much to look forward to, and this life has purpose. This life is like a hospital where you check in for a while to get something broken fixed - with the expectation of being stronger and better through the process - and its also a place for your new life to begin like it was for Sister Yamamoto (and Louie King McArthur). It’s all part of our journey in the plan to return to Heavenly Father, and become like Him, so we can actually do what He does, and live like He lives. We are so grateful for this knowledge and know it is true. Teaching people is what makes being a missionary so rewarding. We wouldn’t be here, away from our kids and grandkids if we didn’t know these things we teach are true. But, they are true, and we can’t think of a better way to spend our time right now. The Lord definitely is in the details. We’ll see you next week for another exciting edition of our week in Japan. Sayonara!