Arrival

Dear Parents,

I'm sorry this is impersonal but I wanted to let you know quickly that your missionary arrived late last evening into Sendai.  We met them at the airport and they were all doing great but they were tired after 24 hours of traveling.  They were loaded onto a bus that brought them to the Mission Home where we fed them a light meal and sent them to bed.  Today has been a wonderful day of interviews with President Rasmussen, training and information before they left for their first area of service with their new best friend, their trainer.  Everyone was healthy, happy and excited to finally be in the mission field.  

Preparation Day in the mission is Monday (which is Sunday in America) so you can expect an E-mail from your missionary that day.  I knew you were very anxious to know if they were safe and sound and I hope this E-mail will ease your mind.  

The pictures were taken this afternoon with their trainer before everyone left for their areas.  We had 24 new missionaries arrive so this is a large group.  

We have fallen in love with every one of these new missionaries that have come to us.  They will be a wonderful addition to the Japan Sendai Mission.  Thank you for preparing them so well!

Our love and best wishes, 
Sister Rasmussen
Japan Sendai Mission Mom

FHE Reunion and Naming

Kirk was able to get a picture with everyone who was in his FHE group while at BYU!

Email from the Sendai Mission:

Just a note from the Mission office requesting your assistance on a couple of items.

#1   We have to order your name tags and meishi (business cards) within the next 2 weeks.  In doing so, we need your name, as you would prefer it written, in Katakana.  If you do not have a preference or do not know how to do this, then we will do it for you.  I need you to respond to this email ASAP (please,  within a week) so  I can get the process rolling.  With 24 missionaries coming in August, the printing companies are requesting more time to prepare the cards and tags.  If we don’t hear back from you by July 17th, we will process your Katakana name with the best guess of our resident Japanese office experts.  J

#2  We also need your name as printed on your passport in English and Katakana.  So if you take care of my first request, that will pretty much take care of the second as well.  I feel your pain with the Japanese language, so I’m trying to make this as easy as possible. 

We are so excited to welcome you to Sendai!  You will love our mission!!!  The rainy season should be over by the time you get here, and you will get to enjoy the heat and humidity of August and September!  Yeah!  We’re all looking forward to that one.  ;-)

God bless you as you continue your studies in the MTC.  Your efforts there will pay huge dividends when you begin serving in Japan. 

Much love,

Sister Rollins  

And Kirk's response:

おはようございます！Some of us were actually going to email about whether we could choose our katakana names, so thanks so much for this! My full passport name is Kirk Montgomery Earl, and my Japanese name that I'd like to have used is カーク*アール. We're all excited to go to Japan in about a month, Sendai's going to be great. ありがとうございます！

Just in case you were wondering, Kirk's Japanese name カーク アール is pronounced Kāku Āru.

Elder Logan Cottle's Letter

Elder Logan Cottle, a choro (elder) in Kirk's district sent this letter to his mother. With permission, here is an excerpt about Kirk:

"...i was frusturated and felt that we had taken a step back and hadn't gone anywhere with the lesson and that we were just at the same spot as we were and i was just kind of bummed out. so we came back to class and the next thing we had planned for the night was to go and meet with a guy who is like the boss of the entire korean and japanese language districts.  he was a younger guy..not married but really cool.  we sat down and of course, all japanese, he began to ask us why the plan of salvation was so important and we began having a really good discussion about the plan of salvation.  he had us practice teaching it to each other as companions a couple of times, and had us really focus on the spirit, annndd only explain it using 6 sentences! it was hard..but the spirit built so strong! he then had earl choro (the one mom knows) come up to the front and it was all quiet and the teacher said "earl choro, i don't know why i had you come up here, but the spirit testified to me that i need to learn from you today. i dont know why, but there is something that i need to learn from you today that spirit is telling me so strongly. sit and think, let the spirit tell you what to say and help me today." there was a long pause, and just so you know earl choro is the kindest sweetest guy here, wouldn't hurt a fly, but he isnt the most social and doesn't talk alot. he then started to explain the plan of happiness and about the atonement and about how incredible it is that through that, we can return to live with our heavenly father. he then talked about how nobody is perfect and we have all made mistakes but no matter how big the mistake, we can always find christ, and he testified of that.  the spirit was so strong as the was just a long quiet pause, the teacher started tearing up and he just said arigato(thank you) earl choro. arigato.  i didn't even realize that at this same time im all teared up and i could not help but feel that the heavenly father had brought this strong spirit to this meeting to strengthen me, since i had had a hard day, and possibly other missionaries in our district who i wasn't aware were struggling too.  there have not been many times in my life that i have felt the spirit so strongly...."

-Elder Logan Cottle
Tokyo, Japan Mission
http://elderlogancottlle.blogspot.com/

Saying Goodbye

Last movie before being set apart! 

 Going to the Timp temple the day before.

 

Right after getting set apart 

No hugs allowed. :( 

 Last time with Copper for two years.

Last hugs! 

Driving into the MTC.

Kirk's Farewell

(By Zach) Last week, we had a farewell for Kirk. It was beautiful. We had lots of yummy food, and great friends and family! Kirk is going to do great!

 Some delicious sushi Jesse, Hannah, and I made!

 Kirk and Lily talking about going to Sendai. (They're both going, how crazy is that!?)

 More delicious sushi.

 Nigiri sushi, one of my favourites.

Partying it up!

 We all played Smurf in the piano room.

As you may now know, I, Zach (Kirk's awesome little brother) will be updating the blog while Kirk is in Japan and the MTC.

Mormon.org Profile

Before missionaries leave for the MTC, we're supposed to make a profile on Mormon.org explaining our beliefs, so here's mine!

http://mormon.org/me/C1W6

First Post

こんにちわ！With my mission beginning in about a month, I figured I might as well get started on making a blog. If anyone wants to see what I'm doing in Japan, I'll have my emails posted right here. I won't actually be able to use my blog while I'm gone, so I'll also have contact information put in and updated when the time comes. I might post here a few times before I go as well, depending on how busy I am.