Cluster meeting in Japan

We went to Japan from March 12 to the 17th. This cluster meeting was as always very wonderful and memorable with Bishop Causee, his wife Valerie; Gary Porter and his wife and the rest of the DTA’s and their respective wives for the Asia Area. We came in Saturday night to stayed in the Marriott iHotel in Osaka, the tallest building in Japan (60 floors.) They have an observatory on the very top that overlooks the city. 

The next day we dressed up in kimonos and took photos. We had delicious dinners each night and tried just about everything. One restaurant had nine different dish courses.  One was even a beef place. The breakfast each morning was at the launch for the elite people who stays at the Marriott. (We should have many points accumulated by now and should use them.)

 I learned that Asia is divided into four areas. We gathered together and learned about the office of an agent (Director for Temporal Affairs) and about the priesthood. We then separated into groups of husbands and wives.  I highly recommend that you all put going to Japan on your bucket list because the place is so beautiful and the people are so nice, educated and very polite and the cities are very orderly and clean; very different than Manila. I don’t know what we will do if we are asked to host a meeting in the Philippines. The traffic here is unbelievable!

On our last day we took the bullet train to Kyoto and rode the man power carriage went to the bamboo forest, The golden temple (ROKUON-JI TEMPLE) Had dinner inside a boat and sang Karaoke and some even danced. {who would have thought that Gary Porter loves to dance.) We were given gifts after gifts from various treats and chocolates to a high quality towel to an apron to a framed portrait of us and special pottery bowl made just for us. Amazing!

  I am now learning about Asia. Daniel is the only one that takes care of one country, the Philippines. The others include: Asia North and they overlook, Japan, Korea, Guam and some other islands in Asia. The Pacific Area that takes care of the Pacific Islanders like New Zeland, Australia, etc and the largest Area of all but low in membership is the Asia Area. They are based out of Hong Kong and take all of Asia including India and Pakistan.

I had no idea how all these areas were organized. The host city this year was Osaka, Japan and what a wonderful place this is to visit. I was there exactly seven years ago and remember how much I loved the people there and the place. I had always wanted to come back with Daniel and this was a dream come true.

One thing that has always stand out for me about Japan is that people bow when they greet you out of respect and seemed to be very easy going. They are soft spoken. They also have  high ethic values. I never felt in danger or fearing that I would be mugged. People ride their bikes everywhere and there is no garbage ever found in any street.  For some reason I was super tired each night as if I was fighting something and went right to bed but managed not to get sick.  (Arigato)

Con amor,
Vero