Looking Back to Okayama

A couple of weeks ago, one of Brad's old companions, Kelly Atkin,  from his mission requested me as a friend on facebook. I'm not sure if Brad will ever be on facebook and I've had a couple of his friends contact me so they could contact him.

Imagine my surprise when I came home Tuesday night and he was sitting on my couch!

Let me paint a picture for you on what my Tuesday evenings are like:
1. I am rushing around trying to get dinner served for everyone.
2. Caleb has to be dressed and ready for scouts by 6:30.
3. The girls and I go to Young Women at 7:00.
4. Tuesday is also laundry day so I usually have piles of folded laundry lying around in the family room waiting for kids to put away.

Tuesdays are really hectic for me. To top that off, I had a presidency meeting after the Young Women activity until 9:30. So to say the least, I was a little mortified that Kelly had dropped by unannounced right in the middle of my laundry-strewn, dirty dish filled counters, and homework on every flat surface home. Having said that however, Brad and Kelly looked like they were having the time of their lives and they sat and talked for about four hours.

Look at him! He is so young and excited about cherry blossoms! (He's pretty cute, too.)

The missionaries meet Kent Derricott. Apparently he is a really big deal in Japan.

Zone Conference, 1987. Brad is on the back row on the end on the right. He has a huge bandage on his chin. Why, you ask?

Look at his bike. He had an unpleasant and rather forceful encounter with a curb. They stitched his chin up at the hospital without any anesthesia. He strongly recommends that no one try that at home.

As I said earlier, Brad and Kelly talked for hours reminiscing about the good times they had together on their mission. They both said it was one of the funnest times that they had. I listened to some stories that I was familiar with and I heard some that were new to me. There were a couple that Brad had completely forgotten about.

During their mission, they went to get a haircut from this woman on a regular basis. One time, Brad challenged themselves to ask her if she was willing to take the discussions. She was friendly and she said yes. Because she was a single woman, the missionaries aren't allowed to visit them by themselves. So they brought along a woman from the ward to accompany them.

When they knocked on the door, the woman opened the door and spoke to them, they saw another woman standing behind her. She was kind of wild looking woman with big hair and she looked at them like she was a little frightened and wary. Brad and Kelly noticed her but didn't think much of it thinking that she was nervous about the missionaries. They gave the discussion and it went really well, with the hairdresser being very interested in what they had to say and the wild haired woman sitting quietly in the corner and out of the way.

After the discussion was over, the woman from the ward that accompanied them talked to the big-haired woman for awhile and then they left. While she was driving Elders Miller and Atkin back to their house, she asked them if they noticed that other woman. They said that they did and they figured she was just nervous because they were proselytizing. Not so, said the woman from the ward, the wild-haired woman said that she was a psychic and that her hobby was fortune telling. (Brad told me the word but I can't remember it, it sounded like umeboshi. Which I know isn't right because that is the word for a pickled plum. I KNOW her hobby wasn't being a pickled plum.) She said that she was so surprised and a little frightened when her friend opened the door because she saw three people standing there, the woman from the ward and the two missionaries. The woman looked normal but the missionaries were surrounded by a bright aura, a glow that encircled the two missionaries. She was a little freaked out. I probably would be too.

I had never heard that story before but it sure is a good missionary story, isn't it?

I'm glad that Kelly stopped by and got to visit with Brad, it makes me happy to see Brad so happily reminiscing; in spite of the fact that Rachel and Emma's underwear was lying in a pile by their feet.