Sugimoto Family

Sugimoto Family June14, 2012

 I love Japan, the culture, the people and the food, but this family is the reason I make the long flight back to Japan, everything else is just a perk of being there.

December 1999 is when I first met this great family.  They were investigators up in Niigata when I first arrived in Japan and was lucky enough to be part of their conversion.While I have many memories of teaching them, playing games, their baptism, them coming to the train station to see me off when I transferred and the day they went to the temple to be sealed as a family, but I think it is the simple things and my personal interactions that I remember most. I think it may have been nerves, but when I would sit next to the mom she would usually take my right hand and hold it and spin my CTR ring that was on my finger.  Even when I came back two years later after my mission, I walked into church a few minutes late, but Umehara Kyodai saw me walk in, he raced down off the stage and walked me right over to the Sugimoto family to sit with them. (I hadn't had a chance to tell them that I was going to be visiting since I had come with some other people and wasn't sure of my schedule.)  She made everyone scoot down so that I could sit next to her and then once again she sat and spun my ring.  Sounds like a simple gesture but in some way it was comforting and seemed to put my nerves at ease as well.

Besides having to learn Japanese, which learning languages is not a gift I have been blessed with, Japan was probably one of the most perfect places for me to serve.  It is a very clean country number one, they are a very polite people, they can be direct...but it's stating the truth...like hey you've gotten fatter...after I was lucky enough to finish my mission in the same area I started in..truth hurts sometimes..they don't seem to be a very overly emotional people and not very touchy feely. 

Well, I think that the only people I actually hugged on my mission, besides my companions...cause some of them made me, was Sugimoto shimai.  My recent visit back to Japan I was able to visit with them one evening.  I was shaking everyone's hands as I was heading out the door and as I was shaking Sugimoto shimai's hand she just blurted out I'm going to hug you and pulled me in to give me a big hug.....gotta love that lady...

It was kinda hard to say goodbye to them...not sure if it was because I am not sure I will make it back to Japan again, or was it because as they walked me down to the car to say goodbye my heart started to ached as I had to wave goodbye and watch them slowly fade in the distance.  I wished that I could go back in time and hug Sugimoto shimai just a little longer.  Their strength and determination to keep striving to be better makes me turn and look at my life and re-evaluate some of my attitudes.  Not sure who changed whose life...but I think I got the better end of the deal.

Looking forward to my next trip to Japan.......hopefully I won't wait another 10 years again.

There are actually 2 more kids, but they are living away from home right now, so I didn't get to see them this time, but I did catch up on what they were up to.