Found--After Looking for 30 Years!

When I moved from Montana, I lost my address book, and so I lost touch with all of my Japanese friends and companions from when I was on my mission. I have wanted to contact them again for 30 years. On June 18, 2010, I went to the Japan Market in downtown Salt Lake City. I asked the store owner, who is Japanese, if she could order some new koto picks for me, so I could start playing my koto again. She said that she didn't know where to get koto picks, but that there was a flyer on her bulletin board about a koto teacher in the area. A koto is a Japanese musical instrument that is made out of wood, has 13 strings, and is 6 feet long and about 1 foot wide. See the photo below of me playing my koto when I got home from my mission:

The next day I called the Koto teacher and went to her house to see if she had koto picks that would fit me. While there, I told her about the people in Japan that I wanted to find. On June 20, she emailed me the phone number for Kyoko Kubo Tanaka, one of my companions that I wanted to find. The Koto teacher is from Sendai, but she emailed a friend in Osaka, and that person happened to know Kyoko Shimai who is actually living in Takarazuka, a city that is at least 2 hours away from Osaka. I had been looking for 30 years and in less than 48 hours I had Kyoko's phone number! How incredible is that!

Naturally, I called her the moment I had her phone number. I was weeping because I was so overjoyed to hear her voice after all this time. Below is a photo of when Kyoko Shimai and I were companions in Tokyo North Branch. Tokyo North Branch is now Nakano Ward and that very same Chapel is now a stake center.

Kyoko Shimai told me that she had the address and phone number for Setsuko Okuda, another one of my very dear companions that I had been trying to find. Setsuko Shimai was my last companion at Tokyo South Branch before I went home. Below is a photo of Setsuko and me with one of our investigators on her baptism day. This chapel is now Senzokuike Ward. I love this chapel because it has an atrium in the center of the chapel. I wept again when I called Setsuko. It was so great to hear her voice. She is now living in Placerville, California. I can hardly wait to go visit her.
I was so excited to find Kyoko and Setsuko, but I still needed to find Linda Stoddard. I knew her at BYU before I went on my mission, and them unbelievably, 6 months later, she was called to serve a mission in Japan. Kyoko Kubo and I were companions in North Tokyo for 6 1/2 months and then I was transferred to Sendai where Linda Stoddard and I became companions. After years of searching directory assistance and Dex white pages. on June 27, in despiration I simply typed her married name, Linda Stoddard Frizzell, in the Google search window, and to my amazement it brought up a paragraph from the Hawthorne California High School blog, where I found that she and her husband were living in Mount Hood, Oregon. I emailed the webmaster a 1:00 a.m. and 10 minutes later he emailed me back with her contact information.

Here is a photo of her acting as a pioneer in our infamous 24th of July skit that we put on for the members. In my next posts, I will tell you more about the skit and Sendai.

Then on Monday, June 28, at 9:00 a.m. I received a phone call from Makoto Shiriaishi who is presently living in Japan. I met Makoto and Michiko when I went to Toyko Central Branch, but then they both came to Provo for Makoto to attend BYU. Makoto and Michiko were like part of our family. We were always talking and getting together. When Camille was 14 months old, we invited the Shiraishis to spend Christmas with my parents in Price. Here is a photo of Makoto helping Camille learn how to walk.
Today, I just talked briefly on the phone to Michiko, but I will call and talk longer to her tomorrow morning. Here Michiko is having Camille try on a little pink kimono that she made for Camille for Christmas 1981. This photo was also taken at my parents home in Price.
Last April I went to the Northern Far East Missionary Reunion. Unlike previous reunions I have been to, I saw many of my old missionary friends. I also came into contact with Kathleen Elder, who was my first companion and many other elders. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera, so I have so photos of them. Through the NFEM web site, I was also able to contact another dear companion, Janet Lang Demarco. She is now living in Las Vegas. Here is a photo of Janet and me as I was being transferred to Osaka. Janet and I are actually cousins. We have the same great grandfather, Hans Ulrich Bryner. What are the odds of that happening? Going on a mission and then having a cousin and a former friend from BYU as companions.

I feel most blessed to have found and actually talked to 5 former missionary companions and one very dear family, the Shiraishis, in such a very short period of time when I have been searching for them for 30 years. I feel like it was downright miraculous and I feel very blessed.