Stories: Elder Sudlow's Matsue Experience
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Opening Matsue
Sudlow 1966-69 - Komatsu Era
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My companion and I were sent to a new city called Matsue to open it for teaching the Gospel in 1969.
My companion's name in was Elder Rich Mathis from Ogden. We were sent to the city in June and were unable to find a place to live the first few days.
A member had given us the name of her parents in case of an emergency. They came and put us up for three days at their expense in the nicest hotel in Matsue.
Then we contacted several agencies, the prison, the police, the Catholic Church, etc. to see if they could help us find a place to live. No luck.
We ended up in the Fukushi Kaikan (Welfare Hotel) for about a week. Since we had no church, we met together as a companionship and then attended the Lutheran services being held at the Welfare Hotel.
The next two weeks were spent at the home of the member. I remember our first sacrament meeting there. Their daughter had come up from Hiroshima so we had the three of us plus her parents in the meeting. While serving the bread and water (sacrament) the father said that this was just NOT enough food for us all, so he left to make an order for noodles to be delivered to the house. We got quite a kick out of that!
Next, we spent a few days living in a farm house in the countryside at the invitation of some students before we were able to move into our beautiful new home.
It was the former home of a Baptist Minister from the USA and was a totally American-style house in the middle of this very traditional Japanese city.
We had about 10 people at our first Sacrament Meeting where we all sat on the floor as we had virtually no furniture.
I was transferred to the Mission Home that next week, so never got to experience any of the growth of the church in that city.
However I visited the Matsue Ward in October 2001 and was pleased to see a nice chapel and a good number of active members there.
Michael Sudlow (Valarie) AK 6/66
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Michael Sudlow |
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