Renovation of Hospital into Yamagata Branch-1963

by Dwight Pinnock (copied by permission from Northern Far East RM Site)

I will try to remember some of the things that may help in your history. Unfortunately, when I transferred from Yamagata to Tokyo North Branch, one of my tea boxes was lost. My journals to that part of my mission was in that tea box. But I remember some things that I will share with you. My first companion in Yamagata was Elder Bruce Campbell. At that time we were meeting in a rented building. Elder Richards was the Branch President at that time. Soon after I arrived there around March of 1963 President Dwayne Andersen sent a fellow to Yamagata to evaluate the possibility of purchasing the old hospital. Of course we had to take him first to fill up on wonderful gioza at our favorite shokudo. Then he could make good decisions with Japanese food in his tummy. The old hospital had not been used for a long time. Part of it had been renovated to be used as an apartment building. The Church wasn't so much interested in the building as they were the land. It was a large piece of property. Since the building had been vacant so long , there were many rats. Being young missionaries, we decided to put a couple of cats that just roamed around the area into the building. We provided them with plenty of water and some extra food, but they did a great job of getting rid of the mice and rats. Once that was taken care of, we received permission from Tokyo to remodel the second story of one wing of the building in order to make a place where we could have a reihaido, baptismal font and class rooms. Since I had been in the U.S. Navy ( kaigun ) for four years before going on my mission, and had learned to be an electrician, I did the rewiring and the other elders and members tore down walls to make a large open room that was soon converted into a chapel. We painted everything and put new light fixtures and new tatami . It was a special time for the branch to have their own building and place to meet.

During the construction period, the 4 missionaries assigned there would trade off doing dendo one day while the other set of missionaries would work with the members on the remodel project. Then the next day we would trade positions again. It was a wonderful time to because there wasn't ours and theirs investigators, they were all in one pool and we took turns teaching and nurturing them. During that time we were blessed to have had several convert baptisms. We were anxious to get a baptismal font inside the building so that we didn't have to go to the river any longer. However, the names of those baptized during tha time that I wrote in my Book of Mormon, are as follows: Asai, Yuko shimai, Okugawa, Michiko shimai, Nagaoka, Mamoka shimai, Yotsuji, Kazuko shimai, Fukase, Chizuko shimai, Tanaka, Kamezo kydai, ( another Tanaka kyodai, don't know his first name), Fukagawa, Tetsuo kyodai, Inai, Kazuo Kyodai, Sato, Michiko shimai, Tanno, Tetsuo kyodai. There may have been more, but since my journal was lost in the transfer, I don't have a complete list. During that time the elders lived in the Dr's quarters on the main floor. We loved it there, and felt blessed that we could live there until a time would come that a new chapel could be built. I have never seen a picture of the chapel that was built there, and would love to have someone send me a copy via e- mail. I remember painting some tsuru ( cranes) on the shoji doors in our apartment . And I remember having a spook alley for Halloween in the old operating room and down stairs where there were still chusha no hari everywhere. I will always remember in those days, when a missionary was transferred, there was always a sobetsu kai the night before. Then, on the day the missionary would depart, all the wonderful members would gather at the eki and line up along the pier . As the train would pull out, with the windows open, the members would sing " God be with you til we meet again ", and as the train moved forward and picked up speed, each member would touch the hand of the missionary. There were many tears shed at the eki in those days. Til this day, I have a hard time singing that song without having tears well up in my eyes, because it brings back so many wonderful memories of my beloved Japanese brothers and sisters. I hope this will help. Ai o komete, Dwight Pincock