Farewell Talk (July 16, 1989) Continued...last part

May I brag about my family.  I have 2 sons in law and 3 daughters in law.  I have 3 sons and 2 daughters.  They have been marrie din the Temple, and I think they are very smart because they chose the right mate for themselves and seem like they are more of a sweetheart as they grow older and it is wonderful to watch.  I have 27 grandchildren and they are growing up fast.  3 of my 27 grandchildren are return missionaries from Japan.  One grandson is in Japan on his mission, a granddaughter is in the Venezuela mission, and another grandson is in the MTC, going to the Italian Mission.

I was hoping that they would all go to Japan so they could learn the Japanese language, but this is a world wide church, and I guess they will be going all over the world from now on.

I have worked in the Salt Lake Temple for many years and enjoyed it very much, it is a blessing and a privilege to work in the House of the Lord.

Maybe some of you do not know, but my mission president is President and Sister Douglas Matsumori and they are from Dai Ichi Ward.  They have just left for Japan.  I have known them for a long time.  I have watched Sister Matsumori grow up into a beautiful lady and I know they will be great mission president.

I hope I will not be too much of a burden to them.  The other day, my daughter in law in California said she's never seen a calm missionary like you but as the days get closer, I am wondering if I am doing the right thing, but I know the Lord will bless and watch over me.

Please pray for me and I will be ok.

we have celebrated the 4th of July and soon we will celebrate the 24th of July, and I would like to tell you that I was made in the USA and very proud to be an American and to be a mormon.

I am glad my parents came to America when they did although they had to go through many hardships.  They had to endure a lot like the mormon pioneers did and I am proud of my ancestors.

I would like to thank my family, my West Bountiful friends, Temple friends, and Dai-Ichi friends.

Amen

Farewell Talk (July 16, 1989) Continued...part 3

The parents [Michi & Eisaku] were quite stubborn and didn't get baptized for a while, but the West Bountiful people are very clever.  They asked me to be a primary teacher before I was a member.  I told them I couldn't do such a thing but they said they have a teacher's manual and I just had to study it and it would be easy.

I started to teach the 10 year old girls and they were so cute but one cannot teach the gospel if you weren't converted so I was baptized soon after and my husband got baptized much alter.  Our eldest son, Ken, baptized both of us.

I can testify to you that our life has changed for the better and I am always grateful for the example that the West Bountiful people showed to us.  My heart is still in West Bountiful because I was reborn there and I have many wonderful friends there.

My 3 sons went on missions to Japan.  when my sons went on their missions many years ago, I remember Bishop Samuelson saying "Let's send Sister Mano on a mission"  I know he was joking then but I don't think he ever realized that I would go on 3 missions, did you Bishop Samuelson?

(Continued in next post)

Farewell Talk (July 16, 1989) Continued...

I was born in Utah many years ago but I left when I was very young and never came back until I was married and had two children Ken and Irene.

The reason we came to Utah was because of WWII and the Japanese were chased out of California.  I guess you cannot imagine a thing like that could happen in America, but it did, but I do not blame anyone for it because after all, it was war and many strange things happen during wars.

We thought it was the end of the world, but it was actually a blessing in disguise because if there was no war, I don't think we would have come to Utah and if we didn't come to Utah, we would of never known about this church.  Although we came to Utah, we didn't hear about this church until we moved to West Bountiful, but when we lived in Rockport and Murray, my daughter always went to church.

In Rockport, they had a tiny one room church and Irene was only 7 or 8 years or maybe 10 years old.  She went to church all by herself and when we moved to Murray, Irene went to church with a friend named Marlene.  I think she went to the Mormon church.  I really didn't know what church she was going to but I knew as long as she went to church it was ok.

Soon as we moved to West Bountiful, my children were invited by their friends to go to primary after school and to church on Sunday.  Stake missionaries came to visit us, not to preach to us but to fellowship, they wouldn't leave us alone.  Soon after that, my eldest children, Ken and Irene were baptized, then the next two, Ron and Sharon were baptized, and my youngest son Dick was baptized when he was 8 years old.

(continued on next post)

Farewell Talk (July 16, 1989)

~Note from Joy:  I'm breaking this up into 4 posts because it's a little long, and it will also give me more time to find more material to post :)  I'm just going through some of grandma's scrapbooks.~

Opening Prayer:  Irene
Choir with Dick conducting
Talk: Ken
Musical #: Piano solo by Tiffany
Talk: Ron
Talk: Michi
Remarks:  Bishop Suzuki

(Note from grandma:  I was hoping that the meeting would not go over time, but it did and lasted until 4:30.  Ken & Ron & Bishop gave good talks.  Choir was small but very nice.  Tiffany played well.)

Farewell Talk:
My dear brothers & sisters, isn't it wonderful that the Lord has invited to go on another mission?  I thought he would reject me because after all the age limit is 70 years old or so I thought.  Maybe I am over 70 but I sure don't feel like it.  We read in DC Section 4...

As it is written, we must have a desire to serve God to go on a mission, but it is ver important that you have good health because missionary work is not easy but I read that "As a job, a mission is hard, but as a calling, it is wonderful"  I have good health and I do not have a pain in my body.  I asked a friend why she doesn't go on a mission and she said "you're brave, I'm scared to go on a mission by myself"  but there is nothing to be scared of.  The Lord is with you all the way and there is nothing to fear.

About a month ago, I went with my son Ron and his family to Disneyland and there was a ride we were going on there was a sign that said "if you have bad heart, you shouldn't ride on it."  Although I have a good heart, I was wondering if I should ride on it or not and Ron said "if you are crazy enough to go on a mission at your age, you should be ok"  I rode on it and I was ok, and it proved to me that I was ready for my next mission.

In the church news sometime ago, I read that "every man that is called to serve was pre-ordained in Heaven"  In Ephesians we read...

When I read these words, I wondered why it took so long for me to find this church and it thrilled me to think that I was ordained in Heaven.

I did not become a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days until later in life, but because of the wonderful example of the people of West Bountiful, we were converted and baptized.  All 5 of my children, my husband, and I.

(continued in next post)

Granger Elementary School (Joy)

When I was in 1st grade, one of the things that I loved was that grandma volunteered in my 1st grade class.  She volunteered in Mrs. Walton's class.  Even when none of us grandkids were in Mrs. Walton's class, grandma still volunteered.  I remember going with her to volunteer a few times when I was in Jr. High.  Grandma was notorious for keeping busy whether she was working, doing church stuff, or volunteering with community things.

My brother Henry (Michi Mano's History)

On October 28, 1949 my brother Henry passed away after a long sickness. Henry and I were very close because we were together in Japan for seven years and we were like the only brother and sister in the family. Henry became sick in Japan and when he came back to America and tried to get insurance he was told that he had heart trouble and couldn’t get insurance and he was very sad. He married right after the war and went in the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho. His son Michael and daughter Sylvia were born there. Later, when they got out of the concentration camp, they moved to Chicago and worked there for a few years and then they moved to Seattle. Not too long before he passed away, he came to Murray, Utah with his son and spent a few weeks with me. That was the last time I saw him. He left a young wife and two small children behind but he always used to say that he won’t be living too long so he might as well die so his wife might have a chance to marry again. I miss Henry because we were very close. He was only thirty-two years old. When Henry died we went to his funeral in Seattle in our old Dodge car. My brother-in-law Sadamaro Takemori drove and Mary, Grandpa Morio, Sharon, and Dick went with me.

Trouble (Michi Mano's History)

About a year later [around 1949] we had the chance to move to Wood Cross, Utah. We had so much trouble with water rights and people going through our field for fishing or pheasant hunting. One year a car came in and helped themselves to a box of onions. They even put it in our box to take it away. Another summer Daddy had fertilizer loaded on the truck and dropped a bag so when he found out he went right back but it was already gone. There was a nice stream running close to the field so lots of people came fishing and didn’t care if they stepped on our vegetables. We got so disgusted with them, one year Kenny and his friends scattered a box of thumb tacks on the driveway and made them have flat tires.

Dick's birth day (Video & Michi Mano's History)

2000 Interview

In 1948 our fifth child and third son was born. We named him Richard. The reason we named him Richard was because Kenny had a real close friend named Richard Bartholomew and Kenny always talked about him, so Sharon, who was about four years old, thought that was a neat name and said “if it’s a boy, let’s name him Richard.” So we did.

Murray (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

I would like to tell you about Mrs. Brown. She was a true friend during the war. She was very good to us and helped us any time we needed help. They had 3 children, Nita Lee, Geraldine, and Tom. Later Mr. Brown passed away and she married Mr. Blonquist and lived in Coalville, but we stayed close friends for many years.

I guess my husband found out about this place in Murray when he went to the wholesale Market. There was a Japanese family called Kato that lived there and they decided to move back to California. They came to Utah from Califronia when they had to evacuate and after the war ended, they had a chance to go back. When we moved to Murray, our children were still young, and they were not too much help for us, so we had to hire some Japanese from Salt Lake City to help us on the farm. At harvest time, the children went to Lincoln Elementary which was located on 3900 South and 500 East. Ken, Irene, and Ron went to school there.

The Kato’s left a dog behind and he stayed with us. This dog was scared of lightning and thunder, when we had thunder it went around and around the house trying to find a place to hide. This dog barked a lot so someone must have poisoned him, and he died. He was quite a big dog and was black with white spots.

We had a farm which was about 10 acres but we had lots of trouble on this farm. We had water turn (once a week water would come down the ditch for you to use, and everyone had to take turns), and every time it was our water turn, the water didn’t come so my husband with a shovel over his shoulder would go up the ditch to find out who was taking the water. Since we were the last on the line, we always had trouble and never had enough water for our vegetables. We had a stream running close to the farm land and people just came through the field to fish and grab some vegetables while they are there and when hunting season came, they would trample through our field not carin gif they stepped on our vegetables or not. My husband cleared a path so they wouldn’t ruin our vegetables, but they were rude, and didn’t stay on it. I guess we barely made a living, but stayed in Murray for about 5 years.

This farm house wasn’t very big either, but my father lived with us all that time. My father’s brother, Hiroshi Morio, came to live with us, but he was not help on the farm, and later went to Salt Lake City, and then went back to San Francisco, California where he lived before the war. We used to hear from this uncle for a while, but later we never heard from him, and then finally heard that he died when he was hit by a car. He never married and never went back to Japan since he came to America many years earlier.

Farming was very hard work, and we worked hard from morning until late at night. While living in Murray, Utah, I had another baby. I think I worked on the farm even to that day and in 1948 I had a baby boy at the Holy Cross Hospital. We named him Richard and called him Dick.

Sharon's birth day (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

After my father came to live with us, my father wanted us to call the Takemori’s from Idaho. This was a small farm, and we knew we couldn’t’ make a go with it with two families, but we called them. The house wasn’t that big and we had trouble all the time, so we finally decided to move away from Rockport. The summer in Rockport was very nice but the winter was long, too long. There were ticks and with the well water, we had to get shots for the children every spring, and I didn’t like it.

My brother Noboru stayed with us off and on. Before we moved away from Rockport, I had another baby in 1944 at the Coalville hospital. Although I was pregnant I worked hard all summer but that day I didn’t feel good and knew my baby was going to be born that day. Towards the evening, I called my husband to have him take me to the hospital. He just came back from the field and said he was awfully hungry and had to eat first. I remember I had noodles for him to eat.

We had a dear friend, a neighbor Mrs. Lorea Brown and she came over and was with us at the time and when my husband said he had to eat first, that made her real nervous and she said “isn’t that just like a man.” After he ate, we got in the truck and drove 12 miles to the Coalville hospital. The rough ride on the truck must have not helped at all because as soon as we got to the hospital and Dr. Oldham was washing his hands, we heard a noise and when the doctor looked, the baby was out. The doctor and nurse looked at each other and started to laugh. I always had easy deliveries. The baby was a girl and we named her Sharon. Mrs. Brown wanted her named Sharon. She had dark black hair and at the hospital people asked to see the Japanese baby with the dark black hair. She was very popular.

When we came home, one of the children had chicken pox, so we had to keep the baby away from them for a month and the older children were very unhappy because they wanted to hold her.

Lettuce (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

The summer in Rockport was much cooler than Salt Lake, so we were able to raise lettuce there when it was too hot in Salt Lake. We raised lettuce and green onions, but it was a small farm, and we couldn’t get rich on it, but I guess we were able to make a living.

 One year, we thought we were really going to hit right, our lettuce was doing great and the green onion was good and we thought this was the year we were going to get rich. About a week before we were going to harvest, grandpa would count the lettuce heads and would figure out how much we could make. Then one afternoon it started to rain, and we were glad because the only time we could rest was when it rained. It rained and rained and then there was a cloud burst and all of a sudden we had a great flood. Just above our place, there was a huge gully and the water started gushing out. When it came to our field, we just had a small ditch so the water flooded our whole farm, and everything was covered with mud. All the beautiful lettuce and green onions that were ready for harvest were gone and we were sick.

 There were two Japanese (one was named Kotoku) were farming near by and when they saw our farm, they told us to cultivate it, take care of it and as long as there are hearts left, it will come back, so we really worked hard to revive it. It really came back and in a month they looked beautiful again, but at that time, the Salt Lake market was flooded with lettuce and green onions and we couldn’t’ sell it or we had to sell it for really cheap. We decided that it wasn’t our time to get rich and never did have a chance to get rich since.

The Kurumada's (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

After the first year of farming, the Kuramada’s let us farm by ourselves, and we wereon our own. People used to tell us that the Kurumada’s are not to be trusted, but they were very good to us, and helped us a lot.

The Kurumada’s are very old friend of my family. When my mother, Masa Morio died on May 7, 1922 she left behind 6 children. My brother Henry was 5 years old, and Noboru was only 3 years old and after mother died, they played quite well in the day time, but when it got dark, they started to cry and cry for their mother. Soon after mother died, I think we stayed with the Kurumada’s and Mrs. Kurumada’s sister, the Sato’s. Our sister, Sachie who was born the same day our mother died, was being taken care of by my mother’s sister, Chiyo Sakuma until the Shiki’s decided to adopt her.

My mother’s family in Japan had lots of brothers, but she had only one sister. When I met my Aunt Chiyo Sakuma in Japan many years later, she told me that she wanted to go to Utah, and not too long after that before she could enjoy being with her sister, she died and they really didn’t have time to enjoy each other and she was very sad. I wish I could feel close to my sisters like that, but being raised separately like we did, didn’t help at all, but I feel very close to my brother Noboru, and if my brother Henry was alive, it would have been fun, because Henry went to Japan with me and we were close. Anyway, the first year at Rockport, Utah was share cropping with the Kurumada’s and they taught us how to farm and to sell our produce.

Fallen Tree (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

The house was much larger than the home in Layton, and my father, Tsunemichi Morio, came from the Minidoko concentration camp to stay with us. Before grandpa came to live with us, we had to work hard on the farm early in the morning until late at night. Ken and Irene would follow us to the farm, but baby Ron had to stay in bed, and he was happy to see us when we came back for lunch, or when we were through for the day.

One time, while we were in the field, we heard a large crash and we looked, and saw a large tree fall and it looked like it fell on the house. We hurried and ran to the house. I never knew my husband could run that fast. And I couldn’t catch up with him. I dropped my straw hat, and kept running towards the house because baby Ron was in there, and we were worried that he might be hurt. Ken and Irene knew something was wrong because they picked up my straw hat, and followed us. Luckily, the tree didn’t hit the house, and the baby was ok, but very scared.

After Grandpa came to live with us, he didn’t help on the farm, but took care of or played with the children and we didn’t have to worry about the children and Ron didn’t’ have to stay in the bed any more.

Rockport (Ken video)

March 2006

Moving to Rockport (Dictated by Michi to Joy)

I don’t remember how much we got paid for helping on the farm, but I guess we were able to pay the hospital bill and feed our family. I don’t know, but we could have brought quite a bit of money from California. It must have been hard for us to live in that tiny house with 3 children, but we lived there throughout the winter.

In the spring, we moved to Rockport, Utah with the help of the Kurumada family. Mr. Kinji Kurumada and his son Joe were farming in Rockport in the summer time and asked us if we would like to farm with them. We knew we couldn’t stay in that tiny house at the Miyagishima’s , so we were glad for the change. We still had our truck, so we moved to Rockport in the spring. The house in Rockport was an old house and had no modern convenience in the house. We didn’t have running water, we had to get our water from a well, from a neighbor’s well, where we put the bucket down, and pulled it up with a rope. We usually took 2 buckets to get our water, which we used for drinking and cooking. There was a ditch running close by, so we used that water for laundry. We had a coal stove for cooking and warming the home. We warmed the water in a large tub on the coal stove, and I had to do the laundry by hand. It was not an easy life.