What are the chances of that?

Well, as many of you know, both of my parents have taken an early retirement and have moved to Japan indefinitely. I would assume they would be there a few years, but who knows - does anything turn out like its originally planned? Of course, their moving to Japan was a main contributor to me movnig back to Boston. They wanted someone to take care of their house in their absence, and since I'm the only Sturgis kid not married, that makes me the most flexible, so I volunteered to move back.

Anyways, my mom left for Japan in July and my dad just recently joined her last week. Last Sunday my parents went to church in the local LDS branch and actually ran into a guy, Tomonori Suzuki, that I used to live with when I was serving my mission to Japan back in 1998-2000. But the story of coincidences doesn't even come close to beginning there. It's a bit confusing, so try to stick with me here:

Before my parents were married, my dad was stationed overseas in Tokyo as Military Intelligence for the US Army in the mid 1970's. In the local church branch, they befriended the Suzuki's, a young couple who recently were married. My parent's eventually got married, and had 4 kids, one of which was me. Turns out that the Suzuki's had a son (among other children) that was about my age and they ended up living in Chiba, Japan, right near my Aunt's family. Coincidence?

Years passed and I got called to serve in the Japan Sapporo Mission in 1998, one of 8 mission in Japan alone. Turns, out that the Suzuki's kid, Tomonori, happened to get called to the same mission as me! To make a long story short, out of over 120 missionaries in the mission field, Tomonori became my companion and we actually worked together for about 3 or 4 months. Strange, huh? His parents and my parent's knew each other before either of us were born, and we happened to get called to the same mission (out of over 330 in the world) at the same time, in the same District, and the same area, and become companions. Coincidence?

Well, like I mentioned, it turns out that last weekend my parent's ran into Tomonori at the local LDS branch in Niigata. What are the chances of that? Small world, huh?

And for those of you who were wondering....Tokyo (where my parents met), Chiba, (where my aunt lives), Hokkaido (where I served my mission), and Niigata (where my parents are currently living) are all very far away from each other!

Some pictures of Suzuki "choro" and I from back in 2000 in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan:


In our apartment in Kushiro


Fun times to end our day!


Suzuki Choro's favorite thing to do during morning study time!