Mochi Balls

Note: please check back for pictures- hopefully will post them soon...

Today at church they had 2 special things. #1. They had all of the families with children come up front at the end of the service and pray for the kids. It was a really neat idea, and nice as they prayed God's blessing on our children. #2. They had a special lunch afterward where they made their own mochi (pounded rice balls). This was really cool to see. They had cooked the special rice during the service and then they took it outside and put it in this wooden bowl and then used huge wooden mallets to pound it to make it smooth. They then took it inside and rolled it into balls and put different toppings on it. Kevin got to help in the pounding and the ladies inside invited me to roll some of the mochi balls. They were Very gracious to me as they explained what to do and overlooked my messing up their nice looking mochi balls. Mine were quite sub-par until one of the ladies showed me the proper "technique". What a day- the kids so enjoyed running around outside watching all of the excitement, and it was great to meet some of the people in the church!