Life becomes too boring when we do things in the same way over and over again for all our lives. Imagine this. Thus some Japanese Mormons came up with very neat ideas.

Most of the member have to travel at least one hour each way to attend Sunday meetings. Because of this reason, sometimes, the one who is responsible with bringing bread is late. Or sometimes this same person suddenly becomes inactive.
In one occasion, we waited and waited, yet he did not show up. Then, someone came up with this brilliant idea!

Instead of the same old stale bread, we used:
Salty rice crackers! Crunch, crunch, the delicious sounds of the crackers echoed throughout the room. Ah! So fun! A snack time.
Rice balls. The aroma of warm rice balls with sea weed wrappers....we must be in heaven!
(Our reasoning: they are all carbohydrates and came from our staple...rice. Both Jewish and Westners eat bread, but we eat rice. Same principle.)

The both rice crackers and the rice balls are what the sisters had brought to the church for lunch, since the Sunday meeting lasted all day long, they had prepared those foods for themselves and their families. But they decided to share with rest of the congregation.

To enrich our version of bread above, and instead of the chlorine water, we used:
Barley tea (non caffeinated)/ orange juice to go with the rice crackers.
Miso soup to go with the rice balls.
(Our reasoning: they are all from water, Jesus offered wine/juice. Why not these?)

If was extremely difficult to listen to the weird blessings (bless this orange juice, miso soup, crackers, & rice balls.....), but we worked very hard not to burst into the congregation full of laughter.

After the Sacrament meeting, there was a big smiles on everyone’s face. I would say it was the most enjoyable sacrament ever. Then, brothers and sister became wild and started to brainstorm other options: how about chocolate cake or apple pie; how about sushi or smorgasbord? Ah, they all sounded lovely, just lovely. But then we started to worry if this news would travel too far, we would get in to trouble. So, we did not ventured to do it.
However, we served delicious homemade sweet rolls with cream or chocolate inside later.

I am sure GA would have frowned on this, but our bishop loved it.
If we have continued I am very sure that the number of our congregation would have increased dramatically. Perhaps our ward may have turned into a stake!
The Japanese business principle: The customers are Gods; the congregations are kings and queens. We should serve what people want. That was what we thought.

I'd vote for a chocolate mint followed by a shot...

We had a Young Adult weekend camp out on a lake in Canada. We rode the train to the area, ate at the train station (complementary miners beef stew, rolls, apple pie and cheddar cheese) (YUM!) then hiked into the lake, camped for the weekend, hiked out on Monday and caught the train home. we took a young married couple with us as 'chaperons'.
We had grabbed a couple of extra sourdough rolls from the train station dinner and had water from the ice covered lake.

We got to eat a large mouthful for sacrament while sitting on granite rocks under 100+ high pine trees in our hiking clothes and lace up waffle stomper boots. It was the best sacrament meeting ever.

I had stationary for years that had this verse on it

So brilliant a moon shine!
If ever I am born again,
A hill top pine!

(You've probably heard it before, but it catches the very essence of existence!)

Yes, sacrament is meant to be something one is thankful for. Orange juice and barley tea with rice cakes? Sounds interesting and something I'd probably like. :<)

Yakisoba. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Great story.

I've been to a couple of sacraments where for various reasons we needed to rely on the treat a mother had brought for her kids. Of course this was in developing areas of the church and was a one off exception.

In one branch it was tradition for the kids and even the branch president's wife to nibble on the left over bread pieces rather than throw it out.

Back when I was growing up there were a few times when a Teacher would forget the bread and we were allowed to break the sabbath and purchase some bread at a local convenience store.

For awhile my mother would store a couple of frozen loaves in the freezer for us to use, but too many times our ward and especially the other wards were reliant on that it would run out because they were too slothful to replace what was used.

In the past whenever passover comes around I suggested to two different Bishops that we go with grape juice and unleavened bread for the sacrament to deepen the symbolic connection to the last supper. Of course I was denied and I never went ahead and did it anyways.

When I was traveling as an Apostle in a small break-away to meet with investigators, I often served "generous portion" sacrament. I'd bless a loaf of bread, preferably Shepherd's Bread, but onion-rye works in a pinch. I'd bless water or whatever and serve it by the glass. If there were no objections, one of the beverages was wine. Taken in the sense taking in God's love, you should not be surprised that sometimes in a small meeting I would wind up blessing multiple loaves. We'd run out of one but the people were not fully satisfied and so I would bless another. That is how we came to blessing onion-rye rolls. No gluttony going on. More than a physical hunger I think people just didn't want the love feast to end.

Over the years, even when outside the circle of the restoration, on Christmas Eve, I had a habit of blessing bread and wine in real amounts for myself or whomever had joined me. Sometimes I used the "official" prayers. Sometimes I used them but translated into everyday English. Sometimes I paraphrased the catholic blessing of the elements. Sometimes I just prayed for God's blessings and shared the meal.

Getting away from the nasty pinched scraps of Wonder Bread and cups of chlorinated water strikes me as a first step to real communion.

...we can give in the problems in Japan? I see the tragic pictures from Japan in our newspapers and on TV and feel so helpless to be of any real help. Who would you suggest is the best aid group to donate money to?

What has happened is so enormous, it's tough to know where to start.

I am active in a non-Mormon religious congregation that does relief work. They suggest Doctors Without Borders.

Apparently according to my father that hsnt seen this himself Mormon Japanese people are diffrent from the americans.

When sustaining a member into a calling instead of a half harted raseing of hands and getting on with the meeting thair hands all shoot up and they all listen intently to every part of the meeting.

They do desaster practices once a month and all dive into the practices like thair lives depended on those practices.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette's_Feast

This post reminds me of the movie Babette's feast which deals with a strict Christian sect who are given a sumptuous dinner. They decide it would be sinful to enjoy the food but the meal and companionship prove irresistible.

The sharing of good food is a communion regardless if it is religious.

I could not imagine members of my ward ever considering doing something like that.

I'm sure Yuko, that if any GA's heard of that happening, they would send out someone to "educate" the members so that never happened again. If there was a god though, I'm sure he would not mind that the sisters gave what they had so people could have the sacrament.

What a nice story, it is no wonder the church has a problem retaining members in Japan. They think for themselves!

I would have loved rice crackers, especially with seaweed bits.

Love your story!

I loved the underlying themes of adaptation and sharing.

That ward used its collective brains and resources (both frowned on by the Big Boys in SLC, I'm sure) and carried on with the sacrament.

Sorry I missed it!

To Kentish:
Thank you very much for your compassion towards people in Japan.
I think Red Cross is the safe one.
However, you can try some good organizations in Britten. That may be a better choice.

Above all, please pray for them, if you still pray.
I watched TV Japan channel and saw the Tsunami victims who lost everything, were crying, not because they had hard times, but because they were notified that the whole world is worrying and crying for them. Because they felt the love from the world, they were able to be courageous to keep standing strong.

This type of crises is simply terrible, but they felt so much love poring into their country. We are truly a family belong to this earth.

And for the rest of the people who came to my post, My heart is so deeply grateful, as if more than the words can express.
Even right now, my eyes are starting to be wet because I am so grateful of all of you.

The other ideas of substituted bread and water is also nice. You are so resourceful as well!

I think you all still carry certain amount of Mormon spirits in a good way.

Certainly prayers go without saying...there have been plenty offered in churches already. I will make a contribution, though am not too enamored of The Red Cross. I was born in Britain but have lived in the US for more than 40 years.