Chistmas Season!

Hello again from snowy Hokkaido!

Christmas is getting close, so we have been having lots of fun enjoying the season with members and friends. Showing things with pictures is always better, so without futher ado here are the pictures of the week!

Since it tends to be chilly outside, we found ourselves once again at a delicious, warm ramen shop with our district. They have ramen shops all over Hokkaido! Apparently it is something they are famous for.

 

We also had a two day exchange this week, and it was a lot of fun! I got to work with Tokeshi Shimai, who is from Okinawa. She has just hit her 6 month mark, and we were able to get out and talk to a lot of people in the snow, as well as have a lesson with a great college student investigator and a couple of members.

When the exchange ended we met up with all of the sisters at the Sapporo train station again, and went out for our traditional lunch.

We also had a fun Christmas lunch at a members house.

On Saturday there was a young adult dinner, and then the ward Christmas party! It was a lot of fun, and we had a good amount of friends come and join us. The missionaries did a skit, and I got to be Rudolph. I'm sure it was a total hit.

The first of the group of pictures features necklaces made for us by Nobuya Chan. She made them from scratch, and they are super stylish with CTR in them! I will have to take a more close up picture soon.

And... Merry Christmas!!!

We have a big missionary party next week on Christmas Eve, which just happens to be p-day, so I probably won't be able to email... but I love you all and am sending lots of holiday wishes from Sapporo!

I hope that you all have the best Christmas ever. It's kind of weird to not be coming home this year for the first time, but it is really awesome to be able to share the spirit of this season and the real meaning of Christmas with others. We seriously have so many presents from our Heavenly Father -- personal guidance for our lives, love comfort and help whenever we need it -- that we need to be sure that we don't forget.

Love you all! Have lots of fun!!

Scripture of the Week:

Isaiah 43:1-2

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire , thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Japanese Word of the Week:

tonakai = reindeer 

Zone Conference​!

Hello everyone!

This one is probably going to be a short one too... my December emails are shaping up to be super short. But that's probably ok, because everyone is so busy preparing for Christmas and finals that I feel like no one will notice! At least that is my plan.

The highlight of this week -- a special zone conference with Elder Ringwood, who is an area 70. Both the Asahikawa and Hakodate Zones met together at the Atsubetsu church, so it was a lot of fun because tons of missionaries were there. He was a really inspirational speaker, and since I am a compulsive note taker from my journalism days I took like a million pages of notes. It is always such a great opportunity to meet together and remember why we are doing this, and the help that we have.

Yesterday we also were able to watch the Presidency Christmas devotional with one of our investigators. It was his first time to an activity at the church and went super well. He's a college student and way cool, so I'm excited to see how things go! The Christmas message was fabulous as usual, and the music was great so I totally recommend cruising over and watching it.

Ah and that is all I have time for! LOVE YOU!!!!! I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful Christmas atmosphere. It is a great time of the year!

Scripture of the week:

Matthew 18:20 (New Testanent)

For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Word of the Week:

jishin = earthquake. We had little one this week!

The snow continues!

Hello wonderful family and friends!

I apologize, because this is another ten minute email week. It happens.

Random thing unrelated to anything important that I was excited to discover today while shopping at the Sapporo Train Station -- they have Eggpress, the letterpress card company from Oregon that I adore (see previous blog posts...), cards in Japan! Way to go cool Portland companies. Ok, moving on.

This week featured our first batch of some blizzards, and it was pretty interesting to see how fast the snow here can pile up! So without further ado, since time is limited, I`ll send some pics.

First up: When we went into our district meeting, all of the snow from the previous day had melted. But when we came out, we discovered this.

We go out to eat after district meeting every week, so this time we went to a favorite Chinese restaurant and ate warm ramen.

We also had warm ups for the missionary service project of the next 5 months... shoveling snow!

Once we get full into winter it snows so much that people have to shovel it at least like three times a day, along with their breakfast, lunch and dinner. A lot of people wake up as early as 4 a.m. every day to get started. It`s crazy because you`ll even see old grandmas and grandpas out shoveling! I have to give the people of Hokkaido props for being hard workers.

And that`s all I have time for this week! Sorry! Just know that I love you, and that the work is going well.

Word of the Week;

yukikaki = snow shoveling

Scripture of the Week:

Psalms 119:105 (Old Testament)

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.