I’ve been entirely terrible at blogging since I’ve returned to the states (note the lack of a single post in December. Oops!), but there have been so many major developments this year that I felt it would be shameful if I missed my annual review.
So, without further adieu, here’s a snapshot of my 2013!
JANUARY
Locations: Asahikawa, Japan
Included: I got transferred to the coldest area for sister missionaries in Japan just in time for the winter! Battling the snow every day was sometimes crazy, but it was also beautiful. Asahikawa also is home to a sweet zoo where they have a penguin walk, so I got to make some new animal friends. I may have gone on three p-days.
FEBRUARY
Locations: Asahikawa, Japan
Included: February continued to be super cold, but it took a turn for the awesome when we got to go to the world-famous yuki matsuri (a.k.a. snow festival) in Sapporo and the winter festival in Asahikawa. The sculptures were the size of buildings!
MARCH
Locations: Asahikawa, Japan
Included: The snow… was still a main feature of this month. I celebrated my 24th birthday and continued having fun serving the wonderful people in Japan.
APRIL
Locations: Asahikawa, Japan
Included: April was the first month the age change for girl missionaries hit our mission, so all of a sudden our numbers tripled! I also got my first non-Japanese companion, Sister Lundstrom from Ohio, and we had way too much fun together.
MAY
Locations: Asahikawa & Sapporo, Japan
Included: In May I was transferred to Sapporo to be a sister training leader, which meant my companion and I got to visit all of the areas in our mission to split up and train with the sister missionaries. It was so much fun to get team up with everyone, and a dream come true to see all of the different areas! We usually went to two locations in a week, so we were living out of our suitcases and hardly ever were in our own apartment.
JUNE
Locations: Sapporo, Japan; Portland, Ore.
Included: This was my last month of the mission and it was fast and crazy and fun as we continued to travel around Hokkaido every week. It was actually perfect because I got to see all of the people I had come to love in all of my areas one more time before I headed back to the states. Leaving was sad, but being reunited with my family after a year and a half was wonderful. I also enjoyed the whole being able to sleep in again thing too.
JULY
Locations: Portland, Ore.; Provo, Utah
Included: This was a whirlwind month of adjusting to being home, reuniting with friends, landing a job at KSL.com and then finding an apartment in Salt Lake City. It was crazy how fast things moved, but it all worked out so perfectly I know it was definitely what I was supposed to do.
AUGUST
Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah
Included: Moving to Salt Lake and getting settled at work was the biggest part of this month. It was a fun adventure! We also had a mini mission reunion when my last companion came into town from Japan, so I didn’t have to miss my mission friends for too long.
SEPTEMBER
Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah
Included: September was a pretty chill month. I continued to have fun exploring the area and Amber even came down from Provo a few times to eat something delicious.
OCTOBER
Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah
Included: I kept working and living and enjoyed the fall colors.
NOVEMBER
Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah; All over California
Included: The best part of this month was hands down tagging along with Amber and her friend for a Thanksgiving road trip to California. We hit up an extra-magical Disneyland on Thanksgiving, enjoyed warm beaches and visited the animals at the San Diego Zoo (in case anyone was wondering, I think I’ve been to three zoos this year for a total of six times). It was kind of hard to come back to cold Utah… as you may have guessed, I’ve had more than my fill of chilly weather this past year.
DECEMBER
Locations: Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Ore.
Included: The Christmas season featured fun parties in Salt Lake and then wonderful reunions back home in Portland! I got a fabulous week off from work to come home. I wasn’t here for Christmas last year, so that just made it even more special. It was a perfect end to a big year.
And that was 2013! I hope you all had a fantastic year as well, and that 2014 will be even more amazing.
