2013 in Review

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.

*Song of the day = London, by She & Him. My next destination, perhaps?

A Japanese Hike: Mt. Maruyama

After a long wait, I am back with another lost entry about Japan! Coming up this time: my last p-day.

For some reason when I left on my mission I had the image of p-day equaling mountain hiking. It took me until the end of my mission to finally be able to fulfill my dream (I was always in a far away area. Or it was snowing. Pesky snow), but it was worth it and I feel like I definitely need to share!

We climbed Mt. Maruyama, which is in the huge Maruyama park in Sapporo. It wasn’t too long, but fairly steep and provided us with a great view.

We started off at the mission home…

Journeyed through the park to the starting point…

Walked up and up and up…

And got to see a great view of the city of Sapporo!

Maybe we played a little up there too.

And made it back down with a mission hiking goal accomplished! (There are many more mountains though, so I might have to go back…)

In case there weren’t enough pictures for you:

hike maruyama VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Everyone is in Salt Lake

Ok, maybe that isn’t entirely true (or true at all), but we did have a mini Sapporo Mission reunion last week! Oh, and I now live in Salt Lake City, by the way. I’m having a great time working for KSL news writing for their website (thanks Cait!). But more on that later.

I had perfect timing for my move, because last week my last companion Kise Shimai (now known by her first name, Airi) came out to Utah from Japan for Cooper Shimai’s wedding reception. It provided the perfect excuse for everyone to get together. We had lots of fun catching up while wandering Temple Square.

Most of our conversation may have been about deciding what to call each other – it is so weird to know each other so well, and yet not really know each other’s first names! During the mission we always just use Elder and Sister “last name,” so calling someone by their first name seemed super unnatural after a couple of years of that. The funniest was when Elder Hansen and Sister Cooper (see? Still can’t use first names) were going in for a light goodbye hug – while it was happening Elder Hatch called out “Hey Parker, let’s go” and Cooper Shimai was all “Who’s Parker?” and Elder Hansen said “that’s me” as they closed the hug. You probably had to be there, but I just about died laughing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so great to see everyone again!

By the way, I find the fact that I haven’t blogged at all this month to be entirely shameful when I still have so much that I need to cover. I definitely started drafting a post on the back of a receipt… but then I lost it amid the moving mess that has settled on my desk. I think there’s some room for improvement.

*song = Savior, Redeemer of My Soul from my last mission concert. It’s a mission post, so a mission song is required, right? Plus, Budge Shimai’s voice is like warm butter that melts the soul. (Just don’t watch me. Much thanks)

Start of the Lost Mission Posts

So now that I have had a few days to rest (aka sit on the couch and catch-up on watching a lot of tv and movies), I figure it is finally time for me to make up for some of the lost posts from my mission! Towards the end I didn’t have time to really send a lot of pictures, but there are some great ones so I am sure that their stories need to be shared.

Today we will start with: The Last Day. I think I will do these posts in reverse chronological order, just because I can. It should be fun!

Before we left our apartment in Odori for the last time Thursday morning, our roommates gave us awesome presents! We felt really loved (Ignore last minute packing mess, please…)

 

After winning a fight with our luggage and getting it all together, we headed to the “transfer spot” at the Sapporo train station, where all of the missionaries who are moving to new areas meet and change companions before the start of a new transfer. Since it was our last one, Kise Shimai was awesome and made everyone take a picture. We may have blocked foot traffic just a little bit… but it was worth it!

On my last day I officially became a missionary grandmother! Lundstrom  Shimai, my bean (meaning I was her first companion in Japan), just became a trainer on her third transfer (things are moving fast now with so many new sister missionaries coming!), making the sister on the far left my granddaughter. We only got to talk for a few minutes before they had to head up to Asahikawa, but I am already certain she is awesome.

We also got to take a reunion pic of everyone who came on the plane to Japan together – the only person who wasn’t there was Elder Stilson, who didn’t have a transfer. We might have to photoshop him in… All of the Elders will still be in Japan for at least another 6 months. So I send them lots of luck!

After everyone returned to their areas, they gave those of us returning home free time until our interviews with President Evans starting from three. So the four returning sisters (Kise Shimai, Northrop Shimai, Ochiai Shimai and I) decided to wander to famous sites in the city and eat delicious Hokkaido food! I’ve actually been companions with all of them, either in the field or MTC, so it was a ton of fun to go around with them. (It was the last day for Elders Inumaki and Olsen as well, but they opted for a hike)

After the interviews we met back at the mission home for the “saigo no bansan,” or “last dinner.”I’ll have to admit, that the whole time we were having the dinner I really didn’t feel like it was the end, just an especially delicious and fun dinner (sukiyaki prepared by President Evans and two of the Elders).

It was during the testimony meeting at the end while President Evans was talking, and then when we joined in on the tradition of signing our names on the banner in the mission home (it translates to Trust in the Lord, which is the Evans’ family’s theme), that it finally occurred to me that I would be going home, and that I wouldn’t be able to see all of these people that had become a second family to me in the coming weeks. That realization was sad, but because of the magic of the internet we’ll still be able to stay in touch, so I am excited! It will be fun to see what we all end up doing as well. I’ll keep you posted from my end!