Sunday, February 25, 2018

A Wonderful Week with Erin!


It was Erin's first time to come to Japan and we had a great week together.

But first I have to say that the weeks before her visit were a little rough.  Russ was really sick.  It turned out that he had Influenza B.  Then one of our Assistants also got it.  We had to inform one of our elders that his little 12 year old brother died.  And, Brother Bon, our office elder slipped on the ice and broke his leg.  He had two surgeries, spent a week in the hospital and will have a 3 month recovery.  


Erin helped to brighten things up again! 
It was so fun to share our world with her.  She totally immersed herself into the whole Japanese experience.

I loved being able to share my morning walks with her and showed her all the wonderful sights so close to our home.  Yes, it was snowy and cold, but we loved tromping through the snow to get our exercise.
Erin spent one day at Zone Conference with us.  She even wore one of my name tags. 
She loved our missionaries and won the hearts of all our new friends here. 
Another day we joined some of our other missionaries for a temple session.
We visited several shrines.  They are so interesting--peaceful and in beautiful locations.
We went to the famous "Boys, Be Ambitious" statue and tried out cross-country skiing.
We quickly found out that it's a lot harder than it looks!

And, of course Erin wanted to experience all the amazing food.

Erin commented that she enjoyed having her parents all to herself--
something that she hasn't had since Shawn was born 30 years ago!
It was a wonderful week and a treat for all of us.
Now she is on her way home and we are back to work!!

Thursday, February 8, 2018

The Sapporo Snow Festival and Other Sweet Stuff!

We had Family Home Evening with our mission leaders at the Snow Festival.




Another highlight of the past couple weeks are several sweet baptisms that we were able to attend.

Sister Oscarson and Sister Eubank came to bless the saints in Sapporo.  They met with our local missionaries for a training meeting.  They also met with stake leaders for breakfast at our home.  

I love this sweet picture.

This just makes me happy.  Lunch break during zone conference.  Awwww, me too!
Here's lunchtime at another zone conference.  Those good sisters at the far end happily provided a hearty meal of taco rice for this hungry bunch.

Needless to say, life is good! 
SWEET is the WORK!

Sakura Sayonara!