BRRrrrr!

We are the Frozen Chosen!

My morning walk!

On the left is a wall of dirty, packed snow. It's amazing!! It snows daily. 

Driving is slow!  It took us 8 1/2 hours to get to zone conference.

(In good weather it is a 4 hour trip.)

🎶  "Do you want to build a snowman?"  🎶

 It's a winter wonderland!

A temple snowflake

We have to eat to keep up our strength!!

An ice sculpture from the Sapporo Snow Festival.

(We love the signs --they struggle with the letters "r" and "l".)

Annual Snow Festival - projection on a huge snow sculpture, over 20 feet tall. 

Despite the freezing temperatures,

"there is SUNSHINE in our HEARTS"

We hope that you are all warm and well too!

💕 We Love You!! 💕

We're Expecting!!

Our BIG announcement is that. . .

Our mission family is going to grow!! 

We will add 2 zones and about 40 missionaries on July 1.  YIKES! 

We've had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's.

Cookie decorating at Christmas Zone Conference

Family Home Evening on Christmas Eve.

I love the happy Wise Man!

 Santa made an appearance too.

"Baby, it's cold outside."

Thank goodness for FaceTime to help keep us connected with our family back home!!

On New Year's Day we got 4 new missionaries.  Two are from the Philippines!

This was the Christmas gift to our Sisters and this tie was our gift to the Elders.

Our theme is "BELIEVE".

Believe in Christ.

Believe that He knows you and loves you!

Believe that He wants to help you.

Believe that He perfectly fulfilled His role

so that we can repent and be resurrected.

Please Believe!

Yep, Buddy! . . . . . NOTE: In Japanese, it is actually "yappari", but it sounds like Yep, Buddy to Jeni

Something that was surprising to me here in Japan was to hear the phrase, "Yep, Buddy", 

used often in conversations.  I love it--it's something I can understand!

Yep, Buddy, we're Fishers of Men.

Yep, Buddy, we wear Christ's name close to our hearts.

Yep, Buddy Kaicho loves you!

Yep, Buddy we had a Mission Leaders' Seminar.

Jane Mack and I were childhood chums. Years later, I lived with her family while I went to BYU.   

Now she serves with her husband who is president of the Japan Fukuoka Mission.

Yep, Buddy, we had an American Thanksgiving dinner for our 6 Japanese Sisters 

who were returning home the next day.

Yep, Buddy, Elder Lalo (the one on the left) is a missionary from the Philippines who will join us on January 1st.  Elder Uchtdorf spent time with the MTC missionaries on Thanksgiving Day.

Yep, Buddy, We're getting ready for Christmas.

We looked out our window and what did we see?

Two missionaries helping to move the Na-tiv-i-ty!

Yep, Buddy, that sums things up for now.

Yep, Buddy the Gospel's true and we love you!

Snow Bugs!

Snow Bugs (yuki mushi) have been thick this fall.

I think we are in for a lot of snow!

But for now, we are enjoying the beauty of autumn.

A Preparation Day outing with our Assistants and 3 Office Sisters

We keep discovering more and more beautiful places!

Participating in a lesson

Zone Conference Break

We wouldn't survive without translation!

Halloween is BIG in Japan!

A Japanese Book of Mormon and Bible

Many Plates of Sushi Make for Happy Missionaries!

Costumes of the Ainu people, Japan's version of Native Americans, at a Family History Fair.

Yes, We are Feeling Blessed!!

Riley Goes to Japan

Riley came to visit us last week with his friend Noah.  

It was fun to share our world with them.  

Here are some of the highlights:

The Sapporo Temple

Odori Park

A cool cemetery with lots of big statues!

Watching ski jump practice

An abandoned amusement park

Zone Conference

Photo Bombers!

A tender time was listening to Noah and Riley share their testimonies about the

 blessings of their missions in Mexico.

Sushi of course!

And ramen

Riley worked hard to earn the money to come see us in Japan.  

We loved showing him our beautiful Island, having him meet many of our amazing missionaries and experience living in the shadows of the magnificent Sapporo Temple.  We feel so blessed and are grateful that he could come share the sweetness with us.  

We love you Riley!