Jexes in Japan!

The Jex family came to visit!

Carson had grown a bit in the past 2 years!

It was a perfect time to come.

Everything was green and beautiful.

We enjoyed lots of ice cream--including melon and lavender.

We visited some of our favorite places. . .

. . .and discovered some new ones.

But our favorite is still the Temple!

It was SO much fun, it wore us out!

It was wonderful to be together again and share the amazing food, culture and beauty of Hokkaido.

Golden Week

This week is Golden Week in Japan--actually a 10 day holiday celebration 

where families are out enjoying the beautiful weather and the cherry blossoms.

We took a short break and enjoyed the beauty of the season!

We met some of our missionaries . . .

and other delightful people along the way!

These two are getting married soon.

Our Assistants under a Weeping Cherry Tree

 It was a gold medal day-- A winner!

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!