Sunday 25 December 2016

A Perfect Week in Japan :)

I don't have any words to describe... just the perfectness of this last week. These last two weeks even, and the cap was yesterday.

Living in Japan is a beautiful thing, but living in Japan and being a missionary is another thing entirely. Christmas is totally different, and I was expecting Christmas miracles and a normal day where we dendoed on Christmas, plus maybe a few Christmas presents.

At the end of yesterday though we, both my companion and I, were completely emotionally drained. In a good way! I didn't know that that was possible. We were all energy the whole day and by the end of the night we were super quiet. When our district. leader called we were like, "How do we even narrow it all down?"

So here's a summary of yesterday:

We woke up early and under our cute tiny undecorated Christmas tree my companion and I exchanged the Christmas presents that we had gotten for each other and the ward. :3 I was so fun! Sister Keiser got me a
pair of Gudetama cooking chopsticks and a Gudetama contact lense case for after I get home (she's great). I got her two 'My Friend Totoro' pens. :) From the ward, we got blankets! :O Cute little blankets that are so so cute! We were so happy. After we opened our presents and read our letters we got ready really fast and ran to the church where we skyped our families. It was such a special treat to see everyone there waiting for me and so involved in the conversation. I felt a lot of love and felt my concerns about going home fade just a little bit.

After that we had ward mission correlation meeting in which my companion and I brought a gift we had made together that her mom designed. Little Christmas tree ornaments! We shared them with all of the members of ward council after everything was over.

After that we started to head out of the building but were stopped by one of the youth who brought a cake he had hand made for Keiser Shimai (she loves cake), and a... well, something un-dendo related for me that I hid in my suitcase for the next two months. It was awesome! We were on our way out and as we went the members stopped us because on top of the advent calander they had given (with a gift every day) they had a huge box of gifts for us prepared! We carried the huge box home and then went wirh Sara, Shugo, and Hiromi to their apartment. There
were a few hours till Chrostmas dinner so we dendoed in the area. At one point at a fork in the road my companion and I stopped, looked down the same road and simultaneously said, "Should we go this way?" We went that way and at the end of the road, last house on the right, we found a new investigator! We aren't sure how much potential she has yet, but it was awesome!

Afterwards we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and opened presents and had Christmas dinner with Sara and Shugo. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of time to talk about it, but it was so so tender and I felt so special to be a part of it. Hiromi is the less active girl we have been trying to get to church and Sara and Shugo did Christmas with her just like she was their own daughter yesterday.It's not hard to see how much they love her. I was in tear so much

Just the perfect day.

Love you all! Merry Chritmas!

Pics later!
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Saturday 3 December 2016

Old "Recent Family Tidbits" ;)

Hello World! :D (I have NO IDEA who will read this! I just like to write. ;))

Well, I haven't had a computer in A LONG TIME. It is so sad that I missed so much time to work on the family blog (and the missionary blog). But, I finally got my computer fixed, so now I just have to develop habits again (or just get on randomly again like I used to. lol ;o)

Here is an OLD post I wrote but never posted, most likely some time in February. lol :D I know it's old news, but hey, it's about my awesome family and I want to remember the little stuff... and besides, you never saw it, so here you go! ;D 

NOTE: I did make one change to the old text, today. I crossed out a line and added a new one in after it. Feeling like I could not yet do what I said I would do, discouraged me. It seemed like if I progressed that slowly, I wouldn't really be progressing, anyway... and so I stopped playing. 

But in October (half a year later) I reminded myself that EVERYTHING WE DO MATTERS. And even when it seems like it isn't enough, if it is all you can do IT IS ENOUGH. And it DOES make a difference! 

OK. Enough of that. On with the old news (then titled, "Recent!" ;) - February-ish 2015 -

Recent Family Tidbits...

Levi recently decided to learn how to play a song on the piano. He had never played before. But look at him now! :D

I have also been playing piano. I WISH it was an hour a day. It's more like, maybe an hour or so each week (so far - but hopefully I will find an hour a day to spend at the piano soon)  (hey - it still add's up! It all helps! ;)). I'm working my way through a Junior Hannon book (at the half way point today); and I LOVE it! I have been wondering my whole life what Major and Minor Scales are. Today I learned and practiced playing C Major and A Minor Scales. I'm so excited! :D Playing musical instruments is REALLY good for forcing the right and left sides of the brain to work together! (I'm just guessing this, as it is QUITE a bit more challenging to read sheet music on two different staffs and play both hands at the same time. Whew! Quite a task! :o) I'm hoping I get super smart from playing! ;P

Our family got a package in the mail today... from Mindy. She sent it the beginning of Dec. It was supposed to get to us before Christmas. LOL What a fun surprise! :D

Dausen asked me if I could make Valentine Cookies. I asked him to make them with me. We made big, frosted hearts today. :) I love that boy SO MUCH! He is as sweet as ever! :D We have a wonderful family!! :D

Oh, and Devry is a cashier at Super One now! :D Dausen and I got in his line at the store today. I was a turkey and said something that probably embarrassed him. :o Oh well. He's a survivor! ;o

Happy Day to you all!

Corine :D

December 3, 2016 - And so, for the past two months I have been playing again. Not for an hour a day or even a half hour or even every day, but when ever I can, for as long as I can. :) And I AM improving again. :)

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The BEST Advent Calendar / Christmas Countdown - IN THE WORLD! :)

Hi world! :D

...Want to see and participate in THE BEST Christmas countdown / Advent Calendar IN THE WORLD? :D

THIS is the BEST one I have ever seen! So I want to share it with you. I think it could ignite the Christmas Spirit in even the most "ba humbug" of them all! ;) And if you start late... (like I did; I just started two days late :o), just double up a little here and there and you can still experience it all! ;) Merry CHRISTmas! :D




PS. There are daily videos to watch and there is an advent calendar you can download for free as well. Just go to lds.org or mormon.org and click on "Light the World." Merry Christmas! :D

Corine :)