December 23, 2007
Merry Christmas! We have had a great week. We went to four zone conferences, Atsubetsu, Kotoni, Mururan, (three hours away) and Saturday at Higashi. Each time I read "Christmas Day in the Morning" by Pearl S. Buck. We had morning talks, then wonderful lunches provided by the ward Relief Societies, then gift exchanges and games with the missionaries in the afternoon. Tomorrow we drive to Asakikawa, three hours away, north of Sapporo. We will go with the Packard's. Last Friday night we had our last English class until January at Toyhira. Dick had the students read the Christmas story in English and Japanese and we also sang carols. I made alot of food to eat, little sandwiches, fresh pineaple, madarin oranges, popcorn that Janelle had sent (hope it was good.) I made a sugar sauce and poured over it. We had cookies, candy, all sorts of stuff. We played Bingo and then ping pong. A good time was had by all. Dad and I were good and surprised everyone. Saturday we had the Shiroishi Ward Christmas party. Brother Nakaya did an absolutely beautiful power point presentation of the Christmas story, with music, narration, words to carols. It was wonderful. They had long tables laden with all kinds of delicious food. They also presented us with a big red wrapped box filled with presents from ward members. This morning Dick went to Toyohira Ward as an English student (non-member) attended all three meetings. His name is Akio Iizuko. Perhaps you recall I wrote previously about him. He is a IBM computer programer and had invited us to his home and taken us out to lunch. We met his wife at that time. After church today, they went to the hospital to visit his wife, Fusano. She had surgery last Thursday to remove a small tumor in her neck and is now waiting the results of the biopsy. We were happy he came to church. Also Mr. Yamada, a perennial English student, (non-member) attended Sacrament meeting. I stayed at Shiroishi Ward because I played a medley of Christmas songs for special music. At Shiroishi Ward meeting, I looked over and lo and behold there was Brother Aoyama an inactive member who we have visited him at least five times. We did so just last week and sang Christmas carols with the Nakaya's. He is the brother that was converted as a young man and was for several years a building missionary here in Japan. When we first visited him he took us upstairs to his computer and showed us many construction pictures of the chapels and Tokyo temple he help built. He has many pictures of the general authorities. He is now 63 and inactive. Today he looked like million dollars in his navy blue pin stripe suit, gold tie, fancy shoes and mod haircut. So we had a good day.
Tomorrow evening we are going to the Iwata's for Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day we have been invited to the Tuschida's.
These faithful saints are wonderful people. We do love them and they seem to love us.
We have had no snow for a week but it is still cold. Paul and Dale are coming to visit us again and will arrive December 27. We are looking forward to seeing them.
We love you and miss you and think of you. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas with your families.
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