Thailand

Things I enjoyed in Thailand: sleeping in a bed, not sorting my trash, not wearing shoes too much, not taking my shoes off inside, paper towels in the bathroom, Mexican food, so incredibly many palm trees, and the beautiful ocean. Also, it was 30 degrees Celcius instead of negative 2 like Tokyo. I got to surf three times (and it was only $3/hour to rent a board.) I'm so thankful for the conference and vacation!!! I'm refreshed and ready to go!

Hokkairo

For a belated birthday gift, I received something that has changed my life. Hokkairo. Since it is now freezing cold in Tokyo, it is very helpful to keep Hokkairo very close to you. These little heat packs go inside your pockets and prevent you from being miserably cold. It's really great! These three girls from Sophia University blessed me with Hokkairo and even wrote out the directions in English so that I wouldn't burn myself or anything. They also made me the most precious card I've ever seen in my life!

I will not need Hokkairo in a couple days though, because I will be in Thailand! The beach and warm weather will be so refreshing! My friend Paul and I would really appreciate your prayers for good surf in Koh Samui from the 20th through the 27th. Actually, I don't really know how to surf yet, but I've been training (push ups, stairs, running) and my friend Paul is wondering if you could pray for a sandbar reef and barreling rights.

Also, I'll be joining the gospel choir on tour from March 11th through the 21st. We would really love your prayers for all the planning for that as well! Sorry, video of our fall concerts still to come!

I miss you! I miss you all a lot!

pictures, compliments of my roommate!

Pictures from my birthday! Hiroshi had such a nice set-up for us! He knows I can't drink caffeine at night, so he made a special menu of drinks just for me! And he doesn't really speak Engish, so he looked up most of the words in a dictionary!

These Christmas lights might be the best ones in Japan! At least they're the coolest ones I saw this year, and I really enjoyed them. I found them when I was on a run and went back just to see them.

Shyla and I are taking care of the kids! I really really enjoyed helping out with the child care at the Japanese staff conference! That's Micah and JJ. Plus, I got to hold James a lot, and he slept in my arms for over an hour and it was so sweet! Precious!

So the most exciting thing in the last week was that I went with my team leader to feed the homeless. It was really awesome! We totally couldn't communicate with anyone, but they said thank you and sometimes even in English. We gave out some warm stuff and rice triangles, peanuts, and fruit. It was cool to see them appreciate it.

New Years

Japan is closed for New Years. And not just on the 1st. A lot of places don't open back up until the 4th...it's kind of funny to me. But the cool thing is that it seems like a lot of people take time to spend with family. For me, it's been great to spend more time with friends. I've really enjoyed just hanging out, cooking, and celebrating with the other people I work with. I'm also starting to get to know more people at church, which is nice.

My friend Paul is working on a video from our gospel concerts for me to post...still coming soon.

We really enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl today, even though it was a little weird that it was at 7 a.m. Then I got all confused thinking it was still New Years Day here too.

I thought it was so funny when one of my friends from home sent me an email the other day: "Happy New Years to you and Happy New Years Eve to me! Wow, how weird is it that we're in a different year?" At least it was only for 17 hours. Happy 2008!