We started off the year by sending home our two Assistants. Elder Gill was from England, who, for months, had been requesting that we get together and have an English breakfast or dinner. It was difficult to find the time for that, so as we were preparing for his departure, he pleaded for roast chicken, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding, his true English meal. He even made the Yorkshire pudding, which is the recipe for cream puff shells, only they are baked in a muffin tin. The vegetables, meat, and Yorkshire pudding are placed on a plate, and gravy is poured over the entire meal. We ended up having a salad with pomegranate, pistachios, and feta along with this delicious meal.

The last three groups of new missionaries arriving at the end of last year were very large, and so it was relaxing to only get a handful (six) with our first transfer of the year. Our second transfer, this week, is only one Elder. We feel and see a change with the vast majority of new missionaries joining us in Tokyo South. They have been well prepared. Some, after being here for only three months, seem to be pushing the older missionaries to work harder and follow the standards more precisely. We love that kind of missionary!

Steve was such an active person before our mission. He misses living on campus, one minute from tennis, and three minutes from the gym. His busy schedule doesn’t allow for much, but he plays Pday morning basketball with missionaries that are close by, and whenever possible, he will slip in some pickleball with other senior missionaries. One day, while playing, he felt a sharp pain in his hamstring. He came home fearing he had done some damage. We never even noticed the bruise until ten days later. Because the bruise wasn’t in the same place as he felt the pain, Laurie reached out and sent a picture to the Area Medical doctor just to make sure it wasn’t something we should worry about. The doctor was worried about the “knot” on Steve’s calf – that a tendon had torn and was bundled into a knot. Laurie informed him that it was just Steve’s calf muscle, not a knot. Steve was out of commission for two or three weeks, and the missionaries were happy to get him back – especially the Sisters. They said no one passed the ball to them as much as he does.

One ‘leisure’ morning, we took a new route and discovered a beautiful park. Naturally, Steve is drawn to basketball courts, but basketball courts in Japan are just not the same. The entire thing is shown in this photo. We also discovered this huge vine that covers the trellis in the summer with beautiful foliage and flowers. Tokyo building standards require a certain amount of green space, and so even though Tokyo has millions of people, it finds ways to keep it green. It is one feature we love here. Earlier, we posted a picture of our car elevator. It is troublesome to have three cars stacked on top of each other for parking, but when we asked why they didn’t just better utilize the space behind our building, we were told that ‘green space’ was required. It is such a busy place, but you can often find a place where it just feels so quiet and peaceful.

The weather is still a bit nippy, but we prefer the chill over the humid heat of the summer. Laurie’s favorite thing is walking when there is a little extra time, and she discovers wonderful places through her explorations and brings back pictures. She found some blossoms just starting.

This picture definitely will not win the best picture award because of the reflection in the store window, but it gives you an idea about stores in Tokyo. Upscale stores prefer simplicity, so they will have only a few pieces of clothing hanging. Handbags are no different. In Japan, handbags are popular and very expensive, but a handbag store has just a few shelves with handbags spaced four or five feet apart. (Look closely at the picture.) With space at a premium, we find this a bit odd, but it is very common.

Laurie has had the privilege of helping the Sisters teach Nana. Nana is from Thailand, living here with her 15-year old son, and walked into the church one day wanting to know more about the gospel. Every invitation she is given, she follows through on. She is a gem. She is being baptized this week. Laurie got to go to her apartment with the missionaries, and then they went to lunch together. We live in a beautiful, spacious apartment, but most people live like Nana, squished into a 10×20-foot apartment.

Last year, we had some flurries of snow that didn’t stick, but last week we had much more, and it stayed around for a few hours. Coming from Hawaii, it was beautiful to see. The flakes were huge and gently floated down from the sky. When we returned from church, the apartment stairs were covered with about three inches of snow. Our first thought was they’d better get out and shovel before someone gets hurt, but then we realized they might not even have shovels here in Tokyo. Other areas of Japan have been hit hard by excessive snow. Some pictures show the snow almost to the bottom of the eaves.

In our mission, we have six zones. Every six weeks, two zones meet together for a Zone Conference on three successive days. It has worked well until now. Our mission is growing, and we have decided we need to separate them to facilitate better discussion and participation. This was a difficult decision for us. In the last Zone Conference, Steve shared the story about a man President Ballard had interviewed to ask if he and his wife would be willing to serve as Mission Leaders. This man was very wealthy, had a big family, and was involved with several humanitarian projects around the world. He was also the senior managing partner of a global investment firm. They were in the middle of several projects, and as he tried to explain that another time might be better, Elder Ballard said, “You are going to have to decide if you want to live a life of convenience or a life of covenant. It’s a matter of faith.” As we were trying to make this decision, knowing that it would take so much more of our time, we kept repeating, “We can live our life by covenant, or by convenience.” So, despite the load this will add to our schedule, we are taking a leap of faith that all will work out.

The Lord continues to bless the Japan Tokyo South Mission. The missionaries see miracles daily. God is sweeping the earth with the wonderful news of the gospel. We feel so blessed to be part of that work. We have set a mission goal to have 100 convert baptisms by the end of the year – something that hasn’t been done in years. Every morning at 8:55, alarms go off on all the missionaries’ phones, and we all join in prayer for this miracle and then try to align our work with our desire. We invite you to join us. We have four or five baptisms this weekend and can feel the faith of our missionaries bearing fruit. We love them all and are so grateful for their desire to serve.