The Halversen's Visit Tokyo

Looking into the incense bowl, which is also
burning the small paper prayer rolls that
people buy.















Statue of a shogun that is part of a fountain
where people wash their hands as part of the
temple ritual.
















Close-up of the base of the same statue/fountain














Viewing the inside of the Senso-ji temple.
You can only go in if you pay a lot of money.

Halversen's Tokyo Visit

Zach on the left, Gayle, and Steve Halversen
standing beside the incense pot in front of the
Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa.













A covered shopping street in Asakusa.















Jim & Pat by an interesting wall mural in a train station.













Pres. Hill stopped by our little apartment to say "goodbye" to our dear friends, the Halversens.

And we say,"Thanks for coming!!"

Flowers that bloom in December

This is the view outside our apartment balcony. It just started blooming the first part of December. I never knew flowers would bloom in the winter!!









The last rose of the year--taken about the 10th of December. Next week turned colder and it was dead.

Christmas in Tokyo Apartment

Jim decorated our little tree


















It looks beautiful!!













Pat put the ornaments on the little wooden tree that was left in the apartment




















A closeup of the little wooden tree

Jan 11, 2009

Dear Family & Friends,

Last week we had Zone Conference, and the Area Doctors (medical and psychology) spoke to us in addition to great talks by Pres. & Sis. Hill. We learned about doing relaxation techniques and keeping our apartments clean to avoid illness, etc. They also taught us about balancing our lives—being sure that we don’t go overboard in any one area—so that we can accomplish our mission each day. It was so uplifting and we felt such a wonderful spirit there.

Everything else during the week was pretty normal, and we especially enjoyed a Saturday at home getting cleaning and laundry done and actually taking time to relax and read awhile. We did get four new missionary applications in so I am starting to put all the information in all the different places that it needs to be.

Our thought for the week is: “He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” Doctrine and Covenants 59:23. “Walk in the sunlight of that peace which comes from obedience to the commandments of the Lord.” Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley.

We hope everyone will “walk in the sunlight of that peace.”

Love, Jim & Pat

People in the Park

The woman practicing her ballroom dancing.




Nearby, the man was practicing his dancing, too.





People are always walking their dogs at the park, carrying their little bags for waste disposal (pooper scooping).




And kids playing baseball--same all over the world!!

The Japanese Park in the Fall--November & December

The park walkways are swept daily.





Clusters of berries look like Christmas decorations.




Entering the park where the clock is.





Another lovely path at the park

Sharing some of the flowers at the park--someone else had left the water on and placed the flower on the fountain by the autumn leaves.





This looks the same as a flower bush we have back home.




Surprising to still see roses blooming in November/December.



Now that's purple!!

We don't know the name of this tree, but it has a maple-like leaf and the beautiful dark oranges and reds of the maple leaf.

The berries on this bush are so brilliantly red.




The bush is similar to a firethorn bush but no thorns.










When we first saw this tree near our apartment, we thought it had red leaves, but it isn't--it's red berries!! Different red from the bushes.

This is a ginko tree--quite majestic, with leaves of yellow-gold.




The leaves made quite a pathway to walk.









Notice the interesting fan shape of the leaves--very oriental!

January 4, 2009

Dear Family & Friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards and letters, both regular and email. We are only part-way through reading all of them, but we are loving the memories of our friendship that they bring with them. And we are glad to know that you are enjoying our weekly emails.

This past week we had a special treat—our dear friends, Steve and Gayle Halversen and their son Zach, stopped by to visit us after enjoying Christmas with their son, Kimball, who is in the Air Force stationed in Okinawa.

So our word for the week is an old one: dai bo-oken (dye bo-oken) which means “great adventure.” And we had one!! On Monday, Sis. Hill took us to the airport in her van to pick the Halversens up. We took them to a giant ferris wheel where they got a good overview of the city of Tokyo and even saw Mt. Fuji in the distance. On Tuesday we went to the temple, walked around a nice Japanese park, went to the Tokyo Tower and enjoyed the 360 degree view from part-way up, walked the Shibuya Crossing (most people crossing an intersection at one time in the world), walked through Shinjuku Station (busiest train station in the world), and went home for a quiet dinner. Wednesday we took them to Asakusa to do some major shopping (Gayle) and see the temple, the Buddhas, and the grounds. It was pretty cold but we enjoyed it. Since it was New Year’s Eve, we stayed up late at the Hills to welcome in the New Year. To keep us awake, we watched a movie and actually missed saying Happy New Year until the movie was over at 1:00 a.m.!! Thursday we slept in and ate breakfast at 10:00 a.m. Then we took the Halversens to the airport by way of the trains. It went smoothly and we were able to visit a little before sending them through security. We had such a good time and loved showing our mission to some of our closest friends. Wish you could all come and hang with us. We can take a few days off to show you around!!

Well, we survived this past three weeks of non-stop mail. Packages would come through all day long—and one day alone we had 30 packages at one time!! WOW!!!!! Plus all the cards and letters. And then we thought after Christmas that that would die down. What we didn’t know is that the Japanese don’t send a lot of Christmas letters, but they do send New Year’s cards. So we had a lot of them go through our office. They are mostly postcards with the address and note on one side and a photo of the family and brief rundown of news. I liked the simplicity of it and it was fun to see all the photos of cute friends and families. So now maybe the mail will slow down a little!! (No, they can keep sending it—the missionaries look forward to it too much!!!)

Our thought for the day is: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all they heart and with all thy soul.” Deuteronomy 10:12. “I don’t worry too much about the future, and I don’t worry very much about the past. The past is gone, and you can’t change, you can’t correct it. The future, you can anticipate, but you can’t necessarily do very much about it. It is the present you have to deal with. Reach out for every good opportunity to do what you ought to do.” Pres. Hinckley.

Hopefully we will all make each minute count and do many good things that will bring lots of good memories. Life is what you make of it, make it the best.

We love you—

Jim & Pat