Blog: Merry Christmas

So this week we get to email at a seven eleven because the wifi t our
church isn't working. Yay! Haha well anyways this week was kind of
crazy because it's transfer week and the week before Christmas and
just so much craziness! but last week on pday we ended up going to
like a zoo where you could go in and pet some of the animals which was
way fun! I will attach some pictures. Then on Tuesday we had district
meeting and some dendou. Then I don't remember much about the rest of
the week honestly. These last couple of days have been so crAzy that I
just can't remember. So you ar probably wondering what happened this
week, alright I will tell you. It is transfer week and I am
staying!!!! Yay!! however, Kurume is becoming a two man so we are
shutting down the other area! We were so surprised! We found out on
Saturday and on Sunday I just felt so stressed out! But I was able to
feel the peace of my Savior who overcame all things. And I am still
depending on Him so much now, but I know that He loves me and that I
can do all things through Christ. The King of kings, Lord of lords. He
who overcame death both spiritually and physically. And I feel so
comforted to have someone like that by my side. When things feel
overwhelming or that we need strengthening we always know there is
somebody we can depend on. And I am so glad I have never had to go a
time without that comfort.
And on Monday we had a really cool experience where we helped a member
move. And she was telling us about her conversion story. Basically she
was the daughter of a monk who found the church while training to be a
priestess and she joined and was disowned by her family. But she
worked hard and served a mission! She is seriously such an example to
me. We went to her families shrine to help pack her things to move her
closer to the city, and we met her dad who was once so hantai (opposed) and he
has accepted the church as a good thing and loves members and
missionaries and brought us in for tea and was showing us his cool
books and took some pictures in the shrines. She herself cannot
believe how much her father and family have changed. Once demanding
she come home from the MTC, now inviting missionaries into his home. I
know this church really changes lives and that we can find them and
help them.
We also had a cool experience with meeting this girl named haruna at
the train station. She had met bair shimai on splits, and the STL
accidentally called her, but set up an appointment with us, and we met
her and she was so cool!! we have another meeting with her to give her
a tour of the church. I hope she feels that this gospel can bless and
help her life. I am so excited! Thank you for all your prayers. I hope
you have a merry Christmas!!!! My next pday will be Christmas and I
will be spending it skyping my family! So I hope you all have a great
time with your families!!! Think of Christ and ponder, like d. Todd
christofferson said, as if you were there that silent, holy night
standing next to the baby Jesus. What gift would you bring? What would
you say if you stood next to the Savior of the world? I think that on
that night even for just five seconds the whole world was silent. I
hope I am here for when he comes again, my Savior and King.
I love you all so much!!! Happy 2016 Christmas!!! Make it more
meaningful than last year!!!

Johnson shimai

Us at Riyo shimais house! Ozaki shimai, me, Bair, mccuen, Ali, keiko,
parmley, and Riyo in front!!! Chilling at her new bachelorette pad!!!

We found this little guy housing. Yes, we did pet him... With a piece of paper.

Our district with the Kangaroos

The cute little monkeys that climb all over you!! And steal your things!!

Bair shimai and I wish a capybara

Blog : No Time

This week don't have a lot of time to email because we are going to a bio park in sasebo :)

I will send pictures next week!

This last week we had some miracles!

One of our investigators Yuuji made a baptismal date! For Valentine's Day.

He was an investigator that came up to us in eikaiwa and asked if we could teach hi how to pray. And he has been praying! His prayers have gotten so much better! He is so awesome! He is stressed about his test and is having a hard time right now, but I know the gospel can help him! We also had another investigator who was struggling with prayer working his way up, so that's good. The power of prayer is so important! I a currently working on prayers of mighty faith, like alma. Haha, key word, working on it. But I am so grateful for this time to really exercise my faith!

One of the really cool experiences I had was that we were getting ready for our activity and I felt that should do some phone dendou. I said a prayer and felt like I should look up a specific name, Akira, it wasn't there, but as I was looking in the A's I kept coming back to this one name. And they answered and we were able to set up a return appointment! It was so cool! 

The power of prayer works!

Sorry no time this week!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

SISTER JONSON

Blog:Thanks

This week was pretty crazy and interesting. It was also THANKSGIVING!!! Yay, I hope you all stuffed yourselves with turkey and gave so much thanks for all the many blessings that we have. To start off I would like to say somethings I am thankful for.

1. I am thankful for this opportunity to be on a mission and grow and learn in ways that I never could`ve at home.

2. I am thankful to be part of a ward. Both on the mission and at home. Everyone is so loving towards me and each other and it is great to see the hand of God work through the people around us. And also giving us a change to serve those around us.

3. I am thankful for all my companions up until now. Each teaching me such great things, and each being such a friend to me. I can never thank God enough for giving me great companions to help me both learn and to learn so much from. And people who became some of my greatest friends :)

4. I am grateful for the Christmas season. How lights just warm up any kind of atmosphere. The light of Christ is evident even in the small things.

5. I am grateful for friends who care, including my best friend and Savior Jesus Christ. Who whether I'm in a good mood or a crummy one is always willing to listen to every complaint and cry I have. And all my joy and pleas as well. And to all my other wonderful friends who do the same :)

6. I am grateful for every good influence through leaders, friends, and family that has been such a great example to me. FromSunday school teachers, to district leaders. Your effort was not wasted on this one.

7. I am so grateful for my family. Sometimes we`re crazy, or incredibly lazy. But we always stick together, and we`ve had a good time doing it. I know they will always be there for me and support me in my righteous decisions, and sometimes even in my dumb ones. I know that families are eternal, that my family was given to me for a specific reason. And I love them so very much. 

8. I am so grateful for a knowledge of this gospel. Without it I now I would be lost. Even with it we can get lost. But Christ will always come to get us, and take us back into his loving arms. This gospel changes lives, as it has with everyone that`s out on a mission, and everyone that is back home. Past, present, future. He loves us all and I know that I am incredibly blessed to know even what I know and have the opportunity through prayer, scripture study, church, temples to learn more about his eternal purpose to bring me joy and eternal life.

This Gospel is so true, and I see it in all the things the Lord does for me daily. So grateful, but I can never be grateful enough to my Lord and Savior who cares so much for me and for everyone that I see. I can never count the infinite blessings I have, but I am glad God gave me the chance to at least feel as grateful as I can. It brings me so much joy. I hope you can all feel so now as well, especially in this holiday season, but most importantly year round.

LOVE YOU ALL HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Felt like I was going to end it there, then I forgot I never said anything about this week, haha! So every day kind of felt like a separate week. We started off p-day with an investigator who took us to some really cool shrines. Then he had a problem with work so he was driving us around places. We prayed and his problem was solved. The power of prayer works.

Then on Tuesday we had a surprise birthday party for one of the members in our ward. She seemed really happy, and a lot of members showed up to be supportive it was awesome!

Then On Wednesday we had a pretty awesome miracle. One of our previous investigators who was too busy to meet called and asked us to meet at the church. So we went and gave her a present from a previous missionary who just finished her mission. And she told us she was coming to church on Sunday!!! It was such a miracle! And on Sunday she came and we had such a spiritual lesson about baptism and preparing her for baptism. She said she wants to try and learn more, so we are excited to help her!

Then on Thursday we had an awesome meeting with our mission president who talked about faith. And this morning I was reading about Alma and the Zoramites and what great faith Alma had. He prayed with such great faith and saw miracles. Sometimes I forget that the Lord can do all. I`m pretty sure you all know what I am talking about. And everytime I repent and think that I have limited myself with my lack of faith, it is sometimes painful to think about that I don't always trust in God so willingly. But the mission has taught me so much about faith and trust in God. He truly loves us and will allow miracles to happen by our hands if we trust in Him. And I have seen some awesome miracles because of faith. This week included. 

On Saturday we also had a really fun musical talent show thing. There are some really talented people in our ward. Let me tell ya. It was so fun! We even got to participate and do a cover dance from Hercules. Shout out to Emma, Melissa, Maddie, Hannah, and Jill. High school lip-sync champions! It was so fun, and everyone really enjoyed it.

We had a few people cancel on lessons, but through that we were able to meet some more awesome and prepared people. God prepares people everyday if we but have the faith to go and meet them. I know that God only wants us to see miracles daily. So that we can partake of His joy and blessings. 

So grateful to be grateful!!! So many things to be grateful for!!! Hope you all had the best thanksgiving and can`t even believetomorrow is December and Christmas is coming up!!! Love you all so much! Thanks for all the prayers in my behalf!

Love,

ジョンソン姉妹

Us at the kawanamis, I love this family. They always feed us until
we die, but it's so good!

Us at the kawanamis again. Now you see why I love this family so much!

Best district ever at special training helping Kurume sisters practice for their music number! Bair, me, Parmley, McCuen, Akahori, Ketch, Hunsaker, Hayashi, Means, Seable

Our thanksgiving eikaiwa! Yay tradition! Me, Akiyama, new guy, bair, airi, yasuko, tomo, hatta, ali, Godfather, haiya, kinjou, betty, megumi, masuyaha, parmley, mccuen, me

Us at Megumi's suprise party. after everyone had left, haha! Bair, Imamura-shimai, Megumi, Yamamoto-san, Parmley, Me, and Mccuen shimai

Blog: Lots of Traveling

This week was another crazy one full of lots of miracles again!
On monday we went out to eat with our Eikaiwa students at this deep
frying place. It was so amazing! Except we had eaten not to long
before so we were already stuffed when we got there! Too bad, the food
was so delicious! Then afterwards we booked it over to a return
appointment we had at the train station. She was literally so amazing!
She was so bubbly and asked so many good questions! We invited her to
church and we called her the night before but she didn't pick up, and
didn't come to church which was unfortunate, but she ended up texting
us later saying that she forgot. So hopefully we will be able to meet
again with her this next week.
Then on Tuesday I went up to Fukuoka for a training meeting. I learned
so much and one of the elders that was giving part of the training
stood up and gave one of the best testimonies I have ever heard about
missionary work. He was baptized about 2 years ago and as already been
serving for about a year. He said he knew missionaries worked hard,
but coming out on a mission really shows how hard everyone works and
he started to cry and to thank us all. And I the spirit was so strong.
Being a member all my life, I understand how it is a good thing. But
someone that receives it as a convert really just understands how much
it changes their life. The gospel is just amazing.
Then on Wednesday we went out and went to some return appointments
that weren't there. But God was leading us to some more people who
were prepared and got to meet some interested people in the gospel.
One being a 15 year old boy. Who listened really well to the message
we gave him and was way excited about prayer. But not so much about
the other things plus when we visited him a second time his Mom was
there and she seemed a bit frantic about the whole ting which I think
made him nervous as well. So we will try and go back and visit, just
know the Lord has a plan for us all. And we also got to go visit a
less active with a member, which was so great! She was a really fun
lady and her kids were so cute! She seems to be having a hard time
lately, but she was so nice! And her kids were adorable! Plus she is a
cake chef, so we literally ate our weight in cake!
Then on Friday I went down to Sasebo to go on splits with the sisters
down there. Okay, so down in Sasebo they have a base so there are a
TON of Americans down there. With lots of american shops and
restaurants as well. So the elders bought us pizza. Like real dominos
pizza. It was heaven! Most of the day was spent dendouing though, and
we saw SO MANY MIRACLES!! It was amazing!! First of all I was like way
weirded out by all the American things. There was one point where we
were walking down the street and I saw a girl coming out in her
military clothes. We had passed her because she wasn't right in our
pathway, but we went back and talked to her. And we had such a good
conversation about God, why she is in japan, and her love for Japanese
culture. As we were leaving she told us that she was so glad we
stopped her. One of those moments where you heart stops thinking,
"what if I hadn't" And that is why we have to be SO in tune with the
spirit. But yes, that was so awesome! Then that night we had a goal to
hand out 4 book of Mormons. And as we were trying to hand out the last
one with only 15 minutes or so left, nobody would take the book of
Mormon. We were a bit discouraged thinking that we had tried our best
but nobody would take it. But we kept praying and with only 5 minutes
left and no where to really house we headed down an empty street. When
it was time to turn back and go home we saw this one lady walking
towards us. We stopped her and she said she was busy heading to work,
so all we had time to say was that we were telling people about this
book which can help guide your life and we are giving it away for
free. And she seemed to excited, took the book, and went to work. Does
God answer prayers? Indeed.
Then Saturday and Sunday were busy trying to get to return
appointments and proselyting. We met some really awesome people and
got to give out a lot of book of Mormons! And our new investigator
came to church! He is so cool and wants to change, which is the best
kind of people! He is just awesome!
Saw so many miracles this week, and my faith has been strengthened so
much. Sometimes it takes effort, but miracles only come by faith,
which without works is dead! The church is true, Christ lives, and the
scriptures are such a good map for my life!
Also so crazy that it is Thanksgiving!!!! Be so thankful for all the
wonderful things God has given. Spend some time with your family! Give
your neighbor a hug! Lift a child! (Doesn't even matter if it's yours)
And give thanks for the knowledge we have of a Loving Heavenly Father
and Savior who love us so much!!! I am grateful for all the
experiences in my life, and all the people I have had the opportunity
to love, and have had the blessing to receive their love. Best
Thanksgiving ever!!!!
Love,
Sister Johnson

Japanese people have style!!!

Blog:  Bearing Testimonies

This week was full of MIRACLES!!!! Yayaya!! So lately we have been
struggling with finding and teaching people. So we decided to stop our
dilly dallying, not that we were doing anything bad or wrong. But we
decided to be EXACTLY obedient and to work really hard. And oh does
the Lord bless the effort, haha!
So to start off this week we had a p-day and we were finally able to
relax a bit! It was the best! Now with a little bit of energy to work
off of we set out to dendou! (tracking) So we went out and we worked hard and
found some waaaaay awesome people! Then we had a lesson with our
Chinese investigator! Haha, he is 15 and loves basketball and wants to
be a professional singer. Literally have no idea why he is in Japan,
but he is the coolest! So in order to have a lesson with him since he
doesn't really speak English, or Japanese, we google translate
EVERYTHING!!! So sometimes he understands us and sometimes he does
not. And we have tried a hundred different pamphlets and book of
Mormons and stuff from the gospel library, and every time he tells us
it is Taiwanese so he can understand some of it but not perfectly. So
maybe one day we'll actually find some Chinese stuff, haha!!! But the
first lesson we had went pretty well, he was a bit embarrassed to
pray, but we went back on Friday and had him write down his prayer,
and he prayed!!! And in Chinese!!! It was so cool!! Maddie Giles, I
feel like I understood you more that day! He is seriously the
greatest! But he has basketball practice a lot, but we want to bring
him to the Fukuoka ward where there are some Chinese speakers, so
cross your fingers!
Then on Tuesday we were going down to visit a member who lives about
30 minutes away to help her think of ways to help her husband. Sounds
like he works a lot :(. If you ever work too much, then stop it. Just
seeing how his son talked about his Dad just made me so sad. So stop
working people and spend time with your family, you'll be glad you
did!!! But yes, while we were down there we ran into some way awesome
people. Then afterwards it was getting a bit dark and I kept feeling
like instead of visiting a potential investigator who really wasn't
that interested we should go try and dendou some of the apartments
that we saw. So we went over there with not a lot of luck. Then we
knocked on this one door that a teenager answered and I could see her
Mom in the background. So after talking with her for a bit the Mom
came up and asked if we were Mormon. I was a bit shocked and a little
scared, thinking that she had heard who knows what. Then she tells us
that her older sister was a missionary for our church and used to go
to Kurume ward before she moved!! And we asked her if she would like
to know if these things are true for herself, and she said yes!!!! So
we made a return appointment, but unfortunately we made it for a day
we wouldn't be able to make it so we went back to reschedule but she
wasn't there, but she basically told us any day in the afternoon would
be good, so we'll just visit her in the afternoon :) so no worries!!
And on the way there we met this waaay awesome girl who I am not sure
we'll ever meet again, but she will definitely get baptized!!! We gave
her a book of Mormon and tried to make a return appointment, but she
was a bit busy, but she asked if she could tell people about our
English class and the book of Mormon, and we were like, "no." Just
kidding! We were like, "Please do!!" So we didn't get a return
appointment, but I think we just got a new missionary!
Then on our way back from trying to change the appointment, we met the
COOLEST girl!!! She was waay genki(excited) and I first saw her and then we
stopped this other lady, and she went out of site. So we kept biking
down that way and I saw her again, and I like chased that girl down!
But everything we said pretty much got her way pumped and she
basically made a return appointment with us, at a donut shop!! Can you
imagine anything greater?!
Then on Wednesday (sorry I have to do this play by play because
seriously miracles happened everyday!) we had a lesson with our recent
convert who is on his way towards being endowed!! Then we had weekly
planning and we had a party with the other sisters recent convert. Who
was drunk when he came :( but he bought us a cake because
Bair-shimai's birthday was the next day and it was fun talking with
him. He read our palms and told me I would have two husbands, haha!!
Praying that doesn't happen. The cake was super good! Looked good and
tasted good! It was fun, but then he told us he was drunk because he
lost his job, but I think he might have found a new one. Not sure yet,
but please pray for him if you get a chance.
Then on Thursday we went up to have zone meeting. And the spirit was
so strong. We talked about our goals, and working diligently. Clements
shimai (my STL partner) and I planned to teach about diligence, and
the spirit was SO STRONG!!! I cried and snot ran down my face, it was
really a great image. But that was one of the best zone meeting I have
had in Nagasaki zone!! We came closer together, and it's crazy because
half of our zone is third transfer and under!!! God setting us up for
miracles, I think so! And at the end our district leader sang a self
composed birthday song to Bair-shimai, it was so awesome!! Lots of
talented missionaries. Then we had a surprise party for Bair-shimai
during Eikaiwa, which was way funny! Everyone sat and awkwardly ate
ice creams in their chairs, haha, but then we got people playing games
and it was awesome. We played do you love your neighbor, and people
got taken out!! It was fantastic!
Then on Saturday we had a relief society activity where we made
Christmas gifts for less actives and investigators, they are seriously
such awesome sisters! Then we had our Saturday activity and the member
brought American hot chocolate (yes!!!) and we got to watch meet the
Mormons (double YES!!!!) It was way fun and delicious! Then we went
out for the night and it poured rain, both upon our spirits and our
bodies. Nobody was answering :( or eating at ridiculous hours :( So we
prayed about it and felt like we should go to this one apartment where
we met an awesome lady who wanted baptism and wasn't able to make a
return appontment because of work, but said we could go back, so we
have plans for next week :D! We also ran into a lady with police in
her house, handed her a chidashi  (pamphlet) and got out of there. Haha! It was SO
awkward!!! Then on our way back we got stuck behind this fire truck
who had it's lights on and siren, so maybe some kind of emergency. But
we could've passed them on our bikes, they were moving very, very
slow. So we just ended up following behind them for like 10 minutes
because we weren't sure if we could pass them or not. So that was vey
interesting. Met lots of officials that night, fortunately none we
after us :)!!
Then on Sunday we had an awesome day at church and the priest quorum
made lunch for all the sisters, and it as so good! Then that guy we
ran into on the street last week came! Early! So we went down and
taught him a lesson, which was kind of all over the place, but the
spirit carried us along and we were able to make a baptismal date with
him!!! It was so cool!! He is a waaaay cool guy! Told us that when we
stopped to talk to him, he thought it must have been fate. Indeed it
was. Then we went and visited a member ho has been kind of sick
lately, and she was so funny, introduced us to some of her online
friends through face time, and we delivered some food to her. Then we
went out to work again and found these apartments, had very little
luck. So we stopped and prayed and asked Heavenly Father if we could
hand out one more Book of Mormon to meet our goal. And few doors later
pops out this man named Yamamoto-san. He told us he was Buddhist at
first, but we introduced him to eternal families and the Book of
Mormon and he said he would try to read it and made a return
appointment!!
So God answers prayers, loves and knows His children, and will use us
as productive tools if we work diligently. This church is so true.
Sorry this is so long, but I know this is the good stuff you want to
know!!! Love you all!!! Have a great week!! Thank you for all the
prayers in my behalf.

May God bless the people and missionaries in France.

Love,
Sister Johnson

Random girl we met on the street!!!

Us at EKW for Bair shimais birthday! Everyone awkwardly sitting and eating their popsicles!

the Sisters in our zone! (mccuen, parmley, me, bair, ketch, akahori, whithworth, clements)

Blog: Crazy Food Lady


So this week was kind of crazy but fun. Yes, it was transfer week and
I'm....... staying here in Kurume!!! YAY!!! Bair shimai is still my
companion! And she is doing a lot better this transfer so far. Given
it's the first day, but her coughing and various other symptoms have
gone down so I think she is getting used to Japan, yay! The first half
of this week was mostly dinner appointments and craziness because
Crump-shimai was reaching the end of her mission and going home. So on
Monday we went to the front of a mall and did a huge chidashi kubari
where we just hand out eikaiwa (English class) chidashi's( invites) to
people on the street.
But after about an hour or so the mall police came and moved us down to
the corner of the street, to be honest I am surprised they didn't come
earlier. But ya it was crazy we talked to like 100 people in those
couple of hours. Unfortunately you don't really get a huge chance to
talk about the gospel all that much, but we had somebody call us back
and tell us they were coming to the eikaiwa, which is amazing!!
Then after that we went with the sisters to eat at this yakitori
(grilled meat on sticks) place with a crazy lady they met on the
street, haha! Yep, so what happened was we met her on the street, then
took us to park our bikes in the bushes at a park. Them took a taxi
like two and a half blocks to this yakitori shop (could've walked
there, but paid 6.50 to go two blocks :) I was planning on buying like
2 things  because i knew it was going to be expensive, but she just
started buying things for us, like some normal stuff, then some weird
stuff. Like pigs foot, and chicken hearts. Half of it I would have
brought back up and handed back to them because the bill was
ridiculous! But anyways we made it, and that's what counts!
Then on Tuesday we went to visit a member who is struggling and she
surprised us with a shokuji ( meal) which was very nice. Then we shared a
message with her and the spirit was felt so strongly. Every direction
we took, every thing we testified about seemed to be what she needed
to open up. Now she loves the missionaries quite a bit. She still has
a long ways to go, but nothing God can't fix!
Then on Wednesday we did a lot of running around to help get Crump
shimai ready to go. Like getting pictures off of things, packing,
saying goodbye. Just craziness! But she is seriously so awesome and we
miss her!! But she'll be an awesome missionary on the other side of
the veil.
Then on Thursday we waited for the new missionary coming in and had
EKW, which was way fun!! Plus this next Eikaiwa should be good,
because Bair shimai's birthday is on it, so we will probably have a
party!!
Then on Friday we taught our recent convert who has been doing so
great lately! He asked about challenges and why people have them. And
what happens when we are wronged. So we talked about the justice and
mercy of our heavenly father and showed Him the mountains to climb
video and I think we all just felt the reassuring spirit that God is
all knowing and we need to trust in Him and His plan and what He would
have us do. Then we got to go teach a member about missionary work,
and her husband is less active. Which is awful, I feel like there is
so much of that in Japan. Which just makes me so grateful to have had
men in my life who are strong in the gospel and so willing to
undertake the responsibility of the priesthood. She is such a good
member, so we will be trying to think of ways to help her.
Then on Saturday we got to meet a less active, and a member came with
us, finally!!!! And what a help they were! She asks a lot of questions
about the BOM, which we always have difficulty answering because she
like the difficult Chinese characters. So definitely a testimony
builder on members!! Then we had a really cool return appointment with
a couple on the street who want to get married, but one lives in Kobe
and the guy lives here. But when we explained baptism and eternal
marriage he seemed interested so we were able to make a return
appointment and called him that night to try and move it to this
Sunday, but he said it was a bit difficult so we still kept it for
next Sunday! So fingers crossed!!
Then on Sunday we had a HUGE meal appointment because Crump shimai
came back to church with her parents to visit. They then went to a
neighboring ward to visit her other area so she was late getting to
the shokuji and we were all kind of freaking out because we didn't know
where they were and they didn't have phones either! But somehow they
got there. And our investigator Yamamoto-san came as well! We haven't
been able to see her for this whole last transfer, so that was
awesome!! And we shared such a powerful message on the Book of Mormon
and Joseph Smith. And it was so cool because it was blazing hot in
this room with so many people and the kids were getting a bit tired,
but during it they were practically silent and everyone really felt
the spirit.
And another miracle is that today we finally get a p-day to kind of
rest!!!!! I love the church so much and know that it is true with all
my heart. The more I study about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
The more I know with surety that it is from God written specifically
for me. Prayers are answered and God loves and is aware of all his
children!!!!
Hope you all have a great November!!! Probably getting  little cold in Utah!!!

ジョンソン姉妹

Us at the huge shokuji crump-shimais goodbye party! (up left to
right- nihara-kyoudai, mori-san, kawanami-kyoudai, akiyama-kyoudai,
kawanami-shimai, crump's parents, nihara-shimai, mori-san, shoutaro,
yamaguchi, kinjo, crump, yamamoto, parmley, makiko, me, bair, mccuen,
and megumi-chan)

Bye to Crump-shimai!!

Ali, parmley, crump, me, bair, megumi at the Saga balloon festival!!!

all the crazy balloons!!

all the little tiny balloons racing behind us!!

panoramic view!!