June

The past month has been good, but a little hard, too. I feel as though the reality that we are living in a foreign country is setting in more and more. Just recently I've really begun to miss some ways of living/food, etc. from America. (Taco Bell sounds AMAZING right now). I knew that eventually these feelings would come. We talked about it in our missionary training we went to last summer. They talked to us about little dips and valleys we would experience about living here occuring around 3 months and 6 months. We've been here a little over 5 months now, and I'm beggining to feel some of these so called dips. We talked about how it is normal to feel this way, so that gives me some encouragement, but its still nonetheless challenging. I remind myself to focus on why we are doing this. Mike was telling me the other day that even if we were able to save 1,000,000 people here in Japan, that would still make less than 2% of the population Christian! Thats motivating but also depressing at the same time! But, now knowing that statistic, I realize how important it is for us to be here. WE are not important, but what we want to tell these people is SO important. So, thats where I'm at right now.
As for a little update on other things...I still continue to make a friendship with my friend Akemi. For her birthday, I ended up getting her a photo mug from Snapfish with pictures of our kids and us hanging out together. I think she really liked it. Also, during this past month, a couple of friends, Michael and Beth, came to visit us from California. Actually, they came to visit our whole team, because we all went to Ozark together. It was so great to have them here. We have also been chugging away at language school. I know our Japanese is improving-little by little I can make more conversation. But, starting tomorrow, we are going to enjoy a little break from school! Its only about a week and half, but we are all sooo happy for it--I'm growing weary of deciphering converstaion/worksheets. Well, I guess I can't really get away from deciphering conversations, but I can enjoy a little break from doing homework so often! I say "so often" instead of "not at all" because my teacher gave me more homework than usual, since my break was a whole 10 days. What could I say? I had to take it, but I wanted to tell her, "No, the point of the break is to not do ANY homework!" But, I dare not say such a thing to my nice Sensei. I would be a bad Japanese pupil. So, it will be a break mixed in with occasional, rather than usual doing of homework. Oh, and it just so happens that Lucille Ball was in Japan again a couple of weeks ago....yes, she came back for a little embarassing visit. :) I will tell about it in the next post, since this one is getting really long! Here are just a few pics of this month...I realized I hardly took any, so these were the best 3 I had.
Having fun at the park! Isn't he a cutie?

Playing in a little stream at the park. This has been a really fun thing we've liked doing since it has become so hot.

The other day, Brayden and Momiji kept kissing each other! I couldn't get a very good picture, but they were repeatedly planting smooches on each other's lips. I don't know why he started doing this, but it was pretty funny! Actually, what I think he was doing was he was trying to be nice to her. In the past he has been rough with her, so we've been working on being nice to the "baby." So, my explanation is that he was trying to be "nice" and "gentle" as I have tried to teach him. But, I didn't teach him to kiss her! He did that all on his own...flirting already?!