Hair salon names: 'Brownie' 'Psych Beauty News'

The other day we saw a nicer toyota car that's model on the back read 'Grand Saloon'.

I love Japan!

Big shout out to Josie Manning for getting baptized! We are so proud of you. We miss you and wish we could have been there, but that's what we're doing here. Helping people learn about Jesus Christ and then they make the decision to be like Him and be baptized just like you did.

Another big shout out to all of you who finished yet another semester of school! Omedito gozaimasu! And you're onto the next! Gambate ne!

We are doing fine. I hope your Christmas was wonderful. I hear it wasn't exactly white. Maybe you'll be lucky and it will start to snow now and continue until June, sort of like last year. Nagoya doesn't get much snow but some of our areas in the Kanazawa and Nagano zones get pounded with it. It's wet, wet snow. It's so heavy I don't know how they shovel it. No central heat in our houses make it feel like the North Pole though. My shampoo and hand soap that are gels, get so cold you can hardly get them out of the bottle. I had a drink of water out of the faucet in the bathroom and got a brain freeze, I'm not joking. The water is so cold when you wash your hands you can't get the soap off. Each room has it's own heater and you only turn on the rooms you go into because of the cost (nuclear power--remember Fukushima), so we run from room to room. I can't quite figure it out. The Japanese people love the heat. Church in the summer is so warm. Everything is so warm. It just doesn't make sense to me.

This is the first year in 34 years that we didn't have at least one of our children with us at Christmas. I really worried that it would be a hard year. It sort of started out that way until I decided I needed a Christmas project---and I found it---a 'Kimono quilt' top. Our office couple the Oldroyd's 50th Wedding Anniversary was on the 15th of December. We decided to have a surprise party for them. Sister Oldroyd and I had seen a beautiful pieced 'Kimono' quilt. We both wanted to make one. Of course when I first saw it I thought I'd make one for everyone I knew. Then I made one of the blocks---I decided maybe I'd just make a pillow instead. Sister Oldroyd kept saying she wondered if Sister Grames in Tokyo would make her one if she paid her. I knew she really wanted one so I decided to take the leap. I have been collecting fabric for it since July, but because I'm a good procrastinator, I started on the blocks around the 10th of December! It made me so happy to sit at my kitchen table with my Christmas music turned up, sewing all day and night. For the first time this season it felt like Christmas at the Baird's. All the time I was sewing (and picking our the mistakes) I could imagine her face when she received it. I knew she would be so happy. I was so excited. She also loves my collection of chopstick rests. I had all the companionships buy one chopstick rest. They had wrapped them up and written notes. Elder Jessop had put together an anniversary video with pictures of their lives and family with the help of their children. I wished you all could have been there for the surprise. Their faces shown with pure joy! It was so incredibly sweet and tender. They loved the quilt top and the chopstick rests and especially the notes and people who attended. I will never forget it.

We visited all of our zones and our district the 21st through the 24th. We had a Christmas devotional in each area. Elder Jessop one of our office Elders put together some great videos and put them on a DVD (I work that poor boy to death. I told him his official title is 'APW' Assistant to the President's wife. He goes home in July and I've threatened to extend him another year). It was a very special time for us all. We have the most incredible missionaries.

We still see amazing things happen almost on a daily basis. I'll share a couple:

Elder Gottfredson is an amazing young man. He literally opens his mouth and talks to everyone he sees. One day in Kanazawa, he was crossing the street at the light and handed a man coming towards him, a pamphlet about the church. He said hello but got no response, the man just grabbed it. Elder Gottfredson thought , "oh well", and went on, like I say, he just keeps going, he's so positive. The next Sunday at church the man showed up. No one knew who he was. Elder G. looked at him and said he thought it was the grumpy guy he'd given a pamphlet to. Sure enough, it was. The man said that he had been praying for 2 years ever since his son had died, for some kind of help and peace. He had read the pamphlet and knew that his prayers had been answered.

Elder Ito, another sugoi missionary (he will totally be a leader in Japan in the future) found a wallet. He called the man and told him he had it and arranged a place and time to return it. Elder Ito met with him and gave him a Book of Mormon along with the wallet. They had a great conversation and the man came to church and is now an investigator.

The Book of Mormon changes lives. I love in Ether 12:41 how Moroni tells us to "Seek this Jesus". I know that Joseph Smith did not make Moroni up. He's real. He lived. He talked with Jesus face to face just like he says in Ether chapter 12. You do get closer to God by reading this book. It's makes us happier, more peaceful, stronger, easier for others to love.... and hopeful. I am so grateful for this opportunity. It has opened my eyes wider to what's important in life.

I love you all.

Happy New Year!

Ja mata ne.

Sister Baird, Bonnie, mom or grandma

Hair salon names: 'Dog Tails' and 'Jet Party Hair'.

I know in America this is a big holiday week. I miss all the bustle of the holidays there. We have a different kind of bustle here. We will have a small gathering of nine at our home, and of course Tommy Turkey will be our featured guest. I had him flown in special. We also have the woman the girls and I met in the fabric store. Thanks to our dendo (proselyting) baby! Good job Nora. Unfortunately, there will be no Bingo again this year, and Weslee, I'm with you on the bingo, it's tradition.

First of all I must apologize to the mountains of Japan. In my last letter I told you they weren't very colorful. I was sorely mistaken, it just happens a little later here. We were in the mountains of Matsumoto, Nagano District last weekend and they were absolutely stunning. Red, yellow, orange and green. No wonder I love fall! Those are all my favorite colors. I decided that the Lord made fall so spectacular as to make up for the bleakness of winter.

We spent last week in Korea for the Asia North Area Seminar. It was wonderful. We learned so much from Elder's Stevenson, Ringwood and Aoyagi. I loved Korea! We saw the most incredible cultural dancing show at the Korea House. At the end of the performance they came down in the audience and pulled three people up on the stage. One of those happened to be Scott. He was a good sport and beat the drum and danced. Everyone took pictures to capture the moment so I'm sure there will be photos to pass on.

Things are going very well here. I love Japan. This is home. It's funny how that happens. I really love it here. I am thankful that the Lord has helped me adjust to everything around me. He has blessed my family---has helped me love everyone of these missionaries, helped me feel their hearts and see their qualities.

We have a very busy few weeks ahead of us with Thanksgiving, Sister's leadership training, traveling to the different branches and wards every Sunday, Elder Stevenson's visit to tour the mission, new missionaries coming and old missionaries leaving (transfers), and Christmas activities in the mission. When I was in Utah it use to take weeks to plan one event, now we're use to two or three events in a week. We clean up one activity to set up for another. I'm amazed how the Lord steps in and helps us keep going. He give us energy to keep everything together. It's an exciting time in our lives. We not only keep on the move, we see miracles almost everyday. Often the miracles we see are these young women and men become better and stronger---more mature and confident--both in themselves and in the Lord. This is amazing!

I give thanks to the Lord for all of you---for the influence you are in my life--- for your love and support.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Sister Baird, Bonnie, mom or grandma

Cultural tip of the month:

They are putting in a new fence and landscaping at the mission home. Right after the workers have a short lunch they all lay down in a row on the grass, cement or wherever and take a little nap. It makes me smile.

I can't believe that summer is two thirds over! I know that everyone always talks about how the best time in Japan is the Sakura (cherry blossom) season, and it is absolutely beautiful. But my personal favorite is summer. You will all think me crazy with the heat and humidity in Japan- but I love the mountains in the summer. Japan's mountains have so many deciduous trees that in the spring they aren't as full as the summer---- in the summer there is no standing room. They are all smooshed in there together like the Japanese on the trains at rush hour. All silent. All standing at attention. It is breath-taking.

I hope you are all doing well and you've had a summer full of sitting on the porch, sipping tall glasses of lemonade with your sunglasses on. After the cold, wet rainy/snowy, winter/spring you've had, you all deserve a little sunshine.

Important information, hair salon names: Hunky Dory Hair Room Manish Hair

It's been awhile since I've sent an email over the air waves or fiber optics or whatever they are. I have so many things to tell you about but I don't want this to be a 25 page letter so I'll just share a few.

Our mission is back to normal after sending the 54 Tokyo missionaries that were ours for awhile, back to the Tokyo mission. There were many tears in that departure. We had grown to know and love them.

I know many of you are worried about us all because of the earthquakes, nuclear problems, typhoons, and the beef radiation scare. I want you to know we feel very safe here. We know that the church has a crisis committee that keeps it's eye on what's going on in Japan as well as the rest of the places where missionaries are. If things get bad and it's dangerous for us to be here, we will be gone. Life is really normal here. Earthquakes are pretty common, we had one that woke us up last night and shook things pretty good, but the way Japan is built is amazing.

We've had the opportunity of having family here off and on the last few months and it's been wonderful. Together we've seen amazing places and they've met our incredible missionaries and seen them at work. Lonnie even had the opportunity of riding on the 'Women Only" train and it was an experience to remember. Sorry about that Lonnie. Your guide isn't very good at Japanese, even if that was posted really big in English. I tell you, I miss words I can read because I can't read anything 99% of the time.

Cydne and I had the opportunity to go with our Nagano District to Sendai and be part of the churches 'Helping Hands' project. The town we worked in was Rikuzentakata. 80% of the town was literally swept off the earth. Here is a website you can read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikuzentakata,_Iwate

It was a sobering experience to drive in that flattened town and see the piles of what was left. Acres of smashed cars. A levy with a chunk out of it the length of a football field. We were assigned first to what Cydne referred to as 'weeding the forest'. Then we cleared a dirt road. Our final project was to pick through the remains of a leveled house. We sorted glass, pieces of traditional blue roof tiles, inside tiles, wood, and personal belonging into piles--------pieces of peoples lives. We saw purses, children's toys, a smashed ipod, shoes, dishes. But the most unsettling were the photographs that were found. We wondered what had happened to those people. The horror they felt on that day. Everyone at that sight was silent. It might have just been the Japanese way, but I think it was because we felt we were working on sacred ground. I looked at the ocean, it seemed so calm and beautiful. I could only imagine and picture that tsunami pouring upon that village. As I stood on leveled ground, I wondered which route I would have taken to higher ground. I realized that even after that enormous earthquake there were still structures standing. That people had to go through streets to get to the mountains. Too many cars trying to get out. Impossible in 30 minutes. You'd have to ride a bike and even then to get to higher ground, getting through the streets would have been challenging. You would have had to climb through thick trees and up steep slopes. And what if you had children with you? One report in the paper said how bad the coroner had felt when he worked on the bodies of some of the victims. He said that many, in their flight, layered clothing-because it was cold and they wanted to take some of their belongings with them. Some had strapped bags to their bodies and their children's bodies, with items they didn't want to leave behind. It weighed them down, they could not run fast enough----and they were swallowed by the wave. It was a humbling feeling. I'm grateful to know that there is a peaceful, beautiful place on the other side. The comfort of a Heavenly Father and others that are there, that love us. I am grateful that my family is eternal. That I know we help and love each other here----as well as there. I love the comfort the gospel brings.

I wanted to tell you about an 85 year old women that Scott went to do her temple recommend interview with in Suwa. She was so cute (as is everything in Japan). She has two daughters that are both active members. She joined the church five years ago at age 80. They called her to teach primary-she accepted (at age 80!) She's taught over the last few years. When the primary started to memorize the articles of faith she decided she needed to do it with them. She can recite them all perfectly. How many of us can do that? She said that nightly, when she climbs into bed she starts to recite the first one and goes down the list. She said that they put her to sleep every night. What a wonderful thing to be doing just before you drift off. I think my dreams might be better doing that than wondering what I need to do the next day or what I didn't get done that day. She's such an inspiration to me.

Katheryn called me the other day and reported on her week at girls camp as a stake leader. She had the opportunity to go and serve as assistant craft lady. How fun is that? She told me that she had not been particularly excited to go to camp. What??? Can you imagine that???? (sadly I can--once I get there I love it!) She told me that she had emailed Whitney and told her her feelings. She knew Whitney could and would sympathize with her since every time camp was mentioned in their entire teenage life, Whitney sneered. She was totally shocked at Whitney's response. Whitney told her to quit whining, buck up and enjoy it. She said she was amazed that this was coming from the girl who literally tried to do everything in her power to not go to camp----she was actually very successful at 'camp avoidance' and I think maybe only went 2 years. Then Katheryn told me that as she bore her testimony around the ward campfire, she shared how much she admired her sister Whitney. Here she was a stranger in a strange land, speaking a strange language. Approaching people in a culture that it isn't the custom to approach strangers, sharing a message with them. A message that she believes with all her soul. A message that can bring peace, comfort and happiness. A message she hopes they can understand by her spirit, her eyes and her simple Japanese words. It's true everybody. Even as I tell you this, that warmth floods through my entire body. It's true.

Well I will sign off for now and I will try to be better at writing. Our missionaries would be in big trouble if they wrote home like I do.

This is an amazing opportunity. I see it transform lives, literally. It's not easy-----and it's amazing, fulfilling and rewarding. I love these missionaries and members. They do hard things and they are doing them with positive attitudes and unwavering faith. I want to grow up to be just like them.

I love you all.

Sister Baird, Bonnie, mom or grandma

Cultural tip of the week: Calendars here don't have names of months on them, in fact months don't have names. They are month 1, month 2, etc.