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