December in Tokyo

Welcome to the Friendship Dinner that the Church hosts each year for the ambassadors and their wives.  We were lucky to get an invitation so that Elder Chandler could help do a little translation for the ambassador from the Dominican Republic.  On Carol's right is la senora Andrea, wife of the ambassador.

His excellency, Ambassador Hector Dominguez, standing next to Carol and his wife Andrea standing next to me.  Elder and Sister Wood next to them (public affairs missionaries).  Doesn't Elder Wood look great for being 80 years old.  No he's not the one in the middle!

Welcome to our dinner at home with our friends, the Gearys.  Their son, Tiernan, was an amazing sculptor.  He and his mother said that he had never played with play dough before but he sculpted this in just a few seconds.  He also made an intricate Christmas tree, dinosaur, etc.  

Stuart and Anna are great people and it was wonderful to have them come over.  Stuart is a medical doctor that now works for a pharmaceutical company.  Anna was born in Viet Nam but moved to the US as a child.  They have two older boys living with Stuart's brother in Provo.

Here we are all set up for our Family Home Evening Dinner at the office building.  It looks fun, doesn't it?  Elder Chandler always has to conduct, announce the program, etc. (and tell a few jokes) as he is our district leader.

A beautiful ginkgo tree with bright yellow leaves.  You can see it is cold by the way Gary is dressed.

Have you ever seen a scarecrow Santa? This truly is needed as there are tons of crows in the park where this is located.  Amazing to see all of the green in December, too, wouldn't you say?

It's quite a cold but sunny day in Arisugawa Park by where we live.  You can see the Tokyo temple spire in the background.

Not all the leaves have fallen from the trees in the park.

Last night we went to a wonderful concert at the Sacred Heart school which is a private Catholic school where Scarlet Aalders, a daughter of the director of temporal affairs in our office, and her sister, India, performed.

India is on the left and her singing, as well as all of the groups that performed, was so beautiful and so amazing.

I don't know what to say about this photo, except that it is sooo cute!  Since it was on Facebook, I'm hoping our grandkid's, CJ and Max's family don't mind.  I think Mr. Skeleton has the scarecrow beat hands-down at being a Santa Claus! Don't you agree?

Back to the real meaning of Christmas.  I love this beautiful life-size nativity at the Tokyo temple.  I am so grateful that Jesus Christ came to the earth .

It's hard not to end with another picture of the Tokyo temple and annex.  It's beautiful from every direction, I think.  If you would like to see the other two temples in Japan, the Fukuoka Japan temple, and also the Sapporo Japan temple which is still under construction, click on the link below, and on the right side of the page, click on "temple list."  There's also a video showing the inside of a temple that you can find there, too.
Temples

We hope you have a wonderful week and you enjoy this wonderful holiday season!