Todo...

So, after a very busy week and some sad goodbyes (even though it's just for a few months, there were sad faces), I boarded a bus to Narita Airport and then travelled to Seoul and to Cebu, Philippines.

Within my first hour or so of arrival, I had many thoughts... the first of which being:

Todo, we're not in Japan anymore...

The night before I left Japan, it was snowing.  When I arrived in Cebu at 11:30pm, it was 75.

That morning, I digitally controlled the water temperature for my shower.  When I arrived, I took a bucket bath.

I was used to the sound of trains, here there is the sound of roosters.

But, it's good to see many old friends... I'm sure it will be an awesome conference!

Lasts

Waaa!  Lots of stuff has been accomplished in this week!  Including: paying my taxes... which only took going to 3 locations to accomplish.

It was a really good week though.  It started off on Sunday-- I gave the message at my last Fuse for this year.  I shared about what God was teaching me shortly before meeting Vicente and the process that He brought me through.  It was Valentines Day (and my last Sunday, which I already mentioned), so it made sense to kinda talk about my next steps. 

Anyway, I got a lot of really good feedback from people and Mark said it was probably one of the best messages that I've ever done.  I was like, wow!  But, hey, the Word of God that He puts into our life is powerful.

At Fuse they gave me flowers and prayed for blessings over Vicente and I.  I didn't even cry.

What else... oh yeah, did taxes.  Finished up work for this week (including leaving work and semi-lesson plans for people).  My students gave me lots of notes, some of them rather hilarious.  But yeah, it was really nice.

This will be a very bittersweet weekend.  I'm looking forward to the conference and later to seeing my fiance, but it is sad to leave my friends and Japanese family. I've learned a lot-- grown a lot in these 2 years.  I think it's been the biggest period of growth in faith and leadership in my life. 

Looking forward to married life.  The best is yet to come... and we will be excited to be back home in Japan.  :)

PS: Enjoy this:

PS- Pictures (apart from this one right here) are courtesy of Abigail Lafleur-Shaffer.

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Blog update coming soon. 
I promise.

Just so you know what's on my to-do list for tomorrow (my day off):

-File taxes in Japan (last year, there was the big earthquake on the day I did this)
-Buy bus ticket
-Finish Sunday's message
-Talk with my handsome, amazing, wonderful fiance
-Do laundry
-Write on blog
-Pack

I think that about takes care of the day.

Coming soon.  (PS if it [the blog] doesn't make it on Thursday, it will be finished on Friday!)