We were blessed to have Elder and Sister Whiting tour our mission in January 2014.

January 28 with the Chiba and Matsudo zones. 

 January 29 in Tokyo.

 January 30 with the Saitama and Kiryu zones.

January 31 in Niigata.

 Mission Leadership Council February 13, 2014

Mission Leadership Council April 3, 2014.

The missionaries on the iPads were joining us remotely from Niigata.

Technology is a wonderful thing!

We lost only one sister in January 2014, but it was a huge loss! 

 In March 2014 we bid farewell to seven fine elders.

Three weeks later, we lost two more amazing Japanese missionaries.  

They finished their missions as Assistants, 

and for a short period we were fortunate to have four concurrent Assistants! 

 The first group in 2014!  These 25 arrived on Jan 21st.

 We received 9 great new elders on March 4. 

Its been more than a year since we've had a transfer with no sisters.

The March transfer with their trainers.

Merry Christmas

Dear parents and families,

We truly had a white Christmas this year.  Thank you for your faith and prayers.

We will have more people come to Christ this month than in any other month of the year.  Last year we had 7 baptisms in December, but this December we have already had 31 baptisms and over 50 since we began praying and exercising our faith together.  31 of the 40 wards and branches in the mission have seen a baptism.  Truly a white Christmas miracle.  

We have several more baptisms scheduled for this coming weekend including the wife and two sons of a less active family.  Our hearts are full of gratitude and joy as we look back on the miracles we have seen.  Our faith has grown, and we have learned much that we look forward to applying as we begin a new year in the service of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Thank you for raising and supporting your missionary.  They are the greatest missionaries in the world.  We love them and feel so honored to serve with them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love, President and Sister Budge

Sayonara to Six

December 12, 2013
Our farewell dinner for these fine missionaries. We will miss them immensely!

This one missed the dinner, but he had a good excuse because he was attending a baptism.  :)

32 New Missionaries!

This wonderful group arrived December 10, 2013