Hello again!
I know I've been pretty quiet for a while. Here's what's been going on for the last few weeks.
After I came back down to Tokyo, I stayed with a fellow missionary who lives there. A few days later, I moved to my Uncle's house in Tokyo, and stayed with him and his wife for two days. Then, I finally made it to Chiba, where the Ellisons had just moved into their new home there. I unpacked my two suitcases into drawers, which felt wonderful, and helped the Ellisons unpack and organize. I even got to put some flowers outside my window!
The neighborhood the Ellisons live in now is filled with kids. When we went around to the neighbors to introduce ourselves (a very old tradition in Japan), Mary Lou told all of the kids to teach me Japanese. We'll see how well things go with that! I'm looking forward to playing with the kids on our block, and learning some Japanese from them.

A view of Mt. Fuji from the lake

Last Wednesday, Nate, Tom, Mary Lou, and I drove for about four hours to Yamanakako, a town at the foot of Mt. Fuji with a large whale-shaped lake in the center. We went there for our missions Field Council, a meeting of all of the missionaries currently on the field (Japan, for us). Most of the time there was spent in business meetings, but Nate and I got to spend some time with a few missionary kids on the field. We went out on the lake (Yamanaka Lake) in paddle boats and had fun chasing each other around. After a walk partway around the lake, we got ice cream, and I tried the local specialty, sweet potato! It was very good, and definitely tasted like Japanese sweet potato, which is different from American sweet potato. If you'd like to see more pictures from Field Council, click on this link to see my album on Facebook. You don't have to have a Facebook account or even be my friend on Facebook to see them.
After Field Council, Nate and I, along with his dad, David, drove up north to Ishinomaki. This time we are staying at Grace City (run by Grace Mission) located in Ishinomaki, the city we often work in. It's nice to wake up a little later and to have some time to relax before work each morning. The past few days have been both busy and relaxing in many different ways.

The Short Family and I

When we arrived at Grace City, we came into the main house first to see where our rooms were going to be. I heard someone say, "Chloe?" as if they were amazed to see me, and I saw Randy Short! He and his family attended our church when I was a little girl. His oldest daughter, Cana, is the same age as me, so we played together a lot and share several childhood memories. It turns out that they were only up north for a few days, but had been volunteering here. They also live about 5 minutes away from where I just moved to in Chiba. I'm planning to visit them sometime when I get back to Chiba. I love crazy little connections like that!
On Saturday night, the same night we arrived, we went to the temporary housing units with Pastor Miho Hirata of Kokobunji Church in Tokyo. She is moving to Ishinomaki to start a Children's ministry called SOLA, sponsored by Kokobunji Church, especially directed towards kids who are living in temporary housing and/or were directly involved with the tsunami. At the temporary housing, we helped with a Chidren's study group where kids go after school for help on homework. Nate and I taught them parts of the body with the song, 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,' and then we helped the individual kids with their English homework. At one point, we tried to explain what cotton candy was to one of the girls who had gotten that flavor in a dum dum (little lollipops). That was a very fun and rewarding experience, not one I will soon forget.
On Sunday, Nate, his dad, and I went to the House of Prayer in Ishinomaki for church. The lay leader of this church is called Abe-san, and there is a pastor who comes sometimes to preach and give Abe-san direction. Since it was Palm Sunday, we had communion after the service. I thought they did it in a very cool way - We did the breaking of the bread and ate it, and then we ate the wonderful meal the church ladies had prepared for us. After we finished eating, we did the "cup" part of communion. They said that in the Bible, it says that Jesus broke the bread and ate it, they all had supper, and then they partook of the cup, and they wanted to recreate that scene a little bit for us. After we were all done, we left church and went on a drive to Minamisanriku, one of the hardest-hit areas on the coast. The weather was really strange, but we were still able to see much of the damage there. There is nothing left there. Some frames of buildings, but only the steel frames. It is heartbreaking to see. You can see some of my pictures from our drive there by clicking on this link. 
Today (Monday), we worked with a Converge team from Canada. It was their last day working, so we finished up in the house they were in, said some tearful goodbyes to the homeowner (I'll write more about her once I know more about her), and took off for a late lunch of Yakuniku (All you can eat meat barbecue). This restaurant was really cool: you pay one flat rate per person and all the meat is in a buffet-style. You get as much meat as you want, bring it to your table, and cook it right there. They also had sushi, cotton candy, ice cream, and dango, among others. After we finished eating, we all piled into two vans and took off for an onsen! This was a real hot spring in Ishinomaki, and was super nice. There were a bunch of different baths, including some with jets. There was also a really nice outside area, which I thought would be super cold, since it was kind of a cold day, but was actually just right. The cool temperature felt nice, and the hot bath was perfect. Usually I'm not a huge fan of public baths, but this one was really nice, and I'm even beginning to feel like it's not as bad as I always think it is. I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside of this place, just to show you all.
The rest of this week will be filled with working in different areas, but for now I'm going to sign off and go to bed. Thank you for your prayers and love for me as I continue to serve the Lord in the disaster zone.
More to come soon!

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe