Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu! Happy New Year!
2025 is the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac Calendar. The Snake is the 6th animal in the 12-year cycle. People born in the year of the snake exhibit the characteristics of wisdom, charm, and strong intuition. They usually think thoroughly, prefer to keep things private, and are really good at understanding and caring about others.

Thank you to all who came to Omigaki and temple clean-up day. We appreciate your time and effort to help the temple. The Onaijin is shining and brilliant! Thank you to those who attended the service, General Membership Meeting and potluck. We had LOTS of delicious food, good camaraderie and fun. We are grateful to those who contributed the tasty and varied dishes at the potluck! We also appreciate everyone who sent in their votes for the 2025 Board of Directors.

On Saturday, January 18, SLOBC will hold the annual Crab Feed. This is one of the major fundraisers for us. We need your help as crab cookers and cleaners, servers, food runners, take-out packers, clean-up, and more. We will have about 300 people at the temple and need lots of help. Please let Gary or me know if we can count on you.

SLOBWA is looking for members to help with flow-er arrangements for the Onaijin. This is a very important role and it is rewarding to be serving our temple. We need more people to lighten the load for everyone who is currently participating and not getting any younger. New people will be paired with another member to learn the ropes so you will not be left to learn on your own. There will be lots of support. Having two people sharing the responsibilities help a lot. If you want to participate, please let me know.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

In Gassho,
Sandy Hongo