A Year Without A Santa Clause......At The Ward Christmas Party!!

So much has happened this past week so I decided to write paragraphs to help me remember.

Branch Christmas Party:  We were shoveling snow the morning of and a random lady walked by us.  She said, `Sumimasen` which means excuse me so as I was shoveling near the road, I assumed she was trying to get by me but it turns out, this usage of excuse me was to try to talk to me.  She asked about English class and I mustered out the fact that it was Tuesday nights at 7.  Then more Japanese came flying and I was confused.  Luckily, Elder Vaughn came over at that time and invited her to the Christmas Party that night.  She was the only person who came from the many people we had invited over the past two weeks but she seems pretty solid, even if she and her five year old daughter are only interested in Eikaiwa right now.  The Party itself was quite amazing.  First was a special musical number of `O Holy Night` by Elder Vaughn on the trumpet and Elder Mueller on the piano.  Then a game, and another unplanned game so that the Reilef Society could run and grab the decorations for the cookies which no one remembered to buy and then a play by us and the youth.  It was basically a live action version of the short on the Toy Story 3 DVD were Barbie and Ken want to go to Hawaii for Christmas but they forget the plan tickets.  So, we faked a Hawaii and I, along with Elder Williams and some sisters in the branch, hula danced!  Then the Christmas story was told and it ended with `Oh Happy Day` from Sister Act.  I don`t know how it was all connected but it was pretty entertaining nonetheless.  We couldn`t get Santa to come to the party this year because we did it too late in the month for Santa to come because he was so busy.

Christmas Eve and CHRISTMAS!!!: On Christmas Eve we had dinner at the Branch President`s house and got a cool recreation of some of the pictures in the Book of Mormon (picture shown below with my Christmas Eve PJ`s).  Then, on Christmas morning, we cooked a good breakfast with bacon like stuff and eggs and hashbrowns.  Vaughn Skyped his family and later we ate with a less active who gave us a legit Christmas cake that Japanese people eat on Christmas which was pretty good.

Christmas Breakfast

Boxing Day:  To celebrate my Boxing Day and for my family to experience me in Japan on Christmas, I called the family in up in Canada Boxing Day morning.  It was really fun to Skype with everyone and see how they were doing.  I even got to talk to Shelby in New York, even though it was only for a few minutes.  I included a picture of the Canadian side of the family.

Skype Selfie with Family in Canada

Kocan: On Saturday, I went on companion exchanges with Elder Williams and I dropped my helmet on accident in the gutter while I was walking over the ice with my bike.  It stopped itself and I was able to get it out of the gutter before it was lost forever.  Another Christmas Miracle!

Helmet in Gutter

Yamashita Kaicho:  President Yamashita came to Takayama this past Sunday to see his granddaughter be blessed in our branch.  It was pretty cool to listen to him talk in our Branch and his family nearly doubled the size of the branch.

So this past week was great.  We experienced a great Christmas Day miracle as well!  We were biking down the street and we stopped a bunch of high school kids to wish them Merry Christmas.  One of the them started speaking in nearly fluent English and we talked to him for a while.  He has some interest and wants to do our English for 30 minutes and the gospel for 30 minutes program and he loved talking with us.  It was great to see a person with interest on Christmas that has real potential!

Thank you all for you e-mails, packages, gifts, letters, and prayers this past Christmas!  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week, an amazing New Year, and keeps the Spirit of Christ with them throughout the whole year.  I am sorry to say I won`t be able to e-mail for the rest of the year but I guess you understand.  I love you all and keep the Christmas Spirit alive!

Christmas Eve Gift

Christmas Gifts

Picture with Santa after he shaved!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JAPAN!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JAPAN!!!  Whether you are actually reading it on Christmas or another day it really doesn`t matter since I will never know.  This week is Christmas and will be the very first one I have spent in Japan!  I have spent half or so of my Chirstmases in Canada so it is not really my first foreign Christmas but it is my first Christmas in a place that is mainly Buddhist.  This past week before I get carried away was filled with snow and, well, snow shoveling.  I included pictures of me and Elder Vaughn on top of the church roof dumping snow and the pile that Elder Williams is standing on.  It was really fun jumping off of the roof into the snow pile.  I just slid down it and took an awesome video of me jumping off the roof.  It was too big to send so sorry about that...

Elder Vaughn says that Christmas here in Japan is a lot like Valentine`s Day in America, it is pretty much an excuse to party and stay up late with members of the opposite gender as well as an excuse to eat a bunch of candy.  Kids here actually still have school on Christmas so that is a huge bummer.  It is amazing though how this Christmas Season I can still feel the Christmas Spirit even though I am in a country full of Buddhists who don`t really understand the true meaning of Christmas.  I think I understand finally what the Grinch realized after he stole all of those presents that fateful Christmas morning.  It isn`t about presents or getting school off or huge football games or even Santa Claus, Christmas is really all about Christ.  It is more of a feeling instead of a set of traditions or a special day.  I never understood why people would say `Have the Christmas Spirit with you all year.`  Santa doesn`t come everyday of the year, I don`t eat Grandma`s delicious ham rolls every day, I don`t spend time with my extended family everyday.  But Christmas is more than that; it is a Spirit of gratitude and appreciation for what Christ did for us.  It is the Spirit of change and of improvement, to be better.  Christ came into the world as a newborn babe so that he could grow and learn like we do and eventually give his life to atone for the sins of all of us.  While a lot of the times, we are thinking throughout the Christmas season `What am I going to get for Christmas` or even `What am I going to give so and so for Christmas` but the most important gift has already been given to us by Christ.  He is the Gift that Our Loving Father in Heaven gave to us because he loves us and wants us to return to Him.  So maybe instead of dwelling on the physical as I have around Christmas time, we should focus on the Spiritual.  God has given us Christ; now, what shall we give him?  We will never repay him for His gift to us but we can show our gratitude by improving and choosing something to give to Him.  Maybe it might be being more charitable to those around you.  Maybe the gift might be to share the gospel with those around you.  Maybe the gift could be reading the scriptures more diligently.  Whatever it is, Christmas time should be a time of improvement and giving back to God so that we can live with Him again.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in Japan this Christmas Season to tell others of the gift of Christ that God has given us.  I am grateful to be able to improve myself everyday and become more converted to Christ by sharing His gospel.  While I will miss seeing all of those I love this Christmas, I will be serving among others that God loves and those who He wants to use the gift of Christ`s atonement to help them in their lives.  One gift we gave as a mission to Christ was memorizing the Living Christ in English, given by the 12 Apostles in 2000.  I`d like this to be my Christmas present to you: `We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary.`  I know that Christ lives and that even before that very first Christmas, he loved us and decided to give his life to make us happy.  May we all remember Christ, not this Christmas or next Christmas but also throughout all of our lives.  I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy this wonderful Christmas Season, wherever you may be.

                            Elder Vaughn and Elder Hall shoveling snow off the roof of the church.

                                                       Pile of snow after all of our efforts!!

Ringwood...not Ringworm

So this past week, we went to a mission tour which was basically us meeting with the zone in Kanazawa with President Yamashita and Elder Ringwood who is a member of the seventy that is now the Asia Area North President.  It was a really good meeting.  Elder Ringwood taught us that `Our challenge is not the message, but is with the messenger.`

It really made me think, `Yeah, our message is perfect but not all the times does it come out perfect.`  The thing that makes missionary work hard isn`t the message or what we our saying but is with the person giving it.  First off, the language can be hard and if we don`t try to learn the language diligentily, we won`t be blessed with knowing it.  Second, if we are obedient, we can`t deliver the perfect message in a way in which the Spirit will be present.  He gave us an analogy of how Obedience is the electrical system in a car and that the engine is the Spirit.  Our obedience is what starts the Spiritual Engine or is what invites the Spirit into our work but once our obedience is on, the Spirit is the driving force and does the work.  All we have to do is to be obedient and try our best which isn`t always the easiest, especially when outside it is below freezing because of Satan`s icy temptations and we think we can`t get the Spiritual engine to start.

He also taught us how we can`t take the ups and downs out of life but we can learn from those lows to improve.  God put these in our life to help us grow so we should use them to our advantage.  If you face the problem now that you are facing in a year, the second time around you should be a lot more prepared for it.

He also told us to tell our family (and friends) that the brethen (the General Authorities) are grateful for your sacrifice in getting us missionaries out here and sustaining us while we are gone.  I am sure some of you are glad to have shipped me off for the two years but he wanted us to show gratitude for all the help you have given us.

And I`d like to thank you all myself for all the help and support you have given me.  If you are on my e-mail list, you for sure have touched me and helped me grow positively before, if not once, but multiple times.  So thank you for all the help, the e-mails, the letters, and the prayers and while most of you can`t give me a wrapped present or something like that for Christmas, you have given me your prayers, support, and thoughts which, to me, is much more valuable to me than anything that money could buy for a man with friends, truly is the richest of them all.

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas season and this opportunity to remember Christ in your daily life. 

 I love you all and have a great week!

Snow outside of the apartment... and a side note, I have only fallen off of my bike to land softly on the white, driven snow twice so far so I am staying pretty safe still.

Let It Sn....NO!!

This past week, well, the inevitable happened, it snowed.  Now, I would usually be excited by this but, well, I have to ride my bike in it.  Actually, on Sunday, we ditched the bikes for fear of sliding (which I did once later that day anyways) and woke up like usual but instead of personal study in the morning, we shoveled in front of the church.  Luckily the church is small so it didn`t take too long.  On Saturday since we couldn`t bike, we just went old fashion housing and invited people to our upcoming Christmas party.  It was really effective because usually it is like, `We are missionaries, gospel, gospel, gospel` which sometimes causes people to be uninterested since we are just `those Christians` but when we ask them the true meaning of Christmas, it still brings up Christ and we get to talk with people that wouldn`t have talked with us otherwise.  I am surprised that about 70 percent of the people we asked what the true meaning of Christmas was didn`t know but we explained it to them.  They always talk about Christmas cake which is a tradition in Japan were they eat cake on Christmas.

This week was pretty good except for the snow and a bunch of canceled appointments but, this week we have a Mission Tour and Elder Ringwood of the Seventy is going to come to Kanazawa Thursday.  I also found out today that we are having a Mission Conference in February and that Elder Ballard will be coming to speak to us.  He came and spoke to us in the MTC so Round 2 should be fun.  And this time I will get to shake his hand probably too.  And maybe even get a picture!

Speaking of pictures my camera is dead with no charger so I will get pictures to you all on a later date.

I also heard a word I hadn`t heard in seven months yesterday.  We were coming out of 7/11 and we started talking to two 20 something year olds smoking outside.  We talked about English and they were asking us questions.  `One was what is Holy fact?`  Fact, fact, hmm... oooohhh... Yeah don`t say that.  He said he heard it on Call of Duty or `Shi O D` because c is shi in Japanese.  So whoever is playing C.O.D. at 2 a.m. in the morning, watch the language because you never know what Japanese person will pick up on it.  We taught him how to say, `Don`t say that` so hopefully he will teach those people a lesson.

I hope everyone has a great week and keeps dendoing in your respective places.  I heard He is the Gift is something cool to use to do missionary work this Christmas but I haven`t used it, I don`t think they have it in Japanese.  

Have a good week and stay thirsty my frie... I mean, stay warm everyone.  

Love you!