Mission of the Rising Sun: 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!