Ok, so this one is the real Christmas update … MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
So because this is the Christmas update, let's start with Wednesday! Ok, so living outside of your area is really bothersome, and half the time we don't even make it back home until after 9:00pm, so on Tuesday we had some things come up and by the time we got all our planning done it was 9:50 or so and we still hadn't eaten anything yet. As hungry as I was, I've learned my lesson a time or two to not eat just before you go to bed, but apparently Okada 長老 hasn't...... He made some spaghetti Tarako (tarako is fish paste and seaweed, pretty good, but not at 10:00 at night) and didn't even start eating until 10:15 or so. I was beat and just went to sleep, but Okada finished eating first and then went to sleep. I don't know if it was the fish paste at 10:00 the night before or what, but the next morning for Okada was spent mostly in the bathroom. Most of the rest of that day was spent studying, fixing the area book, writing letters, or just trying to find something productive to do while Okada tried to sleep it off. We ended up not being able to go to Eikaiwa that day (Always interesting trying to do an English Conversation class without an English speaker..... ) and had to leave it up to the Sister Missionaries. But hey, I got to learn a whole lot more Japanese medical terminology than I would have otherwise.
Thursday rolls around and Okada still isn't much feeling up to working, at least going out and doing stuff, which I guess was fine because that's our planning day. We spent most of the day planning for the next week, and were able to get finished in time to help with the decorations for the Branch Christmas party on Friday. A bit before that we got to go sing some Carols to one of our investigators which was way cool. She has some problems with depression so whenever we get to see a smile on her face, well, it just makes it all worth it! Okada 長老 ended up going to set up decorations in a flu mask (they really like to wear those here in Japan) which just instilled a ton of confidence in the Members. But we ended up getting most all of the church decorated which was really pretty. We had garland and lights and gold and silver beads and it looked really Christmas-y. A whole ton of the members came out to help, but really only 1 primary kid, so I got to hang out with him and he became my helper for the night.Decorating is a lot easier with someone handing you all the stuff!!
Friday was the Christmas Party. So, Okada 長老 was a bit sick right? And somehow the word got around that it was Noro Virus (that spreads super easy and is really not a fun little virus) so we had to go get a virus check to prove to everybody that he did not in fact have Noro. This proved to be quite a bit more difficult than we had previously thought. The 23rd is the Emperor's birthday so it's a national Holiday in Japan. So naturally all of the hospitals and clinics were closed. We spent a good couple of hours searching for somewhere that could do the checkup. Luckily we heard from our Zone Leaders that the bishop in their ward was a doctor, so we gave him a call to see if there might be some way we could maybe visit the hospital where he works and maybe, if at all possible meet with a gastroenterologist(内科 naika [I like the Japanese word here better!]. When we called, we asked him what kind of medicine he practiced and wouldn't you know it, gastroenterology! We got to talk to him over the phone and got it all cleared up so that we could go to the Christmas Party that night.
The Christmas party was awesome! There were a ton of people there, and probably one of the most exciting things was that about half weren't even members! We got to talk to a bunch of people, sing Christmas songs, have a bunch of delicious food and feel the spirit together as we all read Luke 2 together! Christmas really is a special time of the year where we get to feel the love that just illuminates from Jesus Christ. We feel it through our ties to our family, our relationships with our friends, from activities and events that focus us toward him. There really is no other time like Christmas where it's just so easy to feel the spirit (even here in Japan where Christmas is just a time to spend with your boyfriend or girlfriend... New Years is the main Family holiday here in Japan).
Speaking of New Years.... It should be something special here in Japan, it's really the biggest holiday of the year. The most interesting thing though, is probably going to be trying to get any sort of missionary work done. People come in from all over to spend time with their family, so about half of the people in Hiroshima right now don't actually live in Hiroshima, and the other half that's usually here are all out to visit their own family. It's looking like we'll be lucky if we even have 20 people at Church on Sunday, everyone else is going out of town!
But in the meantime it's been really successful lately here as far as finding people goes. Before this week we haven't been having much success in at least finding anyone to talk to, much less teach, but so far this week we've got a new investigator and 2 strong potential investigators with families. I don't think I've ever taught a family here in Japan, but if I could, man, that would just be amazing. This message really is focused on the Family, and I've seen too many people go inactive here because of family pressure.... If only we can help them all realize the blessings that are waiting in store for the Family, that would just be the best. (And it wouldn't hurt to have at least someone in the young men’s program.....) And on Sunday we had two people kind of randomly show up for church! I don't think I've ever seen that happen before but, man, Yasufuruichi is hitting its stride!
Well, sadly we didn't get to have the White Christmas I had hoped for (none of it actually stuck here but a bit north got it really bad!) but it was all good. Packages from the Family, a sweet shirt, letters from my cousins! Fun stuff for the holidays! But just because Christmas is over that doesn't mean you can stop being thankful for something every day. Here's my list for this week
December 21 Electronic Dictionaries that help translate when your companion doesn't really have to patience to explain it
December 22 Seeing Smiles on peoples' faces
December 23 Christmas Parties and member's friends who come to them!
December 24 Caroling and the Tanaka Special (potatoes, chicken, bell peppers, cheese, mayo, broccoli and a bunch of deliciousness!) (We went caroling with this family all over their neighborhood!)
December 25 CHRISTMAS and international phone calls!!
December 26 College students with free time to talk!
December 27 Basketball with some cool kids!
December 28 District meetings that use Sudoku as an object lesson and a Branch President who randomly shows up at the restaurant all of the missionaries are eating at!
あけましておめでとう
HAPPY NEW YEAR
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
PS: Just so you know, by the time you are finally celebrating New Years, I might be eating my third meal in 2012!
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