こんにちは！メリークリスマス！
As you may have noticed, today is not a normal pday. Our pday this week was moved to Thursday, the 26th so we could focus on 伝道 (dendou= missionary work) on the days leading up to Christmas. It will also be different next week because of お正月, as the Japanese take New Year's very seriously. Way more than Christmas. But you'll hear more about that next week.
See pictures below for a copy of the Living Christ! 
Daily Life/Fun Stories:
This past week and a half was crazy! I think the many pictures probably explain it, but here's the main events! (also I ran out of time, oops)
I played the clarinet in a quartet, so we attended the morning session of the monday conference (and accidentally stayed for lunch) and then stayed the full day on Tuesday when it was actually our turn. Included activities were musical numbers, 12 days of Christmas in Tokyo South Mission, white elephant gift exchange, and a nativity movie. Lots of delicious food, and I got to see literally everybody in the mission because I went to both conferences. And because of the way it worked out, both Ikeda and Olson姉妹 came on Tuesday and it was a mini reunion of MTC companion's. Also there were 3 zones at that conference and it was a lot of people...
This was a special event and so much fun! I'm discovering I actually like the city, which I never thought I'd say, but I loved visiting Shibuya and Shinjuku briefly on Christmas Eve!
New Foods:
愛しています!
Spiritual Stuff:
See pictures below for a copy of the Living Christ! On Halloween at a big conference, our mission president announced that our mission had set a goal to bring 226 people to church on December 22nd. We were then told that Tokyo Zone had set a goal of 70 people, which meant our allotment came to 10 people. From that moment on, we worked like crazy telling people about the special Christmas program and inviting them to come and see. When it came time, though, a lot of people who had said they would come ended up just not showing up. As an area, Urayasu had 6 people at church on Sunday the 22nd, which is still good, but not meeting out goal. Then we found out that our zone had only gotten 48 people to church, though one area had not yet sent in stats. Again, way good, but not meeting our goal. That night before going to bed we turned on our wifi one last time, and saw the message in the Tokyo South Mission group chat. As a mission, we had brought 226 people to church. Such a crazy high, random number, and we reached exactly that. We're all insanely happy and excited, and also more confident, both in ourselves as missionaries and in President Esplin as our leader. We love what we do and we love the inspired guidance President Esplin gives us to focus on certain aspects of the work! 
Daily Life/Fun Stories:
This past week and a half was crazy! I think the many pictures probably explain it, but here's the main events! (also I ran out of time, oops)
-made a candy cane taller than me
-had fun walking around in public with said candy cane and talking to lots of people very curious about it
-Christmas conference(s) on (Monday and) Tuesday!
I played the clarinet in a quartet, so we attended the morning session of the monday conference (and accidentally stayed for lunch) and then stayed the full day on Tuesday when it was actually our turn. Included activities were musical numbers, 12 days of Christmas in Tokyo South Mission, white elephant gift exchange, and a nativity movie. Lots of delicious food, and I got to see literally everybody in the mission because I went to both conferences. And because of the way it worked out, both Ikeda and Olson姉妹 came on Tuesday and it was a mini reunion of MTC companion's. Also there were 3 zones at that conference and it was a lot of people...
-Caroling in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Christmas Eve with Tokyo Zone!
This was a special event and so much fun! I'm discovering I actually like the city, which I never thought I'd say, but I loved visiting Shibuya and Shinjuku briefly on Christmas Eve!
-the 9 year old girl we taught was baptized on Christmas morning, 7:30am!
-that 9 year old girl's 26 year old sister invited us over to Christmas lunch at her house (yes she has her own, even though her parents own 2 separate, crazy houses across from each other). So delicious and fun, and there are a bunch of pictures below!
-ate chicken and cake on Christmas, a Japanese tradition
-dressed up in Santa costumes for our English class and Christmas party
-realized that we have more food than we known what to do with. Most of it being granola and chocolate. Our teeth are going to hurt... 
New Foods:
-strawberry mochi
-spicy chicken sandwich, 日本 McDonald's style
-creme brulee
-butter chicken curry
-garlic cheese naan
-doria
-some sort of really fancy cream puff
About the Pictures:
- Love this document!
- A normal day biking around Urayasu
- Christmas Eve McDonald's in Shinjuku!
- We love these puppies
- Also love their cats (here's one)
- Sunsets are still pretty here
- Our Christmas packages and the (wrapped) presents from members under our desk Christmas tree
- Herbal tea made from lemon grass picked by the Grandmas at our weekly weeding service, which they gave to us
- A member gave us heated eye masks (my eyes started sweating)
- We found the baptismal font set up so this happened
- MTC companion reunion at the Christmas conference!!
- Blowtorching our own creme brulee
- Christmas Eve in Shibuya
- Zone caroling on Christmas Eve in Shinjuku
- We had way too much fun with this photo shoot
- Weekly planning in a mall with our candy cane
- Another view!
-スナ一姉妹
No comments:
Post a Comment