It was a miracle filled week in
Ibaraki! It is really throwing me for a loop being back in Osaka, especially
since I came back around the exact same time that I arrived in Japan last year.
It is so interesting to take a look at how much I have changed since last year.
It is also very cool to see that I am able to understand what is going on in
the world around me and that I am capable of knowing what is going on in
missionary work, at least a little bit more. :)
It is Christmas Time!! I believe that the count down is
currently at 10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!! Hooray hooray hooray!! :) I love
Christmas! And it is just a different thing to be a missionary for Christmas,
but if anything, I just feel even more excited about the season because of the
miracles that pop up right now and because there is nothing better than
testifying about Christ during Christmas.
This week was full and
Mills Shimai and I had a lot of fun just going out and working and doing lots
of finding :) We found a family that we started teaching that surprised us by
inviting us in for dinner! Mills Shimai had actually met the mother the last
transfer. We ate delicious Japanese food with them and the two adorable
little daughters performed a dance for us and a song, which involved "Be
our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. And also "Hi - Ho" from
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It was one of the most adorable things - and then we literally sprinted home to make it home on time.
Yesterday we had an amazing lesson in relief society about
Christmas! We talked about how we can make sure that we are keeping the
"Christ" in "Christmas" and not turning it into
"X-Mas." In Japanese the word "Christ" is not actually part
of the word "Christmas" (in Japanese Christmas is Kurisumasu and
Christ is Kirisuto and those two words sound nothing a like, so there are quite
a lot of people who just have no idea at all what the purpose of Christmas is
and are very surprised to discover that it is actually a celebration of
Christ's birth...so this relief society lesson was particularly effective for
Japan, but I loved it none the less). It made me think a lot about how
important it is to always keep the spirit of Christmas - the true spirit of
Christmas in our hearts.
Also, this week I had a wonderful Christmas present because
the Ibaraki Church building has a GYM! Which is amazing because it is the only
church building that has a gym in the entire Kobe Mission, I think. But, we do a
sports night every week. This week, I got everyone playing
soccer and I was super happy and I had a giant smile on my face, for about forever, after that wonderful game.
Merry Christmas to everyone from me and Mills Shimai! I am
so grateful for my new companion, she is just the sweetest person and she
is working really hard to learn Japanese. I am very impressed with how good her
Japanese is after only being here for 6 weeks, and that she is still really
positive, even though she usually doesn't really know what the investigators or
I am saying. She is also incredibly patient with me when I get us dreadfully
lost for three hours in the freezing cold :)
Much Love,
Grundvig Shimai!!
And because I haven't told everyone how much I love this
video yet, but it is lighting up the world. I promise that if you give it a chance, it will change you.
And you will never view the world the same way again!
Click below to see the video
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