I didn't really understand a lot of the talks about your missionary life before the mission because I couldn't imagine the real life of a missionary until now. It's so different from what I thought! I have been humbled and lifted up to a much more God like way of thinking. There are too many changes to even believe! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be out here. All of the stories you told me before the mission have really stuck in my head though. I think about your's and dad's stories all the time now. Thank you for being such a wonderful example to me and going out on a mission when you were younger. I'm glad to say that my parents were both missionaries for the Lord :) It's fun.
It's really weird thinking that it will eventually come to an end though, the lifestyle I'm living right now. I guess I'll just keep taking the days one by one and doing my best every day! Sore shika nai! (That's all I can do!).
You got the letter from Sister Oda! yay! She is such an amazing help to the missionaries. She's great. After she sent the letter she asked me to correct the mistakes in it for her so I got to see it too :) The ward I'm in right now is fantastic. I've been here for longer than most missionaries are in any area and I'm so blessed to be here!
We've been meeting in a far away church building while ours is under renovation, but we got news yesterday that we will be able to go back to it this next sunday! Yay!!! And I've been asked to sing with some other missionaries at a baptismal service and during sacrament meeting! I'm really excited :) And it's Christmas Music! I love Christmas Music!!! I would pick Christmas hymns all year round if I had the choice :P
I guess the new building has heated floors as well! I'm so excited =D No more cold feet!
I'm glad the Christmas Party went well! We had ours 2 days ago and it was fantastic! I've never seen such a great party before in Japan. So many people came! And there was a high school band that played for us and they were sooooo good. It truly was amazing. The church is getting so much stronger in Japan thanks to all the great leaders and members and especially the returning missionaries with fire. I'm excited to see the growth of Japan 30 years down the road when all of my companion's kids start going on missions. It'll be like double the number of Japanese people! =D The Church in Japan has a bright future ahead of it.
The Day after the Christmas Party we had the Primary Christmas Program and I never ceased to be amazed at a few things:
1-How adorable little Japanese kids are.
2-How loud 4-8 year olds can sing.
3-How amazingly patient and loving the teachers are.
and 4-How the Spirit fills the room when children sing (even when they're not on pitch :P).
We're still going to practice every sunday for the Handel's Messiah Concert coming up on the 28th of December.
Oh! We had a cool story this week!
So we had a blizzard on friday and we had planned to go visit an investigator we hadn't seen in a long time later in the night to invite him to the Christmas party...but there was a blizzard! So we started hiking up this huge hill that he lives on (it takes like 30 minutes to hike up to and we had never been there before) and the storm was pretty bad. So we prayed to see if we should go up, and we felt like we should. So we hike up the 30 minutes and start searching for his address at the very tip top of the hill...and the block he lives on doesn't exist...We were pretty komatta (in trouble). But we felt like we should go up there so we prayed again and asked that we would be able to find the house somehow. After we got done praying there was a high school girl just standing in the road behind us looking at us so we went up and asked her if she happend to know where our friend's house was...and she did! Then she walked us about 5 minutes back down the hill and showed us to his house. Also Earlier that day I felt like I should buy 2 pieces of delicious bread at the bread shop. I ate one earlier in the day and I was able to give one to her after she helped us. It was such a blessing! We told her she was an answer to our prayer as well and she just smiled and walked back up the hill to go home. After that we didn't get to meet the investigator but we met his mom and another person from Tailand doing a home stay in Japan and had great talks with them =) It was fun.
So, God really answers prayers and knows our needs from the beginning. If we will just ask in faith I know that God will lead us where we need to be :)
The last really interesting thing is just that on transfer day last week all of the missionaries gathered together and did a big music practice (106 missionaries were there!). That was fun :)
And we went to the Chocolate Factory in Miyanosawa/Kotoni last P-day and it was like Willy Wonka's chocolate Factory! Way fun :)
Alright...that's about all for this week! I'll talk to you next week! For real! Yay!!!
Love you!
Bye Bye!!!
Elder Very Tall Sotto =D
P.S. No matter how long you're in Japan, you still hit your head occassionally. I'm getting better at dogding the door phrames that pop out of nowhere though :P
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