Merry Christmas from the happiest place on earth! It has been the happiest best day ever. We haven't done anything big or extravagant. It's been chill. The best part was skyping you guys. I'm sorry. I feel like I talked so much. I really wanted to hear from you. I'm sorry! I just had so much to say. It really made my day, seeing you. I've been beaming all day. It puts all the rest of the day to shame, talking with you. I love you SO MUCH. Anyway, it's been a great day. We made a Christmas lunch with stuff from base. We had KFC chicken (so Japanese), stuffing, potatoes, gravy, veggies, sparkling cider, and bread. We bought none of it. It was all gifted by Americans up at base or Nihonjin in our ward. It was so nice. We even had a table cloth (futon sheet). Then we talked about our families and showed pictures (thanks for the pictures momma). I bragged about you guys. We opened presents (thanks for the LIGHTSABER CHOPSTICKS?!?!? And dried mangos) and chilled in pants. It's been great.
This week was a weird week. We didn't have tons of dendo [missionary] time because L shimai is an STL [Sister Training Leader] and we had to plan for all sorts of trainings. It was still a good week full of miracles. I don't remember what day I left off on so I'll start with Saturday. It was a good day.
Saturday: we morning dendoed. It was nice not to study for 4 hours in the morning when I'm normally super sleepy. We went straight out. We meet tons of people. Lots of young moms with cute babies. In the evening we went up to Okinawa city and listened to Handle's Messiah. It was glorious. It made me feel like I was at home, singing in the car on the way home from church. Gah, it was phenomenal. Music is SO powerful. It's such an easy way to feel God's love. Christmas is a lovely time of year.
Sunday: we senkyoshi sang in sacrament meeting. We found out an hour before. I just remember it was a really crazy day. Not much else.
Monday/Tuesday: L shimai went up to cold Fukuoka for STL Training. I went on splits with the girls in my apartment: K and C shimai. We're all relatively new missionaries. Transfer 2,3,4. Fortunate one is Nihonjin so at least she understood everything. It was a blast. I spoke more Japanese than ever because we'd get to these awkward pauses and no one would know what to say. So I'd blurt something out and then expect them to build off it. We had a huge miracle on Tuesday. We going housing. The first house we knocked on, we met Carlos from New York. Which meant he spoke English. At first, he wasn't interested in talking about religion. He just wanted to know why a bunch of young Americans were wandering Japan. Legitimate question. We talked about our purpose and asked if we could share a Christmas video. He agreed. We asked it we could start with a prayer. He agreed rather hesitantly. After the prayer, his whole demeanor towards us had changed. He was willing to listen. During the prayer, I felt like we should share Because of Him [the Easter video] and not the new Christmas video. It seemed random and sort of awkward because we said we were sharing a Christmas video. But I started playing it anyway. After we asked what he thought. He was silent for a long time before asking "can we really live again?" It was beautiful. We talked about God's plan for him and how He loved him so much. We talked about how he could live in peace now and forever by following Jesus Christ. We testified (in a language I have no difficulty with). He said he might try church and the other sisters have a return appointment with him. It was a lovely experience. I felt like a real missionary, testifying and teaching. I loved it.
Wednesday: we planned for training meetings all day. We had a lesson on between 2 of the planning lessons with this woman named R. She has an interesting story that I don't feel like typing now. Sorry. Anyway, she spoke hard core okinawain. Which means no one really knows what happened. All I know is she cried during the opening prayer, during the He is the Gift video, and maybe has a baptism date (I'm not so sure about the last one)? It was a way cool lesson with her. Even though I understood less than normal (I can sometimes get the gist of things in lessons).
Thursday: we got picked up by the fufu's (elderly couple) first thing in the morning to go up to Okinawa for a meeting L shimai helped teach. It was an amazing meeting. Recently,I have been feeling like I'm falling short at the whole missionary thing. Like I can't really teach and my testifying is ehhh. But the whole conference was about how awesome we are doing and how it's the little things that matter. It was like all for me. It was great. God knew what I needed to hear. After the meeting we went to America. Like for real. We went on base with the fufu. It was way weird. Like actually being in America. It was great. Then in the evening we went to a huge train station and caroled as a district. It was raining but way fun. We handed out
fliers for the Christmas video to everyone who walked past.
The best part though, was on Christmas Eve. At the very end of the night, we read Luke 2 together as an apartment. And even though every 4th verse was in Japanese, I felt the spirit so strong. Christ is the true meaning of Christmas. And I know He lives. And that He loves each of that. I'm so excited to continue sharing His love with the people here in Okinawa and the rest of Japan for the next while. In any
little way I can. Even if it's just a smile. I love you guys so much!!!! Enjoy Christmas. And take a second to remember it's true meaning.
Love love love love love love love love
Bearman shimai
Sent from my iPad
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