Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! so in Japanese you just say Meri Kirisumasu!　めれきりすます！

Its been fun to say that to people! We are having a ward christmas party on the 21st and have been inviting the world so I hope tons of people show up! Everybody loves Christmas here. Even though they dont know the meaning, they know its a special day. They also eat cake. Im not really sure how that started. haha

Today we made a bunch of popcorn for pday and watched legacy! It was fun- melissa I died of laughter as always at the faces Jacob makes. So funny. It also is raining right now. no snow yet.

This week as always, was super emotional. We found five new investigators!!!!!!! One was this cutest 12 year old girl who was so excited to learn about god. But she had to cancel her return apointment becuase her parents are never home and she cant meet with strangers. So we are really sad about that but Know she is being watched over and will someday meet missionaries again. We gave her a book of Mormon so at least she has that. Another 2 investigators have meetings set up for this week.

We met with another lady who we randomly (yeah right, obviously nothing is random when you are missionaries.) housed into that is an old investigator. Before we got to her appartment, I had this horrible feeling not to go. But then we prayed and I got a confirmation to go ahead. We found the lady and she wants to join the church- she just has a tithing issue. We are going to work with her with some members because she didnt come to church because she said she couldnt understand my Japanese. I am not gonna lie, I took a really big pride blow on that one. I cried all sacrament meeting. I felt like it was my fault she didnt come.  All of the members were so cute and concerned.  I love the Ube ward! But I know that I did the best I could and that everything is all in the Lords timing. Anyway, this week I have really felt Satans influence directly. It was really kind of a scary week. He has really been working on my confidence and faith. I know that it was his influence that I felt telling me not to house that apartment. I have never felt that kind of influence before. But it honestly just strengthened my testimony to know that if satan is real than heavenly father for sure is and that this Church is true! so thanks Satan- that would be Heavenly father 10000, Satan, 0. He will never win if we ask the Lord for Help. We will always recieve help if we ask. ALWAYS! Because we are children of GOD!  And he loves us. We are GOOD! we have so much good in us.

SOo we taught a lesson to Hayashi san again this week. He prayed! He speaks really good english, so our lessons are half in Japanese and half in English. At the end of the Prayer, he said ITS OVER! really loud. It was so funny! because he is this small little man. he tries to use really big english words like spectacular. But his grammar is a lttle lacking. Its okay though because my Japanese is apparently hideous. Hahaha. We are meeting with him on Wednesday. We are going to invite him to be baptized! and to church- he has a pet dog (thats what he always says. I have a pet. I have a pet.....like every other sentance. Dogs are a mans best friend even in Japan!). so he uses that as an excuse not to do anything...like pray or go to church haha but its okay because he usually just agrees if we ask him twice.

Mori San is coming home from the Hospital this week! The elders in Tokuhyama visited him again. he has read all the way to 2nd nephi in the Book of Mormon! Yayyy MIracles!

We had a fun mogi this week with Yamano shimai and Kyodai. We had some delicious dinner afterword. She went to costco when she went to the temple and so we had GRILLED CHEESE SANDWIchHES! soo good! I made some really good banana bread this week Mom! You would be proud!

We biked 30 miles to visit the Tateishis, a recently reactivated couple. They are our ward missionaries! I love them! It was quite a bike- I know I have nothing on Bob Bleck, but still, I can now sympathize with lance armstrong.

We went to a fun Christmas party at an Eikaiwa students house. Her name is Cathy. I have talked about her a lot. I love her! We literally were fed so much food. SO much food.


But it was a really good week- I was so happy to get some pictures from the Ice skating thing and some really great christmas stories! thank you so much for emailing those!

I have been working on developing the Christlike attribute of Faith this week. I know that when we ask heavenly Father for help developing something, he is going to give us a chance to excercise our faith and to act. Because if we dont act, how do we know we have faith? Elder Holland said that Exacting mountian Moving faith precedes the action and the miracle. I am thankful for the trials of this week that helped me strengthen my faith.

Love to you all!