17th week in Japan
12/6/2015
Another crazy week here in Okayama Nishi!

Dear Family and Friends,

First I just want to say that I love you all. Thank you for all of the
support that you have given me this far. I hope that everyone is
having a fun Christmas season thus far. Weakley choro and I have had a
ton of fun sharing the true meaning of Christmas with the people in
Japan. Not too many people know about Jesus Christ, and if they do it
is usually very little. We get to share with others the real reason
that we celebrate Christmas. This last Friday they handed us some
cards that have the webpage for the new Christmas video that the
church put out on gospel library. I would encourage all of you to
watch it also. It is pretty short only 2-3 minutes or so. It is so
cool to tell all these people about the real reason that we have
Christmas.

So last Monday Weakley choro and I went over to another area called
Kurashiki. We went to go check out some of these old Japanese shops
that we heard had a lot of old Japanese souvenir stuff. After walking
around for an hour or so we found alleyways and alleyways just full of
these little shops. It was cool to look around and see all the
traditional Japanese things that they were selling. While walking
around through the shops we found a path that led to one of the
shrines in Kurashiki, so we thought we would check it out. The shrines
here in Japan are really cool. The one that we hiked up to took a
while to get all the way up, but it had a beautiful view at the top.
We had some fun checking that out. I will have to send a few pictures
of what our trip was like.

We also met with the old folks again on Tuesday last week. We played a
fun kickball game with them. They are always so cheery and fun to be
around. That night we went streeting around the Okayama station, and
they flipped all the Christmas lights on for the Christmas season,
which was really cool. We went and talked to a bunch of different
people about Christmas. It is cool to see all the lights getting set
up even in Japan. I wasn't expecting them to really celebrate
Christmas much, but they do set up a lot of stuff for it. Weakley
choro and I bought some Christmas lights for our tree and threw on
some ornaments, so that was fun also. It is fun to be celebrating the
Christmas season even though in Japan it is a little different than in
America.

Last week we met with our investigator that we had planned to be
baptized a little while back. His name is Shu and he is from china. I
love this man! He is the coolest guy ever. He had us over to his house
to eat dinner with him. He made some traditional Chinese food that was
absolutely amazing! He talked to us a lot about his Chinese culture.
They have so many good beliefs that are way cool. One thing that I
thought was really cool is when they eat nobody has their own plate.
They just set out all the trays and everyone eats together from each
of the trays. Their culture is so unique and different from both Japan
and America. We had a good lesson with him, and he told us that he has
been thinking about getting baptized. He said that he wants to get
baptized on December 25th this year! Christmas day! I was so pumped
when I heard that he wanted to get baptized! He told us that he wanted
to take courage and do it this time. We are really preparing him to
get ready for his baptism. With transfers coming up pretty soon, I am
just praying that I will stay in Okayama! I truly do love this place,
and I want to be able to help Shu get baptized.

We had ZTM last Friday and met with our zone at Okayama. It is cool to
hear from the zone leaders and sister training leaders about what they
have to teach us. I really love being able to see all of the members
of the zone to. All of the missionaries are just awesome people! Last
transfer one of the missionaries in our zone returned home, but he
came back to Okayama to visit! It was incredible. He even came to one
of the lessons that Weakley choro and I had the other night. He said
it was his Christmas present this year to come back and visit the
Okayama ward that he served in. He bought us a really good meal at a
diner place that, which was a lot of fun. I really miss all these
older missionaries that have returned home.

My ponderizing scripture for this week was Moroni 8:26. Last week I
asked everyone to join me in being more patient. It has been difficult
to be patient with some investigators and learning the Japanese
language, but over this past week I have truly noticed what a big
difference it makes to be patient. It has helped me to stay focused
and to work harder instead of just getting frustrated. I feel like I
have learned a lot more what it means to be patient. Thank you for
everyone who took the challenge and tried to be more patient
yourselves.

Questions:

1. I am not to sure yet, but I think that president Welch might let us
choose when we can skype for Christmas. Let me know what you think 

would work best, and I will try to find out.

2. We might sing some Christmas songs at the old folks home. That
would sure be a lot of fun. I don't know about what we can do for
service projects yet. 

3. I don't think they have too many different Christmas traditions. They have
put up a lot of lights. Also every Christmas season people will buy
this stuff called mochi as a gift. It is like pounded rice and can be
made with a ton of different things.

4. I don't think it will snow too much in Okayama, or really anywhere
in the mission. I think if it snowed a ton maybe we would just walk
around a little bit instead of biking. We really only use bikes and
walk around.

5. We have a district meeting almost every Friday. We had a Zone
Training Meeting last Friday though. I have seen a few people from the
MTC, but not very many. I hope I get to see all of my MTC district a
few times while I am out here though.

Thank you to everyone for all you do. It has been fun to hear from you
in America. I sure hope that you have a great Christmas season! Don't
forget to remember what the true meaning of Christmas is though. Love
you all,

Hirschi 長老