20th week in Japan
12/28/2015
Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

How was everyone's Christmas!? Isn't it just the best time of year to
celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ? I hope that it went
well for you all. Christmas here in Fushimi was absolutely awesome!
The actual day of Christmas wasn't too much different than any other
day in the mission, but we did get to eat a Christmas dinner with one
of the families in our ward. Christmas in Japan is quite different
than in America. It definitely isn't as big as in America, but it
still was a ton of fun! My favorite part of Christmas was being able
to Skype home to you guys! I am so grateful that I was given the
opportunity to do that. I know it wasn't that long, but it was
absolutely the best thing ever just to be able to see you! Thank you
so much.

We taught Eikaiwa (English) for my first time in this area on Tuesday
last week. It was a bunch of fun seeing some new faces and getting to
know some new people. We talked to them a lot about America and the
culture there compared to here in Japan. Also the Eikaiwa here in
Fushimi is supposed to be one of the biggest Eikaiwa classes in the
mission. When I went, not too many people showed up, but the total size
is about double as many people as my last area.

This week has been a pretty crazy busy and fun week. On Wednesday we
met with about 1/3 of the missionaries in the mission for a Christmas
talent show. President and Sister Welch showed us the video that they
came up with for 2015. Every year they make a video and let each
missionary put in a couple pictures that they took that year. Then a
lot of the missionaries showed us their talents for the talent show.
The sister training leaders in our area wanted a bunch of people to
join in for their talent, so they had pretty much the whole Kyoto zone
join in. Smith choro and I got to be part of the show too. I will try
to send the short video of what we did in the talent show. It was a
ton of fun talking to all the other missionaries in the zone. So
before the talent show started we heard that they did sports in the
morning! Smith choro and I were so pumped to be able to play some
basketball together just like good old times at the MTC. Then we found
out that they were doing it at a different church this year that did
not have a basketball court, so that was kind of a bummer. We got to
play dodgeball instead though, which was a ton of fun! My companion
and I were pretty sore for the next few days after that haha. Also
after our Christmas party we went to the ward Christmas party, which
was a bunch of fun. We had to ride through a ton of rain to get there,
so by the time we got there we were drenched in water haha. Everyone
was really surprised to see us so wet, but they all helped out and got
us a few towels to dry off. Before the party ended my companion
dressed up as Santa Clause and handed out presents to all of the kids.
He is a funny guy, so it made the party a lot of fun.

On Thursday last week we went to another area that was in our district
to do some of our last Christmas caroling for some more old folks. It
was a ton of fun, and one of the missionaries in my district is from
my zone in the MTC (Hill choro), so it was good to catch up with him on
some things. We took about an hour bus ride over, and I have really
been taught by the sisters in the area how to talk to people on
trains. It has been fun to try to share the gospel even when we are
just on our way to a different area. I am not really used to that much
because my last area we were able to bike almost everywhere. Anyways
our Christmas caroling was a ton of fun. My companion dressed up as
Santa clause again and handed out a bunch of presents to the old
folks. It is fun to see their faces brighten up when we sing them
Christmas hymns.

I was also gifted with the opportunity of speaking in church on Sunday
this week. I couldn't believe that the bishop already wanted me to
speak in church, even though I had only been here for a week or so. I
gave my talk on missionary work, and talked about what President
Welch's vision for the mission is right now. Even though it wasn't as
long as the bishop probably wanted my talk to be, I got a few laughs,
and hopefully I was able to help out a few different people in the
ward. Giving a talk in Japanese is pretty tough, but I know that as I
keep working on my language ability it will gradually get easier. Also
talking to people in the Japanese language has gotten so much easier.
Yes, it is still really hard to understand people, but I feel like it
has gotten a lot easier to talk to them. In the Kyoto area they speak
a different dialect of the language, so sometimes it is different than
it was in Okayama. It is interesting to see the different ways that
people speak in this mission. I do know that the gift of tongues is
real though. I have already felt it have an impact on me while I have
been out here.

My ponderizing scripture for last week was Jacob 4:10. I hope that
everyone had a great Christmas. Even though Christmas is over, let's
continually remember to keep the savior in our thoughts.

Questions:

1. My new companion is a good guy. He is from Preston Idaho. He used
to do ballroom dancing and track in high school. His first name is
Johnny.

2. Yes, for Christmas I got some good bike gloves that will help out. I also tried
to get some earmuffs, but sadly they broke pretty quickly. I guess
they were only like $7 so I should have expected that. Also the ward
gave us a ton of food! It was crazy how much food they gave us. I know
we won't be able to eat it all. Yes thank you so much for the package!
It was awesome! I love the new scriptures and everything. I just loved being able
to skype home to you. That wasn't on our Christmas Day, but it was so
good to see all of you. Thank you so much for making Christmas great!

3. We have a washer, but hardly any apartments in the mission have
dryers. Our apartment does not have a dryer. I have never realized how
useful a dryer is in my life haha. Hanging up clothes every time you
wash something is a lot of work. Plus they don't dry to fast because
it is freezing and sometimes the sun gets covered by all the clouds
haha.

4. There were a lot of people that Iknew who were postmen in my last area, 

but here there are just a lot of different ones.

5. I am pretty sure they don't get out of school for Christmas here. They
do get a break for New Years though.

6. In my last area I didn't see any golf courses, but in this area I have see a few
driving ranges! I know one of my investigators in my last area would go to play 

golf with his buddies every once in a while. He had to leave Okayama to do that though.

7. I think for New Years the ward might have another party. This ward
is completely different from my last ward. They give the missionaries
so much food and have dinner appointments a lot. It is crazy!

Thanks everyone for all that you do. I am so glad that I got to skype
home to you for Christmas! That was a very good experience. I love you
all,

Hirschi 長老