on the sandwich and a steinway: Week 30

Hello reader,

Happy merry Christmas and new year. Thank you for all the lovely Christmas packages! And it made my day (week / month) being able to Skype you all.

This week's email is brought to you by me and my undoubtedly widening waistline. I would just like to think that is the muscle I used to have just turning into fat but that doesn't really account for all the sugar that I intook / will intake this week. But hey, the holidays are only once a year. And Japanese junk food is a million times tastier than that of America's.

Christmas Eve Eve (or Christmas Adam, as Sister Dunn likes to say), we went over to the bishop's home and caroled to all of his neighbors. One family invited us in and their son was a little concert pianist. Someone made it known that in my former life I played the piano, so I was volunteered to perform right after he played his little Khachaturian Toccata . (gulp ... ) I wanted to crawl in a whole because my Chopin just sounded like a dead fish flopping across the keyboard, but I just reminded myself that I haven't busted out any classical in 7 months so it is very しょうがない (probably one of my favorite Japanese words ... meaning it can't be helped).

Christmas Eve was spent with Ramoちゃん and her lovely family, eating Filipino delicacies and Christmas chicken. (Did you know? Japanese Christmas is the time for eating KFC.)

Christmas Day, we all insisted on getting up early (because it wouldn't be Christmas if all the presents weren't open before 8am), and we all huddled in my futon and ripped open the packaging from the packages our families sent us. Whoever invented fleece-lined tights (and then sent them to me) is the saintliest of saints. Sister Legge and I went housing later in the day and tried our "hi we are Christian volunteers and want to sing you a happy Christmas song," but little did we know we were housing a complex full of grandmas and grandpas who are mostly deaf. But that's okay.

As for dendo, this past week was a bit of a struggle, as most investigators / PIs just tell us "See you next year!" Which I guess next year is coming up pretty soon so I think things should pick up in a bit. As of this week we pretty much have one investigator, who told us she likes cats better than human beings and "will be Buddhist until the day I die" so progress isn't so evident ... but I'm hopeful.

This week: since it's new years, pretty much no one is at home so the members have invited us over to eat pretty much every meal with them. Mmmm! This Tuesday was designated as all-day deep-cleaning (hallelujah! I'm currently sleeping among boxes of cookies and candy, not that that's a problem ... ) and this Wednesday we have been asked to read the Book of Mormon all day. I am very much okay with that and can't wait to just REFRESH.

Okay, to close. In my very imperfect Japanese, some thoughts as of late:

今年は多くの祝福を受けました。その一つは伝道に来る事です。宣教師になる前に証があったと思いましたがやっぱり日本に来たら神様が本当に生きておられると知る事が出来ました。宣教師として分からない時は多いですが神様を認めると彼が必ず助けてくださると知っています。祈りである事に心から感謝しています。神様は私たちの祈りに答えてくださいます。また永遠の家族である事に心から感謝しています。また天国で私たちの愛する家族たしかに会えるとしっています。辛い事があってもこのイェス・キリストの福音である事によっていつも完全な希望があります。

明けましたおめでとうございます！

Love, ウィルデン姉妹