December 27, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I got to skype with the fam!!! It was awesome! I showed them my apartment and they met my cute little Japanese companion! My companion kept telling me that everyone at home is so beautiful! She is right! Anyway, for Christmas we had a BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!! It was the elder's baptism and it was so awesome. We had one hour of church and the baptism was right after. After the baptism we went to a member's home for Christmas dinner and they were so awesome! They took in all of the people who didn't really have anywhere to go and we celebrated together! There were tons of non members there that we got to talk to about the gospel too so it was really great.
 
So as you know my companion is Japanese and doesn't know much English AT ALL. But a cool thing happened the other night. We were at a members home with one of our investigators and the member was telling our investigator the story of Christmas. This was all in English so my companion was just sitting there and sometimes I would translate a little bit for her. I felt so bad for her because I definitely know how that feels and it is not fun. But when we got done with the lesson and were walking to the train she told me that she understood everything that the member was saying! She said it would come into her ears as English but then once it was in her head it was Japanese. Seriously awesome huh?! And I am not kidding when I say she really doesn't know English but this was definitely a blessing from God because the next day she couldn't understand a word of English, same as before.
 
So I told some of this to my family already but oh well, One of my favorite parts about the mission is teaching our English class called Eikaiwa on Wednesdays. We do an hour long class and then 30 minutes of some sort of game that helps them learn or practice English. So past week I taught all of the students the song "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" I thought I was hilarious. We had like full grown, dignified, business men singing that song and do the actions to it getting faster and faster with each time. I loved it so much I was laughing so hard!
 
Funny thing about our apartment: So we have a lot of cockaroaches that come into our apartment. We renamed them George so it doesn't sound as scary. My companion says Georgie cuz I guess that is how it would be said in Japanese but anyway.. So every night when we come in we turn on the lights and then grab our bug spray stuff and generally have to kill 3 or 4 Georges in our kitchen. I have gotten so used to them that sometimes I go into the kitchen to get a drink of water or something and George will be crawling on the wall but I just leave it..... Gotta love being a missionary!!  
 
Anyway, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas time!!!!! People in Japan don't really celebrate Christmas that much. New Years is their big thing. We went around asking people what their favorite thing about Christmas is and they all say cakie (cake) because all Japanese people eat KFC and cake on Christmas. They think Americans eat chicken on Christmas so they go to KFC... I don't know where they got that but they are always so surprised when I tell them that is not really an American thing..
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I love you!!
 
xoxoxoxoxo,
Swainston 姉妹