Christmas in Japan.

No worries! I wasn't stressed because there was no way I was going to let the stupid connection take away my family time! I just didn't know how to get it back is all. (referring to our phone call Friday night)

Christmas was so so fun! We went caroling all day long! I made stockings for the other elders and put them by their beds at night and they were happy when they woke up. I called home and then we walked around the streets and stood in parks and asked if we could sing to people and when they said yes they loved it so much! One guy and his 2 year old son let us sing on the streets and the son's eyes lit up and he was trying to dance and sing along. The dad was touched I think. He started taking a video of the kid and us. Then we talked to an older lady who actually called out to us and she and her dog "Boo-Boo" were all decked out in Christmas gear and when we asked if we could sing for her she said "Oh yes, please do!" So we sang for her Silent Night. I thought she was going to cry. She said it was the best Christmas she has ever had! That made my day. Then at 4:00 we met some members from the ward and we went caroling some more! We visited a ton of less active members and some widows and some people who lost their son and then at the end there was a surprise curry rice, meat loaf, salad and fruit dinner and it was SO GOOD. I made the lady a tiny tiny paper crane out of a little square of the chopsticks holder. She liked that. This week we went to all of the district meetings in the zone so that was fun! I met some sweet people on the trains like always! But it was fun going to Yamate and Yokosuka. We took 2 days to go to the Yamate where there is a famous church. (It’s the 1st LDS church in Japan)They had a huge open house and over 900 people came within 2 days! The first day I did the uketsuke ( I ran the welcome desk) and passed out little pamphlets about basic info of the church and Christmas and book of Mormons and stuff). Then the second day we weren’t supposed to go but they called us and asked us to come because there was so much people! We went the second day and passed out flyers and easily passed out like 600 flyers in about two hours. It was insane. It was way fun and a couple of people said that they would like to learn about the Christ and his church! I loved the Christmas year and just trying to share the true meaning of Christmas to everybody around. It was so amazing. 

I am so grateful for you all and for choosing this church and for raising me in it. It has blessed my life with security from the changing world around us. I know it is the Church of Christ in these latter- days. I know that Christ lives. I have felt the power of his atonement and I know that it changes lives. He literally lifts the burdens from our backs. With Christ, there are no ends, we always have second, third and how ever many chances. That's why we celebrate. That's why we're here, to learn about him, to discover truth and choose to follow it and to come to know that it is true. I love you all so much! Elder Draper ドレーパー長老