Week 5 in Japan

First off, transfers happened and we only had 1 guy leave the apartment to go to Takao, but the new guy in our apartment is a lot of fun, I am so excited for our district right now. It's a wonderful group of fun guys who know where their focus is. Also our investigators (that's right, we've got multiple now) are progressing wonderfully. Due to respect of privacy I'm not going to mention too much, but they've got wonderful humble hearts, and it's amazing to watch them grow and discover. 

Sakae 長老 and I have been helping each other with the languages, he helps me with Japanese and I help him with English. We've both really grown language wise, which has helped immensely in building an incredibly fun friendship. 

In past emails, I’ve mentioned how we've been reaching out to members more. We've made some amazing friends and enjoyed many faith-building experiences. The members here are so spiritually strong, and have a true love for this Gospel. Along with coming closer to the members, our work has progressed like crazy. 

Also, the ward does a thing called "Fruit Basket" where they have big ole boxes with our names in the church building, and every Sunday members fill those boxes with food. (For the wards back home, I highly suggest this; it seriously goes a long way in helping the missionaries out) 

We got to attend the birthday party of some of the primary kids, which turned out to be like a ward party at one of the members house, it was so much fun. Also this morning, Brother Honda took us to Costco to go shopping and gave us a bunch of vegetables fresh picked from his garden. We have so much delicious and fresh food right now it's insane.    

We've also done some Christmas Caroling at the train stations (which are like giant downtown outdoor malls) with other wards in the stake.  The one we did up in Tama was like a full on concert. They set chairs up at the center of the station and we had speakers and lights set up, and a narrator for in between songs. A bunch of the ward members have near professional music talent so we sounded like a professional choir. Also doing the song "ジングベル" (Jingu Beru) or "Jingle Bells” Sakae 長老 and I skipped and danced around the large crowd of people while, well, jingling bells. Many found a large dancing white guy quite amusing, and after the concert they were very excited about the Christmas Party that the silly white man invited them too.    

I'm madly in love with this place, the people, the culture, the language, and the food. Don't get me wrong, I do miss home every once in a while, but thinking about the day I have to leave already hurts. There’s so much to do, so many people to help and serve. It's such a paradox to think that, "The best way to find who you are is by losing yourself." But there is no greater feeling, then getting lost in the service of your fellow man. Take time to help and serve others, you never know when you'll be an answer to someone's prayer, or the reason they have a smile on their face.      

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I've been having too much fun.  Kind of got lost in the moment this past week.