Wednesday, January 1, 2014

January 1, 2014

Hey everybody! I hope everyone's Christmas went well, and that everyone's New Year is starting of with fun times! Here's the week for you!

Mon: Today was good! Since the ZL's are coming tomorrow we decided to open our stockings and stuff today, and I really enjoyed mine! So did S Choro, so thanks! Today was pretty regular other than that though... I did take a nap and it was super nice I'll admit!

Tues: Christmas Eve! Today we had the Honbu (mission home) Christmas Party and it was super fun! We played a bunch of games, a white elephant thing, watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, had dinner where I sat next to President Evans, which was kinda cool, and then went Caroling in Odori Park! Then we went home, and went to bed! Haha it was actually a really fun day.

Wed: Christmas! So today we were woken up by our ZL's wearing Santa outfits and yelling Merry Christmas.  A little unexpected, but fun nevertheless. Then we had DTM, went to sushi for lunch, went to a few appointments, went caroling to a member and non-attending member, and went to our Free Family English Program appointment which was super fun! Christmas in Japan isn't that big though... Kids still have school, and it just seems like a regular day... Kinda disappointing...

Thurs: Today had a lot of ups and downs. I felt like I could've been doing better while Finding but nothing I did seemed to be working, so that was a little rough. Soon afterwards I decided to pray to feel better, and then we went to an appointment with one of our investigators. It actually went super well, and I felt like I was able to do a lot, so prayers are really answered! But it was an interesting day...

Fri: Today just flew by. We walked pretty far away to visit an investigator we hadn't visited for a while, taught a lesson and had a small snowball fight with her kids. Then we went to this little planning session at the church to decide how we were going to strengthen the ward and dendo more effectively. Then we went Finding and the time flew by!

Sat: So today we had the Messiah Concert that I was singing in... During rehearsal today, I was kinda wondering how it would turn out. However, the concert went super super well! There was one little glitch in starting one song, but other than that it went perfect! And we had 4 investigators come to it so it was a huge blessing and miracle. We then had to walk for about an hour to get to a train station that actually had a train, and so we didn't get back to the apartment until about 11:10pm... Ya not good, but we got it ok-ed by the AP's cause we didn't really have a choice in the matter. But then we planned, I grabbed some food, cause I was starving after the performance, and then we went to bed.

Sun: Today was pretty basic, but dendo is a little difficult with New Year's coming up. Most people here in Japan have like week-long celebrations and get pretty drunk so dendo is super ineffective, which caused some schedule changes the coming few days... Also I'm starting to get sick so I could use some prayers again... Thanks!

Mon: Today was not P-Day. Today was actually DTM, instead. DTM was on the Book of Mormon and it was really good. We also visited some Non-Attending members and had dinner with a member and his nonmember friend, which was fun!

Tues: New Year's Eve... it didn't really feel like it honestly. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. But anyway, today was our Book of Mormon reading day. Basically we fasted all day and tried to read the entire Book of Mormon. Yes, I did it! The trick is to read quickly, take it all in, and not fall asleep while doing it. Sounds tricky, but it's definitely worth it! I found some really good scriptures that I'm going to use a lot on my mission as well as just a bunch of good ones that I like. Also for new years, Japan has a pretty big tradition to eat Soba on New Years Eve at 12. So we actually got an Action Item this week (thing the ZL's want us to do to become better missionaries, develop better relationships with companions, etc.) on that, so we ate it. It isn't the best Japanese food, but I liked it!

Well that was the week! Again, I'm sick so prayers would be helpful, but I'll probably get better soon! I love you all, and Happy New Years!


Elder Bickel

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