Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Day, we were able to Skype with Mackenzie. It was so much fun to see her in person (via computer) and hear her voice. She is doing amazing and it was a great experience for all of us. I had a lot of fun showing her my little son, her nephew, who was just 2 months old when she left. Now he's 10 months and changed more than anyone else in the family. This was her letter to us later that night.

You have no idea how much I loved talking and even SEEING you all today. It was so great and made me so happy. Though I must admit it sometimes feels like I haven't been separated from you for that long. Which I guess is a good thing or else it might be harder. :D 

So I will just tell you briefly about my week last week and then I will tell you about my Christmas here in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Last week was great. We went to the Temple and then after we had exchanges and I went to a place called Oizumi with a sister named Sister Silva. Oizumi is where A LOT of Brazilians and Peruvians live so any missionaries who speak Spanish or Portuguese serve there for a time. During this transfer it was opened up to Sister Missionaries so there is one who is from Brazil – Sister Silva and a Japanese sister working there. Going there I realized that I could understand some Japanese and could speak it when I first got here because I could understand absolutely nothing while being there but it was still way fun. I learned a little bit of Portuguese and after working with Sister Silva and talking to her I have felt so much better this last week and felt very much myself and that it is ok to be me. I think what made this transfer hard at the beginning is because I was trying to be my companion which I am totally not. And that wore me out and made me tired. But Sister Silva helped me see things differently and so I have been me this last week and have loved every minute of it. I absolutely love exchanges. From everyone I have learned something new and they have helped me tremendously. We have another one this week for which I am excited for. I guess we will see what I learn from that one.

Last Thursday we also had dinner with a General Authority and his wife, Elder and Sister Yamashita. Elder Yamashita is in the Asia North Area Presidency and he and his wife are amazing people. I loved visiting with them and hearing Elder Yamashita's experiences of being an authority. He spoke at the 2011 October General Conference about how missionaries are treasures of the church. He gave us wonderful advice about things and just made us feel warm and welcome. What a great blessing to share a meal with him. It will be one of my favorite memories from my mission probably.

Friday and Saturday night we went to a thing called Illumination in Roppongi. It is similar to the lights at Temple Square mixed with the kind of show they do in Vegas with the fountains except it was with lights. It was so much fun. Friday night we just went the two of us and did some work there. Mostly service such as “May I take your picture?” and that was really fun because we were able to meet great people and make them happy. On Saturday night we went with Sister Maxfield because her husband is out of town a lot and we thought it would be fun for her to go. And it was Sister Kuwahara's birthday so we celebrated a little bit when we had dinner with her first. It was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures and video so when I send this memory card home you have something to look forward to. It may be soon even because this memory card is very close to being full. I am trying to save some room for next week during New Year's. That is the very big Holiday here in Japan. Christmas is celebrated but it is mostly the commercial side and it is mostly for couples. Kind of like another Valentines Day. It was really interesting on the actually day of Christmas because everyone still had work and didn't say Merry Christmas or anything. It was just another day. Kind of sad. These poor people here don't know what they are missing and don't understand the real meaning of Christmas. But that is what I am here for. To help them come to know Christ and that way next year they can have a great Christmas. :D

Anyway speaking of Christmas on Christmas Eve we had a mission Christmas Conference and it was a lot of fun. All of President Budge's family came over to celebrate and they did things with us that they usually do in their family. Like music. Everyone is very musically talented so we had a lot of musical performances by some of the missionaries and by some of the Budge family. We also did white elephant gifts, watched the Budge family's version of Home Alone that they did years ago (very very very entertaining) and we even made a Christmas card for our families. They are still working on it but it is going to be on youtube and probably next week I will e-mail you the link so you can see it. It will be after of course but that is ok. The Christmas party was a lot of fun and it was great spending it with the whole mission. It will be a Christmas Eve to remember. After the conference we went to a Family's home from the English ward – The Raub family. They are so awesome and they absolutely love the missionaries. So it was great spending it with them because they helped make us feel apart of the family. We played games and ate food and had a great time. It reminded me when we had all of those missionaries over years ago when Dad was Bishop. I am sure those missionaries enjoyed spending the Holidays with us and remember those times. I know I will.

Christmas day I woke up and kept up the tradition of saying a prayer next to the Nativity. Me and Sister Kuwahara did it and it was very special doing it while I am a representative of the Lord. This Christmas season I have really come to know the power of the atonement and know that it is an actual physical thing. My relationship with the Savior has been strengthened so much that now I always feel Him beside me and hear Him speaking to me in so many ways. How blessed I am and what a special gift I am receiving from He has given everything to me. I will always remember this Christmas as the one that I have really come to know and trust in my Savior. I of course still have somethings to work on but that is ok. He is always helping me. There are just no words for how I feel. It is a truly wonderful and joyful feeling. Another Family invited us to dinner and we went to the Military Hotel where they had a Christmas buffet that was very fancy. It was delicious food.

I love you Family and I am so grateful for today and the chance I had to talk to you. Please give my love to everyone else and tell them that I wish them a Merry Christmas. It is weird that in just 5 months I will be skyping with you again. I shall look forward to it. And I will try better in the rest of the e-mails to tell you more about the culture and lifestyle that is Japan. It is hard in Shibuya because everything is pretty modern. But I will tell you this – the people's work schedules are crazy!! And it is crazy expensive here. For example movie tickets are about $20 here. And the drivers are crazy horrible drivers. If I die on my mission, especially while serving in Shibuya, it will probably be because of a taxi. Believe it or not it is actually safer and easier to drive on the road with them instead of the sidewalk. And weird enough there are actually more hills in the city then in the country. So I am always getting a wonderful work out every time I leave the apartment. Hopefully after the Holidays are over I will be able to lose more weight. :D Oh and one more tidbit about Japan having to do with the church. A lot of the members in the Church end up going inactive and it is mostly because of the work schedules. They are so tired during the week that they use Sunday's to re corporate and rest so don't end up going to church even though a lot of their testimonies are really strong. It is the saddest thing about Japan. The members are great but there are so many less actives. Like here in Shibuya there are around 600 less actives and people don't know who they are. It is crazy. So missionaries always have something to do. That is it for the info this week. If you want to know anything specific ask me. It will help a lot more.

I love you all soooooooooooooo much and am so proud to be a member of the Sean Dolan Family. I am very blessed and lucky to have everyone one of you in my life. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Kenzie