Santa's 65? I had no idea...

12/23 水

Today was the Christmas taikai, which was so super fun :D Other than P. shimai and W. shimai, I got to see everyone I was companions with, who were still on the mission:  F. shimai and my three daughters, W.  shimai, G. shimai, and my current companion M. shimai--one of whom  is a mother (trainer) already! I'm a grandma! ;)

We had a really fun talent show and afterwards, we dropped by I-shimai's house for cooking class. Everyone had finished up and left, but I-shimai had saved us food, and so we got a fantastic after-lunch. (We had already eaten tacos at the taikai) We did a practice-lesson, which my dear douryou (companion) said was wonderful and very helpful, so we'll be sure to do it again.

12/24 木

Today we had the privilege of bringing Santa to a bunch of adorable children! We don't normally go to places like day cares, etc., but we had been specially asked by the bishop to do so, as there is a LA there--R-shimai, who we've become really good friends with over the last week or so.

Anyways, Santa (E. chourou) was answering a bunch of questions, most of which he had known of and prepared beforehand, but someone asked "How old are you?"

E. chourou: *without missing a beat* “65.”
All the missionaries in the back: “PFFFT.”

Then the kids performed a bunch of musical numbers, and they were REALLY good.

Afterwards, we introduced M. shimai to indocurry. :D On the way back, we contacted a couple of kokosei and got their contact info, so hopefully that will lead to something. All around, a good day.

Ah, except for one thing. The I-k was going to treat us to dinner, but we thought we were supposed to meet at their house when they wanted to meet at the church. It's a 45 minute ride to their house. We had to leave our bikes because they picked us up by car, and they thought we were at our house, not theirs, so in the end, we were like, an hour late for dinner. It was a lot of fun and made a good story, but certainly wasn't our most shining moment as senkyoushitachi. But all around, a good dinner, a good day.


12/25 金

Merry Christmas everyone! We had District Meeting today, which was super. Afterwards, to make it feel like Christmas, we wore Santa hats and distributed Books of Mormon. We got in a bunch of lessons, and it was soooo fun! The Santa hat was magical. I think it was the perfect touch :D To cap off the adventure, the district gathered and had ramen at a cute little shop right off the eki (station). It was very good.

On the way home, I handed M. shimai a Christmas pass-along card and told her to give it to someone. It was so cute--she sucked up her courage after about five minutes and handed it to the person across from us. AND HE LOOKED UP THE SITE RIGHT THEN. He was so super. He didn't seem to have any further interest, but we gave him a chirashi (flyer) and told him to call the Hirakata elders if he had any questions.

At around dinner time, A-shimai called and took us out for dinner at the same place the I-family took us to. That was kind of funny. I guess it's the place to go. I'm honored to have gone there so many times.

Excited to talk to the family tomorrow!