On Saturday, December 17th, the branch held the annual Christmas devotional/ party at the church. It brought back fond memories as it was the first branch function we attended just a day after we arrived here last year. We first watched the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional which had been interpreted into Japanese. They always show it on the computer screen in English at the same time. I love conference and anything from the church at home, but love it here, as it is SO wonderful to hear things in my own language- especially the music.
After the broadcast, the ping pong table was set up and everyone set out their foods for a potluck dinner.
Remi was recently called to be the leader of the Young Single Adults. Their first activity was to meet that day at 3:00pm and make food for the party. This was Nui's (on the right) first time to come back to church in a long, long time. How could he resist when cute Remi showed up at his door and invited him.
The Young Single Adults made these cute crackers with mashed potato/ avocado Christmas trees on the top. They were quite tasty.
They also made these donuts out of tofu. They were delicious.
Beautiful Christmas cakes
Imi made this scattered sushi and decorated it. Scattered sushi is a very common potluck dish. Someone brings it to nearly every potluck- which are held monthly in the branch. Imi Always makes something delicious.
Sandwiches, noodle dishes, and rice dishes are also attendees at every Potluck.
Our recent convert, Ryohei. He loves to hang with the missionaries and feels like one of them to us.
We were thrilled that Sugiyama came. We are still praying she will find a job that will allow her to come to church on Sunday.
We love Amane kun. He feels like a grandson to us.
This dear couple recently moved into the branch. They are literally a God-send. He has served as an area authority 70. They have already done so much good. There seems to be no reason that they would move to this town- other than God sent them. We are so very grateful.
Our branch president
These two were best friends growing up. It's always fun when Hikaru comes home for a visit.
It was a nice evening of Christmasing and fellowship.
We go to the Tsuruoka city Volunteer Center every Wednesday morning and volunteer for a couple of hours. We work with a lot of wonderful, and it turns out, talented people there. On December 14th, we had a Christmas party. We went at the usual 10 am and worked for an hour, then all went upstairs to a room and had bento boxes for lunch and then entertainment from members of the group. Kadawaki san had asked me sing for the event.
We had learned from the spring party that most of the people bring little treats of some kind for everyone. I made pecan crunch candy (a recipe that was Ken's grandmother's) for everyone.
You can see the assortment of little treats and gifts besides the bento lunches.
We had heard that Kono san did magic tricks. It was so fun to finally see her perform her magic.
Ken acting as magician assistant, and finding the "right" card in the middle of an orange.
This lady is so funny. She told a story with illustrations of a lady that farted really loud and blew people away. We just couldn't believe the subject of the story in reserved, respectful Japan. We still chuckle over it.
Then she sang a traditional Japanese song.
This multi-talented lady played the harmonica and displayed some of her creations (above) made from paper. She is the one that takes fabulous photographs.
I don't have pictures, but then it was my turn to sing. I only had my laptop with ITunes for accompaniment, and it wasn't very loud. I had the Keynotes be my backup singers from a CD we made a few years ago. I sang the solo in a cute, acapella arrangement of "Deck the Hall" and the Keynotes did a great job of backing me up. I also had the accompaniment to "O Holy Night" and sang that. I started pretty weak, but ended strong. The cheers and applause were most gratifying! Then they started chanting in unison as they clapped, "Encore! Encore!" Come on, it wasn't THAT good; but it made me feel good.
Unfortunately, this video has the bad first verse, and doesn't have the much better third verse on it.
We then took some group pictures.
The little gal next to me- Abe san, took us out after the luncheon and presented us with gifts as it was her last time attending. She really likes Elder Hinton and we even taught her a couple of lessons on the Book of Mormon. We hope she will sometime accept the gospel.
Because I don't like to eat before I sing, I took my bento home and had it half-eaten before I remembered to take a picture. Sorry. This meal was much better than the one we had at the spring party- which may have been just a little bit TOO Japanese.
It was a very fun party with people we have come to love here. Our Christmas wish is to share the gospel with one and all!!
We traveled to Sendai on treacherous roads to attend the Christmas Zone Conference on December 16th. It brought back memories as it was the first conference we attended when we first arrived one year ago. I think we took the bus that time because of fear of the icy roads and snow. We decided to brave it this year.
Our mission has had an influx of many new missionaries, including Sister Bean- Jaime Farnsworth's beautiful niece. Jaime is in our ward at home. She is the one next to me.
Part of every zone meeting is language testing. I'll tell you, Elder Hinton holds his own in the competitions.
Sisters from the stake served us a nice lunch.
And the elders and sisters reenacted the nativity.
Here come the shepherds and sheep.
And the wisemen.
One of the sheep forgot to remove his tail when it was over.
It was a nice conference. The missionaries love to get together. Merry Christmas!
