日 (Wednesday) (January 3, 2011)

Happy 2011!!!!!!!!!!


So we have had a pretty good week here. We have tried to keep ourselves busy but it was a little difficult on new years. This week is called shogatsu in Japan. It is like a 4 day holiday to start the new year. It is pretty awesome we did some fun things but alot of people went out of town. We were invited over to 3 people's houses this week so it has been a really good week. At one person's house all we had was raw fish. They said they looked for meat in the market but found none so we got to eat raw fish. It was mainly Salmon which is always good. There was also this white chewy thing that I'm not sure what it was but it tasted all right. The other fish we had was yellow tail and it wasn't bad either. It was a way good dinner. Another interesting fact about Japan is that when they eat fruit they don't eat the skin. I just thought it was weird they eat raw fish no problem but can't eat the skin of apples or grapes. Just a weird side note if anyone wanted to know

On a Good note my companion and I saw the sun for the first time in a month yesterday. We were so happy we didn't know what to do. Obviously I had to put sunscreen on but it was ok because it has rained, snowed or hailed on every day for the last month and usually it does all three. It had been so long since I had seen the sun that I was going to ask Mom to send me a picture of it because I forgot what it looked like but I had the opportunity to see it so we are all good. We were both very blessed for that miracle we saw yesterday. But of course today when I woke up it was hailing but I am still grateful for that one day we got to see it. Seriously though it was the first day I saw the sun since I came to Komatsu.

Yesterday because the sun was out and it was pday we went to this fair carnival type thing. It was way sweet, it was like a ninja training ground. There were ninja plays and everything. The plays were way cool but a little hard to understand. They also had ninja activities like throwing ninja stars and stuff. I excelled at the ninja stars. I easily would have disabled the target. The dude in charge and I didn't quite see eye to eye though. I threw the stars like a baseball so that I could get maximum speed so that in one hit I could render him defenseless. He said I was only supposed to use the wrist as to be silent and not move alot. I thought that if I disable him on the first hit it doesn't matter how silent I am the guy is done. So in the end I guess we will have to see who becomes the better ninja. It was a way fun experience though.

Recently we have been teaching a lot of less active lessons. We are trying to get referrals from them and also we are trying to get them to come to church. It is like a win win situation but we haven't gotten referrals yet but they are slowly coming back to church...well at least a few of them.Something really amazing happened this week. A family that was baptized a little over a year ago was able to get sealed in the temple. That was a really great experience for them. Unfortunately the closest temple is not anywhere close to within my mission boundaries which means I could not attend, but they were able to be sealed together for time and all eternity and that is such a great blessing that we have a church members. I am thankful for the blessings that we can receive through this church.

Have a great new year and have fun setting goals. Our mission president recently has been talking a lot with everyone about goals. He gave us a quote that said "If you do not master goal setting and achieving it will lead to human incompetence." so set goals and accomplish them.


Love
Elder Nelson