Merry Christmas everyone!!!! <3

I hope your week is AMAZING and full of thoughts of the Savior and His birth, life, death, resurrection and atonement for us! It's way easy to remember the meaning of Christmas when you're on a mission and I think that's been why this whole month (and the past however many months I've been on a mission) has been so full of joy. 

This week has been SOO FUN but before I get into that, I will let you know the skype details (:

I will be able to skype you on your Christmas night which will be my day-after-Christmas afternoon. We worked it out so that we should be able to skype on my Friday at 12 noon which should be somewhere around your 8 pm on Christmas night but I can't remember the time difference. Let me know if that is too late! I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuper excited to talk to you!! It can only be for 40 minutes though, so choose carefully what you'll want to say. (; 

I don't have a ton of time, but this week was incredibly busy because we went on 2 splits and also traveled to my zone when I was in Toyooka (in a town called Fukuchiyama) to do some training during zone training meeting. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! 

Also it's snowing pretty good up there and I just wanted to hug all of the sisters forever and let them know how proud I am of them for working so diligently despite not being able to bike because of the ice and thick snow and for housing for hours in the cold during the week. I just wanted to talk with them forever about doing missionary work in the dead cold and wind and endless snow and help them know the trick to bring blood back to your toes and feet and also that they aren't alone because I know at least a little bit about how they feel, and lighten their load by just talking to them about it for awhile. 

And i think that's how Christ feels. He knows exactly how hard our trials are because He felt the exact same trial and pain that each of us goes through. He knows what to do to overcome those challenges because He overcame all of them. And I imagine it would be really difficult for Him to see us go through those challenges because sometimes we don't rely on the thing that could help us the most-- Him. But even those who do rely on Him feel pain and hurt and gain the experience they need as they face trails. And I can see Him wanting so badly to take those pains away from us immediately because He loves us and doesn't want us to suffer. I can't imagine how Heavenly Father felt as He experienced something similar when His Only Begotten Son was crucified-- even though He could've saved Him so easily. They have the power to take those challenges away. But fortunately They're wise and see our potential, and know what will become of these trails we do face. They know that the battle over your natural man to force yourself outside each day in the cold will build qualities you'll need in the future. But they don't leave us alone to fight our battles. And that is why the Gift of the Holy Ghost is so important. Because we can have God's help and guidance ALWAYS as long as we are keeping our part of our baptismal promise and keeping God's commandments. I think it gives Them hope that we can have this gift. It brought me hope to know that my sisters up in the north can walk with Jesus Christ each day as they are worthy of this gift and that He will help them carry their loads and strengthen them every day. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are amazing.

We had an awesome activity with the youth in the Kobe ward as well-- a ''missionary day'' where we studied with them and talked about missionary work and a bunch of awesome stuff. I loved spending so much time with the youth because they are AMAZINGGG.

I don't have time to talk about much else, but I hope you have an awesome Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk to you soon! <3

Daniels shimai