12/21/10

Hello!

MERRY CHRISTMAS (kinda)! How are you guys? I cant believe its already the week of Christmas, I seriously cant believe how fast its going! I swear it was just barely the start of December. Why is my mission going by so fast? Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Oh and for the calls, YOU need to call ME on December 24th. (that`s 12/24/10...just making sure) I, over here in Osaka, will receive your phone call on December 25th. You need to call me at 11:30 am Japan time. I don`t know exactly what time that will make it over in Utah, but I`m going to assume that it will probably be sometime in the evening. So...yeah. Yoroshiku.

Thanks so much for sending me that shaver and watch! I still haven`t gotten it but thanks so muchx2. Yeah, everything in Japan costs ridiculously a lot over here. I would`ve bought a watch but the cheapest one I found was 80 bucks! And it wasn`t even a good watch either! Granted that I didn`t look around much though...but still. I`ll try to send you guys some Christmas schtuff this week. It won`t make it by Christmas but...oh well. Last week I didn`t even realize it was Christmas week. I got a few Christmas gifts from other people so I`ll try sending them thank you cards...eventually.

So what are you guys doing for Christmas? I swear I`ve asked Dad this question for the past two weeks but he`s avoided answering it. Is Selena and Richard coming over for Christmas party or something? Oh, but you gotta watch a Christmas Story. I mean come on, thats the Saito family Christmas tradition. This is probably the first year that I`ve gone without watching that movie! But its okay, because we`re having a Mission Christmas zone taikai. I heard we get to watch Kung-fu Panda and I`ve even heard rumors that we might be able to watch Toy Story 3 too!

I`m glad Obachan got my letter! I`m actually surprised she was able to read it though. I`m terrible at Kanji. Next one to write is Gunma no Obachan! Her address is super hard to write in Kanji so hopefully it will get there.

Well, anyways, this week has been pretty slow. Its almost Oshogatsu so its almost impossible to get lessons in for the next few weeks. I heard Oshogatsu is THE party time of the year for Japan. (insert techno beat here) All our investigators are super busy until January so its hard to schedule lessons and follow ups...but hey, this is the time of the year to strengthen our relationships with ward members with all the member visits and less actives we shove into our schedules. Okamachi ward is really amazing. I love everyone in here! They`re so nice, they gave us a bunch of Christmas gifts this Sunday. So yeah, dendo will probably be a bit slow for the next week. But, its okay because we have two caroling dendo activities set up this week so I`m super stoked. Oh and we`re singing in a Christmas concert too, which should be awesome!

Oh man, we had a super emergency this past week in the zone though. One of the Elders got bit in the face by a member`s dog. I feel so bad for him! The dogs tooth cut through his nose and through his lip so his nostril was flapping around. The ward members were old, I guess, so he biked to the ER. When he got to the hospital, the doctor only gave him two stitches to hold his nose together. What the heck was that doctor thinking about! That nose needed at the very least 10 stitches to hold it together! Well...he`s okay I think. I guess he`s going to get plastic surgery soon so hopefully it will heal. He`s such a trooper though, he dendo-ed the day after with a mask on. Man, I love that Elder, I hope he heals up quickly without too much scarring. Pray for him!

Well, twas good writing to thou. I`m loving the mission experience and I still haven`t gotten hit by a car yet so no worries about me! I hope you guys are doing awesome and having fun! Merry Christmas famiry. Tell Selena and Richard I love them and hope they feel guilty for not writing me for a month. Tell Pochi and Monty that I love them too! And I hope Rupert has a terrible Christmas. OKBYE.

Love you guys,
Elder Saito