Elder Tolen's Adventures in the Japan, Tokyo South Mission: Week 4: Christmas in Japan

Today we went down to a shrine by the beach for p-day. It was really awesome, but that's why I am e-mailing kind of late this week. sorry about that!

Elder Tolen and Elder Livingston at the shrine on p-day

Merry Christmas! This week was awesome. Christmas in another country was very weird. But I did get to Skype with my family which was amazing.

So I decided that I'll tell you about how Christmas was out in the field. So! First we woke up, and exercised, then had a little Christmas party in the apartment. After that we all got ready and had study. Then we went to a cafe, and had an amazing district lunch. It was delicious. After that, we went and did weekly planning, and had dinner. Then we went caroling! Which, for some reason, is a really, really weird concept in Japan. Like really weird. My favorite reaction so far is an old guy who answers the door and just goes, "What is going on?!" It was awesome. But anyway, we went caroling, and we even got to bring an investigator. He's the other Elders' investigator, but he is an amazing guy. He is going places. I love him to death.

Just to give you a feel for what it's like, most people in Japan won't even come to the door when you knock. They just tell you to go away. Just so you know. But anyways, we are walking, and one of the sisters feels like we should go knock on one of these houses. So we do, and this lady sticks her head out the door and asks what we want. We tell her we want to carol, and she freaks. She tells us to wait while she gets her mom. Her mom comes out with her daughter and her daughter's son, and freaks out too. They say that they are going to go get their friends, and start running around the neighborhood gathering all of these people. In the end we got to carol for like 15 people! It was amazing! For those of you that don't know what Japanese people are like, this is really weird. Christmas miracles are real! One of the old guys comes up to me afterward and says that I look like Leonardo DiCaprio. I still don't see it. But I guess to Japanese people we all look the same.

Elder Tolen (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) rockin' his Christmas pajamas!

This week is New Years! Which is crazy. For Christmas in Japan, the only thing people do is eat cake. They don't give presents, or sings songs, or anything like that. They just get together and eat Christmas Cake, but then they make a huge deal about New Years! It's awesome.

I hope you are all doing well. Feel free to shoot me an email with any questions about Japan; I would love to answer them! Keep being amazing you guys! I love you!

Elder Tolen