Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: Samurai Shogatsu Surprises!

Samurai Forever!!

Akemashite Omedetou!!!!

First email of 2015! In Japan new years is a very important time. All the shops close and everyone spends time with their family for the week. How nice, except for dendo. No one on the street. No one wants to talk to you. What do?

Good thing our members rock! We had a lunch/dinner appointment at one of their homes everyday. Plus we had Christmas Zone Conference!

Focus, power, strength, this is the way of
the Samurai.

Christmas conference is a bit different from normal zone conference. It felt more like we were a family going to our Grandparent's home. President and Sister Yamashita sat us down to a HUGE feast with foods I haven't even seen in a year. And they gave us socks and new ties for the year. Sister Yamashita, as always, sang "Happy Birthday" to all the birthday people including me and gave us ties for our birthday too. She also sang to those of us who got the Ninja grammar award (me).

Fear me!

We also watched part of the movie "Meet the Mormons" and talked about how we have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of others. President Yamashita also encouraged us to "reset and back up" this new year. We ended with a powerful testimony meeting, that chapel was filled with so much love that day.

This felt so cool!

Then we got to dress in Samurai kimonos at a member's house. That was way fun. We played games, sang hymns, and shared mission stories with the members as we visited them. I learned so much about them and about the culture. It was a great Shogatsu (New Years).

Kneel before me or feel the wrath of my blade.

Then a surprise announcement of our new Mission President. President Yamashita is a member of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy, so he only serves 2 years instead of 3. So our new Mission President coming in June, is President Ishii and his wife. He is actually a member of the stake were I'm serving, so all the members know him. I've only heard good things, including that he speaks English. It will be interesting to see what happens when he gets here. We will miss the Yamashitas a lot tho. We love them like our Japanese parents.