Christmas in Japan :/ ?

Hello Mom, and Everybody! Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!! I feel like I can say it now because it is December, my favorite month of the year!!! I cant wait to watch the Christmas Devotional, we get to see it next week because I am living in the land where to sun starts shining when yours hasn't gone down yet! Feels weird that it is my birthday again. I still remember when you surprised me with Jordan and Kirby and them last year. That was just the greatest ever! Now I am just getting old...I never thought about not being a teenager anymore!! I dont care if I dont get much Mom, when have I ever cared! I am just glad to be able to have Christmas with my...oh wait, I wont be with my family!!! ;o) I am just kidding, it will be a great Christmas. That is crazy about the tree falling!! I dont even want to know which ornaments broke, that is just too crazy! I have never heard about an oragami nativity scenes, but I am going to one last place today to finish the Christmas shopping so I will give it one last search! Stinks that you havent talked to Marissa in so long...I bet I havent in longer!! haha :o) I have no idea for a present, I dont know what she needs because I havent heard from her in so long. I am still trying to work my brain enough to get her something good. Maybe you could make her something mom, like an apron or something. She might need something like that in Ecuador babysitting all those kids for 3 months. You are the most creative person I know Mom!! You will figure something out. Heard about Christopher and that was great to hear. I will remember Matt in my prayers. I will get pictures back out there for Christmas because I just finished up another Memory card. 400 pictures/videos coming your way! Service is going good. Yeah there has been a lot of progress in the past 8 months. I can hardly imagine it could ever all get cleaned up but its going along. I dont know how sweet my face is anymore coming to the rice capital of the world over hear but you will get some pictures. :) Did I tell you that Niigata Rice is actually the best rice in the world? Well...it is. :) Glad to hear things are going good. Dad keeps giving me the BYU and Packers updates which I love to death, thanks Dad!! The Packers are doing so good! Things here are going alright. Things arent really picking up, but we are still working hard. We are hitting really hard on Christmas Missionary Work. Elder Sanders plays the guitar super super well so we are going to sing for a lot of people this week. People just havent been listening very well in this city. :) No worries though because the Lord will keep providing us with little miracles to keep our chins up. So it is weird to not really have a Christmas season. Nobody really does much at all here. Some stores put up a tree but that is about it. Kind of sad and lonely because you know how much I love Christmas! We had a specialized training last week about Budgeting from President. A lot of missionaries have no idea how to handle there money and run out all the time. It just made me really grateful for Dad teaching us so well how to weight our pockets. I have about 3 months supply of money in my account so Dad did really well. :o) Also on that day I got to have an interview with President that went really well. We talked for about 45 minutes about a bunch of different stuff. I talked to him a little about when to go home, it pretty much comes down to Jan 3 or Feb 14. We talked about school and needing something to do but also needing to see family and stuff. He gave me his opinion, but what do you and Dad think? President is an amazing guy that I love very much. Well, I am running low on time. I have to go finish shopping for Matt and Marissa. :oD Something interesting I learned this week was about the principle of prayer and faith. In the New Testiment, Christ taught that if we have faith, nothing doubting, and we can command a mountain into the sea. I thought about that principle a lot and applied it to my prayers. I recieved answers that I had been searching for for weeks. I know that God answers prayers. Sometimes we have to be patient, but they will come. Sometimes I wish that they came with better timing because if they did I wouldnt have messed up as much, but we learn from our mistakes. God Lives, Jesus is the Christ. I love you Mom. I love our family, I love Marissa. :oD Have a great week!!! Love always, Elder Zachary Taylor Page