Christmas for Japanese Missionary

Hi Family!
I miss all of the Christmas spirit that goes on in America. Most of the people here either don't celebrate Christmas, or just give presents without realizing why we give presents on Christmas.
Anyways, I had a busy, slightly stressful week. On Saturday we had a music fireside after Zone Conference (which was great). Leading up to the fireside, I had tried to put together a Christmas song. After practicing Silent Night for a few days, I was told that the missionaries and YSA would be singing that, so it got axed from my plan. So then I put together a cool arrangement of O Little Town of Bethlehem and thought "No one will do this number. It certainly won't get stolen." Well, on Friday afternoon I found out that a couple other elders were playing that! Because I had no time to rearrange another Christmas song, I had to resort to Be Still My Soul. After Zone Conference I got to practice it twice, and then I performed it. So after having not played that song for three months, I had to perform it. I guess it was alright, but not nearly as good as I had hoped for.
Also, during lunch at Zone Conference, President Daniels told me "Elder Christensen, we need you to accompany Lauren tonight, ok?" (Lauren is their daughter that just got home on Friday from the Hong Kong mission.). So after Zone Conference they gave me the piano music to an Amy Grant song named Breath Of Heaven. I don't know if you have heard of it, but I certainly hadn't! Luckily, they let me listen to it once on President's iPod. Then I figured out how to play it, practiced it a few times, and then the performance. It was weird to perform a piece that, up until two hours before, I had never heard of. But it went well and I was happy to help out.
Another unexpected event from this week happened Sunday at church. While on the train to Asahikawa on Saturday morning, we got a call from a member of the branch presidency. Elder Thurber picked it up and was assigned to give a talk the next day in Sacrament Meeting. Well, it turns out that the member assumed that he was talking with me, and had meant to assign me to speak. So the next day at Sacrament Meeting, Elder Thurber and I were very surprised when my name, not his, was called as the first speaker. So I had no time to prepare a talk. I didn't even really have time to be nervous about the talk. I just had the 10 seconds before I was at the podium, and from there I just spoke. It actually went alright and I got one compliment afterwards, but it sure wasn't an experience that I would like to repeat.
On Sunday, Sister Iwane (the recent convert) and her daughter Jurina came to church. Jurina, usually pretty loud and hard to get still, was super reverant and seemed like an angel! We were so happy, as was the rest of the branch. She adds so much life to the branch. Besides a 6-month old baby, she is the only person under the age of 17 that comes to church. But we love having her come.
The last few days it has snowed quite a bit, so now we have nearly a foot everywhere. All of the roads are covered in a couple of inches of packed snow. For some odd reason they don't believe in plowing roads or using salt on roads in Hokkaido. So the roads have basically turned into ice, and Elder Thurber and I have had a few good wrecks. But don't worry, nothing was harmed. We have a few bruises, but that is it.
This morning I made Goldenrod Eggs for breakfast and it was super delicious. Thank you Mom for sending the recipe!
Well, that is about it. I don't know if I will email on (my) Christmas day because we will be talking the very next day (your Christmas day). So if I don't, have a great week and a half and I will talk with you on Christmas. I love you all so much. Merry Christmas.

Elder Christensen