Hi Family,
It sounds like everybody had a good Thanksgiving week, including BYU football. Over here we also had a great week.
The highlight was......Iwane san got baptized!!! Miracles truely do happen, and Elder Thurber and I were so blessed to be a part of this one. The branch here is so excited to have a new member. The last time there was a baptism in Iwamizawa was February 2006, so everyone helped out to see that the baptism happened. Sister Iwane is already friends with most of the women in the branch and she loves coming to church. The branch welcomed her by giving her a really nice bouquet of roses (probably two dozen of assorted colors - purple, pink, yellow, orange, and green).
I was the lucky one that got to do the baptizing, and it was the coldest baptism ever! Right before the baptismal service we checked the water and were horrified to see that at least a quarter (if not half) of the water had somehow drained! So Elder Thurber and I went into the baptismal service and left the water in the hands of a member. Well, apparently the water heater wouldn't be fast enough, so they filled up the remainder of the font with cold water. It was cold, the kind of cold that makes you take in a big breath when your foot hits the water. Sister Iwane waited as long as she could before getting in.
Unfortunately, my one-dunk baptism streak came to an end because Sister Iwane's toe somehow found its way out of the water. So I had to do it again. I felt sorry that she had to go into that cold water a second time, but it all worked out. At least it didn't take me 6 tries like what happened at the last baptism I saw.
Besides the baptism, we had a pretty good week. We had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch (thanks to Elder Thurber's mom) of mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey jerkey, and gravy. It was so good!
The pictures that Sister Daniels sent your way were probably from when they came up on Friday so that President Daniels could interview Sister Iwane. They took us out to eat with President and Sister Otahara afterwards. They even let us get dessert! Unfortunately, Elder Thurber didn't fully read the list of things contained in the dessert he ordered, and I decided I would just get the same thing as him. To our horror (and embarassment), there was coffee jelley in our parfaits! We, of course, didn't eat the jelley, but I don't think that President Daniels will ever let us forget that experience. I am pretty sure that every time I see him from now till the end of my mission, he will ask "Elder Christensen, how has the Word of Wisdom been recently? Has any coffee jelley found its way into your desserts?" Ugh...Oh well. It made for a fun journal entry.
For the month of December, our mission is "giving" a present to Jesus - we are going to invite at least one person a day to get baptized. We are also going to read at least one (if not all) of the four gospels. It should be an interesting month. Hopefully, we can get a few more miracles to come our way and see a few more baptisms this transfer.
Well, that is about it. I love you all. Thank you so much for the emails and letters.
Elder Christensen
PS - I was thinking that I wanted to make Golden Rod Eggs for Christmas, but I have no clue how to make the white sauce. Can you send me that recipe? Thanks. Hopefully we can find the ingredients in Japan.
