Sunday, June 30, 2013

6/30/13 New companion - Andersen Choro!

Hey! It's gotten a little cold here again. It was only up to 8 celsius for most of this week so that was a little crazy. I don't know what to compare 100 fahrenheit to... From now on when you tell me measurements and stuff will you make it metric for me? Inumaki Choro made it back to Wakayama and I actually got a call from him this morning about a thing he forgot at the church. He said it's crazy to not be a missionary anymore because there's nothing to do.

My new companion is Elder Andersen who is only one transfer below me. Yes that does mean I finally became Sr. companion which is really exciting and different. He was in Kushiro which is right next to here so I didn't get to go to Sapporo and see all the other missionaries, but that's ok. That's what it kinda is like for the missionaries out here in doutou (eastern Hokkaido). Andersen Choro is 22 and is a really incredible guy. He is from Riverton, Utah. He is really good and doing accents and gymnastics (like flips and stuff) and he's also really buff. He was in the MTC with me as well so I knew him a bit from then too. He is really funny and really kind. It's interesting being with a gaijin again because I wasn't used to speaking so much English. It is going to be an exciting and interesting transfer here in the East of the East.
Glad you got to rest lots after working hard. Being Sr is a whole new ballpark of responsibilities and making sure that we get moving and get things done. The rest feels shorter. That's for sure. No prob though because the work is the best part :)
Sounds like youth conference was great! I've never been to the St. George temple so I am pretty jealous. Hope Mara's driver's ed stuff goes well too. I am pretty sure Adam is going to go to Germany or maybe.... Denmark or somewhere like that haha. I'm super excited for him. I wonder when he'll actually go into the MTC and stuff. It'll probably be a 3 year+ reunion when I see him again, but I'm excited for him to grow a lot. Definitely send me some pictures of those cabinets. Sounds fun! So what did you post about the Book of Mormon on facebook? I am still really foggy on how missionary work stuff is going to get all integrated online. That's cool there's an investigator in the ward! Where are they from? That's a pretty awesome story from Connor as well. Let's see if I have any good stories this week...
Monday was Inumaki Choro finishing packing and me writing letters and studying Japanese. That day in dendo we did a little bit of finding by a member's house and ate dinner with them. The next day we had district meeting and then went to eat sushi with a nice lady who is really nice and her son used to go to Eikaiwa a ton. She isn't really investigating at all, but she wanted to see Inumaki Choro off so we went out to sushi with her and a member. Then we went to see Inoguchi and see how he was doing. He said that his mom might have to stay in the hospital soon because her condition is getting too hard to stay in the apartment. If that happens he'll have a lot more free time and be able to get a job/hear the lessons again. We'll keep praying for him. Then we went to the church to watch the broadcast online. We only got to watch the first hour because of time, but we finished it the next morning. It was so so amazing and I loved it! Andersen Choro hasn't seen it yet so I get to watch it again! :D That night we went to the Ozawa's and they fed us Hanasakigani! The crab that is famous in Nemuro. That was pretty fun. Wednesday we took a bus to Kushiro and I split up with Inumaki Choro and met Andersen Choro. We had to get his resident card registration done there and we had some time before the bus home so we ate ice cream with the Kushiro branch president who is a gaijin and pretty funny. After we got home we did a little bit of planning and i did my best to introduce Andersen Choro to all of the investigators. We only had an hour though so we finished the planning the next day. That day in dendo we met a few really awesome people and made some nice appointments.

Friday we visited the branch president and mission leader and also another member. We also went to some appointments and taught lessons. One of the moms we taught a lesson to had heard about our church and Joseph Smith from someone before and randomly asked about him in the middle of the lesson. That was a surprise, but we were able to follow the spirit and answer her questions. We taught Eikaiwa that night and I switched from advanced class to beginning class and it's really fun actually. You have to use a lot more simple language and pictures/games etc to keep everyone going. Saturday was another day in Bekkai with Itou shimai. This time new Philipino helpers came and she wanted us to teach them! We went to her house and they were waiting on the 2nd floor. We didn't know what to expect at all, but they were way cool. Very strong testimonies of God/Jesus Christ etc. so it wasn't too hard to teach them the restoration. Some language barrier stuff with English (they don't speak Japanese) but for the most part went pretty well. They have a Tagalog BOM so we committed them to read and pray about it. We did some helping in the farm and went back to the most town part of Bekkai to do a little finding. We found a way nice lady there who was pretty strong, but since Bekkai is so far we can't know for sure when we'll be able to go back to visit her. Anyways church was very interesting.

The elementary schools here have a thing called undokai which is like a huge event where the kids just do a bunch of sports and tons of people come and they have fireworks and stuff. It's always on Sunday so quite a few of the members couldn't come. I think there were 5 people besides us. I taught young men's and gave a talk. If an investigator would've been there I would've taught gospel principles too so I had almost 3 hours of material planned. I was pretty tired. Afterward we tried to meet Okuchi at her kids undokai, but there were too many people and we couldn't find her. We visited a bunch of possible investigators and non attendings that day, but weren't able to get a strong teaching opportunity. Still a great day talking to lots of people! It is always wonderful here no matter the temperature because of the work. It's true and I know there will be lots of miracles and baptisms here! I love you all tons and am so grateful always.

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro


purple coconut rice from itou shimai (phillipino food)

Us with the Phillipinos we taught

Saying goodbye to Inumaki Choro, hello to Andersen Choro

Serious crabbage with the Ozawa Fam

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