I'm grateful for all the great influence I have had from you as a family. We have been doing more and more here to help open up the hearts of the people, but there is still so much we need to improve on to make sure that we can tell the message in the right way so that they understand.
I'm excited for Adam to get out there though. It'll be crazy to see him after 3+ years. There is a store here and I think it's my new favorite (well there isn't one in Nemuro... too small) but it's called uniclo and it's the best store ever. I don't know if it has a website or if there are any in America, but I recommend it. It's way reasonable as well.
So this week flows a bit like this:
Monday was a good p-day, woke up early, ran to the Jinja (shrine) by our house and took pictures, got everything else done and went to Kuruma Ishi again. This time took tons of cool pictures on top of the rock. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't see out that far, but it looked amazing. Afterwards we dendo'd that town and called it a night. Next day was DTM and dendoing an area I hadn't done before. Met some cool people. One really nice lady who owned a bar, but was really interested! I also had a conversation with a non-attending member in sign language and we set up an appointment to go eat lunch together some time. Pretty intense. Japanese sign language is awesome. That night we randomly got a call from Okuchi's daughter asking if we would come by and play for a bit so we went back and talked with them and turns out because of the hello kitty prayer card we made for her she's been praying every day! That was really cool.
Next day was splits with Inoue Choro! He is a few transfers younger than me and way awesome. Lived in Ireland and went to BYUID so is fluent in English, but we still spoke Japanese the whole time. Found some WAY cool people actually. Inoue Choro is really enthusiastic about dendo and I learned a ton from him. Oh yeah, and that morning I got a call from Nakazawa Kyoudai saying that Ishii Kyoudai died. Kinda crazy. I didn't how to react at first. Since we went on splits that day Andersen and Ogata Choro went to visit them. The sunset that night was way incredible. We ate this cold pasta called reimen at a yakiniku place for only 350 yen! Yeah boy. It was way good. Next day we stopped by the Ishii's to see Ishii Kyoudai's... self. Kinda sad, but their family was all there and it was chill. We went home and had planning after that and then I got called to give the prayer at his funeral that night. Because of that we didn't get to do the finding we planned on, but it was a great experience. The whole funeral was like a big testimony of the plan of salvation and great stuff Ishii Kyoudai did as a member. The Ozawa family sang Families Can Be Together Forever. There were a lot of non-members and a few non-attendings came too. It ended up being a great dendo method i think. I would like my funeral to be like that. Far off thought, but yeah!
The next day was Friday and it was way cool. The high school was having its festival so we decided to go because we promised pretty much every high school kid I ever contacted that we would go. It was way cool! It started off with just this parade of high school kids in different costumes. We high fived almost the entire high school as they walked by. They were all very excited to see gaijins and a lot of them even remembered my name! After that we went and watched their little dance/play things that they did and were really funny. We tried to shizen dendo (finding people through starting normal conversations) but it was really hard because no one was getting into it even though it was way hilarious. A big difference between America and Japan, no one cheers; not even for their own kids. But we still had a lot of fun and hopefully through that a lot of the high school kids and their families were able to get a good impression of us. After that we helped out at a part member:s dry cleaner. It was really hot! We folded and dried a bunch of pillow cases! After that we left a note at Okuchi's asking them if they'd come to Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa was pretty fun as usual. One new guy came who is really good! It's always fun to have new students and see class grow.
Saturday was another day in Bekkai. We went and met the mom of a member in another ward who we got as a referral. She was super nice and cool! Hopefully we'll be able to teach her more next time we come back :) We did some finding there and taught Kawashima again! She has been praying everyday AND reading the Book of Mormon! We didn't even ask her to! She even bought a cover for the Book of Mormon because she wants to take good care of it. She also looked up the church website and has been studying a lot! She wants to come to church really bad as well. We taught her lesson 3 and committed her to be baptized. She wants to when she feels ready. She has some concerns about what happens after getting baptized (responsibilities and stuff) but we explained to her the importance of coming to church and hearing all the lessons so she can know all that. Her husband isn't protesting to her meeting with us, but is a little worried about her joining as well so hopefully we'll be able to talk with him too and help those worries clear up so they can all come to church as a family! After that we high fived a bunch and went to Itou farm to MILK COWS! Way awesome. Cool experience. Back in Nemuro we stopped by Okuchi's one more time to invite them to church and they promised they would! Actually when we first came Yuka (the daughter) was crying because she didn't get to go to Eikaiwa the day before and thought that we weren't going to visit. Since we came though, she calmed down and was happy again! Before we left that night I asked her if she'd pray for us and she did, primary style!(Me whispering in her ear what to say, way way cute) Then we went home and high fived a bunch again. Sunday was a little stressful at first. We had coordination meeting and found out that only 5 people could come to the first 2 hours of church. Okuchi promised pretty sure that she'd come that time so we were worried it would just be us, a few members, and her. Priesthood was only me, Andersen Choro, and Nakazawa kyoudai and right as we starting we saw Okuchi and Yuka walking by! Found out that they had to go to a practice for a parade they were doing that night, but said they would come back! We were just antsy the whole time wondering when they would come back, but they eventually did for sacrament! Actually a family from Kitami ward came and so did a few other members which was great and made sure there were more people. After sacrament Yuka wanted to play a lotttt. Got really tired, but she had a blast and so did her mom. Went home, ate lunch, and brought the sacrament to Ozawa shimai because she was busy with the baby. Had some fun there with the kids and her parents plus Ishii kyoudais grandkids that were sleeping over there.
Then we went to an appointment we made before with a way cool lady who used to live by missionaries. To top everything off we went to the parade Okuchi and Yuka were in. It was call the senninodori (1000 people dance) and i thought it was a different meaning so when I got there and there were 1000 people in different colored kimonos I was pretty surprised! We went and tried to shizen the people watching and afterwards high fived with Yuka and took a few pictures. They did way great. We have developed a good relationship with them and hopefully it will make it easier to talk about the gospel and teach in a way that Yuka will understand. Reminds me of Haramai and Nodoka sometimes. Anyways it was an awesome week in a billion different ways!
I love you tons and am grateful for the miracles that we get to see everyday! Good luck at home and love you!!!!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro
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