New Mail address again...it's probably on the side...

Going back to Sendai!

So this week has been a real crazy week. Quite an adventure. So on Monday of last week we had a Zone P-day and my zone pretty much went to go play this game: Park-golf...which seems pretty fun, but yeah, I didn't go with them because I had an appointment with Kohama-san. (Don't remember if I said anything about him, but yeah, he is our golden. He pretty much reads the scriptures and feels the Holy Ghost in his chest and understands the scriptures better then I do.) So I did the lesson with Kohama-san and it was a great lesson. On Tuesday we had a training with President in Tomakomai and it was really good. He announced that we are going to go back to Sendai, and we get to Volunteer in Sendai for about 3 days doing regular volunteer work, and then after that we go back to the regular wards and stuff for regular missionary work. So yeah, and also Taniuchi choro, the former AP came down and stayed with me in Tomakomai for the rest of the week. Kohama-san also came to Eikaiwa and then we did this "Non-smoking Program" with him, and it was pretty good. He decided that he was going to give up smoking. Then on Wednesday, we met this guy named Shinichi-san and we did a super good lesson and then we committed him to do a bunch of stuff but he pretty much said that he wouldn't do anything...so I wonder what will happen with him. We also had a lesson with the Arima family and it was pretty good too. So then on Thursday we met with Kohama-san again and it was a way good lesson and he is going to get baptized...had a way spiritual lesson and we are going to get him baptized! Then on Friday we did a bunch of stuff too, but Kohama-san's lesson was so crazy! He had a problem with Tea at him work place and the first time he asked his boss if he could bring his own drink, he got told he couldn't, so we told him to call his boss, and his boss told him that it was ok for some reason...so he pretty much saw a miracle right in front of his eyes! and we talked about the rest of the Commandments and it was a way good lesson. On Saturday we met with him again and it was for his baptism interview...he passed with flying colours and it was so great! So awesome! We were so excited to see his baptism! Then that day after the baptism, he gave us a call and told us that his mother was against it. His mom also forced him to smoke so AAHHHHHH!!! We didn't see a baptism. Dang, crazy moms! His mom literally had the devil inside her...how in the world did that baptism not happen...I'm still baffeled! The devil is totally real, and it's scary! So then on Sunday, we had church like regular...we did have Shinichi-san come to church, so that was pretty cool. I gave a testimony and then right after church we pretty much went home...so yeah, bye bye to Tomakomai, and now I'm going to be here in the Honbu for the next 3 days until Wedesday, when I get to go home! Yay! I can't wait to help the people in Sendai! Crazy! We are going back! I'm so excited! It's going to be great! Hope everyone else is having a good day! Bye!

Miracle week.

So here is another fabulous week in Tomakomai! This week was literally miracle heaven! I loved it so much! The first part of the week was a little bit down, but then the last part of the week was amazing! And we can all learn a lesson from my week this week. When you put your trust in the Lord, even during the hard times he will always reward you abundantly!

So on last Monday, I bought a suit...haha. It's a pretty awesome suit. It's like super shiny and not very missionary appropriate, and it blinds people when the light hits it just right! Another good thing was that it was only 50$...I love Japanese formal wear!!! But ANYWAYS...we dendo'd kind of far today and we came across this one lady and she seemed like she was trying to hook me up with her daughter, which was kind of awkward, but yeah, they said we could come back and talk to them about eternal families.

Tuesday, We had a mission conference. Elder Costas from the seventy came and spoke to us about dendo, and his conversion expirience, and Brazil, and stuff. We also would've done splits with the Zone Leaders, but it turns out that my comp is going to be going home soon, and we couldn't do spilts. But later that night we taught Saito shimai...one of the recent/old/recent converts. She's been a member for almost a year, but she said she hasn't had her After Baptism lessons so we taught her about temples and Priesthood and it was a way deep, spiritually uplifting lesson. Very good.

Wednesday, we talked to this one 12 year old boy about the Restoration and he seemed pretty interested. I have been finding that out lately...there are a ton of like 12-18 year olds that really have a ton of intrest in the gospel. So we talked with him for like 10 minutes, and it was pretty good. So yeah, today was probably the epidimy of stressed out days. It's been building up for some time now, but today was just a total low because of all the things that are happening. We couldn't really find any investigators and my companion is always talking about going home, and it was just a crazy month/week/day! So in my low and stressed state I decided to pray to know if I would see a baptism this month. I set a goal with my companion at the begining of the month, and since he was still learning Japanese we decided it would be best to make a goal of 1 baptism. So Wednesday night I prayed and got a pretty strong confirmation that I was going to see a baptism this month, but we didn't have any investigators that were even close...well actually there was this one lady...hayashi-san, but she was only like ma-ma close. She was who I was thinking would get baptised this month, but turns out it was someone else.

Thursday, today was the start of all the miracles. I had a lesson with Hayashi-san and committed her to baptism, but she turned it down for now. Before her lesson I was dendoing over in the far corners of Tomakomai and I found this one kid...Kohama Yuuki-san, and he was as golden as you can even get. So I was kind of thinking to myself that this kid was too good to be true, maybe his parents will be against the church and it'll be same ol' same ol'...but as we were talking, this one weird lady walks up behind me and just stands there and listens...turns out to be his mom, and while I was trying to make an appointment with Kohama-san, his mom was like pushing him to make the appointment. Like "can you meet tomorrow..." and they were saying stuff like that...it was way too weird, but awesome to be true! Kohama-san is totally kinjin. So later that night I decided that the Lord probably wanted him to get baptized, not Hayashi-san.

Friday, we visit one of the Potential Investigators that we have been visiting for some time now, and instead of her coming to the door, her husband comes to the door and has a little bit of interest, so he invites us in, and we sit down and give this crazy good Restoration lesson, and give him a book of mormon, and set an appointment to come back. He wasn't like totally golden, but he was pretty up there. There was also a TON of people that actually decided to listen to our message. So that was crazy miracles all over the place.

Saturday, we met with Kohama-san and we set a baptism date for the Sunday before Transfer Day. We comitted him to read, pray and come to church the next day, and he accepted everything. We pretty much taught him like all of the lessons in one lesson. Crazy miracles. I will have to say that if the Spirit wasn't with us this week we would have gotten no-where.

Sunday, Kohama-san came to church, and loved it! Wow, miracle in and of itself, but whats more. So my companion called his dad, and left the room without me knowing, (I was sitting with Kohama-san) and one of the church members was like, where is your comp? And so I was like...uhhh...where is he now?, so I left priesthood, and went to the entry way and found my comp talking on the phone, so I decided to just wait there for a second, worried about if Kohama-san was doing good or not, and as I was in my worryed state, some random person walks through the front door of the church wanting to attend our worship service...haha, how good does this get??? So I talk with her a little bit, she said she only has like a few hours, but she would like to attend our worship service, and so I taught her the Restoration (while I was waiting for my comp to get off the phone) and then she attended my gospel principles class, and loved it (so did Kohama-san) and then they both attended sacrament and when it was done they both loved it! She, (Kuramoto-san) ended up staying and chatting with the members and with us until like 5pm...haha...ohh my goodness. Yes we taught Kohama-san and Kuramoto-san for like 5 hours after church was over...and they ENJOYED IT! Weird! haha, but yeah, that was our miracle. She wants to come to church next week and she says she'll come to Eikaiwa, and So will Kohama. What kind of crazy miracle tornado am I in here? Who does that?? Who just decides to come to worship service in Japan??? NO ONE DOES! God is a merciful God, he knows what we need to get our energy boost to be happier. I am still awe-struck at the miracles that I've seen this week, and how it all turned out just fine. I was so confused as to what to do, but I just kept praying and praying for guidance on what to do, and it turned out alright. I love the mission and anyone that doesn't, I'm so sorry for them. It's the best to see the Lords hand in everything. I hope you all can see miracles. Have faith, and pray and God will provide. I can totally testify of that. Just get through the hard times with patience and you will be rewarded. Hope everyone has a good week! Love you all! I will definatly let you know when Kohama gets baptized.

Thursday

Happy Mothers day!

Happy Mothers Day for all! This week was an ok week in Tomakomai.

So on Monday, we met with this lady named Hayashi-san. Her uncle is a Less Active and her cousin (I think) is married to a return missionary and lives in America. But we met with her the first time and she was totally weird. I think she collects rocks and believes in superstition, like hard-core. She was telling us that the only reason she is not a member yet is because of the Word of Wisdom. And I said "Is that it?? This is going to be easy!" to her. I think she laughed, but I don't remember. We were working really hard with the Less Active, Matsuo kyodai and he finally gave us a prayer. He said his first prayer outloud in a long time. But it was really really good. Ohh yeah, and Benson choro bought a cool jacket...kinda like mine, but not as cool. Have you seen my trench coat jacket?? It's crazy awesome!

Tuesday, we had English Class and then right after that we had a lesson with Tsukahara-san. She's been coming to English Class for Years now, but can't come to church because her parents are against it. But we've been teaching her lessons after English class, and we had a really good lesson on the existance of God and the difference between God and Jesus Christ. It was a way good lesson, and we commited her to read the Book of Mormon everyday, even a little bit. Hopefully she does it. Ohh yeah, and also an amazing miracle happened today. (Obviously everyday we see miracles, but this one was special.) So I was praying so hard today to figure out where to go to find someone that needed us. And we planned on going to a place called Akenomoto-machi, and so we decided to go there and all the while I was asking God to help us find someone that needed us, and we knocked and knocked and finally at about the time we were going to head home I decided, that maybe it wasn't God's time to answer my prayer, but then the very last house on the block, we talk to the lady and she starts busting up crying, and tells us that she might not join our religion, but lately she has been thinking of going to religion for some answers. Apparently she had been diagnosed with cancer earlier that week and she just wanted to ask some religious people some stuff. So I that was pretty cool. There is another prayer answered for you and maybe a new investigator for us! Yay!

Wednesday, today we dendo'd with one of the members. Tanaka-kyodai, and we pretty much dendo'd over by where he lived. But we had a really funny expirience with Benson choro's japanese. So we knocked this one house, and the people there asked him if we were Jehovahs Witness, and he looked at me for help, and I told him to just say "No", "Tell them No!", and so he said No, but they didn't come to the door anyways...so then later on we were knocking and Benson choro knocks this one door, and they tell him that they are Jehovah's Witness, and so he looks at me not knowing what they said, and I wisper to him "They are Jehovah's Witness" and he looks strait at the door and tells them "No!" "No". Ok...this is not that funny on screen, but it was totally hilarious in person, cause he was telling them that they were not JW's. We had a good laugh.

Thursday, today we went to Sapporo for a Leadership Training. It was super awesome! We had two full days of listening to President speak about stuff and about practicing lessons and stuff. It was way awesome! That night we had a little bit of time to go dendo, and I was paired up with one of the AP's and we did a lesson with one of these 15 year old kids and it was a way good lesson! We had a joint too, and she was a 15 year old girl. Apparently the girl is a convert and before she was baptized she read the whole Book of Mormon. 100 pages-ish a day!!!! How ridiculous is that? She finished it in a week, she got baptized in 2 weeks and she was 14 years old. That's kind of ridiculous, but at any rate, the lesson was pretty good, we used tons of funny examples that 15 year olds would understand. It was a good time.

Friday, We did the rest of the Leadership Training today and then we got a lecure on Marriage again! For being on a mission it's amazing how many talks you get about marriage. Then we got to hear Elder Woodrows testimony about the mission since he is dying here pretty soon. Then we came back to Tomakomai and did a little bit of Weekly Planning and it was a good time.

Saturday, we met with Endo-san again. I've mentioned him before, but yeah, so it looks like he is finished reading all of 1st Nephi, and we invited him to come to church the next day. We pushed him so hard to come to church!!! And I can't believe he didn't come! He totally told us he was going to come to church, but then didn't! ahh!!! It kills me! So then the rest of the day we just went around trying to find people and it's been tough recently, cause of the rain. It pretty much rains every other day here. It's beautiful one day, and drabby the next.

Sunday, we had church and, the Sacrament talks actually were way good! Chiba shimai spoke about her little 5 year old boy, having good manners, and Takahashi kyodai talked about spending time with his family away from work, and then Yamada-kyodai talked about having dreams in life. Like not having a dream in life is a way bad thing! But Endo-san didn't come to church!!!! I was so dissappointed in him. Also Benson choro called his parents today, so that was good. Then after that we just dendo'd regularly and that was pretty much our day.

So yeah, thanks for everything, and we'll see you in a year, I guess...I can't even believe it's that close already! Crazy!

So as for pictures...umm...I'm at an internet cafe, so I'm super scared to put my SD card in...

So this week was a pretty good week, as always in the mission. For the most part this week was all dendo. We had tons of lessons spoke on us...(not show up) so it was all pretty much finding people.

Tuesday...so we had about 5-6 hours of dendo today and we went down to a town called Suehiro and there was this one apartment that had about 13 floors with like 13 houses on each floor and we pretty much did that whole building. It was kind of effective. We found this one mom that said we could come back and share our message. It was pretty cool. Then we also had Eikaiwa today, English class, and there were a few more people then the regular, show up. Then we came back home and ate an ice cream cone...yeah!

Wednesday...Today was a really depressing day. We had one of our baptism date investigators not show up to his lesson, and didn't answer his phone. Then we had one of our investigators tell us that he didn't want us to talk with him about Jesus and the Book of Mormon and stuff. So that was sort of depressing, but then afterwards we had a lesson with a Family/not really a Family investigator. So their name is Arima-san and the mom has read the whole Book of Mormon, but didn't read it like it was the word of God. She kind of just read it like a novel. But we are meeting with the daughter (with the mom there in the background) and we are teaching the daughter the stories in the Book of Mormon. And I can totally see the fire burning in her. She really likes it when we talk about the Book of Mormon and the stories that are in it. So who knows what's going to happen with that family. For now, we just keep teaching the daughter. We also went to a members home today and stuffed ourselfs with delicious japanese goodness. I have been overeating sooooo much lately...its bad. And there is also good and bad news...the other two elders that are in our apartment are getting transferred! To Sendai! Yay! Sendai I guess has slowly re-opened, and the companionship in our apartment just got sent back. But on Wednesday they got the call.

Thursday...Weekly planning...where we plan for all of our investigators...and during this one, we got passed ALL of the other companionships investigators. It was intense. I also went on a split real quick, companion exchange, to visit one of their investigators who has been studying Jehovahs Witness and we taught him about the priesthood organization. It was pretty fun. Then afterwards we went down to visit a less active member, but we could only get to her son. She was sleeping, so we talked to the son about church and stuff. He seemed pretty cool with it.

Friday...Today we went down to Hakodate for Specialized Training. We had a "bean shower" for my companion and another "bean". They pretty much sing "As sisters in Zion" for us and then we all give them treats and welcome them to the Zone. Then we went to the famous Pierro's and then after the training was all done we came back and had delicious Ramen. Japanese Ramen is way better then anything America could come up with in terms of Ramen...Just thought you ought to know. But during training, we learned about the importance of the Restoration. How on the street and when we are talking to people we need to always refer to the Restoration, because that is pretty much the only thing that is different from other religons. It is the only thing that makes this church even have a chance of being true. And it's the only reason that we have of being true, (other then you can feel it for yourself...and such.) But yeah, and then President talked to us about Culture, and mission culture and why it's so different in different missions. But we are all missionaries and we all pretty much have the same goal so it doesn't really matter which mission you get sent to, cause you are going to have the same purpose as just about every other missionary.

Saturday. Today we had tons of lessons spoke on us again. So we got to dendo the whole day again!!! Woo! (Yeah, I'd rather teach lessons then go finding people...such a pain) But we had a lesson with the Sato family planned again, but they didn't show up, and their nephew came to the door and we taught him a little bit about prophets and stuff. It was pretty fun. Umm...yeah and then later that night we had one of the members...Saito shimai, bring us to this Yakiniku restaurant and it was super delicious and I think I overate again. But she did it because I think it was Sakamoto choro and Takei choro's last night here.

Sunday...today we had church and during the testimony meeting we got up and sang a song for everyone. It was kinda intense, cause no body told us that we did a good job afterwards, so we were all wondering if we did a good job or not?? Then me and Benson just dendoed the rest of the day again. But we did have one lesson with Hayashi-san and her lesson was pretty good. we are meeting with her again today, so hopefully that goes down well. It raining super hard yesterday and when we got home we were all soaked. It wasn't pleasant at all, but today was pretty fun. Hopefully the rest of next week is better...or maybe not. We have more training next week so our dendo time is going to be cut short...so yeah. But that's what happened this week! Yay! Good times! Hope everyone is doing good in school and work and stuff. Good luck with everything! Buh-byes!