Transfer 3

Bikes are really nice, but we didn't get to use them too much this week, because it was nonstop snow from Tuesday until Saturday. But that's fine. The streets are a bit more narrow, but the drivers are good at driving around you, and the are very skilled at what they do. Getting a license here is way harder here, so the people who do drive are pro basically. Biking also uses different muscles, but I don't know if I was too sore from it. I got tired quite a bit at first when I rode the bike around (especially up hills, and Yonezawa doesn't have too many hills), but I am doing fine.

I'm soooo glad to get a photo of him, but I hope he will take a photo somewhere besides in the office soon.

Time goes by so quickly. I say that every week I bet, but I truly mean it. It seems like yesterday I was just entering into my second transfer.

The Kanji of the week is: 雪灯籠 which means snow lantern. I don't think I've done that one yet.

This week's summary is going to be a bit shorter, because I didn't bring last transfer's/week's planner with me, but here goes nothing.

Monday: Monday was interesting, because we had a district preparation day, which was ping-pong and the movie 17 Miracles. I love that movie so much, it is so inspiring. When 6:00 came around, we waited for an appointment with a member at the church. She goes to BYU Hawaii, but she's back for the break, and so she wanted to read the Book of Mormon with us in English for practice. She didn't end up coming (she was eating dinner with her mother and forgot about the appointment, which is understandable). Since that didn't happen we rode our bikes over to a family that lives a fair distance away, to see if we could start meeting with them. They are really busy right now, so they can't meet right now. We then biked back home. The entire evening was biking in the rain, which I'm sure most people would have hated, but I absolutely loved it. I love rain, and I love the feeling of rain drenched clothes, and I love riding bikes, so it was just a perfect combination.

Tuesday: We had a lot of our plans fall through that day, because it decided to snow a lot that day. Since the snow was bad enough we couldn't use our bikes, we just walked to Mr. Kato's house, who lives on the north side of town. He seems to have a lot of brain damage from a life of alcoholism, but even then, he read 100 pages of the Book of Mormon. In Japanese, that means he got to 2 Nephi 10. He didn't understand much, if anything, but he's a nice guy.

Elder E. and Elder O., who are both leaving, and a cute little boy who made them origami gifts as a farewell

Wednesday: I can't remember too much about what happened on this day, but like every week, we had English class. English class was normal, but at the end we played pictionary with the students. I haven't played that game in a long time, and it was fun.

Thursday: We had a Chinese lunch meeting at YIRA (yonezawa international relationships association), and then went and tried to visit people. Everyone we tried to visit that day however wasn't home, so we just posted some fliers in a nearby apartment complex to follow up on later.

Friday: We had the zone leaders come to our district this day, and I got to go on companion exchanges with him. His name is Elder B. It was the first day since coming to Japan that I hadn't been with someone I had been with on a daily basis, and it was pretty interesting. We went to a family who's name is Ito together. The Ito family is a 95 year old energetic grandma, and a 70 year old son. They believe in personal revelation and in God, and in doing what's right. The son absolutely loves the Mormon church, and says that it's perfect. He says that they have such good rules, and such good standards. The only thing he says that is stopping him from being a Mormon is the fact that he is Japanese and wants to honor his parent's Buddhist beliefs.

Saturday: We (me and Elder B.), then went to Yamagata, and picked up Elder O.. While up there, we got our transfer calls. I am going to be staying in Yonezawa, but I will be getting a new companion. His name is Elder F.. I don't know much about him besides the fact that he is half Japanese and half American. And loves to cook apparently. Elder O. will be going to Yamagata and will become the zone leader there. He won't be becoming my zone leader though, because the Yonezawa district is now going to be part of the Aizuwakamatsu zone (not sure if that's what it's actually called, but that's the city's name). We also had a lesson with our investigator Sister Wagatsuma Keiko (First name is Keiko), and her friend. We had texted her earlier in the week to remind them both to read the Book of Mormon. When we got in the lesson with her, Sister Wagatsuma said that she had read the entire preface to the beginning of the Book of Mormon (the title page to the beginning of 1 Nephi). We had a good discussion about that, and about what we mean when we say "you will be blessed."

 

A photo of Elder F. that I grabbed from Facebook, posted by his mom

Sunday: Sacrament meeting was so amazing. We had three investigators come to church (including Sister Wagatsuma), and even a recent convert's husband and kid who aren't members. We had a total of 28 people at the meeting (including missionaries), and we ran out of sacramental water that we had prepared. It was so full, and I could feel the spirit so strongly. The members were really friendly to them too! We then went to visit Mr Kato again, and had a nice chat with him. Elder O. wanted to go to say goodbye to him. We also went to a bit south of our apartment to visit a friend there that we hadn't seen in a while. She invited us back for today, so we'll be going there soon. Also, while going from place to place, we got to seen a lot of people we knew on the streets and passing by in cars.

That was my week, hope you've enjoyed it and have a great week!

I truly love you all from the bottom of my heart!

Love,Elder _____

I asked Alex to send a photo of his tag, even though I block his name to share in public