My Mission First

Alex was going to send me some videos, but unfortunately his iPad wouldn't send them. So sad. It's always fun to see them.

So, I'm going to go ahead and say it first this time. We had transfer calls this last week (we got the call yesterday), and for the first time on my mission absolutely nothing is changing in my apartment. Just me and my amazing son, Elder A. I am so glad that I get to have another transfer with him, because he has been so great to me, and we've been able to see many miracles together. He's also the third companion of mine that I've had for 2 transfers, tying for first place with Elder O., my trainer, and Elder B. I'm glad that I have been given a chance to continue to work here in Furukawa and see more miracles here.

Wanna play a game? Alex says there's one pink light in at least one of these pics. Can you find it?

My scripture for this week is 1 John 4:10-11: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

I got this reference in a letter from my home stake presidency, and I thought it was worth ponderizing.

The kanji of the week is: 初等協会 pronounced "show-tow-kyo-kai," and means Primary (as in the class on Sundays).

Monday I can't really say anything special about. We went to Izumi for district p-day, and ate lunch together and played ping-pong, and had fun. It was also Elder M's Birthday, so we celebrated that. We didn't have any time at night for anything really, because we missed our bus back, and had to take a later bus. We posted the remainder of our Christmas pass along cards, and that's about it.

Tuesday I went on companion exchanges to Kamisugi in Sendai. I got to see a member that I saw at the beginning of last transfer, and we went to lunch together and read from the Book of Mormon together. We also went to visit some less active's, but we didn't get to meet with any except for one. During our dinner break, we went to a place that had a bunch of Christmas lights, and it was pretty cool, but they were all white lights.

Wednesday we got back to Furukawa, and a lot of the day was spent in travel and studies. We did go to a less active's house, and she gave us some Mochi (rice paste) to cook. It's a Japanese tradition for New Years, but we haven't made anything with it yet. English class was nice, because we had four people, and I really hope more people can come again. We also shared a short message with a member after English class, after we helped him understand a poem in English he found online.

He was happy to find a Cold Stone there.

Thursday was spent inside all day. We cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and then cleaned some more. That's all we did that day. Our apartment wasn't dirty, but we did a lot of deep cleaning to make it even cleaner. It's really bad to interrupt people on the 31st and 1st here in Japan, so that's what we did in stead.

Friday was similar, but after finishing up the small cleaning items we needed to finish, the rest of the time was spent reading 3 Nephi. It was great, and I love that section of the Book of Mormon. Not much else happened.

Saturday, we went and did street contacting for 4 hours, because we had nothing else to do. We got lots of good conversations, but still not anyone to meet with. Towards the end of that, we wanted to go visit a member and a less active member, but it started raining, so we walked our bikes back to the apartment (we aren't supposed to bike in the rain at all). Then we walked to the less active's house, because it was the closest thing, and also getting late. She couldn't meet though, unfortunately.

Alex likes to take photos of his companions eating for some reason. Alex made this Ohm Rice and says it's exactly what it looks like, but that he didn't do a very good job of making them.

Sunday was great, because we had 29 people at church. We even got a non-member, and friend, to attend. We are so lucky in this ward, because the members were all over our non-member friend, asking him about his life, and helping him understand everything. They even talked about their own conversion stories. During fast and testimony meeting, he said he felt like he should go up and talk too, but wasn't sure what to say or if it would be alright. It was great! We then went and gave the sacrament to a member, and visited some less active's and members.

This week was great again, and I am so excited to see miracles even more this transfer. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder

長老