Japan week #13

Family! Minasan!

    I'm glad to hear people are doing good. :) Sounds like everyone is doing great and having fun, makes me way happy. :) 

        So this has been a crazy week, with transfers and what not. It's been nuts. This last few days with Elder Harper was a blast, but also kinda sad. He's an awesome missionary, and a way fun guy to be with, but our time has come to an end. On Thursday we went to the Sapporo train station, about a 2 hour journey for us, and we met at the transfer spot. And it was WAY fun. We got to hang out with a bunch of missionaries for a while, and it was just way cool. And I got Elder Lee!! I met him my first transfer in Hakodate for our Zone Training Meeting, and I really liked him a ton. So when I got the call, I was WAY STOKED! I'm his very first junior too, he just went senior, so I'm still being the guinea pig. ;) But he's way good, and President Evans really likes him, so I have no worries about it. :) We got along really well. And we both want to work really hard, so we're very excited to work together. He's had some meh companions, and a particularly hard one last transfer who was not a very hard worker, and so he's very happy to be with me, because I'm just as dedicated as he is. He's a way good example to me, of a hard worker, of a great missionary, and a powerful teacher. We're going to see lots of miracles this transfer, and I'm way excited. :) 

  We've already, in just our few days together, have seen some great miracles. :) We've found a couple people to teach, and we've had some great teaching opportunities. We found a Yano San, who is way interested in the message, and she has two kids, so we're way stoked to be able to work with her. We also talked to a Toshihiro San last night, who told us that him talking to us was really rare. He usually flat out rejects missionaries way fast, but he felt something different about us, and was willing to talk to us and wants to see us again. :D He also is an epic painter / photographer, and he told us he'd teach us how to do it too! So we have some good things coming up. ;) We're working way hard, and loving it.

  Our VERY first day together was CRAZY though!! It was epic!! We had just so many crazy things happen. We found two people that were way excited to hear about our message, and we were way excited! The first one though, after a great lesson, told us she wanted to meet with us again and learn more. But she's MOVING!!! She's lived here her entire life, in that house for nine, and RIGHT when she meets us, she's leaving! SO LAME! We went to visit a member right after that, and we had the funniest experience. This is an OLD woman, and she loves missionaries, and was way happy to see us. So we're talking to her, and a chunk of her TOOTH comes out, lands on her hand, and sticks. Elder Lee and I are like O.O Eww, but we don't say anything. And after a few minutes she puts the chunk of tooth BACK in her mouth!! :O We were like, OH GOSH THAT'S SO GROSS!!! We're trying to say good bye then, but she insists on giving us some bread. So we go in, and she just starts loading us up with bread, and we're saying, no that's enough! We REALLY don't need that much, and by the time BOTH our bags are full to the brim, she stops. We ask her if we can say a prayer before we leave, and so she kneels down to give it. But her radio is on in the background playing WAY loud, and guess what song is playing at this exact moment. YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND BABY RIGHT ROUND!! AHHHHHAHHHHAHHH! Oh man... Elder Lee and I are just DYING during this prayer, and when she finally finishes, we say goodbye, run outside, and DIE! We were on the ground just laughing and freaking out about what just happened in that visit. :P It was so funny, and we didn't expect anything like that, so we died. 

 And not even ten feet had we walked past her house after laughing, this old guys yells at us, runs across the street, and asks us if we're american. We say yes, and then he just looks up and points at the sky. Doesn't say anything. Just looks at us, the ground, and back up at the sky, pointing. Elder Lee reaches up to a tree branch above our heads, and the old man flips out saying that's not it. Turns out he was trying to say crow. After we figure that out, he ignores us, runs across the street, and goes back to doing whatever he was doing. We were like, what just happened?  Had a ton of fun that day! :D 

    So yeah, I'm out of time, can't wait to hear from you again! Love you all!! I'll tell you more about Elder Lee next email, he's way cool, and he's lived ALL OVER the world. Singapore, currently. It's nuts!

    Can't wait to get Josh's scarf!! WAY Stoked!! Elder Lee asked if Josh can make him a beanie. So if Josh is ok with that, Elder Lee wants a beanie. ;) Love you all!! Have fun this week!

     Love, Mike